My sincerely held personal belief is that the roleplaying community adheres to the 80/20 rule. For those unfamiliar, the TLDR is that 20% of people are responsible for 80% of results. Like, 20% of customers account for 80% of your sales, that sort of thing. It’s not meant to be an exact 80/20 split, but represents the idea that there is a majority and a minority and that the larger number is significantly greater than the smaller.

Some people find the word manifesto to be off-putting. It’s just a mission statement when you come right down to it. The definition is something like “a public declaration of goals and policy”. Of course, there can be a political connotation, usually ascribed by people whose political agenda revolves around accusing everyone they disagree with of having a political agenda. These are the people that think Star Trek and X-Men only became progressive, like, last week or something.

Today I want to talk more about the part of the hobby that doesn’t involve actually playing, watching other people play, or collecting pretty books you’ll probably never play. I want to talk about the joy of making stuff. Engaging with your creativity, building characters for the fun of it, building worlds, plotting adventures, crafting house rules, all of that stuff.

Today I want to talk about systems. What most people call rules. Without going into a tirade many of you have heard before, I dislike the word rules because it implies structure where it shouldn’t be, creates boundaries in terms of thinking about creative choices, and connects to the whole game/winners/losers thing.

Welcome to The Day-to-Day, a development log where I'll share insights into my ongoing projects. I’ve decided to start with Lightspress itself, a company that embodies my vision for roleplaying as an art form and a commentary on the hobby. Lightspress is more than just a publishing company; it's a statement piece and a form of performance art. My goal with Lightspress is to challenge traditional notions of roleplaying, the industry, and community. We embrace a simple approach to roleplaying. That’s the new official tagline. I plan to avoid, if not entirely jettison, future references to lo-fi aesthetics, brutalism, and punk DIY values. Those are references, but I want to talk about what is, and what’s to come, not what we’re building upon.

I'm Berin Kinsman, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to the dynamic universe of Lightspress. With a wealth of experience in the realm of roleplaying, having participated in and guided countless sessions across a myriad of systems, I've dedicated myself to crafting tools that empower both players and guides to shape their own narratives. Since 2014, I've been fully immersed as a publisher, writer, and designer in this captivating world, and I'm thrilled to share the journey with you.