March 2024
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Double-overloading the Random Encounter Table
Over on Prismatic Wasteland, we have a very cool way to roll just 3d6 to tell you what monster, how many monsters, the distance they’re at, their reaction, and whether the players are surprised by this all. It’s elegant as heck at the front end, and takes advantage of the power of 3d6, but because… Continue reading
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SLMDNGN Update
SLMDNGN, my slim dungeon-crawler, has just received an update. I’m really enjoying playing this hyper-light B/X /GLOG fork, so I’m finding little tweaks. The new version separates the core rules and character creation, so that players can create their characters using the character sheet. Gran has also generously provided a Portuguese translation for any Portuguese-speaking… Continue reading
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Bathtub Review: The Stone-Flesh Gift
Bathtub Reviews are an excuse for me to read modules a little more closely. I’m doing them to critique a wide range of modules from the perspective of my own table and to learn for my own module design. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited critiques. I’m writing them on my phone in the bath.… Continue reading
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SLMDNGN Design Notes
Advanced Fantasy Dungeons was a whole lotta maximalist design. You might be surprised to find that’s not what I usually play, and I’m craving simplicity. So I wrote SLMDNGN. Today. You can download it here for free. The design principles: I drew from Skerples’ GLOG hack Many Rats on Sticks and Blades in the Dark… Continue reading
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I Read Slugblaster
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 lot, so I don’t take these very seriously. But I can talk about its choices… Continue reading
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Reflections on a West Marches Campaign
So, a few years ago I ran an open tabled West Marches campaign in 5th edition. I did this because it didn’t seem like enough of my in person playing friends could commit to a weekly game, and a West Marches campaign seemed like a good way to get people to the table without a… Continue reading
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Bathtub Review: The Undermall
Bathtub Reviews are an excuse for me to read modules a little more closely. I’m doing them to critique a wide range of modules from the perspective of my own table and to learn for my own module design. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited critiques. I’m writing them on my phone in the bath.… Continue reading
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Chekhov’s Toolbox: Complexity and intratextuality
The projects I write tend to spiral out of control. Whenever I find a glimmer that gets me excited, I add in a note that says something to the effect of: Who else in the world cares about this? It looks like this. I’m writing about a small frontier city, and there’s a town square.… Continue reading
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The Three C’s of Challenges
In a recent Dungeon Regular episode, Hirward’s Task, I found a neat framework for challenge design that I’ve never seen before. This post will be an exploration of whether or not it has legs. Basically, and perhaps unintentionally, this module had three clear, built in solutions to its primary challenge, and they were clearly geared… Continue reading
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I Read Daisy Chainsaw
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 lot, so I don’t take these very seriously. But I can talk about its choices… Continue reading
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Appendix Nova: The Blacktongue Thief
Appendix Nova is me, reviewing stuff that isn’t games. I just thought it might be fun. But, I as with everything I do, I always use these things to give me game ideas, and so I’ll loop it back around to that eventually. So honestly, this is a little bit just me taking notes, so… Continue reading
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Bathtub Review: Largshire
Bathtub Reviews are an excuse for me to read modules a little more closely. I’m doing them to critique a wide range of modules from the perspective of my own table and to learn for my own module design. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited critiques. I’m writing them on my phone in the bath.… Continue reading
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Omens
I am inspired by this post. A 2d6 table, wordpress just won’t let me start at 2. Best used in a game with a world that acts independently of the players. Omens directly affect the world for 1d6 + 1 days. The omen applies whether or not you detect it. Any chance who is superstitious… Continue reading
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I Read Armour Astir: Advent
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 lot, so I don’t take these very seriously. But I can talk about its choices… Continue reading
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Problem Stacking
I saw a TikTok (which thereafter disappeared into the algorithm) that talked about problem stacking in story writing and I was like This Needs To Be Said about module writing and home brewing adventure scenarios: Don’t give the player characters one problem. Give them many possible problems. We do this in a bunch of ways:… Continue reading
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