I used to believe that gaming meant only using a console, handheld, or using a PC. This summer, when I stayed in Winona, I discovered a cute little gaming store called River Quest.
My roommate got a job working there, so I was in the store at least once a week or every other week. I got to know the owner, who is one of the coolest guys in the Winona area. I was opened up to a world of a different type of gaming.
I’m creating a Bucket List of Board Games that I haven’t played yet, but I intend to. I will sticky this to the front page of the Gaming Section and I plan to update it as I play new games. Also, I hope to post a review on some of these board games especially the ones with the strikeout through the name. In the meantime, enjoy my bucket list! Also, feel free to comment with various board games that I can add to the list.
I have tried to write this post at least three or four times. Each time, I ended up abandoning the post altogether. One project I have been working on is editing my previous blog posts. Throughout this process, I have been taking note of things I wrote about several years ago. I used to write a lot about comics. There were posts where I was reviewing three or four different comic book series. To say that I’m in a comics-reading slump would be an understatement. It saddens me because reading comics brings me so much joy, yet I don’t feel compelled to pick up a comic to read. Why is that?
When I think about what started this reading slump, a few things come to mind. The first is the expense of reading comics. When my husband and I bought our house, we had to review our budget. One of the easiest ways for me to save money was to cut out going to the comic book store. While a single issue comic on its own isn’t all that expensive, I would end up buying several trade paperbacks on top of that. It wouldn’t be uncommon for me to spend $50 every time I go. That may not seem like a lot, but if it’s $50 every week or every other week, that can add up. As much as I want to go visit my local comic book store, I have so many graphic novels on my shelf that I want to read first. I’d rather prioritize my reading and then stock up on more comics when I’m ready.
The second reason for this comics reading slump is feeling out of the loop. Unlike other hobbies, with comics, I don’t have any good comic podcasts or YouTube channels to watch. I don’t know what’s being released or which comic series are ongoing. As a side note, I’d love any comics podcast or YouTube recommendations. I used to follow a few accounts, but they stopped posting regularly. Several years ago, I was a part of a local comics Facebook group. This was great! It felt like I had a place to talk about comics that I didn’t have in the past. I ended up leaving the group due to an increase in posts where people felt comics were getting “too woke”. Leaving a Facebook group isn’t an airport; there’s no need to announce your departure. I believe comics are for everyone, and diversity in comics is a great thing. I don’t want to be a part of a community that doesn’t echo that.
The final contributor to my comics reading slump is prioritizing my Goodreads TBR. While I have made substantial progress with reading books, comics got left behind. Once I finish my TBR, I’m going to approach reading differently in the future. I’ll write about that later, I’m sure, but this approach will be more focused on incorporating comics into my monthly TBRs.
Where do I go from here? One thing that has helped is to start over. I have thought about why I love comics so much and what series mean a lot to me. I pulled off all my old Calvin & Hobbes comics to re-read in the coming months. I have started digging into all the graphic novels I bought in April, and decided to re-read The Manhattan Projects. This is one of my favorite comic series, and I finally found the missing volumes I needed. It’s surprising how much I remember about the series since it’s been years since I last read them. To get out of this slump, I want to reconnect with why I got into comics to begin with.
I have never been to New Orleans myself, so I can’t say how accurate it is to the region. It seems well researched, though. The guide includes information about New Orleans, Baton Rouge, LA, and Biloxi, MS. It features various locations, regional history, specific NPCs, and more. I’m only twenty-seven pages in as of typing this out, so I still have more than 100 pages to read before I’m done. The fact that this is free to access is incredible, because there’s no doubt that I would pay for guidebooks for Vampire: The Masquerade in different states or countries.
If you’re interested in checking this out, I have linked both the original Reddit post and the link to the Google doc.
It’s the last month of the year, and with that comes an ambitious TBR. One of the books I had on hold for weeks at my library suddenly became available. While that wasn’t planned, I wasn’t going to miss the chance to read it. This means that I will be attempting to read three books this month, which has either worked out or not. Two of the books I was planning to read are three hundred pages or less, so it could be doable. Two books are holiday-themed, and the book I had on hold is not. I think this will be a fun, somewhat seasonal TBR.
In November, I read three books, which are as follows:
How to Seal Your Own Fate by Kristen Perrin 5/5 stars
Told You So by Mayci Neeley Unrated
Well Traveled by Jen DeLuca 3/5 stars
How to Seal Your Own Fate was an entertaining, cozy mystery. Told You So was difficult to read, but I ended up loving it more than I thought I would. For those who are unfamiliar, Mayci is a cast member on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Mayci writes about her unexpected pregnancy when she was nineteen, the abusive relationship she was in, and how important tennis was to her. As a note, I don’t rate memoirs. I think it’s odd to rate someone’s trauma, and it feels wrong to me. It’s not my place to tell someone how they should write their own story. Finally, I finished the month by reading Well Traveled and adding another completed book series to my list! Well Traveled was my least favorite book in the series, but it had to do with the male main character rather than the series itself.
These are the three books I’m reading this month. Wish me luck!
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Joan Goodwin is one of the few to join the NASA space shuttle program. She trains and becomes close friends with her team. Everything changed in December of 1984. Part of me thinks this is a potential retelling of the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster in 1986, but I could be wrong. This will be the second Taylor Jenkins Reid book I have read, with the first being The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I ended up loving that book, and I thought the premise for Atmosphere was too good to pass up. When my local library said this book was ready for pickup, I knew I had to read it.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
Mona is a Wizard, but she isn’t a soldier. Her familiar is a sourdough starter, and her magic can be seen in the bakery. When Mona arrives at work, she sees a dead body on the floor. Mona is pulled into a conspiracy, and why is this assassin after her? This seems like a cute and cozy story. I haven’t read a T. Kingfisher book yet, and I thought this was the perfect book to start with.
The Wedding Witch by Erin Sterling
Bowen Penhallow is asked to attend a wedding in the Welsh countryside, which he begrudgingly agrees to. Tamsyn Bligh sells magical wares and is aware of Bowen as an occasional customer. She also gets an invite to this wedding and hopes to steal an artifact while she’s there. Bowen and Tamsyn get up to some shenanigans and end up being transported to 1957. They must work together to get back to the present. This is the third book in the Ex Hex series, and this book is only 276 pages. That’s part of the reason why I decided to read three books since this book is considerably shorter.
I’m feeling really determined to read all these books. Out of all the months where I thought I would read three books and it didn’t happen, I feel like this month will be an exception.
The Mighty Nein has premiered on Amazon Prime with new episodes releasing on Wednesday. The Mighty Nein chronicles Critical Role’s second campaign, and arguably the campaign that Critical Role is known for. I have introduced my husband to both The Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein, even though my husband has never watched a full episode of Critical Role before. I am loving The Mighty Nein, and I think the show streamlines the campaign in a way that’s easy to follow.
There will be spoilers for both the show and the campaign.
The Mighty Nein follows seven characters, with six being introduced in the first four episodes. Caleb Widogast (played by Liam O’Brien), Nott The Brave (played by Sam Riegel), Beauregard Lionett (played by Marisha Ray), Jester Lavorre (played by Laura Bailey), Fjord (played by Travis Willingham), and Mollymauk Tealeaf (played by Taliesin Jaffe). Yasha (played by Ashley Johnson) makes an appearance, but doesn’t say much and isn’t connected with the group at this moment. Caleb and Nott meet after Nott steals Caleb’s spell components. Beau is investigating an attack with the Cobalt Soul, and Jester has a run-in with Fjord after his ship is wrecked in a storm. Mollymauk is helping Gustav prepare for the carnival. After the carnival is ransacked by a devil toad, the characters team up to prove their innocence and that they were not behind the attack on the carnival.
My favorite characters in the campaign were Fjord and Caduceus, who have not been introduced yet. From the show, I like Beau and Molly. It’s interesting because, during the campaign, I disliked Molly, which I would say is a somewhat unconventional take considering how much the fandom loves Molly as a character. I liked how Molly was portrayed in the show. They were less pompous, and I like how there was more emphasis on the Tarot cards. Beau’s story with The Cobalt Soul is one of the major plot points in the show, as it should be. I also liked how the earlier episodes emphasized how all the characters met. In the campaign, they meet, but the show ties everything together in a nice way, so it provides more emphasis on Caleb and Nott’s friendship before meeting the others.
Focusing on the NPCs, I liked how Trent Ikithon is a major focus right away. One thing I wish from watching the campaign is more emphasis on Trent and how evil he was. He would appear every now and then, but was more of a background character. In the show, that’s not the case. He is ICKY. He is a major player in the upcoming war, and he experiments on people, which is again, really gross. Trent’s early appearance helps establish his eventual downfall, and I look forward to it. Another notable NPC is Dairon, Beau’s mentor. Dairon is voiced by Ming-Na Wen, who also plays Melinda May in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I thought that was a perfect casting for the character. Dairon was one of my favorite NPCs from the campaign, and I love how she’s voiced by another one of my favorite actors.
With most of Critical Role’s campaign adaptations, there are changes from the campaign to the animated show. The first notable change was Yasha. In the campaign, Yasha knew Molly from episode one, whereas in the animated show, Yasha is nowhere to be seen. I think this change may have been necessary, considering Ashley Johnson was still filming Blindspot during the campaign. I think it could have been more difficult to explain narratively why Yasha disappears. If I had to guess, I think the group will meet Yasha when she’s under Obann’s influence, and they will have to free her. I wonder if this will happen in the first season of the show or a lot later. Another change was the death of Gustav. In the campaign, Gustav survives the attack, whereas in the show, Molly is forced to kill him when he’s turned. I think this provides Molly more direction as a character. It gives more meaning to the scimitars that he carries.
I’m curious to see if Avantika will appear this season or if she will be saved for later on. The Mighty Nein is an enjoyable rendition of Critical Role’s beloved campaign. The Mighty Nein can be streamed on Amazon Prime.
Last week, I went to my first Dragons, Dungeons & Drinks game. Dragons, Dungeons & Drinksis an organization that runs monthly Dungeons & Dragons one-shots at various breweries in the area. There are some events at Brühaven, a brewery in Minneapolis. Some events are hosted at Bad Weather Brewing Company, a brewery in Saint Paul. Dragons, Dungeons & Drinkshas even expanded to Duluth, which is two hours north of the Twin Cities. I have been on their Discord for some time and was able to go to their November one-shot titled “Rise of the Queen”. Without knowing what to expect, I had such a fun time.
I loved how organized everything was. I arrived at Bad Weather around twenty minutes early. There was a small registration area where you checked in and were offered a name tag. After I checked in, I saw that on the desk were a ton of free dice for those who didn’t have any. I didn’t take any because I brought my own, but I liked how Dragons, Dungeons & Drinkshad that available. Once I put on my name tag, I was shown to my table. Our table was supposed to have five players, but only four showed up. I have no problem playing with people I don’t know, and this table was a hoot. For not knowing each other, I felt we all got along well. There wasn’t anyone interrupting or overstepping, and we all worked together to complete the mission. It’s nice to know more people who love TTRPGs as much as I do.
As far as the characters, there were several pre-made characters to choose from. I have no preference as to what I play, so I chose last based on what everyone else wanted to play. I picked Urla, the Witch of the Circle of the Stars. She was the Elf Druid. I like how each character has their own character art. Each character has their history, so you can understand a little about them. As someone who invests a lot into the roleplay element of the game, I liked this a lot. Urla is not very charismatic, so I chose to play that out throughout the session. Each character sheet is laminated, and each DM has a whiteboard erasable marker. I found myself using it to cross off any Wild Shape or spells that I cast.
The one-shot took about four hours. Our table was one of the last to finish as our combat went long. I say that it went long, but it definitely didn’t feel that way. I was engaged from start to finish. Normally, I’m the note taker in most of my groups, so it was nice to be able to put my journal away and pay attention to what everyone else was doing. Each Dragons, Dungeons, and Drinks one-shot is said to be standalone, meaning you don’t have to play the other adventures to follow along with this one. I would say that’s true. I didn’t feel lost or that I was missing anything by not playing in the other games.
This is a ticketed event, meaning there is a cost to play. There are several cost tiers. There’s the early-bird ticket, meaning you save five dollars if you buy ahead of time. This is $30. The standard ticket is $35. There’s the Hero-Tier, which grants admission while also donating to the Dragons, Dungeons, and Drinks community initiatives. This is $40. Finally, there’s another option called the Player Ticket Reduced Rate. This is for those who may need an extra hand. I purchased at the Hero-Tier because I like the idea of pitching in for someone else or for pitching into the organization. There’s also an option to donate to the dice goblin collection, which is how Dragons, Dungeons, and Drinks can offer free dice at each one-shot. I like the flexibility in tickets, and if I’m able to, I plan to purchase a Hero-Tier ticket every time.
I got this idea from Riley Marie, a YouTube book channel that I follow. She created a Book Series Tracker where she tracks which series she’s currently reading and how many books she has left. I thought this was such a great idea! I have been trying to finish more book series as I tend to read many first books in a series and then never read the rest. I recently reviewed all 805 books I have logged as read on Goodreads. My tracker is nothing fancy; I’m using a Google Sheet and created three different sheets: Series I’m Working Through, Series I’m Not Finishing, and Fully Completed Book Series.
I’m trying to read and finish eight book series. This may feel like a lot; however, two books I plan on reading by the end of the year will finish that series. This will leave me with six book series going into 2026. I think that’s doable. The second sheet I created, Series I’m Not Finishing, is exactly what it sounds like. I read the first book in a series, and either I felt that book could have been a standalone, I couldn’t get into reading the second book, or the first book didn’t generate enough interest for me to read the others. I created this sheet to be organized and remind myself why I discontinued that series. It’s not that these were books I didn’t like, not at all! I enjoyed reading these books, but I’m not feeling a pull to go back and continue with the rest of the series. The last sheet I created is Fully Completed Book Series. This sheet is again exactly what it sounds like. I went through all my books and listed which series I had read all the books in. In total, I have finished fourteen different book series. I thought this number would be lower, so I was surprised when this number was above ten. I don’t have a set goal for this, but I’d like to see more series added to this list.
This was a little time-consuming to put together, but I’m so happy that I took the time. This is going to help keep me organized with my reading goals. If I’m really feeling ambitious, I’d like to extend this to the graphic novels that I’m reading, as I want to finish more comic series, too.
I decided to buy Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. I was on the fence about the game, but once they rolled back the paywall for clans, I wanted to buy it to form my own opinions. While watching gameplay online, the game didn’t seem bad. The biggest catch about buying a game on release is whether it’s going to be buggy. I have played a few hours so far, and I haven’t had any issues with the game freezing or being glitchy. I haven’t finished the story yet, but once I do, I will write a full review. I wanted to share a few first impressions of the game.
I mentioned the atmosphere of the game, but I am enjoying Seattle as the setting. As I walk around with Phyre, it feels like this is what Seattle would be like if it were the backdrop of a World of Darkness game. Speaking of Phyre, she has grown on me as a character. When it was first announced that the main character’s name was Phyre, I thought it was a little ridiculous. I actually prefer Phyre’s Elder name of “The Nomad”. In between playing as Phyre, another character in this story is Fabien, the vampire who talks to Phyre in her head. Fabien was embraced in the 1920s and was investigating a serial killer. I’m curious to see how the story is going to play out and how Phyre and Fabien’s story relates to each other.
One portion of the game that I feel has a learning curve is combat. In my first playthrough, I decided to play as a Ventrue. Ventrue isn’t necessarily known as being a combative clan, but since I’m playing a Ventrue in my Vampire game every other Friday, it felt fitting to play as a Ventrue in Bloodlines 2. When I first started playing, I was dying a lot. As an elder vampire, I felt I could handle a few Anarch ghouls. I couldn’t have been more wrong. One thing that has helped me with combat is dodging attacks. This sounds silly because this should be obvious, but I wasn’t doing that as much. On a successful dodge, Phyre will do a counterattack with a kick. Another thing that helped me is to approach combat encounters as stealthily as possible. There was one mission where Phyre had to rescue some kidnapped ghouls. Once I took them out silently, I took on the bigger ghoul alone, and that made combat a lot easier. For reference, I’m playing on Normal difficulty. The final thing I would add that helped me in combat was using vampiric abilities. One of my favorites as a Ventrue is Terminal Decree. Terminal Decree allows you to command a mortal to kill themselves. Although if you use this on bigger enemies that carry machine guns, they get confused and drop their weapons and forget to pick them up again. This was clutch. I read this tip online, and it worked like a charm. Combat can be difficult, but once I have learned what works, it’s been easier to play through the story.
There are other minor things that I haven’t been loving about the game, but I think I will save that for my review. When I think about my thoughts on the game thus far, I feel Bloodlines 2 was worth the money. The disappointment comes in for me is that this game could have been so much more than what we got. This is something I will touch on more in a later post.
I read How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin last year, and I loved it. It was a cozy mystery that had me hooked from start to finish. It reminded me a lot of Knives Out because of the setting and the big mansion where Frances lives. After I finished How To Solve Your Own Murder, I was made aware that it was going to be a series rather than a standalone book. How To Seal Your Own Fate is the second book in the series, and the third book is set to come out next year. While I think I liked How To Solve Your Own Murder better, How To Seal Your Own Fate still kept my interest from start to finish.
From the previous book, Annie inherited France’s estate and is getting used to life in Castle Knoll. As she gets settled, she meets Peony Lane, the fortune teller who gave Frances her fortune, indicating that she would be murdered. Peony is mysterious, and Annie is left confused by their encounter. Hours later, Annie discovers Peony’s dead body on the estate. Annie is seen as the prime suspect and has to clear her name. In 1967, Frances is investigating a car accident that killed members of the Gravesdown family. Frances ends up meeting both Peony Lane and Birdy, Emily’s older sister. Annie starts to see the relation between France’s investigation and Peony Lane’s murder.
I like Annie as the main character. She’s smart and seems to think outside the box when she’s putting everything together. I find that she seems several steps ahead, and I have to re-read some of these moments since she’s able to put things together quickly. In this book, Annie invites one of her friends to come and see her, so she gets pulled into a web of all the residents at Castle Knoll. Annie also has a flirtation going on with one of the local detectives. I like how this is a slow-burning romance versus them getting together right away. I wouldn’t be opposed if Annie dates someone else because while they have chemistry together, it’s not apparent that they like each other. One of the joys of reading this series is reading about Annie’s day-to-day life in this small village.
I’m curious to see where this series goes. It feels like there isn’t much more story to tell in future books since the people in the town are winding up dead or being implicated in crimes. I was a little surprised that Frances was front and center in this book since I had considered her story finished in the previous book. I think it would be interesting for Annie to find a journal from another one of the town residents and hear from their perspective.
How To Seal Your Own Fate was still a solid book in the series. I rated How To Seal Your Own Fate five stars on Goodreads.
Last weekend I was at Twin Cities Con! I have been to Twin Cities Con several times, and it’s one convention I always try to make every year. As per usual, I was volunteering at the Twin Cities Geek table, which I look forward to. One thing I have always found interesting is that when I talk to people who stop by our booth, they mention that Twin Cities Con is their first convention. I love that. I’m happy to see Twin Cities Con bringing more people to attend conventions.
At our booth this year, we were handing out Chainsaw Man hats. Since Twin Cities Geek is an online magazine, we get sent promotional items to hand out, which we usually reserve for conventions. These Chainsaw Man hats were rad. I don’t usually have a ton of interest in the promotional things we hand out, but these were an exception. I’m not sure the exact number of hats we handed out, but when I was walking around the convention, I saw people wearing them. Someone had stopped by and put a Chainsaw Man hat on their baby, which was really cute. It’s always fun to offer free stuff.
As far as cosplay, I cosplayed both Friday and Saturday. On Friday, I cosplayed as The Punisher. Several years ago, I bought this Punisher bodysuit from Amazon. I only wore it once to C2E2 years ago. As I was contemplating what I wanted to cosplay, I found this at the bottom of my cosplay dresser, and forgot I had it. This bodysuit is really comfy! There’s enough room that I could wear leggings underneath if it were cold out. The bodysuit comes with white gloves and a white belt with velcro pockets. On Saturday, I cosplayed as an NPC (non-playable character) from our D&D campaign. I don’t have permission to share her character art since I don’t own the image. She has red hair, is wearing a black bralette, tight black leggings, and a dark, navy blue cardigan. She’s a Bard, so she also has a Violin. I wore the same wig that I wore for Scarlet Witch, and instead of wearing a black bralette, I wore a black, cropped athletic top. I found a navy blue cardigan online that’s not an exact match, but I think it’s a close resemblance. I didn’t take any photos on Saturday, so I don’t have anything I can share, but I was happy with how it came together.
The final thing I wanted to mention was the changes from this year’s Twin Cities Con and last year’s Twin Cities Con. I wrote about this last year, but the security line wasn’t set up the best. This year, the security line was set up differently. Once you walked through security, you had access to pretty much everything. The exhibit hall, panel rooms, and the gaming room where Badwolf Adventure Studios was set up. The only thing outside of this area was the main panel room. I was reading posts online, and everything was really positive. People said that everything ran smoothly. I’m glad that Twin Cities Con made these changes, and the changes made a difference.
It was another successful Twin Cities Con, that’s for sure. I can’t wait for next year.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there would be a new update to Animal Crossing! On top of that, this update isn’t exclusive to the Switch 2, so those who haven’t upgraded yet will still be included. While the update includes better graphics, I’m personally excited for the batch crafting feature. Normally, in Animal Crossing, you can only craft one thing at a time, but this update will allow gamers to craft multiple tools or items at once.
I don’t have anything else to say except that I’m excited! The update is set to release in January of next year.
Bizarre Brunette 