A principle for modular RPG design
Inside me are two wolves. One’s favors hyper–minimalist rules, just this side of “let’s play pretend.” The other has been working on-and-off for years on a game with 7 ability scores and over 70...
View ArticleChain reaction design
I prefer my tabletop RPG rules pared down—just this side of “Let’s Play Pretend.” I still deploy a range of rules, though, because my games often wear their inspirations on their sleeve, and those...
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Three-round combat
When running D&Dish games, I prefer combat to feel swift and decisive, and I appreciate rules that support this. Keeping all combatants’ hit point totals relatively low discourages it from...
View Article20 post-apocalyptic raider encounters that (probably) end without bloodshed
My playtest campaign of Wastoid culminated in an arena battle against a legendary cryptid in front of a massive crowd, competing to win the last well-preserved painting in the local wasteland. The...
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Wastoid devlog: A playtest campaign overview
Awhile back, I reflected on my blog, “if I only have limited energy to do a thing or talk about doing a thing, I’m better off skipping the talking.” It’s a useful philosophy, I think, but only to a...
View ArticleMath Wrath
Figuring out the “best” way to handle arithmetic in a game is my least favorite part of playtesting. I obsess over it anyway because I want to save myself—and GMs/players who feel similarly about...
View ArticleWIP it good
Someone asked me on Discord recently whether one of my projects labeled “WIP”—work in progress—was still under active development. I said: I intend to finish it, but it can’t say for sure when. I had...
View Article“Perfect” is a moving goalpost
I wrote something on the last page of a journal today, and decided to transcribe it here to my blog so I don’t forget it when I shove this notebook in a box in the basement. It feels like something I...
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Back from the Grave?
People sometimes ask if I plan to make a second edition of Grave to correspond to the updates in the second edition of Knave. 1⃣ The answer is: sort of, maybe but not quite. But I’m closer to it now...
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#Dungeon23 retrospective
2023 is over, and with it, the #Dungeon23 challenge: a yearlong effort to create a 365-room megadungeon, one day at a time. Now that I’ve filled two notebooks with a pair of soulslike adventures, I’m...
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2400 Devlog: Nuclear Family
Nuclear Family is a game about braving the wasteland with your misfit buddies in a gonzo, post-apocalyptic future. (And my attempt to answer folks who wonder whether a super-short game can be used for...
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2400 Devlog: Junior Hybrid Battle Cryptids
Junior Hybrid Battle Cryptids is a game about anthropomorphic animals protecting the innocent, investigating strangeness, and crushing it at dance-offs. Download it on Itch.io as part of the entire...
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#Dungeon23 progress
We’re at about the halfway point of 2023, so I thought it would be a good time to offer a brief update on my progress with #Dungeon23 — a yearlong project to create a “megadungeon” one day at a time....
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A few ways to hate armor rules
Armor rules are, for me, the most vexing part of designing D&Dish games. I don’t need games to “realistically” simulate fantasy worlds, and I do need rules to be simple and approachable. Even so,...
View ArticleWhy hasn’t anybody explored this ruin?
When writing and running fantasy RPG adventures, I often find myself looking for excuses for why ancient ruins still have anything in them worth finding. For future reference (and likely to drop into...
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Starting #Dungeon23
I started #Dungeon23 a little early, hoping to hit the ground running on New Year’s Day. Blogged a bit about my intentions. Took some notes to help me visualize the big picture. Sought inspiration...
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Early thoughts for #Dungeon23
If you’ve read 2400 (or are wondering when I’ll ever finish or revise my various other long games), you know I find it easiest to make RPGs in bite-sized chunks. No wonder that I was immediately...
View ArticleThoughts on collecting 2400 for print
I’ve wondered for a long time now how to best adapt the 2400 series for print. I get asked about it enough that I thought it might be worthwhile to share my thoughts here on the blog, and invite...
View Article2400 terminology update
2400 is not a terminology-heavy game. It has very few rules, as contemporary RPGs go, and every game in the series was designed to be internally consistent. I found I had trouble explaining how to...
View Article2400 actual play: Xot
If you’ve ever wondered what 2400 looks like in play, you might find something useful in the thread of links to actual plays and readthroughs on the Itch forum. One glaring omission from that thread,...
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