CATMAIL #2

04 Mar, 2026

Look what the cat dragged in.

Bloggies season is over! And somehow, not only did Mapping the Blogosphere win Gold in the Meta Category—it also won Platinum!!

Thanks to everyone who voted for me! And especially to Clayton for hosting a great event. Truly a pillar of the community!

So... you're looking at the next Bloggies host. I'm sure I can make some changes and ruin it forever, haha. Seriously though: I haven't had a chance to think about it yet, but I'm looking forward to starting prep later this year. If you've got ideas, let me know. I'll take suggestions under consideration.

Now that this is an award-winning blog, you have to subscribe to stay on top of posts like this... but, you know, in your mailbox.

In this Issue

We Read The Bloggies: debrief + next steps
Blogosphere graph updates
Webrings + a planet/aggregator idea
Featured reads with blurbs
A pile of loosely categorized links + some older bangers

The Yarn Ball

What I've been doing!

New on the Blog

Sadly, nothing! I've been busy with other projects. See below.

We Read The Bloggies

I spent quite a lot of time this month helping out with the amazing community effort to read and record audio versions of the Bloggies nominees. We ended up calling it We Read The Bloggies.

I didn't read anything (I tried, but damn, it's hard!). Instead, I took over the technical side of the podcast: hosting a Castopod instance, optimizing (file size) and normalizing the audio so it all sits in roughly the same range, uploading files, and adding metadata. You know: the boring stuff.

It's been an incredible project, and I'm amazed how quickly we put it together—and how well it's been received. We've released 124 episodes so far, and we've had thousands of unique listeners across the globe. Thanks to everyone who's been involved in one way or another!

Zak H and I are considering continuing this effort (after a break), but on a more relaxed schedule: recording past Bloggies, and likely recording the next Bloggies as well, if all goes well. If you're interested in helping out, reach out to us on Bluesky or Discord.

The Bloggies work didn't stop there. Since acquiring the bloggies.org domain, I figured it'd be a waste not to use it—so I built a small archive of all the past Bloggies as a static site. As a kicker, I also added OPML files so folks can start populating their RSS readers.

Blogosphere Graph Updates

The dataset was updated again on February 28, 2026. This is the second batch of 2026 and also includes:

A fix for Medium blogs that were incorrectly assigning all links to any Medium domain to a blog.
The inclusion of itch.io blogs (finally).
A few more blogs I'd missed.

Webrings and Feeds

I've started another project for the blogging community. Recently there's been talk about bringing back webrings, and I'm not super happy with the various implementations. I want to combine a webring with a blog planet / RSS aggregator page that folks can apply to. With the goal of making it a one-stop page for finding new posts, linking to members, and downloading RSS feeds.

It's still early days, but... yeah. Another thing that kept me from blogging. I'm hoping to get back to it in March!

Things I Dragged Home

My favorite blog posts I read this month

Memory Tables for Magic-Users — Dungeon Mecha
After last month's Spell-Circles, here's another interesting magic system. The spells are gnarly, but with some creativity this tech could be used to create all kinds of effects.
Pack A Knapsack! — The Play Reports
Kati shares how she runs her Cloud Empress open table hexcrawl, using a cute "packing for a hike" analogy. Lots of good tips—and a reminder that it's not all about having the right tables or the perfect maps.
De Venenis - A Treatise on Poisons in Old School Gaming — Cats Have No Lords
Hell yea. This treats poisons more like puzzles to solve, and it rules. Early in my Dolmenwood campaign, one player contracted a magical disease with a looming deadline, and suddenly the whole table was in "find a cure or die" mode. This goes in a similar direction. Well done!
Navigation Games — A Knight at the Opera
Dungeon play was something I struggled with for a long time, and what finally made it click was insisting on player mapping. This post does a great job explaining the different methods. Navigation is a gameplay element in itself, and it makes exploration fun. I like the traditional method, but like Dwiz, I think "good enough" accuracy is worth it for better session flow.
Stationery & Maps — Traverse Fantasy
Listen, Marcia is cooking here. I love the idea of making mapmaking supplies the resource you track. It's more tangible for players than torches in an imagined space. And if you take away their markers and force them to navigate unknown territory blind... they'll feel the pain.
Rosters as Meta-characters — Idraluna Archives
I'm a huge fan of players running multiple characters, and I agree with a lot of the assumptions here. I especially like the idea of giving each roster a commonality and a unique background.
What Elfgames Can Learn From Kingdom Come: Deliverance — Magnolia Keep
One thing I don't like in most D&D games are ~~clerics~~ the way faith and gods are treated as top-down. Liz makes a great case for why that feels hollow, and how much worldbuilding juice you miss if you don't treat faith like it actually matters.
Intergalactic Bastionland Public Playtest — BASTIONLAND
Hell yea again! This is going to derail my gaming plans for the year but this time I want to get in early, not wait for the book. Really excited to try it. Also: a playtest post by Jacob Marks already sounds exciting!
Against Intent — Tangent Joy
About two types of fun: one that engages with the game's mechanics (playing it "as intended"), and one that immerses itself in the fictional space and wants to struggle toward—or even fail—goals.
In Defense of the Weak — Hilander RPGs
A common stumbling block: how progression works without XP, levels, or classes. Hilander suggests asking specific questions at character creation to seed early character goals. It's like reverse backstory. You are asking for what you want to experience at the table.
Soviet Baztiumstan — Cavorting Whorl
Buckle up, comrade! We're doing the Revolution. Mythic Bastionland is one of my favorite games, and I think it has so much juice left to squeeze. So I'm delighted to see a hack for an alternative setting.
Running it Back: The Case for Replaying Modules — The Katt Kirsch Blogsperience
One of my pet peeves is how spoilers are treated as universally damaging—especially in games. I'm glad Katt tackled spoilers and replayability (a topic I've been meaning to write about for almost two years), and wrote it better than I ever would have.
Daggerheart - a Dishonest Review (full of lies) — Valeria Loves
Just an amazing review. I felt called out several times about my Daggerheart opinions, but I'm not ashamed to admit it. It's not a game I want—but it might be a game we need!