The Return of Charming and Open – Sign Up for a Mini Collab with Adventure Rules!

EDIT 11/30/2019: I will no longer be accepting submissions for Charming and Open. Thanks again to everyone who asked a question!

One of the best parts of the game blogging community of which I am a part is the way that writers come together to work on gargantuan projects requiring truly inspiring ambition. Here on Adventure Rules I’ve been hosting a yearly large-scale collaborative effort called the Blogger Blitz, where other game bloggers serve as competitors and judges in a friendly tournament to see which video game characters are the very best. Folks like NekoJonez and the Well-Red Mage have organized retrospectives on specific series like The Legend of Zelda or Final Fantasy (respectively). And who can forget The Games That Define Us over at Normal Happenings, where gamers from all walks of life shared stories about the video games that played a key role in their life?

These massive undertakings are truly impressive and participating in them is a blast, but it can also be stressful and time-consuming. I know when Blogger Blitz ended I felt like I didn’t want to do another writing project ever again. But of course that’s not the case at all – I love working with the other writers in the blogging community to come up with cool stuff together. However, sometimes it’s nice when these collaborations can be smaller in scale, a little more chill and casual. It’d be cool if there was an event where folks could just sign up for something short and sweet rather than committing to writing and editing a super serious article or participating in an event that’d be ongoing for months or a year. And then it hit me: I have an event like that!

Charming and Open is the first successful community event to ever be held on Adventure Rules. The concept comes from one of my favorite tabletop roleplaying games, Dungeon World. Charming and Open is one of the special abilities of the bard class, and it allows the bard to gain access to information simply by being a talented conversationalist. The bard can ask their target a question which must be answered honestly, but to gain access to vulnerable information the bard must be vulnerable themselves – the target can ask a question of the bard on the same terms. This mutual exchange inspired me to create an event which is essentially an AMA that works both ways.

Here’s how it works. You post a comment in the comment section of this very blog post that contains a question you’d like me to answer. That question can be about video games, tabletop roleplaying games, or even about the hobby of blogging. As long as I’m able to answer your question then I will write a blog post with my honest answer. In return, I’ll ask a question of you which you can use to inspire a blog post on your own site! I promote on Adventure Rules any posts written as part of the Charming and Open event, so that generally involves reblogging here on WordPress as well as sharing on my social media pages on Twitter and Facebook. But more importantly, this is essentially an opportunity for you to get a free blog post idea – it’s a tough offer to turn down!

You may be wondering the sorts of questions that are appropriate for Charming and Open. Well this is perhaps obvious but the most important thing is that the question is open-ended. I’m not publishing a one-word blog post that says “yes” or “no. Although a yes-or-no question is fine if you emphasize that you want to know why I’m saying yes or no. The question also needs to be on a topic I cover here on Adventure Rules such as video games or tabletop roleplaying games, but it can also focus on blogging. If I’ve answered the question pretty recently in the form of a blog post, I’ll probably link you the post so you can read it and then allow you to ask another question instead. Questions which seem to me to be mean-spirited or intended to stir trouble will be rejected on the spot. Ultimately, I reserve the right to say no to any question I don’t want to answer, but I’ve never had an issue with the folks in the game blogging community. I expect lots of fun and engaging questions that help us all to share our love of video games and RPGs with our readers!

If you still need some help coming up with a question to ask, perhaps these previous Charming and Open topics will help to inspire you!

• What game mechanic do you think has never been done quite right?
• Who was your favorite character to play in a tabletop game?
• If you were an NPC in a video game, what would you be?
• Which ability or power from a video game would you most like to have in real life?
• What would be your ideal tabletop RPG?
• What three video games would you take with you to a deserted island?

If you’re a blogger looking for a post idea or looking to participate in a quick collaboration, my hope is that you’ll ask a question in the comments below and take part in the Charming and Open event! Generally my goal with Charming and Open is to get all of the questions answered within a month, but we’ll see how realistic that is based on the number of questions I receive. If you have a question about the event itself before you decide to participate, be sure to post those in the comments too. Otherwise, all you have to do to participate is post the question you want me to answer. I look forward to collaborating with you!

EDIT 11/30/2019: I will no longer be accepting submissions for Charming and Open. Thanks again to everyone who asked a question!