my new article, the three secrets of making games, is all about playing your game early, quickly, and enjoyably possumcreek.medium.com/the-three-se...

Start your week by checking out my latest zine about being lifeguards saving the city from humans transformed into Lovecraftian monsters by some bad bud. There is public access television thrown in there too for good measure. The zine is currently itchfunding, and I'm inching towards the next goal!

Conversation last night with some folks in my game group about the various editions of D&D got my brain churning and I wrote a summary of each edition on my blog. Turned out over 5000 words but hopefully its a fun read! #dnd #ad&d #editionwars www.thenovelgamemaster.com/2026/04/the-...

Today is the last day of the @narratess.com indiebook.sale! Don't miss a chance to snag "Assistant to a Judge of Hell & Other Stories" for a buck or hundreds of other awesome indie titles that are on sale! #indieauthor #fantasy #booksky #indiefantasy

My profile picture is an actual photo of the "Assistant to a Judge of Hell," a Ming dynasty era sculpture and the inspiration for the title story in "Assistant to Judge of Hell & Other Stories." Check it out for a buck!

Looking forward to #norwescon this weekend! Here's my con schedule: Friday - hang out Saturday - hang out Sunday - hang out and sleep

Could not agree with this more. AI is not in any way intelligent - it's an algorithmic system that lacks cognition or intent. As a result, any text produced by AI will lack meaning, because there's no real "author" behind it attempting to convey meaning.

Hot off the virtual press, it's Issue 28 of the Writers & Robots newsletter! Will Shannon survive a week of writing in the rainforest? What new blog posts have arrived for the thirsty GM? What is Shannon Reading? Find out now! mailchi.mp/97ddadb8fbb1... #amwritingfantasy #blogging #booksky

Playing @esotericebb.bsky.social and really digging it. I think my take is that I would like more gamey elements - it plays more like a visual novel than a true CRPG - but I am really enjoying the vibes, worldbuilding, and writing. I really like @bakenshake.bsky.social's review as well!

The Daggerheart Meatgrinder patchworkpaladin.com/2026/03/13/t...

A DEAD PLANET, A FORSAKEN KNIGHT AND A GROUP OF STRANDED SPACEFARERS The Knight Errant: Expanded Edition is now available on itch! A science fantasy old school Tabletop RPG adventure, designed for any Mark of the Odd games. Published by @davidblandyrpgs.bsky.social Copy/Paste Co-op. Link below!

Being a good game master has a lot in common with being a good project manager, and I'd argue that applying some good project management principles to your game can make for a better experience. And no Gantt charts, I promise! www.thenovelgamemaster.com/2026/03/proj... #blog #dnd #projectmanagement

Amazing new tool from @ktrey.bsky.social! Can't wait to try this out at the table.

New blogpost, daydreaming of Mythic Bastionland: A knight can interact with the themes of a myth to draw closer to it. PLUS 12 myth-specific relics. #osr #ttrpg #blog

I absolutely love this approach to managing combat encounters - it leverages the best parts of the ICI doctrine and establishes intent before outcome. Highly recommend giving this one a read!

Triangle Agency is gorgeous, titanic, and iconic, there’s nothing quite like it, and I couldn’t do it service if you gave me 20 hours to talk about it (but we did our best with two.) It will challenge you as audience, it will elevate you as a player, and it will teach you as a designer. Come listen!

Gamers! Get yer Hodag Mag! The Mag is short for... MAGIC! by @hodagrpg.bsky.social Just look at the first half of this sweet comic strip about an arcane and mysterious pastry treat:

@elmc.at serving the greater good again for all of TTRPGdom!

Love this approach for using a d66 table to generate different settlements in a sandbox!

Catch ‘Em All while you can! In commemoration of the 30th anniversary, I’m heistfunding a Poképocalyptic game based on Into the Odd. I call it INTO THE ODDISH! You can pre-order it now (until ???) #ttrpg #pokemon #osr

Continuing my little series on basic dice math, I talk about advantage and its variations: idlecartulary.com/2026/02/27/t...

GODS of SKY and DUST Now on submission! A jaded treasure-hunter is offered a chance at personal redemption when he and a scholar-friend discover an ancient, sentient robot that may be key to unlocking the secrets of an ancient civilization. #WSPit #OS #A #SF #F Learn more: www.shannonrampe.com

THE COMPANY A dungeon-lit cozy fantasy adventure in the old school style! #WSPit #Ag #NA #A #F #R learn more: www.shannonrampe.com

Join us for the last #ZiMo workshop of 2026. Where do you get good #TTRPG layout? YOU STEAL IT! At 3pm et today @clearkeep.bsky.social unleashes his next manifesto of design and invites you to join The Layout Rogues Guild. twitch.tv/TonyPlusOne 1/2

The final pamphlet job for NULL_SPACE is up! (This is the last week of itchfunding. Get in while you can.) binary-star-games.itch.io/null-space

From the brilliant mind of Magnolia Keep comes the high-octane third part of Prepping Plots! This time we talk about how to onboard players into the campaign, and some tricks for learning more about the heroes! https://magnoliakeep.blogspot.com/2026/02/prepping-plots-part-3-enter-players.html?m=1

Disappeared for two months now I'm back with a post over at Save vs. Worm: FISH-EATERS! a character background and some worldbuildy stuff for my late antique Iranian D&D setting. #OSR savevsworm.blogspot.com/2026/02/fish...

It's been a couple years since Reach of the Roach God was published, and I'm still thinking about how it pulled off stat blocks without stats. It's a load-bearing piece of tech that's criminally underused. www.explorersdesign.com/designing-lo...

I'd like to say my comment inspired this fascinating analysis of NULL_SPACE, but reading @binarystar.games's blog post, you can tell this stuff was all there waiting to rise to the surface.

In an effort to bribe you into voting for me, I have once again broken my record for longest post. Enjoy my review of Daggerheart. It's full of statements that are approximately true. valerialoves.com/daggerheart-...

Pulling the idea of "cyberpunk-esque" out from several days ago because I wanted to expand on that: What is the intended vibe of NULL_SPACE, exactly? 🧵

As a reformed Instructional Designer, I absolutely adore this!

I've been enjoying using factions in my game to evolve the world outside of just what the PCs are doing. Here's a simple procedure I use to figure out what the factions are doing and how: www.thenovelgamemaster.com/2026/02/runn... #sandbox #ttrpg #blogpost #osr #dnd

And you can vote for all of the current contenders for round 3 in this form! forms.gle/bgzyuLaCQAYF...

Time to vote! www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/ #bloggies #ttrpg #rpgblogs

Four days in, and 53 nominated Bloggies posts have already been read and recorded by wonderful authors and volunteers, then published on the We Read The Bloggies podcast. Truly incredible!

Great post from Viridian Void on the challenging conversation we all eventually have to have with our parents about rpgs. He is wisely not on Bluesky 😊 viridianvoid.bearblog.dev/how-i-explai...

This was a fun read

The awesome @bommyknocker.bsky.social, @elmc.at, Grace of Choir of Fire @seraphimseraphina.bsky.social and many community members have organized a group recording effort of every Bloggies post as podcast episodes inspired by Blogs on Tape!https://podcast.bloggies.org/

The Bloggies' page has updates! 1. "We Read the Bloggies" A fan-made podcast is live and linked! 2. A new submission has been nominated, "Book [Verb] Play" in Theory. The other post was removed on the author's request. 3. I've redesigned the page to keep things short and sweet. Happy reading!

Excited to get my hands on a print copy of NULL_SPACE by @binarystar.games binary-star-games.itch.io/null-space

All bloggers are hereby cordially invited to participate in a new blog bandwagon on the topic of MAPS, featuring art (which you can use, remix, distort as you see fit) from @amandalee.bsky.social (Garbage Barge, Vampire Cruise, et al) You have 80 days starting now! #osr #tttpg #blog

a response to the @rascal.news article on yazeba's bed & breakfast, clarifying some misunderstandings and (hopefully) providing a clearer explanation of what happened possumcreek.medium.com/a-response-t...

Continuing to work through the implications of this deep dive the other week. In this one, I posit a framework for managing the reputation of a state entity or other powerful patron. #osr #ttrpg tbr.bearblog.dev/a-reputation...

I really dig this. Got me thinking about switching from hexcrawls to pointcrawls.

From the brilliant mind of Magnolia Keep comes a high-octane blogpost about video games and elfgames! I played Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 last month, and I think a lot of what made it fresh can be ported over to your campaign with very little trouble. magnoliakeep.blogspot.com/2026/02/what...

I spent a lot of time thinking about mental models and GMing. One of the underlying models I use is what I call a narrative framework. www.thenovelgamemaster.com/2026/02/narr...

Yo! People! You need a Valentine's gift for your loved one? For yourself? Then hit up @hodagrpg.bsky.social for a copy of this month's HODAG MAG. You will not be disappointed. Includes the "Eat like a Goblin" follow up - Eat like a Centaur!

Pretty excited to get my hands on Twisting Unseen, a build-the-dungeon zine for Mothership RPG! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/5...

Happy #ZineMonth / #ZiMo26! Are you working on a project? I want to hear about it. Use this as your soapbox.