The Ash, the Elder, and the Hen Elm

 So! End of another year.  The Bloggies are coming back , and I am shamefully going to plug my own better posts of the year under the guise of a review of what I've been up to. After all, last year's winner/this year's host Clayton Notestine recommends 'a social media account to pester people with links' as part of his winning strategy, so I can't be on tooooo bad of a footing. BUT! Because self-promotion is obviously evil, I'm going to morally counterbalance and make the post a bit more interesting than that, by following on from what a few people did last year and listing out the blog posts from other people I'd be nominating for each category with some short commentary. Then I'll go over some of my better posts, so people have a chance to look back over them before the Bloggies submission deadline. Finally, I'll talk a bit about what my 'gaming year' has looked like.  If you're interested in the previous (first) year of the blog, ...

 October this year, I found myself suddenly a lot more intellectually occupied than I have been for a year or so. You'll have noticed, if for some reason you're internet-stalking me, that I haven't posted anything in a couple of months.  I was very clear when I started the blog that it wasn't going to be another chore for me, so I don't mind letting it sit for a time. Posts will come when the moment strikes. Letting the book-blogs go by the wayside was a shame but also, to be honest, a relief; the exercise of regular writing on a pre-chosen topic is anathema to the state of creative flow I normally try to enter when working, and it's been nice to be able to put aside the painful push to finish in favour of letting things just be. Of course, such an approach has its limits, the main one being that I tend not to make anything. Instead, I spark off little bits of art, plus pushing on doggedly with whatever game I'm running at the moment (a mage game currently, ...

 Saw the blog bandwagon and went to the laptop like a shot. This is an ideal opportunity to rant about the things that've made my game design and writing what they are. Kinda following the model that Traverse Fantasy did of sharing general game-running inspirations, rather than for a particular game/design. (If you want to see my longer list of inspirations for a specific game, my Pillar of Velkith Tales of Theon campaign, have a look here .) Going to start with the things that mean the most to my way of doing things and keep on going. Babylon Berlin Weimar Germany neo-noir, 2017-22, created, written & directed by  Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries and Henk Handloegten I really like a game with a strong base of plausibility. The world ought to exist beyond what's 'plot-relevant' - even if there is an established plot, the rails need to be comprised of PC wants and needs rather than hard boundaries beyond which everything turns into the fucking Minecraft far lands. B...