Books in January 2026

The new year got off to a good start with 12 books and 2,594 pages read. Unusually, it was quite roleplaying heavy, although I read some fantastic novels, along with perhaps the best non-fiction book that I've read in a long time. This year I've set a target of 52 books again. I hope to beat that, of course.

The roleplaying books were driven by Cairn. This is a game by Yochai Gal that I've often heard of in cross references but never read or played. One of my friends mentioned it as a possible alternative system for a return to Dolmenwood and my ears pricked enough to pick up the core second edition books (Cairn Player's Guide, Cairn Warden's Guide and Cairn Bestiary). The game is very light but, like Mausrítter with which it shares some ancestry, it's surprisingly deep. I think I'll be rereading this and considering using it at some point.

After Cairn, I read both Coriolis: The Great Dark and its campaign set, Flowers of Algorab, in preparation for a campaign that I'll start in February. The fact that I'm planning to run it should tell you everything about my opinion of the game.

As part of my Clarkesworld catch up, I read Issue 226 and Issue 229, both of which were very enjoyable.

The non-fiction book I loved was Duncan Mackay's Echolands: A Journey in Search of Boudica. MacKay is an archaeologist who lives in East Anglia, and the story of Boudica's revolt has long fascinated him. He tells the tale well, sharing what we know of the culture of the Iceni, their Roman overlords, the nature of the Colchester Colonia and the ongoing military operations on the island by the Legions as the rebellion erupted. There's a fascinating exploration of the likely location of the final battle and then discussion of its aftermath, likely mass starvation. I listened to the audiobook which is read by the author and highly recommend this. Of course, growing up near Chester, I've long had a fascination with the Romans in Britain, so this was like catnip for me. It also touched on places I know and have passed through with work.

The Elle Cordova Bookclub pick this month was The Power by Naomi Alderman, which I found hard to put down. The book's caused a lot of discussion in the club Discord and has had mixed responses, but I found it compelling and read it very quickly. It talks about the overturn of the patriarchal nature of society when women start to develop the power to manipulate electrical fields. It's written from the perspective of several thousand years. Challenging but interesting.

I wanted a bit of change of tone after that, so I finally started reading James Ellroy's LA Quartet, starting with The Black Dahlia, which follows the lives of two LAPD cops, both ex-boxers, and the woman they both love as they are at the heart of the investigation of the Black Dahlia murder. Really well done, sunshine, grime, corruption and a fascinating mystery alongside.

The final book of the month was Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan, which tells the story of two friends from Scotland. The book is split into two parts, one in the 1980s around a mad trip to Manchester to see various bands over a weekend, and the second part set thirty years later when the protagonists are drawn together again by adversity. I found this sad and joyful and enjoyed it. Certainly made me feel reflective about the passing of time.

8 February 2026 

Adding custom cards on Owlbear Rodeo

This post is more a reminder for myself on how to do this. The help guidance for the Decks extension is good, but I had some key learnings to remember when I built my first custom deck of cards on Owlbear Rodeo for Flowers of Algorab. 

• Image type and size isn't too critical as long as OBR can read them. I used PNG and JPEG.
• If you want custom cards, don't bother using the upload options because they are a faff (you need the image files on a web server and it doesn't play nice with Dropbox type URLs). I also had issues with web server versions not creating images on the deck.
• Add the images to OBR as tokens (I put them in props).
• Use the custom tab.
• Drag to a scene and select the one you want, then use confirm selected for the back, then the front.
• Don't forget to add a value if the card has one.
• Click add to deck.
• Rinse and repeat.
• Use the 'create' option to drop the deck on the scene.
• Don't forget you can select the cards and group to get them back in the deck.
• Most importantly, export the deck file and save it somewhere. You'll need it if you want to add the deck in on another scene.

The chap who has written this extension is really helpful and responsive on the OBR Discord.

25 January 2026

Coriolis: The Great Dark Character, Crew, Bird, Simple Tracker & Dice Roller Sheets for the Role VTT

As part of my preparation for running Flowers of Algorab, I have created a character sheet for Coriolis: The Great Dark on the Role VTT.

You can find the Character Sheet here.

I will be adding a crew sheet and a bird sheet soon.

Why am I using Role? Mainly as I enjoy the AV first set up it has. I'm experimenting running with the Owlbear Rodeo plugin for maps etc. 

The other reason is that there's no sheet for the new edition on Roll20, of course. Fria Ligan have moved off to Foundry and Alchemy.

Edit: 

Crew Sheet

Bird Sheet

Edit 2:

Simple Tracker sheet designed for use alongside a traditional character sheet) 

Dice Roller sheet

 

24 January 2026

Traveller - A Package from a Dark, Cold Grave

I had a really satisfied feeling this week as a project that I’ve been working on returned to print as a PDF on DriveThruRPG. It’s taken quite some work to get it there, and there may be more to come if it goes into a print version.

I originally wrote Cold, Dark Grave around May 2005, setting it around 1114. The aim was to use it at conventions with BITS, and it ultimately proved popular, even though it could generate the odd TPK if things went badly. Part of the story relies on a betrayal, so there was an edge of character-vs-character friction.

Although the final book has ended up being called ‘Cold Dark Grave’, its title went through several variations as I wrote it up. The first version was ‘Out from a Dark Cold Grave’, which heads the OmniOutliner file with the scenario structure in from May 2005. I later called it ‘A Package from a Dark, Cold Grave’ when I shared the scenario out, and Andy Lilly renamed the tournament print of the scenario ‘From a Cold, Dark Grave’. Finally, it was shortened to its present name when it was released as a book at Conception 2007. As this happened just before BITS started to fall into dormancy, it was one of the rarer books we produced. 

Andy’s introduction in the recent release mentions that the scenario was originally prepared for GenCon UK 2005, which was held in Bognor Regis. This would have meant we were running it for multiple tables across the convention. I’m glad he remembered that because I completely forgot.

I wanted a scenario grounded in canon, and I was drawn to the Battle of the Two Suns, which occurred during the Fourth Frontier War in the year 1084. This was a pivotal battle in that unintended conflict, and it was first mentioned in the Classic Traveller Adventure The Kinunir, where it was mentioned as in passing as being the place that two of the ships in the class, the Allamu and the Ninkur Sagga, were both lost in action. It was a battle I recreated at one of the Hebden Bridge TravCons, the largest fleet engagement we ever played out, and one of the more extreme playtests of Power Projection: Fleet.

I loved the library data reference that 

“The battlefield is still posted as a dangerous area, littered with debris, and avoided by interstellar transportation.”

I wanted to give the characters a real motivation for committing a crime (carrying out a salvage operation in a war grave), so I set them up as a failing small mining company, family owned and run, suffering in the post-Fifth Frontier War recession. I ended up starting the scenario at Yres/Regina (which was pretty lightly touched by canon at that point) although I had considered Uakye/Regina as well. The scenario proper takes place at the outskirts of the Menorb system.

Work in progress in OmniOutliner (2005)

I sketched up some of the key locations - the wrecked starship, the dock at the start of the scenario, and Nick Bradbeer kindly 3D modelled them for me, both intact and battle damaged. The Tender’s design was inspired by one of Ground Zero Games’ miniatures that I’d used several times. Nick later did an incredible job with the cover too, capturing what I described to him perfectly.

Between Andy and Nick they came up with designs for the Seeker and the vessel being used by the criminal syndicate who try to muscle in. I absolutely admire what they did, as I find building deck plans hugely tedious. Nick 3D modelled the cargo ship as well.

Another aspect I was channelling as I wrote this was the boarding of the USS Discovery in the film (and book) 2010. I wanted the players to feel like they were operating in space and that there were unique challenges and dangers. I also wanted them to feel like ordinary people, trying to do their best in trying circumstances as they board a long abandoned wreck, out of their comfort zone and very much at risk.

The pregenerated characters (and everything else) was originally designed under Marc Miller’s Traveller (T4), although I have a suspicion I may have actually used the Classic Traveller High Guard rules to design the tender as T4 was pretty broken. I deliberately set the characters up so they had reason to zing off each other. This is a really useful trick for con games; give the players something to hang the character on in how they feel about other players and you’ll get some great engagement.

I’m not as certain that I would have made the scenario have such a character-vs-character moment at its core if I wrote it now, as experience has taught me that there are players out there who really dislike that happening. That’s one of the reasons that the conventions I’m involved in have a tag for scenarios that include inter-character conflict. That’s far too often called PvP - it should always be CvC. However, it did work well in play.

The print release at Conception 2007 was expanded from the original, and Andy and I kicked some ideas around, but he fleshed it out and added in some of the material about the star systems, plus how to use the scenario as a longer game. I wasn’t at the con, but a copy soon arrived in the post (around the same time that my first child was born)!

Updating the scenario for Mongoose Traveller 2e required me to convert the characters to the new edition, and then redefine all the skills. I used the Google Sheets spreadsheet to redesign the ships the players touch (and those worksheets are included in case starship combat occurs). 

Layout was a challenge; I’m long used to using Affinity Publisher (and before that InDesign) but the earlier BITS books were all in Microsoft Word. This created some interesting challenges on page breaks etc. Bizarrely, the file saved on my MacBook Pro in the current version of Word opens with different pagination in Andy’s Windows based current version of Word despite exactly the same fonts being used. Some of that is printer margins, but it was a frustration.

Discussions with Mongoose meant that we had to release as PDF only, which is a shame. It’s certainly something that we’d love to change in the future. However, for now I’m just pleased that this is back out and available and I hope folks enjoy it.

The scenario 'Delta 3 is Down' will be the next one we release.

You can pick up a copy here.

24 January 2026

That sound... mechanical keyboard delight

I previously did a short review on the Keychron K10 Max, which is the keyboard that I use when I'm not working in my home office*, but it continues to give me delight to use.

That delight comes from the sound of the keyboard as much as the feel, so I thought I'd share an audio file of the noise. There's something about it that just makes me want to type...

(*) When working, I use my Logi MX Keys S, as it's a lot quieter, which helps in Teams meetings when I'm doing two things at once!

11 January 2026

Dom Mooney · Keyboard K10 Max with Brown Switches

State of the Blog 2025

 

I posted slightly less this year than I did in 2024 (108 vs 125); had I completed #RPGaDay2025 then I suspect that overall the blog would have seen a similar level of posts. Interaction is up with 168k unique views vs 92.8k the year before (double 2023), and I see a lot of traffic from both Mastodon and the Traveller Facebook groups.

Traffic was very spiky and high in the period June to October, but overall levels have crept up. Like last year, Traveller material continues to drive a lot of the traffic. 

My highest traffic post made in 2025 was a #RPGaDay one with the keyword 'Enter'. It was quite a philosophical post on that moment before you commit, but there were references to Tolkien and more so that may have driven some interest.

The next highest was the post where I conceded that I was wrong about my thoughts about Mongoose Traveller 2e, and explained why it had drawn me back into it after a couple of years without Traveller being at the heart of what I played and ran. 

After that, there's a set of Traveller related reviews.

Four of the top ten traffic posts were actually made earlier than 2025. I think that just suggests that people visit and explore or find things on search. Google certainly ranks top on source sites, but bizarrely so does Gizmodo, and the Gaming Tavern remains a stalwart! Chrome dominates the browsers (63%) but platforms run Windows (42%) then Mac (25%) which surprised me in that the Mac is so high.

It was quite interesting that although I do post some OSR related material, I didn't make it into the web of blogs that Xaoseed shared here. Obviously, a parallel track! Then again, I do mainly post SF and reviews. I think First Age found a similar thing for his blog too.

I've kept up with the alt-text habit that Mastodon taught me. It's my main social media now, but I am bridged to Bluesky (but why put the effort into another walled garden)? I do use Facebook (mainly as it's the only social route to some friends and the centre of gravity for Traveller has moved there from the TML) but detest it and Meta as a whole. I don't generally accept Facebook requests from folks I'm not sure I know, so reach out if you're trying to link up that way so I know why!

I've migrated most of the old blog now, but just need to get some solid time on it to finish it off.

Anyway, 2025 was a fun year blogging, and I had a steady string of interaction on socials when I posted and on the blog itself. See you around, and great to talk to you!

4 January 2025

Books in 2025

StoryGraph summarised my year of reading as: You chased clues down winding paths, chased horizons and daring escapades, and wandered through tales tinged with shadow. That does seem pretty accurate.

I read a total of 119 books (up from 102 the year before) with a total of 32,181 pages (up 5%), so all in all a good improvement (although the page count was very much driven by the two Lucifer graphic novel omnibus editions I read).

I've been pretty steady though the year, although April did see quite a spike upwards.

I'm still using Goodreads, but mainly as my Kindle is linked. That only shows 84 books as it struggles with small press and roleplaying books in many cases.

Martin J Dougherty was my most read author, completely driven by the Deepnight Revelation work for Traveller. 

Martha Wells was the fiction author who I read most of, thanks to the Murderbot Diaries, which were also very short. Adrian Tchaikovsky came next, with five novels with Mick Herron (Slow Horses books and novellas), Samu Rämö (the Hildur series) and Christopher Fowler (Bryant and May) coming in next. 

I really enjoyed the Murderbot Diaries and have preordered the next instalment; I may find myself digging inti the fantasy books that Wells wrote that were also in the Humble Bundle I picked up. Likewise, I suspect that Adrian Tchaikovsky will continue to feature heavily as I picked up most of his fantasy fiction that I haven't read in a Humble bundle. I do intend to continue with Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May series through 2026 as well. There were two notable series I started to re-read but have only read the first book - Michael Scott Rohan's Winter of the World and Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy. I do intend to read more of both of these, and I think that the Pendragon RPG books that are sitting in my to-read pile can only help with the Mary Stewart books.

I joined Elle Cordova's Sci-Fi Book Club this year to try and make sure I didn't get into a rut. I've certainly read a number of books that I wouldn't have otherwise; I've not liked all of them, but they've definitely been worth the time. My favourite so far has been Klara & the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, and the one that I've least liked was Slaughterhouse-5 (which drew me through but wasn't really my thing).

I enjoyed William Boyd's Gabriel spy novels, and will explore more of his work next year. I've found myself reading more thrillers and literature novels than previous years, and hope to keep some of this breadth going forward.

My favourite fiction novel of the year was Derek B Miller's Radio Life, with Nick Harkaway's Sleeper Beach a close second.My favourite non-fiction was a tie between Borderlines (Lewis Baston) and Vertigo (Harald Jähner), both of which taught me new things and were well written.

Tales of the Old West was the best roleplaying game I've read this year (although The Hooded Man deserves a honourable mention). It wins as an extremely playable game set in the period of the Western. It is gritty, focuses on community and avoids the need to draw on horror or the weird. It was a delight at the table.

My reading streak hit 1,088 days at the end of the year.

2 January 2026

Books in December 2025

Final month of the year for the reading challenge. I won't spoil the end of year review with the final results but I managed to beat the targets of reading every day and the book-a-week objective.

December is usually a good month for reading for me with the holiday period. I managed to work my way through thirteen books, and unusually, a chunk of them were roleplaying games. In total, the page count was 3,904 pages, which is significantly up because I read the second Lucifer Omnibus volume.

Digging in, I read one non-fiction book, five roleplaying books, a graphic novel and six fiction books.

The non-fiction book was via Audible again, Vertigo by Harald Jähner. This covers the Weimar Republic in Germany from creation to fall to the Nazis. It's a fascinating blend of history, culture and politics which sadly has echoes that are all too visible today.

The graphic novel was the second volume of the omnibus edition of Lucifer, set in the Sandman universe. I really enjoyed this. It's been a while since I've dived into a longer series in this format, and the story is adjacent to one that I've loved for a long time. Overall, I really enjoyed it and will check out some more of Mike Carey's work.

Roleplaying games included The Hooded Man RPG by Graham Rose, which I reviewed here. I do hope to actually run this one. 

I also read The Lost Mountain Saga, written by Ellinor DiLorenzo. This a short campaign for the Vaesen roleplaying game. There was much to praise in the campaign, but some bits felt a little underwritten and the way the ending is presented in the text is underwhelming. However, I do think that this could be addressed pretty easily and I wouldn't mind running it at some point. 

Grimwild is an abandoned property, as the designer has disappeared and the folks he worked with on the crowdfunding of the project can't get hold of him (or access any of the accounts associated with the project). Fortunately, the PDF version of the game was released, and it's promising. It's a very light narrative take on the kind of fantasy that Dungeons & Dragons does well, and I liked what I read. I do think it would need a couple of read-throughs as the examples in the text don't necessarily cover everything clearly, but there's potential there.

Adventures Book 1 - Tenebrous Cats and Forgotten Tombstones is the adventures compilation of the Edgar Allan Poe inspired roleplaying game, Raven. I'd hoped that reading this would help to me come to a conclusion about the game as to whether it was one to sell or play, but it didn't provide that clarity for me. I'm more in the 'play' space now but I found the scenarios hard to work through. Like those for Vaesen, they have a set structure. Unlike those in Vaesen, they are stripped back so much that they feel like technical writting rather that something evocative. I'm pretty certain that they could be run really well and get the right vibe, but I haven't found the adventure within the collection that gives me the GM tingles and makes me want to crack on and get this to the table. At the moment, Vaesen, Candela Obscura and Old Gods of Appalachia would all come before this in my play preference. Maybe that's the answer for me.

Mark Meredith's Song of the River Prince is delightful. It's set in what appears to be an idyllic setting beside a great river and its tributaries. You take the part of travellers along the river, encountering adventures and carry out missions. The land is touched by the fey and has great beauty, but there are some perils that threaten the cosy, idyllic nature of the river lands. The rules are simple and there are mechanics that make the journey more important. I recommend this - you can get it on Lulu here, and DriveThruRPG here.

Now on to the fiction, which was dominated by thrillers.

The Shadow of the Northern Lights by Satu Rämö is the third part of an Icelandic noir detective series, Hildur. Hildur is an Icelandic police officer in a remote part of the island, and the investigations that she gets involved with link back to elements within her traumatic upbringing. She's assisted by a Finnish detective who is there as a paid intern. I'd really recommend starting at the beginning if you want to read this series as there are revelations throughout it that are relevant to the later stories. I enjoyed this, but I'm already invested in the series.

A Quiet Place by Seichō Matsumoto was an impulse purchase. The author was described as the Japanese Agatha Christie. In this tale, a government official's wife dies in somewhat suspicious circumstances and her husband starts to try and understand if she was having an affair. The story didn't go the way that I expected, and surprised me. It's steeped in Japanese culture so I found it quite alien to me in a way that the Icelandic noir isn't.

The Coworker by Freida McFadden was an impulse 99p purchase on my Kindle, and quite entertaining. I did find myself increasingly disliking the protagonist as I read the book, but it's a good twisty tale of what happens when a colleague that just doesn't quite fit in disappears and the repercussions on those around her.

The Hike by Lucy Clarke was a mistake. That's a mistake in the sense that I had another book of the same name saved in my wish list which I thought this so I bought the wrong novel! However, I only realised that when I saved it on my Storygraph account. This is a story of four childhood friends who have grown apart meeting up and hiking a four-day trail in Norway. They all have their own issues and challenges and events in the local area impinge upon them. I enjoyed this, especially as it avoided the obvious answers and twists.

Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds is a noir detective story set on a generation/sleep ship. Yuri Gagarin is hired to investigate two suspicious deaths, something that the authorities seem to by drawing a line under. The novel digs in and Gagarin follows a thread that reveal secrets from the mission's past. I enjoyed it; it's not the best Alastair Reynolds but it was very enjoyable. My book of the month certainly. It's interesting how Reynolds keeps returning to detective and noir themes, they seem to resonate with him.

Finally, I read Slaughterhouse-5, by Kurt Vonnegut. It was the SF Book club choice for the month and I found it strangely compelling and quite dark. It drew me in and along despite my not-quite liking it. Part of the reason I joined the bookclub was to try and read books that I may not have otherwise explored, and that's certainly working.

1 January 2026

Games in 2025

As 2025 comes to a close, and it looks like I've played my last game of the year, here's a summary of my roleplaying adventures. Overall, I played eight less games than last year, mainly driven by the fact that my own campaign finished recently and I've not got back into a second game since Eternal Lies finished.

I played 50 sessions, 26 of which were face-to-face at conventions. I attended an extra convention this year (Airecon) which was fun, and I hope to go again in 2026. The Garricons remain in good health, although it continues to be a challenge to get enough GMs for the smaller conventions. Furnace's twentieth anniversary was a delight, and it was nice to open up a different space at the hotel.

The big change for me this year was the return of Traveller as dominant game with 20 sessions in total. This was a combination of the one-shot Far Horizon game in the Orbital 2100 setting, then several games run at TravCon and North Star, followed by The Jägermeister Adventure, which was great fun but needed me to think on my feet as the players frequently got ahead of me. I intend to continue with Traveller as a big part of my gaming in 2026, probably offering the Singularity campaign once it's finalised and I've read it properly.

The start of the year saw my Shadows of Atlantis game for Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 finish. Overall, it was a great World War 2 daring pulp romp, but I've had no urge to go near anything using the 2d20 game engine since. I think I may have played too much of the Modiphius engine over the last few years and the inconsistencies in it are harder for me to deal with than the changes in Fria Ligan's Year Zero Engine.

One of my longer term campaigns finished this year and I miss it sorely. This was Eternal Lies for Trail of Cthulhu (8 sessions). We've spent multiple years and a lot of time on this game and it is probably the best Lovecraftian game I have ever played. Of course this was helped by the quality of both my fellow player, Dr Mitch, and Rich, our Keeper, who runs a superb game. The ending was poignant and challenging and emotional.

I played a full weekend (equivalent of 6 sessions) of The One Ring at LongCon, with Graham running a fantastic Tolkien based game running through the Tales from the Lone Lands campaign; his deep knowledge of the lore was clear, but it was never suffocating, and I felt completely immersed. A shout out to my other players who also made this an unforgettable game.

The final system with multiple game sessions was City of Mist, a perennial favourite of mine. I ran this at Airecon and Revelation. It's a favourite and I have no doubt that I will play again.

Powered by the Apocalypse remained a strong part of the games I've played, but no Forged in the Dark for me this year.

I've used Roll20 as my preferred VTT most of the year, mainly as Traveller is well implemented, and I ported my Achtung! Cthulhu game there when Role temporarily lost AV. It's worth noting that Roll20 has come on in leaps and bounds over the last two years, but AV remains its Achilles Heel. Towards the end of Jägermeister we were doing audio over Discord to ensure we had a stable connection. I'm intending to experiment with Role and Owlbear Rodeo next year. Of course, our Eternal Lies game was run over zoom, with character sheets on Google Docs and dice rolled physically, so it does show that you don't need all the bells and whistles!

Outside of the usual running and playing, I have continued to enjoy helping organise the Garricons and that is something which will hopefully continue going forward.

Part of my return to Traveller was creating a one off Double Adventure for BITS using two of the scenarios I wrote that have been out of print for a very long time. That was really satisfying, and I have already prepped them to be released, but we're currently wrangling with the request by Mongoose to release via the community TAS programme which doesn't support publishers doing this. Hopefully they'll be released in the New Year. This won't be my final project like this; I'm also finalising off another adventure that I'd hoped to get out this year, but it will slip into 2026.

I managed to get the BITS website up and running again, which was nice. It turns out that there was a server side issue that was blocking redirections. Now that's sorted the site is live. I would like to give it a full refresh, but that's a way off.

Overall, it's been a fun gaming year, and I'm hoping that next year will be as good!

Game System	#	GM	Play	FTF
Traveller/Cepheus	20	17	3	8
Trail of Cthulhu (GS)	8	0	8	0
The One Ring	6	0	6	5
Achtung! Cthulhu (2d20)	3	3	0	0
City of Mist (PbtA)	3	3	0	3
Otherscape (PbtA)	1	1	0	1
Comrades (PbtA)	1	1	0	1
Monster of the Week (PbtA)	1	0	1	1
Cartel (PbtA)	1	0	1	1
Fading Suns	1	0	1	1
John Carter of Mars (2d20)	1	0	1	1
The Electric State (YZE)	1	0	1	1
In Nomine	1	1	0	1
Blade Runner (YZE)	1	0	1	1
Dragon Warriors	1	0	1	1

29 December 2025