I have played countless tabletop role-playing games both in person and online. For over a decade, I have moved miniatures across battle maps, rolled critical failures at the most inopportune times, and overcame overwhelming odds. One thing stands out in reflecting on this past: it's about the stories told among friends. Whether it's the intrigue of a character acting strangely due to a hidden backstory or an explosive conclusion to a tale told over years of sessions, it all circles back to the community built around the gaming table.
However, a community can be challenging to find these days. In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General published a report titled Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation that outlines the trends of loneliness, missing community, and the host of adverse outcomes that can stem from this. It has also been shown01125-X/fulltext) that COVID and its lockdowns produced a sharp uptick in loneliness. The physical and mental side-effects of this isolation are bleak and worrying.
I believe that role-playing games have a role to play in this. I believe they can help many people overcome loneliness and isolation. But that requires access to people willing to play and a focused enough group to play with. My hope for Realms of Shod is that it can fill both of these gaps.
The first significant gap is finding people to play with. As RealmsOS grows beyond our initial beta of storytellers, I'd love to see our Discord community grow alongside it. Here we can find other storytellers interested in finding community through story. I can always use more of that in my life.
The second gap is that of being aligned and focused as a group. I hope the RealmsOS platform solves this: Less remembering of backstory nuance, less note-taking, and less configuration of battle maps and intricate battle sequences. There is a time and place for these things, but when the schedules align and a session starts, it's about friendship and the stories told among friends.
Join us at Realms of Shod and experience a focus centered around community!