I tell RPG writers that it's important to play the games you write for. Apart from playtests of your material, it's good to be active in the game so you can see actual games in action. So what am I playing these days? Glad you asked!

1. I'm running a Pathfinder Second Edition game of the Abomination Vaults Adventure Path. The characters are 4th level, so we're about a third of the way through the campaign.

2. I'm running a Starfinder game that's a continuation of our Intrepid Heroes podcast (which you can hear at Our Page Right Here). Although the public podcast episodes have us finishing up the Dawn of Flame Adventure Path, we started with some of the same characters in the high-level Devastation Ark Adventure Path, and we're about a quarter of the way through that. It's moving quite quickly--more quickly than I expected or am sometimes prepared for! I'm excited for the podcast to "catch up" to where we're playing now.

3. I'm about to kick off another Pathfinder Second Edition game, this one the Strength of Thousands Adventure Path. We've had a "session zero" to make characters together and the campaign kicks off soon! I'm excited that everyone has picked some pretty gonzo characters: a goloma witch, a leshy summoner with a plant eidolon, and so on.

4. I'm playing in a long-running Torg Eternity game that's virtual (and was virtual before everyone else was doing it, in the most hipster fashion). This is my group of friends from high school and early college; many of us used to play the original Torg game together back in the 90s. I've learned a lot about Torg Eternity GMing (and gaming in general) from our GM in that. My character used to be a pulp hero who could take on an aspect of the Egyptian goddess Nekbhet, but in a dramatic fashion became transformed into the technohorror reality and is now an intimidating vulture-like cyber-warrior. (These things happen in Torg sometimes.)

5. I'm playing in a 13th Age game with some old friends, and we just hit 4th level. Our GM is great at setting up a campaign world that is just. so. falling. apart. My halfling sorcerer is a retired pirate whose past keeps catching up to him.

6. I've just started playing in a local Pathfinder Second Edition game in what seems to be a home-brew world. Many of the players are new, and it's a fun, casual vibe. My gnome witch is a follower of Pulura, goddess of the aurora borealis, and an endlessly chatty fellow.

7. I'm playing a Fate game that's heavily skewed toward superheroes in a nearly modern world. I play a fringe scientist who can don a suit of supercooled mercury to stop blows, melt metal, and so on. Good fun!

8. I'm playing in a Starfinder game of the Horizons of the Vast Adventure Path, or "Kingmaker in Space." We've just hit 2nd level. I wrote the first adventure in this campaign, which we're playing through now, but that was a long time ago and I don't remember nearly as much as I feared I might. I also don't know a whole lot about how the rest of the campaign unfolds except for the inevitable doom we're all going to face. So I decided to play a pretty broken android precognition who can't stop obsessing about how we're all going to die and there is inevitable doom coming to claim all of us. She's...not too fun to be around, frankly.

Most of these games are every-other-week, and some are less frequently than that (like monthly). So I'm spending not quite half my evenings gaming, and that feels like a really good balance to me!