My month in a nutshell: (Official nominees announcement tomorrow!)

I forgot to add Alfred Valley's "Start Hoarding Textures" to the latest Explorateur. Fixed that. I'd probably share this video just for the editing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAB6...

Interesting thought from an architecture book: Floor plans are great for conveying organization, flow, and arrangement, but sections or "cross-sections" are better for conveying space, scale, and feel. This is why I think many Mausritter maps benefit from being sections, and OSE maps floor plans.

One of the best talking about one of the best.

The Bloggies 2026 submissions are officially closed. Get ready for the nominations next Monday. You can get the full schedule and submissions breakdown here: www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-sub...

The articulation Sam makes here is the same thing I've been struggling to articulate for over a year. "A game where there is no difference between how you would describe your character and what’s on their character sheet." We have the same dream rpg.

Did I forget to write and publish The Explorateur while working on The Bloggies? *Jonathan Frakes Voice:* "Not this time." A treasure trove of links for rpg designers by rpg designers 👇 www.explorersdesign.com/explorateur-...

Bloggies 2026 nominations are about to close in 30 minutes. After that, I have a lot of reading to do. (I've been reading ahead, thankfully.)

You all seemed to think it was funny, and despite its utter failure to end all discourse forever I would be failing to big myself up appropriately if i didnt put forward "What is an OSR" for your consideration. My other nominations in the thread below :) thegardenbelow.blot.im/what-is-an-osr

i am barely a blogger, or really even a presence, but if anything i wrote last year was worthy of anything bloggie-able, it woulda been this. knock me out in the first round and i can nap happy

Today (Jan 31, 2026) is the last day to nominate your favorite Skeleton Code Machine articles for The Bloggies hosted by @explorersdesign.bsky.social. It's a fun, rather light-hearted event and I know Clayton is putting a lot of work into making it happen. So go do it. Just takes a minute. #ttrpg

The Bloggies are the Dundies of the blogging world. Be sure to nominate your own work!! I started my blog (theplayreports.com) in 2025, so all posts on the site are eligible. 😱

its the last day, but the proudest of my blog articles ive written is my first one on interactivity and tactility in rpgs. Its such an undiscussed topic that informs a lot of design and issues with design, and of which id love to write more on in the future

What Alexandrian posts from last year should be nominated for the Bloggies?

I'd love it if this post of mine would get nominated. monstermind.substack.com/p/the-five-l... Interpreting the Five Laws of Library Science for roleplaying games.

If you'd like to nominate something I wrote, I'd really appreciate it. Here are my favorite posts from last year: Sandbox Settlements: Prep, Run, and Thrive Sandbox Settlements: Downtime Running Mythic Bastionland Mapping the Blogosphere elmc.at

It feels a bit awkward to campaign for myself, but then again, I do think I wrote some nice things last year, such as dicegoblin.blog/just-use-bea... and dicegoblin.blog/add-this-to-... So yeah, if you like my stuff, please cast a vote!

Bloggies closes tomorrow! Please vote for Bathtub Reviews or Critique Navidad for best series or for one of my other posts for design, like the Zungeon Manifesto, Don’t Wait to Create, or When is the Cake Baked! idlecartulary.com

I suppose it’s my turn to campaign for my blog. I wrote one about putting lore in tables that seems to have gone down well. So why not have a read and maybe nominate it if you like it that much. Or just read a bunch of blogs. They’re great. open.substack.com/pub/davidbla...

In the spirit of "shy bairns get nowt," I've nominated myself for a bloggie for this dissection of play cultures that were not my own: burnafterrunningrpg.com/2025/08/11/c... vote for my when Clayton does the thing and I'll be eternally / temporarily grateful depending on the outcome

The Man has spoken. Time to campaign for myself. Just a few days left to submit nominations for the Bloggies, so here’s a thread of Cats Have No Lord posts from 2025 you might consider.

I submitted this post to the Bloggies as well. This one is my theory submission, where I use scientific principles from ecology to look at TTRPGs. I also discuss a little reasoning for why I did that based on the current state of discourse using the ideas of Murray Bookchin

It would be really cool to be nominated in the Bloggies for my post on how TTRPGs helped me deal with PPD. I'd like this post to get more visibility so it can reach folks who are struggling with PPD and give them a bit of hope: www.ttrpgkids.com/2025/11/19/m...

Alright yall. It was at the start of last year (ten years ago it feels like) so you may have forgotten, but here is my greatest contribution to gaming: write your rooms in pairs. I’d love to be considered for nomination for a bloggie! It’s fun! www.failuretolerated.com/writing-room...

I love design. How can you not love learning that the things you like can be repeated? That it's not always random. Sometimes I'm walking downtown, and think, "I really like this street." And an urban designer, architect, and graphic designer can all point to different reasons for why.

Hey folks, if you’ve found my post-con post-mortems useful, consider nominating me for a Bloggie! These are a series of reports I release looking at the ups and downs of tabling as an indie publisher. byodinsbeardrpg.com/2025-12-02-d...

If you want to be nominated for a Bloggie, please campaign for yourself. You campaigning helps expand the audience of The Bloggies which gets more eyes on everyone's writing. Thanks Exeunt! www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/

The Bloggies 2026 submissions are closing this Saturday night! Please submit your favorite blog posts, blog series, and newcomers on this year's official web page: www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/ (And please, share this far and wide 🙏)

Today on Between Two Cairns, @bradkerr.net, @betterlegends.bsky.social and I review Tiny Fables by @josiahmoore.bsky.social, and answer a mootsack question. www.patreon.com/posts/tiny-f...

Binary has been doing really cool work with conflict resolution in tabletop rpgs. I don't think I've seen a more info-dense approach to dice than the kind in Null_Space. Check out this SRD if you're a mechanics sicko like myself.

When I was studying design and copywriting, I was taught that ideas need names. If you can't name the idea, the idea isn't finished. I'm somewhat convinced the same might be true for game design and naming rules. If you can't name it—or the name feels wrong—maybe the rule isn't baked yet.

TIME WARP @lukegearing.bsky.social joins me on Ansible Uplink to review Adventure 08: Prison Planet, for Classic Traveller

Don't be afraid to do the obvious thing. Sometimes it feels obvious because it's natural, and sometimes—in an attempt to be obvious—you end up being clever, or even better, original. After a decade of design writing, I can honestly say this is the hardest lesson to actually learn and live by.

I can’t wait for my Trench Crusade rule book to arrive. Amazing seeing the slow methodical process of the artist Viktor Pushkarev.

"Take it to the pub." Designers tend to design games at home, at leisure, with conditions just right. Take the game to a crowded place. Read it under poor lighting and at an arm's length. Read the book with music, food, and drink fighting for attention. Judge it under play-like conditions.

The OSR News Roundup for January 26th is now live. www.sabregamesandcards.com/post/osr-new... Check it out for an overview of last week's #ttrpg releases in the #indierpg and #osr spheres.

Today on Between Two Cairns, @bradkerr.net, @betterlegends.bsky.social and I are joined by @budapestkick.bsky.social to review Pollute the Elfen Memory Water by Michael Raston, and to answer a mailbag question. www.patreon.com/posts/pollut...

Not surprisingly there's strong public support for "Hog Rules" to replace the name "Dominant Mechanics." 🐖⚙ www.explorersdesign.com/dominant-mec...

The entire population of Maine is only 1.4 million people. Our biggest city has fewer than 70k people. The median age is over 45 years old. It's mostly trees and grandparents here. These outsiders, these brown shirt cosplayers, hate all of it, because it scares the shit out of them.

New Review - The Electrum Archive! Checking in on the Dungeon Boys again. They are, as usual, getting up to strange tomfoolery. www.valerialoves.com/the-electrum...

BLOG POST TIME My follow-up to @explorersdesign.bsky.social's excellent Dominant Mechanics - My minor manifesto on loot - I give you: The Loot Sicko's Dilemma www.failforward.moe/2026/01/the-...

I try not to say "this is required reading" because that gets old really quick, but I genuinely think this is great advice that will help make you an absolute gem to work with. You'll get better layout, timelines, and collaboration by following this advice. Give it a read if you can.

In tabletop rpg design, sometimes gameplay doesn't come from the mechanics we add, but the ones we omit. www.explorersdesign.com/dominant-mec...

Getting mentioned on TikTok is unreal. I love all the shoutouts to media examples and Gila RPGs in the comments.

This is a good blog post about hacking Cairn, and how sometimes people hack their assumptions about a game rather than the game itself. Which is fine—hacking is fun and worthwhile no matter how we do it—but it's worth recognizing why we're doing it. newschoolrevolution.com/turning-the-...

WYRM is my take on OSR style games. I'm very excited to release it on Tuesday, and then continue to support it all year long. Core rules, starter adventure, and starting sandbox hexcrawl. All PWYW.

That’s right, Blades ‘68 is coming very soon. And while we’re here — this is the cover!

The Gloggies, the goblin step-brother of the Bloggies, just announced its winners for this year! If you want some gameable ideas for your murky dungeon game, the collection here is awesome. mediumsandmessages.bearblog.dev/the-winners-...

What a coincidence! www.prismaticwasteland.com/blog/playtes...

Playtest early. Lo-res prototypes: Encourage players to focus on fewer parts. Are easier to change. Encourage a wider range of feedback. High-res prototypes, or semi-complete games, can be hard to test. They're often too busy, complicated, and polished to get honest, sometimes tough, feedback.