Monday Musings #108 🤬

That growth and prep life.

Good Monday, Gamer!

Photo by Elmer Cañas on Unsplash

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." - Benjamin Franklin, Tinker, Tailer, Spy.

This week I played my second session of Flying Circus, and while there were no aerial dogfights, it might be my favorite downtime session jam evar!

Flying Circus has one of the most interesting stress-to-advancement systems I’ve seen in a PbtA game. After each mission, you run through a list of playbook-specific triggers—moments that generated stress, like taking fire, getting injured, or (in my case) flying your damn plane. My plane, the Ersatz, is basically an XP farm on wings. Every time I take off, I rack up stress like frequent flyer miles.

But here’s the twist: you convert that stress into XP through vices—drinking, brawling, movie-watching, wandering the town, you name it. It turns into these lovely, melancholic little vignettes that reveal who these pilots are when the sky isn’t falling. My favorite moments were watching characters drift through town, stumble into one another, or lose themselves in a bottle or a brawl.

Then come the logistics: repairing busted wings, shopping for spare parts, getting medical aid. Eventually, we took on our next contract and began kitting up. The term “Car Wars lonely fun” came up—and it clicked. There’s something delightful about squeezing every drop of performance out of your janky plane build just to get some bombs on it.

Flying Circus might be the crunchiest PbtA game I’ve played. And it works. The stress mechanics, aircraft customization, downtime rhythms—I'm diggin' it!

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ICYMI 🌀

Superman is out, and the world’s losing its damn mind!
James Gunn’s Superman dropped and everyone’s got opinions. From trunks-on debates to costume texture breakdowns, it’s a helluva time to be extremely online. Is this our guy? Too early to say, but I’m watching—and I’m not a Supes fan.

Mecha Mini Game Jam – I'm in!
Over on Itch.io, the Mecha Mini Game Jam is underway! Submit small-but-mighty games centered around mechs. I’ve thrown my hat in the ring—expect something scrappy, punchy, and maybe a little weird. C’mon out and construct something!

Bundle of Holding: Broken Tales + GURPS 4E
Two bundles this week!

• Broken Tales reimagines classic fairytales through a gothic-horror lens—play as villains who now protect a twisted fairytale. I’ve got my eye on this!!

• GURPS 4E Essentials gives you the core rulebooks and key toolkits to build literally any kind of game. It’s the most powerful point-buy system ever created, and this bundle is a steal if you’ve ever been GURPS-curious…or nostalgic, like me.

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Stories from the Prep Line

Someone told me recently:

“I didn’t realize The One Ring was such a no-prep game!”
“What makes you say that?” 👀
“You were so quick with changes and reactions at the table.”

Ah. That wasn’t light or no-prep. That was solid prep and confidence.

I prep situations and agendas. Everything else, I steal shamelessly or improvise on top of a strong foundation. My last Moria session? Lethal, by prep.

The sandbox offered a handful of leads: supply runs, a trade escort, and a legendary hook—“Find Durin’s Axe.” A dwarf died. Another vanished. No axe was found. But the quest lives on, documented in the Book of Mazarbul, waiting for another party to take up the mantle. It’s a long game, an emergent story told across multiple tables.

When I offer it, I’m honest:

“This is a Real Adventure™. We’re playing the full Journey, Council, and Combat mechanics. There are set pieces. Real rewards. And real risks.”

I’m not here to fudge dice or pull punches. I’m here to be a fan of the characters and an advocate for the prep. Because for me, the prep keeps us honest. It provides the foundation that my improv choices bounce off of.

I like prep-heavyish games—within reason. There’s lonely fun in that quiet moment, sketching out factions, agendas, backstories that may never hit the table. But when they do… It’s magical.

I know when I’ve under-prepped. It feels like drowning—grasping for narrative driftwood, mechanical float, anything. The table feels loose, disconnected. When I have prepped? I don’t need to railroad or over-control. I can respond, adapt, and improvise freely because I know what’s beneath the surface.

What's on Your Table?

Are you a prep-heavy GM or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type?
And have you tried Flying Circus yet?

Catch ya next week!

Thanks for reading, thanks for playing, and thanks for backing the strange stuff.

The hobby is big, messy, diverse—and more beautiful for it. And small tables with weird indie games?

That’s still my favorite corner.