As I write this, it’s about 7:30 p.m. on December 31st, 2024. I’ve got a blog post in the works about how TTRPG worldbuilding is different than worldbuilding for creative writing, but it’s not quite where I want it to be, so I’m putting it aside: I want to share my 2025 goals and plans.
2024 was a rough year. In my last issue of The Weekly Wobble newsletter, I went into detail about the many challenges I’ve experienced with my epilepsy this year. I don’t really want to rehash that here, so to sum it up: lots of seizures and lots of med changes. 2024 was a long journey of trying to get the right combination of meds to treat increased frequency and severity of my epilepsy after a Covid infection.
The State of the Wobble
The final few months of 2024 have actually been pretty great.
I’ve finally found a medication combination that has helped immensely — I still have minor symptoms, but I haven’t had a seizure in over a month. At the start of the year, I was having several seizures a week.
I joined Bluesky in October, launched this blog in November, and revived my YouTube gaming channel. Here are some end of 2024 stats:
- 1,615 Bluesky followers
- Over 1500 unique visitors to wobblerocket.com in December 2024. A lot of those came from my Bluesky TTRPG Directory.
- 184 subscribers on YouTube
- 32 subscribers to The Weekly Wobble
- I received $50 in Ko-fi donations.
Not bad for a late start to the year!
My 2025 Goals For Gaming
I have a lot of things in mind for gaming this year. Here are a few of the goals I want to accomplish:
Dragon Quest 2025
I want to play through the entire mainline Dragon Quest series this year.
I’ve been slowly working through the original Dragon Quest (released as Dragon Warrior) for the NES on my Sunday Night NES streams.
It’s the only game in the series I’ve played, and to be honest, it’s a lot grindier than I realized. I’ve heard the remakes remove some of the grind, but I wanted to start with the original NES release.
Dragon Quest is such an iconic JRPG series, and I’m not really sure why I haven’t played more of the games — partially I think because I have this thing about playing series in order, even if the games aren’t necessarily sequential.
Exploring New TTRPGS
Dungeons and Dragons has been my primary tabletop roleplaying game for more than 20 years. I’m not necessarily sure that’s changing, but in the last year, I’ve found myself interested in older forms of the game. I’d really like to play a game in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition, or possibly a retroclone like Ian Slater’s upcoming Bhakashal system.
I didn’t play many TTRPGs in 2024. Intense brain fog and fatigue from my epilepsy (and the meds used to treat it) made long gaming sessions difficult, so I’ve only played a handful of online one-shots.
But I’ve missed the social aspect of in-person gaming around a table.
Over the last several months, I’ve been putting a lot of effort into worldbuilding for a sandbox campaign I want to run in my Warpwalkers Campaign Setting.
So one of my goals for early 2025 is to start running a regular in-person D&D game — I’m not sure at this point if my health will allow me to handle weekly, but I’d like to do biweekly games at least.
Mothership
I absolutely adore sci-fi horror and the Mothership TTRPG has really caught my eye. I’m a little behind the times on checking this one out — it won the 2019 ENnies Gold award for Best Game.
I’ll probably explore this one first as a player — a GM in a local TTRPG group has been talking about running a Mothership game sometime in January.
Lancer
Lancer is a game that’s been on my radar for years, but I’ve never had the opportunity to play. I adore the art direction of the game and I’ve always had a soft spot for giant robots.
I’ve never been able to find a local group for it, though, so I think I’m going to look for online play for this one. I’m not sure I’m really committed to it enough to want to play in a long-term campaign, so I’ll probably look for something shorter like a few one-shots or a mini-campaign.
My 2025 Goals For Content Creation
I’ve got several goals when it comes to content creation:
1,000 YouTube Subscribers
I want to hit 1,000 subscribers on YouTube. I’m a little shy of 200 subscribers as of the time of this article, and I usually pick up some new subscribers every time I stream.
I’m also planning to step up my video content, with new videos that blend my enjoyment of tabletop RPGs and videogames. I’ve got two challenges with that, though:
- I don’t want this to come across as a gimmick.
- I don’t want to be yet another “GM advice channel.”
Here’s a few ideas I have:
- I want to add a series where I sit down with panels of 1-3 gamers where we explore the intersection between TTRPG and videogames with topics like “What if a TTRPG had roguelike permadeath design?” or “What videogames have most influenced your worldbuilding?”
I’m not really sure at this point if this is something that will be live or pre-recorded (probably live, if I’m honest), or when such a series might kick off, but I want to aim to nail down the idea by the end of first quarter and launch it no later than June.
- I want to release a number of short videos where I focus on a specific videogame, with takeaways that can translate to TTRPGs.
Example: “What Stardew Valley’s NPC heart scenes can teach you about NPC relationships in D&D.”
- I’ll also be adding a third stream day, probably on Wednesday mid-mornings.
Specifically, I want to stream a modded Minecraft world where I recreate and highlight iconic TTRPG dungeons like those from classic Dungeons and Dragons modules (Keep on the Borderlands, for example) or from talented modern mapmakers like Dyson Logos.
I expect this will start fairly soon, possibly by the end of January.
500 Newsletter Subscribers
I want to hit 500 subscribers to The Weekly Wobble.
This is something fairly new to me — although I’ve run blogs and social media channels and created video content in the past, The Weekly Wobble is my first newsletter. It’s not a format I’m totally familiar with.
I am experimenting here with newsletter length and striking a balance between skimmability and deep engaging content.
The newsletter isn’t just rehashes of this blog’s content — I share personal stories, community news, lots of links to cool things other creators are doing.
And each week, subscribers get a discount code or freebie for a TTRPG product. Since launching The Weekly Wobble three weeks ago, subscribers have saved $18. I’m excited to see that number grow.
$125 monthly Ko-fi memberships
Although I’ve worked my entire adult life, I’ve reached a point where epilepsy has really diminished my ability to work a traditional job. My last attempt at work ended with a major seizure in front of my employer’s entire board of directors. It wasn’t a fun experience and I’ve struggled a lot emotionally with the decision to stop working.
As of this article, I’ve got a single $5 monthly membership on Ko-fi. I was stupidly excited when I saw that membership sign-up pop up in my notifications. It’s hugely validating that I can produce paying work despite my epilepsy, even if it’s just a few dollars.
I’m setting this goal fairly low — just $10 of growth each month, or two new subscribers each month at $5 each.
The minimum membership level is actually just $1.00, and while that may seem inconsequential, it really adds up.
I’m also planning some new content exclusively for my Ko-fi page:
- I’ll be posting session reports from my various tabletop roleplaying games there free for everyone.
- Unique system-agnostic TTRPG creations free for monthly members (like these creepy pillow worms).
- I’d like to work with a few artists to create some special merch (like stickers).
Time for something vulnerable…
Content creation, for me, is something that comes fairly naturally.
In 2025, I’m doing something a lot harder.
As of now, I weigh 407.6 pounds. It’s the heaviest I’ve ever been.
I’m ashamed and frustrated by that.
I’ve always been chubby, but medication, fatigue, depression, and isolation from the last several years have made my weight increase year after year.
I’ve said many times in the past couple years that I was going to lose weight. That I was going to do something about it. But to be totally honest with myself, it’s not something I’ve been serious about until now.
I turn 40 this year.
Although I’ve always been healthy despite my epilepsy, my doctors are increasingly concerned about things like blood pressure and liver enzymes. I have more days where everything hurts, or where I find myself out of breath after doing what should be relatively little exertion.
So January 1st, 2025 is day one of fixing those problems.
- I’m going to get back to the gym. Lifting weights was something I always enjoyed when I was younger and I want to return to that, but initial plans are to just do more walking and build up some basic muscle tone so I don’t injure myself.
- I’m going to try to do a one-meal-a-day eating cycle. I’ve had some success with this in prior attempts to lose weight.
- I’m going to increase my water intake considerably.
Losing weight is a thing I’ve attempted — and failed at — before. There’s plenty of reasons I’ve quit: it felt too hard, it felt like I wasn’t making progress, it felt like it didn’t matter, it felt like I was alone in doing it.
This time is going to be different.