As we close out 2024, it’s time to reflect on a year filled with articles, games, and creative collaborations. While not everything went exactly to plan, we made some great strides, had plenty of fun, and laid solid foundations for 2025. Let’s dive into the highlights!

Blog activity: regular articles

This year saw Illusory Script hit a steady stride with regular articles. We published 41 articles. In 2023 we published 39 articles! While we missed a few weeks here and there, it’s great to look back on that consistency. Here’s some of my favorite articles from 2024:

• D&D Combat Descriptions
• A mini-campaign in the homebrew world of Thalassia
• Session Zero Writers’ Room
• 2 articles on Running Hexcrawls

The number of articles is great, but more importantly, writing remains the most fun thing I do for Illusory Script. It’s where I can pick whatever topic interests me this week, and write a short piece about it. For 2025, writing will continue to be my main focus. That said, I can’t ignore the gaps: there were no YouTube videos this year and no guest articles. I’m hoping to get back on track with YouTube and invite some friends to contribute articles next year. Collaboration always sparks great new ideas.

Conclusion: Writing articles is here to stay. YouTube and guest posts? Let’s see what 2025 brings.

Publications: Secrets, NPCs, and lessons learned

This year’s big publication milestone was Secrets of the Betrayer, a co-designed product released on the DMsGuild. Alain and I spent months working on it, and the experience was incredibly enriching. One of the biggest takeaways? Playtesting is huge–there’s nothing like seeing your ideas in action to find out what works and what doesn’t.

We also put out smaller NPC products, and those turned out to be deeply rewarding. Smaller-scale projects let me publish quickly, and allow for focused creativity, but there’s no denying that cooperation brought its own rewards. Sharing ideas, learning from one another, and creating something bigger together was worth every moment.

Conclusion: More small products? Absolutely. Another co-op publication? Maybe! 2025 might see another co-design project…

Games run: Home game and beyond

Running D&D games continued to be the heart of my weekly D&D routine this year.

• My public library game hit the 2-year mark! This year’s sessions included a Chessenta hexcrawl, a second run of Ruins of the Grendleroot, and a brand-new Feywild campaign that’s just getting started.
• On the home front, we wrapped up a wild run through Planegea (look for an article on Planegea soon!) and are now deep into an Eberron campaign.
• My annual weekend of D&D brought a homebrew campaign in the ocean world of Thalassia to life, a highlight of the year.
• I also experimented with StartPlaying early in 2024, trying out paid online games. Unfortunately, it didn’t click for me. EU time zones made scheduling tough, and running games online just didn’t have the same spark.

Through it all, running games remains even more fun than writing about them. The plan for 2025? Stick with what works: 1-2 games per week, steady campaigns, and plenty of opportunities for players to dive into new worlds and stories.

Conclusion: The dice keep rolling, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Looking ahead

2024 was a year of creativity, consistency, and some valuable lessons learned. As we head into 2025, I’m doubling down on writing, leaning into what makes Illusory Script fun and rewarding. More articles, more games, and hopefully a few new experiments along the way. Here’s to another year of stories, collaborations, and games!