Continuing my annual tradition , here are some of my favorite things from the last year. I think this is the first year where I've had to decide not to shout out things I'm re-reading or re-watching, even if they're very good. I want to applaud the things that thrilled me for the first time. The Best Things I Read Fiction - The West Passage My favorite book last year was The West Passage by Jared…
I wrote a guest post on the Flashback Universe Blog ! I recently started watching the show Space: 1999 , and my friend Trey, who operates both Flashback Universe and From the Sorcerer's Skull , invited me to write up my thoughts so far. You can read my review here!
Prismatic Wasteland has announced a new Blog Bandwagon. This time, it's adding hexes to a hexcrawl based on the Christmas movies of Rankin & Bass. For my entry, I thought about where Santa might get the coal he gives out to naughty children. My answer was a classic cartoon villain, complete with an exciting but dangerous casino lair. COAL MOUNTAIN (HEX 101) Rugged, hilly land with countless small…
To generate your own trendy book title, roll d20 twice and combine: 1 The Seven Abbots of Evelyn Costello 2 The Seven Ampersands of Evelyn Amsterdam 3 The Seven Castles of Evelyn Blackwood 4 The Seven Catacombs of Evelyn Hugonaut 5 The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle 6 The Seven Elephants of Evelyn Chesscastle 7 The Seven Hamburgers of Evelyn Whitecastle 8 The Seven Holidays of Evelyn Crimbo 9…
Last summer, I invited everyone to participate in a Summer LEGO RPG Setting Jam . It was a lot of fun! And nineteen people created Lego-themed settings, adventures, and reminisces for the jam. Beyond the participants, I heard a lot of positive feedback, and many people asked me to announce another this year. So, for the second year, I want to invite you all to join a new Summer LEGO RPG Jam ! This…
This is my fourth year doing a round-up of my favorite media. This year, I decided to pick one winner in each category, but acknowledge a top five, which made it easier to give shout-outs to all my runners-up. So here are my favorite things from 2024! If there's a trend, I think it's that I've applauded originality, often giving the win to works that are the least like what I've seen before. The…
The 2024 Bloggie awards are here, and DIY & dragons is a finalist in two categories! official BLOGGIES 2024 art ‘Blugtarp Blogeye and Weyman the Well-Read’ by Hodag Warren from Prismatic Wasteland created the Bloggies in 2022 to celebrate the year's best blog posts, as nominated and voted on by the public. There are awards in four categories - theory, gameable content, advice, and reviews; plus an…
For Secret Santicorn 2024, Vile Cult of Shapes asked for "effects of prolonged exposure of Primal Darkness on various surface dwelling species." I decided to write two sets of results. One for player characters, and one for NPC hirelings, henchmen, and so forth. I leave it to the referee and players to decide what counts as Primal Darkness in their game, and what sets it apart from normal…
Everything people make builds on what came before. The original edition of Dungeons & Dragons built on miniature wargaming rules as well as other recent attempts to repurpose wargames to explore imaginary fantasy worlds, attempts like Braunstein , Blackmoor , and the Dungeon! boardgame. Since then, there have been countless roleplaying games built off of D&D , both a few official new editions and…
This is my entry in the Barkeep Jam hosted by Prismatic Wasteland . I wanted to write something as different as possible from my previous pubcrawl location. Among other things, my other pub was kind of out of the way and disconnected from the rest of the Raves of Chaos, this one is right in the thick of things. And I took a bit of advantage of the unlimited space afforded to blog posts. Fitting a…
The Summer Lego RPG Setting Jam has officially ended. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who participated! Nineteen people submitted entries between May 8th and July 8th, including my own entry makes an even 20! I'm so pleased and happy to see them all. Let's take a look at what everyone turned in! Unofficially, if you still want to make an RPG setting based on Lego, there's no reason not…
Hi everyone! I have two announcements about the ongoing Summer LEGO RPG Setting Jam , still open until July 8th. First, several people have reached out to me with links that might be helpful for anyone working on their own entry. And second, the first few entries have been submitted! 71469 Nightmare Shark Ship image source I'll talk about those in just a moment. But first, my friend and colleague…
I want to officially announce the start of the Summer LEGO RPG Setting Jam ! The goal of this game jam is to design a small roleplaying game setting based on the Lego sets we enjoyed in our youth. The jam will run from Wednesday, May 8th to Monday, July 8th, 2024. 6075 Wolfpack Tower image source What is the Summer LEGO RPG Setting Jam? A few years ago, I wrote about how the Lego Castle sets that…
My regular Friday night gaming group has been playing through Gavin Norman's The Incandescent Grottoes . It's a dungeon that's full of caverns of glowing crystals, which is what it's named for, and also classic D&D monsters like fungi, slimes, and the undead. And, oh yeah, a dragon! Leighton Connor from Akashic Library volunteered to be our referee for this one, since he's run this particular…
This is my third annual Year in Review post, so I think I can officially consider it a tradition! Here are my favorite things from 2023. The Best Things I Read Fiction - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow My favorite novel last year was Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, a work of literary fiction about two childhood friends who grow up to become video game designers together.…
Since I wrote my previous post , my friend Ava Islam reached out to Justin Alexander and engaged him in a productive conversation. Once the two of them arrived at a place of understanding, Ava also reached out to me to mediate a conversation between me and Justin. The purpose of this conversation was for each of us to understand where the other was coming from, to see if we could find any common…
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Since I wrote this post, my friend Ava Islam reached out to Justin Alexander and engaged him in a productive conversation. Once the two of them arrived at a place of understanding, Ava also reached out to me to mediate a conversation between me and Justin. The purpose of this conversation was for each of us to understand where the other was coming from, to see if we could find any…
The last time I talked about the book Future Evolution , I mentioned that author Peter Ward and illustrator Alexis Rockman mostly did not engage in the kind of biological speculation that the title of their book seems to imply. But there is one exception, when Ward asks what could possibly come after the Age of Mammals, in the same way that our rise came after the Age of Dinosaurs. What currently…
COLUMBO: So, Miss Anna, you own many books! And many gimmick books, I think? ANNA: Just so, Columbo. C: And who do you 'stan' most, do you think? A: Obviously G-- (I stop.) But no, I'm afraid I couldn't say. C: I'm just an old man. I only buy pulps and comics. Uncanny , Batman , and so on. But my gal, Mrs Columbo, Kathy, my gal is young and smart like you. Kathy cannot stop buying ... how do you…
Over at From the Sorcerer's Skull , Trey has an idea for a spooky season campaign setting that really intrigues me. Trey wrote: "the world that the players' would know and explore is a sort of mythic forest, a dark fairytale sort of woodland with no apparent beginning or end. " Rather than being heroes or conquerors, the "adventurers are wanderers in the wood, dealing with the things the forest…
By now you've probably heard the good news, but just in case you haven't... Barkeep on the Borderland won the Gold Ennie for Best Supplement in 2023 ! Video of the awards ceremony is below. The Best Supplement segment starts at 2h 50m 20s, and the announcement of the gold winner starts at 3h 00m 36s. Congratulations first of Charles Ferguson-Avery and Alex Coggon at Wet Ink Games for winning the…
The last time I wrote about Barkeep on the Borderlands , it was but a young Kickstarter with dreams of fully funding, and my own involvement was merely the future promise of an as-yet unmet stretch goal. But since then, Barkeep has been released! It's available in print , and pdf , and it has a map ! And coasters ! And even more exciting, it's been nominated for an Ennie award for Best Supplement…
Over the past year and a half, I've been writing reviews of all the books I finish and posting them to a private social media feed. As part of my ongoing attempt to get myself back into blogging regularly, I've copied all my reviews so far over to a public blog. I'll be updating it regularly as I continue to read and review. Please enjoy! The Lunar Flaneur
Last year I started what I hope will be an annual tradition, and posted reviews of my favorite things I read and watched in 2021 . It's time again, so here are my favorites from 2022! (Please note, the categories are somewhat different this year, and might be different again next year, depending on what particularly interests me each time around.) The Best Things I Read Graphic Novels - Black…
For the second meeting of the Roadside Picnic Basket Book Club, Trey from From the Sorcerer's Skull played host, and invited me to discuss the dungeoneering aspects of Peter Watts' novel Blindsight . So despite the cold, pull up a blanket, pour a cup of hot tea from your thermos, and enjoy the club. You can read the first half of our conversation here , and the second half here .