Unturned Hovel

Goodbye 2025, Hello 2026!

2025 is the year where I started actually making things to be run instead of the pointless belly button picking of years past. My experience with the hobby is rather limited compared to some; a 5e combat encounter back in 2014 was the extent of my experience until I picked up Mork Borg on a whim in 20220. What a striking book! The style and color caught my eye instantly during the review and the adventure in the back was the first thing I ever ran. Since then I have run campaings of DCC, DG, and a bunch of one shots and smaller campaigns. 2024 was spent mostly not gaming. Mentaly I was still caught up in the idea that sitting down to play or run an RPG reqiuired some immense amount of effort I had to prepare myself for. I know now how fake that mindset is. It's just a matter of doing it to get that cmfort built up. Earlier this month I played or ran a game for 17 days in a row and felt no fatigue or desire to stop!

This year I have run successful campaigns of Wolves Upon the Coast, Troika!, and smaller stuff in Mythras, Delta Green, and Stay Frosty. Back in March I decided to write up my first post here. It's really wild to think about how writing that and having it get me more involved in the community has impacted me so much. I have been a player in Evil Table's Northern Strata game which has been one of the absolute campaigns I've ever been a part of. Mr. Mann's 1000 Statues games have been equally incredible with how intense we are getting into character for a dungeon crawl. And Aggie's Tunnel and Trolls game was really inspiring to me in how they threw themselves into the game without feeling like they had to have it figured out to the smallest details. That's something I struggled with for a long time. I prepped things too extensively and was crushed when folks didn't show up. I was very reticent to run for less than the full table for a while but have grown to really enjoy duets and two player sessions. I put a lot of pressure on myself in years prior when it came to running the game. I felt that the visual presentation, the material, and my running had to be perfect.

Using FoundryVTT was a particular point of misery for me. It felt like a fence around my creativity and when it had issues it would grind the session to a halt. Playing in TLDraw for the first time was revelatory for me. All of my games are in TLDraw now and the players roll dice themselves at their desk. The biggest shift in my mindset has probably come around to how I prepare things. I no longer agonize over details that won't matter. I focus on what I need to run the game and week to week I look at what I can adjust to make this process fuller. Wolves and Troika! have shown me how important it is to focus on the material that gets played first. My games have felt more visceral to me this year. Details of the world and how players choose to deal with them seem more "real."

I also published some things this year! Just a few modules to learn more about the process of RPG writing but each one has taught me an awful lot about what is and isn't needed.

I would really like to thank some of the fine folks that have helped me through the year when it comes to games and creativity. NBateman, Mr. Mann, Bad Doctor, Evil Tables, Idraluna, Milton, Luke, 500PoundsofNothing, Gromb, Chaocypse, Aggie, the Taiwan Table, my home game crew (Liquid Video, Shaman, Zaro, Valibuk, Rabbitdog, Rik, Irish, Vecktrex, Flynn), the Gay Beholder OSR server, and the Thinking Adventures Inner Circle. All those conversations, advice, and gaming really made this one of the better years I've had in a long time. I really can not overstate how much all the games meant to me.We had some all time sessions this year, looking forward to even more next year!

In 2026 I hope to run more games, play in more games, and write more stuff that folks can actually run and play.

More concretely

I hope everyone has good end to the year! Happy holidays, happy new year, and see ya soon for Troika! Tuesday!