Theory '22

Like virtually everybody else in the TTRPG space I downloaded One D&D’s playtest document to see what the fuss was.

This is a post I had hoped to write back at the start of July, and so by now the little conversation I hoped to contribute to is far from au...

SLOUCHING TOWARD PROCEDURALISM “Here we come across another, very positive feature of play : it creates order, is order. Into an imperfect...

So a game has “procedures” but what does that mean? This post presents a basic definition for an aspect of TTRPGs that is garnering more and more critical attention.

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

At the time of this writing, my cozy game Under Hill, By Water is part of DriveThruRPG's "Cozy Game Indie Gallery." I'm extremely flattered...

Creators often live in the shadow of their own previous work, the big thing they're known for. Danial Radcliffe isn’t called the guy from Guns Akimbo or Swiss Army Man- he’s Harry Potter to the average person on the street. Steamtunnel at the Hydra’s Grotto can be counted among these shaded creators by their well known 2009 blog post “In Praise of the Six Mile Hex”. In it they laud the 6 mile hex scale as the most convenient for computing distances at the table.

I recently reviewed John Battle's My Body is a Cage for Bones of Contention . Battle’s game combines slice of life real world downtime wi...

A guide on how to create procedures to structure your RPG campaign

I want to talk about a long-standing tendency that's been bothering me in OSR-inflected design spaces. I'll start this off with a working d...

Late anaphase of mitosis (sciencephototlibrary) I hate when I write a thoughtful response on Reddit and not this blog. So here it is repeate...

Who's ready for another stupidly long post? That's the spirit! The "Skill Challenge" is an interesting type of generalist gameplay procedure...

First up, a brief announcement: the kickstarter for Knock! issue three has now gone live, packed with material from the old-school blogosphe...

Click Here for 'Basic Edition' Is the OSR dead yet? If you asked a couple of my friends, they would say yes: there was a body of cultural kn...

Take a calm, pleasant moment to think about your most cherished piece of media: The magical movie, bewitching book, scary song, terrifying t...