Catherine Fitzsimmons's Blog: Jinxed, page 2

New art: Season’s readings

Pencil crayon, 9″ x 12″. Originally drawn December 2022, completed 6 January 2025.

It’s always such a pleasure

Back again at the beginning of another year. 2024 was, fortunately, at least not as interesting as 2023 was, at least for me personally (though I am still fighting other health issues). I certainly looked productive from the perspective of this blog, which saw the most entries last year since 2020. But was I?

Reading

Surpassed my goal of 30 books in late November to complete 44 (as usual, this number is strictly books read for fun, not counting any I read/edited for Brain Lag). A not-insignificant portion of the excess books were graphic novels, both series continuations and discovering new ones. I am increasingly impressed with the graphic novel selection in my library’s ebook app and will likely be diving into it more.

Overall, added more books to each of my TBRs than I checked off, but I am trying to get through some books that have been backlogged for far too long. I also joined a local silent book club (in which the focus is just sitting and reading whatever you feel like with other people). While that’s had a strictly social impact on me without affecting my reading, it’s been enjoyable, and I got to read a book in December I may not have done otherwise.

Top book: Actually a very difficult decision this year, as I read several extremely well written books, as well as some deeply affecting ones, and others that I had to give 5 stars because they were so much fun. I will highlight a few favourites that are lesser known: Cool. Awkward. Black. edited by Karen Strong, Coral’s Reef volume 1 by David Lumsdon and Shiei, The Dragon’s Legacy by Deborah A. Wolf, and The Cull volume 1 by Kelly Thompson and Mattia de Iulis.

Goal for 2025: 30 books has been serving me well. I’m not out to prove anything.

Video games

This year was dominated by Kingdom Hearts, as I kept working my way through the series from Kingdom Hearts II through until I beat Kingdom Hearts III in late September. After that, I dipped my toes into Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest on Nintendo Switch Online for the first time, but otherwise focused on Visions of Mana for the remainder of the year. Overall, I didn’t put as many hours into gaming in 2024 as I did in 2023. Which I don’t really mind, except that my backlog did not get a single game shorter as a result.

Top game: Kingdom Hearts as a series and Visions of Mana come in pretty even for me.

Goal for 2025: Nothing specific yet, though I would like to get some games out of my backlog. After all those action RPGs, I’m looking forward to something turn-based next, when I feel like diving into another game.

Art

This definitely saw a revival in 2024, not only in number of/time spent on pieces I finished, but in getting my art out there again (to the extent that I do so, anyway). The vast majority of my 11 new pictures (again, not counting art done for Brain Lag) were done on my iPad, though late in the year I started playing with physical media again. I also tried new things and stretched my legs with some media I’ve used for many years, and overall just had fun making art again. I lament the amount of time bigger pieces require and how little I have for art, because I have so many art supplies I want to play with more.

Top artwork: Although I’m still particularly pleased with how “Solstice” came out, I don’t consider it a 2024 piece, as I finished it on New Year’s Day, after 20-someodd hours in December 2023. For 2024, it’s hard to beat the banner art I did for the November contest for Dwelling of Duels, especially since Wise himself left such nice comments on it.

Goal for 2025: No specific goals in terms of productivity. I just want to keep doing art and having fun with it.

Writing

It didn’t happen. At all. I had a grand total of 4 entries (out of 730) in my mood tracker for writing last year. I lost my momentum after releasing Elderra’s Champion in 2023 and have not recovered it yet.

Top writing: …

(Okay, I did work on a couple of short stories that I enjoyed, I just haven’t finished them yet.)

Goal for 2025: Just… write. I don’t know yet if I should set any word count, time, or project completion goals; perhaps that would be the fire I need, but I’m not feeling particularly drawn to any measurable goal for writing.

Life

Working on me is an ongoing process. Between anemia and frequent insomnia or other sleep issues, I’m often quite tired, which also tends to exacerbate task initiation and executive dysfunction issues. So, I’ve been recognizing and accepting my limitations a bit more in the past few months, both in day-to-day activities and in things like signing up for cons/events.

I am trying to implement some changes that will hopefully be good for both my physical and mental health. Habits are difficult to form when I’m never certain when I’ll run out of spoons in a day (or not have enough for much in the first place), but I’m doing my best.

Top accomplishment: Witnessing a total solar eclipse.

Goals for 2025: Focus on positives, don’t let negative feelings control me, forgive myself, drive less, listen to more music, wear more jewellery, accept that everything I wear will get sweaty.

New art: lazy day

I wanted to colour yesterday, so I broke out an inked drawing that had been sitting in my sketchbook for a couple years and finished it.

Marker, finished 11 November 2024. She’s reading this book, by the way. I’m not sure if she’s a science fiction fan—she strikes me as more of a horror and/or chick lit reader—but it worked for now.

New art: David Wise month

I did the November banner art for music competition Dwelling of Duels.

Clip Studio Paint, completed 28 October 2024.

New art: Moguberry

Clip Studio Paint, finished 7 September 2024.

Gen Con 2024 games wrap-up, bonus edition

The following games I didn’t actually play at Gen Con, but they deserve special mention for varying reasons.

boop the Halls!

boop. was another game that I failed to get a ticket for in 2022, though a five-minute explanation of the game play at the publisher’s booth was enough to understand how clever it is.

It’s very simple: you and one other player try to line up three of your cats in a row, but each time you place a cat, it pushes every other cat around it away one space. The design immediately grabbed me, with the bottom of the game box making the ‘bed’ (with the side panels patterned like a bed skirt) and a square-patterned blanket that Velcros on top serving as the game board. Although I’m not big on two-player games, I found this one intriguing (and cute, of course).

Now, there are two spinoffs of boop., the (unfortunately sold out at Gen Con) Halloween-themed BOOoop. and boop the Halls!, which adds a 3-tiered board and some tree ornaments to the same basic gameplay. It still looks super cute and fascinating and I’m looking forward to trying it.

MLEM: Space Agency

I was searching for Calico in the exhibit hall—very determinedly, I might add—when the name and the art of this game brought me up short. Yes, it’s about cats colonizing space.

Game play seemed pretty simple with not very many components, which include an adorable cardboard rocket ship that shows which player’s cat is in charge. Travel across the play mat involves dice rolls which determine where you end up, at which point you can decide if you want to go down to a planet or whatnot. Would totally have picked this game up had I not been so focused on Calico (which it turned out was sold out by Friday morning anyway).

Kyoto no Neko

I know nothing about this game. I have never played it. I had never heard of it until my husband bought a copy and showed it to me. But it’s pretty cute and the game play seems fun and pretty simple, despite the number of components. And really, who am I to reject another cat-themed board game? (To go with the other five cat-themed board games on our gaming shelf, along with Calico and MLEM: Space Agency soon, hopefully.) We’ll find out soon if it’s as entertaining as the art.

Landmarks

This is another logic-based game a la Message from the Stars, only better done, as I understand. It was heavily advertised at Gen Con and it was going to be my only game on Saturday night, but my body said no. I am told that it was quite fun and clever, though.

Did you get a chance to play it? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

New art: aaaaaa

Drawn from this photo. Clip Studio Paint, completed 7 August 2024.

Gen Con 2024 games wrap-up, part 2/2

Flamecraft

About: In a town of artisans, small dragons with certain specialties collect goods to create enchantments and expand the town’s shops.

How to play: Players draw dragon cards and place them on shop cards to gather resources, improve the shops, and eventually build new ones. Your Reputation is your score, earned by enchanting shops, building up new ones, doing good deeds for other players, and through bonus cards and such.

My thoughts: I’ve seen this game around for a while but hadn’t been dying to play it, and got a ticket for the event because nothing else at the same time jumped out at me; yes, it’s a game about cute dragons, but does it have anything else?

What I didn’t count on was just how cute the dragons are. And it turned out to be a pretty fun game, too. Another chill game in which you’re just trying to build your own success rather than try to sabotage anyone else’s. There was some randomness factor with drawing cards, but nothing that relied on luck. Thinking back on it now, I can’t really identify what made it such an enjoyable game to play (aside from the absolutely adorable, top-tier art and the delightfully punny names), but I certainly had a good time playing it.

My rating: Literally the cutest. Sorry, Calico.

A Message from the Stars

About: A mysterious alien race is sending humanity a message, and it’s up to you to decode it.

How to play: A GM and a team/teams of players each secretly and randomly select three words from a list. Each side gives single-word clues to the other. However, the GM also has a set of letters that players have to guess, based solely on the scoring of the letters in the clue words. Players must deduce what these secret letters are, after which each side tries to guess the words chosen at the beginning.

My thoughts: I didn’t really remember what this game’s description was by the time Gen Con came around, but it turned out to be far more cerebral—and far less thematic—than I anticipated. It also felt very much like two separate games: determining the secret letters was the bulk of the game play, with guessing the words coming in almost as an afterthought. Trying to figure out the letters was a serious exercise in logic, and in the end, my game partner, another demo agent, and I had to resort to guessing a couple of them. (Guessing the words was a simple matter of association and most likely answer.)

Ultimately, I really liked the logic of the letter guessing aspect, but it would take a particular type of player to find the enjoyment in it, and the word-guessing part seemed disjointed and unnecessary. Plus, I was expecting something a bit more alien-oriented and it was decidedly… not.

My rating: Good bones, limited appeal

The Worst Game Ever

About: By combining the most hated tabletop game mechanics, the designer truly created the Worst Game Ever.

How to play: You have chips. You draw cards. The cards do what they tell you and then you try to steal other players’ chips. Game ends when somebody’s out of chips. If you’ve played Fluxx, it plays similarly. The deck includes such classic actions as “table flip” (remove all “stays in play” cards), “I Know the Designer” (makes all dice rolls against you more difficult), and Useless Card (stays in play, does nothing).

My thoughts: At 11:00 p.m. on a Friday night with a group of friends, this game was hilarious. The designer knew exactly what he was doing. We consistently broke the game (only occasionally by using the “Break the Game” card) and had an absolute blast doing so. I suspect it takes the right crowd to appreciate this game, but it certainly nailed it for us.

My rating: 10/10, would definitely complain about dice rolls and sing random songs again

Gen Con 2024 games wrap-up, part 1

Sea Dragons

About: You play as a family of sea dragons trying to gain control over the seas.

How to play: Each player is given a number of dragon head and body pieces. You draw cards with Tetris-like shapes on them and use them to place your dragons on the board to collect coins or special cards, defeat pirates, and try to avoid whirlpools. The player with the most points at the end wins.

My thoughts: A pretty simple, cute, and fun game. The board setup is very well designed, I love the dragon meeples, and the game play was strategic but still pretty casual, and not particularly competitive. It may not stand out in its simplicity, but I enjoyed playing it.

My rating: Plays well, a little forgettable, +6 for dragon theme, -3 for manual translated from Portuguese to Spanish to English

Calico

About: It’s about quilts and cats. Do you really need anything else?

How to play: Players start with individual boards and tiles that state the patterns you want to match for the most points. Each turn, you draw a tile from three random choices of colour and pattern and select where best to place it. Streaks of colours give you buttons and streaks of patterns draw cats, both of which provide significant victory points.

My thoughts: I had been wanting to play this game for years—I must have first seen a Kickstarter edition in 2019, since it apparently released in 2020. I couldn’t get a ticket for my only available time slot in 2022 and when I finally got a ticket in 2023… well, life happened. So, I was quite happy to finally get the chance to play this.

That said, I didn’t brush up on my knowledge of the game beforehand, and it took a little bit for me to understand the mechanics and goals. However, the combination of strategizing so many elements per move and the randomness factor of the available tiles—which every player is drawing from—made for a much more intense experience than I would’ve expected from a game about enticing cats onto a quilt. It was every bit as charming yet far more thoughtful than I anticipated, and I was left immediately wanting to play it again, since I understood the rules much better at the end.

My rating: I NEED.

Gen Con haul 2024

Games:

Flamecraft deluxe edition boop the Halls!Kyoto no NekoPan’s Island

Game expansions/pieces:

Wings of Glory aircraft: LancasterWings of Glory aircraft: BeaufighterWings of Glory aircraft: Ju-88Classic Battletech: Salvage Box: Urbanmech LamClassic Battletech: Clan Invasion Salvage: 1 random ’mech

Books:

Arcana parts 3-5 by H.T. BradyGirl Squad Volta by Maya Lin WangUrban Dragon by JW TroemnerSunbolt by Intisar KhananiNaiya and the Foxdragon by Naomi Vandoren

Enamel pins:

Zen flight dragon by Dragons and Beasties Crow by Lucky Duck Games White dragon with flowers by Naomi Vandorenboop. by Smirk & Dagger Games Echidna Shuffle by Wattsalpoag Games Stegosaurus by Brexworx Games

Badge ribbons:

Become the CubeAlly, tabletopgaymers.orgRogue Judges Winner I love dragons!Dragon rider

Miscellaneous:

Black tea grab bag from Dryad TeasEternal Radiance print by Stephen NajarianWillow dragon plushPeeking cat and Legend of Zelda bookmarks

Freebies:

Scum button from Eclipse Phase game Emperor and arcana symbol buttons by H.T. BradySprout hair clipDried lavender mini potion bottle Mushroom mimic miniGolden coin Pokemon trading card game Bidoof cardMini Pokeball with Bidoof sticker and Cranidos figure