RPG a Day 2026 – Day 33: After-Action Report

I meant to write this post yesterday, but then real life got in my way. A combination of illness, going to the physician to make sure everything was all right, and the fact that it was my 10th wedding anniversary. Needless to say, I was busy.

So, what do I have to say about this year’s #RPGaDay2026 that I didn’t say on the 31st?

Let’s talk about my prep. For the first time, I was able to plan my posts and post them ahead of schedule. I finished my posts a full five days before the month ended! I am always thankful that the graphics and topics for the year are available well in advance. In the past I’ve tried to plan, even writing a few posts ahead of the month, but I always fail to keep up, often writing the night before or the day of the post, oftentimes playing catch-up.

I knew this was going to be a busy year, so I planned. I accepted Runeslinger’s challenge to create a new NPC each day of the month, so I mapped out my month, using all the details provided this year, plus I added my own random table of genres to know the type of NPC I was creating. I had a sheet with the schedule and topics planned out.

I used standard introductions and closings for the posts; while they might seem repetitive, they padded some of the writing I had to do so that I could focus on the NPC for each day. I decided not to use any additional images beyond the standard RPG a Day graphic and a small image with the topic name. I really aimed to simplify and make my life easier.

I would sit each night and try to write at least three NPCs, then proofread, prepare, and schedule those posts the following night. I hoped to be done with the month by mid-August, but life always throws you a curveball. Regardless, I kept the pace and finished ahead of time.

I also posted and shared daily entries across multiple platforms this year. The main post here on the blog was shared on two Facebook pages I’m managing (Sunglar’s Musings and Desde la Fosa), the RPG a Day Facebook group, the two main groups I’m an admin for in FB, Dungeons & Dragons Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico Role Players, as well as the Puerto Rico Role Players Discord channel. I also shared posts on my personal social media on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky. I automated much of this process but still had to click and check daily, usually in the mornings before taking my son to school.

I wrote the post in English, then translated it into Spanish and shared it in the same spaces in both languages.

Was all the work worth it? I’d say yes! I saw some traffic increase on my socials, and while the RPG a Day Facebook group was really quiet this year, Threads had good interaction, and Bluesky was the main place for conversations and sharing. I love reading other people’s posts. I wish I could read more, but on Bluesky, I followed old friends and made discoveries throughout the month.

What I wanted to do, and never got around to, was make some videos about RPG a Day for my TikTok account. I didn’t have the capacity, but I know that video content gets a lot more eyeballs than written content in the current social media landscape. Maybe for 2027.

What about the prompts and the modifiers this year? I love a challenge, and using all the elements to create a new NPC each day was sometimes a struggle. Regardless, it challenged me creatively, and I ended up with 31 new NPCs I can use in my games. Maybe more, but I’ll talk about that later.

I’ll say that the random genre table I created and talked about in my Day 0 post was maybe too limited. It covered major TTRPG genres, but I could have added a few categories. In the future, I would either add a few more, like modern or espionage games, or create three or four broad categories and list possible subgenres within them.

Compared to other years when I’ve created a continuing narrative, setting, or campaign vignettes, sticking strictly to NPCs felt a bit limiting. So many other participants write about other topics, reflections on the hobby, that the format selected caged me in a little bit, but it also gave me the structure to finish ahead of schedule.

TardisCaptain had great suggestions in his after-action post for future prompts; I like this genre table and the idea of, for example, adding random tables when creating NPCs to create variety and challenges for participants. While something so complex may be beyond the scope of the RPG a Day Graphic and prompts, I see myself creating additional tools to challenge myself and fuel my creativity in the future.

I’ve said it before, and I’d say it again: I’d love to see a graphic in the style of the old artifact exploration charts in Gamma World to roll and randomly determine where you’ll go next for a prompt.

So, who did I enjoy reading this year? Besides Autocratik and Runeslinger, I really enjoyed content from old friends like Timothy Brannan on The Other Side blog, Richard ‘Bat’ Brewster on Bluesky (you can check his post for this year collected on his Batjutsu blog), and Matthew Pook’s shorts on his YouTube channel. You should check out the aforementioned TardisCaptain, whose posts I really enjoyed, as well as Paul Baldowski and Craig Oxbrow, to name two of the many great participants whose work I enjoyed this month. The Bluesky RPG a Day feed was the best place to follow along this year.

What am I going to do next after RPG a Day? Short term, I’ve been taking it easy this week and decompressing after the daily posting schedule of August. But I’ll not stay idle for long.

I’m going to keep on posting! Here on the blog, I hope to continue this year’s retrospective of 40 Years a Gamer. I’ve also been sharing interviews with local creators with ties to the RPG community on Sundays. I’m looking for more creatives to interview, so if you are a Puerto Rican creative on the island or in the diaspora and want to share what you do, reach out. I also want to do more reviews and interviews; if you have a product or project you’d like me to review, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Over at Sunglars Musings, I make weekly posts about my TTRPG inspirations, including comics, video games, and soon some posts about books. I also try to make weekly TTRPG recommendations on Saturdays. I cross-post a lot of what I write here on the blog there.

Desde la Fosa was dormant for a long time, and I’m trying to restart it for Spanish-language content. I always dream of restarting some project or podcast with José, Apu, and AJ the Ronin, the original collaborators for Desde la Fosa. We’ll see!

I’m also writign a weekly comum for Tabletop Sentinel, Tabletop Inspiration: Celluloid Memories where I’m writing about the movies that inspired my as a gamer and the games I play. If thsi si something that might interest you, I ivite you to check it out.

Another project I have in mind is the crazy idea of compiling all the NPCs I created this month and publishing it as a digital supplement. It would take some cleanup and maybe creating a couple of extra NPCs to balance the genres. Would this be something you’d be interested in reading? I’d love to know.

I want to thank you all for sticking around and reading these posts for #RPGaDay2026. A big thanks to Michael (aka the Stargazer) for giving me this platform to engage with and share with such a wonderful community. Here’s looking forward to many RPG Days in the future!