Today I wrote a meditation on the complexity and conflict that defines TTRPGs, and how to write and edit them with that in mind. playfulvoid.game.blog/2024/09/17/e...#osr
So much editing "advice" given in TTRPGs is basic copyediting advice. An example is Sams’ recent post, but it’s just one example among many. Why? RPGs aren’t journalism, so the AP Stylebook (or New Yo...
How to do lore right in ttrpgs? My latest newsletter lays out my approach. Good lore is actionable intelligence for adventuring. If GMs want to develop and share w/ players some lore about their snowflake world, they should make it relevant to adventures! Check it. open.substack.com/pub/ultansdo...
For our purposes let’s just say that lore is “setting background”: information about the setting of a campaign.
I got caught in Mothership's tractor beam almost immediately—a sci-fi horror rpg with cotton jumpsuits, iron hulls, and chumps working forklifts. After years of play, it has been hacked to bits. I'm calling this slimmed-down, procedure-heavy, rules-just-right-for-my-table hack "Troubleshoot." 👇🔗
New Microblog: Which Sacred Cow Doth I Kill? 🐄 In which I attempt to reconcile the joy of the natural 20 with the roll under mechanic www.prismaticwasteland.com/blog/which-s...
The worst part of the otherwise excellent "Roll Under" system is that rolling low on a d20, contrary to popular conceptions, is a good thing. Can we keep the bones of roll under while bringing it in...
🚨 New Blogpost: Is GenCon Worth It? 🎲 Last week I went to my first gaming convention. I had a lot of fun! But many asked me the natural question “But was it worth it?” I try to answer it in blog form www.prismaticwasteland.com/blog/is-genc...
I discuss whether GenCon is worth it to RPG designers, ordinary gamers, and how to make it even more worthwhile.
This week I was chatting with friends about the two 5e OSR’s Shadowdark and Five Torches Deep — so I decided to compare them. playfulvoid.game.blog/2024/08/08/i...#osr
I Read Games reviews are me reading games when I have nothing better to do, like read a module or write or play a game. I don’t seriously believe that I can judge a game without playing it, usually a ...
I haven't read Wild Beyond the Witchlight. I stopped paying attention to WotC 5E adventures by that point. I'll try to get my hands on it to take a look!
Thank you! It's funny, I actually didn't originally mean it to be a "review" when I wrote it. I was trying to write an essay and I just wanted to use lots of examples to argue my point. But, well, one Bloggie award later and now I keep getting mistaken for a game critic.
I wrote a long review of Mothership 1E, and I bet it doesn't say the same thing as all the other reviews of Mothership you've seen or read. knightattheopera.blogspot.com/2024/08/moth...
This is a review of Mothership , the popular and widely-acclaimed sci-fi horror RPG by Sean McCoy and the folks at Tuesday Knight Games . It...
Is the Questing Beast's new game, Knave 2E, all bark and no bite? In this week's design delve, I look at the overall design and drill down into its visuals. And, naturally, I had to do it a certain kind of way. www.explorersdesign.com/exploring-kn... Super Quick 🧵 about today's critique.
