Down In Your Inbox and also at Dragonmeet

Staring dead-eyed at finish lines

I haven’t sent out a newsletter in a while, for two reasons that are sort of related. The first is that I simply haven’t had much to write about, which is rare for me - normally you can’t shut me up. Part of the reason for that, though, is that this year has been a particularly terrible one health-wise. Back in February (or March? Maybe March) I came down with one of the worst illnesses I’ve had in quite some time. It knocked me out for a solid month, and then I was hit with a double whammy of post-viral fatigue and brain fog that meant I essentially wasn’t able to function until somewhere around August.

I also stopped being able to get my ADHD meds in January. Have I mentioned that? Maybe I already have. But here’s something that’s hilarious in hindsight but that, when combined with the illness, has really made this year a write-off. When I was medicated - with meth, if you didn’t know. They give people amphetamines to treat ADHD. - I suddenly couldn’t have caffeine anymore. I went from being the sort of person who drinks coffee and then immediately falls asleep, who drinks literally 20 espressos a day and doesn’t notice it, to being the sort of person who gets palpitations from one (1) can of Pepsi Max.

So my meds stopped in January, after something like 6 months of having them change my life and 6 months of not having caffeine. Of actively avoiding caffeine. Of forgetting that I ever used to consume a frankly dangerous amount of caffeine on a daily basis just to be able to function. When the meds stopped, I should have immediately started pumping caffeine directly into my veins to compensate, but I didn’t.

This, it turns out, may also have contributed to me not being able to work, not being able to find the motivation to go to the gym, not being able to do basically anything for the vast majority of the year.

Right before I got sick I was putting the finishing touches on Down In Yongardy, the Kickstarter that I’ve been trying to fulfil since early 2021. This thing has been hanging over me for literal years. When I went full time my plan was to try and do a Kickstarter roughly every 18 months in order to keep myself financially afloat. As we approach the end of 2024 I am very much feeling the impact of not having been able to do that (which, to be clear, is entirely a problem of my own making). Thankfully, as of today, I’m very happy to be able to say that Down In Yongardy is now in editing and thus is one step closer to becoming a real book. Like Pinocchio, if he were a book.

I’m also happy to say that I seem to have got my mojo back right in time to be able to do what is now my traditional December advent calendar adventure. If you haven’t seen these before, I release an adventure in parts every day throughout December. It starts off cheap and gets slightly more expensive as each installment releases, and they’re a lot of fun. I’ve put the past three years’ worth of advent calendars on sale over on itch if you want to check them out. This year’s will be starting on the 1st of December, which I’m led to believe is the traditional date for advent to begin (but correct me if I’m wrong), and I think it’s going to be the best one yet. Here’s a sneak peek at one of the hex fills:

On the edge of the forest, a silver birch, 60' tall and as thick as two men. A length of rope emerges from the trunk, pulled taut and running due north into the trees.

While in contact with the rope it can be followed. It always travels due north, linking hexes 05, 09, and 11, before terminating at 24, always with 1d6 unlabelled hexes between the landmarks it touches. Those wishing to follow the rope must always begin here at the birch and must remain in contact with it at all times.

Those who lose contact with it inside the forest are deposited in a hex chosen at random by dropping a die on the map. Once the true path is left the rope is always found to be stretched between two trees spaced 2d6x100 feet apart. The forest is filled with hundreds of such orphans.

The beginning of the true rope can always be found emerging from the silver birch.

I’m excited about this one, because I’m going back to the genre I love the most - weird tree-dwelling folk horror. I hope you’ll join me for it.

And speaking of things I hope you’ll join me for, next weekend sees all of London’s nerds descend on a hotel in Hammersmith for Dragonmeet. I’ll be there with zines to sell at the Soul Muppet stand - though a very limited selection of things, as I’m stealing some of their space rather than having a booth of my own this year. I’ll also be sitting down with Samantha Webb, Becky Annison, Taylor Navarro, and Chris Birch on a seminar about the rise of solo games that I’m really looking forward to. That’s on Track One, whatever that means, and will be happening at 3PM on Saturday the 30th of November.

One of my aims now is to get this newsletter running regularly again, but if I don’t manage to get another out before the end of the year I hope you have a great December. I’ve forgotten how to end these things, so I’m just going to put a share button below this paragraph and go to bed.