#406

Jul 12, 2026

Books

This week I read:

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

I’ve not read this in like 15 years! I thought it was time to revisit it, and I was struck by how tonally different it is to Lord of the Rings. Obviously it’s a children’s book, but I do have the revised version in which Tolkien made it a bit more consistent with the later books, and yet it really does feel like a very different world. We get the sense that while wizards are rare, they are around somewhat; as opposed to LotR where there’s a very small, fixed, number. Magic feels much more commonplace. Elves are, obviously, incredibly different, being much more the jolly fey type as opposed to the Serious Elder Peoples of LotR and the Silmarillion. Language just isn’t a concern at all, everyone—even monsters—speaks the common tongue (something I imagine irking Tolkien greatly even though he carried that forth into the later books). Giants live in the mountains. There’s a werebear that’s never explained. There’s a king of birds. There’s implied to still be a king of men.

It’s a much more whimsical world. There’s a great article in, I think, issue 1 of KNOCK! about the implied setting of The Hobbit, and I think I’ll have to revisit that too.

Roleplaying Games

No Hot Springs Island this week, one player was away and another had a megadungeon they wanted to playtest so I and the other remaining player did that. This might become a regular fixture, something that’s done when we’re not all here.

New Games

I’ve been trying out a lot of new systems this year, mostly solo but a few others. I thought it was about time I made a list:

Thousand Year Old Vampire: played it previously, and revisited it a couple of times this year. It’s ok, but definitely more of a creative writing exercise than a game.
Morkin: this is a really great solo game I discovered late last year which, for me, sits at the sweet spot between creative writing and boardgame. It doesn’t feel weird to roleplay (as it does with a boardgame), and yet it’s structured enough that you’re also not racking your brain for inspiration all the time.
Lichdom: another journalling game, in the same vein as Thousand Year Old Vampire but with enough mechanics to it that I think you can actually describe this one as a game and not just a tool to help you write.
Legend in the Mist: by the same authors as, and similar to, City of Mist, which was the first system I really played. I tried out a short solo game but found it pretty creatively taxing, I think it would go better with a group.
Ker Nethalas: a dungeoncrawling game, but definitely far over to the boardgame end of the spectrum. Roleplaying feels about as satisfying as it would in Monopoly, there’s no NPCs to interact with, it’s just purely about exploring a randomly generated endless dungeon until you die. Fun in short bursts.
ASTROPRISMA: only looked through the book and tried out some of the mechanics so far, but this looks a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to playing more of it.
Across a Thousand Dead Worlds: a sci-fi horror game by the same author as Ker Nethalas, but this introduces enough stuff that it’s definitely an RPG and not just a boardgame. It’s basically Gateway but as an RPG.
Ironsworn: played it in the past, had difficulty getting into it, played it again more recently and had a slightly easier time but still it doesn’t quite click. I think I’m learning that I prefer solo games that have a fairly well-defined core gameplay loop that can drive the action without needing me to constantly be creative.
Riftbreakers: another game by the Ker Nethalas author, this one intends to emulate the feel of an MMO, which is interesting for a solo game. There are online communities that play it individually but together, with events passing between different games, and people trading items and resources. I’ve only gone through the character creation (which is structured as a tutorial level), but am looking forward to more.
The Five Kingdoms of the Icemark: a sequel to Morkin, by the same author. The kickstarter completed only this week and we don’t have the rules yet, but I’m really excited for this one, as Morkin has been my favourite solo game so far.
HELLPIERCERS: not a solo game at all, and also not my usual sort of RPG, as it’s a tactics-heavy skirmish game. But it’s drawn me in with its gnostic theme (god is dead, we killed him, and now we’re invading hell to liberate the souls of the dead) and I want to see if this could work as a low-prep game when we can’t do the regular weekly campaign for whatever reason.