Hello, friends! I have received a plethora of board games and related supplements over the last few weeks but have not yet seen fit to share any photos, in part due to shame at just not having the time to actually play any of them! Fortunately, Labor Day weekend gave me the opportunity to finally break out at least one game to try with my eldest child, as a prelude to seeing whether we can interest his younger brothers in playing, too.
Little Artistry is the kid-friendly version of Dux Somnium’s Artistry, a gorgeous Art Nouveau-inspired board game. Having used many of the same public domain illustrations included here when designing my tabletop role-playing game Equinox, I was definitely interested in the theme! Little Artistry uses the conceit of gathering artisanal materials to buy fairy tale illustrations for points; whoever has the most points at the end is the winner. It isn’t as simple as the card games I usually play with my 11 year-olds (Uno and Alfabeto are big hits in our household) but Jms and I are optimistic that Little Artistry isn’t so rules-heavy that it will bore them either. He and I certainly had a fun time playing, especially since he won. His father walked past while we were setting up and said, “Better beat Mom before she figures out the rules and strategy and goes god-mode.” And then we all laughed, because it’s true.
One kid-friendly thing all three of my offspring are definitely aboard with, however, is watching the recently released episodes of Wednesday Season 2’s back half together. We’re rationing it out to watch one episode per night, after everyone is done with homework. We each have our favorite aspects of the show, but my current favorite is Gwendoline Christie, who’s even more delicious this season than she was in the first!
And while I’ve been a fan of Ms Christie’s since she burst onto the scene as Brienne of Tarth, I was pleasantly surprised to find my opinion of another very tall actor changed with the release of the new Wuthering Heights trailer:
Jacob Elordi is super hot, and while I absolutely agree that Heathcliff should be played by a person of color, I don’t really care about this movie. I am not a fan of the source material, and even less so of the urge to consider it as first and foremost a love story instead of a tragedy a la Hamlet, which I also don’t care for. And that’s okay, because the world would be a pretty boring place if we all liked the same things!
Going back to games tho, check out Meghan Lynn Cross’ latest winning role-playing game, The West Dennison Township Book Club (And Amateur Detective Agency). It fits on a single 11x17 poster-sized page, and is super handy if you’re thinking about livening up your own book club, or perhaps introducing the other members to ttrpgs! I really enjoyed taking a look at what feels essentially like Brindlewood Bay-lite: book-based games are always catnip to me.
If you’re looking to get even more ttrpg goodies and inspo, you have to check out this Humble Bundle benefiting World Reader. I’m a big supporter of Adams Media’s books on role-playing, world-building, mythology and lore — having reviewed a bunch of their books and supplements over at The Frumious Consortium, with many more in the pipeline — so can’t recommend this bundle highly enough! For a minimum donation of USD18, you get 27 phenomenal titles including Women Of Myth; The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide (both the original and the Expanded Genres Edition), and the Ultimate Micro-RPG Book.
Unfortunately, my reading has been slower than usual this week (I had a weekend that was just packed with social activity) but I did very much enjoy James Ponti’s Middle Grade mystery-adventure novel Hurricane Heist. Honestly, I have yet to read a book by Mr Ponti that wasn’t terrific. This second book in The Sherlock Society series follows Alex, Zoe, Yadi and Lina as they make one last attempt to find Al Capone’s treasure before summer vacation ends and Hurricane Clyde hits Florida. Their efforts are less than successful, but Clyde’s landfall does uncover another decades-old mystery for them to solve — one that has personal ties to Alex and Zoe’s beloved grandfather.
I also found Eric LaRocca’s This Skin Was Once Mine (and other disturbances) collection of horror stories to be compulsively readable. The first three tales are terrific and lightly related, either in subject, style or symbolism. Prickle, the last story, was not my favorite, feeling less complete despite a terrific opener. I’ll be writing a full review of this over at TFC soon! You can also check out my review there of Robert Jackson Bennett’s A Drop Of Corruption, that I finally posted today. I will never shut up about how good ADoC was, on so many levels.
Okay, still a ton of writing to do tonight so see you in seven, friends!
Currently Playing (Music): Beethoven’s Symphony #2 in D Major; my Declan Rice and 2025 Energy playlists; Chappel Roan’s Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess; Stela Cole’s I Die Where You Begin; Jessie Murph’s Sex Hysteria; Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend.
Currently Playing (Games): The Light In The Mist puzzletale, The Wild Beyond The Witchlight, Metazooa by Trainwreck Labs, Learned League trivia, NYT Connections, Your Friend In Witchcraft by Kay Marlow Allen; The Wolves Of Langston by Obvious Mimic.
Currently Reading/Writing (Games): Ghosts Of Saltmarsh.
Currently Reading or Just Read (Books): The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective by Jo Nichols; Hurricane Heist by James Ponti; Five Found Dead by Sulari Gentill; This Skin Was Once Mine (and other disturbances) by Eric LaRocca; A Murder Most Fowl by Carmela Dutra.