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.

A couple of website updates to announce:

• I added a bunch of custom (unofficial) cards I’ve made over the years for my personal paper-crack, Magic: the Gathering.
• I also added some custom Illuminati groups that I designed a few years ago.
• I added a new LinkList for Tabletop Role-Playing Game Resources.
• I expanded the blogroll to include more sites I like to read (plus some vlogs).
• I updated the tags throughout the site to be links.
• Finally, I fixed the JS on the client side, so that things like relative timestamps and reading time should work again.

While I was fixing the client code, I went and disabled my (already broken) concatentation and minification script, opting instead to serve up all 8(!) JS library files individually (and, thanks to HTTP/2, concurrently)

I mean, I’m using minification for the libraries I’m importing (I’m not a monster), but I don’t use it for the (small) bit of code that ties those libraries together and makes the site work. This way, anyone can see how (and why) the site works the way it does, as it should be, and all without the added complexity of generating source maps or similar unnecessary complications.

And for those minified libraries, I’ve provided a link to each library’s repo and added automated license info, so the LibreJS validator gives this site a ✅. #FreeSoftwareWin !

After hosting it here for the better part of a decade, I’ve decided to remove my RPG, Thur, from this site.

Thur was an RPG that I ran while I was in college, a custom system set on a world of my own design, full of all of the stuff that I thought was cool at the time (and still do, for the most part): Fremen, ninjas, Gunslingers, psychics, wizards, aliens, mutants, technomages, tears in the space-time continuum, a global economy (and shared culture) based on huge teleportation gates - all kinds of gonzo stuff.

I ran several adventures as 1-on-1 games with a former friend of mine, and ran a couple of sessions other friends, but eventually the demands of full-time work and parenting didn’t leave me with much RPG time, so I shelved it. I pulled it out about a decade ago when a friend was getting into Pathfinder. We played a couple of sessions, and that was when I published it here. However, since the rules were never really fully fleshed-out (and thanks to some bad writing on my part), the game fell kinda flat, and so was shelved again, where it’s remained since.

So, what changed? A few things.

As I said before, the rules were a hot mess, with the magic system in particular in shambles. Incomplete as it was, I probably should never have published it here in the first place.

Additionally, my thinking on rules has evolved over the years. I’m now much more interested in simpler systems that don’t systematize flavor (thus leaving more of room for roleplaying). I’m also more into tweaking existing rulesets over building entirely new ones, since it’s easier to introduce new players (and bring back old ones).

But honestly, the main reason I took it down is because I’m genuinely ashamed of some of what’s there. The version of me that wrote most of that was younger, dumber, and had a far-simpler (and naively incorrect) conception of the world at large. He was also far more casually racist, and for that, I am truly sorry.

So, I took it down.

It may come back, it may not. If it does, it’ll probably be in a very different format from what it was before, like an online zine for OSE (so others can play), but that won’t happen until after I’ve made it into something I can be proud of.

Greetings, and welcome the bi-annual tri-annual periodic relaunch of my website!

Yes, after a few years of neglect, I finally got around to updating it again.

Like the last few versions, it’s mostly a static site generated by Javascript. The biggest change with this iteration is the lack of a central library for doing all of the heavy-lifting. No more harp or gulp - instead, I’m using a hodge-podge of different, smaller libraries (like ejs and front-matter) which I string together via a series of fairly short js files, (mostly) all using modern async and await code to do things in the right order.

The end result is that it’s bad fast, taking the build time down from 10+ seconds to under 2 (although that may not be a fair comparison, as it doesn’t do everything the gulp version did… yet).

Some of the biggest changes under the hood:

• I replaced marked and commonmark.js with the better fit (for me) markdown-it,
• I simplified many of my templates, purging a number of unneeded partials,
• I made each journal entry link to the two chronologically-nearest entires,
• I upgraded most of my config files to use json5 (the self-proclaimed “JSON for Humans”), and
• I added a now page (inspired by nownownow.com).

Once I get the source code cleaned up a bit more, I’ll post it in a public git repo.

I’ve got some more ideas for what to do next, like adding in-browser file editing, a homespun blogging engine, and expanded IndieWeb support (most likely via the IndieKit project) with an eye towards IndieAuth, MicroPub, and WebSub.

It’s all part of my (continuing) attempt to rest control back of my social-media-life from the corporate silos.

Along the way, I hope to grow the content-side of this web presence as well, so keep on the lookout for more new stuff, like:

• notes from my various RPG campaigns,
• homebrew for D&D and OSR games,
• my custom Magic cards,
• some hardware stuff I’ve been playing with,
• and a whole lot more!

Thanks for stopping by!

I have a problem with #blogging .

For a long time, I assumed that it was a time issue - I felt like I either didn’t have the time to do anything cool (which would give me something to blog about), or I felt like I didn’t have the time to blog about the few cool things that I did accomplish.

Then, when I did have some time, there would always be other reasons that I couldn’t write: I’d have issues with my blogging software (and wind up spend time either diagnosing it, fixing it, or looking for a replacement), or I’d get distracted updating the servers, or by a family issue, or any number of 100 other things.

But what makes it worse is my other problem: every few weeks, I’ll go on a tear where I get hyper-focused on a single topic or idea, and spend a large amount of my free time either researching it, attempting my hand at it, or both. And then, after a few weeks, I’ll inevitably move on to some other topic (something Les Orchard calls “Serial Enthusiasm”), and I won’t take the time to document what I learned / accomplished during said tear.

But… no more.

This post represents the first in (what I hope will be) a series of journal entries about the various things that I’ve done and/or learned about in the few months/years/lives, in hopes of doing my own small part to develop the web. In addition to posting new items here, I also plan to (eventually) import most of my entries from my on-again-off-again Known instance (aka just in case something bad happens to it). I’ve got a few other ideas, too, but we’ll see how industrious I am.

And, in order to break my blogging curse, this will not be called a blog, but rather a journal, and it will live at ItsEricWoodward.com/journal/.

So, I hope you enjoy my new journal, and if you’re already here, I say “Thanks for stopping by, feel free to take a look around, but please don’t let the cats out.” ☺