The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W. P. Kinsella
Jan. 22nd, 2026 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicoll
An unhappily married man's quest for the truth leads into a past almost everyone has forgotten.
The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W. P. Kinsella
james_davis_nicollAn unhappily married man's quest for the truth leads into a past almost everyone has forgotten.
The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W. P. Kinsella
Bundle of Holding: Dead Air: Seasons
Jan. 21st, 2026 03:00 pmjames_davis_nicoll
This all-new Dead Air Bundle presents English-language ebooks for Dead Air: Seasons, the post-apocalyptic tabletop roleplaying game from Italian publisher The World Anvil Publishing about a Blighted world forever changed.
Bundle of Holding: Dead Air: Seasons
Adventures in the Public Domain: On Updating Out-of-Copyright Works
Jan. 21st, 2026 12:15 pmjames_davis_nicoll
Should we attempt to bring older works into the modern age?
Adventures in the Public Domain: On Updating Out-of-Copyright Works
Scourge of the Spaceways
Jan. 21st, 2026 11:27 ammarycatelli posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
booksScourge of the Spaceways by John C. Wright
Starquest book 5. And it is seriously a running story. Spoilers ahead for the earlier volumes.
( Read more... )
Starquest book 5. And it is seriously a running story. Spoilers ahead for the earlier volumes.
( Read more... )
The Ayakashi Hunter’s Tainted Bride, volume 1 by Midori Yuma & Mamenosuke Fujimaru
Jan. 21st, 2026 09:09 amjames_davis_nicoll
Nanao must chose between staying with her abusive family or accepting the offer of marriage from handsome, wealthy, sincerely considerate Yako. A dilemma for the ages!
The Ayakashi Hunter’s Tainted Bride, volume 1 by Midori Yuma & Mamenosuke Fujimaru
New Agent of Chaos: Books
Jan. 20th, 2026 08:45 pmsolo_knightEdited Agents of Chaos with the following:
Books
Some people collect random snippets from books and use them as oracles. I’ve seen
– a name for a character (first name they come across)
– borrow an event (this works best with gothic/fantasy novels, but mysteries can work, too. This is where you get the trapdoor or the weird smell or the hostile villagers or _something_ and incorporate them into your game.
– spark table (you roll for a location: page/line) and use those words instead of a table of random words
I have also glanced at a number of games that are based on novels, but haven’t studied the actual mechanism of gameplay.
There seems to be a number of games based on using books as a randomiser; if they come up and the mechanism is worth examining, I will update the master list further.
Books
Some people collect random snippets from books and use them as oracles. I’ve seen
– a name for a character (first name they come across)
– borrow an event (this works best with gothic/fantasy novels, but mysteries can work, too. This is where you get the trapdoor or the weird smell or the hostile villagers or _something_ and incorporate them into your game.
– spark table (you roll for a location: page/line) and use those words instead of a table of random words
I have also glanced at a number of games that are based on novels, but haven’t studied the actual mechanism of gameplay.
There seems to be a number of games based on using books as a randomiser; if they come up and the mechanism is worth examining, I will update the master list further.
Mistakes were made
Jan. 20th, 2026 09:02 amjames_davis_nicollOne of Canada's great missteps was not mining the border. The other was not building intermediate range nuclear-armed missiles.
Homeward By Starlight & On Thud and Blunder by Poul Anderson
Jan. 20th, 2026 08:39 amjames_davis_nicoll
November 25, 2026 would have been Poul Anderson’s 100th birthday. As there is no guarantee any of us will see November 25, 2026, I’ll borrow an idea from Tom Lehrer’s That Was the Year That Was and start writing something appropriately celebratory now.
Homeward By Starlight
Improve your sword and sorcery through inspirational verisimilitude!
On Thud and Blunder by Poul Anderson
Bundle of Holding: Sleepy Hollow
Jan. 19th, 2026 02:08 pmjames_davis_nicoll
The tabletop fantasy roleplaying game of early 19th-Century folk horror.
Bundle of Holding: Sleepy Hollow
Technically I am not breaking the rule against me sitting in the dark in 161
Jan. 18th, 2026 06:37 pm
🎪⚰️📓 Unreview: Rotten
Jan. 20th, 2026 08:32 pmsolo_knightUnreview: Rotten
( Game Description )
You have one stat, Rottenness, and you increase it from 1 to 6 (and then the game ends). For each phase, you roll on different life (un-life) events, which is not a bad mechanism for a solo journalling game.
The spark tables, however, are d6, and while you can ‘use your imagination’ getting such a limited amount of extra inspo isn’t really worth it and I’d have preferred either leaving them off or better tables.
So I’m making a note of the ‘every time you’re moving further along, there’s a different set of prompts’ mechanism, and now I’ll scrub my hard drive of this game.
( Game Description )
You have one stat, Rottenness, and you increase it from 1 to 6 (and then the game ends). For each phase, you roll on different life (un-life) events, which is not a bad mechanism for a solo journalling game.
The spark tables, however, are d6, and while you can ‘use your imagination’ getting such a limited amount of extra inspo isn’t really worth it and I’d have preferred either leaving them off or better tables.
So I’m making a note of the ‘every time you’re moving further along, there’s a different set of prompts’ mechanism, and now I’ll scrub my hard drive of this game.
Pack Your Bundle: Solo but not Alone 6
Jan. 19th, 2026 10:50 amsolo_knighthttps://itch.io/b/3481/solo-but-not-alone-6
I promise I can stop any time.
This is definitely a bundle of solo games, and I’m getting the ‘my dance card is full’ feeling; yes, a lot of these games look very yummy, but so did the last two bundles I’ve posted and there will always be more interesting games.
I have around 80 games in last year’s bundle, and several more bundles to go through. I *do* feel I’m making progress, but at the (maximum, unrealistic) rate of 1 game a day, I probably have a couple of years’ worth of itch.io bundle games. Never mind games I got from elsewhere, solo play I’m improvising, and games I play with others.
One thing this does is cure me of FOMO. Not yet in the ‘must buy all the things’ sense; I am not quite at the point where I will not buy a dedicated solo bundle; but I’m no longer buying other games even if they’re just a quid (or a couple of quid).
But now that I have them, I find myself wanting to process them, and having made a good start (I have done reviews, however short, of 40+ games) I want to continue, so I can reduce my mental load.
That means being ruthless. My ‘one topic a month’ project is not going too well; I got side-tracked this month and started on a different game so I’ll have to re-configure everything, and I’ve found a few more games/game styles that I wanted to add, so I’m now looking at September 2027, and I’m not even *trying* to find themes.
But there’s also a tremendous sense of achievement, of taming a mountain of STUFF and turning it into a library of choices; I’m starting to get a feel for which mechanisms work for me; what I like to do when I’m out of brain, what I want to borrow for a longer campaign maybe, how I can augment my practice.
In the long run I think I’ll end up with a pile of solo journalling things along the lines of Froggy Hat, With Iron Teeth or The Disguised Frog - good, wholesome, short fun. (This selection picked by scrolling down the list of reviews); but also hopefully with a pile of games that can form the baseline for longer adventures/more in-depth stories.
In the end I suspect I will end up in a similar space as Geek Gamer in this video – not with the exact resources, but with a similar pattern of I pick a general feel, I find a way to get the story started, pick a ruleset, build a character, and do some worldbuilding in any order.
While it's only fair (and educational) to play each solo game as it is intended (games not intended to be soloed will need amendments anyway) in the end, I see myself taking note what I particularly like about each game and then taking the best bits and making a story from them.
I'm not there yet, but I'm getting closer.
I promise I can stop any time.
This is definitely a bundle of solo games, and I’m getting the ‘my dance card is full’ feeling; yes, a lot of these games look very yummy, but so did the last two bundles I’ve posted and there will always be more interesting games.
I have around 80 games in last year’s bundle, and several more bundles to go through. I *do* feel I’m making progress, but at the (maximum, unrealistic) rate of 1 game a day, I probably have a couple of years’ worth of itch.io bundle games. Never mind games I got from elsewhere, solo play I’m improvising, and games I play with others.
One thing this does is cure me of FOMO. Not yet in the ‘must buy all the things’ sense; I am not quite at the point where I will not buy a dedicated solo bundle; but I’m no longer buying other games even if they’re just a quid (or a couple of quid).
But now that I have them, I find myself wanting to process them, and having made a good start (I have done reviews, however short, of 40+ games) I want to continue, so I can reduce my mental load.
That means being ruthless. My ‘one topic a month’ project is not going too well; I got side-tracked this month and started on a different game so I’ll have to re-configure everything, and I’ve found a few more games/game styles that I wanted to add, so I’m now looking at September 2027, and I’m not even *trying* to find themes.
But there’s also a tremendous sense of achievement, of taming a mountain of STUFF and turning it into a library of choices; I’m starting to get a feel for which mechanisms work for me; what I like to do when I’m out of brain, what I want to borrow for a longer campaign maybe, how I can augment my practice.
In the long run I think I’ll end up with a pile of solo journalling things along the lines of Froggy Hat, With Iron Teeth or The Disguised Frog - good, wholesome, short fun. (This selection picked by scrolling down the list of reviews); but also hopefully with a pile of games that can form the baseline for longer adventures/more in-depth stories.
In the end I suspect I will end up in a similar space as Geek Gamer in this video – not with the exact resources, but with a similar pattern of I pick a general feel, I find a way to get the story started, pick a ruleset, build a character, and do some worldbuilding in any order.
While it's only fair (and educational) to play each solo game as it is intended (games not intended to be soloed will need amendments anyway) in the end, I see myself taking note what I particularly like about each game and then taking the best bits and making a story from them.
I'm not there yet, but I'm getting closer.
🚂🎪 First Impressions: Truth and Deception
Jan. 21st, 2026 09:38 pmsolo_knightFirst Impressions: Truth and Deception
( Game Description )
I don’t feel I’m the target audience; to me this would work better in a group, but it’ll never be high on my list of things to whip out with friends. I’m also not the target audience because sneaking around and deceiving people isn’t my favourite thing to do, and playing in a modern setting (not compulsory, but strongly suggested by the flavour text) does not inspire me in the least.
The only reason this isn’t an unreview, a view-briefly-and-dump is that mechanically, this actually
looks interesting, at least at first glance. This obviously has been crafted with love; the author has given thought on how to make this a positive experience for players; there are twists and mechanisms I haven’t seen in many games, and all in all, this looks like a fun spy vs spy game… if you find deception and playing a contemporary game fun.
I can’t make myself feel any interest in this game, but that’s not the game’s fault. If this sounds like your cup to tea, give it a look.
( Game Description )
I don’t feel I’m the target audience; to me this would work better in a group, but it’ll never be high on my list of things to whip out with friends. I’m also not the target audience because sneaking around and deceiving people isn’t my favourite thing to do, and playing in a modern setting (not compulsory, but strongly suggested by the flavour text) does not inspire me in the least.
The only reason this isn’t an unreview, a view-briefly-and-dump is that mechanically, this actually
looks interesting, at least at first glance. This obviously has been crafted with love; the author has given thought on how to make this a positive experience for players; there are twists and mechanisms I haven’t seen in many games, and all in all, this looks like a fun spy vs spy game… if you find deception and playing a contemporary game fun.
I can’t make myself feel any interest in this game, but that’s not the game’s fault. If this sounds like your cup to tea, give it a look.
Night of Camp David by Fletcher Knebel
Jan. 18th, 2026 08:58 amjames_davis_nicoll
A deranged President sets his eyes on Canada and Scandinavia, forcing one senator to consider the prospect of contemplating the preliminaries to action.
Night of Camp David by Fletcher Knebel
🎪📓 Unreview: Listen
Jan. 18th, 2026 12:20 amsolo_knightUnreview: Listen
( Game Description )
Ultimately, this is a short journalling exercise that may or may not work for certain people. I’m not going to call it a game because it has no game elements, and I’m not going to try it out because I hate writing exercises like this, and I have enough characters who want their stories told.
For me, the mixture of real world and storytelling just does not work.
( Game Description )
Ultimately, this is a short journalling exercise that may or may not work for certain people. I’m not going to call it a game because it has no game elements, and I’m not going to try it out because I hate writing exercises like this, and I have enough characters who want their stories told.
For me, the mixture of real world and storytelling just does not work.
🥾🧩🪫Unreview: Lorekeeper
Jan. 17th, 2026 07:54 pmsolo_knightUnreview: Lorekeeper
( Game Description )
I’m tired to the bone. I had all the life sucked out of me: here’s a bunch of words on a page (some missing in a mock blackout) and it appears that the game the creator envisions has nothing to do with the game I’ve caught glimpses of while reading the rules.
Indie game makers: will you please make a whole game? And then give it to someone who has never seen your game before and ask them to play it and take notes what they find clear and what they don’t? I’m no longer completely new to solo space, though I still have a literal mind.
I can’t make sense of this, I can’t make a _game_ of this, and at this point, I’m too pissed off to invest more time and try harder. Somewhere in here is an interesting game. I haven’t found it, and I will no longer try.
( Game Description )
I’m tired to the bone. I had all the life sucked out of me: here’s a bunch of words on a page (some missing in a mock blackout) and it appears that the game the creator envisions has nothing to do with the game I’ve caught glimpses of while reading the rules.
Indie game makers: will you please make a whole game? And then give it to someone who has never seen your game before and ask them to play it and take notes what they find clear and what they don’t? I’m no longer completely new to solo space, though I still have a literal mind.
I can’t make sense of this, I can’t make a _game_ of this, and at this point, I’m too pissed off to invest more time and try harder. Somewhere in here is an interesting game. I haven’t found it, and I will no longer try.
