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The Many TTRPG Hobbies

by Mike on 9 February 2026

There are many separate loosely connected hobbies under the umbrella of the larger tabletop roleplaying game hobby. All these hobbies can be fun ways to interact with the larger hobby and other people who enjoy them. Separating these hobbies from the larger hobby in our minds frees us from having to justify them. We can enjoy them for their own sake.

I love Dwarven Forge tabletop terrain. It's beautiful, functional, and fun to set up and use. I love the company, the creators, and the other fans. For a long time I worried about justifying the high costs of Dwarven Forge (money, time, space, and flexibility) based on its impact in the games I ran. I recognized collecting Dwarven Forge as its own hobby but still felt that it needed to justify its place in the larger TTRPG hobby. How much better were my games with Dwarven Forge compared to those without? 20% better? 10%?

More recently, I've been thinking about RPG industry punditry -- digging into the business of TTRPGs and Hasbro / WOTC in particular. Does such business talk matter to our games? Probably not. But a lot of people enjoy digging into it, debating it, and pondering the future of the RPG business.

Then it occurred to me – TTRPG business punditry is its own hobby. We can dig into it, debate it, and enjoy it while also acknowledging that it has little effect on the games we love to play.

There are dozens (maybe hundreds) of such RPG-connected hobbies – miniature collecting, miniature painting, live play shows, terrain collecting, 3d printing, VTT setup, LARPing, photography, podcasting, short- and long-form video creation, map drawing, voice work, improv and theater, cosplay, language study, world building, character artistry, dice collecting, and even RPG product collecting. I came to realize that, while Humble Bundles and Bundles of Holding are the best deals in digital RPG products, I'm swamped with more RPG core books and supplements than I can ever hope to read, much less run. But I like them anyway – I like collecting them.

These related hobbies are all valid. They don't have to alter the RPG you run for your friends to justify themselves. They're just fun on their own. Sometimes the output of these hobbies make your game more fun – maybe not enough to justify their cost but enough to make it worth connecting these hobbies together. But these hobbies don't have to make your game better for you to enjoy them. The joy of painting a miniature can be a joy all by itself.

Understanding the separation and value of our related RPG hobbies helps in a couple of other ways. World building as its own hobby, enjoyable for its own sake, may not resonate the same love in our players that it does for us. Recognizing that these related hobbies don't always improve our games also gives us permission to skip a hobby. Someone may love practicing improvisation and voices but that doesn't mean we have to.

Maybe this is an excuse to spend too much money on the RPG hobby. I always try to reinforce how inexpensive this hobby can be and many of the related hobbies of TTRPGs are likewise free. Others, like miniature and terrain collections, can be quite expensive.

I think this understanding of the different related RPG hobbies is valuable. I think it helps us avoid continually justifying our own RPG-related hobbies or critique the hobbies of others. We all get to enjoy how we want to engage in the umbrella of TTRPGs and share our passion with the rest of the world. It's such a wonderful and powerful hobby to be a part of. It matters.

And I'm happy to be a part of it.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers.

Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

Last week I also posted a couple of YouTube videos on Choosing Your RPG and Assault on Third Heaven – Dragon Empire Prep Session 53.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

Help players enjoy some of the relaxing minutia of the process for camping, and resupplying between adventures.
Clarify current quests and have players choose one near the end of your current adventure.
Use NPC pictures so players can see who they’re interacting with.
Steal ideas from everywhere — books, tv, movies, comics, and other games.
Replace adventure NPCs with those tied to the backgrounds of the characters.
Try to include one action-focused encounter in each session.
Put yourself in the shoes of your NPCs and act as they would act.

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