Hi Reader, Imagine it's after dark on the eve of All Hallows. Your car broke down, and now you're tramping through the woods in search of shelter. Ice-cold rain soaks through your too-summery clothes and into your bones. A sudden shock: Lightning outlines a looming manor house. Deafening thunder—or is it the manse's baleful façade?—roots you to the spot. Brambles choke its walls. Mazy gables top narrow windows from which fell figures stare out. And then...like an ill omen...a Chevy Bluebird...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Particle accelerator, but make it flowers. Please come in. Have some ice-cold fizzy water. Yesterday, I went to Yellow Springs, Ohio. From their creek, I brought back messy stalks of orange jewelweed. They're floating in a ceramic bowl of cool water on the table. Little gems. Lyla McBeath Fujiwara is brilliant. I recently read her Substack post about playtesting tactics. Lyla has worked at the mind-boggling scale of the Cosmere RPG. She generously shares that experience, with...
24 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. Have some fizzy water. I brought back a tall hollyhock stalk from Sweden and put it in a glass carafe on the table. Don't mind the stray leptons shooting around. The particle accelerator in the basement has lost focus again. I'd tune it, but the leptons show the hollyhock in such a nice light. This past weekend was Gen Con! And I wasn’t there! Instead, I went to the town of Visby, on the island of Gotland in Sweden, to see two dear friends get married....
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in, into the A/C. On the table, I've put bunches of honeysuckle in a jam jar. We used to pull the flowers apart and suck the juice from them. Today, in the most Raccoon Sky Pirates result possible, the ship carrying the Raccoon Sky Pirates Kickstarter exploded before making it halfway to its destination. That is, I canceled the campaign. s.If you backed it, thank you! And I'm sorry I had to cancel. If you didn't back it, no worries. I'll retool and come back...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. I put stalks of crown-pink in a jar on the table. If you can see them. Don't mind the smoke. The raccoons are in the back yard, getting their ship together. Tomorrow morning at 9 am Eastern, the Kickstarter for Raccoon Sky Pirates: Total Chaos Edition will finally launch. I made a hilarious video for it. I can't post it here, because it's too big. But you can see it on the Kickstarter page tomorrow morning. Yuri Lowenthal, the voice of Spider-Man, narrated...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Whew! What a time it's been since we last got together. Unconscionably, I swiped a stalk of Lady's Gloves from a neighbor's hellstrip and put them in a milk bottle on the table. They look magical, but it's still theft. If you've been following along, you may think the Raccoon Sky Pirates Kickstarter should have launched by now. Yesterday, even. But a Kickstarter is always more work than I remember, and let's be fair, I was pushing too hard in not enough time. So now the Dumpster...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. I had some flowers on the table, but this raccoon ate them. I call him Reggie. Careful, he bites. If you started coming to game night because you backed the original Raccoon Sky Pirates Kickstarter, then this game night is especially for you. Because Raccoon Sky Pirates is coming back. The legendary box set, all black and white, that came in a little mailer box, will be available in the upcoming, imminent Kickstarter. It looked like this: But that's not...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. Have some fizzy water. The irises are blooming, and M put some in a silver pitcher. So much else is blooming, too, but we'll let them grow. It's taken me a while to do game night because I'm recovering from surgery. This has meant enforced lying around, and that's a great opportunity to just soak it all in. I recently listened to Quinns Smith's interview of Jeremy Strandberg, author of Stonetop. Stonetop's Dungeon World-based mechanics don't exactly sing...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. Isn't it beautiful out? Let's sit on the back porch today with some fizzy water and lol at all the dandelions. They get so tall when they’re ready to let go. I got some great games recently in the mail: Zhenya's Wonder Tales by Jason Morningstar and Last Train to Bremen by Caro Asercion. Slavic folk tales, cozy tragedy, liar's dice and a deal with the Devil! This is my favorite part of crowdfunding campaigns—when a little box of magic arrives at your door....
5 months ago • 2 min read