Hey Last Piners,

In attempting to make up for how infrequently I actually release this thing, you're getting another entry shortly after the previous one. And it's a year-end roundup kind of deal.

It's hard to accurately describe exactly what kind of year 2025 has been. It's been a year of growth and resistance, getting back into therapy, going to Canada twice, and being scared as hell about the world we brought our daughter into. It's also been a year full of some cool stuff and fun opportunities.

TTRPGs

This is why most of you are here, so let's start there.

Games Played

• Bump in the Dark: not sure if you’ve heard of this one or not (lol), but it remains for probably the third year in a row my most played game. I ran it as an ongoing campaign, but also ran a number of oneshots and con sessions.

• Urban Shadows 2E: I was really excited for this one, and it didn’t disappoint — but I’ll be honest, I think that was more about the GM and the crew I played with than the game itself, which seemed to lack the propulsive fiction-engine that drives most PbtA games. It really seems incumbent on the GM to be really active in using debts to make things happen. But anyway, the game we played was a three-month campaign taking place in Boston in the late ‘60s and featured a fae Van Morrison and a demonic Andy Warhol. It was really fucking fun.

• The Last Caravan was another game that I had mixed feelings about. I had a lot of fun and got to play with a rad group of folks, but the game itself fell a little flat for me, I think in part because of the ways it attempted to simplify the FitD playloop.

• Blades ‘68 is a tremendous game and some of the most fun I had all year. The changes Tim makes to base Blades mechanics are all really great, and this is one of the games I am most excited about playing again.

• I’m pretty sure Slugblaster and Wildsea were the only games I got to actually play at Breakout Con, but both were wonderful. I got to help playtest the Wildsea scenario that successfully crowdfunded a couple months ago, and Ric ran a mindbending session of Slugblaster that I’ll never forget.

• The silly fantasy game I made up and ran for my family and my pal Glenn when no one showed up for our scheduled games at Krampusnacht. Fun event, but gaming was kind of a bust this year. Anyway I hacked Slugblaster Turbo X on the fly and was it a great game? No, definitely not, but my daughter got to be a shapeshifting fairy who played with wolves and Glenn was a wizard who got like, a whole character arc.

• Monsterhearts 2 is a game that’s been on my to-play list for a long, long time, but things have never lined up. Part of it is that I want to play with a group I trust, given the subject matter, so when Jesse asked if I wanted him to save me a seat in a game he was running, I jumped at the chance. We’ve unfortunately missed two sessions because of illness, so our session this week will be our last, but I’m excited to see what nasty drama comes up at the big beach party.

Games I Hope to Play in 2026

Straight up lifting this right off my Bluesky, with no added commentary:

• EXILE

• Crescent 2E

• Girls of the Genziana Hotel

• Draw Steel

• Apocalypse World: Burned Over

• Alien RPG: Evolved Edition

• The Between

• Sword Opera

• The Time We Have

• MORE BLADES ‘68

Art & Culture

How about some cool creative stuff I enjoyed outside the world of tabletop roleplaying?

Albums

I've noticed that as I get older, I tend to seek out new music less and less. I didn't listen to a lot of new music in 2025, but there are some records I really enjoyed:

• Propagandhi - At Peace. If I were into ranking things, this would be the album of the year for me. It’s a challenging album, and one that’s so perfectly suited for our current moment, grappling with the push and pull between hope and despair with equal parts humor, exasperation, and profundity. Favorite song: “Rented P.A.”

• Lucy Dacus - Forever is a Feeling. Just a breathtakingly beautiful album that’s messy and tender and at times awkward in a way that drives home the experience of being a human figuring out their feelings. Favorite song: “Big Deal.”

• Aesop Rock - Black Hole Superette and I Heard It’s a Mess There Too. Listen, as shitty as 2025 was, we got two new records from Aes, including one that was released for free on his website as a total surprise. BHS never quite rises to the highs of Integrated Tech Solutions for me, but even minor Aes is still ambitious and better than like 99% of other stuff out there. I Heard It’s a Mess, on the other hand, hits a sweet spot: it’s Aes experimenting with a new approach, more minimalist, cleaner — but still hard-hitting. Favorite song: “Bag Lunch.”

• Catharsis - Hope Against Hope. Speaking of surprise releases, I’m not sure anyone was expecting the return of the Crimethinc house band, metallic hardcore pioneers Catharsis, putting out their first new recording in almost twenty-five years. And goddamn is it a good one. Favorite song: “Gone to Croatan.”

• Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Tragedy as Catharsis. In a similar vein, Vancouver’s DYPOtBotD put out a lo-fi masterpiece of somewhat crusty emoviolence/skramz/whatever you want to call it (see this newsletter). Technically this is from last year, but it came out at the end of the year and I’ve been spending a lot of time with it this year. Favorite song: “Perish Song” but jfc they’re all very very good.

• Gloomy June - Gloomy June. Really fun, guitar-forward indie rockers with their first full-length. Devin, who plays guitars in the band, is someone I know through the TTRPG community and is a really great musician in their own right who I got to collaborate with on a project that hopefully will eventually see the light of day. Favorite song: “Picking Scabs.”

Shows/Concerts

I did not make it out to a lot of live music this year, but there were some really cool experiences, including:

• Jeffrey Lewis and the Voltage, Cactus Club. One of the first artists my spouse an I really bonded over and I always feel lucky when he plays Milwaukee.

• The Melvins and Napalm Death, The Rave, though we peaced out before Napalm Death started because we’re old and tired. Melvins fucking RULED though. Have seen them maybe five times and they always sound just absolutely incredible.

• Lucy Dacus at the Riverside. A really magical experience and probably the most pleasant crowd I’ve ever encountered at a concert. The demographics may have had something to do with that …

• Propagandhi at the Concert Hall in Toronto. Sweaty, voice hoarse from yelling along to all the world, absolutely ecstatic, this is what shows are like at their best. This is why I fell in love with punk rock and hardcore.

• Dinosaur Jr at Turner Hall. I’m getting too old for shows where I have to stand the whole time. Dino Jr was great though, and super fucking loud. Maybe third loudest show I’ve ever seen, after SWANS and Boris/Melvins, both also at Turner Hall.

• Greet Death, also at Turner Hall. I wasn’t familiar with these guys but my friend Scott asked me if I wanted to go with him, and I’m glad I did!

• Milorganaut, Decide Today, Bullshit Nonsense, and Choke Chain at MKE Ultra. This was my first time at MKE Ultra and there’s no other venue in Milwaukee that feels more like a spiritual successor to the late great Borg Ward Collective than this place. It looks like some punks started squatting in a bar on the southside, but apparently everything is above board. It’s so cool seeing young people coming out to shows and getting really into it. They’re doing pits again! And while I could do without the ninja dancing (always hated that), it’s so cool to see punk and hardcore living on in a new generation. Milorganaut is a power violence powerhouse with a nice heaping of sludge, and Bullshit Nonsense was a fun surprise. If someone had told me that the kids would mixing nu-metal in with their screamo, I wouldn’t have believed them, but they are, and, weirdly enough, it’s good.

• Destroyer, Vivarium. Always a really good show, with a tight, well-rehearsed, energetic band that never disappoints. Ran into some folks we know from the parent-teacher organization at V’s school, so now we know that they’re cool.

Movies

I actually saw more movies in 2025 than I expected. Taking days off during the week to go see movies has been a winning strategy.

I’m not going to list out everything, but here were some notable ones:

• Pavements (Alex Ross Perry). How do you make a film about a band as hard to pin down as Pavement? You don’t! You make at least three films in one, managing to capture the wild and weird energy of a band that manages to do the impossible: hide genuine heart under a convincing veneer of irreverence. My first time actually going to the Milwaukee Film Fest.

• Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson). What can I say? It healed my relationship with faith. Probably not the strongest mystery of the three Knives Out films, or even the most entertaining, but it struck me as being the most personal, with the most emotional depth, and that’s how you get me.

• One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson). I’ll be honest, I wasn’t as high on it as everyone else seems to be, but I liked it and I thought Leo was great in it, and we got to see Benicio del Toro’s new weird guy, and Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti stole the show.

• Adulthood (Alex Winter). This was sorta so-so but we got to see it at the Toronto Film Festival which was a really cool experience, so it gets a spot on this list.

• Friendship (Andrew DeYoung). I like Tim Robinson. I like what he does. I hate Tim Robinson. I hate what he does. This is Social Anxiety: The Horror Movie.

• Sinners (Ryan Coogler). If this doesn’t take home like all the fucking awards, we need to burn the Academy to the ground.

Absolute Best Hour of Television I Watched in 2025

Okay, so there was a lot of good TV this year, and I know I said I don't like to do favorites, but sometimes something just blows you away, and that's how I felt about episode 7 of Pluribus, probably the most interesting new show going.

The episode, titled “The Gap” is a heartbreakingly beautiful meditation on the costs of disconnection, following protagonist Carol Sturka’s descent into depression as she faces the consequences of her cruel and selfish actions a few episodes earlier, and Manousos, the only person grumpier than Carol left in the world, as he undertakes a treacherous journey across South America and into the dangerous jungle known as the Darién Gap. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but the way the show underlines the stark differences in their situations, Carol eventually giving in and Manousos refusing to until he has no conscious choice in the matter, was excellent storytelling.

Books

I'll be honest; I'm more than a little disappointed that I didn't meet my fairly humble goal of reading 40 books in 2025, but I did manage to finish 33 and that’s better than probably any year since finishing grad school.

Here are a few that really stood out:

• The Southern Reach Trilogy, by Jeff VanderMeer. On the whole, this was a really incredible reading experience. There were ups and downs, and it was sometimes a slog to get through, but this series—and Annhilation specifically—has firmly lodged itself up there with my other favorites. Weird and wonderful with more questions than it can possibly answer, it’s well worth a read. I had to take a break after Acceptance, but I hope to read Absolution next year.

• A Country of Ghosts by Margaret Killjoy. Okay, so what if you ran a campaign of Blades in the Dark but made it about imperial expansion and civil war, and told the story through the eyes of an imperial reporter who falls in with the anarchists of Hron after being left for dead by his countrymen? And also made it one of the most accessible introductions to anarchist thought you’ve ever read? How’s that sound?

• Reign of the Empire: The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed. If you too finished Andor and wanted more, this is probably your best bet. This official Star Wars novel follows three important figures of the rebellion—Mon Monthma, Bail Organa, and Saw Gerrera in the early years of the Empire. It’s down to earth and political, with plenty of intrigue and action.

• The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel. Achingly beautiful exploration of health and aging and relationships and the futile experience of chasing transcendence. Sometimes you have to give up to find what you’ve been looking for.

• The Danielle Cain series by Margaret Killjoy. It took me a minute to get into the first book, The Lamb will Slaughter the Lion, because of how much the narration tends to stick to the hardboiled template, but once I got going, I had a wild ride. And talk about something that’s exactly up my alley: a group of tatted-up crust punks and anarchists who hunt monsters and solve supernatural mysteries? Uh, yes please. Thinking about making a Bump in the Dark campaign inspired by this series.

• Saga of the Swamp Thing, Alan Moore and various artists. Not sure why I never read this when I was younger and in my Alan Moore phase, but it’s as good as everyone says it is (though not without a few strange low points).

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: 100 Key Points and Techniques by Joseph Oliver and Richard Bennett. One of the best things about 2025 is how much it felt like a year of professional growth for me, where I really felt like I’ve started to get to a more embodied place with the work that I do. And this book is maybe the best introduction to ACT I’ve read, taking a patient, step-by-step, very intentionally structured journey through ACT from its behaviorist origins, its place under the CBT umbrella, and into the model of psychological flexibility and beyond. It’s been the perfect companion for the work I’ve been doing in trainings and in the therapy room, and I don’t know how many fellow therapists are reading this, but I can’t recommend it enough if you are interested in ACT. This is how I wish I’d learned in the first place.

Cool Experiences I Got to Have in 2025

Finally, here are the things I expect to remember most from this year.

• This fall, I agreed to be an adjunct instructor for a graduate level social work class. It was a very challenging and rewarding experience, and while I would like to do it again, I’m glad to be taking the Spring semester off and only doing, y’know, one full-time job.

• In March, I made my triumphant return to Breakout Con, this time with my family in tow. The con itself was fantastic, and it was so great to reconnect with so many of my pals in the TTRPG community, but my favorite part was getting to travel with my spouse and our daughter — even if we ultimately didn’t spend that much time together!

• And then in September, Mary and I went back to Toronto, this time to catch my all-time favorite band, Propagandhi. It was a whirlwind trip, and the first we’ve taken together without the kiddo, and I loved every second of it. While there, we also got to see friends, experience the Toronto International Film Festival, eat some incredible Thai food, and spend some time with some of our favorite people.

• Another interesting experience with the family was camping in what turned out to be the worst rain storm and flooding to hit the Milwaukee area in a long, long time. We were, in fact, camping at the Milwaukee County Zoo for their Snooze at the Zoo event, and hearing the wind and rain battering our tent was a terrifying (and kind of thrilling) experience. (Here’s a peek from inside the tent.) While there, I got an alert on my phone that water was detected in the basement — uh oh! — which I chose to snooze, only to get another one a couple hours later. But what were we supposed to do? We couldn’t really leave, and we wouldn’t have been able to do anything about any flooding in the moment anyway. Luckily, we came out unscathed — it must have only been a little water near the drain, and there was only a little dampness when we finally got home. We were very thankful, having twice had to deal with flooding in our basement, both times resulting in needing to buy a new water heater and throwing out all kinds of stuff. It definitely could have been much, much worse. The thing that really stuck with me, though? The number of tents in the trash cans as we were leaving the zoo in the morning. Seemed like quite a few people learned the hard way that their tents weren’t waterproof.

• As I mentioned above, a lot of professional development took place in 2025, including getting to attend some really cool conferences and an incredible training experience with peer-reviewed ACT trainer Robyn Walser. I’m not sure that before this I’d ever had the feeling that I was truly watching a master at work, but she was just amazing, and I got so much out of the experience.

A couple other notable events:

• Being on a panel about running horror in TTRPGs for a nearby game store’s Free RPG Day event and getting to run the game for someone who had never played a single TTRPG before.

• Seeing a staging of what might be my favorite play, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play. It wasn’t quite as amazing as the time we saw it in an abandoned lot in Riverwest, but it was still pretty great!

• Another really cool thing was that my favorite actual play podcast started playtesting games for their next campaign, and Bump in the Dark is one of them! If you subscribe to their patreon, you can listen to the character creation episode and the first part of the hunt.

• Finally, toward the end of the year I’ve been finding myself playing music again. It started because I’d bring my acoustic guitar while Vera takes her bath and we’d make up songs together, and that led to her wanting a guitar of her own, so we bought her a baritone ukulele for Christmas and then I … bought myself a new guitar. I’ve been playing pretty consistently and even writing some crushing doom riffs.

I don’t know what 2026 is going to bring. Almost certainly more cruelty from those on the top and precarity for those on the bottom, but hopefully also continued resistance, mutual aid, and solidarity, as well.

Whatever comes our way, I’m glad at least that we’re in it together.

Yours,

jex.

PS I will definitely not be keeping up this pace, so if three emails in one month is too much for you, don’t worry; I will definitely be slowing back down.