Without further ado, here’s the list!

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The Manager’s Path by Camille Fournier: Arguably a classic of software engineering management, at this point, this book does a great job of laying out the challenges of each stop on the way to (and including) CTO. It’s great because it’s easy to understand, and because, frankly, there are few books that lay out the challenges of needing to be both technical and manage people. It’s intended to primarily clear up the more common uknowns at each level. I like to hand it out to people who think they might want to progress into management, or folks who are on the fence.

An Elegant Puzzle by Will Larson: This is a deep dive into systems thinking about engineering teams as a manager. I particularly enjoy section 2.2 “System Fixes and Tactical Support”, which discusses states of an engineering team from “Falling Behind” to “Innovating”, and what to do to get the team to (or keep the team at) “Innovating”. Overall, this book applies mostly to larger organizations than the one in which I currently work, but I still think it’s worth it even at our current size.

Radical Candor by Kim Scott: The tagline of this book is “Be a kick-ass boss without losing your humanity”. That’s exactly what it is, too. Find out why Steve Jobs was a better people manager than your average Midwestern US manager despite a reputation for being a massive jerk to people at work regularly. (Don’t worry, Kim Scott recommends very, very strongly that you don’t be like Steve Jobs.) Kim Scott and others have a Radical Candor podcast, too, that is worth a listen.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni: I don’t know that I have read a Patrick Lencioni book that I haven’t liked, honestly. This is my favorite, though, because it lays out and ranks five dysfunctions to watch out for in your teams, and roughly what to do about them. It’s told in parable form, as Mr. Lencioni commonly does, which I find makes it easy to reread. As each dysfunction is revealed you’ll find yourself nodding your head, “Yup. Yup. Uh huh.” Even then, you’ll get to the end and think, “I mean, I should’ve known all of that, but I’m going to read it again.”

Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street: This book lays out a 4-step process for hiring that they call “The A Method of Hiring”. I can’t say that I have followed the method to the letter, but I have used some of it directly and adapted other parts. I’ve found it incredibly helpful in knowing what to ask, how to structure our interview process, and why. Note: this is not going to solve your company’s (possibly questionable) technical interview process. This is about everything except the technical vetting portion. If you need help there, maybe consider calling Woven, whose CEO, Wes Winler and co-founder, Kyle Shipley, originally recommended this book to me.

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That’s my list, today. It will evolve. I’ll try to remember to post here as it changes. What would you add to it, or remove from it?

In 2015, I was consulting with OurHealth, often on-site in their downtown office. The engineering team, and the wider IT department, got along well, and so we regularly walked to lunch together; oftentimes after haggling over where to get lunch for entirely too long. As you do.

One day after probably a bit too much haggling, we took off for lunch in a bit of a hurry. There were a handful of us, including Andrew Robinson III, a man I’m lucky enough to call a friend, who gave great hugs pre-Covid-19, and was our Director of Software and Product at OurHealth. He is also Black.

We’re hungry. Ya know? I think we had a joke about the privilege of this type of hunger, that office-worker, wow-it’s-past-noon-and-I’m-still-in-my-office-chair kind of hunger. We were hungry. So we rushed out of the building, speed-walked to the crosswalk, saw no cars headed toward the intersection, and so crossed against the light.

Well, most of us crossed against the light. Andrew stopped.

“What the hell are y’all doing?”

“We’re hungry, man! Let’s go!”

“I CAN’T!”

Andrew waited, and he caught up later after the light changed. He said there was a police officer sitting near the intersection.

“Are you worried you’ll get a jaywalking ticket?”

“Man. The way I was raised, you do not do anything to give a police officer an excuse to talk to you. Ever.”

I’ll be honest: I laughed. Because that’s ancient history, right? Plus now he’s Andrew. He’s highly capable, highly respected, our Director. Anyone can see that, right?

So I laughed it off and we went to lunch. We might’ve discussed it a bit further over our burgers, but mostly I think I communicated a sort of casual dismissal. It did stick with me, though. I’ve told this story to others. I’m not sure why, exactly. To gauge their reaction? In hopes that they’d assure me it’s not like that anymore? Or to feel some comfort in others reacting the same as I did?

Regardless, I’m pretty confident I was being racist.

That I didn’t listen is obvious. I was dismissive of an experience of his related to the color of his skin and of those who raised him and with whom he was raised. I think this is related to the racism of claiming to “not see color”. I diminished and dismissed the differences in his experiences that are directly related to his being Black. If racist power is to be diminished, racist policies rolled back, and racist ideas purged, we cannot not see color. In fact, we must see it, and listen to the experiences that have resulted from it.

One person I have talked to about this said, “Miles, don’t call yourself racist. I want to call out the real racists. You’re just an optimist,” which I really appreciate. However, Robin Diangelo says in White Fragility that a pillar of white fragility is the refusal to know. I think this and other similar manifestations of white fragility have to be illuminated and rooted out if the people of the United States, the people of my state, and the people of my local communities are going to effect change.

So call it racist behavior, from the racist idea that those with power and authority can’t be baised against Black people anymore. It’s like I didn’t bother really listening to Rage Against the Machine.

I have to change. I owe it to Andrew, I think. I owe it to the various communities with which I’m involved in tech in Indianapolis, my company, my colleagues. I owe it to my kids. I owe it to myself.

What am I doing? Well, first I’m reading. How To Be An Antiracist first, White Fragility, then So You Want To Talk About Race. Recommend me something!

With the rest of the Indy Hackers board, we released a statement of what we have done, and what we are doing to ensure we will do more.

I donated personally to a cause, though that feels a bit like buying a gift card for someone’s birthday. I worry that it implies, “I don’t know you or don’t care enough to get you a personalized gift.”

(For the record, I actually enjoy getting gift cards. I feel guilt about giving them, not receiving. So if you’re reading this and you’ve given me a gift card at some point, I definitely appreciated it. In particular, to my mother– and father-in-law, Starbucks gift cards help to keep my marriage happy because Melissa won’t be as upset at the Starbucks budget number at the end of the month. Haha.)

A person quoted in White Fragility says, of the scenario in which he, a Black man, can engage a white person in a calm discussion of how their behavior was racially problematic, and that white person listens, tries to understand, and tries to learn how to get better instead of becoming defensive and offended, that it would be “revolutionary”. Us trying to be better can be revolutionary. Seems like a low bar, doesn’t it?

If you’re reading this, and you’re white, clear that bar. Ask yourself how you can be better—identify your racist behaviors, listen more, stop avoiding the topic of racism, especially your own.

I am trying to teach my kids more about the inequities Black people face regularly. I gotta teach them to myself, first, though. My daughter made a sign that read, “Be Better, Police!” for our neighborhood demonstrations. I hope we can all agree with her sentiment. Many of us can stand to Be Better.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James: I wanted to like this one, as I enjoy the podcast “Marlon and Jake Read Dead People” quite a bit. However, I found it to be a slog. Repetitive imagery meant to shock, I think, and what I think is some purposeful confusion as to timeline and such, perhaps to help ensure the book is treated as literary fiction and not genre fiction.

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter: I could not put this thing down. I was getting sideways looks from my wife because I was supposed to be helping her, you know, raise kids and maintain a house. Despite its name, dragons are more of an off-camera looming threat than a feature. A caste system plays a much bigger role in engendering rage here. The sequel comes out in November, and I am very excited about it.

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor: It was billed to me (via /r/fantasy) as simply “magic school set in Nigeria”. Multiple people recommended it. I can be a bit of a sucker for magic school stuff, and, after reading a bit more, it sounded like it was going to be very different from any magic school book I’ve read previously. It was, and I loved it. As I said, I enjoy magic schools, and I am not ashamed to say I love your typical, European-style take on magic. This is not that. I found the Nigerian influence in this book to be exciting, and refreshing. In fact, I wanted more, as you’ll see. (It is YA, in case that matters to you.)

Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor: The sequel to Akata Witch, it is at least as good, possibly better than the first book. I rolled right into it as soon as I finished Akata Witch. More schooling, more magic, more magical.

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor: Can you tell I dig Nnedi Okorafor? This book is decidedly not YA. Very much not YA. It is a post-apocalyptic novel set in the Sudan, though technology and the apocalypse feature little. It is about control and suppression of a people, control and suppression of women, and sorcery. It felt like it bore some relationship to the Akata series, and so felt natural to read immediately following those two. (Worth noting: It won the World Fantasy Award in 2011.)

Well, I’m here to tell you now that you should go grab the whole trilogy, called Impossible Times. It starts with One Word Kill. Mr. Lawrence has a PhD in Mathematics, and puts it to use in this story about a young math genius and D&D nerd in the 80s who 1) finds out he has leukemia, 2) is confronted with a time traveler from the future who has a lot to tell the kid about his future. The first book, especially, feels very Stranger Things-esque. (I mean that as a compliment.) The series progresses quickly from there, though, rather than covering every year of the young cast’s lives. The stories also are—thankfully—not grimdark. There are certainly some real-life kind of moments that punch you right in the gut, but the many genuinely likeable characters and relatively clear lines drawn between “good” and “bad” avoid the emotional slog that grimdark can sometimes be. Plus, aside from perhaps the time-travel paradox stuff, these are a fairly comfortable read. Grab ‘em now, get hooked, have ‘em finished in a jiffy.

Read if you enjoy time travel, Stranger Things, Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter, D&D references.

Exhibit A: It’s been over 2 years since I’ve written something here.

Now that I have joined Olio, I’ll no longer be splitting my writing efforts between personal and Fretless’s blog. I’ll mix it all in here. GenCon recaps, RubyConf recaps, what I’ve been reading recaps, Ruby, JavaScript, Elixir, management, leading, failing, stories about my kids, backpacking trip recaps, etc.

Most importantly, I want to take the pressure off by allowing myself to post more low-effort blog posts. Perfect is the enemy of done, or maybe more like comprehensive is the enemy of progress. Anyway, I’m going to post more, and I won’t apologize if they’re not terribly interesting. Like this one.

GenCon 50! Whoa! In honor of it being the 50th, I read a Gary Gygax biography, a history of D&D book, a Sword & Sorcery book written by Gary Gygax, and I signed up for a Basic D&D game as well as a 5th edition D&D game.

As always, what I want out of GenCon is to play as many role-playing games as possible, and meet authors I enjoy. I went in a lot looser this year than last year, for better or worse. In the end, I think this was my favorite GenCon so far, because of the people with whom I shared it. I might’ve learned a lesson, there. In the future, what I want out of GenCon will be much the same, but I think I’ll aim for the lighter schedule of this year, as well as the company of this year.

The key to this year’s GenCon was playing all but one game with my friend Chris, several games also with my friend Todd, and, of course, GMing games for good people, as well. Chris and Todd are both great players, and my rapport with them helps take some of the pressure off me as I engage in a game. Plus, we have a good bit of fun playing together.

Anyway, on to the show.

Meeting Authors

The reason I went to my first ever GenCon was to meet authors whose books I enjoy. This year, this goal took a bit of a back seat. Chalk it up to not being as excited at the Author Guest of Honor, whose books I have not read, and also to not relishing the idea of standing in line much this year. I’m less patient, you might say. I didn’t even track down a personal favorite, Brian McClellan, to say hello! (I think every book I own of his already sports his signature, though.)

I did find Margaret Weis at her booth, bought the next two books of hers (and Tracy Hickman’s) that are in my to-be-read list, and had her sign them. She’s a pleasure to talk to, and seemed to be in extra good spirits when I found her on Friday. From there I went straight to Jim Zub’s booth, bought the latest trade paperback of his comic Wayward, and had him sign it. I talked to him last year, and he suggested I pick up Wayward. It seemed to be a very Japanese-focused tale, and thus not my usual cup of tea—Skullkickers is what turned me on to him, and now he does D&D comics—but I think I was wrong. It is steeped in supernatural folklore. Jim Zub is a pleasant dude to chat with, too. It’s an absolute joy to meet an artist you admire, and have them be warm and kind in addition to talented. This proved a theme at GenCon.

Jim’s booth presented a conundrum. Tracy Hickman was sharing the booth. I’d love to have his signature on the books he wrote with Margaret Weis. Is buying them from her booth, then going to his booth and not giving him money, a faux pas? I think it is. Instead of finding something to buy, I decided to put off the situation until next year. Perhaps I’ll buy his X-Treme Dungeon Mastery book to make up for it, huh?

Last year, I got to play games written and GMed by Ray Otus. He now publishes a ‘zine regularly, called Plundergrounds, with great Dungeon World content. I got print copies of two of the four he’s published so far. I must’ve then allowed myself to get consumed by GMing a game for him for a change, because I didn’t ask him to sign either of them! I should have had him sign beneath this magnificent drawing of the dragon Salucidiar on the inside of Plundergrounds #3. (Cover posted below, though not the picture I had in mind. You’ll have to purchase a copy, digital or print, to see what I mean. :-) Damn. Well, hopefully I see him next year.

For the fourth year in a row, I missed Patrick Rothfuss. It’s almost becoming a tradition. “Oh, yes, I’m a Patrick Rothfuss fan. No, I’m not going to get his signature at the con. Why? Well, it hasn’t happened for one reason or another for four years running now, it really seems a risk to break with tradition at this point. Unimaginable repercussions, init?”

Playing Games

Hey, y’all, this is what GenCon is all about! Playing games together! Woo hoo!

This time, we’re going in chronological order.

The Restless

What a way to start the con. This one will stick with me. Thinking about it right now, might chest tightens.

Our GM for this game was Jason Morningstar, author of Fiasco, among many other things, and partner at Bully Pulpit Games. I think of him as a celebrity in the RPG/story game world. I tried to pretend it was no big deal to be sitting at a table with him, though. (I failed to get his autograph on anything, too, though I did buy one of his books—something he wrote for Dungeon World called Juntu’s Floating Ice Hell.)

Restless, however, is not a Jason Morningstar game. In fact, it’s not released yet. Designed by J. Walton, it uses a special set of cards to guide you through a zombie survival horror scenario.

It’s 10AM Thursday morning. I didn’t sleep enough going into the con, but I’m determined to get things going immediately. I’m guzzling coffee, and getting excited. I’m not normally a survival horror guy, but, hey, it’s Jason Morningstar and GenCon is finally here. Let’s go! We start talking through our characters, discussing our bonds, as guided by the cards. Well, this is pretty neat. People are playing the zombies, essentially, and thus get to throw in complications to our plans. This is fun! We’re acting out scenes. It almost has a Fiasco feel as far as amount of scenes and active roleplay goes, thanks to both the players and the game. I started off playing Quentin, whose best friend left in the world was someone he served in the air force with, Grace. Then… well, let’s look at four lines I wrote in my notes.

Grace: “Don’t be an idiot. Don’t be a hero.”

Grace died! Holy shit!

This was really, really heavy. It hit me hard. I was surprised at how I felt about it. (Dude playing Grace was great.) At this point, we found out one character, Liz, was Quentin’s little sister. I switched to playing Kate. Someone else took up Quentin. The next two lines in my notes:

Liz died. (Small, face-hugger thing.)

Quentin & Kate died in a Cinnabon

The game was so heavy, even though much of it took place in a shopping mall. There were some light moments, which we absolutely needed. It felt like one of the better The Walking Dead episodes—first season, when you’re still discovering what the rules are.

Fiasco

Fiasco is a GMless game geared to creating what feels very much like a Coen Brothers screenplay, acted out at the table. I played it last year for the first time. This year, we played with Steve Segedy, the other partner at Bully Pulpit games! They were play-testing using cards instead of dice. Woo hoo! Play-testing is fun.

The session mostly took place in a mall, too. Todd ran this jewelry store, Chris and I worked in it, Steve was a security guard, Randall was a who even knows but seemed to always be at the mall and maybe ran the place or maybe just seemed to? Things got crazy. Chris and I went to jail. Chris’s character thrived, mine killed himself. Yup. Coen Brothers movie.

I love Fiasco. I’d like to get at least one game in every GenCon.

Bulldogs!

Bulldogs! is for pulpy, gonzo sci-fi adventure, based on the Fate system. Honestly, I have been thinking of it as basically Futurama, and I think that’s pretty close.

Todd, Chris, and I got into this one, and we were truly excited to bring our brand of hilarity to this game. Most of the pre-generated characters were based on Guardians of the Galaxy, which was actually cool, in a way. We ended up in a space shopping mall. (Malls were a theme of GenCon, I guess.) Todd settled into his plant-being character right away, and it was great. Unfortunately, the GM seemed to have a story she wanted to tell. In many cases, there was no getting around it. On top of that, I dislike Fate. I cannot get into that system at all, having now played all versions (sorta). I’m fairly sure my dog being with psychic powers could’ve solved every problem if I had pressed the issue, except for the “this is not what the GM wants the story to do” problem.

Damn it, we just wanted to steal a shipment of ice cream, eat half of it, and sell the other half. That’s all!

Adventures in Middle Earth

Adventures in Middle Earth is, as you might have guessed, about adventuring in Tolkien’s Middle Earth. It has Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, and all of the lovely Lord of the Rings goodness you’d expect. It uses and adds to D&D 5e’s ruleset. This was my first ever experience with an actual D&D version! Adventures in Middle Earth is an attempt to port a game to 5e that was purpose-made for recreating Tolkien’s world called The One Ring. I have not played The One Ring, either, but it sounds like perhaps I should, as most reviewers say its mechanics lend itself to Tolkien better than 5e.

Thinking about this session makes me absolutely giddy because I’m a Tolkien fan. More than that, though, it makes me giddy because I’m a Hobbit fan. Hobbits know what is best in life, and they live it. I’d like to come back a Hobbit, please, if that can be arranged.

All you really need to know is that my Hobbit had dreams of visiting/experiencing things he had read in Mr. Bilbo’s and Mr. Frodo’s book, and the story ended with me in Beorn’s home, smoking his pipe with him. I basically played myself if I were thrown into Middle Earth, except skilled with a bow and sword and map reading. It sounds ridiculous, but I’ll not forget this session any time soon. … Hold on. I gotta get up and jump up and down for a little bit before I can continue. Woo hoo!

Basic Dungeons & Dragons

Ah, the classics. We wanted to try our hand at an era of D&D that we missed. Until playing Adventures in Middle Earth the night before, I had never played actual D&D, instead often playing something inspired by D&D. So, I was excited!

It was disappointing that our GM often talked down to us, and seemed to be adversary more than guide. It was also a table of 8 people, plus the GM, which I find to be too many. I had a hard time enjoying the game, and resorted to pulling out my phone a couple times, leading to holding up play. Total jerk move. I regret it. I should’ve just left the table, honestly. It would’ve been less disruptive for the rest of the party, who seemed to be mostly enjoying themselves.

I wonder if old school gaming could still be a sort of fun, but I doubt I’ll seek it out again. I learn more and more what it is that I like, and that sort of game isn’t it.

The Quiet Year

Another card-based game, The Quiet Year is about role-playing a village during a relatively uneventful year following an apocalyptic event. It is a year in which the village has the chance to build, grow, become more than a group of survivors. It can become a society. The game can be pretty deep, while taking place at a high level. You get to draw a map of your village as you play.

Our GM was McGravin. He helped to organize Games on Demand this year, and was pleasant to chat with about games during the weekend besides. He admitted our game was a bit more “deliberate” than many. I still don’t know what I think of it, except that I think I want to try it again.

Dungeon World

Dungeon World is my favorite game, my go-to. It’s a game of cinematic fantasy adventure, of impossible monsters and treasureful dungeons.

The game I played in on Saturday was with Bill White, the same GM who enjoyed our gonzo play last year. He was absolutely in form, and I learned a lot about GMing an exciting Dungeon World game from him during this game (more on that in the future). It was fast, hilarious, and action-packed. Chris’s cynical wizard deserved to die about 5 times but somehow only died (and came back) once. Good times.

Lady Blackbird

Lady Blackbird by John Harper is futuristic game about a noble woman running from an arranged marriage under an assumed name, and the crew smuggling her (somewhat unwittingly) away. The characters are pregenerated, but the story ends up different every time. I can now confirm, having played it twice, the story can be different every time.

Last year, I was Naomi, the bodyguard for the noble in hiding. I didn’t know she was a noble (and would not have approved). This session, Chris was Naomi, and was well aware of her status. I was the Captain, enamored by Lady Blackbird, but unaware she is a noble betrothed to another (or two others?). I found playing the captain much easier, which perhaps says something about me—and I don’t know that it’s flattering. I tried hard not to dominate the game, but I don’t know if I succeeded. Captains talk a lot, right?

I enjoyed this, but as a counterpoint, Chris felt hemmed in by the pre-generated character. He didn’t see more than one way to play Naomi. One thing about playing games like this in a game with a hard-stop at 2 hours is there’s not a lot of time to stop and discuss the subtlety. I struggled playing Naomi when I first played Lady Blackbird, too. Now that I grasp the game a bit better, I wonder if I’d find a different track. I’m not sure whether I would or wouldn’t. Maybe I can talk Chris into trying again next year, just to see what we think after another play through.

GMing Games

I organized and acted as Game Master for two games of Dungeon World—Thursday and Saturday night, starting at 9p. Both were a ton of fun. The players were great in both games. I couldn’t ask for better, truly!

Thursday night’s game featured a 4 fairly tired guys, and two fairly fresh guys. I was one of the tired folk. I see a lot I could’ve done better now to keep the energy up for all of us, but it was a fun game of snake worship and slaying. The adventuring party seemed to bond over their distaste for the creepy wizard Vitus (played by Ray Otus). In one of my favorite bits of flavor of the whole con, Vitus’s invisibility spell involved cracking a quail egg over the target’s head.

For Saturday night’s game, I used an issue of Ray Otus’s ‘zine. Thus, the game featured a clinical hoarder in the form of a large, slimy, acidic dragon. In digging holes to keep its ever expanding collection of junk, it had started to cause collapse of a local city. Of course, a paladin took it upon himself to fix the issue, letting his companions believe they were on a mission from the Lord Mayor. (The Lord Mayor actually told him to stay out of it.) They heard a rumor that cleaning this particular dragon—Salucidiar—would weaken her. That, combined with magical help bestowed upon the paladin, allowed him to slay the dragon in most dramatic fashion. It was lovably trope-y, humorous, and epic. It felt a little like a Discworld novel. (Oh, if every game fell somewhere between a pulp Sword & Sorcery story and a Discworld story, I’d be so happy.)

Family Day

Sunday is always Family Day. The kids put on some sort of costume (Zane: astronaut; Aubrey: Tiana from The Princess & the Frog), I throw on a cloak, and we go traipsing about playing games and watching cosplayers. We always see some Disney princesses, which the kids enjoy. This year, I threw on my Tim the Enchanter horns, which ended up popular. I had people asking to take pictures with me! See the picture below; this is ridiculous. I obviously was half-assing it. So, I’ll be buying a black robe—which I’ll tatter up a bit—a fake beard that matches decently, and a fake bone to tie around my neck to do it right next year.

That said, thank you to those who wanted pictures with me, especially the impressive Viking Shield Maidens and their kids. Their makeup was enough to actually frighten my daughter, so the fact that they put up with my half-assed Tim was nice.

The kids and I usually play and buy some Peaceable Kingdoms games, which held true this year, as well. Peaceable Kingdoms makes delightful co-op games. This year we bought “The Fairy Game” and “Race to the Treasure!”. The Fairy Game skews a bit young for my kids, but what they really wanted was PK’s mermaid game, which is much too simple for them. Fairies are basically the next best thing. I thought Race to the Treasure! would keep them busy for a while, but they proceeded to dominate it from the get-go. Maybe we need to go straight to Pandemic.

Unfortunately, we had to leave a bit early to make Zane’s soccer game. I think next year we might skip soccer. Soccer is basically every Sunday. GenCon only happens once a year!

It was a fantastic GenCon. I can’t wait for next year.

Maybe at some point I’ll be able to just write, “I played these games, and met these authors. Here’s a pic of me and my kids. It was fun/not fun” and move on but this year is not that year. I’d advise you don’t place any bets on next year, either.

As you might have read here before, I want to complete Patrick Rothfuss’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy recommendations list. In 2016, I crossed 6 off of that list. Hooray! In particular, I finally got to the following: Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern), Guards! Guards! (Discworld) (and a few others because they’re great), The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials), The Neverending Story, A Canticle for Leibowitz, and Stardust.

I try to read 10 or so non-fiction books every year, as well. I exceeded that (which is easily done by using Audible as my non-fiction book feeding device).

I’ve also started trying to read everything the famous Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Appendix N. Before 2016 started, I had, of course, read Tolkien, Zelazny, and some Leiber. I did cover de Camp & Pratt’s Harold Shea stuff. I love this pulpy stuff. Reading Appendix N stuff feels like a guaranteed joy, whereas I haven’t dug everything I’ve tasted from Rothfuss’s menu.

All in all, it was a good year in books. If you’d like to see more of my 2016 in books, you can do so on Goodreads here. I’ll share one piece, though.

You can fairly safely ignore the number of books. I’d say 10 of those, or so, are comic books, or at least trade paper back volumes containing 5-6 issues of a given serial comic. That page total irks me, though. A few years ago, I worked hard to read 60 books, and my page total was over 19k. (Leaving aside that none of this matters and perhaps least of all page count.) Now I can’t break 17k? Come. On. I can do better.

It will not be good enough, in 2017, to merely cross 6 off of one list and a couple off of another and read 10 non-fiction. I want to break 20,000 pages.

This gives shape to an obvious system that will lead me to this goal, as well. As long as I read 1,667 pages every month, I’ll meet that goal. In fact, I have already started with that in mind. Thankfully, it turns out I’m more than capable if I focus on it. Here is my 2017 in books, so far:

I have checked off Narnia from Rothfuss’s list, and Andre Norton’s Witch World from Appendix N. I have also finished 6 non-fiction books. (I am driving downtown and back every day, and listen at 2.25x speed, so this isn’t as impressive – nor as ridiculous a time-sink – as you might have first thought.)

For Rothfuss’s list, I am planning to read a Christopher Moore book and Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P Lovecraft, as I already own them both. I’m not sure what else I’ll pick up, but I’d like to read at least 5 from that list. I’ll also pick up 5 from Appendix N, but those will come down to what I find at Half Price Books, most likely. Off list, I know I’ll be reading The Prydain Chronicles, and Sins of Empire by Brian McClellan (which comes out in March, woo hoo!).

I now have my personal library checked into LibraryThing. They have a cool new service called TinyCat where you can browse my and my wife’s libray, if you’re interested. I’ve 354 books and counting! Everybody else is downsizing, and Kindling, and getting rid of physical books, and here I am hoarding books like some sort of 19th century British gentleman. (Man, I wish.)

I feel like a veteran of GenCon, despite a mere three years under my belt now. Last year, I talked about being lost in year 1, but doing better in year 2. Now? I have my system mapped out. I know when I will be where and why. I plan out each day. Of course, plans rarely meet first contact, and this year was no different (and it’s all Troy’s fault).

What I want is to play as many role-playing games as possible (and meet authors I enjoy, but set that aside for the moment). I want to split time, such that I’m a player 75% of the time. This year, if my calculations are correct, I put in 28 hours of RPG time from Thursday morning to late Saturday night. Exactly 75% of that was as a player. I’d call that a pretty successful GenCon!

I accomplish this by, 1) prioritizing playing at Indie Games on Demand over all other activities at the con, and 2) planning and GMing late night games (after most con activities are complete) with friends, acquaintances, and friends of friends.

Meeting Authors

The reason I went to my first ever GenCon was to meet authors whose books I enjoy. That is still a big reason I love the con. I try to meet several authors (and get them to sign a book) each time I attend. This year, I was able to get autographs from Margaret Weis, Jim Zub, and the Author Guest of Honor, Robin Hobb. I love this part of the con. On the other hand, I never know what to say to these authors other than, “Listen: I love your work. Thanks for writing.” It’s a thrill, despite that anxiety.

Playing Games

As for gaming? Over the course of the three days I actually gamed at the con, I played in the following games: Fiasco, It’s Not My Fault (Fate Accelerated Edition), Dungeon World, Sorcerers & Sellswords, Goblintown, Hexnoir (Technoir hack), Beasties & Bygones, and Lady Blackbird. Whew! And: Woo hoo! It was a blast.

Beasties & Bygones

Beasties & Bygones is a hack of Dungeon World, bringing new playbooks, and an expansive setting couched in humor.

Unfortunately, this was the biggest bust for me this year. Those running the session were not prepared, the book was in alpha test shape at best, and the brand of humor – consisting mostly of dick jokes, this evening – wasn’t doing it for me. I was very frustrated at the time, but did the creators a disservice by not calling out the issues I had with the game and session, even after they requested feedback. The creators seem like nice folk, and I wish them the best.

(If for some unfathomable reason, you are one of the creators and have come across this, please email me. I’m happy to discuss everything further. I’m sorry for not saying it to your face at the end of the session.)

Hexnoir

Hexnoir (a hack of Technoir) is cyberpunk dystopia plus magic and fantasy races. Like the game Shadowrun, from what I understand.

There were orc bodyguards and spectacles that carried AR glasses around like a spider on spindly, metal legs. There were humans, goblins, elves. Magical fireflies that acted as one characters wings. Oh, and all that cyberpunk tech everyone loves, I guess. This game was 8PM to midnight Saturday night, and I had to buy extra coffee at 9PM to make it through it. I felt bad for the GM, as my heart wasn’t in it. In hindsight, I wish I would’ve learned more, and perhaps taken some notes. They’d have looked at least something like this:

There are at least 4 different colors of d6s on the table. They are for the following things: [I’d probably have known these things. It was like… regular dice and push dice and magic dice and injury dice?]

One of these players talks at both a frequency and amplitude that is completely incomprehensible to me. I hope he doesn’t do or say anything important.

One guy is a PG version of the famous murder-hobo player characters. Harass-hobo?

I have defo picked the least tech-savvy character to play. Why did I do that, when I joined this game to learn more about cyberpunk games?

Dungeon World

Dungeon World is my favorite game, my go-to. It’s about fantasy adventure. Lord of the Rings, though often with a bit smaller stakes.

I played in 1 and GMed 2. I played in a truly absurd session of Dungeon World in which 4 of the 6 of us at the Games on Demand table knew one another. We warned the Game Master we’d be “gonzo” (an oddly frequent term used in RPGs, meaning what it sounds like it’d mean – silly, often absurd actions for humor’s sake). He actually paused at one point to say

I’ve never said this to my players before, but you guys truly deserve it: You guys are morons. Okay?

I think he had a good time.

The two games I GM’d were a good time, too. I could have been better, but the players were great. I got a couple new or new-ish players into games, which is important to me. I love running games in general, but it’s always fun to expose new people to role-playing.

It’s Not My Fault (Fate Accelerated Edition)

It’s Not My Fault is about fantasy adventure, and quickly generating characters and a scenario to begin play.

I would like to try this a few more times with perhaps different GMs, different players, to test it out. My initial impression, having played it a couple times now, is that the number of times players contrive to say they’re doing something “carefully” or “cleverly” or “forcefully” or what-have-you becomes grating. In Dungeon World, players simply narrate their actions, and the GM will let them know if they need to roll anything. In FAE, there seems to be a discussion as to how one wants to stab the dragon, whether they want to do so forcefully or sneakily or flashily or …. It broke up the game enough that it was hard to get into a rhythm.

Lady Blackbird

The now-classic Lady Blackbird by John Harper is futuristic game about a noble woman running from an arranged marriage under an assumed name, and the crew smuggling her (somewhat unwittingly) away. The characters are pregenerated, but the story, I hear, ends up different every time.

We played it more or less as if it were in the Star Wars universe. Again, good players and a good GM made for a fun game, despite my lack of caffeination. I definitely want to play this again and see how it differs with different people at the table. I played Lady Blackbird’s bodyguard, who doesn’t know she’s Lady Blackbird, and doesn’t like nobility (what with having been slave pit fighter for nobles’ entertainment).

Sorcerers & Sellswords

You guessed it! Sorcerers & Sellswords is fantasy adventure. In this case, the rules fit on one page – a quick read, easy to understand, easy to spin up a one-shot and have at it. (It’s a hack of another game, Lasers & Feelings by John Harper.)

Bonus: the creator, Ray Otus, was the GM! I enjoyed this one quite a bit. The players were all creative and engaged, and the GM was on top of it, too.

Goblintown

In Goblintown, the players are goblins in a town dealing with a threat that could destroy the town. It is a humorous game as written, and in certain hands can become pretty gonzo.

Ray Otus, who created and GMed Sorcerers & Sellswords, created and GMed Goblintown. In our case, we discovered and essentially invented the threat at the table, and the GM ran with it. Again, creative players and a clever GM made for a fun game. (This is a theme. If I could’ve played every game with Ray Otus, I think every game would’ve been a hit. I learned some lessons from this observation, and from Ray.)

Fiasco

Fiasco is a GMless game geared to creating what feels very much like a Coen Brothers screenplay, acted out at the table.

Our session of Fiasco is what will probably stick with me the most of all games I played. The table was composed of the GM, a couple with a lot of Fiasco experience, and three friends, new to Fiasco. I struggled a bit creatively, but everyone else was killing it. It was great. At the end, one person was dead, and the rest of us ate roasted penguin. In the epilogue, I think my character ended up in a prison for drug trafficking in the Andes or something.

I can’t say enough about Fiasco. It’s a classic for a reason. The only caveat is: you’d better be ready to do some improv acting (albeit sitting still at a table, likely). First thing after we did a bit of generating of characters and relationships and the like, the “GM” looks at me and starts a scene by asking me a question, in-character. I swear I stared at him blankly for a full 60 seconds before I asked him to give me a minute. Then I tried to channel some dipshit nature photographer who makes his real money selling drugs to addled field researchers and their support teams, and things got a little better. I guess. I don’t know, I smoothed my hair a lot and acted overly confident about my guy on the mainland, Charlie.

It was a great GenCon. Not only for all of the above, but because, on the last day, I took my kids. We put on costumes, played some games, ate some pizza, and took a bunch of pictures with cosplayers. Zane was a “knight pirate super hero!” and Aubrey was Doc McStuffins. (I was a wizard. Well, I wore a cloak, anyway.)

I can’t wait for next year.

The other day, I was browsing a comic book store with my three-year-old daughter. She grabbed the latest in the series I Hate Fairyland, looked up at me, her eyes twinkling, and said, “Daddy, I want to buy this. Can we buy this?” It looked fun, funny. A little girl graced the cover, wearing a pink and yellow dress, with green hair decorated by a big, yellow bow. The giant, bloody battle axe indicated it might be too graphically violent to show my daughter, though. I distracted her with Spidey or something, and we eventually strolled out of the store with only what I went for. (Side question: what comics do I introduce to a non-reader? What comics do I introduce to an early reader?)

I asked Dave recently if he has read any of I Hate Fairyland. He said he flipped through it, but it didn’t capture him. Hmm, I thought. How does he evaluate comics? How even do I evaluate comics? And, to think about later, How does my daughter evaluate comics!?

Traits

It’s easy to answer the first question. Here’s what Dave said about evaluating comics (on a flip-through in the store, anyway):

“Art style, anything interesting, ratio of interesting to boring weighed against cost and desire to leave the shop with 4 or less books.”

As for me? I have come to conclude there are two primary traits I seek in a comic.

• Fantasy genre: Swords and sorcery. Fairies and magic. Adventurers and monsters. Love that stuff.
• Humor: Certainly, there’s a spectrum at play here. However, I perceive that I lean a bit more on humor than the average comic reader.

There are a couple things that I don’t particularly care about.

• Supers: Ah, man. Supers is the classic genre of comics. Hell, I all but didn’t know comic books didn’t equate to super hero books until recently. More than just a meh, it’s also the quickest turn off for me.
• Art: Welp, turns out I don’t care too much about 50% of the medium. To be fair, I have a hard time mustering opinions about art in general. I can get used to anything if the story works.

I nearly listed “story/writing” in “traits I seek”, but I suspect there aren’t many people who care nothing for the story, so it’d be redundant to include it. Perhaps people buy comics for only the art, as I buy for damn near only the story, but I have my doubts.

Back to I Hate Fairyland. I suspected I would like it. As soon as my daughter picked it up, I suspected I’d like it. I decided I’d buy the first issue to test my theory (via ComiXology). So, now I know it’s about a girl who, at age 6, gets her wish and is transported to Fairyland. She is told how to get back home, and that it will take maybe a day. Twenty-seven years later, she hasn’t found her way home, and she’s a bitter, homicidal psycho who appears to not have aged.

I bought the first 5-issue volume in trade paperback form immediately. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Neil Gaiman had a blurb on the front cover. I sat down to read it, and didn’t get back up until it was finished. I love it.

Recs

I’m not well-read enough, as far as comics go, to tell you what is great, or best, or even what is definitely good. I can tell you what comics hit my sweet spot, though. The two I’ve liked the most are The Rat Queens, current as of this post, and Skullkickers, a finished series. Of the comics I’ve read, those two are my favorite, and do the best job of combining fantasy (more like Dungeons and Dragons tropes) and humor.

One that doesn’t match my usual criteria, but that I still love, is The Autumnlands (formerly Tooth & Claw). It is the series that Dave Jones used to lure me into his dark web of comic and comic shop love. It is a much more serious series, but the story and world are great.

I have also read most of the Pathfinder comics (thanks, Humble Bundle), and enjoyed them. If you like D&D-style fantasy tropes, you’ll probably enjoy them, too.

See here for the utter bullshit I claimed I was going to do in 2015.

Read Ten Non-Fiction Books

My year in books was decent. I completed this one, due in no small part to subscribing to Audible. However, I said I’d read books about writing, and I read not a single one. Quite a bit of medieval history, though.

Read Thirty Fiction Books

Cake. Actually, I don’t like cake so much. Pie.

Like I said, my year in books was decent. I feel good about it, anyway.

Use Phone Less Around Family

I think I did this. Having not asked, I think my wife would disagree with me. Hold on a sec, I’ll ask.

She says I did indeed quit going to my phone when we’re putting the kids to bed, but that is, from her perspective, the only phone-related improvement I made. That’s probably a fair assessment. (I wrote this part from my phone.)

Continue to Improve Patience

Work in progress. Perhaps it has improved, but I worry that’s like suggesting the weather has improved when it goes from a downpour to a mere drizzle.

Weigh Under 200 Pounds

I gained 15 pounds. I won’t bother haranguing you with my trials and tribulations. I ate like I expected to be starved come 2016, which will turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Write Five Short Stories

I wrote none. I barely wrote more blog posts than short stories I didn’t write. My buddy Tyler, though… that guy is really doing it. Proud of that guy. I am looking to his example as inspiration for getting more organized, whether I do pursue the short story thing or not.

Miscellaneous: Backpacking

Nope. I scheduled a weekend for May 2016. It’s on the calendar.

So, that’s it. A shit year, to read this post. It’s not true, though. Fretless grew; Indy Hackers grew; (Miles grew. I know you were thinking it.) I ran more miles at a time, in a week, in a month, and in a year than ever; I made new friends; I learned many new things. It was a good year.

I’ll keep trying to convince myself of that.