"What's with all the recipies?" I can almost hear people saying. "Isn't this supposed to be a gaming blog?" Yes. Yes, it is. But here's the thing. A few years ago I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. It's not something I asked for, and it's not something I did wrong. Am I overweight? Yeah, but not nearly as badly as a number of people I've known who didn't get diabetes. For many people, it's just the bad luck of the draw. I got the 2 of clubs in the Action Deck. Okay, maybe not that low, but you get the idea. Also, see what I did there? Gaming! When you get diagnosed with diabetes, it's like a punch in the gut. Your entire life changes overnight. Suddenly you're looking at, "you know all those things you love? You're done." As time goes on, it turns out that it's not that way, and it doesn't have to be that way. First, the new medications are outstanding. I'm managing mine and I'm not eve...

I'm back again, folks, with another diabeetus-friendly recipe for the holidays. If you're like me, you love eggnog, and it was a kick in the gut the first time you realized you couldn't buy it anymore because frankly, it's loaded up with sugar. Once again, Splenda (or Stevia, if you prefer) comes to the rescue. Eggnog is so crazy easy to make, I find myself wondering why I ever paid for it to begin with. Before I jump into this recipe, a necessary disclaimer: I use raw eggs in my eggnog. Yes, just about everyone has heard that you can get Salmonella from raw eggs. It's true, and I include this disclaimer by way of an "at your own risk" thing. That being said, a recent study found that the actual odds of getting sick from raw eggs is astoundingly low. First, many eggs these days are pasteurized. Second, only about 1 in every 30,000 eggs has a Salmonella contaimination inside. Contamination is much higher on the shells, but we're not eating the ...

It's time for another diabetes-friendly recipe! This time it's apple pie. Now, let's be fair right out of the gate. There is  no such thing as sugar-free apple pie.  Apples have sugar in them. Period. This is no-sugar  added  apple pie, meaning you don't add extra sugar. I am not 100% certain what the exact carb count for a slice would be. However, my guess is that there's probably about 30g of carbs in a single slice, about 19 of which would be sugars from the apple, the rest from the pie crust. So you'll want to account for that. It's likely that there's between 5 and 7g of fiber from the apples and the crust and the corn starch. So this isn't a "free food," or something you want to just go overboard chowing down on. Still, it's something you can enjoy on a cheat day, or at the holidays, without worrying about a full cup of added sugar. If you're looking for a treat the next time it's your turn to cook for the gaming gro...

I feel like I'm going to be screaming at a brick wall here, at best. At worst, I'm going to get dogpiled by Kickstarter fans and those who use Kickstarter as their primary means of business funding. But this is something that's been on my mind for awhile and I feel the need to sound off about it. Kickstarter is ruining our hobby. "What's that?" you say. "How can you even make such an accusation when Kickstarter has given us amazing games that we wouldn't have had otherwise." "Wait a second," you'll follow up, "don't you work for a company that uses Kickstarter, like, a lot? " Yes. Yes, it has, and yes, I do. On the first point, I'd say that's what Kickstarter is for. It's to launch brand new things that otherwise wouldn't have ever been able to see the light of day. It's not designed as a primary means of funding for an entire business, project after project after project, with reprints of...

Wow. It's literally been years since I posted here. I don't even know if I have readers left. Guess we'll see. This post isn't about gaming unto itself, but it may be of interest to fantasy and sci-fi fans. So, many many moons ago there was a huge book store called Borders. Millennials may be too young to remember it; Gen Z definitely is. Okay, saying Millennials are too young is stretching it; Borders was still alive into the 21st century. In any case, back in the day I liked Borders better than Barnes & Noble. It had a very "homey" feel to it; they even had a lounge with a fireplace. They went the way of the dodo because they foolishly ignored the ebook craze; while B&N was busy creating the Nook, Borders failed to produce an e-reader, and when they finally did, they partnered with Kobo, a floundering company that used a proprietary format and store that nobody ever heard of. It was too little too late. But that's neither here nor there. ...

UPDATE 12/18/2021 I am always tweaking these recipes. The one here now more closely resembles a classic chocolate chip cookie and makes use of Carbquik, which is an outstanding baking mix that behaves much like flour. I have also moved to using Erythritol and Monkfruit sweeteners as they are closer to normal sugar, and you can get Swerve (Erythritol) in a brown version that works just like brown sugar and still has a GI of zero.  Back in September I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. It was, as it is for many people, a devastating discovery and it's been a hard road. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm learning to manage it. Of course, this means finding substitutions for a lot of carb-y treats I used to love (I'll be revisiting my lembas recipe to work on how to make that more Type 2 friendly soon as well). One of my favorite things in the world is chocolate chip cookies. How could I live without them? Well, fortunately, I don't have to. Here's a recipe I'...

Low-res concept for SHAMA issue 1 cover Just keeping everyone in the loop. Working on getting a video together for the Kickstarter while awaiting the paperwork for the LLC and freelancer contracts from my attorney. Hopefully within a few weeks I'll be ready to launch the Kickstarter and get Shadows & Masks out the door! Meanwhile I'm plugging away at several freelance projects plus some staff work for Troll Lord Games . These include a Fifth Edition Book of Familiars and Companions that is currently in Kickstarter itself. I'm also working on getting those miniatures battle rules for the O.R.C.S. system complete so I can get those playtested and released. I plan to get a few adventure modules for Spellcraft & Swordplay contracted, written, edited and out the door as well. There are irons in the fire, but we've announced a few things that never came to pass, so I'm going to play it all close to the vest for the time being till we have things about ...