🪩 New Year, Old Stuff

Dear reader,

Happy new year! I hope 2026 is treating you kindly so far.

I'm a person who loves new year's resolutions (perhaps because I'm a Capricorn and the turning of the year falls squarely in Capricorn season). In previous years, I've made resolutions, chosen guiding words, and made bingo boards, but this year, I'm going in with a simple intention: use what I have. I'm surrounded by books I haven't read, games I haven't played, fabric I haven't sewn, cookbooks I haven't tried, candles I haven't burnt, etc etc, and I want to use these things! (Particularly before I buy new things in any of these categories.)

If you're also a resolution type of person, what's guiding you this year?

Upcoming Events

• The Mutual Aid TTRPG Jam is happening on itch.io until February 28. Join us to explore ways to design games inspired by values of mutual aid and community care, and raise funds for your local mutual aid efforts.
• SomerCon, my local tiny TTRPG convention, is back on Sunday, January 25, and I'll be speaking on a panel called How to Publish Your Game. There are other panels, workshops, game sessions, a Dungeons & Drag Nuns live show, and more!
• On Thursday, January 28, I'll be hosting an in-person jam night for the Mutual Aid TTRPG Jam at Side Quest Books & Games. We'll do some writing exercises and then have open design time!

Projects in Progress

• A storytelling game inspired by For the Queen for the Mutual Aid TTRPG Jam.
• A daily tarot game project.
• A quilt — I am enjoying it but I also feel like I'm being tortured by it? I'm attempting to make a quilt top from my scrap collection without following a pattern and I can't stop thinking about and arranging my fabric. Wish me luck!

Things I've Loved Recently

• Opening a fresh tin of my favorite hot chocolate, the European drinking chocolate from Trader Joe's.
• Playing through Hades and starting Hades II! (Chaos, my beloved.)
• Junk journaling, aka literally taping receipts, junk mail, product tags, stamps, and other tiny detritus into a notebook to make the world's ugliest scrapbook. There are 0 stakes and it's so relaxing.
• Listening to the podcast Wild Geese by Anna Corinne. I like to watch her YouTube videos while I paste stuff in my junk journal!

Thanks for joining me today! I have a game design theory post coming later this week (and I'll likely continue my newsletter schedule of sending when I feel like it). Join us in the Earthly Body Discord if you like!