Bloggies 2023

We hear lots of talk about how tabletop intersects with arts like video games, theater and even film. Yet surprisingly sparse is discussion ...

Spire and Babel: The Monstrosity of Empire, the Necessity of Violence

This is the final post in the Player Advice Collection series. You can learn more about my Dragon Magazine reading project here. Below...

Come Sail Away Vampire Cruise by Amanda lee Franck is a 40-page zine containing a site-based location (the Sea Star cruise ship) for a horr...

Rod, Reel, & Fist is a system-forward fishing simulation RPG by Richard Kelly that uses the heightened aesthetics of anime to reign in its absurd

Ultimately [UVG2E], like UVG1E, are books [sic] that long to be cut to pieces, chopped & screwed and re-arranged and re-organized and rep...

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…

We’re deep into a campaign of Handiwork Games’ second edition of a|state here with no signs of stopping. I was just about to leave Forged in the Dark games behind but a|state convinced me to stick around awhile long. Let’s dig into how a|state redeemed FitD for me. a|state is available in PDF from DriveThruRPG… Continue reading Deep Dive: A|STATE →

Recently, the RPG social media sphere reheated one of the classic controversies du jour: Should RPG critics write a review of an RPG product...

Do you love the thrill of exploring dark, winding corridors, fighting off dangerous monsters, and discovering hidden treasures? Odds are you...

The Cover of Break. Art and layout by Grey Wizard. This is a bit of an unusual post, Gentle Reader. I don't typically set out to review TTRPG game syste...

My OSR Blog about fantasy world building and rules analysis for D&D. Also home of the B/X inspired 5e-clone "Into the Unknown."

A blog about table-top role-playing games after a break of two decades.

A Scathingly Positive Review Jim Henson's Labyrinth: the Adventure Game is a self-contained system and adventure adapted from the 1986 fil...

Hull Breach: Volume 01 ( available here ) is a 3 rd party companion for Mothership , the ttrpg of space horror in the tradition of Alien an...

is Négritude too on the nose? - Papa Ibra Tall's La semeuse d’étoiles "Added to this is the question of whether Africa serves merely as a mi...

art: Mark Tedin One of the most frustrating questions for me to read is, "Is X-OSR system compatible with Y-OSR adventures?" or "Can I use B...

DES I GNING   FOR  DUNGEON 23 With my decision to work on Dungeon23 coincides my starting a public Crystal Frontier Campaign and being diss...

In this blog series, I will dissect the spatial elements of wilderness environments and explore how tabletop-friendly prep and mechanics could be

My opinions on elfgames are empirically correct.

Lesson #1: The cover is flipping you off. Hello there. There has been a lot of new blood injected into the OSR/NSR space recently. I'll leave the ho...

A way to break down searching into three choices with informed outcomes for each.

Even games have a voice. When you sit down and read a tabletop RPG, the game itself speaks to you. The choice you make around narration…

A dungeon room a day for all of 2023.

This post is based on a conversation I had with Ben L. in response to his recent post over on:  http://maziriansgarden.blogspot.com/2023/07/...

This is going to be one of those posts where someone says how Game Mastering in RPG’s is basically a lot like part of their work experience in another field. I'll also get into the dangerous arena of providing GM advice. I’d like to tell you I’ll avoid cheesy reaches to fit the framework but make absolutely no guarantees.

Using the reaction roll as (almost) a universal resolution mechanic: sketch for animist skill system

Been playing that Zelda game everyone’s on about, and rereading Dungeon Meshi ( trailer just came out for the tv version!) and thinking abo...

Mystery scenarios are probably the second-most popular genre of gameplay in RPGs after dungeoncrawling. Despite this, quite frustratingly, m...

What if initiative was the only roll in a combat system? Less a question of "can I murder this horrible horse?" and more "can I murder it be...