I know that, since the pandemic started, time has gotten particularly fluid. But man, this past year was both the longest and fastest one yet for me.
As I was walking my dog with my wife, she pointed out that it’s really close to a year since we moved to London. Intellectually I understand that, because I moved here in January and it’s January again, and there was just so much stress around the act that is still burned into my brain. But on the other hand, I feel like we just got here. I’m still getting bits and pieces of my old business sorted out from the move, and I’m still learning what it’s like to live here. I do feel like I’ve settled in, but I also still feel like a foreigner.
I even had my first experience with being stereotyped! I asked someone if they’d like me to make them some tea, and they asked for coffee instead. I had to admit I didn’t know how, as I don’t drink coffee, and was met with incredulity that an American didn’t drink coffee. (It’s true, I generally don’t like either the taste of it or how the massive caffeine makes be feel.) It was said mostly in jest, but it did reinforce that I’m not from here. There are other little things, like the occasional financial or legal hurdle that comes from being both a US and a UK citizen, and thus having to navigate to find out which citizenship takes priority for things like pensions or legal filings (spoiler: It’s whatever’s most convenient for the company I’m talking to, not what’s most convenient for me).
Despite all that, though, I still definitely feel like this was the right move (literally). I have little desire to move back to the US, and I’m honestly only even tempted to fly back to visit friends or attend specific conventions (although honestly that’s also to visit friends). I’m happy where I’m at, and I see a lot of the challenges of acclimating to London culture as something to look forward to rather than something stressful to dread. Plus, it’s really freeing to just go to the doctor to have a medical condition that had been brothering me for a while looked at, and only pay £10 (and that was for the medication).
Anyhow, enough introspection. I had a sedate, relaxing holiday and birthday. Read some books, played some video games, saw a show, had a few nice meals, got some cool gifts. Nothing exciting, but a well-needed rest and recharge. I hope your holidays were good as well!
News Roundup
Given that I was off for ten days, I don’t have much news to share this week.
The biggest news it that Trinity Continuum: Anima is now out on PDF and print-on-demand! This is Onyx Path’s take on the cyberpunk genre, with a heavy dose of “what if you were trapped in a video game” genre to boot. It’s quite an original concept, and while I was only one piece of the puzzle in putting it all together, I’m still immensely proud of what everyone came up with. If that sounds like it’s up your alley, I highly recommend you check it out! (It requires the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook to play.)
One of the GMs of the DIE game I mentioned last newsletter wrote up their experience with the game, including photos. (I’m even in one!) If you want to know more about how it went, check it out!
This isn’t for me, but some may remember that back in 2022 I talked about my experience with late game designer Lee Garvin. The last project he worked on, Tales of the Floating Vagabond, Second Edition, was released just a little while ago. I got a copy as part of backing the campaign back in 2013 (!), and if you like comedic sci-fi games, it’s definitely worth a look.
My Media
I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole of fanzines. While I’ve been acquainted with fanzines for most of my life, it turns out there’s a strong UK fanzine culture that’s thriving. As such, I’ve picked up some issues of two in particular that I’m really enoying.
The first is Vworp! Vworp! which is ostensibly a fanzine specific to Doctor Who comics, but over time it’s widened the field a bit. The production quality is utterly astounding, and the only reason you know it’s not a professional magazine is that it comes out pretty much whenever the team making it decide to get an issue out (so sometimes it’s years between issues, and sometimes it’s only a few months). The media archeology in particular is quite good, like in a recent issue where they uncovered a wealth of information on a variety of cancelled Doctor Who animation projects.
The other is much more regular, but both shorter and almost entirely digital. That’s The TFUK Guide, which is a monthly review of about 4-6 issues of the Transformers comic published in the UK during the 80s and early 90s. It’s a Patreon where you can get monthly issues for an extremely reasonable £1.25, or you can upgrade to get access to the entire back catalog of 30+ issues, or even get little physical bits and the occasional physical magazine in the mail on a regular basis. I’ve currently plowed through all the digital “back issues,” and I’m seriously considering bumping up to get the physical bonus issues.
Outside of that, I’ve been playing some more games on my Steam Deck. Among them I’ve been enjoying Sonic Mania, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, and taking another stab at Yakuza: Like a Dragon. I’ve also been playing a fair bit of Crusader Kings III and finally figuring out how these grand strategy games work. But now I’m back to work, so I won’t have as much time to play games. Oh the lament of the game designer.
Speaking of which, I need to get back to that stack of emails I let build up over vacation. See you next month!