# What Are You Enjoying? tags: #thoughts  Blabs has a really good point here, and there's no way around it. It's not a new point. It's not a new idea. It's not a new thing. Fandom has *always* churned a whole lot of frustration, anger, and criticism because we are a contentious people. It's a natural side effect of caring about things. It may not be the things that we're told to care about. It may not be the things that we are commanded to care about. But fandoms are inherently a contentious space because we care about the subject of the fandom. When the fandom is being poorly served, they are generously loud. That is the nature of the beast. There's nothing wrong with that, nor should there be seen to be. It is, however, instructive and edifying to spend some time once in a while thinking about what you are enjoying and what is making you happy. Then not just to think about it, but to share it with other people in the hopes, in the expectation, that it will make them happy as well. Perfectly sensible. So let's run down a few things lately that have made *me* happy. Just for kicks, I am not going to keep it strictly to tabletop RPGs and war games, though they will predominate. ## Starforged / Sundered Isles ![[Starforged (cover).jpg|200]] ![[Sundered Isles (cover).jpg|200]] **[[Ironsworn - Starforged|Starforged]]** remains. In my opinion, one of the best TTRPG designs of the last decade and possibly longer, which is extremely high praise from an idiot who literally lives in a TTRPG and wargame library. I jumped on the **[[Ironsworn - Starforged|Sundered Isles]]** Kickstarter early. That is day one. Because I knew that this was a thing that I wanted to stick in my pocket and have as a set of tools to expand my pleasure in playing the game and put some more options out that perhaps weren't necessary, but are great to have as example mechanisms to do things I might need to do for my own personal campaigns or explorations. Despite the fact that I've had the PDFs for quite a while, I only recently started digging into the text for **Isles** over the last couple of weeks, but it's been fantastic. There is a little obsessive-compulsive talk about anti-colonialism and not even a nod to a situation in which the colonial power might actually be right. Fixing that is pretty simple stuff. In terms of mechanics, in terms of gameplay flow, in terms of just putting things together so that it is almost inevitably going to lead to fantastic gameplay? Top of the list. Continues to make me happy. No question at all. ## Star Trek Adventures ![[Star Trek Adventures - 2nd Edition (cover).png|200]] ![[Star Trek Adventures - Captains Log.jpg|200]] Look, here's the deal. Modiphus just announced the new edition of **[[Star Trek Adventures|Star Trek Adventures]]**. And I'll be honest with you, I've not picked up STA at all before now. As pained as it is to say, I'm just not that huge of a Star Trek fan. Given how much I love science fiction and space science fiction in specific, that's probably shocking news. And yet, here we are. I've seen STA on the shelves in [my friendly local gaming store](https://levelupgamesatl.com)^[Which has a truly staggering amount of indie/non-mainstream TTRPGs on their multiple aisles, dwarfing the **D&D** content, which never makes me sad.] and been compelled to pick it up and look at it but without quite being dragged into feeling the desire to pick it up and put it in my bag. But things are slightly different now. I saw the announcement of the new edition and was mildly intrigued because it's connected to another game, which I hadn't picked up a copy of, but have been very tempted to in the past. **[[Star Trek Adventures#Captain's Log|Star Trek Adventures: Captain's Log]]**. Yes, the solo version. We all know how much I love GMless games and have trouble resisting putting my hands on them whenever possible. I just haven't had a really good excuse to pick up **Captain's Log**. Until now. With a new edition of STA coming out and the covers for the Special Editions being absolutely gorgeous, even though you would have probably expected me to pick up Command or Science rather than Operations, but screw you. I couldn't resist. I have a pre-order of the new STA edition hanging out in Hyperspace until it is ready for release. They don't even have the PDF ready to go yet. I have a brand new copy of **STA: Captain's Log** in my hot little hands, claws, tentacles, whatever you want to call them. Do I want to play a GMfull TTRPG? No, because I know I will end up having to run things. However, if I have to choose between **D&D** Tolkien-derived fantasy, and **Star Trek** to run, it's always going to fall down on the side of spaceships and laser beams every single time. ## Age of Wonders 4 ![[Age of Wonders 4.jpg]] I told you there were video games to come. There's a really simple way to get me to buy something that you create. I'm not proud of it, but I will tell you the mechanism to do so: Put tentacles on it. That's it. That's the tip. If you put tentacles on a thing, nine times out of 10, maybe even 99 times out of 100, I will feel compelled to purchase whatever it is. You do not want to know the number of things in my bedroom which have tentacles. That's before we get to the number of things that I've been gifted by people who *know* that I buy things with tentacles and they are providing *more* things with tentacles. Lovecraftian horror, I'm your huckleberry. Put it in your game in an interesting way and it's going to fall into my bag somehow. I will probably try and figure out how to stick tentacles in STA, which sounds filthy now that I say it out loud. **[Age of Wonders 4](https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/games/age-of-wonders-4/about)** just released a new expansion called *[Eldritch Realms](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2401860/Age_of_Wonders_4_Eldritch_Realms/)*. It adds an entirely new player type called an Eldritch Lord, which is, of course, a nightmare monstrosity from beyond the bounds of our sane universe. It adds horrific alien dimensions invading our own with their own hideous, sub-aquatic terrain and plant life. It's just generally hideous. They put a tentacle on it. I wasn't going to buy the game, even though I have a long history with **Age of Wonders** even back to the first one released way back when. But … They put a tentacle on it. How could I resist? It was impossible. So far I've been extremely happy with the game and really enjoying myself, which is nice. ## Exunt There's some things on my list that I've been enjoying and I'm not ashamed of. I could probably add some awesome meatloaf that came out of my kitchen just a couple of days ago, or watching **[Space: Above and Beyond](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppdXhlYc7X4&list=PLMD9ghErEvtxvdsWQIoWqN2kPbl6nLKv2)** on YouTube because it's one of the greatest TV shows ever produced. But what are you enjoying? Let's hear about it. Tell people about it. Point people to it. Share your pleasure. There's plenty of crap going around in the world. And we will continue to call it out in the harshest possible terms. But let's take a moment to talk about stuff that we like. Shall we? It sounds like a good idea.