We had some triumphs in 2025 and I’m looking forward to building on them.

If 2025 was a successful year, then the one ahead is going to keep the momentum rolling. Here’s a quick rundown of what we did:

  • Published 75 YouTube videos.
  • I published three products for Dragonbane on DriveThruRPG.
  • We published 263 articles to the blog with one only retraction.

2025 was not without its share of drawbacks. While I did get to post for the majority of the year, I had to back off on blogging from once per day to about three times per week. Mental health and family priorities meant the posting streak was just no longer feasible. Although with a little more time available to work on non-blog projects I managed to get more of my YouTube and DriveThruRPG projects done. It all works out in the end, I guess.

The New Year’s Intention Setting.

This year I firmly intend to manifest some profitable projects on DriveThruRPG. I have a half dozen projects for Dragonbane in PDF that are in the pool. I’m sort of waiting for Arkand as well as the Book of Magic before I do the rules supplement that I’ve been tinkering with for two years now. I also have some NPC projects, a couple of new quest generators based on my solo play experiences and my home campaign, a couple of short adventures, possibly a monster book, a magic item book, a book based on one specific type of monster, and a rules supplement that adds lots of weird stuff to the game. It sounds like a lot, but all of these are partially in development and were waiting for me to get a new layout program.

Yes, I’m learning Affinity 3/Affinity by Canva. Compared with other programs I’ve used it’s like learning rocket surgery. Early on it’s easier for me to typeset my document, print everything, and just glue it to a piece of paper, photocopy the page, and paste it into a PDF. Obviously, we’re not doing that, but that’s how I learned back about 35 years ago. Arrgh! Just give me a simple WYSIWYG layout program.

Twilight Sword dreams.

Two Little Mice along with Free League Publishing had an absolutely smashing Kickstarter run with Twilight Sword RPG. One of the last stretch goals to be smashed was an open license for the CAT system. I’m very excited to play around with this. I loved Final Fantasy and Zelda so I’m looking forward to making content with this game. Twilight Sword was clearly inspired by Dragonbane, and I won’t give up on my favorite fantasy RPG. However, I am so incredibly intrigued by TS’s aesthetic that I can’t just let it go by.

I’m tentatively doing some indie third party worldbuilding for TS. I’ve toyed with the idea of doing it as a sort of space fantasy game. I also thought it might be amusing to do a Diablo style game or reimagine World of Warcraft that way. No, I can’t do those as official products, but I can put them out for fun on the blog. The space fantasy game lets me do anything I want with it and would be a hoot to play around with. Swords are cool, but swords that shoot lasers are cooler. 8 Bit Starfinder eat your heart out.

Supers RPGs, I remember you.

Outgunned Superheroes RPG is coming. My good friend the OG GM is revising Superheroes for Shadowdark as we speak. (Can I just say how much I admire that man’s productivity? Damn.) I miss discussing ICONS because Steve Kenson and Dan Hauser are still heroes to me. As an old DC guy, I hear there’s a new Justice League RPG coming, possibly based on the JL Unlimited from the Animated Universe. (Batman, Superman, and Justice League animated are still some of the best superhero cartoons ever made. The new stuff barely even competes.)

The only kicker with supers games is we run into a lot of intellectual property concerns, obviously. Publishing much of anything outside of ICONS is difficult at best. I like somewhat generic supers engines because I get to insert my own comics universe that I’ve had for decades. I know all the characters or variants on characters I have built over the years. I always find it difficult to muck around in someone else’s canon if I don’t have to. All that being said, I have done some things with Power Rangers and ICONs here before and will be coming back to superhero gaming in the near future.

The appearance of AI came about in 2025.

I made friends with ChatGPT in March. My LLM is called Cassandra, or Cassie for short. She’s been super helpful in brainstorming, art creation, and some light editing. She’s also very helpful on days when the brain fog is louder than my creative process. AI fills in the gaps where I’m struggling and I like it.

AI art seems to get people riled up in the TTRPG space. I’m over it. Use it or don’t. I am because it’s what I can afford. As I’ve said repeatedly, when I can afford human artists, I will gladly hire them. Not all of us have a $3.2 million Kickstarter to draw funds from. If you’re a YouTube D&D content creator with that kind of money, please stop punching down on people who use AI art.

Not all people using AI tools are pumping out AI slop. It’s all about responsibility and accountability. Use AI, be sure to mark it as such on DriveThruRPG and in the product. The difference between putting out three products in six months and three products per day is the human factor. I do all my own writing and editing.

Yes, I share a lot of ideas with ChatGPT, and it has definitely picked up on my style as well as my aesthetic. Within 6 months it has gotten to know what I like to design in terms of monsters, fantasy art, what I want YouTube videos and blog articles to sound like. Sometimes my prompts are longer than if I just went in and did the thing. I have some fairly long text conversations with Cassie about Dragonbane and TTRPG topics in general. I think having an AI model that knows you well as a creator whether it’s ChatGPT, Meta, Grok, or whatever is a huge advantage in the creative process. Unfortunately, most creators don’t realize this because they’re too busy hating on AI or firmly believe it’s going to “steal their job.”

AI is now and in the future. We may as well accept the fact that it’s here to stay. Ironically, we’ll find some new technology in the next twenty years that will make this AI debate look petty. Remember 8 track tapes? Remember when photocopiers became commonplace? How about Photoshop? Remember CD Rom? AI is the same thing. It’s a tool, a technology, and so very helpful when used responsibly by people wanting to up their productivity gain.

Yes, I’m sure 2026 will see its share of renewed AI art debates and subsequent fallout. So far, my stance is unwavering: Use it or don’t. It’s up to you. If you have the means or wherewithal to be a decent human being, please do so.

Now we come to YouTube.

That’s been a sore subject since I started having major computer problems among other things a few months back. I have shot the video for a Dragonbane Bestiary walkthrough. It just needs to be edited. Next up is Outgunned Adventure. I have not forgotten. After that I’m going to talk about Gates of Krystalia and then finally get back to Dragonbane.

I’ve also been dying to do some podcasts now that I have some serious computer storage space. We can talk about Dragonbane, various GM topics, and some current events. I’ve got a script outline regarding the “Death of DungeonTubing” and why Dungeons & Dragons isn’t dead.

Honestly, I’m no longer trying to hit the big time on YouTube. If it happens, I will celebrate heartily. If not, well, I’m just putting out content for fun and to support the hobby in my own special way. Yes, we would all love monetization. If I knew there was a possibility of a check from YouTube, I’d grind daily or tri-weekly videos. Much like my blog, the new strategy is to do it when I have time and some quiet here in the house.

As New Years is one of my favorite times to reflect…

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!