Hi there, I'm Jim Tigwell, a philosophy graduate and avid gamer. I love tabletop gaming because of the ways it can bring people together and motivate them to be creative, exploring ideas they never would have dared. I also enjoy GMing, and the world building and leadership roles which go along with it. I want to take the opportunity here to answer some questions you might have.
Why should I care?
Tabletop gaming is an interesting cooperative medium which serves to provide both fun and personal growth. It can help us learn things about ourselves and about others, develop trust and relationships, and experiment with different sorts of theatrical space. It can be more than just a bunch of people sitting around eating chips and killing monster after monster if we're willing to work to make it more, and it often helps us have more fun. If you like gaming, critical thinking, or even talking to other people, I hope you can get something out of TPK.
What's this about?
TPK is my gaming theory blog. My goal is to develop ideas on how to make our interactions in tabletop games better, and I want to do it by trying to look at the essence of what we do around the gaming table. What kinds of relationships and responsibilities should GMs and players have with each other? As a GM, what are the best ways to conduct a game, and as a player, what are the best ways to create and manage a character? These are only some of the questions I want to try and answer here, and I look forward to your help in developing the answers further. We all have an interest in making our games more fun, and f we can find better ways to talk about our expectations and goals at the table, we can do that.
When does it update?
At the moment, just once a week, on Mondays.
No seriously, who are you?
I'm twenty-seven, and I just graduated with my BA in philosophy at the University of Waterloo, and I'm eager to find real world applications for the theoretical frameworks I've learned over the past four years. My focus is primarily on professional ethics and philosophy of community, developing ideas on how we ought to behave toward each other which rest on reasonable grounds. Before that, I worked at all kinds of jobs, from construction to retail to restaurants to inventory control, so my experiences are a little eclectic. I'm really looking forward to heading into my Master's next year, also at Waterloo, and beyond that the sky's the limit.
For hobbies, I play a lot of games. Mostly 3.5 D&D, though I do have an attraction to some of the elements of 4th, as well as a bit of Spirit of the Century. I've been gaming for about fourteen years in all kinds of systems, and I'm still learning things. Past that I love reading, music (listening and playing it), and playing videogames of all varieties. I really love circus skills, and I've accumulated a few. Juggling, a bit of card magic, yo-yo, poi spinning. I speak three languages, and I'm hoping to get that to five in a few months if I work hard. The most important thing I've learned is that although I'll never know everything, if I'm willing to work at it, I can learn anything.
Where can I find you?
Apart from here, you can find me on Twitter and on LinkedIn. Or you can email me at jtigwell (at) gmail (dot) com.
