2025 in media
To many people, New Year is a time for retrospection. So like a good citizen, I'll join the quest to enumerate what media I consumed.
These lists are incomplete, I am bound to have forgotten or omitted at least some stuff. Listings are either random or vaguely anti-chronological, because that's the order I remember stuff in.
Tabletop RPGs
- Seven Part Pact β Mini-Campaign
- Praise the Hawkmoth King β Oneshot
- Worlds Without Number β a few sessions in our long-running West Marches campaign
- Beam Saber β a few sessions in a new campaign. Mechs mechs mechs!
- Runequest β a few sessions in a new campaign. The system is what it is, but the setting seems cool. Maybe I should check out the videogames attached to itβ¦
- Into the Odd β I GMed this and I love it!
- Torchbearer β was worth a try!
- Yazeba's Bed and Breakfast β I played fewer sessions than I'd like to, though I'm noticing that the chapter mechanics often override the roleplaying for me, which is a shame.
Books
The thing when you read of stuff in academic contexts (mostly articles and singular chapters from books, not listed here) is that you won't be very motivated to read books in your spare time. Ah well.
- I re-read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Still really good, and I probably got more of the plot this time than when I was 15.
- Vincent Bevins: The Jakarta Method. Really good journalistic book. I knew next to nothing about Indonesia before, so this was quite enlightening.
- Ursula K. Le Guin: The Dispossessed. I really like the method here of exploring a society through a character study. This is my first Le Guin Sci-Fi previously I had only read (most of) Earthsea.
- Ursula K. Le Guin: Tales From Earthsea. I'll agree with the folks from Shelved by Genre here, these could be better if "wizards should be allowed to have sex" was less of a central theme here. Still some good stuff. I have yet to tackle The Other Wind.
Video Games
- Fantasy Life (3DS). I had an old save from some time last decade, and got inspired to pick it back up around christmas. Haven't finished the story yet, but it feels a bit too eager to eliminate and resolve all possible points of tension. Nonetheless, it's a great game to spend many hours with.
- Dominions 6 (PC). Picked this up again with the goal of playing it in multiplayer one day, but instead just sunk a bunch of SP hours into because that's also enjoyable and rn I can't commit to long-term "1 turn per day" schedules.
- A bit of Stellaris (PC) with varying friend groups. This is a game I pretty much never finish alone, and groups rarely get beyond 1β2 (looong) sessions. Still, it's very fun to get sucked into it.
- Hades 2 (Switch). Yup. Nothing to say here.
- Hollow Knight (Switch). As with Fantasy Life, the release of a sequel prompted me to finish the first entry.
- Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (PC). After watching a stream of Jack de Quidt (of Friends at the Table fame) playing Jet Set Radio, I wanted to experience something similar for myself, so I picked this one up. It was a really fun experience, movement feels good.
- Caves of Qud (PC). I decided I finally wanted to have a successful run of the game (in Classic roguelike mode), so along with help from the Wiki, I finished the story. Really fucking good game!
- Fish Fear Me (PC). HTHRFLWRS delivers.
Shows
Only listing stuff I finished watching, there's some in-progress stuff rn.
- Interview With the Vampire. The last episode felt a bit rushed in pacing, but I really enjoyed this one. The extra Lestat season sounds like it could be a treat.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Turns out, people are right, Madoka rocks. I still haven't taken the time to watch Rebellion, thoughβ¦
- Reign: The Conqueror. The outfits on these dudes are so skimpy, holy shit. Fun show.
- Andor. This slapped immensely.
Podcasts
My podcast listening hours tanked significantly in 2024, recovering somewhat in 2025 with a total of 258 hours. This year, almost all my podcast listening was from Friends at the Table and related shows like A More Civilized Age, Side Story, and the above-mentioned Shelved by Genre. I somehow really neglected the theory podcasts in my inbox, huh!