Happy New Year 2025: Let's Talk Expectations
2024 year in review, and a glimpse of what 2025 may be like
Hey y’all, folk! 😈
2024 came to an end and a new year is about to begin. Time is relative and a social construct, it feels dumb to say “New Year, New Me“. Still, I feel the need to compartmentalize and make full new sections to better feel progress. So I will focus this time on having a “New Year, Better Me“ because at least being better is something I know I can achieve.
Reviewing the stuff from this year, I didn’t get to do as much as I would have liked. Still, the things I did were really good; I managed to make new contacts and friends even though I didn’t get to go to conventions, and much more. Let’s talk about the achievements Tomas (me) had in 2024:
This will be a long post, so you won’t be able to read it fully in the email. Be sure to click the “[Message clipped] View entire message” link to keep reading!
2024 Achievements
Apart from creating games, this year I also got to do stuff out of my comfort zone, such as participating in Actual Plays.
Products Released
Uncharted Hearts
I started the year making this game with who would end up becoming my partner (Lady Azulina) for Poorna and Ex Stasis Game’s Super Chill Game Jam. Starting with the idea of getting to know a new world, we wanted it to be as far away from a game about colonization as possible. That’s how we decided to go for a more wholesome approach, and one with plenty of dice involved. Get to create and explore a new untouched world in Uncharted Hearts (or at least read through the cute poem Azu left there to download for free):
Sigil’s Secret Menu
Led by James Quigley, and with a plethora of designers (starting and renowned), this collaborative project was a fantastic way to see how an indie project this big can work and be led. Laura Galli and Morgan Eilish were two new contacts I made there that would happen to work with me in the future, on top of growing an even better relationship with James. Additionally, Sigil’s Secret Menu got to have Mr. Squidly, my magnificent NPC on its cover, and it hit Best Electrum Seller in the DM’s Guild. If you are into all things Sigil, and magic items for 5e, definitely take a look:
Goth Borg
Even if monetarily it didn’t do as well as planned, I still have a lot of love for this experiment. Giving a bunch of content that you can use in any medieval fantasy game of your choice for just $2, while making sure to create the absurdly heavy-metal Mork Borg graphic design style through its pages, Goth Borg was something pretty unique. I learned A LOT making it, and I’ll make sure I don’t make the same mistakes again. Go grab a copy while you still can get it with its 40% off winter sale:
Magnolia: City of Marvels
Even if it didn’t get to go through all its crowdfunding campaign, just having such an incredible group of minds working with me on this makes it worth hitting this list. Magnolia has been getting more fans with the passage of days and I hope to have it make an even greater launch this year. In the meantime, follow the project here:
GET NOTIFIED WHEN MAGNOLIA LAUNCHES
Pathfinder Lost Omens: Divine Mysteries
The project I started working on with plenty of other creators on January 2023 to rebuild the pantheon from Pathfinder 2e finally released. I’m super proud of the result and for the mere fact of having added my grain of sand to such an important project for Pathfinder2e. Check out the goblins section to see all I created and wrote!
Subclasses Revivified
Again, getting to work on a huge project with Adam and many other incredible creators is always a delight. And this product couldn’t have launched at a better time! Having appeared with the launch of the D&D 2024 ruleset, the product managed to stay as the #1 Top Seller in DM’s Guild until Keith Baker’s Eberron book took its place. Now it still stands strong in #2 as a Gold Best Seller, having all the subclasses that the 2014 has, updated to the new pseudo-edition.
Actual Plays I was in
Hither and Yon
Apart from being a fantastic way to get introduced to Candela Obscura, I’ve got many things to highlight about it. The cast was incredible and I still keep in talks with them every so often, which makes me REALLY want the season 2 to happen now. The GM (Lightkeeper) Hector did amazing in his role and created a whole story focused around Latinx mythology. It was amazing getting to see so many Puerto Rican-inspired folklore and tales. The players and GM also allowed me to create a very deep character in the game that I enjoyed playing a lot! You can check the story out to get ready for the upcoming Season 2 right here:
Plasmodics
The weird Plasmodics game about little mutant freaks in the apocalypse was the game I secondly got to play to showcase what a campaign can be like. The amazing cast we had allowed us to rotate who would GM each session, with the others playing as the characters that had to do their best to survive each planet reaching its apocalypse and sending help to the ultimate battle on the last session. This was also the game where I managed to accomplish my first TPK (Total Planet Kill). Check it out here:
Rush & Punch! Halloween One-Shot
R&P!’s co-designer Scott Bullock (go follow Scott because he is amazing!) and I created a new Rush & Punch! exclusive monster for this one-shot to make it very lovecraftianesque and showcase what R&P! can accomplish through its engine. It was a VERY scary time for the players who got to confront these Mi-Go-like creatures, and it did for the kind of video I like to show to people who want to see how R&P! is played.
Eat the Reich
Eat the Reich is a game I have seen here and there but didn’t know much about. When I was told the premise of a squad of vampires that have to kill Hitler, I immediately jumped in. This was a very fun game in which many friends and I got to kill Hitler live by sucking the blood out of that bastard. Great fun, great time, great system!
Additional Achievements
There were some other big achievements for me that didn’t fit those categories but I still wanted to showcase:
Magnolia Actual Play
Did you know there is a Magnolia: City of Marvels’ Actual Play going on right now GMed by the amazing Wren? The project hasn’t even arrived at KS and Wren already wanted what was inspired by the sample the Magnolia Team released. Being played using the Monster of the Week system, they are already showcasing that this isn’t your average setting for D&D and PF2e. There’s so much more to it. Someone else has also approached me to create another AP using Magnolia, showcasing other systems as well, so keep an eye on my socials to learn about it!
For now, be sure to check out Wren’s magnificent storytelling, cause the whole cast ROCKED IT:
Rush & Punch! Open Playtest Phase
After a whole year of work, Scott and I managed to get Rush & Punch!, a passion project of us about cinematic frenetic action with emergent storytelling, to its open playtest phase. We went through so many tweaks to get it to what it is nowadays and have learned a lot by having multiple playtests with different groups. However, we are always looking for more playtesters. If you want to help us out, please come to the TGR Games server, where we are doing our best to have one game every other week for people to try out the game:
GET ACCESS TO THE PLAYTEST PACKET HERE
HypeSwap
This year, Sebastian Yūe introduced me to what HypeSwap is and I got to give it a try. Via it I got to try out and review Weave Games’ Love is on the Cards and Julia Jagolkowska’s A Rush of Blood. Two fantastic games I got to add to my collection in exchange for a game of mine of their choosing.
You can get to do a HypeSwap with me here:
MY HYPESWAP RULES AND HOW TO APPROACH ME FOR IT
2025 expectations/goals
My CARTA game release for Gast
Hatched Games chose me as a stretch goal of their crowdfunding to create a game for Gast using the CARTA engine . I’m hyper-hyped to create something for it. This time it has to be about folk horror and I hope I get to scare you with whatever I come up with:
CHECK OUT WHAT GAST IS ALL ABOUT
Work with Moxie system (GrimWild & Venture)
I just recently got officially accepted to work on modules for the Moxie system. These will be released in the game Venture, which should be hitting crowdfunding platforms soon. It’s still very early to say what my module will be about (not that I am under an NDA, I just don’t want to give false expectations), but I am excited for it to happen. If you want to check out what the game is about, as well as the Moxie system it uses, check out GrimWild:
DOWNLOAD THE GRIMWILD FREE EDITION
The rise of Drintera
After working for the Drintera world and magazine for a year, it seems this is the year it will be getting its Kickstarter. Drintera is a medieval fantasy setting that is system agnostic and differentiates itself in it being able to create legendary stories for characters of all ages. I created a lot of stuff for it that you can already get via the Patreon, but can be available to you as well once the KS releases:
Magnolia: City of Marvels
This should be the year when my huge passion project Magnolia officially launches, if all goes according to plan. I can’t say anything for sure, but it should be quite a hit, this time with a lot of additional extra promoting.
Goth Borg: The First Supplement
I have more than one idea for the first Goth Borg supplement. I intend on growing from it little by little, creating my beautiful gothic sandboxes in which to add lots of scary stuff. I still have some things to finish first though, so it will not launch for ZineMonth as I originally planned. But hopefully, it appears sometime this year!
IN THE MEANTIME, GET GOTH BORG
Demon Hunters Corp for Rush & Punch!
With Scott Bullock, we are close to finishing our Capes of Kaiju City setting for R&P!. We have had many playtests, but we will be needing many more as we soon enter the design phase for Demon Hunters Corp (placeholder, final name TBD).
If you want to help us try out this game of cinematic high-octane action like few games you have seen before, go find them on my Discord Server:
Comeback to streams
I had to stop doing streams this past year due to the large amount of stuff going on in my life. However, I’ve been checking out Moonbeam and I really want to get back to streams. Reviewing stuff live, playing games, and chatting with those who came by the chat was always nice. It also kind of forced me to take a breather instead of working all day long. So yeah… I will most probably get back to it soon. I might need to move out first though, which is still quite a thorn in my side.
Actual Plays/Podcasts
I had a really good time playing in APs this year, but I did a lot of them at once, which didn’t feel very nice as I had to stress out last minutes at times to get ready and get things done. I’ll try to get back to them, but being more considerate of my mental health and the amount of things I am doing atm.
Additionally, even though I have been part of many podcasts, I have been thinking if maybe I could participate in another one every so often or on a more regular basis. That sounds fun.
Conventions
Last year, my plan was to get to GenCon, Big Bad Con, and Pax U. I couldn’t get to any of them, but the plan remains the same, with some possible additions. I don’t expect to get to them all, but at least two would be nice. I will probably need some financial support from the conventions though. We will see…
(I really want to meet with my friends again.)
Playing more games
I don’t think I played anywhere near as many games as I wanted to play in 2024. It was a tough year, I get it. However, this 2025 will hopefully allow me to try out all sorts of new stuff! If you are planning on running a game, drop me a message! My DMs are open.
If you want to know which games I am looking forward to playing (in case you want to be a player to a game of mine or run a game for me), check the list I did on Bsky HERE.