Apocalypse World has had a bigger impact on my life than any other roleplaying game. It's just a phenomenal game, designed by phenomenal people. You should pick up a copy of the new edition!

Is there a good descriptor for the type of story—which I mostly encounter in chamber horror and time loop thrillers—where the protagonists interfacing with and attempting to circumvent The Rules is the focus of the story? I'm thinking especially of Talk to Me, It's What's Inside, Russian Doll, etc.

Here We GO! Come along, my dearies! www.kickstarter.com/projects/lum...

Ok, @lumpley.bsky.social & I have been very up-front over the years on our sales data & etc, so here's a thing, & thanks Will, for bringing it up. Starting a career in #ttrpgs means making games. it means writing in a goggle doc or notebook, trying mechanics with a friend, finding 3 folks to play.

Ending cube season with an easy trophy playing this very broken Grixis wheels deck. 🏆✨ Orcish Bowmasters, Hullbreacher, and Sheoldred to pair with my two wheels. Psychic Frog to bin Echo. Mox Sapphire and Ancestral Recall (both of which were, bizarrely, passed to me). Discard, removal, quality.

Some drafts, you need to bounce around a bit before you find your lane. Other drafts, you accidentally put together Breach-LED-Brain Freeze plus power in your opening seven picks.

This orzhov pile felt like it had absolutely no business winning a trophy! But it turns out Phelia blinking Staff of the Storyteller is enough to carry a draft. 🐕✨

"The time for a softer, gentler Apocalypse World was gone." Apocalypse World: Burned Over represents the complicated ways that both the Bakers and reality have changed since the original RPG's release.

We played „Going for broke“ by @lackingceremony.bsky.social at a recent con and had an absolute blast. Our sitcom cast had a run in with the mob. Before we knew it, one of the thugs was living with us 💕 #ttrpg #indiettrpg

"i hate losing to trash" my opponent types in chat, before conceding to my 3-0, 6-0 Boros aggro deck that was efficient, redundant, synergistic without compromising card quality, with a tight curve that anchored on powerful two-drops, that beat them by playing to the board without overcommitting.

Lemurs! Lemurs! Listen up! It's here! Our Kickstarter for Monsterhearts: Welcome to Drowned Lake is live! Go check it out at www.kickstarter.com/projects/lud... ! Join us as we make rad queer art with our tiny lemur paws!

This deck did not feel like it was supposed to trophy a vintage cube elimination draft. (I'm sitting at 68 QPs right now, making this my most winningest season ever.)

At @qgcon.bsky.social for like one whole hour this weekend and managed to catch this amazingly titled @lackingceremony.bsky.social talk which unlike her I am 100% certain also applies to boardgames (and 45% sure for digital experiences)

Answering a few quick emails on my laptop at the airport, where they are blasting The Chemical Brothers very loud for some reason, and it's hard to not feel like a very cool hacker under these conditions. I am resisting the urge to whisper "I'm in" in every single second right now.

I need help finding a word. I'm trying to say: the kind of editing or polishing that results in an end product that is *perhaps* more technically proficient, broadly palatable, or aligned with commonly practiced standards... but which strips the thing of its resonance, unique spark, or janky charm.

I'm a guest at @kamcon.bsky.social this weekend! My highlights so far: -winning Taskmaster (partially on the back of my "best worst gift" - I showed up with a lovingly plated tuna jello salad) -having someone exclaim "This is everything I hoped for & more!" during character creation in Dream Askew.

Canadians! There is a petition to sign to protest Mastercard and Visa's control over the purchase of legal adult content. This is specifically about the Steam & itchio situation, but language protects adult creators. www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en... #nsfw #censorship #canpoli @acvalens.net

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

wrote a new design diary (free for everyone to access) about @lackingceremony.bsky.social 's developmental editing for Seven-Part Pact and the process of implementing it — both creatively and philosophically! www.patreon.com/posts/137648...

Fellow game designers/etc! Can you help me with a quick silly video for a Taskmaster style competition I need to do? All I need is for you to film a landscape-oriented selfie video where you say the following: "Hi! I'm [Full Name], [designer] of [game or games]. I'm here to say: Welcome to KamCon!"

Fellow game designers/etc! Can you help me with a quick silly video for a Taskmaster style competition I need to do? All I need is for you to film a landscape-oriented selfie video where you say the following: "Hi! I'm [Full Name], [designer] of [game or games]. I'm here to say: Welcome to KamCon!"

@lackingceremony.bsky.social's Monsterhearts is getting its own video game courtesy of Canadian design studio, Ludic Lemur. How are they going to adapt the angsty, social dynamics of the RPG into a digital format? Cards!

Unboxing the new Quiet Year! This is a hand-stamped box that's the perfect size to hold the how to play booklet, cards, skull tokens, and little wooden dice.

Turn one, on the play: Blackcleave Cliffs, Black Lotus, Chain of Smog targeting myself, discarding Atraxa and Oliphant, Exhume the Atraxa, draw into Mox Jet and Reanimate, bring back the Oliphant, pass with thirteen power on board and Entomb + Death ready for turn two. This felt glorious.

You hear Don't Stop Believing (Glee) playing in the distance. It's a warning.

My experience doing vintage cube elimination drafts on MTGO this season is that Boros aggro will consistently net you a 2-1 or 3-0 record, with or without power. If you have any combination of Forth, Phlage, Otharri, Bombardiers, Gut, Pyrogoyf, Ajani, or Skullclamp, you will just steamroll people.

Ran a game of The Quiet Year by @lackingceremony.bsky.social with some brilliant people and had an incredible 4 hour experience of hope, heartbreak and laughs along the way. Gotta love the feeling when people tell you “this was my favorite RPG experience ever!”

quicksand? sure, listen—when I was a kid I was told about yeerks. you know yeerks? space slugs, they slide in your ear, take over your brain. you’re locked in your own body. terrifying. and then I grew up. and there’s no yeerks. but get this: you’re still locked in your own body

Talk of the Table! Elliot and Brian sit down with @lackingceremony.bsky.social , designer of beloved games like The Quiet Year and Monsterhearts, to discuss the many full circle moments of her career, why trigger warnings are actually for the sickos, and how she continues to learn from her designs.

Tune in TOMORROW for our interview with @lackingceremony.bsky.social, designer of beloved games like The Quiet Year and Monsterhearts. We discuss the many full circle moments of her career, why trigger warnings are actually for the sickos, and how she continues to learn from her designs.

I'm playing *Going for Broke* this evening, session two! I love this game so much. Here's session one if folks wanna see. Designed by probably my favorite #TTRPG designer, Avery Alder @lackingceremony.bsky.social youtu.be/tUuiY4EmOMU

my mom taught me there's two kinds of businesses: hot dog stands and art galleries - hot dog stands protect territory and keep competition off their turf - art galleries benefit from more adjacent art galleries, cluster together to amplify reach/support youre an art gallery, not a hot dog stand

A few nights ago, I finished the second season of Mo, a comedy about family, place, and hustle by Palestinian-Houstonite comedian/writer Mo Amer. It's really clever, and heartfelt, and manages to thread the needle of being a playful show that touches on hard stories. I recommend it!

Friend of mine had an approach to being a player which was "Pull the lever, drink the potion." Find the thing that needs doing and do it.

For a group to play Monsterhearts, the players have to accept that the Turn Someone On move will as likely as not make their characters feel attraction to more than one gender. It requires Bi-in.

Been watching more stand-up over the past few years, and something I've noticed pretty consistently: cis comedians can write genuinely funny jokes that mock trans people, but only when those jokes are grounded in actual insights that have been gained through proximity, curiosity, and receptivity.

Canadians! My new sitcom roleplaying game, Going For Broke, is small enough that I can ship it to you as oversized lettermail! That means it only costs a couple bucks to send you this fast-paced, beginner-friendly game for 4-8 players. Check it out! buriedwithoutceremony.com/gfb

Not wanting to reboot my patreon, so much as I am wishing that I just had an actual patron. If you're incredibly wealthy and want to liberate my design possibilities and have everything that emerges as a result dedicated to you, please reach out.

Quick story: It's the second weekend of Edmonton's RPG-A-Thon, where I've been vending in the outdoor portion of the market. Except, today, it was absolutely pouring rain! A midsummer prairie storm. It got so bad that the humidity started to warp the pages of the books I had on display in my tent.

Yesterday I bought Going for Broke by @lackingceremony.bsky.social. I've made games using plot formats before (esp the Lester Dent scheme), but using the TV episodic format so tightly (including credit music) is genius! I'm porting these tools for use in other games for sure.

1. First #TTRPG played: D&D 3.5 2. First ever ran: D&D 3.5 3. Played most: Apocalypse World 4. Run most: The Quiet Year 5. Favorite: Blades in the Dark, Dog Eat Dog, Dialect, Apocalypse World, Star Crossed 6. Most recently played: Going For Broke 7. Most recently run: Red Carnations on a Black Grave

the Fantastic Four cast get asked about their own personal fantastic four, which leads to some canned niceties from pascal, kirby and quinn, and an insanely he knows ball answer from ebon.

My opponent casts Doomsday. I let it resolve, and wait for them to put a spell on the stack. I use Shifting Woodland to copy the Memory Jar in my graveyard, and crack it open. Good game. (Luckily, my opponent didn't see the lethal line to sac 10 of their Hullbreacher treasures to Bolas' Citadel.)

Four lessons I've learned making #ttrpgs: 1. Never spend more than two years honing/developing a game if the play experience doesn't feel fun in the ways you want it to be in the first two iterations. It's extremely unlikely you'll manage to make it fun how you want to if it's not early on.

Friends! I'm going to be one of the keynote speakers at this year's Queerness & Games Con, alongside TreaAndrea Russworm. Come visit Montreal this September and let's get weird about games! I first spoke at Queerness & Games 12 years ago, so this is a cool full circle moment! www.qgcon.org/2025

I'm boothing this weekend! YEG locals, come see me at RPG-A-Thon (outdoor market, both weekends). Everyone else, any recommendations on my trial booth setup? (picture this centered under a 10x10 canopy tent, two friendly faces, cash and tap pad kept inside crate, transactions off side of table.)

Prototyping is fun.

Another magic card design I couldn't get out of my head. (my first draft was "Coyotes, Foxes, Jackals, and Wolves are Dogs" but I feel like this is probably a lot more playable.)

The hot new party game for ten year-old Canadian kids is, apparently, "Donald Trump." How you play Donald Trump is: everyone else eats snacks and runs around and plays, and one kid sits in an armchair getting increasingly irrate, yelling about tariffs he plans to impose on the other party guests.

Speaking of which: I am always surprised and disheartened that there doesn't exist a game like Five Fires in TTRPGs afaict. If you want to help it be a thing, please consider following and backing: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...