Good Monday, Gamer!
“Play is the highest form of research.”
— Albert Einstein
The last two Mondays of the year are upon us.
It’s easy to tap out and say, “Catch ya next year!”Most schedules—digital or IRL—are already busted by Saturnalia, travel, family, and general end-of-year entropy.
But I’m here.Coffee in hand.Bolognese sauce simmering.Pumpkin pie on the plate.Looking for words.
No games played this past week—but that doesn’t mean no games thinking.
🎲 Prepping the Next Table
I’m doing prep to run Monster of the Week, possibly as soon as next Sunday.
IRL.Which honestly feels huge, strangely scary. Oh, I’ve run tables IRL the past year, mostly strangers and one-shots or open tables. This’ll be a brand-new, regular group at my favorite LGS:
an old gamer friend
a new gamer friend
my kid
and a couple of strangers… who might not show up 🤷🏾♂️
You know how it goes.
Still, I’m excited. Monster of the Week feels right for this moment—episodic, forgiving, welcoming in the PBTA way. I’ll be comparing and contrasting MotW and US2, mostly out of curiosity…if I could only have one.
I’m also prepping to run Wild Talents: Lifted online. That’s meant modifying Mad-Dice to handle Wild Talents dice and building cheat sheets so play flows smoothly. It’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work, but it’s the good kind—the kind that makes the table a bit smoother in play.
I missed a couple Cairn sessions recently, but I genuinely love that Judd’s running it as an open table. Drop in when you can. No guilt. No pressure. That style of play feels increasingly necessary.
🏠 Break!! at Home
Meanwhile, we have been playing Break!! here at the house.
The schedule’s erratic, but with school out for winter break, I expect more sessions. Break!! has been familiar in all the right ways—especially setting. My kid is all about it!
It feels like it would be a perfect pairing with Ultraviolet Grasslands—if it didn’t already have such a strong, specific setting of its own. That’s not a knock. It just means Break!! knows exactly what it wants to be.
📚 Reading Pile
I’ve already gotten some Christmas presents from a good friend, and they’re exactly my speed:
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, A Taste of Honey —Kai Ashante Wilson
Red Team Blues, The Bezzle — Cory Doctorow
Plenty to dig into once I finish The Peripheral, which has been fantastic. I’m pretty sure I’m about two-thirds in, and the way the timelines are interacting is just… wild. Gibson doing Gibson things.
📺 On (Not) Watching TV
Still no TV series. And that might be a good thing.
I enjoyed DanDaDan, but one season was enough for me. That’s how it goes with a lot of shows—I’m happy to visit, not necessarily to live there.
The Eternaut on Netflix was great, but short. I’d absolutely start watching a second season… if we ever get one.
I’ve ditched Netflix’s Dorohedoro in favor of the manga, and I’m contemplating a return to Deadwood. I remember watching it with coworkers when it aired—though there must have been a big gap between seasons, because I always seem to fall into that gap and never quite make it back.
🛠️ Still Pushing Pixels
Grimoires and Zero Day Bandits are still very much works in progress—my ongoing swing at video game development.
Two projects, because Vincent Baker said that’s fine.
Right now, I’m focusing on Zero Day Bandits, the easier of the two to push toward an early demo for Steam’s next Fest in March. Deadlines matter. Without them, I’ll tinker forever.
ZDB is my Netrunner-inspired deckbuilder RPG, and the prototype finally has enough rough visuals that I can see the shape of the game—especially how “running a system” might play out.
Still rough. Still early.But it’s starting to look like something.
If you want, next Monday we can:
do a year-end reflection piece —cause everybody’s doing it!
Show my Monster of the Week campaign pitch for a Fringe and Dandadan inspired campaign
or do a “What I’m Carrying Into Next Year” —cause folks are doing that too!
As always, thanks for reading, sharing, and building strange worlds with me.