Me in 10 seconds
My name is Sam Doebler. I am a follower of Christ who makes games, runs them online for kiddos, and plays the drums. INTJ. 1w9.
I dream. I slay dragons. I meditate a lot.
The NSR server is my home on Discord.
What do I write about?
Running tabletop adventure games! My niche is running them for youngsters. Oddly, my top posts are about death, deathlessness, and violence in games for kids. I’m known for talking about stopwatch duels, open table games, diegetic advancement, helmets, trait drafts, scene-based adventures, and open strategy games. I think there’s a better way to do advantage and that perception and knowledge rolls smell bad.
I consider myself part of the NSR, OSR, and FKR movements. Whatever focuses on the world, exploration, and problem solving more than hit dice, spell slots, and levels.
There are RPG bloggers that I read as well. The blogroll on the bottom-right is randomized, so just click one and see how deep that particular rabbit hole goes.
Check the tags on the right side of this page for whatever grabs your interest by topic. Click “Browse all posts” at the top of the page to begin trekking through everything I’ve written. Or scroll down more to view posts by month and year. And here are my most recent articles:
The Two Rules
MORK BORG. It’s a grim fantasy RPG I like for it’s dark tone and striking, very striking design. It obviously had an influence on Skorne, including the Revelation reference of breaking the seven seals to bring out the end of a doomed world. Side note: I can do without the filth of MORK BORG. It’s…
Read on…
Anti-Theorists
The anti-theorist is alive and well in the age of unreason. The cycle: a work is created, other works are created, a theorist outlines a theory that identifies a pattern among those works, the anti-theorist critiques the theory. The anti-theorist is the least-effort role, often done from the couch or the balcony. It is sweatless…
Read on…
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My favorite adventure games?
Electric Bastionland, Maze Rats, and Cairn. And yes, those games are all just Into the Odd. I run Adventure Hour! the most often (which, spoilers, is watered-down Into the Odd). Every once in a while, I dabble with Blades in the Dark and Follow.
What am I doing now?
At 24 years of age, I’m living in Phoenix, AZ on my own while working finances at a solar construction company and playing worship music at my church. I got engaged at the start of the year, getting married in July. Still finding ruthless ways to slow down and reduce clutter of all forms; no internet at my house, no TV, more reading. Goof around online at my local coffee shop once a week but still available via links below.
Reading Lies of Locke Lamora (book 2), Essentialism, Orthodoxy, Mere Christianity, 1984, The Signal and the Noise. Listening to half alive, Ghibli soundtracks, Dave Matthews Band, Sabaton. Rewatched Firefly with the fiance. Finished Uncharted 4, moving to Dishonored 2.
Updated Feb 11, 2023.
Contact me?
I read everything you send me. Here’s where you can reach me in long-form. Come chat on the NSR Discord too.
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DREAMING DRAGONSLAYER 