#73: Hello, 2022!

I. Dear Reader,

I played a lot of fun games in 2021 - around 30 different games by my count. I feel like it’s almost mandatory for me to do some kind of “best of” so here are my highlights: CrashCart, Once More Into the Void, For the Queen, Girl by Moonlight and Band of Blades. These are all fantastic games that I wholeheartedly recommend. They all have very different premises: Band of Blades is gritty, Once More Into the Void is romantic, etc. But if those premises sound interesting to you, then you’ve got to try them!

CrashCart and For the Queen got their own newsletter issues. Girl by Moonlight has been mentioned a couple times and I’ll be writing more about it when the final book comes out. My Band of Blades campaign is definitely going to get its own post. And so will Once More Into The Void though I might wait till the new kickstarted edition comes out because I’m very interested in what kind of changes you make to a game that’s already so good.

Going into 2022, I’m definitely thinking about this newsletter. I’d love to know what kind of posts people like, what kind of writing they enjoy, etc - but honestly, I have no idea. My newsletter analytics don’t really tell me anything so I’m mostly just stumbling around, following my own whims. The Surveying the Dark series in July (where I tried to catalogue all the FitD games I could find - parts 1, 2, 3, 4 here) was fun *for me* but I’m not sure if people want to see more like it. Because it was definitely fun but the thoroughness of the project also made it a lot of work.

So if you’ve got ideas or opinions, reply to this email or leave a comment using the button at the end of the email. Make your requests, please! The literal worst thing that can happen is that I’ll say “I don’t think I’m the right person for that” or it takes me a while to do.

Anticipatingly,

Thomas

PS. The Surveying the Dark series is actually a good example of something that works for me. It’s a big project but by breaking it down into four parts and sending off a part every week, it actually got finished. So maybe I take all my 2000+ word essay ideas and make them four 600 word articles in successive issues. Maybe that’s the secret, hmm.

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II. Media of the Week

• On Matt Colville’s channel, Jennifer Kretchmer continues the series talking about games that aren’t D&D with a 30 minute dive into Ten Candles.

• Want a 30 minute intro to Powered by the Apocalypse games? Well, here you go. Regardless of how well you think it conveys why PbtA is so beloved, I really appreciate how it begins by saying PbtA isn’t a game engine.

• The Gauntlet podcast published their Favourite Games of the Year 2021 issue and it’s a fun listen. Full of people (a surprising number honestly, including me!) sharing their favourite games that they played or discovered last year.

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III. Links of the Week

• The lovely Cannibal Halfling (that I would like to contribute more to) celebrates five years - with some data for those who like that stuff!

• A review of Brindlewood Bay on the Alexandrian blog

• Meguey Baker writes about the power of “ritual” in games

(It seems like it was a quiet week for articles for obvious reasons. But maybe I’m missing some stuff. If you know a blog about indie RPGs that I should add to my feed, let me know!)

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IV. Small Ads

All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.

• Theology student Riley becomes trapped in The Royal Hotel, tormented by migraines, after “borrowing” a mysterious manuscript; The Catcott Collection is a one-on-one Call of Cthulhu scenario set in Bristol.

This newsletter is currently sponsored by the all-new, fan-supported Fate-SRD.com. Built to be fast, attractive, and accessible, check out the site for rules, downloads, actual plays, and community.

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Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. I’m half-man, half-beast, half-journalist, half-game designer.

My latest release: A story seed in Branching Streams, a supplement to An Altogether Different River by Aaron Lim which is a storygame about a town, the people who leave it, and the people who stay behind.

If you’d like to support this newsletter, share it with a friend or buy one of my games from my itch store. If you’d like to say something to me, you can reply to this email or click below!

Thanks for subscribing and take care out there!