Summary of the Year 2013

It has been a good year for me and great first year for my blog. As I now hit the Publish button, I have produced 42 blog posts, and the blog has received more than 12,000 total pageviews. I believe it is worth mentioning that the five most viewed posts were (1) Starting a Megadungeon Campaign, (2) Alternate Rule for Paralysis, (3) Rappan Atuk - Classes, (4) Vikings & Valkyries, Session 1, and (5) Rappan Athuk - Session Zero.

For fun, I did some text analyses. Based on my blog posts, Typealizer, for instance, proposed that I am of the ISTP type. Another analysis by urlai.com resulted in the following: "ynasmidgard.blogspot.com is probably written by a male somewhere between 66-100 years old. The writing style is academic and happy most of the time."; I may not be that old, but it was flattering to read that my blog "is the 326th most manly blog of 17,730 ranked".

What follows is a list of games I played or ran this year, other game-related things I did, some things I wanted to do but did not, and, finally, my game-related plans for the next year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!

Review: Arcana Rising

Now that the final version of this game hit the electronic shelves, it is time I wrote a review of it. To be clear, I was a backer of the Kickstarter project, and I was paying much attention to the development of the game since the first beta; otherwise, I have no affiliations with the author whatsoever.

So, Arcana Rising is an urban fantasy role-playing game; it takes place in a contemporary setting to which magic has been recently brought back by Russian scientists' drilling down into Lake Vostok, apparently breaching the seal that warded the source of magic. From the first two and a half pages we get to know how the Atlanteans ruled thousands of years ago, how their kingdom fell, and how magic was locked away; then a few paragraphs about role-playing games, dice conventions, Rule No. 0, and then we get a summary of character creation.

Vikings & Valkyries - Session Five

Session 5 (October 26, 2013)

(Back to Session 1)

I am very much late with this play report, so let me just get through it quickly.

The current party of adventurers:

• Harald Greentooth (Viking 2), veteran javelin-thrower and spear-wielder
• Jormund (Sorcerer 2), cunning sorcerer
• Gottfried Flogasson (Prince 1), designated tank of the party, also of noble heritage
• Esya Valdensdottir (Huntress 1), a hunter living in the forest
• Freydís (Priestess of Freya 1), a priestess coming from a secluded community of Frey-worshippers