Day 22 Prompt: Grit
Week 4 Prompt: Instinct
Weekday Prompt: Works Hard
Grit is the topic for Day 22 of the RPGaDAY 2026 Challenge. And this is probably going to be a short, but philosophical one.
What is grit? Well one of the definitions that I pulled up talked about how grit was the tiny grain of sand that got caught in a clam and caused irritation. The clam, in order to defend itself, basically covers the grit with a substance that will eventually form a pearl. These pearls are sought after as items of beauty.
Just learning to be a player in a roleplaying game may be gritty because you may not know all the rules. Or you don’t know how the rules work well together to make something better. Perhaps you’ve played for a while but never thought you could run a game as a gamemaster. Could you organize everything, set up a story, get all of the material together, think on your feet in response to the players’ reactions? It takes a lot of work to do this.
But it is all worth it. You keep doing it, and eventually, like the layers being added to the grit, you get the pearl.
We are now a couple of sessions in on both my Star Trek Adventures and Castles and Crusades campaigns. I’m rusty. Man am I rusty. I’ve even forgotten a major component of one of the games (What? How many experience points did you get?) and I’ve had to re-remember some stuff. Outside of some one-shots, I haven’t run a RPG campaign in 15-20 years.
Some items I’m slipping back into. I don’t know how I come up with some of the voices or mannerisms for the NPCs. But I do. Improv has never really been my strong point. It’s a source of irritation. But I’m starting to see the shine of the pearl as I keep at it. As I start to re-remember how I did things. Having new tools that weren’t available in the early 2000’s really helps as well. I’m using OneNote like my own personal campaign wiki.
You can also reach pearl status. In your writing, your gaming, your GMing, your art or what ever you want to attempt. Mistakes are only nuggets of wisdom that you didn’t know beforehand.
Have the grit to keep up on whatever creative thing you are doing. I can tell you that you will be rewarded with your own pearl that you created. And even if others don’t see the beauty in it, you’ll see the beauty in what only you could create.
Wow, I should write a fortune cookie or something.
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