It’s been a big game year for me, and playing so much has definitely exerted downward pressure on my publication volume. I did some experiments, learning Affinity publisher and making a couple of audio blogs (these will continue, but there are some practical things I need to solve) and getting an account on Itch.io. I also began to engage more with the indie game design community, mostly on the Prismatic Wasteland discord server, which has been a nice counterpoint to the Sly Flourish discord server where I otherwise hang. Finally, I started a proper weekly newsletter which goes out on Saturday.
Thank you all for a wonderful year. I’d give you my plans for 2026 but they are rather vague at this stage, as usual. Feel free to make suggestions! If you like my blog and want to get it in your inbox, please subscribe and it will arrive by email, free of charge etc.
If you’d like to support my stuff financially, either buy something from my products (thank you!) or leave a recurring tip on ko-fi using the subscription button on https://ko-fi.com/ejvc2470. Every little helps me continue to do what I do!
Read on for a behind-the-scenes peek at some numbers and games!
The Blog
- 36 posts, about 31K words
- Mostly post on Tuesdays and Saturdays
- about 23,000 views and 12,000 visits
- My top post continues to be my guide to the Lego D&D adventure “Red Dragon’s Tale”. Here are the top 10:
- My top downloads are the cheat sheets I made for Dolmenwood travelling and encounters. Here are the top 10 downloads in full. Notable also are the audio files which represent people listening to (or starting to listen to) the audio episodes:
- 86 subscribers (thank you!)
Publishing
- Two new publications this year (links go to product pages on itch):
- The Norn’s Judgement (a mini-megadungeon for Shadowdark)
- Capturing the Moment: A Candela Obscura Assignment inspired by early photography
- 22 earlier products, the top 5 in terms of sales are DM’s packs.
- About 1200 items sold total (DM’s Guild, DriveThru, and Itch.io combined), and about 300+ downloads of free products on DM’s Guild and Itch.
Games I Played
I played 130 sessions over 16 systems this year. Which is even more than last year, which was already mad! I was a GM for a little more than half of these. What’s funny is that last year I was deliberately experimenting and intentionally playing more and with a wide variety. This year it just happened.
Games I ran
76 sessions total, 7 systems.
Dolmenwood – 39 sessions, 2 hours each. We wrapped up the Ruined Abbey of St Clewyd, took a brief excursion to the High Wold, then began again in the Mulchgrove. We’re now in Fairy. Towards the beginning of the year we lost one player to family obligations, and another towards the end of the year, but our first player returned. So, in essence this group has been playing Dolmenwood nearly every week for a year and a half, and it is never a disappointment. I should probably mention that the last six sessions have been basically a mash-up of Labyrinth and Dolmenwood so there are really two systems represented here.
Oz (using Cairn) – 11 sessions, 3 hours each. A homebrew game using Andrew Kolb’s setting that saw us race Wheelers and complete the heist of a boxing venue.
Magical Murder Mansion (using Shadowdark) – 10 sessions, 1 hour each. Love this little lunchtime game with only two players!
Moria – Scouts of Balin and Ringlore Seekers (using LoTR 5e). 8 sessions split between two groups, 2.5 hours each. A really enjoyable couple of short campaigns that scratched at the edge of this mega-dungeon and left everyone wanting more.
Mausritter – 2 sessions, 4 hours. Ember Tree and Workers Work, Rulers Rule, both from the Estate Collection. This game is a jewel.
Daggerheart – 5 sessions, 4 hours each. I ran the Sablewood quickstart scenario three times because there was so much interest! I also ran two sessions of Beast Feast at our summer game camp.
Speedcrawl (Shadowdark) – 1 session, 3 hours test out the hexcrawling Shadowdark rules and how fast we could go.
Games I Played as a Player
54 sessions, 11 systems.
Monster Hunters (Daggerheart) – 19 sessions, 2.5 hours. Homebrew world, I play a giantess rogue.
Mythic Bastionland – 12 sessions, 2.5 hours. I played the Gull Knight in the realm of Corran Mór.
Xandoros Reach (Swords & Sovereigns – a BECMI homebrew system) – 9 sessions, 2 hours. I played a psion and we had a bad experience with a mining claim, psionic crystals, a frontier town and bureaucracy.
Ixalan (using D&D 2014) – 3 sessions, 3 hours. A homebrew jungle campaign, I was an order of scribes wizard fighting pirates and vampire conquistadors.
Arden Vul (using 100 Dungeons) – 2 sessions, 3 hours. I was a paladin who only ever got knocked out!
Delta Green – 1 session, 4 hours. At an Arctic Research Station, some bad things happened.
Gradient Descent (Mothership) – 1 sessions (I think), 4 hours. I don’t remember what class I was but it was scary af.
Demon Driven to the Maw (Cairn) – 1 session, 4 hours. Another terrifying experience, we saved someone and got out but were nearly eaten by a giant if I recall correctly.
Miletis Investigators (D&D 5e 2014) – 2 sessions, 4 hours. The fourth episode of a campaign we play once a year, set in Theros. I played a dumb soldier who visited the land of the dead where the Goddess of Poison had been murdered.
Beyond the Wall – 1 session, 3 hours. We made characters and a village!
Norn’s Judgement (Shadowdark) – 1 session, 4 hours. What a crazy experience to play in your own dungeon! I don’t remember my character though.
Wyrmhearth (Daggerheart) – 1 session, 3 hours. Playtest of a new campaign frame. Ancient dragons were turning up dead, and we were on the case!
Infernal Ventures – 1 session, 5 hours. Playtest of a new game by the Swedish designer Ola Janson. We were security for the manufacturing outpost of Sanctuary, situated in Hell itself.
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