As I normally do for anthologies, here is a series of mini reviews for each of the short stories:

Lean In: The Lord of Hell is Coming (Ericka Kahler): I don’t want to give anything away about this delightful story. I will say that it does an amazing job of flipping many tropes on their head and, in a funny way, actually made me rethink the premises behind many of those tropes.

I was a kickstarter backer for this book.

Back when Goldeneye first came out, the only first person shooter I’d played was a few short sessions of Wolfenstein 3D that my dad had introduced me to a few years before. I found it hard and boring and didn’t try to play all that much. When we rented Goldeneye, it was the first time I found myself enjoying the genre. A great deal of that came from the great mix of humor and seriousness in the game. We had a ton of fun playing “slappers only”.

I have not been doing this calendar in the way it was meant to be played. I keep forgetting for long stretches at a time. Still, we’re only done with the first quarter of the year. Perhaps after this entry I can do a better job at playing daily even if I don’t post to the blog daily. It will probably help the story resonate better for me.

Story

19 Feb

I continue into the swamp, keeping my eyes open for webs or other creatures that will say I have arrived at Silkrend.

It’s time once again for my annual podcast list. The formatting continues with the changes I added last year: Podcast Republic (the podcatcher I use) no longer provides the podcast’s official description. In lieu of that, I have the “My Thoughts” section which is part description and part opinion. If you click on the podcast’s title - that is the link for the podcast’s feed. If you click on the link for the Podcast website, that should take you to whatever website the podcast lists as their official website. This year I added an “Ended” subheading for podcasts that have ended, but I’m not removing them just yet from the podcatcher in case I want to check out old episodes.

I am extremely late in posting this, but I’ve been incredibly busy in 2026. In 2025 I ended up playing 2 days (48 hours) less than in 2024. It would have been way less if I hadn’t been playing Slay the Spire while exercising. More on that below.

Games Played in 2025

1. Slay the Spire (4 days, 22:42:57): You may remember that, a few years ago, I played a lot of Slay the Spire but eventually decided Monster Train was better. Before going on a flight I saw that this game was on sale in the Google Play store. It joined Gwent as the second game on my phone. Having it available for random moments of play made its play time rise up throughout the year. In fact, on the all-time charts it rose from the 39th position to the #4 position. I’ve been working, without success, on beating the final area of the game (essentially new game +).

The Story

Time elapsed so far in campaign at start of this adventure: 77 days

Summary

After their recent adventures, the team decides to go on a vacation. They travel to a remove in called The Inn of the Last Repast. Soon after arriving, some people in robes come looking for a lost member of their group. It turns out to be a Satarre and some cultists. The group fights them off and the innkeeper reveals that the person they were looking for was in last night talking about the end of the world, but the innkeeper dismissed it as the ravings of a drunk man.

The Story

Time elapsed so far in campaign at start of this adventure: 63 days

Summary

Stuff still to sell:

• Mosquito in Amber - 100 GP
• Crab meat - 5 GP
• Ashes of Corrupted Pixie - 10 GP

The team reads newspaper articles about the kobolds that fell off the boat when they were working for Little Timmy. They also read an article about how they helped the Concordians. They also get a letter from Valery’s father letting her know that with the money she’s been sending home, he has hired an apprentice at his smithy.

Story

After our long rest in the library, Flint suggested we explore further. However, when we tried to go down the next hallway, a powerful wind blew us back. Flint was immediately blown back. Aghell was able to stay there, but became exhausted. Scrabble suggested that killing the creature might remove the spell on the hallway. The crew agreed with that and decided that we would use what we learned to kill the firegeist. We filled buckets from the ship with seawater and hauled back into the room with the monster.

The Story

Time elapsed so far in campaign at start of this adventure: 30 days

Summary

During the downtime weeks Sam and Valery worked in the shop and were able to sell the Geode and the fish.

Still Unsold

• Mosquito in Amber
• Crab Meat
• Ashes of Corrupted Pixie

From the money made so far, Valery sent back 15 GP to her parents.

I believe this was the first book released for Starfinder Second Edition. As such it had to serve as an introduction to the system as well as what had changed in the solar system since the first edition. Unlike many TTRPG companies, Paizo likes to advance the story of the world and change things up as time goes on.

However, the best part of the way this book is organized is that the first few chapters are based on the types of campaigns you might run - horror, science fiction, fantasy, weird, and so on. For each type of campaign, the writer suggests planets the GM might go to and some campaign starters whether it’s for a one-shot or a long campaign. Just this section alone is worth getting this book.