Aaron A. Reed

Selfie of Aaron in his kitchen wearing a backpacking pack and a slightly nervous smile.

Map of the John Muir Trail showing it starting in Yosemite National Park, passing through Ansel Adams Wilderness, Devil's Postpile National Monument, the John Muir Wilderness, and King's Canyon and Sequioa National Parks, and finishing at Mount Whitney.

About to fulfill a long-time dream by hiking the John Muir Trail through the Sierra Nevada. If you need me, I'll be back in August. 😎🌲🏔️

Not sure which zines you mean?

YouTube video by The Dungeon Dive Keeping it Underground - Downcrawl 2e - overview with game play

Great coverage of #Downcrawl2E from The Dungeon Dive with this video walkthrough explaining the game in detail and playing through a few moves as Bartok the Brother Botanist! #ttrpg
youtu.be/_zuQYhMwTgs?...

The cool conference: narrascope.org
Link to toss them some $$ to keep the lights on: iftechfoundation.org/give/

This is a great org and event! If you support narrative in games, every little bit helps!

Biggest things I liked about Arc:
* Not having to care abt the difference between tab/bookmark/history (there's just pages, some starred, some active)
* Different workspaces 4 diff sets of pages
* Auto-pruning old tabs (I used to use an extension for this)

Any recs for similar browsers/workflows?

Pour one out today for the Arc browser, which elegantly solved a number of web surfing frustrations using clever human design ingenuity. Officially discontinued today in favor of an AI clownshow. Getting so goddamn sick of this hypewagon paving over everything beautiful and useful.

(Systems: Toon, Apocalypse World, 500-Year-Old Vampire, Alice Is Missing, Chasing Adventure, Changeling: The Dreaming)

Traditional post-#TTRPG con list of characters I played this weekend:
* speedy cartoon ferret
* post-apocalyptic battle twink
* sad vampire from 1600s China
* high school friend who moved away
* avenging bard with violin crossbow
* changeling troll

This is objectively the best hobby

Oops thanks for the correction! Uninformed no-research con-lagged posts are the worst

An entire table filled with sundry arts and crafts supplies

A collection of black butterfly wings, silver skeleton hands, seashells, spiders, and eyeballs wrapped in red thread, a visual representation of my vampire's utter abandonment of civilization and reversion to their primal nature.

A depiction of the unfortunate incident where my vampire was forced to eliminate his mortal followers by burning down their village, which he promptly forgot about.

Played "500 Year Old Vampire" by @timhutchings.bsky.social at #KublaCon with a truly glorious arts and crafts spread provided by our GM, best letter writing and vision boarding game about being a sad vampire and sad vampire historian ever

Narrascope 2025 | Celebrating Narrative Games NarraScope 2025 at Drexel University is an event that supports interactive narrative, adventure games, and interactive fiction by bringing together writers, developers, and players.

Today is the last day for in-person registration for NarraScope. (Registration for remote attendance is open until June 18th.)

narrascope.org

Oops, try again now!

I haven't heard any concrete updates (more recently, industry buzz I've heard has been "OMG ship everything now to catch the window where tariffs are paused.") Knowing how these things generally go, it's likely to remain in limbo until there's a settled court case about it. :/

Feel free!

FDA will limit Covid vaccines to people over 65 or at high risk of serious illness, leaders say The FDA announced it will limit access to Covid-19 vaccines going forward to people 65 and older and others at high risk of serious illness

GUYS. The comment period for this ends in THREE DAYS. PLEASE if you have even a little bit of time, submit a comment here: www.regulations.gov/commenton/FD...

Let them know EVERYONE should be able to get COVID vaccines. They BACK DOWN when WE PUSH BACK. www.statnews.com/2025/05/20/f...

Andrew is a true legend of interactive storytelling; if you're working on anything to do with dynamic narrative systems, you'd be lucky to have him.

I feel like these two things, and the fact that I don't understand how they can both be true, say a lot about me:

1. Whenever I take out my wireless headphones out I always take pains to put them immediately back in the case, and the case right back in my bag

2. The headphones are never in my bag

Update 4: 🕵️‍♂️ Call for One Good Weirdo · Secret History: Atchafalaya Expedition 2025 Hey crew—We're halfway through the campaign, and about a third of the way to our goal. That’s not panic territory, but it is time to pull out a few tricks.You already backed the project (thank you). S...

A friend of mine from grad school gathers oral histories from overlooked people in a homemade shantyboat. He's raising funds to get the project going again post-Covid. Pitch in if you can & spread the word! We need this kind of project more than ever.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/wmo...

Six months of DOGE and yet it is apparently still efficient for the government to generate a flurry of mailings, checks, and auditor time to officially notify me that I have overpaid my taxes by $1.00

Portion of a printout in a basic unstyled font reading "The Mountain Dream, Jank Edition," and the start of a character creation section.

About to run the first ever playtest of a new game, such early days I didn't even want to put a version number on it. Always a bit terrifying but it's great to stop dreaming a new dream alone and start doing it together...

Note: while supplies last, you can also still get copies of the physical zine leftover from the crowdfunding campaign here: aaronareed.net/store/produc...

Cover art for The Hypogean Solution showing a black-and-white sketch of two strange travelers camped under giant mushrooms by the bank of a glowing underworld river.

Oozing tendrils squirming through every corner of the Deep, Deep Down, and only you can stop them. "The Hypogean Solution" is an Adventure Zine for the #Downcrawl2E #TTRPG that lets you ride an undersea railroad, make strange new friends, and meet a slime god.

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...

YouTube video by Man Alone DownCrawl Second Edition - The Greatest Solo Oracle Cards I Have Ever Used (Overview/Campaign Setup)

Great coverage of #Downcrawl2E solo play from streamer Man Alone: "one of the most magical delving toolkits I have seen ... Did I mention these are the best solo oracle cards OF ALL TIME?!?!" (blushing!)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s_X...

Joining the chorus saying don't sleep on the movie Sinners & see it on a big screen with a big sound system if possible. Especially if you're feeling down about making art in the face of generative AI or resisting systems that feel overwhelmingly stacked against you. (And stay all thru the credits.)

And the cards are here too! Big, readable, colorful, and chock full of information. Also, cards with instructions on how to use them on the table, always useful!
Here are the basic Downcrawl Deck, the Even Deeper Deck, the Encounter Deck and the early bird bonus cards!
LOTS OF CARDS!
#TTRPG #solorpg

Dang I should have spelled it Downcrawll

(Note because of proximity to other post re: tariffs, these are US-printed orders going to US addresses, so not affected by the current madness.)

"Are they books or are they games, according to the US customs agencies? If the latter, TTRPG books coming from China would suffer the same 145% tariff that boxed sets, accessories, and boardgames do. That means that a $30K print run of a few thousand books would incur an additional $43,500 bill."

Do Tariffs Apply To RPG Books? Maybe, Maybe Not! When the recent tariffs were announced by the US, panic was the first reaction from tabletop roleplaying game publishers. This was soon followed by a wave of hope as people shared an official exempti...

Never thought the question of "are interactive fictions books or games" might end up bankrupting me & my industry. (Analysis of extremely real open questions right now re: if TTRPGs classify as books or "parts and accessories" of games.)
www.enworld.org/threads/do-t...

Getting rumblings that backlogged #Downcrawl2E hardcovers are finally starting to ship from the US printer. Thanks for everyone's patience, they should all be in your hands soon!!