2025 Year in Review

The sound of Kevin McCallister screaming tells me that it’s time for a Year In Review post. I don’t have a whole lot of blog-style thoughts to share this time, but I do have a free bookmark game for you that I put together for an itch.io jam.

• Halls of Paper

• Mausritter Month

• 2025 Year In Review

Readers of this newsletter will know that I cannot get enough of the jams on Itch.io. Well, the creator of the powerhouse One Page RPG Jam just wrapped up a TTRPG Bookmark Jam to which I submitted Halls of Paper.

Halls of Paper turns the book you are reading into a dungeon crawl. Each time you put the bookmark in the book, you must first fight the wandering monster that appears. Place the bookmark in the book, and then look at the lines indicated by each of the blades on the back of the bookmark. The first vowel in the indicated lines will help you read tables that will determine the results of the battle. After you defeat the monster, you will get some loot. You start with 10 HP, and the goal of the game is to finish the book before you die. Is this an accountability tool wrapped in a zero-agency, monster-battling tabletop roleplaying game? Could be!

Aside from having fun joining a jam, I did want to make a new bookmark to use as a giveaway at conventions. My previous bookmark game (Headcanon) got a great response from people at PAXU this year, and I want something new to bring next year. I also want a giveaway that doesn’t require hole-punching by hand.

Anyway, there’s a printer-friendly version on the itch page, so check it out!

Halls of Paper on itch.io

is over! And it went great. The Baron’s Grip was supported by 560 backers, and it will be coming to life next year. I received the proof copy from the printer, and the binding and cover matched exactly what I was looking for (don’t look too closely, since lots of changes are still happening, but you get the idea).

Jamie Douglas is working on the last few illustrations, and I’m taking a few last spins through the text and layout, so we should be able to send these files to the printer early next year! My goal is to get the books out of China before the New Year holiday shuts everything there down for a month. Fingers crossed.

If you did not get a chance to back the campaign, you can check out the pre-order store over on BackerKit to make sure that you are in the first wave of shipments:

The Baron's Grip Preorder Store

Here it is, folks, the full 2025 grid of completed projects:

I’m not going to talk about every title here, since it’s a lot, but in summary:

• By a generous measure (splitting up some multi-title projects), 19 titles that I wrote were published in 2025.

• By a stricter measure, I had 11 projects published in 2025. Still a good number. I’d like to at least match that next year.

• I successfully ran 3 crowdfunding campaigns (In Ruins, Liminal Grimoire, and The Baron’s Grip). I’m not sure when my next one will be, but I’ll probably do another 2-3 in 2026.

• I successfully fulfilled 3 crowdfunding campaigns (Endling, In Ruins, and Liminal Grimoire). The Baron’s Grip will be early in 2026. I plan to maintain my record of timely fulfillment.

• I relished in the short-form adventure: 9 of the titles qualify as pamphlet adventures, and another is a bookmark game. I might have a few more pamphlets in me.

• I had content published by several other creators, which is a new and interesting part of my work: Creature Curation, STATIONS, Pandion Games, and The Dungeon’s Key. I’m setting up another one or two of these projects.

• I continue to love Itch.io jams, though it seems I’m slacking a bit on those. I only submitted projects to 5 jams this year, and I missed the One-Page RPG Jam completely. I’ll try to do better next year.

All of this has got me thinking about next year, how I can keep some of this momentum going, and how I want to spend my time in this hobby. I’ll talk more about the projects that I’m lining up for 2026 in the next Ink & Dice. I think there’s some really cool stuff going on (including even more Jamie Douglas art).

Thanks for being here this past year. I’ll be back in January with a look at the year ahead, what I am going to keep, and what I am going to change about my writing and production schedule. Until then, I hope you get to play some games this holiday season.

—MAH