Tabletop Tuesday — Gaming Group Pride (Part Two)!

Last week, I offered up jazz hands for two of my players from my two Star Trek Adventures gaming groups, and given both my groups are made up almost entirely of authors, I can do this again (and again, even!) for Pride Month, so I’m gonna.

So, allow me to beam up two new books right onto your shelf.

Operations Officers For Everyone!

As I mentioned last week, one of my player groups made characters for an almost entirely Trill ship, the USS Curzon. For Hudson Lin, that character is the chief of operations, Ensign Miari Grix. Ensign Grix is a joined Trill who completed the Initiate training with excellent marks in early everything—except maybe some of the social stuff—and is a computer expert, an absolute whiz when it comes to transporters, and the first to exit a room the moment things get social. Or diplomatic. Or involve feelings.

Grix’s joining has a similar flavour to it—her host and symbiont are joined, but Miari’s access to Grix’s memories are… factual. She doesn’t connect to them in the deep, emotional way that other hosts seem to, and it’s caused some consternation among the Symbiosis Commission. Some of the best role-playing moments have involved Grix and Xon talking over their different ways of “being Joined” and as a fun little side-note, Ensign Grix’s previous host was the Chief Engineer’s grandmother, and that can be a bit awkward at times…

Given we’re talking anti-social grumpy types, I can’t help but want to suggest Hudson Lin’s Coffee House short, “Take Me Home.” Total grumpy/sunshine vibes, crafting, and the adorableness is off the scale.

Melvin is old and tired and all he wants is to enjoy his weekly Sunday morning coffee at the local cafe. Most weeks he can ignore Lee and his cheerfully friendly comments. But when Lee sits down at his table one day with a pile of blue yarn and a twinkle in his eye, Melvin wonders whether his fossil of a heart can love again.

Take Me Home is a 3,300 word m/m meet cute with a grumpy grandpa, a meddling cafe owner, sweet touches, and side-by-side knitting.

Over on the USS Bellerophon, the chief operations officer is Ensign Talus Reon, a Bajoran man who recently graduated Starfleet Academy and has crossed a great deal of Federation and Klingon space to get to the Shackleton Expanse and go exploring—in part because he’s pretty sure the Prophets told him this is where some great fate awaits him.

Almost immediately upon joining the crew of the Bellerophon, that seems to indeed be the case: he’s bumped into words he saw in his Orb experience, as well as glimpses of things that seem eerily familiar. Now all he needs to do is face down the unknown and understand the things he’s seen—hopefully before more planets vanish, implode, or explode.

Yeah, that’s happened. A couple of times.

Anthony Cardno is the author behind Ensign Talus, and I know I’ve spoken of his wonderful holiday short novel The Firflake before, but I’m going to do it again because it’s a holiday tradition for me to re-read it every year. It’s a lovely story (that reads like smaller stories) and does this tale-within-a-tale thing of explaining some of the magic of the holidays from one generation to another. It’s delightful.

“But what if I’m looking near the field and the Firflake falls by the old stream?”

Engleberta Ruprecht is this year’s Watcher, and she takes her job seriously. The Watcher is tasked with waiting for the first snowflake of winter and leading Papa Knecht, the head of the family, to where the Firflake will fall. While the parents prepare for the special day, Papa Knecht and Mama Alvarie gather the grandchildren and tell stories.

They tell the legend of the Firflake, a story of cold northern plains and whipping winds. They also tell how Papa, when he was just a young man, went out to explore the wide world. How on a cold winter’s night in a small town, Papa was attacked by a group of young men, and then rescued by a tall stranger named Nicholas. And how Papa and Nicholas’ friendship became the foundation for the family’s long Christmas tradition.Told in the best winter campfire storytelling tradition, The A Christmas Story is a tale full of familiar Christmas stories told in a new light.

THE FIRFLAKE: A CHRISTMAS STORY is an all-ages, illustrated short novel about the Ruprecht family and the stories they tell waiting for the First Snowflake of winter to arrive. They tell the legend of where the First Snowflake comes from, and also the story of how Papa Knecht came to help a man named Nicholas on his Christmas Eve mission.

Next week we’ll return to the USS Bellerophon one more time during this trek through Pride Month nerdery and recommendations.