Tag: Sidereal Confluence

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Year in Review – 2024 – Settling in for the Long Haul

Welcome to the fifth annual review on this blog. (Previous annual reviews: 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023.)

This felt like a year where we settled into a mode of hobby gaming that can be maintained indefinitely. Barring exogenous shocks, of course. I also managed to complete my PhD, which has taken the pressure off things a little bit but did not lead to as much slack to really expand my hobby activity on this site as I had hoped. There is always more work to do.

As has become customary, here’s a review of what we played, some statistics, games, and game-related paraphernalia I acquired, D&D-related fiction I read, and, finally, some resolutions for the new year. Happy 2025, everyone.

Addendum: I also blogged an overview of content and rules I homebrewed throughout 2024.

What We Played

Planet Karus

I described Planet Karus, our current D&D campaign, at some length in last year’s review. The game is still going from strength to strength, and I continue to expand the map with new adventuring sites. We also have the occasional almost fully improvised session of shenanigans. Running a fully homebrewed game continues to be an incredibly freeing experience, if at times slightly daunting. I look forward to many more sessions in the years to come.

Board Games

We had nine board game nights this year. Across those, we played Cyclades (2 plays), Galaxy Trucker (6), Kemet: Blood and Sand (2), Lunch Money (2), Modern Art (2), Quantum (1), and Sidereal Confluence (1).

Galaxy Trucker is a quick game, which explains the high count. We typically manage to play two rounds in a night. I am happy we managed to give Sidereal Confluence a go. It’s a beast of a game but also quite the experience. I wouldn’t mind giving it another go at a future occasion, if we all feel up to it. Lunch Money we played on a lark for nostalgia’s sake. That game is so incredibly nineties it hurts. Cyclades is a new acquisition. I would say it is on par with the other Matagot dudes-on-a-map games we like. It is most similar to Kemet, and I think out of the two, I prefer Cyclades because it is less sprawling and more tightly wound.

A game of Cyclades in progress.

Tabletop Role-Playing Game Play Statistics

I once again crunched the numbers on our RPG sessions. Read on for the dirty details.

Sessions

We played nine sessions of Planet Karus, one of which was an eight-hour marathon session. We’ve made the transition to only playing in person with success. I don’t feel it has affected overall attendance too much. If it has, I would say it’s an acceptable trade-off against a much more convivial and engaging play experience.

Attendance

The number of players ranged from 2 to 6 (M = 2.9, SD = 1.3). The six-player marathon session skews these numbers somewhat. If we take that one out, we get a range of 2 to 3 (M = 2.4, SD = 0.5). Almost exactly the same as last year.

The top player was good for 29.6% of the attendance, the number two for 18,5%, and the two shared number three players for 14,8% each. It looks like we had a slightly broader base of participation this year, which is nice and healthy, I would say.

Chart of player attendance.

Character Deaths

We had a total of two player-character deaths and eleven retainer deaths over those nine sessions. Total deaths ranged from 0 to 4 (M = 1.6, SD = 1.2). Both those PC deaths occurred in session 21, which happened on my birthday, and the same player lost both characters. They really do know how to please their referee.

The MilliWhack rating for this year’s sessions ranged from 73 to 103 (M = 89, SD = 9). That’s a decline compared to last year, which I feel reflects the players’ increased savviness and stronger characters. I guess I need to up the ante and start introducing some deadlier environments.

Chart of MilliWhack rating of the Planet Karus campaign to date.

Experience Points

XP per session ranged from 0 to 13,200 (M = 5,710, SD = 4,703). The most lucrative sessions were #23 (13,200) and #26 (11,273). Both were hauls acquired from the second level of the tentpole dungeon, with levels of danger to match the sizeable rewards. I won’t share spoilers here about if there is much more to acquire on this level, but players might need to start exploring the third level if they want to push more of their characters into the upper-level range.

Seven of the current characters saw action this year. Their levels range from 1 to 6 (M = 3.0, SD = 1.5). These characters have now acquired between them 69,994 XP. (Do note that players can get XP from burning treasure, so in effect, each piece of mundane treasure they acquire has the potential of netting them XP twice.) That’s a 3× increase compared to last year. Very well done. Our most active player has managed to get their magic-user character to level six, which is the highest level attainable in Hackbut. A notable achievement!

Game Acquisitions

I believe I did not buy as much hobby-related stuff this year as I did previously. My wallet thanks me.

PDF game books: No ArtPunk, Vol. 1, Yoon-Suin 2nd Edition, Fight On! #15.

Yoon-Suin was a backer reward (I think?) NAP I got to read a few of the winning entries for models to emulate (chiefly Melonath Falls and Caught in the Web of Past and Present). Haven’t gotten around to that yet. Fight On recently relaunched. I had a browse, and it looks fun.

Physical game books: Knock! Issue Four.

Just one physical game book as far as I can recall. This was a backer reward. Knock is always fun to flip through.

Board games: CoraQuest, Captain Sonar, Dragon Quest, Cyclades.

CoraQuest was a birthday present, and it ended up being a big hit with my two six-year-old boys. It’s an extremely well-done, kid-friendly dungeon crawler. Captain Sonar was a gift from my player group, which has yet to find its way onto my table. Dragon Quest was also a gift from a longtime friend and occasional player. A great collectible I am not sure I will ever play, but I am very pleased to own. Cyclades I acquired myself to sort of complete my Matagot dudes-on-a-map holy trinity (alongside Kemet and Inis). We’ve played this a few times, and gosh, is it fun.

Kit: Some more Gamescience dice (d4, d6, d10, d100, d12). I am still on the hunt for a nice d8 and d20. After the previous year’s splurge on some kit for in-person games, I am pretty much set, though, and I don’t feel I need much more.

Books Read

This year, I read a tad more widely than the last, so I did not cover as much D&D-related speculative fiction as I did in the previous year. But still managed to get a few good ones under my belt. In order of reading, these were A Voyage to Arcturus, Carmilla, Appendix N: The Eldritch Roots of Dungeons and Dragons, and Hyperborea.

The final one, CAS’s Hyperborea, is an absolute must for any old-school D&D head, of course, but the single volume I’d recommend the most is Bebergal’s delightful anthology. It’s a near-perfect collection of sword and sorcery, the kind I’d like all of my players to read. I like it so much that I acquired the second, expanded edition in hardback later in the year.

Peter Bebergal’s Appendix N: The Eldritch Roots of Dungeons and Dragons (revised and expanded edition).

Blogging

Ah, blogging. The thing I enjoy doing but can’t seem to make the time for. In the hierarchy of hobby-related things, it does come last. I mean, if the choice is between doing some prep on the Planet Karus campaign or drafting a post, the former takes precedence. And that’s fine, I guess.

I did start cross-posting session reports here, which is better than nothing. But what I’d really like to do is wrap up that series of posts on things I learned about running Castle Xyntillan, continue the series on my homebrew rules, and also start posting some things I have created for the Planet Karus campaign. Now, to make the time for it. Ah well.

Views

The blog had 3,720 views and 1,257 visitors. Surprisingly, that’s an increase from last year of 341 (10%) and 309 (33%), respectively.

The top-performing posts were Running Xyntillan: Downtime (198 views), 1d100 Planetary Romance Tropes (118), and Running Xyntillan: Magic Swords (87). The Xyntillan posts continue to perform very well for understandable reasons. It’s kind of surprising that an AI-generated list of tropes did so well. Clickbait? The next two posts from 2024 that did well were Hackbut – Time and Movement (63), and 1d100 Sword, Sandal and Planet Tropes (46).

Referrers

We had 498 views through search engines, 93 through Beyond Fomalhaut, and 85 through Reddit. Melan beat Reddit. Amazing. (I don’t really post to Reddit anymore. Maybe that’s part of it.) I also continue to receive traffic through The Byzantine (21), Anne (17), and Xaosseed (10). My thanks, as always.

Looking Back and Ahead

Let’s conclude this post by reflecting on last year’s resolutions and making some new ones for the year ahead.

Last Year’s Resolutions

The goals for 2024 included restarting the Planet Karus campaign on a monthly basis, continuing monthly board game nights, running an in-person marathon session, and maintaining a monthly blog schedule.

We played nine Planet Karus sessions which isn’t exactly monthly, but close enough if we factor in the usual breaks over summer and Christmas. If we manage to maintain this level of play over the coming year, I would be perfectly satisfied. But maybe we can bump that number up by one or two.

It also looks like we managed to have nine board game nights. Similarly, I hope we can keep that up and maybe squeeze in one or two more.

The big achievement in 2024, gaming-wise, was, without a doubt, the in-person marathon session we had on March 2. It was an absolute blast to play for eight hours straight. I can’t remember the last time we did that. It may have been back in high school decades ago. We had so much fun that we have set a date for a new marathon session in the new year.

The only goal I feel like I did not achieve was the monthly blog schedule. Aside from the play reports, I only posted three things, two of which were AI-generated lists. For a variety of reasons already discussed, a monthly schedule is just asking too much. But more than three should be doable. I mean, that’s one post every 17 weeks. So, let’s cut the original goal in half and shoot for a proper blog post every other month, for a grand total of six this year.

Upcoming Year

In closing, here are some resolutions for the new year.

Continue the monthly in-person Planet Karus games, as well as the monthly board game nights. Obviously. See if we can increase the attendance and the frequency, if only slightly. Run another in-person marathon session of Planet Karus. And yes, see if we can have a modest increase in the number of blog posts.

That’s it for this year in review. Happy 2025.

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Year in Review – 2023 – Gaming Against Science

Not dead but dreaming. Welcome to the fourth year in review of this blog and the first post in over nine months. (Previous annual reviews: 2020, 2021, 2022.)

As the title suggests, my duties to science prevented me from blogging and, at some point, even from playing for the better part of the year. The heavy lifting on my Ph.D. thesis is now behind me, so I hope to reactivate the D&D campaign and become at least a bit more active here in the coming year.

But before all that, here’s the customary year-in-review post, with an overview of what we played, some play statistics specific to the current D&D campaign, games acquired, books read, the state of the blog, and a look ahead.

What We Played

Planet Karus

We played ten sessions of Planet Karus. This is my fully homebrewed sword and planet campaign, which we play with my also fully homebrewed classic D&D ruleset, Hackbut.

The campaign has a dedicated website, which should give you a sense of the sources I am tapping into and some of our house rules. Recently, I have also begun posting play reports. These are less fleshed out than those I used to do for Castle Xyntillan and contain no referee commentary. They are very much written for the players’ benefit and my own. But maybe some of you will still get something out of it.

Maybe in the future, I will share some bits from the campaign here, like I previously did with the wilderness monster and treasure method I developed to populate the campaign hex map. We will see.

In any case, this has been a lot of fun to run so far. It is a different experience from running published materials. It is more freeing on the one hand. Anything I fancy goes. At the same time, it is more daunting because I sometimes wonder what, if anything, to prep beforehand, particularly when it comes to wilderness locales. How much is enough? For this, I am always on the lookout for models to emulate. The constraint is that any examples I look to for guidance need to operate within classic D&D rules assumptions.

Boardgames

This year, we enjoyed eleven board game nights.

Across those, we played Skull (4 plays), Inis (4), Mission: Red Planet (Second Edition) (3), Quantum (3), Tigris & Euphrates (2), Cosmic Encounter (1), Kemet: Blood and Sand (1), and Power Grid (1).

This year’s new favorite has to be Mission: Red Planet. It scratches that dudes-on-a-map itch while remaining streamlined and, best of all, accommodates up to six players. It’s as if Cathala and Faidutti sat down to design a game specifically for our group’s needs.

A game of Cosmic Encounter in progress.

Play Statistics

Sessions

We played eleven roleplaying game sessions. One to finish up the MOTHERSHIP: Bloom and ten sessions of Planet Karus, using my classic D&D homebrew ruleset Hackbut.

We basically stopped playing after June. That puts us at an average of a little under two sessions per month in the active period of play.

Attendance

The number of players ranged from 1 to 3 (M = 2.3, SD = 0.6).

We added two new players to our group. So we now have a pool of nine players total. It is nice to have some fresh blood in the mix. The new players shake things up because they bring in their own assumptions, interests, and playstyles.

The top three players were responsible for over 70% of the attendance. That’s even higher than in previous years. I believe this may point to a narrowing interest in joining our group’s RPG sessions. But maybe it also indicates folks have other things going on that prevent them from playing.

Chart of player attendance.

Character Deaths

We had no PC deaths, only retainer deaths (four in total). Deaths per session ranged from 0 to 3 (M = 0.4, SD = 0.9).

The deadliest single session was #13, in which three heavy footmen succumbed to a swarm of giant plague rats while covering the retreat at the end of a very fruitful foray into The Balok.

The MilliWhack rating of the Planet Karus campaign’s 2023 sessions ranged from 93 to 174 (M = 125, SD = 26). Things are becoming way less deadly after a spiky beginning (see the chart below), probably mainly due to more careful play and a more capable party.

Chart of MilliWhack rating of the Planet Karus campaign to date.

Experience Points

The XP per session ranged from 0 to 4,847 (M = 1,120, SD = 1,357).

The most gainful session was also #13. As mentioned, three footmen died, but the party did abscond with many riches from the treasury of the late gremlin king Zaiden on the first level of The Balok.

We currently have a stable of nine player characters. Their levels range from 1 to 4 (M = 1.9, SD = 1.3). These characters have, between them, now acquired 20,644 XP.

Game Acquisitions

All of the below were either direct purchases or Kickstarter reward deliveries.

PDF Game Books: The Monster Overhaul, Mike’s World: The Forsaken Wilderness Beyond, X1 The Isle of Dread, Blackmarsh, Echoes From Fomalhaut #03: Blood, Death, and Tourism, Echoes From Fomalhaut #08: Welcome to Castle Sullogh, HYPERBOREA Ready Reference Sheets, Gathox Vertical Slum, Monster of the Week.

Most of the above were acquired to pilfer game content from for use with Planet Karus or as models to emulate, particularly for the wilderness section of the game. The Monster Overhaul was a Kickstarter delivery. An impressive GM tool, but not one I will be using because it has drifted too far off from classic D&D.

Physical Books: AD&D First Edition Dungeon Masters Guide (Easley cover), Vaults of Vaarn, The Scourge of Northland, TROIKA!.

Vaults of Vaarn I acquired for Planet Karus inspiration. Scourge of Northland and TROIKA! were Kickstarter deliveries. I continue to enjoy Fleming’s publications’ structure, art, and production qualities. TROIKA! was mainly purchased for completionism’s sake. It has really nice paper.

My Easley cover AD&D 1e DMG. I managed to grab a copy in a decent condition for a somewhat reasonable price. Now my three-book set is complete.

Board Games: Sidereal Confluence, Mission: Red Planet (Second Edition) and Modern Art.

Sidereal Confluence is a beast, and I have yet to bring it to the table. As mentioned, Mission: Red Planet is a new favorite. Modern Art we have yet to play as well.

Kit: ZucatiCorp Holmage Dice, DriveThruRPG Game Master Screen (landscape), Chessex Polycarbonate Dice Boot, selection of Mini Meeples.

The above was acquired mainly for use with our in-person marathon session, which I had to cancel. I now have snazzy custom referee inserts for the screen. The mini meeples were long on my list after reading this Reddit post.

The Holmage dice were a birthday gift. I have an actual set still in shrink wrap in my vintage Holmes box. These are for actual playing with. Although I think I still prefer my selection of Gamescience dice more.

My ZucatiCorp Holmage Dice before receiving the classic crayon treatment.

Books Read

Here I introduce a new section where I review the sci-fi and fantasy fiction I consumed over the year. As you will notice, I am, for the most part focusing my reading on the science fantasy and sword and planet genres. The idea is to immerse myself in the genre that best matches the feel I am going for with Planet Karus. I have found it is beginning to pay off in my ability to spontaneously improvise genre-appropriate content on the spot.

Novels: Swordsmen in the Sky, The Jewel in the Skull (History of the Runestaff, #1), While the Gods Laugh, Bazaar of the Bizarre, R.U.R., Servants of the Wankh (Planet of Adventure, #2), The Serpent (Atlan Saga, Volume 1 of 5), The Mad God’s Amulet (The History of the Runestaff, #2), The Dirdir (Planet of Adventure, #3), The Pnume (Planet of Adventure, #4), Red World of Polaris: The Adventures of Captain Volmar, The Sword of the Dawn (History of the Runestaff, #3), The Runestaff (History of the Runestaff, #4), The Eyes of the Overworld (The Dying Earth, #2).

If I had to pick a single book from this list to recommend, it would have to be The Dirdir. The extended sequence set in the alien hunting ground of the Carabas is one part Predator, one part Roadside Picnic, and a hundred percent terrifyingly awesome. (Close contenders were The Mad God’s Amulet and The Eyes of the Overworld.)

My copy of Red World of Polaris. Not CAS’s strongest stories, but of interest to those who are intrigued by his take on sci-fi.

Comics: Het Geheim van de Nitronstralen (Storm, #6), De Legende van Yggdrasil (Storm, #7), DEN Volume 1: Neverwhere, Stad der Verdoemden (Storm, #8), The Adventures of Red Sonja Vol. 1.

Here the pick is easy. DEN is a remarkable feat of psychedelic picaresque storytelling and mind-blowing art. I wish I could find more sword and planet comics in a similar vein.

My copy of DEN, which I managed to find at a reasonable price after long scouring the internet.

Blogging

Blogging basically stopped after March. After the previous year in review, I posted once on how I determine the presence of monsters and treasure in the wilderness, and once on how I handle experience in Hackbut. I stopped making the time for posting because I needed to complete my Ph.D. thesis, which I did. So maybe things will improve on the hobby front in this new year.

Views

The blog received 3,379 views (down by 517 compared to 2022) and 948 visitors (down by 159). A clear decline, likely due to the lack of posting and sharing posts.

The top posts were Wilderness Monsters & Treasure (163 views), CX Session #0 (140), CX Session #1 (112), CX Downtime (93), and CX Magic Swords (93).

Referrers

After search engines (324 views) and Reddit (106), Beyond Fomalhaut (60), Seed of Worlds (31), and A Distant Chime (21) generated the most traffic to this blog. The usual thanks go out to them.

Looking Back and Ahead

Let’s finish by reflecting on last year’s resolutions, and make some new ones for the year ahead.

Last Year’s Resolutions

We did indeed finish MOTHERSHIP: Bloom which ended suitably grimly.

We played Planet Karus online, but as already stated, at some point, we basically stopped.

Our group continued to play board games once a month, pretty religiously. This has been, for a very long time, the backbone of our group, the thing that keeps us together, and I value it greatly

Blogging basically stopped as well.

Finally, the last resolution was to play an extended in-person game of D&D. We were all set to play a marathon Planet Karus session in mid-November, but I had to cancel at the last moment due to illness.

Upcoming Year

In closing, some resolutions for the new year. I will reactivate the Planet Karus campaign. A weekly game appears to be too tall an order, so we will try to convene once a month instead.

We will also continue our monthly board game night, of course.

I want to run that in-person marathon and have already sent out a new date picker. Fingers crossed that no act of god will prevent it from occurring this time around.

Finally, I hope to return to the occasional spot of blogging here. Monthly is probably still the best target. Less than that is equal to basically no target at all. More than that is very unlikely to happen.

That’s it for this year in review. Happy 2024.