2024 Goal Progress

 It has been 9 days and I'm already posting an update! 

Played ttrpgs: 2/24 

• Worlds Without Number*
• Mythic Bastionland^
• Fox Curios: Floating Bookstore^

(* = also GM'd; ^ = solo) 

January Dungeon Challenge: 

• Week 1 Jan 1st to 7th: Lighthouse
• Focused on treasure and the core 5 room dungeon mechanics.  
• Felt good about placing clues to other rooms 
• Felt weird about treasure and magic items still
• Week 2 Jan 8th to 14th: Sinking Pirate Wreck 
• Focusing again on treasure  and adding a ticking clock 
• Feeling better on treasure 
• This is a little harder to map 

Continue to Blog: Well - yeah this post is kind of cheating though... 

Create Itch.io page: Not yet -- don't have anything worth putting up 

2024 GM'ing Challenge

#Dungeon23 built a strong community centered around an interesting challenge.  I did not make the attempt, but I loved watching the communities projects develop! 

There has been varying spinoffs for 2024—Lore24, Hexplore24, and a few others.  None have fully clicked for me.  One piece of Lore a day doesn't seem the most actionable—it is vague enough to where I don't think I would derive a sense of progress with each subsequent day in comparison to creating a new dungeon room.  A dungeon room has a clear metric for success and each day builds on the one prior.

So my challenge to myself is as follows: A daily task with the theme changing each month.  

January will be 5 Room Dungeons.  

• Day 1: Theme, Concept, and initial approach observations 
• Day 2-6: One room per day, adding empty rooms as thematically necessary
• Day 7: Touch ups, treasure 

The reason that treasure gets its own day is because I think that is one of the weakest parts of my prep and I want to spend additional time focusing on placing treasure.  If you are interested in doing this as well, I would recommend changing "treasure" to an area you feel where you will benefit from extra focus.  "Touch ups" is also otherwise super vague and an easy day to lose momentum.  I'm allowing empty rooms to be added as the amount of extra work is low and it is an optional seasoning.

I chose 5 Room Dungeons because January is all about getting back to basics, resetting, and trying to set new habits.  A 5 Room Dungeon is simple, clean, and the most basic new GM task.  Reading So You Want to be a Gamemaster has helped motivate me to reassess my GM'ing abilities and focus on improving the "basics."

This will be done Jan 1st, Jan 8th, Jan 15th, Jan 22nd, and Jan 29th—to end on Feb 4th.  

Each month I'll have a new challenge (to start on Feb 5th).  Changing categories will keep it fresh and motivating—ensuring my interest doesn't grow stagnant.  Possible challenges include: City streets and buildings, a hexmap with each hex described, random encounters, and random tables.  I can also return to an old category later if I have more creative juice in that area. 

I don't have a catchy name for this—GM2024?  

Wish me luck! 

A Year in Review and A Year To Come

This year I accomplished a lot of ttrpg goals.  I ran at a convention for the first time (PAX Unplugged),  my Worlds Without Number campaign is thriving, and I'm rediscovering a lot of the joy I had missed from running the game. 

That's not to say I didn't like running the game.  Only that the enjoyment was more from the shared experience and not my role.  Since attending PAX and starting to blog again I have remembered things about running the game that sparked a lot of joy for me.  Such as structuring prep to where it is fun.  I found an old sketch book that has been unused for years and using it to draw dungeons has been envigorating.  I am very optimistic about 2024 and I cannot wait to see what it brings us! 


2023 Awards: 

Game of the Year:  Fox Curio's: Floating Bookshop by Ella Lim

Best Adventure Module: sdf

Best Book: The Monster Overhaul

Best Zine: Fallen by Perplexing Ruins

Best GM Aid: Hexcrawl Toolbox

Most Anticipated Game of 2024:  Mythic Bastionland

Most Anticipated Book of 2024: Dolmenwood



In 2023 I played:

Worlds Without Number*

Break! 

Ironsworn^

Starforged^

Dragonbane

The Walking Dead

Mythic Bastionland*

Fox Curio's: Floating Bookshop^

Lichdom^

* = DM also /// ^ = Played Solo

This is a lot less than I did in 2022 and 2021.  Mostly because my main DM campaign and player campaign are both in WWN.  I also think this is the first year since I started playing ttrpgs (2017) that I did not play D&D 5e.  Interesting!  That being said: I want to experience more systems in 2024. 

That is a great segway into my 2024 goals! 

2024 I Want To: 

Play 24 TTRPG Systems.  Includes solo ones! 

Complete My Daily 2024 Challenge (see next blog post) 

Start an Itch.io Page and publish my dungeons.  

Continue to Blog! 

Thank you to anyone who takes a minute to read my ramblings.  I wish you nothing but great things in the year to come!