The quality of a design can only be judged by its design goals. #design #process #art #ttrpg-design #game-design

Want to play with breadth and focus in your storygames? Read my article about just that on the Storygames Chicago newsletter Then sign up for newsletter. We've got five fantastic authors who write thoughtful and unique articles worth reading every month or so

Taking commissions for June, please RT! 🧡 If you are interested please contact me via e-mail: [email protected] Full info: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

We wrapped up our first season of our Apocalypse world game, gmed by @jessebmiller.bsky.social today. While grabbing dinner after, we were musing about the fact that our game largely didn’t engage with combat or (physical) harm.

We all knew that Austin Walker was articulate, but damn, he and Sam Dunnewold uncorked it on S8 E8 of Dice Exploder talking about Dream Askew/Dream Apart. @austinwalker.bsky.social @diceexploder.com @lackingceremony.bsky.social @benjaminrosenbaum.com

I’m honored to say this designer, Erica Bridges, is part of the Chicago playtest cohort I organize, and she literally can’t stop making some of the smartest games I’ve ever read and played. Don’t miss Nostos.

@bastionland.bsky.social This music fells like Electric Bastionland to me. trevordunn.bandcamp.com/album/trevor... #bastionland #ttrpg #jazz #prog

I made a bunch of custom moves for my Apocalypse World game and they're working really well so I wrote them up to share here. bsky.app/profile/jess... #pbta #gamedesign #ttrpg

Pam Bondi Thought That Went Pretty Well

!!!

Y'all I'm not happy about it but software is about to get weird. It's been slowly getting less reliable over the last 25 years, but AI is going to cause developers and software companies to build stuff they kinda wanted but not quite what they meant and they're gonna just go with it.

This is amazing

A Normal Magic User

If you haven't listened to this series I highly recommend it. And not just because I'm on episode two 😇 So go listen then join the game jam! I plan on trying out some of the other prompts. Should be fun! #ttrpg #gamejam #gamestorm #gamedesign #storygameschicago

Context: this speech is from SIR THOMAS MORE, a history written, as near as scholars can tell, in the early 1600s by 6 or 7 people including Dekker, Heywood, Chettle, Shakespeare, and Munday. It was never performed, because Jacobean England was a police state and it was banned by the censor.

My good friend @collinjryan.bsky.social and Ihave been talking about exploration for years. We're not done with that, but we did write an article for Storygames Chicago. Definitions -> discontent -> hope. Go read it and come back to talk about it! storygameschicago.beehiiv.com/p/searching-...

The Farseer Trilogy is among the best literature I've ever read

Always work on what moves you to work. Let them all be your magnum opus if that moves you. One after another.

More from historian Thomas Zimmer's thread. In short, MAGA atrocities will shrink their support. But even when the WSJ & FOX plead with him to moderate, Trump will use more outrages & violence bc that's all he knows. Our simple rule remains: DO NOT COMPLY IN ADVANCE.

A big difference between humor and art is that art gets better when it's explained

Fixing your heart is, for us born into our arsenal of privilege in the world's most empire, both a lifelong undertaking requiring discipline, patience, perspective, and good teachers, and a necessary first step toward reclaiming your self. It's our essential duty and our most precious opportunity.

Blades in the Dim

One thing that Treacherous Winds of teaching me is the particular power that questions have to cut through baggage and the mundane to answers that surprise and delight both asker and answerer. If you want to know what I'm talking about go play Pasión de las Pasiones by @blg.bsky.social

Y'all. I'm building an ELF machine

Abolish ICE. A little journal comic from South Minneapolis. #iceoutmpls #iceoutcomics #iceoutofmpls

People need to understand

(cartoon Mike Luckovich) #politics #ice

I am unreasonably excited to see this on my screen

Just learned about the Glaze project. @theglazeproject.bsky.social It's both offence and defence for artists against predatory AI training Great work

Not coping well w/ the events of the world. My therapist says empathy, just like anxiety, has to have boundaries. Otherwise both spin out of control. He said empathy’s boundary is compassion & compassion is actionable. We’re not meant to physically FEEL the pain of EVERYTHING around us. It’d kill us

Working out some exploration ideas

When studying theater, my directing teacher, Edgardo de la Cruz, said that he was always reading plays and sometimes he was ready to direct right away. Sometimes though it took 10+ years (or forever), even for a play he loved, for him to have something to say with its production #ttrpg #design

Greed points at everything they want and grasps anything they can. Their true form is unseen. Their own hand partially blinds them. Different eyes puncture their crown, stolen from others. They float, detached from all. Their stick is sharpened at both ends

This gets me pumped to make games!

I notice myself and others will often, when hearing someone give their take, read an intended implication that other takes are wrong, or that people with a different take are bad Just something in trying to be conscious of. It's an assumption I don't want to make

Learning C just so I know what the fuck @tsoding.bsky.social is talking about

Working on something weird

Wow!

What if #ttrpg combat worked like the Gardens of Ynn Like everyone gets +1 for every previous move (or round if you're nasty) and the results further down the table get more and more dangerous A built in escalation

It just hit me A good thing about Apocalypse World is that it is full of tools to **support my executive function** at the table! Threats, MC moves, moves, playbooks, and stakes questions I can always look down at the table and have a good detail or direction for the situation Under rated!

Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb Here's how The Farseer Trilogy is influencing Treacherous Winds. - The promise of discovery can keep interest for a very long time - Character flaws is the juice #ttrpg #epicFantasy #treacherousWinds

Here is a recent page from my notebook. I'm wrestling with the magic system for my game Treacherous winds I noticed that magic in the epic fantasy I'm reading isn't the magic I've experienced in TTRPGs So I'm writing rules about discovering magic as much as wielding it #ttrpg #epicFantasy #design

If you aren't following SwiftOnSecurity you aren't really on bluesky Not just for the Swifties and security heads

These are excellent!

Reading @robinhobb.bsky.social while designing Treacherous Winds has been a great stroke of luck I find myself seeing, through her words, what I want from my epic fantasy role play #ttrpg #epicFantasy #design #writing #Fitz

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!

Been a while since I did a charity stream on Twitch, but I'm feeling the urge again. Tomorrow (Sunday) 11 am to 2 pm Eastern I'll be playing "The Long Dark" -- an old game but a new fave, to benefit NY Common Pantry. Join me for giveaways and (probably) horrible death! tilt.fyi/YVoFdn7Efo

When the designers who started a movement release an updated version of the game that has most influenced me, I back it.

Go #VOTE, so you can again next year!

No author yet has made me gasp in astonished joy like Robin Hobb has twice now in The Farseer trilogy. Highly recommend Assassin's Appreciate, Royal Assassin, and Assassin's Quest. They're not really about assassins 😉 #fantasy #booksky #trilogy