Another year has ended and we are now in 2023.
Personal and Family Life
- I still work and enjoy working at 247 Sports/ CBS Sports. And this year the team and I worked on several big projects including a revamped homepage for ALL our sites and we launched a new live streaming show pages I was heavily involved with. As we move forward, we will be working on eliminating some of the older applications more and more, which will be awesome, a lot of exciting stuff for 2023.
- I received a promotion to the position I thought I occupied for years! Yay!
World Events
- The Passing of Queen Elizabeth II. The longest-reigning British monarch of recorded history and the one who has been in power my entire life. Although she has little direct impact on my life, she was an interesting person who oversaw the end of the transition of the British Empire to the Commonwealth. Like many of her predecessors, she wisely stayed out of direct involvement in politics, allowing her to be "everyone's grandma". A beloved figure, she will be missed. The Queen is dead. Long live the King.
- The War in Ukraine came as something of a surprise to me as I do not believe such a conflict would start and even less how much we would get involved in that conflict, not when there are more pressing and worrying issues here at home. Ending the suffering should be our first goal, but it seems our leaders do not care for the lives of the people there. None of them seek to find a way for a lasting peace. Instead we send money into a black hole that covers... I don't know. To provide... I don't know. I see no point in continuing this conflict, not when our home economies are in shambles and so many people here need our immediate help.
One good thing (if good there is), is that I researched the fascinating history of Ukraine, Russia, and the Soviet Union. I learned and brushed up on my local geography. And even took a tour of some of the pre-war cities by using Google Earth. Both are places I would like to visit one day (in the summer ONLY).
This whole situation plays very much like the situation of Athens' Invasion of Melos and the discussion reported by Thucydides. A large bully on the block demands something of a "neutral" power. In the end, it loses prestige. A sad day for mankind.
All I can do is pray for everyone's safety (on both sides) and for our leaders to learn the wisdom to seek a peaceful resolution quickly. For all our sakes. Literally.
To be clear: I don't see either side as the "good guy". We have a brutish, thuggish regime on one side and a kleptocratically-installed regime on the other. In short, I dislike both sides.
- The Trucker Convoy that rolled into Ottawa, Canada at the begining of the year. I am not a fan of Trudeau, and his mismanagement and lack of simple leadership proved to me how feckless he is. I will say no more on this because this is not a political site.
Trips
2022 was a pretty tame year when it came to traveling. We spent most of our year at home. This year, we were lucky enough to have people come visit US at our new house in TN. It was great to see all those faces.
- My Parents & sister came from Ottawa to see us after the 4th of July. It was great to see them after three years apart.
- My childhood friend Francois-M and his daughter came from Montreal for a whirlwind tour of Tennessee in late August. We hadn't met in person in almost three decades! Thanks Facebook.
- Florent, Florence, & Frederic came from France to see us just after Francois left. It was great to see all three as we hadn't seen them in a year. (We still talked through Social Media). That little guy is growing up so fast.
Publishing/ FOE
This year, I took on bigger but fewer projects to work on. But the big release was a redo of my book about the First Ones, which I worked on for two years.
My next big project is going to be based on ancient Japan. What I have currently is not historical at all, but is greatly inspired by it, like a Japan-flavored tea. My own experiences when I traveled there were an integral part of its creation. Add to that too many Kurosawa movies. Other jidaigeki movies. And many documentaries... and the First Ones. The resulting product will be a unique take that will expand and link the FOE-niverse together.
DM's Guild Releases
- Campaign Event a GM product to breathe life into a campaign
- Courtier: Envoys and Peacemakers a full 20-level class for 5e.
- Races of the Planes: Githzerai a new playable race for 5e
- Races of the Planes: Rogue Modron a new playable race for 5e
- Shugenja: Voice of the Kami a full 20-level class for 5e.
- Witches of Pikemaster a levels 3-10 Campaign
DriveThruRPG Releases
- Power is Fickle a book about villains
- The Marauding Titan and Best Served Cold two adventures set in Olympia - Greek-style adventuring
- Dead and Buried an adventure set in Akhamet - Egyptian-style adventuring
- Races of Akhamet: Mesaru a new character race of fennec foxes
Miskatonic Repository Releases
For the first time in years, I spent time writing Call of Cthulhu material, to be released
- Cthulhu Modern: Beyond the Door CoC meets the Backrooms.
This year, many FOE products reached Best-Seller tiers. This is a great honor and sign that you guys enjoy and appreciate FOE products, and a great motivation to keep writing and creating more and better products.
Bestseller Milestones: Silver
- Crypts of Ravenloft
- Dark Gifts of Ravenloft
- Ravenloft: The Vanishing Ziggurat
Bestseller Milestones: Copper
- Princesses a Race book co-written with Ibsen-Z
- Dying of the Day Akhamet Adventure
- Tomb of Prince Tsubeteb Akhamet Adventure
- Desert Pearl Akhamet Adventure
- Panacea Akhamet Adventure
RPGing/ GMing
One thing I did this year was to try and branch out, to try different things. Like many, and have tried multiple things to try and renew and expand my GMing skills.
- My Akhamet home game reached a climax with a massive reveal. This game ran for close to three years, moving from in-person through Covid to an online staple of my Wednesday night. I don't know what is next... Have to shuffle my ideas a little.
- My Friday night Ozaka campaign ran through the year... it has now been running for over a year as we explore Ozaka together. As I write this, they are now in a hexcrawl as they try to map an area of wilderness in the Yoshi Mountains.
- The Monday/Tuesday group saw major changes this year. With our usual venue-man moving away (shout-out to Marvin) and high school bands causing changes, the group finished Witches of Pikemaster and then Sarah took us on a wild planar ride that dealt with the aftermath of the Pikemaster events. I got to play! YAY! We are now playtesting my "sequel" to "Witches" which is a Planescape event. I am excited to get them into this high-level playing madness more. After a few sessions of wondering, they now have a better understanding of the trouble they (and the multiverse) finds itself in.
- I have been listening to GM channels to explore different styles and ways of running the game. Some of my favorite channels include: The Dungeon Coach, Dungeon Dudes, The DM Lair.
- I have been toying with the idea of running a West-march campaign for FOE campaigns for a while. There is some interest in it. In short, West March is a campaign where the players explore an area to discover and uncover ancient secret on the edge of a wilderness area. Again another idea...
Conventions/ Special Games
As the world returns to normal, I attended a few conventions this year: some on-line and some in-person. Time constraints, day job, and real life makes it so I cannot attend. Restrictions on some conventions are easing and I really hope they will be a thing of the past going into 2023.
- Festival Draconis Online
- Midsouthcon (and Part 2) Memphis, TN
- Seven-part report on Gencon 2022 Indianapolis, IN
Although I cannot describe this as a convention, I took part in Die Inspired's first ever campaign-season and I reported from the field whatever I could. Read the final report here: Jim Hawkins. I am not a professional D&D player!
It was an awesome, and VERY unique approach to playing the game - heck it would've been unique regardless of the setting used. 5e was awesome because of the simplicity and speed of execution it provides both GM and player. A good mix I must say. There are both lighter and crunchier systems that could be used, but 5e provides a good medium.
Now I must admit that there is something about a chest-full of cash that is both awesome and hypnotic! 5,000$ in there. I don't think I ever saw that much in cash in one place. Wooo!
Blog
- I gave the blog a little bit of a facelift/ reshuffle with a new header and a new organization
- I put up a variety of articles, from reviews of TV shows and book critiques, to gaming material.
- I finished the year with 132 blog posts this year.
- 2022 was the year where I published the most articles since 2017.
Patreon
- Truth be told, the Patreon is not doing as good as I want. I will have to tweak it some more to provide more content on there.
- I have been focusing more game-system material there and keeping this blog mostly for opinion pieces, miniature pictures and over material.
Books
Different things to read thing year. Again a variety of things, from fiction to comics. Looking at this list now, I found that the amount of books I read to be somewhat less than in previous years. Perhaps because of my great tired.
Non-Fiction
- Ancient Japan by Captivating History
Fiction
- Soldiers Live by Glen Cook
- Bloody Rose by Nicolas Eames
- Port of Shadows by Glen Cook
Comics
- Le Troisieme Testament: Julius Vol 5 by Alice/ Montaigne
- Hulk Essential Vol 1 by Marvel Comics
- IronMan Essential Vol 3 by Marvel Comics
- Captain America Essential Vol 2 by Marvel Comics
- IronMan Essential Vol 4 by Marvel Comics
- Crisis on Infinite Earth by DC Comics
- Showcase Elongated Man vol 1 by DC Comics
- Avengers Essential Vol 4 by Marvel Comics
- Marvel Secret Wars by Marvel Comics
TV and Film Reviews
This year, I reviewed the latest season of Doctor Who for this blog.
- Doctor Who - Eve Of the Dalek
- Mobile Suit Gundam - Zeta Gundam
Miniature Painting
For most of this year, I painted sporadically. Most of the painted characters were for tabletop gaming. Throughout the summer, I painted many models as GM gifts for Gencon. Including the massive Hades and many different titans.
- Will's Grey Knight army.
- Will's Yeti army.
- I bought myself a 3d printer in a Black Friday sale and have a new pile of models that I plan to use during the year! I should not have done so...
So with all this, I wish you all a very happy new year.
JP
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