Drakkenhall: City of Monsters Would Be Better with More Gaming

 So like the hard shoals of hotel living are over. While my finances have freed up somewhat, my willpower has went on a vacation. There hasn't really been a noticeable lull in the Peryton Publishing releases, except Halloween 2022 didn't happen. I guess that should give me a bit of perspective. Elder Tunnels didn't happen from 2012 until 2019. And things are brewing as much as ever, just authors of weird fiction follow astrologies not our mortal publishers' ken.

While roleplaying groups have been going on, I just haven't been running them. Iron Curtis with his take on RavenLoft, "Curtisloft" has been awesome. He's been teaching me how 5th Edition D&D runs-- I never have thought that there was such a rift between OSR and 5E, nor that it really mattered. I am still not convinced that it matters, but now I know. Hey many a GM feels that it is important as well, I've noticed. 

So I read this... and now?

I could say that I have been catching up on reading, but I'd be lying. I've read almost everything I want to have read this year. One of the purchases I made at GenCon last Summer, Drakkenfall: City of Monsters. I really feel that I have should have a lot of analysis of the setting, but mostly what I get is disappointment. The various authors do go out of their way to provide many chapters of work, but somewhere from there being no orks and how everything is about non-Monster races from the 13th Age RPG, I read it like homework. There's a bit about kolbolds, molds, and dragons undercover; it all made me sleepy too often. My write-up will not be homework. I do cities in this much detail on drunken afternoons without seven other authors helping me out. This Smurf of a book has high publication standards.  I really want to blame reading this book on why I haven't published at least three projects of my own. I was a dumber GM having read it.