That was SUCH a good game! I just talked about it again yesterday on a German podcast because I'm still impressed by both this specific session and @momatoes.com' design in general.

This game is so good

We have raised $168 since the sale went live! Given that the sale price is now less than $2, this is tremendous. I hope you continue to support the game! I have also updated the game page with fresh copy and quotes from Vincent Baker and Danny Quach (contributing to Polygon) 😊

Last week we played @momatoes.com's game What Dust Remains, which is one of the very best games I've ever played in my life and don't miss out! Our character was a musician in her 20s in the 20s, a jazz bassist, a songwriter, a utopian anarchist revolutionary. She's like my favorite person.

This is a really cool supplement. If you like The King Is Dead, obviously, but if you're interested in Firebrands games at all, check it out!

Now, for something completely different. I made a fantasy supplement for @lumpley.bsky.social's The King is Dead and it's pretty great and you should check it out. Also it has rules for turning any "Firebrands-style" game into a campaign! asteyni.itch.io/the-fantasti... #ttrpg #gmless

Back in, I dunno, '15-'19, the G+ years, the worst person in the OSR* made the argument that rpgs can't foster empathy, but no matter what can only put you in a position to reiterate your prejudices. *Contested, not the only strong candidate.

There's been a fair number of questions about how the upcoming Burned Over edition is going to differ from Apocalypse World 2E, and we can't wait to answer them all! Follow along here! #PBTA #ApocalypseWorld #ttrpg www.kickstarter.com/projects/lum...

And by "Let's GO!!!" I, of course, mean, "Let's see if we can get this puppy halfway funded before ndp wakes up!!!!" But in a whisper, so we don't wake him. www.kickstarter.com/projects/ndp...

As I'm working with my (now adult) kids as colleagues and collaborators in making games, I'm naturally reflecting on the skills I've practiced and cultivated myself, over the past 25 years. Here's a skill I rely on constantly, I practice literally every day, and I find enormously rewarding:

I thought that maybe the game I played was exceptional — I'll be thinking about our character and her life for years to come — but nope! This is what the game does.

I can't tell you how much me too!

!!!

A very cool thread.

Friends, friends, omg, What Dust Remains by @momatoes.com momatoes.itch.io/what-dust-re... I'll say more later but don't wait

I'm just having a small moment of contentment for typing "was" instead of "is" into this google search.

As I'm working with my (now adult) kids on games and other projects, I'm reflecting a little on the skills and instincts I've developed over the past 25 years I've been making games. One skill I don't recognize enough...

Feels like a good prompt to ask my game design buddies for suggestions on game design books that you'd want at your public library.

I'm taking my time and reading the heck out of Montola & Stenros' The Rule Book: the Building Blocks of Games. I'm dogearing and writing in my copy...

With permission from @megueyb.bsky.social and @lumpley.bsky.social, Day 3 of History of RPGs is Apocalypse World! Again, I designed a small scenario for students to play – involving a warlord, his yacht fortress, and his many boyfriends and girlfriends – and questions to lead a meaningful discussion

That time is now! For the next two months, let's make some mecha mini-games inspired by @megueyb.bsky.social and @lumpley.bsky.social's Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands. It's a really approachable scope and format, and I hope it encourages people to engage with mecha themes beyond tactical combat :)

Your weekend reminder that I’ll need tag-team partners to pull this one off, and hitting that follow button really helps! www.kickstarter.com/projects/ndp...

Alright, my dearies. Here we go. Join us for the ride? www.kickstarter.com/projects/lum...

Thinking more about vampire games. In the early 00s, when I was just beginning to grapple with the idea of making games on purpose, I drafted a vampire game called Hungry, Desperate & Alone. (I'm still keeping the title in my back pocket, I love it.)

Wow!

OMG this is hilarious: I just found out that May I Enter, a PbtA vampire game, has an add-on/stretch goal thing where they're going to make me & Meg as NPC vampires. I vant to suck your bluud www.kickstarter.com/projects/hig... No honestly I'm into it, honored in fact...

What a great conversation! A pure pleasure to listen to.

There's this moment in gameplay when you realize that the events of the game have turned against you. We're playing the Night Cage and we realize that we're not going to make it. We're playing Hearts and I realize that I'm the one holding the losing hand. 1/12

Play and discuss as if you were friends trying to get to know each other better, rather than as if you were rival squawking merchants trying to sell competing goods in a marketplace. The world is full of friends and potential friends, and it's much lonelier and more frightening when it isn't.

There's a bald eagle hanging out in our neighborhood. My guess is, the juvenile from the island over in Turners, but I don't really know. All day long it's been auditioning for the role of ship's bosun. Fweet! Fweet! Fweet! Fweet!

Also: reminder that disciplinary action for being “too aggressive” with customers disproportionately will result in lost jobs for any minorities you speak with vs the cishet white people. Harass the company, not the people.

I'm watching a youtube essay about Lake Mungo while I'm working this morning, and the essayist just pointed out how the movie's format — interviews cut into a documentary — means that the storytelling is question-driven.

There are only 20 HOURS LEFT in the massive Roll Big or Go Home #RPG #Megabundle! This is one of the best #TTRPG bundles we've ever seen featuring over 50 of the best #RoleplayingGames ever published. Games like Call of Cthulhu, Apocalypse World, and Cyberpunk. #ad humblebundleinc.sjv.io/gO7qn5

I thought this bundle was over but it's been extended for a week! If you haven't already looked at it, it's extreme: www.humblebundle.com/books/roll-b... Meg and I have three games in it, Apocalypse World, Under Hollow Hills, and The King Is Dead.

A lot of pbta games use Conditions as bad feelings / character harm when you take a hit: Masks, Apocalypse Keys, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, etc. Restore the Warp also uses Dynamics: good feelings that help you act as a team. Let me tell you why and how. (2/5)

So I'm thinking about your good old adventuring party, and niche protection is like, make sure there's a chance for the fighter to shine, a chance for the wizard to shine, a chance for the thief to shine... But I'm like, what if...

Niche protection < niche synergy #rpgtheory

Last Saturday @czamboni.bsky.social introduced me to “In Dreaming Avalon” by @megueyb.bsky.social and @lumpley.bsky.social - I played with @moltensulfur.bsky.social and Betsy and we had a great time - so much so that I’ve written up a little review of the game and the story we told:

Hey so this gigantic bundle. I have a big new stack of games now that I've never looked at and don't know much about. I'm intimidated. Other than the PbtA games, which games do you like? What's going on with them? Where should I start? What shouldn't I miss? www.humblebundle.com/books/roll-b...

Sometime recently I saw a conversation scroll on past that was like, "what's the difference between moves in PbtA and skills in other rpgs?" I can't speak to PbtA in general, of course, but in Apocalypse World, moves aren't skills, they're actions. You know how in a D&D-like game...

Meg and I have three games in this unbelievable bundle: Apocalypse World 2nd Ed, The King Is Dead, and Under Hollow Hills. Check it out! www.humblebundle.com/books/roll-b...

!!!

Jesus Christ, the heaviness of these hitters. This is 40 bucks for an instant RPG collection including a bunch of really, really good games. This would be worth it for like 2% of what you can get in this bundle. Do not sleep on this.

Run away with the fairy circus with me? 🧚🎪 #ttrpg #storygames #pbta

Juneteenth would be a pretty good time to give the Griot Anthology your attention! Today is the last day it's free/pwyw thoughtcrimegames.itch.io/griot-anthol... I'd love to see some of the games in the Anthology get played on APs, but I am not connected enough to that scene to make it happen...

Warning: bad words My 19 year old just referred to the tech bro-AI relationship as "a human centipede ouroboros."

Just 8 hours left to back Cosmic Dark! www.kickstarter.com/projects/gra...

PARTY OF ONE SAYS GO BIRDS! Our monthly live celebration of TTRPGs and the City of Brotherly Love is BACK at Unity Java - Umbria this Saturday, 6/21 at 7pm EST, with UNDER HOLLOW HILLS with @jdragsky.bsky.social from @possumcreekgames.com! Presented by Party of One and @plusoneexp.bsky.social!

The longest day of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere) approaches. Join us this Saturday for a game of In Dreaming Avalon by Meguey and Vincent Baker at 1PM Eastern / 6PM BST. Let us dream that the sun will never set and night will never come. twitch.tv/standingstonesprod