For Day 25 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge how can I not talk about the topic of ‘challenge’ to hype up the movement that I’m proud of. The Character Creation Challenge.
I’ve blogged about this before in a previous RPGaDAY post. And earlier this year I almost didn’t make it through the 31 days because of a lot of real-world issues that popped up. It almost broke me. But even in darkest times I felt the love and support from both gamers and Trekkies. The hugs that I got at SaltCON. Friends supporting me at the club meetings. Those on the message board communities that cheered me over the line. Friends that donated to the financial shortfall I suddenly found myself in. Anything that was small, still helped out in a big way.
I’m energized for the next challenge in 2026. I’ve got plans in place to make sure that it won’t be so rough next year. I’ve got new games that I’ve picked up (some have been donated by the authors). I will get though this because we will get through this. Things may suck right now, but they can’t suck forever. Cyndi Lauper at her farewell tour had everyone take out their phones and turn on the flashlights in the amphitheater. She then said, “Look around at all of the people here giving a little bit of themselves and how it has made this place brighter. This is a community of light.” Everyone of you, just shining the light that you have, have made things brighter. The comments, the feedback, the laughter around the gaming table. We can overcome any challenge, gaming or real-life.
And if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to do a partial lyric dump from a recent anime movie that I watched with my geek family.
We’re shattering the silence, we’re rising, defiant
Shouting in the quiet, “You’re not alone”
We listened to the demons, we let them get between us
But none of us are out here on our own
So we were cowards, so we were liars
So we’re not heroes, we’re still survivors
The dreamers, the fighters, no lying, I’m tired
But dive in the fire, and I’ll be right here by your side
Feedback from LexTenebris on Mastodon regarding my blog post on Recent. I think the better Western example of isekai in our literature is actually A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The protagonist is pulled out of his life and dropped into a fantastic one. His personal knowledge makes a difference to the situation and changes the world elementally. Ultimately, he is returned to our world. John Carter of Mars is another fantastic isekai series before there was isekai. If your GM wasn’t making who you were important to who you are, they really weren’t running an isekai story. They were running a fantasy story with the trappings of the setup of an isekai story. That’s certainly valid, but it’s not nearly as interesting. If you’re looking for a very modern example of isekai in Western literature, check out Forgotten Ruin from Nick Cole. Great novel series, very pulp, much fun. (My note, I did pick up this last book on Kindle to read after reading this response)
Have you recently overcome a challenge? Have you participated in an online RPG challenge? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.
