Stuff I Love

By no means an exhaustive list. Just adding things as they pop into my head.

Authors

• Ellen Kushner - her Riverside books are lovely. Fall of Kings, which she co-wrote with her wife, is one of my favorite books.
• CJ Cherryh - one of the great science fiction writers of the 80s. A lot of her stuff has aged, but it still hits hard. I've never read a Cherryh book that didn't stick with me. There's also something charming about starships with magnetic tape drives. I try to remember that whenever I'm fretting about future scientific discoveries messing things up in my stories.
• Holly Lisle - The Secret Texts and World Gates are comfort books for me despite being pretty dark. She was a great resource for young writers in the early years of the internet, offering us much insight into how she worked.
• Jacqueline Carey - a masterclass in epic fantasy world-building, globe-spanning plots, and disaster bisexuals.
• Tamsyn Muir - lesbian space necromancers with swords. Incredible prose that drips off the page. Proof that you can shred the rules, set them on fire, and jump up and down on the ashes as long as you keep the reader asking questions. I describe Harrow the Ninth as "a complete acid trip of a book that shouldn't work at all, yet somehow gets better every time I read it."
• James S.A. Corey - writers of The Expanse and The Captive's War, two excellent sci-fi series.
• Brian McClellan - what if Richard Sharpe was a wizard? is such a fun premise. The world needs more gunpowder fantasy and more heroes in Napoleonic military coats. This is good stuff.
• Craig Alanson - a bit different from the rest on this list, but sometimes you need a feel good space opera about big damn heroes saving the day with help from a snarky talking beer can.

Free & Open Source Games

• Aurora 4X - a crunchy space strategy game developed by one man over decades. What Aurora 4X lacks in graphics, it makes up for in narrative freedom and surprisingly deep logistics, ship design, and combat.
• FreeSpace 2 Open - an open-source project for running the space shooters FreeSpace and FreeSpace 2 on modern hardware. These are some of the best games in the genre and well worth playing today.
• Ur-Quan Masters - the classic space exploration RPG Star Control II updated for modern systems. Truly one of the great works of 90s CRPGs, Ur-Quan Masters puts you in command of a starship and sends you out into a hostile galaxy where you'll meet dozens of quirky aliens and become the last best hope for peace.

Game Studios

• EgoSoft - developer of the X series of economic space sandbox games. Both X3 and X4 are in my top 5 most played steam games.
• Hooded Horse Publishing - whoever is in charge over there has great taste because I salivate over every game they advertise. Some highlights include Terra Invicta, Manor Lords, Battle Brothers and Menace.
• Owlcat Games - developer of incredible "old-school" CRPGs reminiscent of Interplay and classic Bioware. I finished Wrath of the Righteous and then immediately played through it again. I still haven't managed to finish Baldur's Gate 3 even though I love it too.
• Paradox Development Studio - developer of map-painting strategy games. They made all 3 of the other games in my top 5.

Roleplaying Games

• Blue Rose - the original Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy. Doing LGBT themes way before it was cool.
• Pathfinder 2e - I've been fangirling for Paizo since 2009 and I'm not about to stop. Pathfinder 2e is my default system for fantasy campaigns, and if you're a busy GM who just wants a game to run for your friends, their adventure paths are a leap above the competition.
• Savage Worlds - my favorite generic system for running games in unusual setting. DinoRiders? Napoleonic spies? Apocalyptic wasteland? Savage Worlds has you covered. Special shout-out to the official Deadlands setting and cardsharp wizards with guns.
• Thirsty Sword Lesbians - Lesbians. Swords. Drama. If you aren't already sold, it might not be for you. What's not to love?
• Traveller - the grandfather of science fiction RPGs. Infamous for killing characters during creation. Want to play a space trucker who accidentally flunked out of college? Traveller. Love spreadsheets and think D&D doesn't have enough math anymore? Traveller.

Useful Software

• FoundryVTT - the best virtual tabletop software for playing RPGs, especially Pathfinder.
• Godot Engine - an awesome open-source engine for indie game development.
• Obsidian - calling it a note taking app is underselling it. I run my whole life out of Obsidian. It's the best tool I've found for wrangling my brain.