Re-sharing an oldie for Veteran’s Day weekend — it still stands.I’m doing Ok: still kicking the asses of diabetes, PTSD, and high blood pressure. I’ve got games to run, TPKs to do.But many veterans aren’t doing fine.If you’ve got a minute, check in with your local VA, veterans’ service organizations, or community outreach centers. A small gesture — a meal, a conversation, a connection — can make a bigger difference than you think.

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I’ve been reinvigorated lately — thanks to recent player runs through Mythic Bastionland, Flying Circus, and now Cairn.

Getting to play, not just GM, reminds me what I actually love about these games: how they push character, tone, and world through play. And it’s pulled me back into GM prep mode again. Feels good to have multiple worlds open at once. Here’s what I’ve got cooking.

Prepping what might be my farewell run before I dive into the new 3rd Edition.

For the uninitiated: Apocalypse World (by Vincent & Meguey Baker) is the game that launched the “Powered by the Apocalypse” movement — playbooks, moves, and “play to find out what happens.” It’s punk, messy, and brilliant.

This time, I’m taking it to space.I’ve got two Hard Zones roughed out:

Right now, I’m swapping out road hogs and motorbikes for shuttles, freighters, and scavenger rigs, tweaking the AW frames for the Kuiper Belt instead of desert dust. Once I finish some descriptors for the Hard Zone locations, I’ll call prep done until we sit down to make characters.I’ve been pinning concept art for use in Mad Dice to set the mood, and noodling on a Debt Move inspired by the Psi Harm Move — honestly, funnest game prep ever.

A short 4–6 session series set in Irama, the fictional Brazilian megacity from my Lifted universe — part city of tomorrow, part post-human cold war.

Wild Talents (by Arc Dream Publishing) is a flexible superhero RPG built on the One-Roll Engine (the same system used in Godlike and Monsters and Other Childish Things). It’s all about powered people in a grounded, sometimes brutal world.Right now, the big question is: do I provide pre-gens, or build from scratch?Both options shape tone differently — pre-gens lets us get going quickly; player creation gives us ownership and surprises. There might be a middle path here, and I’m toying with that balance.

This one’s been gnawing at me.

I love the art and the psychedelic “caravan across a dying world” premise — it’s a heavy-metal road trip through myth and entropy. But tone-wise, Ultraviolet Grasslands leans a little too Adventure Time for my taste...what to do, what to do...

So the question: what system delivers the feel I want?

Each one shifts the play texture. I don’t need to run UVG as-is — I just want that feeling of slow apocalypse, trade, and mythic travel. Still chewing on it.

I’ve been dipping into Wareblades and Sword World, mostly out of curiosity. (If you haven’t heard of Sword World, it’s Japan’s homegrown fantasy RPG — sort of their equivalent of D&D, full of interesting mechanics and cultural takes on adventuring.)

On the tech and media side:

A few things from the archives and orbit:

It’s good to feel hungry at the table again.

As always, thanks for reading, sharing, and building strange worlds with me.