What's on the Hob? (Spring '26)

Spring is not just in the air, it is in the ground, the water, and I suppose to continue the metaphor, the fire. Rabbits are about. I've seen a few dumbledores, Bishop Barnaby has put in an appearance, and rumour has it that the magnolias are out and about.

But of course we are not here just to blather on about mild points of nature, we are here because a new season brings with it a new responsibility, namely answering that age-old question "What's on the Hob?"

I'm going to address the controversy up at the top. The owl-eyed amongst you may have noticed that (according to the meteorological system) Spring is a few days in, and I managed to sneak a different blog entry in the last few days which I am now claiming for the Plinth of Glory (see below). That may seem a bit of a cheat, but I promise that I had written it back at the end of February, and only did some light editing (if you can believe I do such a thing) in Spring.

The timing is not entirely unrelated to this post, however, as I was compelled to properly write that up when I started compiling my lists for this edition, and found the expanding Corner of Shame providing exactly the kind of motivation that it is designed for.

Anyway, having had some delicious waffle for our starter, let's dive in to our mains.

On the go

Strap in, the hobs are absolutely champing at the bit (to really get those metaphors good and stirred).

• A new card game that is in a similar spiritual area to Scalade and Pippins Aplenty that I actually started the day after the previous edition. It's a little stalled at the moment as I can't quite figure out which of several 'large' directions to go, but I'm sure I'll get stuck in again soon. It is called Witan.
• I've picked up another card game I had an initial seed idea for last May. It's got some nice shape to it, but still a bit of meat that is yet to be settled. At the moment this is getting the most attention of any game ideas, but this is always in flux. It's played with a 78-card tarot deck, although it's not really a 'tarot' game. I don't have a proper name for it yet, just some ideas. The name I gave the initial idea, as a reference point, is Mole, although that doesn't really fit.
• I have started a very tentative write-up of some basic strategy for Pippins Aplenty, as far as I understand it.
• I have crunched some numbers on both Scalade and Pippins Aplenty which I think are interesting to know, but have yet to start shaping them into anything sensible.
• Not to spoil what's coming in the Plinth of Glory, but I want to expand the Sussex Tarot pagee with a few light rules revisions, and some examples to aid with the explanation of the scoring.
• I have a card-themed puzzle format that I have been loosely thinking about since I discovered it when investigating a pointless Havilering game (see Corner of Shame), which I have now started to code up a little, to better try out if it has any legs.

Mise en Plays

A new edition, a new section! I don't intend on adding new sections every edition, but I felt this one was needed.

I realise the title doesn't quite work, but therein lies the joy of it.

This section shall be for very preliminary stuff that has not yet reached full 'hob' status, and thus is not committed to entering the Corner of Shame should they fail to come to pass, or for things that are more ephemeral, or sufficiently small / tangential to be worth following up on (necessarily).

• I have done a small bit of research into a new framework for the website. Part of the reason I don't add to it very frequently is the faff of doing so, so it would be nice to reduce this. It's not super complicated how it's set up, but more so than it needs to be for how I use it. I think a framework would help a lot — I just need to commit to a choice, and then actually go through the process of migrating everything over.
• I have started learning to play the English Concertina. I don't plan on doing anything in particular with it, and I probably won't bring it up here much if at all, but who knows? And it is occupying a bit of my time, as I endeavour to keep up a reasonably regular amount of practice.

Corner of Shame

Unsurprisingly, the corner fills:

• Kaiso and its spinoff received no attention.
• No work on the blog post around a pointless Havilering game, although the slight silver lining is a bit of development on the tangentially related puzzle idea.
• The untitled Looney pyramids game got some attention while it was flavour of the month, but a proper bit of a run-through really didn't work, and so knocked the wind out of my sails somewhat. I have a couple of ideas for new directions to try, but enthusiasm has waned for the time being.
• Very marginal further progress on coding up Havilering. Just waiting for a burst of attention.
• Made some good progress on the card game database for a time, but then hit another (mild) technical snag. I think it is likely to keep trickling along.
• I have in no way, shape, or form, picked up "A Gallon from our Lady's Well" again for now.

Plinth of Glory

You will be pleased to note that the Plinth is not entirely bare this season, in fact baring a couple of offerings:

• I did kick the Sussex Tarot pagee over the line, albeit with a couple of bits slightly lacking in the desired level of detail. Nevertheless I think it has enough to be able to play from.
• Design notes for Pippins Aplenty have now been put together in this blog entry.