Oh dang, this gets at what I love about system theory. Lacking direct access to reality, we run constant speculative/ideological simulations of it in our heads and iterate each time it proves us wrong. Sims are fun because the ways they fail are our only direct contact with reality.

shock! awe! bedlam! mayhem! it's the latest episode of DEAD LETTERS, about Magpie Games' AVATAR LEGENDS: THE ROLEPLAYING GAME! we discuss the challenges of licensed adaptations, expectations of play, product lines, and contrived anti-bender prisons. come listen! open.spotify.com/episode/650n...

"What's that?" I hear you ask. "Why," I say, "it's the new DEAD LETTERS about Jay Dragon's EXPRESSIONIST GAME MANIFESTO!" we discuss 20th C. art movements, struggle, rejecting rules, ~Metaphor for the Queer Experience~, subversion paradoxes, and more! come listen! open.spotify.com/episode/68SY...

I'm collecting data on how weird we are. forms.gle/ric62Zm5gwKL...

new DEAD LETTERS episode! this time, it's the vast, legendary, landmark WOLVES UPON THE COAST, written by that one bald guy! we talk about the Adventure Writing Trust Horizon, reading, horses with unhinged jaws, poetic monster manuals, legwork, and the GM as medium! open.spotify.com/episode/2Z1e...

Now that the discourse has died down, and my birding has lessened, I want to talk about lists in rpgs. I like what both sides of the debate make. So, like everything else, "good" isn't about which side you choose but how you execute the idea. If you choose to use lists, use them well.

Exciting new project from @mekhami.bsky.social for making a searchable tagged database of TTRPGs. Mekhami's own words are tagged below, but consider adding your own games (or your favorites) if you have time! www.rpgbase.net

there's another episode of DEAD LETTERS out today! this one is about the GLOG, the Goblin Laws of Gaming, the biggest, weirdest, and coolest branch of the OSR. we cover blogging, 3.5, bizarro skill systems, Delta templates, and more. give it a listen! open.spotify.com/episode/60GT...

Think about GWTWOD a lot

very good post! extremely insightful and actionable. if you like my "tangible tips" posts about editing, you will find lots of useful ideas here

Closing out my series on key design by making a list of rules for myself to follow when writing modules, then testing it by rewriting a one page dungeon I made recently. The goal: retain all the strengths of bullet points/formatting with thoughtful use of plain text structuring. It went really well!

brace yourselves—it's a new episode of DEAD LETTERS!! this one's about John Harper's landmark BLADES IN THE DARK! we cover prep for sessions, the split between rules and advice, clock, and that dreaded beast, "fiction first." give it a listen! open.spotify.com/episode/7jy3...

indie game marketing is untenable right now, bro allegedly took a shot at the president and it got him 22 concurrents

new DEAD LETTERS! new DEAD LETTERS! new DEAD LETTERS! this episode, we're reading a game studies article about the meaning of rules, the role of the game designer, and Tati's "Playtime": Miguel Sicart's "Against Procedurality!" give it a listen! open.spotify.com/episode/7ETC...

out now: store.steampowered.com/app/2364580/...

This week's Dead Letters episode is fun! We get deep into the topic of how to depict semi-mechanized fictional written spaces in a way I'm still unpacking much later.

oh, yeah, as of yesterday—more DEAD LETTERS! this time we're talkin about the (current) best Mothership module, GRADIENT DESCENT: open.spotify.com/episode/7r5S...

new episode of DEAD LETTERS just dropped, this one about Thriftomancer's exceptional meta-system, NULL. this one's about rules and games and play! open.spotify.com/episode/2UNx...

I spent nearly 4k words analyzing individual keys from 10 TTRPG modules and looking at how each of them chose what types of information to include and how to format it. I must regretfully admit that I'm joining team anti-bullet-points, after years of enthusiasm for them.

hello gamers did you know that I and @the-goblin.bsky.social and our offline friend Walid have a podcast now??? it's called DEAD LETTERS, episodes come out on Thursdays, and it's about—what else?—tabletop roleplaying games! this week's episode is Apocalypse World! open.spotify.com/episode/67Bj...

Some of the hardest I've ever agreed with a blog post. Fantasy is at its most fun when it's remixing the familiar.

Classics Of Game 134 www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIm_...

Oh no these are really good. I've been saying for a while that the only real rule of a rpg is group consensus over contributions to the shared fiction, but RPGs are more fun if you meditate that truth through additional orienting rules (mechanical or social). Wish your cousins my best

Sam (@samsorensen.bsky.social), Walid (blissfully off Bluesky), and I have launched a podcast! Dead Letters, after the NYC-based TTRPG collective of the same name, is live with 3 episodes released. Join us for close readings, academic analysis, and unhinged takes. baatag.blogspot.com/2026/02/dead...

This is tomorrow!

Okay, serious face, though: If we actually do want to move the way we talk about TTRPGs "forward" on the theory front, develop that more beyond the bounds of academia, here's what we need to do: Start treating clarified views of gaming as distinct lenses you can put on and take off. 1/

Next Wednesday (2/25) at 7PM, we'll be presenting a new speaker in our lecture series! Barry Jospeh, author of Matching Minds with Sondheim, will be presenting "How To Play The Sondheim Way: A Parlour Game Workshop". The last one was really fun, game and theater folk in the NYC area RSVP below

My blog post, "Books [Verb] Play", was nominated for a Bloggie and is currently up for votes in the Theory category! Give it a read and a vote! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

She refused to paint it so I had to

A group of volunteers is recording as many of the nominees for the Bloggies as possible, and uploading them as a podcast! I’m helping out a bit with this, and I’ve recorded a few already! Come listen at the link below, Spotify, and several other podcast platforms! podcast.bloggies.org

a nominee bailed from the bloggies awards list so now this post is up for a bloggie in the Theory category—it's so insightful, go read it!!!

it’s very good for your spirit to learn to recognise the individual birds around your home, and to give them names once you can identify them by name, you’ll learn so very many things about these neighbours you didn’t realise you had after a time, you may even start to learn their language — a joy

The most common critique I see people have with TTRPG adventures is them leaving out info necessary to smooth play and leaving in bloat that lowers accessibility. I wrote a bunch trying to unpack what's useful to include in a module, what's best prepped by the GM, and what's best improvised in play.

I've been running a mash-up of a few great systems for a while, and I think it's put together enough to put up online. Odd Goblin is a 36-class GLOG/Into the Odd/a few other systems mash-up I specifically put together to be easy to run for people new to RPGs w/o being restrictively minimalist.

Is this the prime vein of that incentive discourse everyone is talking about other people talking about today? All of this feels like people talking past each other--the debate's not "should RPGs have incentives", it's "how cleanly should play be structured around a singular incentivized goal'.

I took a lot of photos of birds this year, and also a few mammals.

There's an eternal debate on which is more important in play: the rulebook you're using or the habits and practices of the players? Here's my contribution, despite being more on the 'player practices' side: a taxonomy of ways books influence play. baatag.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...

what's up gamers, I'm back with ten more tangible tips for editing your tabletop RPG manuscript: samsorensen.blot.im/ten-more-tan...

Tomorrow! Come join us!

I've been organizing CCNY Digital Game Development’s first official lecture event with Demetri Detsaridis! The topic is “Gaming Business Models: Why Everything Feels Like a Live Service Now”. Join us this Thursday at 7PM on the CCNY campus (details in link)! www.eventbrite.com/e/gaming-pat...

this is my game, I Don’t Remember When I Started Killing Bugs Again. to play, you log it every time you kill an insect. this is also available as a web app @transwron.gs made with me. people tell me it changed their behavior- they think twice about hurting insects when they remember the rules.

Speaking of said winner and other winners I would take it as a personal favor if you would try out excellent games made by former students, such as: CONSUME ME store.steampowered.com/app/2359120/... DESPELOTE store.steampowered.com/app/2367820/... BABY STEPS store.steampowered.com/app/1281040/...

a friend of mine who's worked on a somewhat recent free multiplayer game says this about player feedback that I feel like is very astute hearing the feedback is frequently important but responding to it well almost never means just doing what the players say they want

My wife asked me to compose a still life for her to paint

we're running a 48-HOUR TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING GAME JAM this weekend at @boshis.place! it starts this saturday at noon—boshi's doors will be open for much of the weekend! come make an RPG with us!

I got into birds this year

I have discovered: the ocean has wet pigeons with bright orange feet