Feb 11, 2023 ∞

🎲 Zephyr: An Anarchist Roleplaying Game Of Fleeting Identities is looking like it will be really excellent.

Interesting ideas, innovative mechanics, beautiful tokens, intriguing art, and new gameplay styles.

Jan 26, 2023 ∞

🎲 Alternatives to Dungeons & Dragons

Perhaps you’ve heard some recent controversy around Wizards of the Coast and Dungeons & Dragons. Perhaps you haven’t. Either way, it’s a great time to look at some alternatives to Dungeons & Dragons.

Note: I’m going to limit the list to games that are fantasy, adventuring, and flexible-setting, otherwise this list would be much longer. If you want recommendations that ignore one of those factors, I’m happy to share some other options.

I’m going to use tags because those are a fun RPG thing.

compatible: it shares enough in common with D&D-like games that it should be easier to use published adversaries or adventures
credited: you’ll find my name in the credits
light: it’s a rules-light system
played: I’ve tried it

Here are the games, in alphabetical order:

Beyond the Wall: compatible, has some extra focus on group-building, and a bit more setting & vibe built-in
Cornerstone Fantasy: light, the first of three Sigil Stone games on the list, but one that appears will not be getting ongoing support and development
Dichotomy (backup link): a super-indie game with an interesting angle akin to Lasers & Feelings or Arcanum
Dominion Rules: played, a highly-underrated game with several great ideas and tons of potential
Dungeon Crawl Classics: compatible, recommended if you want big time “old-school” vibes
Five Torches Deep: compatible, light, essentially a pared-down 5th edition
Forbidden Lands: strong on open-world play, also with some built-in vibes
Into the Odd: compatible, light, arguably not strictly-fantasy enough, but usable for lots of play with some table-tweaking
Knave: compatible, light, played, top recommendation if you just want to get going with quick play
Maze Rats: light, played, top recommendation for a pickup game with no compatibility needed
Mythic D6: descendant of the West End Games D6 system (like classic Star Wars)
Pathfinder: compatible, played, recommended if you liked 3rd edition
Torchbearer: credited, played, descendant of Burning Wheel, recommended for those emphasizing the hard life of adventurers
Vagabonds of Dyfed: light, played, an interesting mashup of D&D and PbtA roots, which shouldn’t really work but kinda does
Warrior Rogue Mage: light, answers “what if the core archetypes were the stats?”
Whitehack: compatible, played, top recommendation if you want to run a compatible-but-flexible game that lasts many sessions (e.g. campaign-mode)
Worlds Without Number: compatible, recommended for the worldbuilding and adventure-creation tools

Anything I should add to the list? Anything you’d particularly recommend? Leave a reply.

Disclaimer: I’ve used DriveThruRPG affiliate links, where relevant. I could get a small credit if you make a purchase there.

Jan 24, 2023 ∞

🎲 Many have heard tales of the Githyanki and Githzerai, but few know the true origins of the Github.

@Judd@dice.camp probably knows.

Jan 22, 2023 ∞

📚 2022 Book Review

Welcome to my yearly summary of books!

Table of contents:

Intro - my process and tools
The Books - which books I recommend
Analysis - some introspection and goalsetting
Previously - links to prior years

Note: I will use Bookshop affiliate links when available, throughout this post. You don’t have to buy from my bookshop, but if you do, I put that money back into more books.

Intro

I use and recommend Libby for getting ebooks and audiobooks from the library. Most books I borrow digitally, but there are exceptions:

Books I plan to re-read
Deluxe or art-filled editions
Books I will use as a referenrce
Books I enjoyed and want to keep around

For those cases, I get physical editions via Bookshop. And lest you think I don’t really do physical books: my household has 15 brimming bookshelves.

I take copious highlights and notes, and save them to Readwise. Here’s how. Highlights and notes are especially important for me with digital books, where spacial-temporal recollection is not as easy, but spaced-repitition and note-linking can make up for it (and then some).

I track my reading in The StoryGraph. I prefer it because not Amazon and because it incorporates some data elements other than ratings which are useful for describing and finding books. I’m hoping micro.blog’s bookshelves feature continues to improve, so that I could rely on book tracking directly in my blog, as well. (Today, it doesn’t handle book search well nor let us use our own Bookshop links, but we’ll see what the future holds.)

I keep my to-read/wishlist as a Bookshop list, for ease of sharing and gift-giving.

The Books

Let’s start with the recommended ones, collected in this Bookshop collection or visually:

And here are all the books I read, individually, and in reading order (within rating):

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ :

The Six Deaths of the Saint (Into Shadow #3) - Alix E. Harrow (see also)

👍:

🤷‍♂️:

The Fat Switch - Richard J. Johnson (superseded by Nature Wants Us to Be Fat above)
Bury Your Dead (Inspector Gamache #6) - Louise Penny
Lexicon - Max Berry
On Juneteenth - Annette Gordon-Reed
Roadside Picnic - Arkady & Boris Strugatsky
The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Alex Haley
All We Can Save - Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson
Nimona - Noelle Stevenson
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo
Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama - Bob Odenkirk
Everything Happens for a Reason - Kate Bowler
Persephone (Into Shadow #2) - Lev Grossman
The Little Book of Hygge - Meik Wiking

👎 (authors and links removed because I feel bad about even putting these in, but wanted to show the broader view):

Keeper of the Lost Cities (Keeper of the Lost Cities #1)
Tell the Machine Goodnight
The Prophet
A Calling for Charlie Barnes
The School for Good Mothers
The Garden (Into Shadow #1)

Did you read anything I did? What’d you think?

Based on looking at my list, is there anything you’d recommend?

Analysis

This was an mixed year for reading goals. I exceeded by book goal (55 out of 53) but missed by pages goal (15,868 out of 17,500). I’ll go for 60 books next year, but keep the 17,500 page goal.

Similar to my normal ratio, I read 63% fiction this year:

I continue to add to my intentionality in reading, seeking a variety of voices, formats, styles, etc. With such a long list of things I’d like to read, I’m also trying to be wiser about what I should read sooner than later such as things related to health or permaculture.

Here’s to a good year of reading!