Troy Press

flight of four pumpkin beers in front of a pumpkin and fall seasonal decorations

Top 20 Pumpkin Beers

I’ve tried 54 different pumpkin beers over the years, as part of flights, as singles at alcohol retailers, and at restaurants. The only six pack I buy these days is Voodoo Ranger Atomic Pumpkin, which packs a nice bit of heat and is definitely my #1 pumpkin beer. Here are my top 20 pumpkin beers.

Stonetop is a State-of-the-Art Fantasy Role-Playing Game

You and your fellow villagers know that you can keep the iron-age village of Stonetop safe from the strange creatures of the wider world and even help it prosper. And you’re willing to adventure away from Stonetop to get the resources you need to do so. The GM is given three key resources: Book I, Book II, and Arcana cards. Each expands the state-of-the-art for fantasy PbtA games.

Gramma C’s Rules for Rummy 500

Today would have been my maternal grandmother’s 111th birthday (1915). Alas she was not as long-lived as a hobbit with a corrupting magic ring.

BG Stats 3 x 3. Play count: 11: SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence; 11: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Trick-Taking Game; 6: The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship; 6: Ticket to Ride: San Francisco; 5: Scrabble; 4: Brew Crafters: Travel Card Game; 4: Turing Machine; 3: Blood on the Clocktower; 3: The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game

Board Game Plays So Far in 2026

In the original spirit of Blaugust, here are some random observations of some of the games I have managed to play so far this year.

Orkestro_definition from Esperanto Wikipedia

Esperanto Words with Ambiguous Segmentation

Some Esperanto words can be parsed into roots and affixes in multiple ways.

The Prehistory of Cycladic League

Early versions of my civ-lite BASIC game, Cycladic League.

definition of Esperanto highlighted in a paper Esperanto dictionary

Esperanto Homographs

A look at seven word forms in Esperanto that are homographs.

The Caves of Ateşkazé: Two Tables for Immersive Caving

The details and discoveries tables from “The Paths of Ateşkazé” by Jeremy Strandberg in Perilous Almanacs remain my favorite caving adventure.

towers of mangos, each tower in a wooden bowl on a table

Mango Man

Mango man, mango man
Thinks he’s the entire universe, man
Usually mean to smaller man
Mango man
Is he depressed or is he a mess?
Does he feel totally worthless?
Who came up with mango man?
Degraded man, mango man.

The Stages of Learning

As an adult, I rarely try to do things I’m no good at. At work, I do things I’ve done for decades. Same for my hobbies.

Trying something new means being embarrassingly bad at it.

That was awkward and difficult to work through.

Cyclades Boardgame vs. Cycladic League

I developed Cycladic League by re-imaging what Cyclades might be like it were a BASIC game, then iterating on the design in an agile fashion.

A crew person disguised as a giant lizard, riding a horse, waving a cowboy hat, yelling "Yee-haw!"

Planet of the Week, Summer 2026

I have created three new background playbooks for Planet of the Week: the Belter (inspired by The Expanse), the Throwback (think Buck Rogers, or Steve Rogers, and maybe John Crichton), and the Terran.

Agon: A TTRPG Odyssey

“On their way back home from the war, the heroes have become lost among strange islands populated by mythical creatures, dire beasts, treacherous landscapes, legendary kingdoms, and desperate people—all somehow cursed or abandoned by the cruel power of the capricious gods.” — Evil Hat

Lapine: The Rabbit Language from Watership Down

Richard Adams’ Watership Down (New York: Macmillan, 1972) is one of the classic works of xenofiction (the fiction set in strange cultures, real or imagined), placed as it is among and between the warrens of rabbits in the English countryside. Lapine, the language he sketches for his rabbits, is arguably the best naming language ever created.

Furbish

This is an analysis of the Furbish of the first-generation Furby toys.