This page is for collecting a bunch of stuff I like or find interesting, and that I think others might as well.

Podcasts

Friends at the Table

My favourite actual play podcast, and probably my favourite podcast in general.

If you’re into Fantasy, Marielda is an excellent place to start.

If Sci-Fi is more your thing I recommend PARTIZAN.

Or you can check out their latest, currently ongoing series: Perpetua.

Der Game Dev Podcast

My favourite German game development podcast hosted by a former colleague.

Shelved By Genre

A podcast about genre literature, from Fantasy to Sci-Fi, Cyberpunk to Post-Apocalypse, and everything in between.

Hosted by Michael Lutz, Cameron Kunzelman and Austin Walker, they’ve dived deep on works like Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea and William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy (Neuromancer is getting a TV adaptation!) and are currently firmly in their “Lord of the Year” project of reading Tolkien, from The Hobbit to Lord of the Rings, and ending with the Silmarillion.

A More Civilized Age

This podcast began as a show about rewatching The Clone Wars (the animated series) but has expanded to all kinds of Star Wars media.

The Disney+ boycott called by BDS limits what they’re willing to cover, but that hasn’t slowed them down at all.

Hosted by Austin Walker, Ali Acampora, Natalie Watson and Rob Zacny, they’ve recently played Kotor II (here’s Austin Walker’s Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords Restored Content Modification v.1.8.6 Let’s Play), finally watched the original trilogy (spoiler: they’re good movies) and are currently reading some comics.

Books

Discworld

My favourite book series. Terry Pratchett is not only parodying Fantasy in extremely funny ways, especially after the first few his books also contain extremely sharp characterizations and societal criticisms. There are many different guides on where to start out. Some are even good! I personally think you can start anywhere. Like, genuinely. Don’t worry about reading the third Watch novel before the first two. I’d only suggest not starting with the first two, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. But if you’re someone who has to read everything in release order - I understand - you should at least give the series more chances than just these books. They’re really not bad, mind you, they’re just not yet fully what Discworld will become.

Only You Can Save Mankind

My most nostalgic book. It was the first Pratchett that I ever read, and I was exactly the book’s target audience at the time. Summary partially taken from Wikipedia: Twelve-year-old Johnny, after playing the new PC game Only You Can Save Mankind for a short time, is startled when the ScreeWee Empire surrenders to him. After accepting the surrender he finds himself inside the game in his dreams, where he must deal with the suspicious Gunnery Officer as well as the understanding Captain, and work out exactly what they’re all supposed to do now. This might all be the result of an over-active imagination except that the ScreeWee have disappeared altogether from everyone else’s copy of the game. With the help of another player, Kirsty, Johnny must try to get the ScreeWee home.

Games

Hardspace: Shipbreaker

My favourite space game. In just your space suit, use various tools to dismantle decommissioned spaceships and sort the materials for proper recycling or disposal.