Gaming Year in Review 2022-23

I've always tracked my gaming progress like the US Federal fiscal calendar (October through September). Don't ask why, it's always been like that, I'm not going to change now.

I'm notorious for burying the lead, so let's have some positivity first!

A bulletin board from a basketball tournament in at North Schuylkill Middle School.  The basketball did not abate this year.

The Blog:  
The Top Ten Blog Posts Over the Past Twelve Months

1. Historicon 2023 Action Action Ramblings (Conventions)
2. Fall-In 2022! (Conventions)
3. Dollar Store Genestealers (Painting)
4. Cold Wars 2023 AAR (Conventions)
5. The Bachelor Gaming Lifestyle (General Blogging)
6. (Planet 28) Battle for the Tractor of Ukrainius (Planet 28)
7. (Planet 28) Incident at Colgar Station 6 (Planet 28)
8. Lehicon 7 with Twenty-Six Years of Hindsight (Conventions)
9. (Planet 28) The Murder Ball Extrication (Planet 28)
10. (Planet 28) Waiting to Extract (Planet 28)

Let this be a lesson for you all.  Take lots of pictures at cons and paint up for dollar store toys, and you'll get all the views you ever wanted. 

With all my delays on other long-term projects/games, it was great to see Planet 28 get all the love.  The big Pulp game just never could materialize, so I'm happy to have played around with the sci-rules, even if they were still the 1st edition.   There were a couple Star Wars games in my top 20, so that was enjoyable to see.

My biggest surprise? My "Twenty Question About My Gamma World Campaign" skyrocketed near the top 10, and that was just posted last Tuesday!   Apparently a lot of people have "Gamma World" triggered on their social media search.  We'll see how that evolves as the Gamma World actual play starts posting in October.

Why is Singapore so Singa-Rich with hits?  I've been doing this long enough to cheer an uptick of hits one second, only to wince when 500 hits in 5 minutes came from Sierra Leone.  Years ago, one of my first banner months I deemed corrupted when 10,000 hits from Italy at 6:01am skewed an otherwise awesome month... on the last day.

This summer, my bot-nemesis was Singapore, but to make things stranger, about a quarter of the daily hits when to somewhat random posts in the past.  Still it's skewing the data that only I care about. 

I've manage to become immune to the horribly inflated numbers, until they deflated... yesterday.  Singapore is no longer on my stats at all.  Either Google finally cleaned up stuff (it's been awhile since that's happened), or the poor bot has finished my blog and wished for a mercy killing.   Good news/bad news:  I won't be rushing to my 1,000,000 (that's one millionth) page view quite as fast as I was heading, thank God!

#RPGaDay2023 - Ten years of #RPGaDay brought the return of the Year One questions, and an uptick on activity.  It's still not pre-COVID numbers, but as a blogger, those pre-COVID numbers are from another era.

#CharacterCreationChallenge - I decided to participate in this in early December, rather than the night of New Year's Eve, so it only took me till the 20th to finish up the last few characters.  It's an intriguing exercise that doesn't seem to generate any more traffic, unless I promote the hell out of them with a dozen superfluous hashtags.  If I manage to accumulate a decent pile of character concepts and/or AI art by the end of the year, I'll take a stab at it for 2024.   And any excuse to introduce  Ko'rona Vyress to Gamma World was welcome indeed.

Soul'Miz, Maja's Venus Fly Trap Mutant Plant for Gamma World

#RPGBlogCarnival:  I investigated this monthly community project, after #RPGaDay.  Heck, I even have about a third of a great piece about the archeology and anthropology around the Temple of Alasku in my World of Georic, but, requiring a significant rewrite, it's been tossed back into the bin.   The results by the contributors reads something like Alarums and Excursions, if it merged with the Forge, and a podcast question mailbag. The article will see the light of day, just not for September.

The Tequila Worms shot up the town in a Fistful of Lead game at Cold Wars 2023

#ZineQuest/#ZineMonth - While there was plenty of material to post about (and I'm pretty picky with the zines I post about), there wasn't much enthusiasm for more than a few items.  In fact, I picked up as many zines away from the supposed promotional months.   Now, playing some of them in the future might be an even more impressive feat.

Project 350:   472 (314/158)  from 457 (293/164)   I did get a large quantity of saved pictures (AI and procured off the internet used on posts.) and only processed through half of them.  I also have about half of January's #CharacterCreationChallenge mapped out.

Planet 28: Firefly versus the Gnomish Space Marines

STAR WARS D6 PAUSE - The actual play blog posts lasted until August, but I put the Star Wars campaign on pause around Thanksgiving of '22.  The last episode finally posted at the end of August.  There are plenty of reasons and opportunities to restart the game, when the time comes.

Gamma World: With that pause, we switched to Gamma World 4th Edition, and we're showing a bit more enthusiasm as the De Facto Explorers search beyond the comfortable boundaries of Riverbend.

Wars of Ozz

TRIUMPHS:

Planet 28 Progress:  Fistful of Lead is stealing some of its thunder, but I feel my style and play closer resembles with bare-bones sci-fi game with a healthy dash of grimdark in every game.  It also doesn't help my ego that the P-28 games supplanted my normal Gnome Wars and Pulp entries.

Fistful of Lead: My favorite part of FoL is that I can convert scenarios designed for one genre into another with only minor modifications.  Many of the scenarios out of the western For a Fistful More can be directly translated onto the streets of Carf for Galatic Heroes.  

The Federal League Online!:   More so than online/video games, I would much rather take up some time playing Dice Baseball solo.  As solo works much better when you're a single guy in your own place, I've resurrected my Federal League, and reset it back during its inaugural season (1920) and am actively keeping statistics on my Google Drive and writing snippets and write-ups on its own separate blog..    My 1995-2008 stats/records still exist, but I have little chance of filling in the years after that were on a corrupted hard drive and never printed off.  

1920 was completed with speed and even with a few tweaks to play to resemble the 1920s, stats were quite comparable to to 1995-2008.   It brought joy and enhanced my calm in an otherwise turbulent time. 

(Note to self:  fixed points in time are a) 1938 New York - Pittsburgh playoff game for the pennant b) New York Knights 3b Rich Klupa born in 1940 and joins the league at 16. c) Donald Trump (yes that guy) buys the Newark Bears and moves them to Atlantic City in 1986.  George Steinbrenner moves the Yankees to the league from 1987-1994. 

CATASTROPHES:

It's Life, Jim, but not as we know it:  So, two weeks into the gaming year, I made the biggest announcement for the blog.  My wife and I, after 16 years of marriage, were separating, I was moving out, and divorce was imminent.

Almost a year later, we're still separated, I moved out December 1st of last year, and full legal divorce is still slowly evolving.   The kids are still at some acceptable level of okay/not okay, but they've also fully benefitted from "Separate Parent Attention" plus that of my wife's short-term former fiancée (Yeah, there's drama that's worth mentioning but not in detail).

I moved twenty minutes away to a 2nd floor, bedroom-and-a-half place.  Just enough room for an office... and a painting table.

I've managed to have some game days with the girls, board games in the kitchen, minis game in the living room.

The double table requires some furniture moving, but it works!

To my life's complication or relief, my job was part of a giant layoff in June.  I've spent the Summer enjoying time off/decompressing/living off of months of PTO and a decent severance package.  

HMGS Board Election - I got cornered and ask to run for the board of the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society.  On a silly platform of "Let's be reasonable/Stop panicking for no good reason," I did not win, did not end up in last.  I did not let it deter my Historicon.

And if that wasn't all bad enough, most of my plans for this past year, blew up.   The only item that had any progress was the Gnomish Space Marines, and there's still a ton of unpainted lead for that to be a sizable success.

A two-fisted (and twice played) Peep Raid for Easter

GENERAL MUCKERY:

Basketball:  Basketball still dominates the girls' lives, although as certain other girl's have left programs or started working recruitment showcases (and not in high school yet!), Millie lives and breathes it, while Maja has realized she can slow down/shut down these social media darlings without immersing her entire life into the sport. 

Maja's second year of school sports wasn't as successful, per se.  The majority of 8th graders were kept exclusively to the Freshmen team, leaving a significantly weakened 8th grade team, and a 7th grade team that was ignored in development for most years pitching in to the cause.  Freshmen lost only two games, both to the eventual league champion.  The 8th grade team suffered some ignoble defeats due to lack of manpower/7th graders playing up.  And the 7th grade team, the forgotten group, upset the #1 seed in the playoffs and lost in the championship game.    

Millie's 6th grade "school travel team" didn't recruit new players, but it was more than enough to beat every other "school" team.  Their four losses during the winter were against recruited or older teams.  

AAU wasn't as awesome as the last year.   Millie's team lost players, but remained competitive.  Maja's added a few pieces, but played a schedule full of Under Armour and Nike sponsored teams.

The big news for the summer/upcoming winter season is the replacement of the Varsity head coach, Maja playing JV/Varsity over the summer league, and Millie making her junior high debut to much fanfare.  Despite some poor decisions my various coaches and administrators, both girls are set to make a great impact, wherever they're going to play. 

2022 Back Mountain 9th Grade Tournament winners (as 7th/8th graders)

FALL-IN! - Fall In! literally fell into the final weekend of Millie's AAU, so Maja and I spent the Friday cramming wargaming, spent Saturday morning down in Spooky Nook, Saturday Afternoon back at the Host (Wyndham) and all of Sunday at the Nook.  A good time all around.  My first foray into the Friday/Saturday flea markets was a huge success.  Everyone was winning PELA awards except me, which was fine as I brought one unit to the weekend festivities. 

MEPACON - Mepacon 43 returned near its roots this Fall, arriving in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  Vaccination cards were still mandatory, but with no masks, it was a well-attended con that finally felt like a con.  Maja had a great time at her first LARP, I cleared out a couple more tubs in the auction, and outside of the the food truck delays, it was a near perfect convention. 

Sadly, I missed Mepacon 44. 

Historicon 2023! -  I spent my Thursday and Friday running Fistful of Lead - Galactic Heroes and relaxing Friday and Saturday night with Maja.    

I still haven't gotten my PELA yet, even though I've been the thank you list in four awarded events.  

Gnome Wars

Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes

Fistful of Lead - Wasteland Warriors

I’ve got the Magic in me….  The "nearby" FLGS, Sword in the Stone Games, moved from its basement downtown location to a prominent spot in the mall, and things are looking very, very rosy.  

I have ventured over there and slowly jumped into a few Magic games.  A pre-release here, a few Pauper games there, and some practice on Magic: Arena, and I haven't made any crazy investments. 

Kickstarter Status

KS: Attack from Space - July '22 - ARRIVED

KS: Black Rabbit - ARRIVED!

KS: Blackvale  - July '21 - ARRIVED MARCH '23

KS: Carpace & In the Heart of Oz - July '23 - ARRIVED

KS: Caves of Refuge

KS: Children of Uma - September '22 - ARRIVED

KS: Cthulhu and Pulp Characters - Wave 2 - ARRIVED

KS: Cthulhu Wars Cataclysm - I still don't think this will ever show up.

KS: Delta Green: The Conspiracy - April '22 - ARRIVED

KS: Exit, Pursued by Bear  - ARRIVED

KS: Escape from Stalingrad Z - November '22 - ARRIVED

KS: For a Kitten - ARRIVED

KS: Four Kingdoms - ARRIVED

KS: Here We Used to Fly - ARRIVED

KS: In Soviet Russia, Spy Are You!  -ARRIVED!

KS: Macrocosm Chaos Space Dwarves - Wave 2 - ARRIVED!

KS: Macrocosm Chaos Space Dwarves - Wave 3 

KS: Macrocosm Space Dwarves - The Party - ARRIVED!

KS: Madness at the Mall - ARRIVED!

KS: New Dark Age: Death of Magic

KS: People in Peril - May '24

KS: People's Prison - ARRIVED

KS: Planet 28, 2nd Edition - September  '22   - ARRIVED

KS: Reaper Bones 6 -  April '24

KS: Salmon of Knowledge - ARRIVED

KS: Seven Murders Till Midnight - ARRIVED

KS: Trouble at Mill Manor - ARRIVED

KS: Trouble with Gnolls

KS: Village of Omelette 

KS: War for the Wasteland - ARRIVED 

KS: War of Orcs and Dwarves - ARRIVED

I'm a little embarrassed by the plethora of Kickstarters I supported this year, and the small handful that will never see the light of day.  Over half of the Kickstarters that I pledged to, or are awaiting were either cheap zines or the dollar modules that I discovered in the spring.  

I also think I'm swearing off 99% of all international-based Kickstarters, save Macrocosm.  The hassle with my bank or credit card company dealing with out-of-the-country transactions, while a minor pain, has not been worth the effort, save Macrocosm.

Painting - A more productive year than last, despite the "Bachelor Lifestyle," but more than half of my output were items I purchased this year.  I still bought more than I painted, but I definitely need to review the dreaded "lead pile" and see if I need to get a table at Wally's for Historicon.  

Millie's Candy Truck

My "Colorado" Elf

Killer Cacti of the Death Planet Iota

Gnomish Space Marine Dreadnought #2

Dollar Store Trailers and Gnome Wars Surgeons

Dollar Store "Genestealers"

Chaos Space Gnomes

The Dinks

The city of Carf

Brigade Games' take on a Finnish badass, which I turned into a Delta Green themed Soviet operative.

The stage is set for Pulp Season 4

The stage for Pulp Season 4 is even more set!

2022-23 Gaming with the Gnomies Awards

Best Kickstarter:  Macrocosm Chaos Space Dwarves - Wave 2   Best turnaround for a physical product, from the dreaded UK no less!  And the best part?  They're all freakin' painted already!!!

Worst Kickstarter:  Cthulhu Wars Cataclysm - Despite consistent but futile updates, this one reminds me of the failures of the Robotech KS, although I'm getting strong vibes from the Adam Scott Glancy WWI campaign, and the Kickstarter for the Noir RPG. With those,  I think I threw in a buck for the possibility of watching the world burn for those other two.  At this point, I wouldn't even want Petersen games to get my dollar for this one.  100% pledge's remorse.  

Best Game: Ticket to Ride.  As a Christmas gift I knew I was getting, we've not only gotten a couple games in but Millie of all people plays it her friends' homes.  There's hope for her yet.   Despite it's huge impact to my convention games, the only close runner-up for Fistful of Lead.

Best RPG Purchase: Gamma World 4th Edition (Drive Thru RPG Printing).  The POD has been fair for the Kickstarters, but this one motivated me to pick up some more of the 4th edition POD.  Runner Up: Finally picking up Atlantis: The Second Age.

Best Minis:  Veteran with Pick and Pistol from Brigade Games made me think and develop some new characters, or even another league for Pulp Alley.

Best Other Purchase: D-Day (Avalon Hill) - I didn't get around to playing it, but the nostalgia in this one was too strong not to pick up. It has a prominent spot on my trunk/coffee table. 

Next: My Plans for 2023-24

(Painting) Shipments from China

 My youngest daughter got me to sign up to Temu, some online store based in China, in order for her to qualify for some ridiculous discounts on items she wanted.  Over a month later, 

A) Everything arrived in a timely manner.

B) Everything my daughter order is still intact, a miracle compared to the "Buy USA/Buy Local" stuff we normally shoot for.

C) The Chinese have yet to steal my credit card information (or hacked the Paypal account I used). 

As part of my side of the promotion, I got a five sets of generic, but colorful polyhedral dice, a rather poor attempt at a hollow metal d100, and these 3-D printed barrels and crates, all for $13.00.

Lake's Jetty now has some beaucoup supplies.  Perfect for a raid...

For some much needed scenery, these were worth it.   There was considerable clean-up on these (they were loose) and it took multiple coats, inks, and drybrushing to reduce the 3-D layer effect to what you see.  

Are those ledgers or tomes on the far right?

Next on the queue:  I'll start my new gaming year (Oct '23 - Sep '24) with even more little scenery pieces to clear off the table, then some Halloween-related pieces, and finally, the last project before the Pulp Game, Season 4 can kick off in Lake's Jetty.

Project 350:  As I'm doing my gaming year end-of-the-year recap tomorrow, I'll leave the update till then.

(Georic Gazeeteer) The Kingdom of Albion

The Kingdom of Albion

Pantheon: Citlek, with Norse influences

Ruler:  King William I (House Allurd)

Capital: Celendra (750,000)

Other Cities: Beossmannum (30,000), Bergstedum(25,000), Faestun (15,000), Durtorigon (25,000), Dumand(75,000), Seulfrum (20,000)

Language: Citlek, Senzaran, Trade Prythax among the upper classes

Flag/Emblem:  A Yew Tree

Coinage: All coinage from within the Six Crowns is acceptable.

Important Personas:  Dukes of Alorsholt,  ArchDruid of Broswiccan 

Alliances:  Six Crowns

Hostilities: Wyrmnalian raiders

Open Warfare/Skirmishing: None

Intrigues:  Uncertain, but extremely likely

Demi-Humans: Small non-native groups, Dwarven miners, Gnome craftsmen, Elvish archers, Gnolls in the north coming from Caledonia.  Halflings do not last long in the Kingdom, as they complain about the quality of the food.

Magickal Devices: The lance Rhongomyant, the Book of Shadows, and Pavillion of Portals are amongst the greatest of the devices held by the throne of Albion.  Considerable quantities of intermediate and minor sorts of magickal devices also possessed.

Thumbnail Sketch:  As a casual reader of this guide, Albion is the first country listed amongst the "Six Crowns," so a little explanation is in order.   

The Six Crowns refer to the Kingdoms of the Avillonian Isles north of Crosdes:  Albion, Caledonia, Cymru, Hibernia, Lygresse, as well as the City-State of Anon-Maxis at the very tip of he Gran Duchy of Alois.  These six entities represent the only significant part of the continent of Talaishia that was never under Ferasean rule.  Rather, the western lands have had significant colonization and influence of the Senzar Empire.  

Albion, being the easternmost, has had the least amount of Senzar culture filter into it.   Citlek language,  culture, and faith dominating from centuries of Hibernian travelers.  

King Afolbiccum of what we refer to now as Albion repelled Emperor Leif III's men in the the first and only attempt of Ferasean colonization of the isle.  A general peace and trade agreement was reached, however the trade and influence of Feraso was always hampered by the treacherous waters of the Starfall Channel, as well as more lucrative riches to be earned elsewhere.  Threats from power-hungry Caledonian kings threatened peace on the island, and the greatest mistake, greatest impact was hiring/inviting raiders from Zieland to bolster their armies.  The Vikings raided villages, both Caledonian and Albion alike, then proceeded to stay and rule over them. 

It was not until 871 of our calendar when the Great Albion King Alfred, along with his wife, Queen Cordelia, reunited all the Duchies and Counties under "local" rule.  For decades, under the reinforced rule of House Wita (the "White Way") the Kingdom thrived, roads were built, learning was applauded, and the arts were appreciated for all to enjoy.  

During the last significant schism of the Six Crowns, the invasion by Lygresse and Mad King Mordred II, the long-running House of Wita ended its rule and the House of Allurd was elected by the nobles in 1066.  Not only did King Edgar (the Ailing) of that House repel the invasion, they aided Cymru in their hour of need, helped usurp Mordred from power in Lygresse, and established the peace through the islands that has lasted externally for nearly the last hundred years. 

The Observatory at Sarisbarrie is one of the wonders of the world and thousands visit to study astronomy, astrology, and other matters of the divine.  The Universities of Faestun and Seulfrum are older and finer than some of the dominant school established on the mainland.  The capital of Celendra may be the most cosmopolitan city within the Six Crowns, but beware of its ever-present underbelly of crime and corruption.  

The folk of Albion are derived from all of the Six Crowns, with a distant Senzar bloodline and much more recent infusions of Zieland Viking and Wyrmnalian blood.   All commoners speak Citlek, and only the nobles and very learned have taken an interested in Trade Prythax.  

While slavery per se, is frowned upon, the law does offer bondage as a punishment for certain crimes, as well as payment of debts.

The various order of Knights of Albion are prevalent throughout the Kingdom, they form not only backbone of national defense, but may act in a judicial manner regarding local matters.  The finest of the knights aspire to be members of the "Lyfftwinne Grifus"  a squadron of Griffon cavalry feared the world over. 

The standing army is relatively small, relying on their Knights, water currents, and geography.  King William has been active in the global theatre, offering traditional knights and feared longbowman for any action or grand crusade against the Master of Yarbay and his monstrous hordes.  

The greatest attraction casual visitors would want to experience is the vast musical and theatrical offerings of the country.  The Wyrf Theatre in Celendra is known to offer the greatest production of plays, both the ancient classics and the recently written fare.  The famed Marakeikan actress Maria Osic once held sway over the theatre for five years, until setting up her own smaller own, the "Efun Grund" around 1145.  

Religion:  While the center of Citlek Mythos resides in Hibernia, all theological discussions in Albion will go through the Arch-Druid of Broswiccan, Branwen Eiluned Gwennith. 

Arch-Druid of Broswiccan, Branwen Eiluned Gwennith

While there are Wyrmanlian (Norse) influences along the coast, and even intertwined with some of the Citlek beliefs, proselytizing other religions is strictly prohibited.   It is within the rights and duties of Knight of Albion to enforce this law, potentially to the death.  If brought up within a proper magistrate, the penalties are usually much less sever, and normally monetary.  

  

Geography of Note:  

The Observatory at Sarisbarrie

The Universities of Faestun and Seulfrum - The largest collections of books and scrolls not possessed by a wizard or cabal. 

The Wyrf Theatre of Celendra 

Veggor Billi - A gift to the King Edgar the Ailing by immigrant Wyrmanlian Dwarves, it's twelve clock faces tell time in different parts of Georic, including the Drow Empires, the Fairie lands, and even an alleged Hollow Earth.  

Cliffs of Dofrum should be avoided at all costs.  Despite it's beauty, the proliferation of Wyverns and lesser flying vermin require a wizard and potent warding magicks, or enough foolhardy escorts to satiate the creatures' hunger.

Mentions of Albion in the Blog:

Lost Dispatches of Feraso #5 - The Mythologies of Wyrmnal:  Mentions Albion booksellers plying their wares as far as Dremmen, in Marholm, Wyrmnal.

Lost Dispatches of Feraso #8 - Accusations, Heresay, and Circumvention:  Elsderth Millbottom possibly impregnates one of the wives of Jarl Runholf of Marholm.  He pays to have her spirted away to distant location.  Albion is mentioned as one of the potential random destinations.

Georic Gazetteer Entry - The Almond Coast -   Lady Dolores Hillsbury the humand wizard name of a Black Dragon who secretly infiltrated the Princes of Emron and influenced them to do unspeakable acts.  Halfings from the Almond Coast discovered this charade and she was defeated.  Lady Dolores claimed to be a wizard from Albion, and while there is no true magic school, Black Dragons are native to western Albion.

Emelie Lassau - Half-Elf Ranger - A 5e character created for the #CharacterCreationChallenge.  Wyrmnalians are still landing on Albion soil, not just for raids, but to drop off "undesirables"   Emelie's family still chose to risk passage across the Starfall Channel than to stay in Albion.

GM Notes:   Albion and the Six Crowns have never been an active area of my campaigns and I needed to figure out why there's little mention of it.  Despite the Aepic of Earth being the basis for many of my peripheral countries, Albion couldn't just be a version of fantasy Renaissance England.  

Four factors needed to influence the Six Crowns as a whole.  First a heavy influence of Senzar (aka Atlantis) on Hibernia, Lygresse.  Second, a more modern Celtic influence coming from Hibernia.  Three, Roman occupation never occurs, because there is no Roman Empire in the timeline. At some point the Albion Kings repel the otherwise overwhelming influence of Ferasean colonization.  Finally, there is no Norman conquering of the island in 1066.  Rather, they again repel a dark Arthurian-themed invasion and the Celtic/Norse influences remain on the throne.  

In completing this entry, I've completely forgot why I needed to originally call the post "Albtion - The White Way."   Since the entry does nothing to explain that and I can't find any references, any inference that I'm a deranged sympathizer has been removed, although it remains in the web address for the post.