A fun and very long chat about promoting yourself while keeping a community focus. We spent half of the episode listing other people as great examples of what we'd like to see more of.

We're live with @explorersdesign.bsky.social to talk self-promotion in tabletop!

Here's the episode summary in pictures. Should clear some things up:

It's time for more BETWEEN TWO CAIRNS featuring special guest @explorersdesign.bsky.social. We review "Warped Beyond Recognition" by @traaa.sh. Enjoy your delicious moments, folks. www.patreon.com/posts/142727...

I was on Between Two Cairns with @bradkerr.net and @yochaigal.bsky.social to talk about the Ennies, design, ducks, and—most of all—Warped Beyond Recognition, one of my favorite Mothership modules! It's a long one (a re-occuring theme of mine). Hope you like it! www.patreon.com/posts/142727...

Of the different types of dungeon rooms, "Special" can be one of the hardest to write towards. This list of sub-categories of special rooms has great prompts! In a🧵 below, I delve into examples from CASTLE AUTOMATIC for each sub-type of special rooms. (Warning: Spoilers for the dungeon!)

I'm joining Ryan over on The Weekly Scroll to talk about the dos and don'ts of self-promotion and marketing. Leave us some questions in the comments! And join us this Friday at 1 pm EST or 10 am PST.

The Getty Museum in LA added over 80,000 pieces of art to the public domain with a CC0 license. That means you can download it with no legal restrictions. You just need to click that open-content filter. Could be useful for projects or photo-bashing. www.getty.edu/art/collecti...

@hlashbrooke.bsky.social and I are about 3-4 backers away from FUNDING ROLLING COAST in just under 5 hours! WOW!!! Thank you all!!! So cool to see 9/16 #MausritterMonth projects already funded! Go see them all at: www.backerkit.com/c/collection...

You know what Mausritter does really well? The adventure location that fits on 4 pages. Absolute gems. You can get a bunch of them in this month's crowdfunding event.

The Awards is one of the rpg industry’s more compelling award shows because it started with a smaller scale and pointed POV from the beginning. I’m excited to see how it evolves, and I’m grateful my experience and debrief lent some insights!

The problem with compiling a monthly curation of links and opportunities, is that sometimes someone announces something shortly after you press publish. @prismaticwasteland.com's Blog Bandwagon has been added to the jams section of this month's Explorateur. www.explorersdesign.com/explorateur-...

@manarampmatt.bsky.social is the kind of person you want latching onto your game. I don't think Mausritter would be what it is today without Matthew Morris giving it a steady stream of adventures and settings. Watch this!

NEW BLOG BANDWAGON During this interregnum between High Halloween and Mighty Christmas, a call goes forth to all the world that bloggers shall band together to collectively create a hexcrawl across the blogosphere, themed around those hokey claymation Christmas specials of yore! #osr #rpg #hexmas

🎉 The Explorateur's Anniversary 🎉 My little community side project's still chugging along, and I'm happy to say, this month's issue's one of my favorites. Lots of great links, a new look, updated categories, and stats from last year's performance. www.explorersdesign.com/explorateur-...

Feed: "Cannibal Halfling Gaming" By: Seamus Conneely on Saturday, November 1, 2025

New Carouse, Carouse! This time featuring, among other things, me writing about Over/Under, AI in games (not like that) from Patchwork Paladin, a review of Gorman's Larder by @giantrobottackler.bsky.social and a selection of blog posts, as always! www.carouse.blog/november-202...

I can’t believe this RPG design newsletter has been out for a year and only has a little over 1000 subscribers. Sign up, you are missing out! www.explorersdesign.com/explorateur-... from @explorersdesign.bsky.social

Graphic and game designers: If you dont follow the akazing educational, inspiring and generous content by Explorers Design already; you've got some homework! Thanks for showcasing my work in the latest Explorateur @explorersdesign.bsky.social !

I want every designer I like to make their own recommendations list. Wait... I should make one.

Heads up on the new Affinity program. You can tell them not to use your content to train AI, BUT, there is another AI setting that is on by default until you turn it off. You need to go to your account settings and switch it off. I just found it switched on by default.

New Between Two Cairns today. We delve into the powerful psycho energy of Oswald's "Mines, Claws & Princesses" @yochaigal.bsky.social www.patreon.com/posts/141961...

I have a lot of questions about the all-new Affinity that was announced today. What's the business model? What's the plan for future development? How does it feel to use? Tonight's going to a busy one! www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WGP...

Look at that, it's the iconic dungeon cheatsheet but as a list of features! If you're a big fan of dungeon delving, it looks like the Castle Automatic has all the vitamins and minerals a growing party needs.

Sharing a short post today to keep my blogging limber. It's mostly just for me. "Why do I need to add bleed again? And what the heck is this other thing called slug?" www.explorersdesign.com/what-is-blee...

Back on my business for the last week of the month! That means last chance for you to submit community content to the mecha ttrpg newsletter. If you are releasing a new mech ttrpg, wrote a blog or review, or just want to shout out a cool mecha project, submit the form below!

Not surprisingly, I really like and appreciate this video by Matthew Colville. It says a lot of the things I’ve been teaching myself and sharing on Explorers, but in a cadence and directness I envy. youtu.be/emdki5B_O7Q?...

Finally some Apple Chat. This show is really starting to cook.

On today's Between Two Cairns we review Serpent's Sanctum by @undelved.bsky.social. 🐍 Content warning: This episode contains more manic podcast chit-chat than other episodes (maybe). www.patreon.com/posts/141433...

Can't stop thinking about how Saul Bass, the famous graphic designer and artist, signed his name.

Did you know we have been cataloging every Mausritter official and third-party product since September of 2020? Yup thats right - and now you can follow along a see them all! Visit the Mausritter Library http://dlvr.it/TNnS7Q #MoreMausritter

This week's post is reviewing Dragontown and the Darkness below and discussing running for my kiddos: #ttrpg #osr #shadowdark #dragontown #gmadvice open.substack.com/pub/glyphngr...

My promotion post is partly inspired by JP Coovert, who upon meeting me at Gen Con immediately gave me a book that's currently on my desk right now. Generous and kind people rule. Almost as much as the adventure book, "Dragon Town and the Darkness Below."

Ryan over on @theweeklyscroll.com and I were talking about how some folks promote themselves like cheap door-to-door salesmen. As someone trained in branding, there's another way that's more rewarding and more fun. The approach I'm trying to get better at👇 www.explorersdesign.com/how-to-promo...

This is the way!

I unabashedly love the look and feel of ECO MOFOS. It's so scraggly and exuberant. Like some punk kid's doodles came to life and started batting mailboxes in a rich neighborhood.

My latest #mothership module, Emergence, is now available on Itch! It's a facility crawl / prison escape / meat grinder funnel packed into 32 pages, filled with art from @chaoclypse.bsky.social ssto.itch.io/emergence

Reading Nova's blog, you start to see themes of what's improving and what's faltering in rpg adventure design. Emergence is a really cool funnel. Love the cover. Have similar thoughts to Idle Cartulary's.

Amazon web services are down, which means you can't access the little guys like Starbucks, Venmo, and IMDB. But Explorers Design? Still up alongside other fine rpg purveyors of theory slop and goblin gaming.

I'm working on an article that outlines my personal tastes in rpg design—mostly to pick them apart—and I'm tempted to model it after Dieter Rams' 10 Principles of Good Design. If you don't know who Rams is, he's an industrial designer. His list is tailored to that industry. I'd tailor mine to rpgs.

I absolutely love Mausritter and you should too! And if you do, you should check out my run of Mausritter zines - #Bernpyle. Snag them all here: http://dlvr.it/TNjtDL#Bernpyleand let you mouse adventures go wild!

This was a fun chat! If there's one thing consistent about me, it's that I can't resist a conversation about book design. If you like deep dives about design, you should check out this series. Asa interviewed Jay Dragon about bookplay and it's (no surprise) very good.

Last week, I published a 4-part series. A behind-the-scenes tour, breakdown, and critique of the Ennie Awards and other rpg award shows. This is my last article about it (hurray). A summary with all the links in one spot. If you missed it, catch up here. www.explorersdesign.com/the-explorer...

We need more puzzle dungeons! This is my siren call to creators. Make a dungeon with help thus November. itch.io/jam/puzzle-d...

This is a gorgeous production and one of my games of the year for 2024. If you haven't played yet or want to know more about how it all works, check out our deep dive: www.indiegamereadingclub.com/indie-game-r...

The last article in my Awards Debrief is up. What even is the point of an award show? Should anyone care? www.explorersdesign.com/ennies-4/

Grab a big bundle of Slayers! Monster hunting. An infinite city. Asymmetric class design. Incredible art. Slayers has everything you need for your next TTRPG night. itch.io/s/151766/sla...

Oh boy. It broke out of containment and ended up on Reddit. www.reddit.com/r/rpg/commen...