Table 46

The Rearview Mirror - Endies 2025

It's the start of a new year and a lot of folks have been posting their yearly wrap-ups, so I thought I'd get in on the show and talk a bit about what I've been up to this year. Credit to Lady Tabletop for the Endies format.

Games Played - 97 sessions

Running

Jewelsea RPG/Fear the Dark - 3 sessions

My work in progress that I've posted about a lot here on the blog. It's gone through a lot of forms since I first started thinking about the idea a few years ago. Getting it to the table helped me learn quite a bit, enough that I kept the specific mechanical bits that I liked and discarded the core mechanic, electing to start working with an Oddlike base, taking a lot of inspiration from Cairn and Mythic Bastionland along with Torchbearer. I'm hoping to get the game back to the table in the coming year now that I've got a bit less going on.

Playing

Dungeons & Dragons 5e - 41 sessions

There's really not much to say here. I've been playing with the same group running through campaign books since 5e launched in 2014. The system itself is mediocre at best, but it's a good excuse to hang out with friends.

Sea of Dead Men - 20 sessions

A campaign that launched in 2024 and came to an end this year, even if we didn't quite conclude. This is a Forged in the Dark hack that runs pretty close to base Blades, intended to produce swashbuckling pirate action. It achieves that, though it's not without its flaws. The biggest problem we ran into was that we were pushing up against the limits of advancement after 35 sessions total, meaning that it was hard to challenge the characters in a meaningful way.

Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader: Wrath & Glory - 13 sessions

Our "biweekly" game meets on Sundays and this year we've been playing Wrath & Glory. I was not previously a fan of Warhammer 40K and to be honest, nothing I've seen out of this has convinced me to become one. It's a perfectly adequate trad RPG, but everything interesting in this campaign has been brought to the table by the players rather than coming out of the system or setting.

Translucent University - 1 session

This is one of my friend's many games in playtest. It's intended to produce a magic school environment much like the book series that shall not be named, and I think it did a pretty good job.

Dread - 1 session

I love the tension of drawing Jenga blocks but unfortunately the pace at which we were drawing them in this session wasn't enough to actually get the tower to fall down before we wrapped up.

Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast - 1 session

I knew nothing about Yazeba's before sitting down to play at Gen Con because Jay Dragon posted in Discord that there were still seats open. I had a great time, but this is a game that I definitely want to play once in a while rather than in an ongoing format.

Bump in the Dark - 1 session

This was a rather mediocre Forged in the Dark hack focusing on paranormal investigation/monster of the week play.

Outcast Silver Raiders - 1 session

I had a blast with this OSR doing a dungeon bash. I swore to myself I'd actually read through my copies after I got back from the con, but I haven't gotten there yet.

Caravans - 2 sessions

Another friend's playtest game, intended for long con open table play where players (and characters) join up with and leave the caravan as it travels from stop to stop along its route. I really enjoy watching characters move from ciphers to fleshed out as they reveal themselves in conflicts in this one and I look forward to continuing to playtest it.

Let Us Build a Tower - 1 session

This is another fun OSR game about climbing through a mythical Tower of Babel.

Kamigakari - 1 session

A game about hunting monsters in Japan. The GM had a pretty fun scenario, but a somewhat loose grasp of the rules, so I have a hard time judging the game.

Morrow Project - 1 session

The classic post-apocalyptic game, hacked to run using OD&D rules. I had a blast working our way over the terrain of the Driftless Area in Iowa to link up with another cell sending out a distress signal.

Ragna Borg - 1 session

I guess if you really like vikings you might play this one, but I didn't see a lot to recommend this over the original Mork Borg.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1e - 1 session

A classic dungeon crawl through undersea caves.

Empire of the Petal Throne - 1 session

Professor Barker should obviously be condemned for his heinous beliefs, but as the man is dead, I feel free to admit that I still enjoy playing in the world he created. Empire of the Petal Throne, based on OD&D as it is, is my favorite of the published rulesets for Tekumel and I try to get a few sessions in at cons every year.

Dungeon Crawl Classics - 1 session

DCC is always good for zany fun, but I wish the official adventures were less linear.

Mausritter - 1 session

I love a good Oddlike (it's why I've ended up using it as the base for my game) and my friend did a great job running his absurdist Mausritter scenario.

Glowburn & Radscars - 1 session

This was another Oddlike, this time inspired by Gamma World. It could probably use a bit more polish, but I had fun with it.

Scum & Villainy - 4 sessions

We've just fired this one up at the end of the year. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes, but it looks like scheduling issues may cut my time in it short.

Conventions Attended

Forge Midwest

This is probably my favorite convention. It's not quite as focused on playtesting as it once was, but the pitch format means I don't need to decide weeks or months in advance if I want to run a game. I can have an idea the night before and have it on the table at the con the next day with people who are willing and able to give good feedback.

Gen Con

The big one. I attend every year, but this was my wife's first time. She was astounded at the scale of the convention but immediately decided she's coming back next year. Here's hoping I'm a bit luckier with event registration this time!

Gamehole Con

Gamehole Con is big enough that there are an awful lot of options. It's also small enough that I manage to run into almost everyone I know who attends the convention. It's a great time for me to connect with other gamers from my circles across the Midwest, though I wish the food options were a little more developed.

Books Read

I don't keep rigorous track of when I read books, so this is not an exhaustive list.

Fiction

Non-Fiction

RPGs

Blog Topics

I started the blog because I thought it would be an easy place to stick my conlanging in a more accessible format than a private Discord. Since I already had the blog, when I decided to knuckle down and produce a playtest draft for Prismatic Wasteland's Year of the Beta, it seemed like a great place to post about that as well. I've thrown out a few other worldbuilding posts and RPG related posts. If there's things you'd like to see, let me know!

2026 Plans

In the coming year, I'd like to get the Jewelsea RPG not only into a format where I can playtest it, but also done enough that other people can run it as well. I'm also planning to continue the work on my conlang and hopefully work on some naming languages for other cultures in my Jewelsea setting. The work on Thekkish has taught me that I don't want to go through the process of making a fully functional language for each of them. Finally, I plan to continue posting to the blog. I'm going to target an average of one post per week.

I hope everyone has a great new year!