#RPGaDAY2025 - Days 17-31

 

So late! I know! 

You ever have that feeling clawing away at the back of your head that you haven't finished something? You just can't seem to rest until that task is done and dusted? Well, I have, and one of the many, MANY things that has been pickling in its own creative juices is the fact that I never finished #RPGaDAY2025. I mean, I created the darn initiative to do #RPGaDAY, and here was me setting the worst example by not finishing it.

So, nearly eight months late, here is the final half of #RPGaDAY2025. I posted Days 1-16 here on the blog, so let's continue that format. 

Day 17 - Renew

For day 17 I thought I'd draw the moment that my interest and excitement in tabletop roleplaying games was renewed, when I went off to University. I'd kinda given up on gaming, some of my group had gone off to Uni and moved away, and my mind was on other things, but when I went off to Uni to do graphic design and illustration, I was introduced to the wonders of Vampire: The Masquerade. First thing I did was blow most of my term's budget that first month on a load of Vampire books and a heap of d10s. 

Day 18 - Sign

I couldn't think of anything cool to do for SIGN, and part of me just immediately thought of the weird 'mark' that is etched on some stones dotted around the sleepy little town in New England in the game we were playtesting. And how that sign could keep the Risen at bay... 

Day 19 - Destiny

For Destiny, it's all about Tarot cards. A great tool for determining or divining your destiny, but also a great way to resolve tests in a tabletop RPG. The numbers can determine success or failure, but the images on the cards can add further meaning and description to the result, or even simply drawing upon which suit the card is for minor arcana. I used Tarot for task resolution in WILD, and I'm planning on using it again in my next personal game... (when I'm finally able to do it).

Day 20 - Enter

For Enter, I figured I'd do the entry way to a strange location. I had this idea of a doorway under the roots of a huge tree, the path lined with stones holding the earth back. I thought it would be a cool location for one of my games. I'm still pondering how to use it. 

Day 21 - Unexpected

Day Twenty-One is Unexpected, and I thought I'd go with the most unexpected moment I've had in a game recently, which was my human character taking a Voight-Kampff test in Blade Runner, only to fail and be sent to holding as a suspected Replicant infiltrator. Really, really cool twist. 

Day 22 - Ally

For Ally, I had to go with one of the most memorable allies we've had in our games, and that is Daraka, a Rodian Slicer who was our 'go to' guy for any tech issues we had in our Star Wars: Force and Destiny game. He became such an integral part of the story, we even did a few side-story sessions with Daraka as a playable character. 

Day 23 - Recent

This was actually an easy one, as Recent simply meant to illustrate something from a recent game. At the time, we were early in our Mythic Bastionland game, so I thought I'd do a pic of my character, the Owl Knight, who was a bit bookish, but died in the most heroic way. He thought that going with the watery dryad who had taken a shine to him would mean the dryad wouldn't kill anyone else... well, it kinda worked. He thought he was going off to live with the dryad under the inland sea, and he did, for a minute or two... poor Ser Dorza... 

Day 24 - Reveal

For Day 24, the topic is Reveal. So, let's talk about the only big game reveal I was involved in, which was Dragonmeet in 2007, announcing the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game, with Chris Birch, Dominic McDowall, Angus Abranson, and Fred Hicks. You can see the photo here... but I doodled my version of it. 

Day 25 - Challenge

I challenge you, sir!! For Day 25, I thought I'd go with Mythic Bastionland again, as I seemed to be challenged to duels a few times. My replacement character (after the watery demise of Ser Dorza) was the Dusk Knight, but he was challenged by the previous Dusk Knight who had been lost. 

Day 26 - Nemesis

Day 26 is Nemesis, and while I could have drawn a particular horsefaced warlock, or something to do with Romulans, but instead I thought I'd keep it TTRPG related and mention one of the first sourcebooks I wrote which has never seen the light of day. When I was trying to get my break into roleplaying games (the second time, many years after my first attempt in the 80s), I was trying to prove to Eden Studios that I could write something and knew the Unisystem well enough to do it for them. So, I wrote a complete supplement for All Flesh Must Be Eaten, a slasher horror book, where the evil entity you're facing, the seemingly unkillable slasher, is called the Nemesis. 

Day 27 - Tactic

There's a whole part of tabletop gaming that is very tactical, and I'm afraid I'm not part of it. I really don't think tactically. I mean, I enjoyed playing X-Wing, and Shatterpoint, but I probably don't play tactically enough to really consider it 'tactical' at all. I kinda just shoot and hope for the best. I have fond memories of playing the old FASA Star Trek III ship combat game with the old gaming group, and I still have my Star Warriors ship combat game for the old West End Games Star Wars, which was fab. Cue TIE Fighter noises!! So, that's what I drew...

Day 28 - Suspense!

I dunno, having to wait 8 months for the final half of #RPGaDAY2025 seems pretty much like keeping you in suspense if you ask me. However, lots of suspense and tension in our game of Public Access, so I drew Joe, Debs' character, investigating the basement of the House on Escondido Street. Playing the game has been great and tense, but the actual way it works is taking a little to get used to. We had a long conversation about the mechanics and the lack of a definite solution, and how players could really break the game if they don't take it seriously. 

Day 29 - Connect

Day 29 has the prompt Connect, and I'm hoping that #RPGaDAY in general helps people to connect to each other. I drew me playing D&D with my old group of 40+ years, because the game helps to connect us even though we are spread all over the world. 

Day 30 - Experience

For Day 30, the prompt is Experience, and I guessed most people would describe something to do with how many experience points they've gained during a game, or what their most memorable experience of playing is. For me, I wanted to do the latter, and one of the most memorable moments I've experienced in gaming was GMing Kult back in the 1990s. My future-wife's character was upset about the demise of one of the NPCs, and decided to conduct the most epic and mind-melting series of rituals to bring them back, involving time travel and recovering a soul from hell...

Day 31 - Reward

The final day of #RPGaDAY2025 and it is Reward. I wanted to show what my reward was for doing this, and it's a complete sketchbook full of little doodles that relate to #RPGaDAY and it got me drawing again. Something I've been wanting to get back to for a long time. I've done some sketches for early versions of the WILD Tarot, but that was the first real drawing I've done since the old comic publishing days, so it's good to get back to it. I'd love to do all of the illustrations for my next personal project as well, but so far I've hated what I've done for them, and will probably attempt to redo them all. That's fine, I've rewritten the character creation chapter about a dozen times over the last six or seven years, so it's not going to get done for a very long time (and also, I can't really work on it at the moment for other reasons). 

So that's it, my reward is a complete sketchbook... hurrah!

Thank you to everyone who took part in #RPGaDAY2025, I know it was a long time ago now and we're actually closer to August 2026 than we are to the previous one... which is very scary...

To quote Twenty0ne Pil0ts:

"Days feel like a perfect length, I don't need them any longer, but for goodness sake do the years seem way too short for my soul..."

Will there be another #RPGaDAY for 2026? 

Who knows? I hope so... 

My Nerdy Life in 100 Geeky Objects - #5: Marvel Star Wars Special Edition (1977)

Way back in 2024 I was feeling all nostalgic and started a series of blog posts called "My Nerdy Life in 100 Geeky Objects", looking at stuff I remember fondly from my past and the impact they had on my life and who I'd become. Well, it's coming up to my birthday, and every year I get nostalgic again and wonder about writing about my less than exciting life. 

I was staring at the blog, having just renewed my ownership of the domain name, and thinking that I hadn't done anything with the site for over six weeks. I needed to write something, to get something on the site and to vent my creative frustrations, and couldn't think of anything I wanted to write, or could write...

And then I remembered this little series of posts that I started, and didn't get very far with. The first posts covered the James Bond 007 Lotus Esprit made by Corgi in 1977, my subscription to Super Spider-Man and the Titans comic in 1976, the 2000AD Summer Special of 1977 and my first exposure to Star Wars, and the very first Palitoy Star Warsfigures my dad got for me. 

You can see a theme developing here... number 5 in my list of 100 Geeky Objects stays in 1977. 

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#5: Marvel Star Wars Special Edition

I made a video about these a while back (11 years ago... hoooboy), when the first issue of the new Star Wars comic was released. I enthusiastically looked at the new comic, and then had a flick through how I was introduced to Star Wars comics.

I don't know what prompted it, but I remember dad coming home one day with this HUGE, oversized comic under his arm for me. It was twice the size of the average comic, not just in page count, but also in dimensions. 

Look at it. It's flipping gorgeous. The name Star Wars had been firmly lodged in my dad's mind after that 2000AD Summer Special, and, bless him for knowing my early forming nerdy interests so well, picked it up on a whim. I have fond memories of laying on the floor, the comic spread in front of me, while I poured over every panel. Unknown to me, there were scenes in there that wouldn't make it into the final film – the now legendary sequences with Biggs and the Tosche Station. I absolutely loved it, but it was only half of the story! 

It felt like months until the second half of the movie got its own collection (and it was, the first half was July 1977, the second October 1977), but thankfully my dad was just as happy to get the remaining half for me. It would be months before I finally saw the movie. It was only showing in one cinema in the nearest city (Hull) where they'd reopened the long closed Dorchester to show Star Wars continually for months and months. We got tickets before Christmas 1977, but the waiting list was so long to get in, those tickets were for screenings a few months later. Though seeing Star Wars for the first time would be one of those life-defining moments, and one I've written about before.

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I'd like to write more nostalgic stuff like this, and I've often thought about writing a weird fictionalised account of my nerdy life, like Ready Player One meets that movie 5-25-77, but it just stays in the list of things I want to do but just can't motivate myself. Maybe one day.

In the meantime, I'm hoping to write more for the blog and the Patreon. Both remain free to access, do subscribe to the Patreon if you can to ensure this heads into your inbox when I finally write something. 

Until next time, stay multi-classy!

The Strangest Form of Immersion

 

©Mystery Flesh Pit National Park

If you read my previous post, or (let's face it) a lot of my blog, you'll know that I'm in a bit of a creative funk at the moment. And not the good kind. There was a moment in 2024, looking at the physical copy of Mothership for the first time while at Tabletop Scotland, that I really had a wave of inspiration that got me fired up to create something. I did a blog post about it, back in September 2024.

I started thinking about something new to create, but there are some limitations that are holding me back. One day, I'll go into the details. But, after a sudden burst of enthusiasm, of joyous creativity, the reality of the situation crept back in, and my motivation and drive were thoroughly beaten into submission. 

Since then, there have been a couple of moments of similar inspiration. One was a video I watched called Pursue Ambitious Projects, which I covered in a blog post last year. It looked at how David Lynch and David Bowie enjoyed the freedom of doing whatever they wanted, without the limitations of commerciality, and revelled in the challenge of an ambitious project that really got them fired up and excited about things.

The other moment of real inspiration was last week, watching a video of a review of the Tabletop RPG based on Mystery Flesh Pit National Park. I'd heard vaguely about the TTRPG, and wasn't sure what to expect, but saw this video come up on my feed about RPGs getting weird and gave it a look. 

While the RPG looks great, and I like the implementation of the Cypher System, it's the opening section that really inspired me. Mystery Flesh Pit National Park is a personal project of Trevor Roberts. He just started posting this weird idea on a Subreddit, and kept building upon it, creating an immersive world where this weird biological entity has been commercialised and mined by a corporation. The amazing world building, the graphic design for this fictional world is fantastic.

©Mystery Flesh Pit National Park / Trevor Roberts - https://www.mysteryfleshpitnationalpark.com

It's just really inspiring. I want to be able to immerse myself in a setting and get really enthusiastic about it, just like Roberts did with the Park. Maybe soon...

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In other news, the overlords at Google decided that my blog wasn't frequent enough, or focused enough, to warrant adverts to drag in a minimal amount of revenue, and you know what? I don't care. So, no ads on the blog. Or on the Patreon.

I will, however, try to be a little more frequent than once a month, but not so much that you get sick of me. 

In the meantime, check out that video about the Park, and who knows, maybe it'll inspire you too.

Stay Multi-classy!

What's the Point?

I don't know about you, but I'm finding it hard to be creative at the moment. Sure, there are deadlines which is keeping me motivated to create stuff for work, though there are times when I start to question even that for the same reasons as below. 

I made a video last week, one of those unboxing things. I've made a few, and I noticed that the last five videos I recorded and uploaded to Youtube seemed to be done in January (2024, 2025, and 2026 respectively). It's almost like every year I start out feeling enthusiastic and determined to create video content and then it fizzles out by the end of the month. 

Strangely, I watch a lot of Youtube. Cool crafting ones by Bill Making Stuff and Dan Does, to the TTRPG insights of the Ludonarrative Dissidents, and heaps of art ones. And then I look at what I'm producing and I wonder, why do I bother? I don't have the tech to do this. The iPhone I have is ancient, but it's still better quality than the expensive camera I bought 15+ years ago to make a webseries (that you can't even see anymore). I don't have an expensive or cool microphone, or an over-the-table tripod. You'll laugh if you saw the tripod/selfie-stick combo I'm using. But then I think I'm not attractive or interesting or cool enough to be making videos anyway, unless they're ones that just feature my hands and my well chewed fingers.

However, there's another reason that's holding me back from making review videos, or even making my own games, but I can't get into that right now... one day...

But the biggest reason I can't get motivated to create, whether it's games or videos or even writing blog posts like this, is because of... well... everything else. 

The world has really gone to crap over the last few years. Countries being invaded, people being persecuted, the environment going to hell, the rich and powerful doing all they can to stroke their egos and make life more and more difficult for those they look down on. I know a lot of people are equating this to the years before WWII, with the rise of fascism, and they're right. It's like effing Star Wars, and a mad psychopath is trying to make himself Emperor, not just a King. Did no one learn anything from Star Wars? Did you not watch Andor? 

I feel like I'm a crazy game designer on one of the core worlds, making Sabacc cards or Dejarik variants, while the Empire is breaking down the doors and kicking Twi'leks out into streets for having lekku. I mean, how can you concentrate on making games, or making art, or stupid videos, while the universe is like this? 

So, instead of being creative, I watch TV. I watch Youtube. I play stupid 'match' games on my phone, and I wait. And hope. I hope for change. I hope for a better world. 

After all...

Rebellions are built on hope.

Stay safe everyone. Stay multiclassy. 

This is the End (of 2025), Beautiful Friend

Last year I did what I called a Traditional End of the Arbitrary Calendar Year Roundup, and I thought it would be a good tradition to keep going in the same format. The end of 2025 is looming very close, so I guess it's a good time to look back on the veritable tish-show that was the year. 

Looking back on what I'd hoped 2025 would be, it certainly didn't deliver what I'd hoped. I still feel like a hamster on a wheel going around and around, still not getting anywhere. And once more, just when I thought something was going to change, life punched me in the guts again. There were some high points, and some very, very low points. 

High points were going to Scotland, staying in a castle, going to see Twenty One Pilots and Nine Inch Nails.

Low points were definitely yet another (very unexpected) funeral. Miss you dude.

So, like last year, let's break the year down into what I watched, played, and read.

TV & Movies

I realised a couple of years ago that I watched a lot of TV and movies to the point of not remembering if I'd watched them before. Mortal Engines is one of those movies that I'm convinced I haven't seen, but when I start to watch it, I realise I have. Weird. Anyway, I started keeping track last year, and this year I continued to make notes of what I'd watched. I also started adding them to Letterboxd, and you can follow me on there if you like. I'm also on Serializd, but haven't really got to grips with that one yet. 

Here goes...

January 2025

Scene from the episode "Forks" in Season 2 of The Bear

Top Watch: The Bear (Season 2). You know, I had no interest in watching The Bear. Not really interested in the high stress world of running a restaurant. However, we watched season one, and everyone was shouting at each other, and there was this big revelation at the end of the season that kinda hooked you into the next...  Episode six, with the Christmas dinner, "Fishes", is often called an hour of perfect television - and it is completely masterful in its writing and acting, simply brilliant. BUT, episode seven, "Forks", is my favourite. Richie was such a complete pain in the first season, just antagonistic and confrontational, and (again) brilliantly acted, but in Forks he is sent off to learn how to work behind the scenes in a top restaurant, and he changes. He finds his motivation, his drive, and bonds with the team even though he's only there a short time. It's just so SO masterful, it makes me fill up just thinking about how brilliant it is. Richie quickly became my favourite character.

Honourable Mentions: Slow Horses (Season 4), Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (Season 1)

February 2025

Still from I Saw The TV Glow

Top Watch: I Saw The TV Glow (2024). I saw a lot of people raving about this, about how it discussed obsession, identity, and paranoia. It had that creepypasta vibe of the Candle Cove season of Channel Zero, but I wasn't expecting it to have such a great David Lynch vibe. Excellent performances, fantastic cinematography, and just creepy and refuses to explain everything. Great stuff. 

Honourable Mentions: Cobra Kai (Season 6), The Night Agent (Season 2)

March 2025

Promotional still from Season One of the series Paradise

Top Watch: Paradise (Season 1). Okay, full disclaimer here, this technically shares the top spot of the month with Severance (Season 2), but Paradise really surprised me. Admittedly, I was spoiled for the biggest surprise, and without that I probably wouldn't have watched it. I mean, it's a murder mystery of who killed the President of the USA, following Sterling K. Brown (who's always excellent) as the Secret Service agent assigned to protect him. Simple enough... but (and I'm not going to spoil it) trust me. Watch this. Go in without any knowledge of what's to come, and by the end of the first episode you will be hooked. 

Severance (Season 2) was excellent as well, and just as intriguing as the first season. Sure, it had some slow episodes, but the seventh episode "Chikhai Bardo" was masterfully shot and acted. 

Honourable Mentions: Mrs Davis (mini series), The Atypical Family (S. Korean series)

April 2025

Promotional image for the Netflix series, The Residence

Top Watch: The Residence (Season 1... the only flippin' season). I love a good murder mystery. Even more, I love a quirky, slightly weird, murder mystery. You'd think I'd love the Knives Out movies (they're okay, but I preferred Poker Face). However, one of the best in my opinion was the short lived series The Residence on Netflix. Super consultant Cordelia Cupp is called in when there is a murder in the White House, and every episode will leave you thinking someone different committed the crime. Really clever the way its structured and filmed, keeps you guessing. Why Netflix had to go and cancel it, I dunno. Would easily watch another heap of Cupp mysteries.

Honourable Mentions: Love Next Door (S. Korean series), Smile 2 (2024)

May 2025

Promotional image for Andor Season 2

Top Watch: Andor Season 2. I mean, what else could there be? Flippin' phenomenal season, and particularly timely. Stunning performances again, and we finished the final episode and went straight on to Rogue One, then A New Hope... it's powerful stuff. 

Honourable Mentions: House of the Dragon (Season 2), The Fountain Of Youth (2025)

June 2025

Still from Season Four of The Bear

Top Watch: The Bear (Season 4). Yeah, had to be. Sure, season four wasn't quite as jaw-droppingly amazing as the previous three seasons, but it was still fantastic television. 

Honourable Mentions: Will Trent (Season 3), The Accountant (2016)

July 2025

Promotional still from K-Pop Demon Hunters

Top Watch: K-Pop Demon Hunters (2025). Simply from the trailer I kinda knew this was going to be a blast. Fantastic animation, great music, and some really cool quirky moments that felt a bit like the Spider-verse movies, it was just really good fun. I can see why it has become a global phenomena, and Derpy does steal every scene it's in.

Honourable Mentions: Poker Face (Season 2), Department Q (Season 1)

August 2025

Top Watch: Resident Alien (Season 4). I hardly watched anything in August. I don't know what happened. I think I was just really busy or in such a funk I just continued my constant rewatch of The X-Files. So, Resident Alien (Season 4) was my top NEW watch of the month. Alan Tudyk was amazing as always, and the rest of the cast were really cool. Wrapped it up nicely, with the potential for more, but it's likely that's the last we get of his weird alien-ness.

Honourable Mentions: blurg... not much to choose from this month. Heart Eyes was pretty good, but I also watched In The Lost Lands which had to be one of the worst films I've ever seen in my life. 

September 2025

Still from Alice In Borderland Season 3

Top Watch: Alice in Borderland (Season 3). I must admit, when they said there was going to be a third season, I didn't think it should happen. Season 2 was great, and rounded everything off perfectly. It didn't need another season, but it happened, and I'm really glad it did. Returning to the Borderland, it all makes sense, works brilliantly, and is really darn epic. Very pleasantly surprised. Should I say it was better than the final season of Squid Game? 

Honourable Mentions: Alien: Earth (Season 1), Wednesday (Season 2)

October 2025

Promotion still of the TV series 'Revival'

Top Watch: Revival (Season 1?). Not sure if there will be another season of Revival, and it doesn't need one, because it was a really excellent story completely wrapped up by the end. A great twist on a 'zombie' series, and some awesome twists. Really good! 

Honourable Mentions: The Burning Girls (Series), Slow Horses (Season 5)

November 2025

Still from The Accountant 2

Top Watch: The Accountant 2 (2025). This is a weird month, because I rate everything I watch so I can work out what my 'top watch' is of the month, and The Accountant 2 rates just as highly as High Potential (Season 1), and the new Netflix version of Frankenstein. I know, I've weird tastes. However, in my notes, what I enjoyed even more than all of these was my marathon rewatch of the first four seasons of Stranger Things. Sure, I've seen the first season five times now, but I enjoy it every time. Just really cool. Season three was great rewatching it, and everyone is fantastic in all of the seasons (though my fave has to be Steve Harrington. Absolute legend.)

Honourable Mentions: I guess High Potential (Season 1) and Frankenstein.

December 2025

Promotional still for IT: Welcome to Derry

Top Watch: IT - Welcome to Derry (Season One). Another strange one, as I was really looking forward to this series. I'd read the book when I was a (late) teenager, and very much a 'loser' and it's the book that got me reading for pleasure. Stephen King, I owe you for that one. I loved the recent movies, and when the announced the prequel series I was very keen. However, those first two episodes felt like they were just trying too hard to be over-the-top and a bit gross. I wasn't sure. Debs gave up watching after those two, but I kept going, and the series calmed down and the characters really came into their own. There's an amazing episode explaining the origins of 'IT', and the indigenous people's efforts to trap it within the woods outside Derry. And by the time Marge realises she's being a right cliquey cow and switches sides, and Richie's moment in episode seven (oh my god, the tears)...

The way it ties into the future of IT, and into The Shining, and more of the Stephen King universe, is great, and the plan to set season two a generation before, and three before that, going backwards in chronology is brilliant. Has to be one of my watches of the year. 

Honourable Mentions: Pluribus (season one), Sinners (2025)

Gaming

Most of the people who read my rambling thoughts are here because of gaming and tabletop RPGs. This year, I continued the long running D&D game, though playing once a month can mean there's a lot of me being confused as to what's going on, and not having the time to read the full recaps.

My other group played a load of Mothership (which was good, scary, and incredibly dangerous), playtested Harrowhill Point, and we're in the middle of a Mythic Bastionland game.

Next year? I have no idea. My lovely wife bought me the Delta Green campaign Impossible Landscapes, so maybe that's on the cards, though I think our usual GM is keen to get us back to playing The One Ring.

In May, we went to UK Games Expo, and for the first time we did all three days! It was great, and exhausting, and we got to catch up with some cool people. It was our first stay at a hotel in Birmingham, and really getting the chance to take everything in rather than doing everything in an afternoon. It was far too warm, and Debs came out of the con at the end of the weekend saying 'Never again', but as the days passed, her tone quickly changed to 'we should definitely do that again next year'. So, hopefully, that'll be on the cards for the end of May.

Also in May, I joined Eleanor Hingley on hosting a short presentation about getting into the tabletop industry. I wasn't great, as always. But if you want to see it, you can find it here:

It was part of the Norwich Gaming Festival, which has branched out to include tabletop gaming as well as video gaming, and shouldn't be confused with the Norwich Games Convention that takes place in August. That was held in yet another temporary location, and was okay. Next year it's in another location (Norwich showground) so we'll have to see how that goes!

September was Tabletop Scotland in Edinburgh, and once again we shared a stand with the lovely folk at We-Evolve, so Debs could sell her goth-geek Misery Makes wares. 

Debs at the Misery Makes stand at Tabletop Scotland 2025

Financially it was better than the rather poor 2024 Tabletop Scotland, and thankfully it wasn't as cold, but the lack of options for a cup of tea was frustrating, and it felt just as quiet as the previous year. Still, it's on the calendar for next year... who knows...

And then, finally, it was Dragonmeet. Which I had tickets for, but didn't end up going to as I had a rotten headcold... which seems to still be lingering four weeks later... uggg.

Gaming Experience of the Year

Is it really sad to say that it's probably getting my old collection of Star Frontiers back after a few decades? It was the first game I bought when I started tabletop gaming back in the early 1980s, and when the group disbanded and I went off to University I didn't think I'd ever play it again, and sold the lot to a very good friend of mine. He kept playing with a very, VERY small group, but it had sat in his loft for many, many, many years and he was happy to simply hand it all back to me. Sure, all those years in the loft hadn't been too kind to it, but I was ecstatic to see those pages once more. The illustrations took me back to my teens, and all those (probably terrible) games of Star Frontiers I played over those years.

My original Star Frontiers books from the 80s

Other Media

Otherwise I've been continuing my read of Charles Stross' "The Laundry Files", though sometimes it does feel like homework as it's for the day-job. At least the books are good and fun! I also read the first few of the Chronicles of Narnia... I had this weird urge to read them for research for the game I'd been thinking about writing, but I was only four books in when I needed to catch up with The Laundry for work. 

I also blasted my way through Season 10 of The X-Files comics (the IDW alternate universe version of season 10, that is...) which were pretty good. I need to track down the out of print Season 11 collection... 

Music-wise, I've been listening to the usual stuff. We went to see Twenty One Pilots in London (which was covered in a lengthy blogpost), so that inspired lots of listening to their albums. And the same went for Nine Inch Nails, as we went to see them in London as well - and the new Tron: Ares soundtrack is flipping awesome (still haven't seen the film though)...

We also went to see Wet Leg, who were great! Though I think we stood too close to the speakers and made ourselves temporarily impaired for a bit. 

Big discovery of the year musically - there's usually one artist I'd never heard of that makes a lasting impression (last year it was Night Club) - was a weird band called Princess Goes To The Butterfly Museum (though they often just go by Princess Goes these days). Ketamine is a great track...

...yes, Michael C. Hall (Dexter himself) is the lead singer of the band. Seriously, check out their other stuff. I'd highly recommend 'Eat An Eraser' and 'Nevertheless'. Love it all.

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And that's it. The end of a mostly crappy year. What does 2026 have in store? I said it last year, and I've said it many time before... something better change. 

Last year I had a Substack which I have since deleted. Now, if you want to keep up with my posts and what I'm up to, feel free to join my Patreon. Free being the operative word! It costs nothing and you'll get these updates and ramblings straight into your inbox if you pardon the expression. Click the linkage and sign up!

Above all, may I wish you all the very best for the new year, and let's hope it's a better one.

DFC

Split the Party!

Many moons ago, I started up a Substack thingy. It was a new and exciting way for me to get my little blog posts straight into your eager inboxes, and for me to delude myself into thinking you're reading them.

It was fun! I wrote about game design, what I'd been playing, and got all nostalgic about my dim and distant childhood, talking about toys and games, movies and TV series, that had a huge impact on me.

Well, Substack turned out to be a less-than-wholesome place to have your say, and a lot of creators I've followed on there have ditched their Substacks and migrated over to Patreon.

That's what I'm hoping to do. To return to the regular writing of the old Substack – it got me writing, kept me being creative, and kept me in touch with the world. And, just like the Substack, it's totally free. Just subscribe (at the Free level) and you'll get all of the blog posts as they arrive.

If you prefer, you can just keep reading on the old autocratik.com blog, but if you sign up to the Patreon you'll get notified when I actually get my act together and write something.

I'm just getting started, so we'll see about adding cool extras on there later, but for now, it's just great to have you on board.

Blogposts and Newsletters

Ah, the weekend. A strange time for me, as that creative urge still bubbles under the surface, but due to various restrictions I'm unable to do what I'd actually like to create. Instead, I stare into space, watch TV, and wonder what I'm doing with my life, and before you know it, it's Monday again and back to work. 

However, I've started a Patreon-thingy, so that's a great excuse to write something. Almost like a newsletter combined with a blogpost, about what I've been pondering.

Stranger Things Rewatch and Splitting the Party

As many people have been doing recently, with the final season of Stranger Things looming next week, we've marathoned a rewatch of the previous four seasons to remind ourselves what happened. I worked out that the amount of times I've watched this series is proportional to the season number. Season 1 I've watched five times, season 2 four times, and so on. It's just great. Ticks all of the boxes of my sort of entertainment. Eighties nostalgia, kids on bikes playing D&D and saving the world, psychic powers, shady government agencies. I mean, what's not to love?

This time, I was struck by how well crafted the split narrative is done. In each season, but especially in the last two, they have such a wide range of characters all doing different things, but simultaneously, to work together to defeat the big bad. The narrative hops from one to the other at perfect moments to keep the tension high, and to ensure everyone has their moment.

For example, in the final episodes of Season 4, you have the characters split into various groups:

• Hopper, Joyce, and Murray are in Russia, battling the demogorgon and various demodogs in the Russian prison camp which will weaken the big bad.

• Eleven, Mike, Jonathan, Will (and, I guess, Argyle) are working to get Eleven back to Hawkins, determine they can't get back in time, and craft a way to aid Eleven to project herself through the void and help Max.

• Max, Lucas, and Erica are in the Creel house, hoping to lure 'Number 1' to attack Max.

• Steve, Nancy, and Robin are in the Creel house in the Upside-Down hoping to attack Vecna while he's distracted attacking Max.

• Eddie and Dustin are in the Upside-Down distracting Vecna's demobats to allow Steve, Nancy, and Robin safe passage into the Creel house.

So you have five groups, often miles apart, all working to the same purpose. It's a veritable masterclass in writing multiple plotlines and ensuring a huge cast of characters all have their part. Especially brilliant how they cross two of those groups over for the climatic fight, as Max teams up with Eleven in the weird dreamscapes to face Vecna - while the rest of their group has little to do (except let Mike have a dramatic speech to give Eleven strength), their group's time is taken by Max and Eleven as a team. 

It got me thinking about how this is very doable in your tabletop game, hopping from one player to the next, splitting the party, but ensuring that they are all working together to the same end, and making sure no one gets bored.

I know it's supposed to make you want to play D&D, but I'm sorry, my rewatch of Stranger Things just made me miss the old Tales from the Loop game we played. I haven't looked into the new D&D Starter Set, but I don't think it covers the teens running around Hawkins, focusing more on Eddie's D&D game. 

The Meet of Dragons (aka, Dragonmeet)

Next week is Dragonmeet! At the Excel Centre in London, this is quite a move away from the Novotel Hotel. A LOT bigger, more stands, more people, and early report say that it's going to be pretty packed. It's exciting stuff, and hopefully (if we can negotiate the rail replacement service - typical) we should be there and wandering around aimlessly, looking bewildered and confused as always. 

If you see me, stop me and say hi, though it may take me a second to register who you are. I'm terrible at faces/names. 

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I'm sure there was more I wanted to say, but I've forgotten. Next week, I'm sure I'll have more to share about how Dragonmeet goes.

Until then, stay multiclassy!