The Moons of Earth

Hey friends!

While walking my dog Tesla today, I was catching up on listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Planetary Radio. One of the discussion topics was NASA's RPG, The Lost Universe. I'd heard of it previously—if you work in RPGs, I imagine you have, too. But it was wonderful to hear designer Christina Mitchell tell podcast host Sarah Al-Ahmed about the setting, including how NPCs in the setting used vacuum energy to power their magic. How cool is that?

Then, at the end of the podcast, Dr. Bruce Betts happened to mention another RPG he was fond of: The Strange. I have to say, that definitely made my day. 

Anyway, I moved from that episode to another where the topic was the naming of Venus's quasi-moon Zoozve. I was like, wait, what's a quasi-moon? It was long theorized, but the discovery of one around Venus was the first confirmation. (The podcast actually discussed how Radiolab is responsible for naming the moon Zoozve--its original designation was 2002VE. I recommend listening to the episode on your favorite podcast catcher.)

Since then, the planetary community has learned Earth has quasi-moons, too. Apparently SIX of them!

So, yeah, that's cool.

[Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash ]

And we danced! (at Norwescon 2024)

Happy April 1st! There is NOT a spider on your shoulder, my friends.

This last weekend, Batgirl and I attended Norwescon just south of Seattle. Norwescon has always been a sci-fi and writer-forward convention, but has also made room for RPGs in the last few decades. I've attended in the past wearing different hats—fiction writer, RPG designer, or sometimes both.

This last time around, I decided to focus solely on gaming. Which is why I sat on and moderated some fun panels including worldbuilding RPGs, RPG sessions 0 suggestions, making RPGs more welcoming to new players, and strategies for teaching RPGs to young players.

I also ran an adventure called "Bitter Seeds" from the pages of my post-apocalyptic worldbuilding book Rust and Redemption. And guess what? Garth Hill (a patron of my Patreon) flew out to attend the convention and actually cosplayed as his character, The Kid! (The Kid was a psychic "phreak" who could interface with computers with his mind). The game was fantastic and I've got to hand it to Garth and the other players for a great job dealing with challenges that included them rolling more 1s than I've ever seen, no joke.

Batgirl and I also danced the night away two nights in a row! When it comes to dances, there's really no better place to dance in a judgment-free zone than at a dance at a geek convention!