On the Gaming Front
By far, the unchallenged high point was finishing the Krevborna campaign that started last year. To paraphrase Arch Merrill, the "Poet Laureate of Upstate New York," it feels like "we will never see its like again." That was easily the more fun and exciting campaign I've ever been part of and I suspect it will remain something I remember fondly for the rest of my days. If you want to read the recaps from it, go here and scroll down to the posts for Lachryma Rising.
On the other hand, we started a new Krevborna campaign that had massive peaks of great times (a jailbreak! a tiki inspired infiltration adventure! a ball inspired by Dante's Inferno!) and some very low points that left me feeling down about the whole thing. However, you can learn valuable things from when a game isn't going well, so I definitely have some necessary changes in mind for the next Krevborna game I start.
Of course, we may get back to this campaign but it remains to be seen whether it has already truly ended or is just on hiatus. That's entirely dependent on how I feel about it in the future and if the players retain any enthusiasm for it after we take a break to play other people's games. We got to a decent stopping point for the campaign so I'm good either way.
Aside from the Krevborna campaigns, I ran some great one-shots in 2024. I really enjoyed the Euro-Gothic Hellraiser-themed Call of Cthulhu game we played in October, I playtested my mysterious AG3NTS of C0NTR0L game to good effect, and the vampire truck stop adventure for PLANET MOTHERFUCKER fucked.
I've already got a couple fun ideas cooking for games to come once I'm back in the GM seat, but I think I want to explore both shorter arcs and different settings in 2025. Right now my list includes a Warhammer hexcrawl in Lustria, something I'm calling Krevborna High (Dark Shadows Gothic soap opera meets Stephen Graham Jones's Angel of Indian Lake trilogy), and another thing I can't even really mention or it would spoil the experience for the players. Aside from those, I'm sure PLANET MOTHERFUCKER will get some play and hey maybe this is the year I run Deadlands again.
On the Podcast Front
Bad Books for Bad People chugged along. With only eight episodes in 2024 we didn't quite hit our once-a-month target, but there was real-life stuff that came up and, hey man, we do the podcast for free with no sponsors so the audience gets what they get. Still, I think our Sudden Death episode is one of the best we've ever produced.
On the Writing Front
2024 was the year I got back into writing fiction in a serious way. I went from completing one story in 2023 to completing seven stories--one of which is novella length!--over the course of the year. And I know you're supposed to sit down and be humble but I'm going to be honest with you: some of these stories are really, really fuckin' good. So good, in fact, that I'll probably try to find a way to get them in front of readers this year. I made it look easy in 2024. I think some people were shook by that, but that's between them and the draft they'll never finish or whatever.
I'm going to try to expand that novella into a novel-length project in 2025. I've never written a novel before, so we'll see.
In terms of game writing, I pumped out three good-ass supplements for PLANET MOTHERFUCKER this year: DEMONOID PHENOMENON, BLACK SUNSHINE, and DEAD GIRL SUPERSTAR. The problem is...that very few people saw them. PMF is a niche game, but I think I need to figure out how to help it find its audience that isn't Drivetrurpg because the game is languishing behind the "adult content" saloon doors.
There's one more PMF supplement coming, by the way, because I don't really care about popularity or the line going up. It's tentatively titled PUSSY LIQUOR. After that, I'm considering compiling all of them with the core rules into a single book. It's the funniest game you don't own yet. You should buy it and encourage me to have more bad ideas.
I thought I would get a revised Krevborna setting book out in 2024, but it didn't happen. The manuscript is looking good, but there's still a bunch of editing to be done on it. 2025 will probably see its release. And, as always, it will be a free pdf update so if you've already bought the book you're going to be good to go. Again, I'm not in this for the money or the microfame, I'm here to help you have a good time and also make the shit I want to use in my games.
On the Discord Front
My Discord server continued to be a fun place to hang out at. You can join too, it's open invite, just make sure you read the rules and keep it cool. It's slow-paced compared to big servers, which is exactly what I want. It's also non-denominational, so don't show up if you've got a weird axe to grind about a style of gaming, authors who are more popular than you will ever be, etc. Had to clean out a couple fools for being foolish this year, and I'm happy to do it again.
This year I started streaming movies for the folks there alongside running games and shooting the breeze. The Krevborna Film Festival and PLANET MOTHERFUCKER Film Festival were both blasts, and I'll probably run both again in 2025. I love sharing some messed-up movies that people maybe haven't seen before.
On the Movie Front
2024 was a phenomenal year for horror movies, particularly in the theaters. My favorite theatrical releases of the year:
- Abigail
- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
- Blink Twice
- Furiosa
- Immaculate
- Kinds of Kindness
- Lisa Frankenstein
- Longlegs
- Nosferatu
- The Substance
I managed to hit two reading goals in 2024: read a hundred books and finish re-reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Of the books I read over the course of the year, these were my favorites from among the new-to-me pile:
- Alisa Aerling, Smothermoss
- Nathan Ballingrud, Crypt of the Moon Spider
- Monica Brashears, House of Cotton
- Essie Fox, The Fascination
- Kate Griffin, Fyneshade
- Lee Mandelo, The Woods All Black
- Sara A. Mueller, The Bone Orchard
- Grady Hendrix, My Best Friend's Exorcism
- ML Rio, Graveyard Shift
- Richard Swan, The Justice of Kings
On the Music Front
We went to see Ministry, Alice Cooper, and Rob Zombie again, which was cool. I also souped up a hand me down guitar so I can jam doom metal at home. Need some dope records? These were the cream of the 2024 crop for me:
- Ad Infinitum, Abyss
- Castle Rat, Into the Realm
- Chat Pile, Cool World
- Chelsea Wolfe, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
- Funeral, Gospel of Bones
- Knocked Loose, You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To
- Oxxo Xoox, +
- Ponte del Diavolo, Fire Blades from the Tomb
- Ulcerate, Cutting the Throat of God
- Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Nell' Ora Blu
