Recent content on It's a Binary World 2.0
As an 80s kid, I recently got a couple dice sets that spoke to my childhood. First up is this set from 1985 games : VHS tape style dice case Example of the d20 in this set I saw this set one or two years ago on the 1985 Games site. I put it on my wishlist for a while because I loved the item for nostalgia, but I already have a lot of dice so I was hoping someone would get it for me. When it was…
This pair of short stories by Dragonsteel employees Dan Wells (who is also an author in his own right) and Isaac Stewart (the illustrator of many Cosmere books and head of art at Dragonsteel) was originally created for the Sanderson convention. (Nexus? I think) The first story is about Jasnah and fills us in on what happened to her between when she was on the ship with Shallan and when we see her…
I used to love the Pocast Go Time , especially when they would venture into general tech topics. A couple years ago, the podcast ended and some of the hosts formed a new podcast called Fallthrough . They have covered AI extensively over the past few months in a very logical, thought-out manner. These episodes have been transformative in my understanding of how those of us in the tech world should…
It’s pretty rare for me to find an anthology in which I love every story, but this one really hit it out of the park! Here are my per-story reviews: Intro: Getting Martha Wells to write the intro is an amazing get! She also does a great job pointing out what we are saying about ourselves (humanity) with our AI/robot stories. (Mostly related to slavery) It reminds me A LOT about recent…
Free TTRPG Day Experience The outside of Games and Stuff This was my second year participating in Free TTRPG day. Last year I was in New York at the time and visited a shop in Brooklyn. This time I was home and decided to visit on of my local shops, Games and Stuff . The line had been long in 2025, but the shop in New York was tiny so I assumed the line, if one manifest would move rather quickly.
Our Game How did things go? The party started off by trying to hack into the charging station from the lobby. There weren’t really any ports there for them to interface with. They then wanted to go up the elevator, but the warning about the effects of the Aballon Sun up there deterred them. Satisfied that they had taken all the precations possible, they entered the main area. There they were…
Story We are bringing the White Wargs Reavers a Longboat and Trollkin. (Although there was a fight among the crew as to whether to murder the Trollkin before presenting them to the dwarves) As we row ashore, a female dwarf greets us. She tells us that the dwarf we were seeking Knudstoneson is dead. Trollkin stole an albino wharg puppy (named Snowball) from the village, a sacred animal to the…
After the flyting contest, we are hired by a ship merchant who wants us to help them. They need us to take the remaining ship to Wolfheim to find their cousin Knudstoneson (dwarf). From there we need to head to the White Warg Village north of Wolfheim. Once there, we need to convince him and his crew, the White Warg Reavers, to see if they can help this person. We are offered 500GP to do the job…
We hauled all our treasure onto the ship and gave the captain what was due as members of the ship. Ghada tries to intimidate the pirates to get to keep more of the booty. The captain smiles and says “no”. The rest of us split our booty - 132 GP each. As we get closer to the shore we see that the Port of Stannisgard is on fire. A red dragon came and attacked the city. (Visandred is name of dragon)
I got a copy of the book free as part of Goodreads Giveaways. I’m a big history geek. Anyone who talks to me long enough has heard me make reference to history, whether relatively recent or in the distant past. So when this book came up on Goodreads Giveaways I already had it in my To Read list and figured it was worth a shot at getting the book for free.
For the last 6 or so months I’ve been saying all over the internet (this blog, enworld, Blue Sky) that the Cosmere TTRPG’s use of the 3 action economy had piqued my curiosity in Paizo’s 2e *finder systems. This last Friday, I FINALLY got to run the Starfinder adventure that I’ve been dying to run for my Cosmere group for the past few months - Murder in Metal City. ( Buy it…
I was an early adopter of KDE’s activities when they were first introduced in KDE 4. From what I read of various blog posts by KDE developers I’m in the minority. It’s hard enough for folks to get the concept of virtual desktops (although now with both OSX and Windows including the features maybe more folks are getting used to it), but activities creates an orthogonal virtual set…
Usually I do these review videos completely off the cuff. (With maybe an outline to go off of) This time I actually wrote a script so you can read the script below the video if you’d rather do than than watch the video. I did go off script here and there to elaborate on things, so it’s not verbatim what I said, but it’s pretty close. Introduction Up to this point, if you’ve seen…
Three years after my first triathlon , I finally got to do the triathlon that was supposed to be my first triathlon. When I was considering the idea of a triathlon, having one nearby where the swimming portion was in the pool seemed like the ideal first one. However, different life events always conspired to keep from from registering. This year I saw at the last minute that I would be able to…
In addition to watching the video below, scroll beyond the video to see some of the questions/answers I’ve gotten on reddit and YouTube as well as some recommended extra videos to watch. Topics in the video: My background as a GM The players we had at the table Scheduling My thoughts on the story aspects of Stonewalkers A small section about how “on rails” I ran the campaign My…
In 2024 I started buying dice advent calendars from Dice Envy because I figured, of all the things I can get in an advent calendar, these would be the most useful. (Unlike chotchkeys or candies that I would eat and quickly forget about) 2024 My first year getting these dice. You can see the day-by-day posts at this series page . My favorites are the candle infinity d4, the Wee Lads set, and the…
I blazed through The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI. It’s not too hard, as the audiobook is only 5 hours long, but it was also incredibly engaging and I didn’t want to stop listening. I first found Cory Doctorow through his fiction which was what convinced me to try ebooks . His books were available under a creative commons license for free from his own website so it was risk-free. Since…
It’s good to have Dresden back. I prefer to practice “death of the author” when it comes to reviews or analysis. To me it doesn’t matter what they intended or what kind of person they are (mostly). But this book truly seems inseparable from Jim Butcher’s experience exorcising his personal demons. We know he had a hard time in his personal life and it’s at least…
While this book is not structured in the best possible way to teach a newbie how to play Starfinder Second Edition, the fact of the matter is that this is a reference book. One might use it one time to learn how to play or, perhaps more likely, one will learn from YouTube videos, a Beginner’s Box product or being taught by friends around the table. As a reference book, the Player Core is…
I was a Kickstarter backer on this (or it was a stretch goal for an Apex mag kickstarter - I can’t remember). Since these are micro-fiction I am not going to do my usual per-story review for the anthology as the stories are too short for that. Perhaps unsurprisingly for an anthology themed around recipes for alcoholic drinks, the stories were overwhelmingly sad and/or angry. Since each story is…
This is a fun book that takes place on Golarian, the world of Pathfinder. The author does a good job presenting the TTRPG elements - like Zae needing to prepare her spells each morning - without bogging the story down in these things. But for a few things like that, I think it could be handed to any fantasy fan and they would enjoy it without realizing it’s based on a TTRPG.
Years after learning about the genre of dark academia and backing this anthology on kickstarter, the time has arrived to read this book. For my particular tastes the stories were a bit uneven. I loved some of them and others I hated. Also, compared to what I thought the definitely of Dark Academia was, this seemed to simply be an anthology of horror stories that took place in and around schools.…
I recently got the Pathfinder 2e Beginner Box: Secrets of the Unlit Star. I did an unboxing and first impressions video. I will come back and do a proper review after I play it.
A short story that moves extremely quickly but is a fun romp. You don’t need to know anything about Pathfinder other than what the creature accompanying the protagonist is. I had to look it up because I’m pretty new to the Pathfinder universe. Since it’s a short story it’s not too complicated. It’s a character being heroic and bringing us along for the ride. If you…
As you know, I’ve been running a Cosmere TTRPG playthrough of Stonewalkers, the published Stormlight Archives adventure. I plan on writing a blog post (and maybe making a video) retrospective once we finish the game, but, partially prompted by my players, I wanted to write about some of the ways my players have surprised me over the last 2 sessions. My favorite thing, both as a game master and as…
A stair goblin, the Flu Hating Rapper, and others at a house party For a show that often loudly professed to hate continuity, canon, and backstory Rick and Morty caps off the first season with an episode that both references characters from earlier in the season and sets up a bunch of characters for future multi-season arcs. Jerry and Beth go off to a Titanic re-enactment experience while Rick and…
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. It’s based on a TTRPG. Would it be like the novelization of a movie or some of the books from the Star Trek or Star Wars universes? Would it be cheesy or great? Well, it turned out to be way better than I expected. There were a few things that came through a little bit game-y, but they were few and far between. The two examples that stood…
There isn’t much to say about an old, outdated technical manual. There’s at least one newer edition of this book released. However, whether you’re using vim or neovim, the basics remain the same. If you only have access to this edition of the book, I would focus on the chapters that teach you how to use vi and vim. In that respect, this book is very well written. Ignore the chapter on plugins and…
As I normally do for anthologies, here is a series of mini reviews for each of the short stories: Lean In: The Lord of Hell is Coming (Ericka Kahler): I don’t want to give anything away about this delightful story. I will say that it does an amazing job of flipping many tropes on their head and, in a funny way, actually made me rethink the premises behind many of those tropes.
I was a kickstarter backer for this book. Back when Goldeneye first came out, the only first person shooter I’d played was a few short sessions of Wolfenstein 3D that my dad had introduced me to a few years before. I found it hard and boring and didn’t try to play all that much. When we rented Goldeneye, it was the first time I found myself enjoying the genre. A great deal of that came from the…
I have not been doing this calendar in the way it was meant to be played. I keep forgetting for long stretches at a time. Still, we’re only done with the first quarter of the year. Perhaps after this entry I can do a better job at playing daily even if I don’t post to the blog daily. It will probably help the story resonate better for me. Story 19 Feb I continue into the swamp, keeping…
It’s time once again for my annual podcast list. The formatting continues with the changes I added last year: Podcast Republic (the podcatcher I use) no longer provides the podcast’s official description. In lieu of that, I have the “My Thoughts” section which is part description and part opinion. If you click on the podcast’s title - that is the link for the…
I am extremely late in posting this, but I’ve been incredibly busy in 2026. In 2025 I ended up playing 2 days (48 hours) less than in 2024. It would have been way less if I hadn’t been playing Slay the Spire while exercising. More on that below. Games Played in 2025 Slay the Spire (4 days, 22:42:57): You may remember that, a few years ago, I played a lot of Slay the Spire but…
The Story Time elapsed so far in campaign at start of this adventure: 77 days Your browser does not support the audio element. Summary the battle at the Inn After their recent adventures, the team decides to go on a vacation. They travel to a remove in called The Inn of the Last Repast. Soon after arriving, some people in robes come looking for a lost member of their group. It turns out to be a…
The Story Time elapsed so far in campaign at start of this adventure: 63 days Your browser does not support the audio element. Summary Stuff still to sell: Mosquito in Amber - 100 GP Crab meat - 5 GP Ashes of Corrupted Pixie - 10 GP The team reads newspaper articles about the kobolds that fell off the boat when they were working for Little Timmy. They also read an article about how they helped the…
Story After our long rest in the library, Flint suggested we explore further. However, when we tried to go down the next hallway, a powerful wind blew us back. Flint was immediately blown back. Aghell was able to stay there, but became exhausted. Scrabble suggested that killing the creature might remove the spell on the hallway. The crew agreed with that and decided that we would use what we…
The Story Time elapsed so far in campaign at start of this adventure: 30 days Your browser does not support the audio element. Summary During the downtime weeks Sam and Valery worked in the shop and were able to sell the Geode and the fish. Still Unsold Mosquito in Amber Crab Meat Ashes of Corrupted Pixie From the money made so far, Valery sent back 15 GP to her parents.
I believe this was the first book released for Starfinder Second Edition. As such it had to serve as an introduction to the system as well as what had changed in the solar system since the first edition. Unlike many TTRPG companies, Paizo likes to advance the story of the world and change things up as time goes on. However, the best part of the way this book is organized is that the first few…
I was a kickstarter backer on this book Based on the introduction, it looks like this series was meant to be a trilogy. As such, this book is mostly about wrapping up all the loose ends from the prior two anthologies. I think the book mostly succeeds in that endeavor. The ending somewhat fell flat for me in the same way as the ending to 2001: A Space Odessey; things got a bit too trippy.
As usual for a collection or anthology, I have reviews per each short story. Ruth: Our main character is not just a mother, but a grandmother. That doesn’t stop her from getting the justice she deserves. A compelling tale of wits and experience being a mighty weapon. Raising the Dead (Hindy Silverman): Funnily enough, I think I added a book with a VERY similar premise to my TBR list recently.…
Story 13 Feb After the insanity we just dealt with, I search the wreckage for survivors. I search many corpses, but I only find one ally. They are trapped beneath rubble and I try to dig them out. It’s hard and I almost drop the last piece onto them, but I save them. They are unconscious, but breathing. I make a makeshift bandage and stem the bleeding. I slap them awake. (+1 minion)
note: I was a kickstarter backer for this book With the Phenomenons books, Crazy Eight has created a super hero anthology that takes place in our world like George R R Martin’s Wild Cards series. The main difference is that Wild Cards reads to me as incredibly grimdark; maybe because it was started in the 1980s? The other big difference is that there’s definitely more of a liberal bent…
I backed the Kobold Press Kickstarter for the Player’s Guide 2 as well as a few add-on items. I created this video to talk about them. Topics & Links: Player’s Guide 2 Kobold Press Character Journal 1985 Games DM Journal Set 1985 Games Hero Journal Set Beadle and Grimm’s Player’s Journal Bag of Luck Tokens - Not on the store as of the time I’m writing this
Busy, busy, busy….lots of days to catch up on! Story 29 Jan The four enemies stand before the Overlord, proclaiming his end. He does not waver as he predicts they will fall. I move into a good position for attack (+2 bonus to attack rolls on the next page) I set up traps to sabotage the battlefield (+2 to DMG on the next day) I try to create a diversion, but the heroes are focused on their…
Story The party locks all the doors and chances a long rest. The group went into the westmost door after Flint picked the lock. Within the room were a bunch of dead bodies that look drained of all life with looks of horror on their faces. They also look like they’ve been frozen for a long time. The party begins moving bodies to get up the stairs. Scrabble asks Miralou if there are customs we…
The Story Time elapsed so far in campaign at start of this adventure: 15 days Your browser does not support the audio element. Summary In the 2 weeks that elapsed since last time Beatrice found out what her new ring does. (It protects her from mind control AND it stores her soul if she dies) She also got some pricing for the items she nicked from the house they were investigating:
I chose to go with Severin Mortis for the rest of the year. It took me a while to get caught up to the date (snow storm) this post will cover many days. Story 22 Jan As I step into the ritual chamber, the high mage is there. He shows me that the Soul Crystal is ready and tells me to fetch the Overlord. 23 Jan Yet another of the Heroes of the Light arrive - this time it’s Vaelor Spellwright,…
Next entry after this one will be the hero I stick with for the rest of the year!! On the most recent Kickstarter update they said that all the stuff we’ve earned up until now carries over. Story 19 Jan (Previously Kargoth secured the gate so I get a +2 to all rolls on this day) On this higher level, there is a chaotic war happening in every corner of the castle. I run to the balcony and see…
Ok, now it’s time to see what Valery and her new companions do after their first fight together. They agreed to join up and they found a quest on the quest board. Will things go according to plan for these newbies? The Story Split into 3 audio files this time because I had to take a few breaks to deal with some bread I was baking. The audio is much better. I have to think about what I might…
2025 was the year I leveled up my TTRPG skills (no pun intended). It started off with my participation in New Game Master Month in February. Kobold Press was a sponsor and had a coupon for the core books so I moved off the free rules and onto the main, published rules. I consumed lots of TTRPG content on YouTube, reddit, and enworld - lots of it focused on being a better GM or a more creative GM.…