Book recommendations With a Focus on Cozy

 I was asked about books I had read an liked in the last few years that I could recommend.  After thinking about it for a bit and reviewing my queue and closest bookshelf and mentally eliminating the programming and management books, this is my short list.  It's got a focus on cozy, not conflict, and a lot of strong female lead characters in many of them, including the general "anything by T. Kingfisher".

• The Dungeon Book (As Told by Cornelius the Skull) by Gareth Hanrahan - my most recent I was reading on the way to Denver and back.  Good humor  Great primary characters.  I think if you like Pratchett, this book would scratch an itch.
• When the Moon Hits Your Eye by Scalzi - a nonsense premise he handles with various perspectives
• Legends and Lattes, Bookshops and Bonedust, Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldress - a great series, although I liked the first two better than the last one.  About the family you construct organically, not the one you're born with
• Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman - I put this here not because it has a strong female lead (it has many) and not because it's cozy (it is in a way, but not like the others....it's cozy in the way eight 700+ page books give you a sense of continuity and familiarity), but because I have to cop to liking it enough it's taken up 5000+ pages of my reading in the last two years.  My wife and kid have read them as well, along with half the people I know at work.
• Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz - robot cozy, a really fun short read.
• Anima Rising by Christopher Moore - warning, some themes that put people off, but I enjoyed this more than some of his other recent books and he really leans into the main character/s.
• Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove - a fast, fun read about monsters in space.  Loved this one and someone at work thanked me at our recent offsite for recommending it on the internal book slack.
• The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman - heavier than the others.  King Arthur and company and the clash of cultures in Britain.  I posted a photo of a church I thought captured the intersection of Christianity and Druidry and Lev gave it a like, so maybe I'm biased.
• The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler - this one is deeper and goes into the philosophy of what it means to be intelligent.
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones - ok, not cozy at all.  This is the only scary one I'm putting on the list because he's a great writer and this was a true number of steps above most scary books I read.
• Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson - I can't imagine anyone not liking this one.
• The Rivers of London Series by Ben Aaronovitch - a bit of Harry Potter meets London cop.  Although a warning, the action isn't as gangbusters as Harry Potter. If you're going to London, a perfect series to read before you go  (or on the tube, like I was for one of them).  Also recommended by my wife.
• The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister - more of a folktale than a horror tale.
• The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty - I hear it has a sequel.  When I say strong female leads, this one is all in.  A very impressive main character.
• Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson - I liked this better than Yumi, and that's a source of debate with at least one friend.  But this is truly a cozy, female led, organic family book.  I've read The Heroine's Journey by Gail Carriger about how writing that arc differs from a hero's journey, and this is textbook.
• Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi - he's got a new book out as well this week I'm looking forward to.  Short, fun, also read by my wife and kid.
• Pretty much anything by T. Kingfisher, and I mean that.  She's a masterful storyteller in the fable style and gothic style depending on the book.  Reading one of her books right now that I'm liking so much I didn't realize it was #2 in a series.  Going to have to remedy that (Swordheart series, only two long).
• Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - e.g. pretty much anything by Becky Chambers, also about organic families

Anything else?  I'd recommend Whalefall and Project Hail Mary, but in the case of the latter, you can catch a very good movie version.  I hear the movie version of Whalefall isn't as good as the book, so I'm unlikely to catch the movie as I don't want to override the book in my head.

I read some scary one-off novels and LGBTQIA+ themed books (but also scary - that subgenre really understands body horror).  A number of graphic novels (truly hit or miss, even with good ratings).  And as a staple: Pratchett, Moore, various programming and management nonfiction.

I really blew through Stephen King's Fairy Tale as an alternate reality tale.  R.F. Kuang's Poppy Wars series is exciting and she leans into some parallels to WW2.  So was Babel.  I haven't read Yellowface yet, although it's on my shelf.

And I read some others like Sanderson's Stormlight series (huge) which I really liked (one left to go...was waiting for it to be more readily available as a paperback or a library book with a less than 2 week turnaround), but is probably only for tastes that run toward epic fantasy (like Wheel of Time, Game of Thrones, or the Lord of the Rings). 

Cycling September/October 2026

Some photos from my September/October cycling events.  Most of them group rides by that time of the year.  I do a week long ride in July usually, but Ming's new job took him out of the partner biz last year, and I didn't feel like two years in a row on my own.  Which is ok...but I truly missed it, so next year I have to find something even if it's on my own.

This is the Tunes, Toons, and Loons ride.  Or maybe Toons, Tunes, and Loons.  A bassist for SallyForth and Favourite Daughter I had gone to see at the Harriet Bandshell and at the Edina courtyard area (I'll get to a music post soon) Insta-ed that the group ride was happening and I thought it sounded fun.  It met at the coffee shop at Broken Clock Brewing (Curioso) and I biked all the way into North Minneapolis.  I ordered a coffee as I was early and as I looked up from my order....bassist! Surprised, I said her name and she looked at me with genuine confusion. I remarked I'd seen her play and was there on her advice and didn't expect her to be my barista.  She found me coffee and let me know we were starting at the OTHER Curioso coffee shop in Uptown.  Which was fun, because I biked down to the other shop with her boyfriend and friends on a nice warm up ride and had a great tine talking local routes and stories.

This is all of us at the coffee shop.  Besides her mom (and dad) and me, it was a pretty young cloud worrying about water conservation and cleanliness in the lakes area.  I'm way in the back representing the "new" state flag.

We stopped by a few different spots that were highlighting their sunken gardens for water run off and how they stopped pollution getting in the run off, and then ended up back at Broken Clock for music.  One of the things I enjoyed was a detour onto the trail that cuts through Minneapolis under the Twins stadium.  Completely new to me, but a bit of a game changer.  On the way up, I pedaled past all the on-the-street Pickleball courts the city sets up on the riverfront, so I went right past it without seeing it.

That's the bassist in the background.  She sings and plays a variety of music including Ska.  At the moment, she's off on a nationwide tour with a well-known Ska band.  Good beer at Clock Works  Wish I lived closer.  My kid and I like Venn because it's a coffee shop that turns into a brewery later in the day.  Good place to work remote.  Amusingly, I saw a FB post by the new social director at Clock Works looking for local music acts and said, "Um, maybe check with the bassist at the coffee shop in the building.  She knows a lot of local acts." 

I did think about going to a DJ Dance Ride going on that night, and then decided I wasn't going to make it several more hours and didn't want to pedal home that late at night. I have.  I didn't want to.  So I popped past Animales to see Sarah Morris and check out the venue where we were going to have our monthly friends' dinner.  A much better choice.  I was famished and the DJ dance ride only has smores.  When I asked for a seat, I asked for a good seat where I could see Sarah and the person seating me said, "Do you  know the musician?"  I said, yes, but not as close friends or anything.  Then Sarah said from the stage as I was being seated, "Hi, Scott!"  I got a dubious look that implied I might not know what friendship was as I was seated.

This is the DJ Dance ride.  It started at Perennial Cycle.  Unlike that previous almost 70 mile ride, I drove up to the start of this one.  I went to the last one of the season.  So I knew it would be dark (I rode home in the dark on that last one, I just prefer not to, even with my new lights).  And, it was raining at the start, but only barely.  So I thought it might clear by the time I drove up. It did, and it stayed nice and cool.  Huge turnout.

Here we are blocking traffic in Uptown near my sister-in-law's old apartment. People do not like mass rides, although we were only on the streets for as long as it took us to get to the trails.

First stop, one of the light rail stations that wasn't in use yet.

Some actual dancing! For a while I was next to a kid who looked like he was an extra out of Newsies.  He definitely upstaged me with his aggressive dancing.  At one point at the stop, a clearly high guy came up and asked if I knew how many stops there were left.  I said no, but I thought one.  He noted he absolutely had to plan for the right time to "get out the homegrown!!!" (three exclamation points is probably insufficient for his enthusiasm).  I'm not sure how he managed to stay on the bike as he was, it had to be mentally tilting all over the place.  Dancing...sure.  Falling looks like dancing most of the time.

There was a bike with an open flame where I could cook a smore.

A better picture of everyone toasting their mallows.

Video of the park stop where we danced and had smores.  I'm glad I went to the last one of the year where it got so dark.  Made for a good vibe.
 

The DJ trailer had wheels, but also a hitch so another bicycle could help pull it.  Pretty heavy with the turntable, speakers, DJ, et al.  Here's The local City Council President sitting in as one of our DJs. Should out to the Joyful Riders Club as well for a great event.

Nice picture of the park.  Some people really went all in with the lights.  I felt like I was skimping a bit.  It was here I realized I'd put in about 12000 steps of dancing.  I wasn't standing around like a post.  I don't think most of my friends or family would have recognized me in that environment.

From the Give Us Wings ride with Ming.  That's a charity ride to raise funds for communities in Africa that include education, health, and business.  The goal is to uplift whole communities.  My sister and mom both volunteered for Give Us Wings and did health care while there.  

It was raining the whole time we were on the ride, and many of the trails were ripped up for construction purposes.  These are my socks at breakfast at the OPH afterwards.  Ming and I still managed to get lost this year, as we usually do, even though he was in charge of some of the signs.  But we figured it out, turned around, and helped a few other people get "unlost" who did exactly what we did (they weren't following us, so it wasn't our fault like it was last year when we almost bonked someone who followed us).


This is from the Twin Cities Bike Classic with Mean Mr. Mustard and Ming.  Got in a pretty long ride.  A little extra even as we parked at the Pancake Bistro a few miles from the start and carbed up before t he ride.  I went to Dave Hill at the Parkway with friends, and he's known for his antics around traffic cones, so I shared this moment of working-across-the-aisle with him on Instagram.

Had been a while since I'd been to the Minnetonka Train Depot.  Was a good ride.  I talked to a bartender from Venn for a bit I often see on Fridays (see above regarding remote) who's excited about doing RAGBRAI next year and is practicing some longer rides.

Whew....that might seem like a lot, but I got in a lot more bicycling doing rides to outdoor music venues this year than I did to group rides.  Group rides just happened to anchor the end of the year.  I have music rides in my queue.  I'll catch up on those sometime soon as well.  Get my year a little better documented for posterity.

Denver Offsite 2026

Ok, so I tweaked the code I had so that instead of cutting and pasting URLs, it points at a Flickr album (if you have an API KEY) and generates my HTML right to the screen instead of an output file.  No more opening and closing and looking at dozens of windows.  Simply "poof" an HTML list of photos that maintains perspective within the confines of a 600x600 window, which is optimal for Blogger.  Slick.  That's a huge difference in my time and might actually get me to blog.

So I'm starting with my most recent event first, which was my company offsite in Denver, Colorado.  We were in the Denver Tech Center area, which is about an hour south of downtown, by train or by Uber in rush hour.  I took the A train from the airport and switched to light rail. I was surprised my team was so pro-public transportation.  One team member came in early enough to take public transportation and his backpack to a canyon and hiked up a mountain.  I took it in early and hiked around the Denver Tech Center area (not very exciting).  And at least one other team member did the $10/day method.  I like the cash goes to the city.  That's always a plus.

I spent time on the airplane reading my "homework".  The Art of Action.  This is an extract.  Not exactly an easy read.  The overall theme of the book was good.  Autonomy over micromanagement.  Micromanagers thrive in the same places as authoritarians and dictators.  Autonomy is good in war as well as in business.  But I don't think I needed a whole book for that lesson.  Our single hour of book discussion was mostly a rehash of the themes because we hadn't had a lot of time to read it, and a few exhortations to share how to change company culture to encourage a bit of esprit de corps across teams and foster more autonomy in tackling problems and innovation.  Sometimes it's like there's nothing new under the sun.  Those aren't groundbreaking ideas.  The issue is always handling managers who do micromanage and enforce a hierarchy in all things.

During my walk, I headed up to the outdoor sculpture garden.  But it turned out to be a music venue, closed, and not as interesting as I'd hoped.  But I found their coffee shop and enjoyed the giraffe statutes outside the doors.

It was a whole family.

When I went to find my room, the key would only let me go to the fourth floor.  I went up and down several times, finally deciding they had coded my key wrong.  And then I thought...what if this is some off-by-one issue.  This was some off-by-one issue.

I met up with most of my team at the local bar, seeing them all for the first time.  I also saw several people from my PREVIOUS teams for the first time.  I told one he wasn't shorter than I expected, because his photos clearly revealed he was 1.5 big corgis tall.  But another former teammate was tall and she had a huge smile, and the combination that didn't gel with my mental picture really threw me for a moment.  My old team was Panda Express and we dispersed last October.  When I saw a Robot Panda beer at the liquor store at the end of the first night, I knew I needed it.

This door in my room was punking me.

We had an offsite Pinewood Derby event run by the local Scouts.  Everyone built a car that weighed no more than 2.9 (hence the pipes, although I still stopped at 2.7), and winners were based on fastest, fastest team, slowest, and best decoration.

And everyone made a car.  It was a lot of cars and a LOT of heats.  We weren't forced to stick around.  We could go find a beer.

This implies I was angling for slowest, but I didn't even come close.  I think some of the ones decorated with pipe cleaners and lacking a wheel had an advantage.

The last night of the actual offsite (versus the next night when I flew out) about a dozen of us went on a beer tour in the RINO district.  I saw these old pinball machines at the Bierstadt Lagerhaus where we started and went down to play a few for free.   That first one is 62 years old.

Our beer at the Lagerhaus.

One of my coworkers bought a bottle of slime on the way into the brewery.  And then went about putting it back in the bottle.

Harder than it looks.

Much harder.  I told his boss it was a metaphor for release management.

They had a great painting in the entryway from The Big Lebowski.

We went to three more bars and had a pitcher of light/usual, dark, and specialty at each that we shared with small tasting glasses.  Great Divide.  O'Dell.  And Ratio.  However, about two to four folks weren't drinking, or weren't drinking a sample of everything, and a couple were drinking wine.  So those three pitchers weren't split between too many people, and less as the evening went on.  It was a LOT of beer by the time we found some food at Ratio.

I took an opportunity to slip into a photo booth between debates with HR about zone of control changes in the market.

I'm either being held up or grabbing at someone's chest in this one.

Almost Buddy Christ.

Maybe a better Buddy Christ.  

My mom's face when she used to make her exasperated expression.  My sister would be familiar with it - I will need to share.

This is for me because our UX group is Onyx.  I'll find a need for this photo some day.

The lead on my old team used to say Huck It a lot instead of swearing.  So I took this picture for the team.  One of them did a search on Slack and found something like 4-6 dozen instances of him using it in a message.  Now when he says it, they can respond in kind.

The last day I wasn't leaving until late on the cheap flight.  A good call as it gave me a chance to hang out downtown and the evening plane was virtually empty.  So I sat around Union Station people watching over coffee and my book.  And found some Birria fusion ramen at Jinya ramen.

I liked it.  Really liked it.  But I like Tonkatsu and Black better, so I doubt I'll have it again.  I missed my half of an egg :(

One more brewery.  I still had a lot of time, even with the train factored in, so I sat around Wynkoop Brewing and read my book.  They had a few equipment rooms you could peek into on the way to the bathroom.

The front desk staff was kind enough to take my photo with their ape sculpture.

Good trip.  Loved meeting everyone.  I wish they had cycled managers between teams to generate some cross team familiarity.  And the technical talks were much better than the other talks.  I still have to parse all my notes and read everything they pointed me at Confluence and elsewhere.  Would have been nice to come back to a quiet week, but today was definitely proof that's not going to be the case (what's that, PHP hacks and TLS hacks and CVE scans installation changes to meet modern systems, and that took all day despite being a very small part of my job? At least I'm busy.).

Catching up...

Hmm....I owe this blog a few things, so I'm going to list them and get to them in the next few days.  This for me...

• Work trip to Denver this last week including a beer tour.  Maybe some other work stuff.
• Maybe some thoughts on AI.
• Two movies with my spouse, one at Riverview, one at home
• Dungeon book I really enjoyed, work book that I enjoyed but didn't enjoy the book club
• Stupid Zwift wire, excited about new Zwift stuff - staying healthy, sort of hit and miss, but overall the heart rate is staying low.
• Board games in Madison.  That was a lot.
• A sad. sad, dark Halloween
• I bet I have a backlog of some recent photos including concerts and the Twin Cities Bike Ride and DJ Dance Ride.  So many photos, but I think I have a plan to speed it up.  I'll share with Sank if it works well.  Reminds me, my parents handed me two OLD machines tonight and asked me to please find all the photos on them.  Yuck.  My sister voiced my fears as we left Christo's tonight, "You're going to find naked pictures of Dad!" And then she sort of cackled.

Again, I have a lot of photos to upload - that's probably what's keeping me from getting organized.  That, and instead of uploading photos, I went next door to help my neighbor cut down a bunch of branches.  Nod, he said, maybe you should wear some protective eyewear.  Naw, I'm almost done.... OUCH!  It was only sawdust.  Or maybe a small branch from the feel of it.  But I did tell him he was right.  His whole tree needs to come down, but he only wanted to do a few branches today.  That Ryobi step-up battery-powered branch trimmer I have works well.  I realized I'm not sure how to sharpen it if I end up dulling it, but I'm not there yet.

115

I did a 27 mile ride on Zwift tonight.  My pulse generally stayed around 115.  That's not even Zone 2.  I should not be that generally healthy at my age. I know my max is running about 180.  The whole 220-your age isn't a good metric, but vaguely holds.  So my heart is running much better than it should.

Ironically, I do NOT have a six pack and a cut physique.  Those numbers imply I should.  Maybe less fudge bars and Venn beer are in order.

Scream it off Screen

I really should post a little more often.  I'm looking at my list of activities from the last 8 months and it is seriously off the hook.  I get to  LOT of music, theater, and more.  The last couple of years have been all in because I've met a couple of the folks involved in all the artistic activities in the Twin Cities.  That has me doubling down.

Do you want to know my thoughts on current events?  The command in chief saying f-all to LA and other west coast cities?  F-him.  If he's say that about those cities, he's say it about the Twin Cities and Duluth.  FFS, he's already murdered people here.  And for those of you who think "he didn't murder them, it's not his fault his lackies hired bad actors."  F*** off.  You're the boss, that s*** sticks to you.  Like hires g**** like.  Broken management systems are top down.  Nasty bit of work all around.  I think we've got my position clear.

So Friday, my sister in law invited my wife and I to Shout it off the Screen at the Parkway theater.  I was there recently for Dave Hill (damn, that man can play a guitar, and he's funny to boot) and various other events.  This was a bit like secular church.  It was a series of submitted videos and you had the opportunity to vote them off (gong) or let them continue. If you voted them off, there was even a hymn.  And there were communal activities.  Verry church.

My favorite part was a lame incel super hero video that got a "move on" until the audience realized how offensive it was.  At which point the MC got on stage and basically said "F YOU, this is what you get for not being more aggressive, and less Minnesota nice, about voting people off.  Take your medicine."  It was so awful.

 But there were some good ones and a winner in the end who got a cash prize.  I can definitely see people embracing that instead of church.  Packed show, and a large part was watching someone toss an apple in a bowl and said apple being immortalized in liquid plastic.

Busy 2026 so far...

I was going to show some photos from local concerts, and bars, and plays, and other events, but you can see my photos over on Flickr and in the Con of the North post.

However, I was pondering the first part of my year and wondering why it felt so busy...this is... a lot. Particularly when I can't pedal to and from an event which is usually the way I unwind from a busy social calendar.  Well, I can't pedal safely in the winter.  I have a fat tire, but I prefer to pedal where I know I can find shelter if I get a flat or mechanical issue when it's negative temps.

This list is so far from inclusive.  So very very far.  It's more of a highlights reel.  I don't include doctor appointments or house repairs or rental property repairs and roof raking. There's actually a friend's passing that's not in this list. We went to other events.  For example, my kid and I tend to do a weekly Wednesday dinner out while my wife is working late.  For these two months (and going forward), that was almost always in South Minneapolis where we could dump money at local businesses.  At one of our favorite South Minneapolis beer and wings locations, we got our first "Stay Safe" from Cassie who knows us as regulars. Might as well be the state motto by now.

We also did the odd anti-ICE coffee shop for work/school on a Friday in South Minneapolis as well. We moved food and money for food shelves and schools and other needs.  We spent at businesses you probably read about in the news, like Mischief Toys where we bought our window sign. Where it says I visited a bar, my wife was likely to be shopping at Moon Palace at the same time.  Part of the goal was simply to keep moving.  And more importantly as part of being on the move, to be visible in south and north Minneapolis for our neighbors under siege so they knew they weren't alone.  Move supplies.  Move money. Donate money. Show solidarity.  Could have done more.  Will do more.  My list for the next month and a half looks just as busy and there are already supplies by the door staged to deliver and a list of best places to donate on my laptop.

What's missing on this list?  A vacation.  We're spending our vacation money in the Twin Cities for the time being.  We'll worry about elsewhere when it's a bit more settled.

While I'm talking about donations of money and time, here's some important links:

• https://www.standwithminnesota.com/
• https://linktr.ee/mplsmutualaid

On to the actual list!

• January 1 - head home from New Year's

• January 5 - wife's late birthday at Doolittle’s (she was sick on her birthday).

• January 9 - breakfast at Cahill Diner

• January 16 - How to Catch Creation at Theatre in the Round

• January 17 - Sarah Morris at Columbia Heights coffee shop - donation event

• January 23 - MN strike day

• January 24 - Had plans for a play, went to Arbeiter Brewing instead when I heard that Alex Pretti was murdered by ICE (lot of crying and hugging at Arbeiter and later visits with neighbors at the end of our driveway who saw the candles in his honor)

• January 25 - Chimborazo in North Minneapolis with friends

• January 28 - donate a double of blood at Wooden Ship Brewing

• January 31- Whoosh! [dir by Allison Vincent] at the History Theater. Food shelf donation.

• February 1 - Sarah Morris at Hell’s Kitchen

• February 3 - gaming with Sank at North 20. Played Onitama and Battle Line

• February 7 is Arbeiter’s 5th anniversary, Korean drummers (have dropped off food/supplies at Arbeiter)

• February 6 - Violent Delights at the Crane Theater

• February 8 - Double feature at the Trylon, The Time Masters AND Son of the White Mare

• February 9 - yes, my wife and I went to different events at the same time

• February 9 - wife in Cambridge to see Sarah and Leslie
• February 9 - Bardshakesmn is doing Much Ado About Nothing at Minneapolis Cider Co. Donation for locals
• February 11 - "You Got Gold" a John Prine memorial documentary movie at the Parkway
• February 11 - friend's mother passed away

• February 12 (Thurs) - My wife at Galentine’s at Crooner’s with The Champagne Drops

• February 13, 14, 15 - Con of the North board gaming

• February 16 - friend's mother's funeral

• February 19 - rest of family went to see Matt Dinniman live at the Parkway

• February 19 - TR expat reunion in Woodbury

• February 20 - Cake at Theatre in the Round

• February 21 - Dinner with friends at Olive and Lamb on University Ave.

• February 22 - Parkway Songs for our Neighbors Fundraiser

Here...have a bonus graphic if you made it this far. There's a lot of economic damage in Minnesota to make up for.

Con of the North 2026: Post-CotN Gaming Enthusiasm

After all those days of board gaming at Con of the North 2026, I wasn’t quite ready to stop. So I pulled out a game I’d been meaning to learn for a while, Undaunted 2200: Callisto. I own the WW2 original Undaunted series, which I love, even if I never find someone to play it with consistently. And I’m well aware not everyone likes Nazis in their game, even imaginary ones. So 2200 goes with a scifi theme instead and changes it up a bit. Rather than using tiles to set up the game, it has four heavy two-sided boards to avoid the painful initialization. And instead of just troops (that changes in further expansions of Undaunted), it has troops and mechs, which have multiple pilots, gunners, etc. The abilities each unit has reflect the capability of attacking other troops or mechs or both. If you’re not familiar with the game, it’s card driven. So you need to draft your units/cards, return them to the pool when they’re not useful at different stages or you want to optimize drawing other cards, and keep enough of them in your deck that when your opponent gets a kill, there’s a card to remove from the game as “damage”. When there are no more cards to remove from your hand, discard, or deck, that unit is no more.

It took me a while to refamiliarize myself with the basic Undaunted rules. And then some additional time with the slight rule differences. I agree with Shut Up and Sit Down (vlog on youtube) that the manual is NOT an easy bit of documentation to parse, even if the rules are fairly minimal. And there were some bits and pieces that were a little more difficult to sus out without playing through it a few times and then looking up online commentary. For example, how bridges and elevated platforms don’t block line of sight. Think of them as “on stilts”. The only real line of sight that exists is between under a bridge and on a bridge (and it’s not a hop up and down, you need to go at it from the ends of the bridge in that case). That’s a good reminder for myself: scenario 2 has bridges and I should verify I’m using them correctly when it comes to moving non-mech troops into the underside of the facility.

Suppression is another tricky rule. I thought per the rulebook it applied to mechs and troops, but the suppression skill has to have the mech icon in the suppression ability for that to work. Otherwise, mechs can be fairly un-suppressionable which is a significant perk if you’re going up against a bunch of chain guns that roll four dice and just keep pinning you down every turn unless you draw a card combo to get out of suppression and do a follow up action.

That said….because I’m playing with myself, I’m slowly figuring out my blind spots. After about 5 rounds of the first scenario, I’ve moved on to scenario number two which introduces pulses (push a unit) and basically mortar-type weapons (all enemy units in a zone) for the miners, and a new mech for the corporate security forces. Did I mention it’s a bit of capitalism vs. labor theme? I have to tell my brain not to be biased toward labor while playing myself. However, I know strategically I’m still not using the mechs quite right as they tend not to move much, and just lay down suppression fire. Part of me always thinks they’re more fragile than they are because I’m so used to troop suppression grinding an advance to a halt. There is a solo mode, but I find it more interesting to basically have half my brain pretend it doesn’t know what the other half is doing and play as two players. That way if I want to teach it or host it somewhere that allows two person games, I’m more prepped. Something to check on for next year’s Con. Or maybe one of the local brewery gaming nights if I give some advance warning. Fortunately, I’m always happy to teach something to a new group and arbitrate. I learn as much seeing it through fresh eyes.

Con of the North 2026: Sunday - Day 3

 Yeah. This is a lot of board gaming. But I’m down to the last two. My first Sunday game was Salvage: Deep Space, a 2023 Kickstarter. Although there are an awful lot of games you can apply the Kickstarter label to now. I have a suspicion I own more Kickstarter-backed games and extensions than I do non-socially funded ones, taking a cursory glance at my shelf. I really enjoyed this one. You’re part of a group of collaborative mechs, big mechs you pilot, but not kaiju-fighting sized mechs, trying to salvage post-peak Earth gear and equipment and resources while worrying about alien bugs. e.g. you’re in old labs and mining facilities doing a bit of Stalker/Roadside Picnic.

An interesting aspect of the game is that to avoid the collaborative player dictator that so often happens in that time of game, Salvage has you play your two proposed actions with no discussion at the beginning of the turn to mimic a sort of soft telepathy between players as a plot point. To force individuals to make their own decisions but telegraph the likely play as a collaborative mechanic. If you do your proposed actions, or they’re completed as a side effect of someone else doing the same action, like a bug kill, then those successes play into players being able to recharge their systems faster and act together better with some perks. At any time you can just go off script, although it affects the overall perks you work to accumulate. Different mechs have different specialties, focusing on resource accumulation, tank, speed, and balanced play.

I played Al (not A.I., AL) the balanced mech pilot, but channeled a healthy dose of Leroy Jenkins. While everyone was in an area doing cleanup, even before the fighting was complete, I’d just charge ahead to the next area. My plan wasn’t specifically about staying in character, but rather was with the hope it might allow us to finish within our 4 hour block. It did! Barely. I think the team was surprised when I charged ahead, looking like I was setting myself up for disaster, and then my character was able to power sword two of the last bugs at the same time for a double kill and step back and let the last one charge me resulting in a stun. My other goal was to try all my perks and the sword and stun were last on my list. Mission accomplished. It’s not a cheap game. About $159-199 depending on the version: minis or no minis (and you’ll want the minis). But if you had a scifi-centric group of consistent players, it’d be a good one to play through the series and you’d get better value than going to movies or maybe even one of the standard streaming subs.

A big thanks to Ben, a different Ben than the zombies Ben and yet, afterwards I find out, both apparently software managers. He did an excellent job walking us through the basics and giving us some course correction when we were confused. Pretty seamless and included lots of detail about the mechs, the story line, and the interactions.

And my last game. Ahoy Expansions and Demo. It’s just Ahoy, but per that link we played with the Fang and Fortune expansion and Rivals and Renegades expansion. I’m not sure what the “demo” part of the session title was all about. We definitely played a full game. The second day we were at Con of the North, Aeryn and I turned a corner and ran into my friend Chris (and former fellow high school graduate, and fellow Eagle Scout from the same troop, and fellow high school D&D three-person party, and covid era D&D GM, and fellow end of covid era sky pirate raccoon). Chris had come to town to play with his brother who lives in the cities (who we also played D&D with over covid and once in person). They were doing a mix of RPGs and boardgames, so we didn’t see much of them during the Con because Aeryn and I have stayed away from RPGs at Cons since a weird experience playing a one shot at Gameholecon many many years ago. But for our very last game we ended up at the same room and although we were initially at different tables, we jockeyed a bit to play the same board. I own Ahoy, but I had never played it prior to CoTN. Asymmetricals sometimes aren’t my jam even if I understand the appeal. Although they’re definitely more to my liking than push-your-luck mechanics. I played the snails – they had a different name, but I thought of them as just the snails – whose core tactic is to leave snail dudes everywhere on the islands. Chris played the Beast, who’s not a pirate at all, but an expansion sea monster, spawning heads and humps and trying to eat my motie (try that reference on for size) snails. Chris’ brother played the shark pirates who are a bit UK rule the sea sorts. Our table coordinator played the smugglers. It was a tight game overall, although Chris had some trouble getting the mechanics of the beast right and I don’t blame him. That one really seemed like it might need a few plays to nail down the logistics. I can see why people like this and Root, which is by the same company (Leder). You can just switch factions the next time for a new experience if something doesn’t suit you. However, some of the faction interactions can seem a bit unbalanced until you pick up what your particular edge might be, or how to hide your tactics in the noise of the other players. Congrats to Chris’ brother for a solid win playing the points game at the end.

One final observation. I love the new location in Bloomington. It’s within walking distance of a bar, Wood Hill Brewing, that not only serves beer but has a good menu of sandwiches, wings, and even some unique desserts. Walking distance in Minnesota in February usually means a block or two, although at half a mile one way I think this would have been doable even if it hadn’t been unseasonably warm as long as you brought the right clothes. Additionally there was a coffee shop across the lot (two actually), a DQ across the lot, a buffet nearby, what looked like a great breakfast buffet on site, a pretty comprehensive bar on site, and some other restaurants a short drive away. That it cut the distance to home in half was a bargain as well. Overall, an excellent three days.

Con of the North 2026: Saturday - Day 2

 I’ll be a little more to the point today. Enough masticating my words like an old man. But believe it when you read it. Consider my habit of writing more than necessary, but without oodles of adjectives piled on adjectives, as an anti-AI writing habit. Although if LLMs scrape training data from my blog and you ask for a paragraph in NodToNothing’s style, I suspect I have more words on the internet to interrogate than anyone short of an author or a reporter.

Aeryn and I started around 10 a.m. on Saturday. I think that’s become our habit. Versus 8 a.m. I worried in Plymouth about finding a parking spot that late, although the space way down the street against the deep snowbank in the sub-zero weather was generally open. But Bloomington parking in the hotel lot was particularly easy this year, even at 10. Although I did see a lot of cars in the afternoon doing spins around the lot to find an opening.

My a.m. game was Car Wars 6^th Edition. It’s a mini-driven (driven, ha, punny) rulers and custom dice weaponized car game. There’s a board, but primarily as a way to establish barriers to the track/space. You could just as effectively play on any flat surface without a board. Set up was messy as the coordinator forgot some pieces and there were cases to dig through. In the end – e.g. forty minutes later - we all used a variety of the same setup for car bodies/armor, but not for the weapons or auxiliary systems (like my targeting computer) which we randomized via some cards. Overall, the game is a lot like my nephew’s Star Wars game I gave him many birthdays ago, with some curves/rulers for determining where you’re going, how far, and how much damage you take trying to make a turn/move of varying mechanical stress. My car ended up with two one-use missiles, one to a side, and a front-mounted flamethrower. One of the other players questioned my willingness to drive at high speed through my own flamethrower, but there was no wind mechanic and I pictured it much more like a movie than real physics. 

My load out wasn’t optimal as my only long range weapons required I commit to their one use per side. Other players had some much more effective pulse-cannon style attacks. But I did enough general damage with the flamethrower and maneuvering to where others were more likely to engage with higher-danger targets. Until someone realized I’d been the one ablating their armor and they decided to ram me. My patience with my weapons paid off and I buried a missile in the side of their car, burning out their engine. My guidance computer helped, but I was amused that I was using it despite being close enough to probably throw the missile. As they coasted away to a stop, another car came up on an intercept that I set on fire – c’mon, picture me at top speed letting loose with the flamethrower as it blows into the side of another car and back over my hood until I emerge like a phoenix...glorious! And then I proceeded to run away while he tried to do a super tight curve to avoid the wall as a result of his intercept attempt. Why...why run away!? Well, cars had drivers and passengers equipped with weapons and grenades as well, so that effectively put me at a better range to avoid them and it meant with only a few minutes left in the session I could finish the game alive, although not necessarily the winner. My wife and I played a lot of Vigilante 8 on the PS2 back in the pre-2000s so this experience brought back some fond memories.

Game 2 was Street Fighter the Miniatures Game with TCAT. I played this with them once before. I remember being very confused about how the combos worked last time as well as some of the interactions with the cards to determine a block or a miss. e.g. you basically “guess” what kind of attack the other person is throwing and try to rock-paper-scissors (well, rock-rock, paper-paper, scissors-scissors) their choice. Some variations bypass the typical trio to mix it up even more. I was much more on top of it this time, although that countering language at the bottom of the card in Times New Roman 4 point strains my old eyes. My primary goal was to try all my abilities as Balrog the boxer, although he didn’t lend himself to combos in general like some of the other characters. I positioned a bit to take out the character I thought had the most combo interaction first because I had a sneaky suspicion that would be a problem when he really got going. He showed me his cards after he took his fatal hit and yeah….he could have dropped most anyone with one more turn. Here’s my character, twice. One with his card focused in the foreground, and another with the scenery more in focus so you can see the trees we kept throwing each other into as well as the board.

The only bad part about the game was we had a player with decision lock. He had to re-read his cards each time and you could tell he wasn’t sure what to do sometimes after a thorough review even with some help/hints. And then sometimes after a few hints he’d start all over reviewing the cards one-by-one once again. The first couple hours we were really concerned we wouldn’t get to finish the game. I noted above I had issues with the rules previously, but what little proactive deal-with-the-outcome-just-make-a-decision manager threads there are in me are very good about applying that to board games. I enjoy the mechanics and the players and seeing how things interact, so sometimes a bad decision is as good as a good decision if it moves the game along.

We had a teen at the table who was really enjoying the game. About mid-way I decided I could contribute to their overall enjoyment (see above, I enjoy the mechanics and the players, not necessarily winning), so I focused on surreptitiously spreading my damage and maneuvering to bring people near each other in a way to drag health levels down to close to zero. Then at the end I closed on the other remaining player despite knowing it would take me close to dead so the kid could finish us off. They did. Super excited.

Game three was Manatee Sanctuary and just me and Aeryn. I brought it with me in case there was some down time. It is the epitome of a “cozy” board game. We played two games over a beer Aeryn brought me from Wooden Hill Brewing as our lunches were somewhat staggered.

This time we used the “goals” for each round (three rounds) to see if it got rid of some of the randomness when it comes to the push-your-luck yellow manatees attract more manatees mechanic. I know...I hate push your luck games, but this one is a bit more constrained when it comes to how you manage pushing your luck. You still have to feed everyone if you don’t want to feel like a manatee murderer. The goals didn’t completely change the strategy, but they do add an extra layer of thinking to how you coordinate your manatee collection and your mating/feeding spring. We still split our cards 2/3 instead of 1 and 4 almost exclusively and we haven’t used the green manatee expansion yet, so I suspect there’s quite a bit of strategy to explore still. Speaking of...here’s me with a manatee at Blue Springs in Florida in 2011.

Finally, my last and late night game. I played until 10 p.m. Saturday Night at the Mall. You can’t find this one on Board Game Geek. It’s a custom mash up of Last Night on Earth and Mall Madness to create a sort of Dawn of the Dead style board game.

This might have been my favorite game of the Con. We played against a game master – shout out to Ben who was an absolute riot – who ran the mall and affiliated shops full of zombies. The players can exchange die numbers (1-6) which affects their movement and ability to attack and search, so there’s a lot (a LOT) of discussion about who can use what die and what benefits they get for which numbers. Better and more productive interaction than I get in many engineering / product meetings.

If you die during the game, you get a new character. But your old character is likely to become a more powerful zombie which is a real p.i.t.a. because it’s not like you’re every really winnowing down the total load of zombies in the first place. The GM gets bonus zombies and bonus moves based on some dice rolls, as well as cards to bump zombies and play actions. For their part players get loot/gear and various special abilities that have a lot of interaction. We played right up until the last minute trying to get the items we needed into the truck, throw gas at the zombies, throw dynamite at the zombies, and sometimes simply stare at the zombies while we tried to figure out a way down the elevator without ending up in the middle of a hungry mob.

We didn’t make it. The zombies ate us and our truck without enough supplies was left idling in the parking lot. There was a lot of fun asking Ben the GM how many items we needed in the truck to win. Nine (9). How many do we have? Two (2). So how many are we short? And then the next person would ask the exact same set of questions. It was accidental at first because so many conversations were happening around a big table to optimize strategy, but then it became a bit. It really felt like a spirited drinking board game experience just without the beer. A good example of where losing was still a fun journey even if my poor farm girl was so much brain sashimi before the end.