Author: Thread of Souls

Autobiography

Our Early Travels

Thread of Souls

This is an autobiographical post. The names of people and places may be changed.

We decided to write autobiographical posts about the colorful life we have lived. There will be tales of sleeping in a campervan on the beach, of defending a bird’s nest from a snake, and of running away from wolves while sick with bronchitis. There will be tales of diagnosis with PTSD and ADHD and how it changed our lives, of meeting biological family, and of job loss. It’s a tale of overcoming challenges, of finding out who we are, of love, hope, cats, and of a marriage that’s gotten stronger through it all.

Autobiography Post 22

Traveling has been a joint passion of ours. Everything from international adventures to local discoveries stirs our wanderlust and sense of exploration. We’ve always been big believers that you don’t have to be rich to travel. Though we have saved and spent money on some big trips (like our Caribbean cruise honeymoon), we also believe that traveling can be free or cheap depending on how you go about it. The great desire, after all, is to move and experience new things. That can either be halfway across the world, or a hidden discovery only 10 minutes away.

OKC – Broke and With a Coupon

Our first trip together was to Oklahoma City. We were young and broke. We were only able to afford a hotel with a Groupon online. We planned for only free activities. We saved up all our change and turned it into dollars at one of those machines to afford a nice dinner at a restaurant we’d heard about.

And you know what? We had a great time! We got a tour of a historic (and haunted mansion). We visited a military museum. We walked the downtown area around the botanical gardens. And we ate at a Cajun restaurant. We also kissed under the Skydance bridge at night. We’re romantic like that.

Route 66 Road Trip – Lost in the Country

We planned a day trip down part of Route 66. We set off from the statues in downtown Tulsa and out into rural Oklahoma. We visited a museum and a few other points of interest on our trip. At one point, Route 66 just jumped roads. I’m being literal. We were on it, and suddenly we weren’t. Our GPS told us to go over a few blocks to get back on Route 66. We ended up lost in a very rural town until we got back on track.

Dallas – A Loud Family Affair

Dorian’s parents enjoy NASCAR. They invited us to watch a race down in Dallas, TX. We’d never been to one. Though we didn’t watch NASCAR, it seemed like a fun opportunity to do something different. We took a long road trip south and ate at a German restaurant somewhere on route. When we got to the race itself, it was really loud and very smelly. But it was pretty cool, honestly. It was something different. We stayed at a hotel that night, getting back in at about 1am due to the crazy traffic.

Wichita – Friend Times

We have two friends that, at the time, lived up in Wichita, KS. We went to visit them for the weekend. They had a really cool apartment in a bustling part of downtown. We toured a museum, shopped at a local bookstore, and went to a comedy club. Just before that trip I fractured my foot and had to hobble around in a boot. It was in the middle of summer and blazing hot. We alleviated the heat with some ice cream made using nitrogen. It was great to see our friends and visit a new city!

Eureka Springs – Adventures in the Ozarks

We spent a weekend in Eureka Springs after a recommendation by a co-worker. It’s very touristy there, but it was a fun trip all the same. We visited a house made out of all rocks, a tiger rescue sanctuary, a statue of Jesus that sneaks up on you in the hills (I got startled!), and a very pretty church in the woods.

One of my favorite parts was a cave we got to explore where they get onyx. But a stand-out memory was riding a train up into the Ozarks. We paid extra to eat lunch on the train. The train went up to one of the highest peaks and stopped. We watched out the window while an entire cart of passengers got off. And then the train . . . went back to the city. I’m still not sure what became of those people or why they suddenly were abandoned in the mountains.

The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve – There is No Food

Pawhuska is still a very small town, but before Ree Drummond built her mercantile it was practically a ghost town. We went for one reason. To see the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. We got a little ma and pa hotel where we called a number to find our key. Pretty much every restaurant had closed down, so we had to drive to neighboring Bartlesville for food (45 minutes away). The preserve was really beautiful, though, and we got to see many bison up close!

Misc Travels

We’ve done multiple small trips in our early years together. Too much to talk about here. We did a Color Run, went to conventions, saw dinosaurs, went on picnics, visited the Christmas Train in Christmas Village (which is no longer open, sadly), and pretty much devoured any new experience we could together.

The Spool of Souls: Updates & News, Thread of Souls

Thread of Souls: The Deep Hollows Excerpt

Thread of Souls

This is an excerpt from the upcoming fifth book in our Thread of Souls series! While this has been edited, it is still not in its final form and may be edited more.

You can read the first excerpt we shared here.

JADE

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Jade, Sen, and Foxy traversed the Deep Hollows for weeks. After descending through the hut of Jade’s deceased druid mentor, they traveled without direction. They wandered dark and narrow tunnels, open caverns so large they couldn’t see the ceiling, jungles of stalagmites, and steep slopes. The two friends and the fox entered a whole world they had never seen before. One where plants glowed all the colors of a rainbow, where streams sparkled with bioluminescent fish, and where strange animals skulked in the shadows, deeming them too large for easy prey. 

Jade knew she had Sen to thank for that. The seven-foot-tall dragonborn was an intimidating sight, built much larger and thicker than her slight wild elf form. She was proud of him. Ever since the incident with the vampires in Glenpeleg, fear had seized Sen. But now, he was stepping out into danger again and joining her on this adventure. 

If only we knew which way to go, she thought.

The two hunted a creature that called itself Rehanine. Something that nearly killed Jade, her brother, and her companions in Oceala more than half a year ago. Her former mentor, the archdruid Galen’s, notes on the Deep Hollows left more questions than answers. But he had asked her to ensure nothing from the deep dark penetrated the Surface world. And she would honor that request. 

Sen glanced around at the small cavern they found themselves in. “Should we camp here for the night?”

The cavern had many rocky structures with glowing green plants on them. The plants reminded Jade of seaweed, standing tall and waving slightly, though there was no water nearby. It would offer adequate shelter for the night, as well as a light source to protect them from predators. 

“This looks good,” she agreed. “I’m hungry. It’s been a long day.”

They had packed lightly, and it did not take long to set up camp. It had been difficult at first to forage for food, not knowing what was safe to eat and what wasn’t. Their second week of travel they’d met a group of dark gnomes that had given them information. They were curious and amiable. Jade had started to think the Deep Hollows wouldn’t be dangerous after all until the dark gnomes gave advice on safety. 

“Watch the patches of rocks, stone snakes blend right in!” 

“Not everyone is welcoming of Surface-dwellers, you are lucky you ran into us and not slavers!”

“Be careful of cave-ins, they happen more frequently than you think!”

At least we learned some recipes from them, Jade reflected. 

Sen had caught a few reptilian creatures to eat, cooking them with his own fire breath before eating them whole. Foxy enjoyed sharing in that meal. Jade did not eat animals and made herself a bowl of mushrooms on a bed of riverweed with some chopped up fruit the dark gnomes had referred to as ranbas that was healthy and filling. It very much reminded Jade of bananas, except for the bright blue color. 

“So,” Sen began with a mouthful of food, “do you think we are any closer to this Rehanine thing?”

Jade sighed, glancing off into the darkness. “I don’t know. I’ve honestly lost all sense of direction down here. Rehanine could be-”

She broke off at the sound of laughter echoing in her mind. A voice spoke. A voice she remembered from the tunnels beneath Oceala. 

Are you searching for me? Do you want to find me?

Help! Trapped! Trapped! 

I remember you, wild elf. I thought I’d killed you. 

Help! The purple! Trapped in the purple stone! 

Keep seeking. You’ll find me. 

The manic laughter echoed off and away from her mind. She winced and shook her head. 

“Did it happen again?” Sen asked. 

“Yes, and it makes no sense just like the first two times,” she sighed. 

“How is it doing this? I don’t hear it.”

Jade twirled some riverweed around her fork. “It seems to have telepathic abilities. Perhaps because you were not with us in Oceala, it doesn’t want to reach into your mind.”

Sen sniffed, smoke drifting from his nostrils. “Good.”

“I don’t understand what it’s trying to communicate,” Jade said. “One moment it’s taunting me, the next it’s pleading for help. It mentioned purple stone again.”

“What stones are purple?”

“Many. We don’t have any information to narrow it down at this point.”

“I wish we could travel faster, like I used to by ship. Walking takes too long. It feels like we’ll never track down Rehanine.”

A small smile touched Jade’s face. “Many years ago, before I lost my magic, I used to be able to fly with the wind.”

“I’ve seen you turn into elementals.”

“It was more than that,” she explained. “I would become wind, and soar over the mountains and the plains and through the trees. It was more than just taking on an elemental shape, it was becoming that element entirely. It was incredibly liberating. I would take Jasper with me. My druidic magic would envelope him, too, and we would soar together.”

A heavy frown hung on Sen’s lizard-like face. “Well, that sounds extremely convenient. Why don’t we do that now? You are strong.”

Jade laughed. “Well, it’s magic I learned while living in the Wilds with Jasper. It’s easier to be a druid there. I haven’t tried that magic since he died.”

“I didn’t know you lived in the Wilds. What was it like?” There was trepidation to his tone at mention of another plane. 

Jade pet her fox’s red fur as she answered. “It was nothing like Glenpeleg. It was vibrant and full of life. A place where the influence of Tamer and Dusk was strong. The Wildar there have a deep connection to the natural world.”

“Hmmm. Well, if you feel like practicing soaring as wind, let me know. I prefer that to walking!”

“Perhaps I’ll do some meditation before bed. It’s been . . . hard to connect with the spirits of nature in this place. It’s so different than anything I’m familiar with.”

Sen offered a supportive smile. She knew spellcasting was nothing he was remotely familiar with, as evidenced by the large axe he carried with him. She liked that about him, though. He was grounding. 

They ate for a moment in silence before Sen asked, “Do you miss our friends?”

“Yes . . . I do very much.” She thought of Brother Zok in his shining armor, Skar with his eccentric qualities, Artemis’ large appetite, and Unolé and Teshuva. She missed them all. 

“Maybe we’ll make new friends down here,” Sen suggested. 

She laughed. “Well, if we find Deep Hollowans that want to be friends with us, that will be special indeed.”

They filled the rest of their meal with memories of all their adventures together. Of sailing down the coast on Sen’s Scarlet Maiden. Of seeking out Fenvell of the Foresight to avenge a murder. Of encounters with the old spellcaster Sen had called Jenkins. And of the last time they’d all been together, saving An’Ock from a doppelgänger invasion. They reminisced about all the good times and not the bad. 

When the meal was done and Sen prepared the camp for sleeping, Jade took time to meditate. With Foxy asleep in her lap, she crossed her legs and closed her eyes. She stretched her awareness outward, searching for the spirits of all the living nature around her. 

It was strange. Like waking up in a tavern and being slightly disoriented with the world. Everything was there that she was familiar with, it just wasn’t the way she was used to. She felt life stirring in the strange seaweed-like plants. She felt vibrations from the rocks around, and the hum of energy that permeated the Deep Hollows. 

If I can get in touch with this natural energy, then I can harness it. Learn from it. Connect with it. Use it to protect and help us. 

And so Jade spent a long time meditating and building that connection before she at last needed to sleep. 

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The Spool of Souls: Updates & News

Women’s Month Art Feature

Thread of Souls

In celebration of March being women’s month, we are doing a fun art feature of many of our female characters throughout the Thread of Souls books. All art is drawn by Talia, an untrained artist who just loves drawing as a hobby.

All art is protected under Tal & Ru Travels LLC.

Enjoy!

Storytelling

Tarot Story Prompt

Thread of Souls

It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these! I randomly pulled three tarot cards from my Curse of Strahd deck. They were assigned three critical story components: The Protagonist, the Antagonist, and the Conflict. I turned over each and took photos of the result. Use these as inspiration for your next story!

The Protagonist

I turned over the Beggar. This protagonist may be a literal beggar living on the street in poverty. It could also be a more symbolic meaning, such as someone begging for an outcome, or someone that has lost a great deal in life. You could also take inspiration from the character on the card as a starting point. He seems to be an elderly man missing one hand.

The Antagonist

I turned over the Abjurer. In TTRPG terms, abjuration magic means defensive or protective magic. An official definition of the word abjure, though, means to renounce or reject something. Especially something significant like an oath. The woman in the art appears very formal and serious.

The Conflict

I drew the Ghost for conflict. This opens up interesting connection possibilities between our Protagonist and Antagonist. Did someone they both know die? Have they returned to haunt them? Is the ghost more symbolic of something from both of their pasts they’d rather forget? Are they haunted by mistakes? Is that what caused them to lead such different lives?

The Spool of Souls: Updates & News

Spool of Souls: February Recap

Thread of Souls

It’s been a rough February! We’ve been dealing with some kind of virus that plagues us with dizziness for the last two weeks. The temperature will be tantalizingly warm, and then drop into snow the next day. We are eager to both feel better, and to get to spring.

Thread of Souls: Book V

We announced the title of the fifth book in the Thread of Souls series! It is titled “The Deep Hollows”. Be on the lookout for more excerpts and information from the book.

We are currently writing the final chapter. After that, we go into some rounds of editing before finalizing it for our ARC readers. We expect May / June release.

New Merch!

We’ve got some new merch in our shop! We have a Taliesin top that comes in a variety of colors and styles. We also have the cover of our Phantom Five book available as wall art. It’s offered a poster print, canvas print, metal print, and as framed art.

Audiobook

Since the release of the Phantom Five audiobook last month, Dorian has been hard at work on the audiobook for Ash & Thunder. He’s about a third of way through the book at this point. You can listen to Phantom Five via Amazon, Audible, or iTunes!

TTRPGs

Do You Do Voices During TTRPG Roleplaying?

Thread of Souls

There can be pressure on those both new and seasoned to TTRPG’s, especially GM’s, to do voices when roleplaying. After all, you see big personalities and talented actors online playing their games and able to do endless voices.

So, do you need to at your game? And does it take away from play if you don’t?

Dorian is really great at voices, though he has done professional voice acting training, did the narration for our audio book, and has done a variety of commercial work across his career. He can do different accents, mannerisms, and tones of voice.

I consider myself less prolific. I can do a couple of accents and switch between a few different tones. But otherwise, if I’m voicing multiple characters at once, most of them end up sounding the same.

Across our handful of players at the table, only one put on a voice. Most just altered their mannerism of speaking to be more aligned with their character. Sometimes that ends up being a very subtle difference, other times a major difference.

You should, by no means, feel obligated to whip out a bunch of crazy voices when roleplaying just because someone on TV does it. This is especially true if you’re not comfortable with it or feeling insecure.

My suggestion is to add “narration” to your dialogue to inform others at the table who you are roleplaying. For example, I’m female and when I do roleplay, I have pretty much one Man Voice I use for my male characters. It’s a little deeper and little raspy and that’s all I got.

So to help, I’ll add in narration tags.

“Wash seems uncomfortable and says…”

“Taliesin speaks up…”

“Sen shakes his head and says…”

It helps Dorian know who I am speaking as, which is crucial in situations where we have a large group of characters all together.

Helpful Tips!

  • Your mannerism of speaking is usually more important than a perfect accent.
  • Add dialogue tags before each character speaks to help clarify.
  • Character voices may be immersive and fun, but they are not essential to enjoying a TTRPG.
Storytelling

How to Become a Writer: Self-Publish vs Traditional

Thread of Souls

The fifth in a series on how to become a writer.

While we talked about different writing careers in our Overview post, this one focuses on book authors. Whether children’s or adult’s, whether fiction or nonfiction, we all come to the same question. Self-Publish vs Traditional. What is the difference? Which one is best for my situation? What are the pros and cons of each?

Traditional Publishing

With traditional publishing, you submit your book (or book concept depending on your situation) to literary agents. This requires information like a short “elevator pitch” along with a multi-page, highly detailed breakdown. Sometimes you might land an agent very quickly, other times it could take hundreds of agents. The brutal truth is many aspiring authors never land an agent.

An agent will then be your representative, pitching your book to publishers. The goal is landing a book deal. After that, your manuscripts will go through rounds of editing with the publishing house’s official editors. They must agree on the final document prior to publication.

Pros:

  • You have the big name of a publisher on your book.
  • You have an agent representing you and working for your best interests.
  • You get the use of the publisher’s official formatting, artwork, and marketing teams to put your best foot forward.
  • You get your book fine-tuned by professional editors.

Cons:

  • Just because you get one book deal with a publisher does not mean they will sign you again for a second book.
  • Who agents pick to represent is more based on books they feel like working on at the time and not necessarily on the quality of your writing. Most readily admit they turn down plenty of great books because they aren’t in the mood to do that genre right now.
  • Just because you have a professional marketing team doesn’t guarantee your book will ever make money.
  • Editors can force you to make changes to your manuscript that you don’t want to in order to be published. We’ve heard plenty of stories from upset authors that the book published is not the one they wanted to write.

Self-Publishing

Self-publishing is where you publish your book yourself on a platform such an Amazon’s KDP. You are in charge of all formatting, book cover art, and marketing. You have much more freedom over the final product, including the price and what formats it’s available in. You don’t have to do it all alone, though. There are many freelancers online that will design your book cover, edit your manuscript, and even format the book for you. But that is money out of your own pocket.

Pros:

  • You have 100% control over the final product and can publish the book exactly how you want to.
  • You have a greater choice of publishing platforms, instead of having to go with whoever offers you a book deal.
  • You can set the price you want.
  • Most publishing platforms allow you to easily change the book cover, summary, and even interior content (within reason) should you want to make updates.

Cons:

  • You have a very limited reach as there is no professional marketing team behind you.
  • You most likely will be putting your own money into the book at some point, especially if you hire freelancers to help you.
  • You have to learn it all on your own, so it is easy to make mistakes.
  • It typically takes indie authors much longer to make money and get recognition, though every situation is unique.

Conclusion

So, Self-Publish vs Traditional, what is best for you? We went with self-publishing our book because we wanted full control over its content. We have definitely spent plenty of money on it, and it’s definitely an uphill battle to get our book marketed out to readers. But we feel we made the right choice for our needs.

If you have the patience and perseverance to wait on being chosen by an agent and publisher, and a willingness to collaborate on your story, then you will likely be happier with the traditional route.

Don’t forget that you can always do both! Publishers used to turn their nose up at anyone who self-published and didn’t want to work with them, but in this digital age times have changed.

Helpful Tip!

Be wary of scam publishers out there. If they want you to pay them to publish your book, they are not legitimate. A real publisher has faith your book will do well and will never ask for money up front.

Also, for our fellow indie authors, be wary of scam book marketers. They promise outreach to a lot of readers, but in reality, they have no significant, engaged following and your money will be wasted. Always do your research.

Bardic Inspiration

Bardic Inspiration: Sounds of a Pirate

Thread of Souls

Who doesn’t love pirate music? From sea shanties in Pillars of Eternity II, to the soundtrack of Pirates of the Caribbean, they put you in an adventurous mood! They are definitely helpful when we play or write sea-faring adventures for our pirate dragonborn, Captain Sen. Here are our favorite instrumentals to get us in the Sen and sea mood!

The Captain’s Dance by Marcus Warner

I’m a huge fan of Marcus Warner’s work. Both his instrumentals and his songs with lyrics move me. I love The Captain’s Dance. It makes me feel happy and energized and is great to create to.

Hymn of the High Seas by Antti Martikainen

This is a nice, long seven-minute track. I like the building intensity of it, starting out slower and softer and rising to a crescendo at the end.

Island Full of Dreams by delo cloonz

This is markedly different from the other tracks. It’s so soft and gentle. It makes me think of sailing under the stars, and everything at peace in the world.

High Seas by Pauli Hausmann

This is another adventurous tune. I really love the melody, it’s just so pretty and evokes this need to explore.

Reviews

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Review

Thread of Souls

We didn’t get to buy Tears of the Kingdom when it first came out. We’ve both been lifelong players of The Legend of Zelda games. But, when TotK was released we were both unemployed. Dorian worked a temporary freelance job and got the game for free on his Nintendo Switch to review. But his job didn’t last long and so he never got far into the game.

Finally able to play the game all the way through together, here are our thoughts!

Overview

Tears of the Kingdom takes place directly after The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. There aren’t many Zelda games that do that. Even though Majora’s Mask was directly after Ocarina of Time, it still did not use the same world map and have the same repeat characters.

Ultimately, I think that is what we both loved and grew a bit tired of in this game. It was so much fun to meet the same characters again, but older and wiser. And it was fun to already feel familiar with the map and the towns. It was like coming home. But, there are some repetitive elements that the game could have gone without.

The Story

When you play a Zelda game, you expect an excellent story. This one was no different. The characters are well-rounded and the danger feels real. There are plenty of mysteries to explore, and you are invested in the world. This game keeps the focus on historical events and how they impact the present. That being said, while Zelda shook off most of the “damsel in need of rescuing” stereotype, we aren’t entirely free from it. That comes as a disappointment, since when news of the game first broke, fans rallied online to be able to play the game as Zelda, or at least back and forth between Zelda and Link. For those familiar with the plot of the game, playing between the two actually would have worked out seamlessly.

The Gameplay

Gameplay centers around learning to use special powers given to you via an attachment on your arm. Mastering these are central to overcoming obstacles and solving puzzles, though they don’t play a big role in combat. If you enjoy building and creating, then you will absolutely love this feature.

There are three maps to navigate across the game. The massive surface map of Hyrule is the same as in Breath of the Wild, though slightly altered due to events in the game. There are also sky islands to explore. While they are important in certain quest lines, we didn’t spend much time exploring them as navigating them proves to be extremely difficult and time consuming. The final map is the underground Depths. We stumbled upon this by accident, having not started the official quest that introduces you to this area. We were shocked! The Depths offers a fun, grueling adventure map where survival is your first priority. While it has a few key story points, the Depths are mainly used for finding really good loot.

The Side Quests

I have mixed feelings about the side quests in Tears of the Kingdom. Some are a great deal of fun. We especially enjoyed the quests with Penn at the stables as they often had a good deal of humor mixed in with them. The introduction of caves also allowed for some exploration side quests.

However, many are simply carried over from Breath of the Wild and we grew easily bored of them. For example, finding the korok seeds reappears, but we would have preferred a new system for expanding your weapon carrying capacity. The shrines make another appearance, key teleport points and opportunities to get more hearts and stamina. Again, we would have preferred something in the same spirit as the shrines but fresh and new.

Conclusion

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, is a fun adventure game full of heart. It’s three separate world maps, weapon fusion and building gameplay, and characters cement it as another fantastic title in this series. Honestly, the final section of the boss fight is one of the most cinematic of all Zelda games. Despite the repetitive feeling of some quests, we recommend it to any gamer who wants an immersive fantasy adventure.

TTRPGs

TTRPGs: Is a Virtual or Physical Map Better?

Thread of Souls

We talk about virtual or physical maps in TTRGs and the pros and cons of each.

You’ve seen the photos online. Elaborate TTRPG maps spread across a gaming table. Or perhaps you’ve built them yourself for your DnD, Pathfinder, Forbidden Lands, Call of Cthulhu, or other tabletop game. During the pandemic years, virtual games became more common, relying on digital maps for dungeon crawling and battles.

But is one better than the other?

We have done both in our eight years of playing. And we give our thoughts to help you determine what is best for you.

The Physical TTRPG Map

We started out our game with just a graph paper and some lego characters. But we fell so in love with the game that we kept pushing the boundaries of physical map-building. We bought and painted miniatures and set pieces. We spent way too much money on Dwarven Forge. We bought LED pieces, speakers, ambient lighting, and scented candles to set the mood.

It really was something special. It pulled you right into the world and gave you something tangible to interact with. One of my favorite builds required us to bring along a tiny lit lantern and we had to stay in the light and not cross into the shadows.

Pros:

  • Allows you to feel a part of the world with touchable elements.
  • Allows for fun effects such as flickering lights, traps, and multi-level builds.
  • It is fun to setup.

Cons:

  • It can become extremely expensive to collect enough pieces.
  • You are limited to builds based on what you have on hand.
  • You need a large enough space for your builds.

The Virtual TTPRG Map

When we traveled out of a campervan for awhile, we donated all of our TTRPG items to a local library that wanted to start its own program. We’re talking thousands of dollars worth of books, miniatures, and set pieces. It is both a happy and sad memory at the same time. We spent so many years and so many dollars collecting those. But we are happy that they went to a good cause, to bring others joy like they brought us.

The need to travel more easily made us switch to virtual maps. We built through Inkarnate, one of our favorite systems, and then used the maps on online gaming platforms like Roll20.

Pros:

  • You can create anything. You aren’t limited by pieces.
  • It doesn’t matter where you are, you can always play virtually.
  • It is free. Or at least cheaper if you end up paying for a subscription or a premium version of software.

Cons:

  • It lacks the personal touch. You can’t interact with it.
  • You need to find a good online system that allows you to move your characters and bad guys around easily.
  • It requires some technology and artistic understanding to build these sets and create characters the way you envision them.

The Verdict

So, which one is best? Both of them. We’ve enjoyed both for different reasons. We loved the full sets we used that were so immersive and sprawling. But we also like the cost effectiveness and portability of virtual sets. Perhaps in the future, we will buy set pieces again. And then we can vary between physical or virtual TTRPG builds depending on what we need in the moment.