Week 8 of 2026: crochet and RPGs

This was a bit of a strange week with Monday off and a lot of RPGs. I’m also practicing crochet, since I brought a set to crochet a sheep (het haakschaap) because ... I don’t even know why. But it fits well with the cozy themes of Brindlewood Bay (see “Played”), and it’s a nice fidget.

There was no noteworthy reading this week.

Played

I didn’t play any boardgames this week, yet I ran and played a whopping four RPG sessions.

On Monday, I ran Pasión de las Pasiones with some people I know from my old improvisation theater beginner group. Apart from the improv, they had no experience with RPGs, but I wanted to share this weird hobby with them, especially because Pasión is about playing a telenovela, and “The Telenovela” was one of our favorite improv games we played last year. I translated all moves to Dutch, to ease play, and it was still some getting used to, but to my surprise, they wanted to plan a second session! (In hindsight I don’t really know why I was surprised: RPGs are a lot of fun.)

On Tuesday, I ran Brindlewood Bay for the first time, using the introductory Dad Overboard mystery in which – well – a dad fell overboard. And then the players – elderly women who attend the Murder Mavens Book Club – were asked to assist to investigate. This was obviously also a chaotic session, because all first sessions are, but they solved the murder and that’s what counts. I will be running a second mystery in two weeks time.

On Wednesday, I was a player in the sci-fi horror game Mothership for the first time. I say first time: I have ran it a couple of times, but I was never a player, which was really fun to do. It amazed me how brutal the rules are (low chances of success, easy to die, lots of stress), and how much I liked that (makes the story more dramatic). I accumulated 16 stress points, which is the highest I’ve ever seen, and yet I survived (and inherited 100 credits from another character who did not).

On Saturday, I played Under Hollow Hills, a game in which you are a member of a faerie circus. Monday was my first time running a “Powered by the Apocalypse” game, and this was my first time playing a PbtA game. It took more getting used to than I thought, but I loved how the moves just guided us through every time we were a bit lost on what to do. I was playing Gillian, the Stick Figure and I’m looking forward to return next month.

Ran

It was a deload week, so a little less mileage than usual.

• Monday: 8.4km easy, with daylight because I had a day off
• Tuesday: 7.2km progressive. I only looked at the distance, so I ran Westerpark from the office, because I know that’s 7. Then, every kilometer the app said “next kilometer, go faster!” and it was rough but I made it.
• Thursday: 7km with 4 times 800 meters at 3:55/km. I didn’t really make that in all intervals, but at least the last intervals were faster than the first. And after that I played recreational volleyball, which went horrible because somehow I was way too tired.
• Saturday: 10km long run – not that long this week, due to the deload week.