2021 in Review

2021 has been a good year in my gaming life, mirroring - whether through causation or mere correlation - a good year for personal development all round. 

In late January I began running a weekly D&D Rules Cyclopedia campaign, 'The Three Mile Tree'. which has continued all year, missing I think only two weeks total. Momentum is strong and the regular crew - you know who you are - have been great sports. (Next week, we find out whether any of them will survive their encounter with the giant lynx displacer beasts.) It has been good to be reminded that 'with all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams' role playing is still a fun hobby. 

In July I published the first volume of Orbis Immobilis, the Fixed World. This is the first product I've actually managed to release since I think the spring of 2016, despite having three (count 'em) projects otherwise completed and ready to go. I sincerely hope that logjam will be cleared in 2022, releasing a veritable flood of sheer, unadulterated stuff - and the next volume of The Fixed World is already half done.

Overall I am pleased with my blogging output over the past 12 months. Quantity has been lower than I would have wished, but I think average quality has improved after a relatively barren 2020. Some posts that I was actually quite proud of include my review of the Lyonesse and Gaean Reach RPGs, Summerland, or the Spookiness of Rural England in August, Asking 'What Then?', Name That Subculture, The Patch Adams Problem, and this review of Jack Vance's Emphyrio. I also did a well-received interview with Patrick Stuart and enjoyed being interviewed in turn. (And, though nobody else seemed to like them, I got a kick of writing the Tournament of the Gods entries.)

I also actually bought quite a lot of stuff this year. Not all of it was great, but I really enjoyed Punth: A Primer, The Gardens of Ynn, and Pariah. I was encouraged that there is still space within what I would call the 'substance over style' bracket. What I would like to see more of in 2022 is really excellent material that looks as though some earnest amateur, without particular artistic skill, really tried hard to put together something half-decent in MS Word and then exported it as a PDF. I mean that entirely non-facetiously.

Otherwise, let's keep going. Avoid social media, run games, write/draw stuff, and read good books. That's what I hope to do in the year to come.