It's Eric Woodward (dotcom)

So, 2025 has obviously been a doozy of a year. I’ll let future historians put it into its proper context, but being in the middle of it wasn’t always easy, and sometimes it felt like the best thing to do was just to stay busy.

However, in this push to stay busy, it appears that I forgot to post anything here at all for over 365 days.

So now, on this, the final day of this banner year, I thought I’d share a brief rundown of the various things I’ve been fiddling with since the year began.

• The year started out with the publication of the beta version of my RPG website, PlanarVagabond.com, featuring updated rules with aa unified skill check mechanic and the addition of a metric tonne of new content (something I would continue to add as the year progressed).
• About the same time, I ended our Isle of Dread mini-campaign (or rather, the players did, by killing and/or gaining control over the big baddies and finding the means to rule the island and/or return home).
• In the spring, I started my first truly collaborative (mini?) campaign, set at the prestigious Hexhall, Royal Academy of Faerie Arts and Arcane Sciences, a school which exists in both the material plane and the Faewolde. It’s also a special campaign to me, as it’s both the first in-person game I’ve run since the pandemic, and the players are my son, my daughter, and my daughter-in-law (a first-time player).
• Also this spring, at the suggestion of my son, I picked up a lightly-used Backbone mobile controller. Combined with a “spare” Galaxy S23 (which I loaded with emulators) and a pair of Raycon headphones he gave me for Father’s Day, it’s been my game system of choice ever since.
• In June, as part of a code challenge for my employer, I wrote and released Maze of the Minotaur, a web game which also stands as my first my first (and, to date, only) Android release.
• Also in June, I started running some players through the classic D&D module, Tomb of Horrors. Although it was intended to be a one-shot, we’re now up to 3 sessions, no one has died (yet), and there’s still a good bit left of the crypt, so… it’s turning into a mini-campaign after all. Who knew? 🤷
• This July brought an update to Camp Happy Island Massacre as I migrated its web runtime to js-dos, enabling it to run more smoothly, and on more machines.
• In late summer, I finally completed a long-running, off-again/on-again project, and (briefly) launched the Deus Reloaded BBS. Unfortunately, I ran into some technical issues which made it effectively useless, and I shut it down shortly after launching it (I might go into the story a bit deeper in the future).
• Fall brought a new obsession: the humble twtxt.txt file, a decade-old “decentralised, minimalist microblogging service for hackers.” The simplicity of the concept really inspired me, and I started working on several iterations of both my own twtxt.txt file, as well as utilities to read, write, process, and display those files:
  • TwtKpr: A small node application to view, edit, and update a twtxt.txt file (pronounced “TweetKeeper”, still WIP).
  • TwtStrm: A small node application to load, parse, and display the content from all of the twtxt.txt files followed by a single source file (pronounced “TweetStream”^[1], also still WIP).
  • fluent-dom-esm: a small client-side JS library (published via jsr.io) that provides a fluent, jQuery-like interface to the modern browser DOM.
• In early November, I ran my third annual (and likely final) rendition of the Halloween one-shot, One Night in Ravenloft, this time played with a twist of cosmic horror via the introduction of Neurovores (aka creatures that Flay Minds). Also, I had enough players for two sessions this year, with both ending in defeat for the forces of evil once again.
• Earlier this month, I participated in the Advent of Code. I ran out of steam about 2/3 of the way through, but I fully intend to finish my solutions as time permits (maybe even over the remaining holidays).
• Finally, concurrent with the release of this post, I made a few small updates to this site, adding links to my twtxt.txt file to several pages, updating my /now page, and adding a Code Page to collect my libraries and code-related links together.

So, what about 2026? What projects might see the light of day before the calendar turns again?

• I’d really like to finish (and release) TwtKpr and TwtStrm: both are fully functional, albeit somewhat rough in terms of user experience, so with a bit of polishing, I hope to have them ready to turn loose in the next year.
• I’m also close to finishing a long-simmering project: an actual Planar Vagabond’s Guide to the Multiverse zine! I’ve got issue #1 mostly laid out and ready, but I’d really like to at least get started on a couple more issues before I release anything (just so I can keep things organized over the long-term).
• I’ve been playing with the fantastic A-Frame library a bit on the side, trying to create immersive experiences inspired by my hazy recollections of 90s VR (and VRML, in particular), so maybe something will come out of that which is worth sharing…
• I’m working on some fairly major updates for Planar Vagabond, introducing a series of classes with a unified, roll-to-cast, freeform magic system, along with (maybe, hopefully, finally) publishing rules for summoning and binding elementals (including demons).
• I plan to run a few one-shots this year, including possibly writing a new halloween one-shot (based on my experiences with the previous Ravenloft games).
• Finally, I hope to start up another mini-campaign, potentially set somewhere other than a medieval-fantasy world (maybe something modern supernatural, or post-apocalyptic cyberpunk, or even post-post-apocalyptic science fantasy 😮).

Of course, these a just the ideas I have right now - who knows what new depravities will seize my crazed imagination as the year unfolds?

I guess we’ll have to wait and see.