I find the different connotations when you call somebody "a cowboy" in america vs the uk somewhat telling: America: Rugged outdoorsman, individualist, probably owns several guns and a hat. UK: Poor professional standards, brings shame on whatever profession they're bluffing their way through.

well this is some grade-A fucking idolatory, good grief

From D&D onwards, what we've actually had is SCA fantasy. Fine if that's your thing, but it's as American as early Warhammer Fantasy is English. *Sotto voice* Honestly, we probably have enough Americans writing RPGs with dragons and castles in general now.

do you want fragging? because this is how you get fragging.

Excited to be able to announce EMPIRE 5E! Finally you can play the greatest #ttrpg in the world! Rules for aberrant weather! 50 unique senators for you to fight, more than 149 new ritual spells, and over 4 magic items! Experience massuvely multiplayer fest live roleplaying on *your* table!

I've been playing GURPS with some folks from Paper Cult for the past couple of months. These are my reflections following the conclusion of our mini-campaign. www.fluoriteguillotine.com/blog/2026/03...

𝑆𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑙!

at the start of the game, each player rolls 7 dice. If all of those dice roll a six, they get to play as a Billionaire! Won't this be fun!

Blog Post: The Literalist Gaming Manifesto In which I differentiate two ways of engaging with "games" and assert the value and right-to-exist of the one I keep seeing trampled by fans of the other. unboxedcereal.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-...

i think we've all been saying it wrong, it's not "Buggy The Clown", but "Buggy D Clown".

Behold! Some spreads taken from our work in Fomoria's core book. Really happy with how it's looking and can't wait to share more. Fomoria launches on April 7th on Kickstarter: fomoria.com #fomoria #ttrpg

honestly if you engage with the new wizard shit tv show, i am writing you off as a person "but what about if-" i'm sure you have a lovely excuse but, you see, i am not going to listen to it because i will have written you off as a person

NOOOOOO MY BACKLOG OF CIRCULAR OBJECTIVE MARKER MERCH NOOOOOO

Archaeological Dig Uncovers Ancient Race Of Skeleton People https://theonion.com/archaeological-dig-uncovers-ancient-race-of-skeleton-pe-1819565415/

Game design is culturally and economically the least value-added part of ttrpgs. People will ride an invisible bike a hundred miles off a good pitch and ten pounds of merch.

i do find it odd that there's a market for paid GMs who put on a really good show for frustrated players, but there isn't an equivallent 'paid players' who let a frustrated auteur GM finally run that game they've been dreaming of.

like, okay, let's take OSR games as an example of what I'm talking about when I say I want the game's mechanics not to fade into the background. Taking it step by step.

I think people often conflate making a character with a pinned-down backstory, and making a character who's firmly tied into the setting. You can have one without the other.

"A good GM can make any game work" - trite, thought terminating cliche, simplistic "A well designed game is fun even when you aren't very good at it" - actually useful design advice.

games that I think do this well in and in interesting ways: - Wraith: The Oblivion - Pasione De Las Pasiones - Don't Rest Your Head - Dungeon Crawl Classics - Lacuna - Violet Core - Dread - The Yellow Curtain (self promo self promo) - Mobile Frame 0

i suspect that very few of my bluesky audience have an interest in an accademic talking about liberal christian theology, but on the of chance you are, I've found CJ Cornthwaite on youtube to be an interesting listen.

i don't think i like games whose mechanics "fade into the background", I like games where the fact they're a game is always present, where you can see the designer's fingerprints on everything, you know?

i wonder what the crossover in design & playstyle is like between play-by-post games and solo journaling games? My experience is only with play-by-post, curious what people on the other side think?

Protip: for any cis people who don’t already know, the phrase “this person” is an extremely obvious way transhobes often degender and/or misgender trans people. you should generally not use that phrasing. especially if you are criticizing someone who happens to be trans.

I want to thank @cavegirl.bsky.social for The Yellow Curtain; two performing arts students fell in love so hard that they *broke reality* and are now Cloud Atlas style chasing each other through every TTRPG I play with those friends. This damage is irreparable. You can't un-experience something.

nominating "Randy Waters Is A Son Of A Bitch" for song of the year.

I'm in this!

The VOD is LIVE 🩸 Our Shovelheads one-shot is now up on YouTube and it is pure Sabbat chaos from start to finish. Blood. Betrayal. Bad decisions. Eh, what you’d expect. Watch now: youtube.com/@NoSafeRolls #VtM #VampireTheMasquerade #ActualPlay #TTRPG #WorldOfDarkness #Sabbat

MEET OUR SUPER AWESOME COMMUNITY MANAGER!!!!!

I'm gonna be in this!

Tonight we dive into Shovelheads, our Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition Sabbat one-shot. Join us live in one hour as the Sabbat rise and the night turns violent. Watch live on Twitch: twitch.tv/nosaferolls #worldofdarkness #v20 #actualplay #vamily #vampirethemasquerade

also bluesky has helpfully decided to lock down my DMs for my safety because of age verifications, so uh DMing me won't get through.

my discord got hacked, block me and dont open any links

Different parts of an RPG book have different needs. Some will need quick reference as a rules-object in play (monster stat-blocks, weapon stats, etc). Others need expansive prose (setting histories, complex procedures). which form your writing takes should depend on the specifics.

how come nobody is doing courses where they teach people how to be good dnd *players*?

thinking today about Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of Rome's wealthiest (and most notoriously predatory) landowners, who decided to increase his military prestige by waging war on Persia, got his shit rocked at the Battle of Carrhae and reputedly died by having molten gold poured down his throat

i have suspicions as to why this is:

poster for a larp i'm co-running (and co-designed)

fucking this safety tools are there to facilitate good faithcommunication. You can communicate without using them, and you can use them and not communicate in good faith.

lets swing a bat at a hornet's nest today

tabletop rpgs sit in a middle-ground between text rp, larp and miniature wargaming and the medium benefits from experience with the other forms that its drawing from. (this is true of both designers and players).

0.000% of Communism has been built. Evil child-murdering billionaires still rule the world with a shit-eating grin. All he has managed to do is make himself *sad*. He is starting to suspect Kras Mazov *fucked him over* personally with his socio-economic theory.

gettin real tired of everyone following journalism's sacred duty for the last decade or so

honestly i find 'nice' settings for games kinda offputting. a world without social ills is one i struggle to relate to, which always strikes me as weirdly sanitised. besides, i like having absolute bastards to kill. that bit's important.

Like you want to talk conspiracies? I do in fact believe that the modern coordinated blowback against trans women specifically is because one trans woman had the audacity to try to out the person who sex trafficked her as a child. And it worked cause y'all cissies are cooler with pedos than trannies

I finally got to meet Emily Allen (@cavegirl.bsky.social), a long-time RPG influence, on Reading D&D Aloud You can check out our discussion of hemipenes and how they relate to player information and LARPs in the latest episode.

you know what i might write one of those ttrpg manifesto thingies unlike all the others, mine will be obviously correct

i mean think about it, the game wasn't being made by a company called Fighters Of The Coast, was it? of course the class balance ended up like that

one thing I think is worth pointing out is that this issue isn't unique to D&D. You saw a similar pattern with, say, Tremere in Vampire the Masquerade, Sidhe in Changeling the Dreaming, and so on.

fascinating thread, worth a read