Extremely flattered that the Designing Dungeons Course by me and Warren has been nominated for Best Online Content! If you haven't checked it out yet, do so before the voting starts! Totally free step by step guide to building a dungeon for TTRPGs! Check it: dungeons.hismajestytheworm.games

I had fun writing a failed career for Electric Bastionland for this month’s issue of Carouse, Carouse!

I made a map of the food, drinks, and lodging near betweentwocons.com.
 View it on the website—or grab a newspaper-sized version in-person when you pick up @eeldip.bsky.social's mega-zine "The Grotto." See you there, nerds!

Attention all bloggers: a new blog bandwagon appears! This time the topic is randomness in all its forms. The post includes some random tables to further randomize your ensuing post #osr #ttrpg

New issue of our collaborative indie ttrpg newsletter, Carouse, Carouse! just dropped! If you need something to read with your morning coffee we've got you covered www.carouse.blog/may-2026-fey...

Blogwagon Roundup! 50 blogposts all about maps, including a few adventures that use the same map (from @amandalee.bsky.social) in totally different ways #osr #ttrpg

April’s issue features my favorite piece of banner art yet from @servsci.bsky.social! I wrote a bit about treasure maps and now they might be used to reward exploration & mapping

Happy #portfolioday Human-made Toronto based traditional ink drawings for your games and stories #osr #ttrpg #indieartist

just released my submission for @gilarpgs.bsky.social's WYRM jam! it's a dungeon set inside a spire on a tranquil sea. each sunset every flower on the sea withers and dies. except for the lilies. there's plenty of community copies available. enjoy! 🪷 giantrobottackler.itch.io/in-a-petal-u...

Have been working on a new project for blog discovery. It's now live! Check out rootr.ing! A new small hub and webring for ttrpg blogs. Read about here: elmc.at/rootring-is-...

I rate every room in White Plume Mountain (X out of 5 Stars) and explain why each room does, or does not, work and how you can take these lessons into designing your own dungeons, be they of the funhouse variety or not #osr #ttrpg

I know, I know, I keep talking about the Bloggies. But I built an archive of all the past Bloggies Awards. If that's your kind of thing, take a look! You can also grab yearly OPML files of all nominees for your RSS reader. bloggies.org

Vote for Elmcat! ACAB was one of my favorite blogs this year, and Elmcat has become a pillar of the community. His Mapping the Blogosphere project is one of the coolest things I've seen on a blog.

Bloggies PSA! Round 1 of all 5 initial Categories is open until 7 AM EST. Not just Advice. Advice: forms.gle/LApoXPh7cVhy... Critique: forms.gle/5Qvwxxsvyhq8... Gameable: forms.gle/WjPxMyQunpPZ... Theory: forms.gle/VSa1fwjYLcrk... Meta: forms.gle/R26nY7qm7DaA... Vote for your favorites. PSA over

The awesome @bommyknocker.bsky.social, @elmc.at, Grace of Choir of Fire @seraphimseraphina.bsky.social and many community members have organized a group recording effort of every Bloggies post as podcast episodes inspired by Blogs on Tape!https://podcast.bloggies.org/

a response to the @rascal.news article on yazeba's bed & breakfast, clarifying some misunderstandings and (hopefully) providing a clearer explanation of what happened possumcreek.medium.com/a-response-t...

four Pig-faced Orcs inked today #osr #ttrpg #art #inkillustration #dnd

New zine! "Imagine a parallel world where RPGs evolved from wargaming by adding roleplaying, instead of our world’s approach of adding mechanics to free roleplaying. It is hard to conceive a divergent history where the conditions were right for RPGs to start from wargames." — from Wightbred's essay

I wrote a theory post. Don't worry, I paid taxes at the end. newschoolrevolution.com/turning-the-...

January issue of Carouse just dropped! If you like indie TTRPGs check out this collaborative newsletter from a diverse group of indie creators. www.carouse.blog/january-2026...

A short but sweet post this week. Next week's article is a semi-sequel to my 1 HP Dragon post from last year. www.explorersdesign.com/top-5-newsle...

Next month I will launch Cairn Press. I tried to make a publishing agreement that is fair, free, and mutually beneficial. Once the lawyer approves final contract I'll release it as CC-BY-SA, if possible. I've also written up a "plain English" version that you can read here: cairnpress.ink#terms

It’s Bloggies season! Here’s a big list of posts I enjoyed. Plus, a recap of my year in blogging and plans for 2026:

RELEASE: The complete #hexmas map is now available for you to peruse! Download the pdf version to see all the bloggers who contributed to this awesome blogwagon by @prismaticwasteland.com. #blog #ttrpg #bloggers #blogosphere bakenshake09.itch.io/hexmas-map-2...

Between Two Cons ticket sign-ups are officially open! Where: Norse Hall, Portland, Oregon When: June 26th & 27th, 2026 Event submissions are also open; sign-ups for events will open in February. We're also taking vendor and sponsorship applications at this time! tabletop.events/conventions/...

The Bloggies 2026 submissions are now open! Submit your favorite posts, series, and debut blogs via the official Bloggies page between now and Jan 31st! Please share this around. I'll be making regular Bloggies-themed announcements throughout the month. www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/

What a great day to be back in NYC!

My contribution to the Merry Hexmas Blog Bandwagon: former Elf Liberation Front members, Licorice Eels, snow heads in need of bodies, and more!

You can dislike something. You can know its not for you. You can critique it. You can even shrug and say "I dont get this." You -cannot- be incurious and disparaging and still demand to be taken seriously.

Rather than doing an ordinary end-of-year best of post, I put together 9 things I've learned running 9 different RPG systems in the past year(ish). What have you learned? www.thenovelgamemaster.com/2025/12/9-th... #osr #dnd #mothership #shadowdark #gmtips

New Dungeon (in blog form): Castle Claus, or The Keep on the North Pole A Rankin Bass Christmas-themed dungeon for the Merry Hexmas Blog Bandwagon. Possibly one of my more high effort blog posts to date #osr #ttrpg

Blog map update! - Added many more blogs - Pulled in more historical post data (Substack, Ghost + others) - Reworked the side-panel stats to be clearer The new data also reshaped the communities. We're at eight now. graph.elmc.at

The entrance to a dungeon (or a new level) should evoke trepidation and demand a tangible commitment to peril. #osr

Finally added my hex, Hearth, to the Hexmas Map for the Blogwagon started by @prismaticwasteland.com! #blog #hexmas #community #ttrpg #hexcrawl theplayreports.com/posts/hexmas...

I'm back with another Play Style Preferences. Let us travel back to the early days of the OSR: before Shadowdark, OSE, or Cairn. Today's post focuses on the fabled OSR G+ campaigns and the lessons they have to teach us about building worlds. widdershinswanderings.bearblog.dev/playstyle-pr...

"Well, I'm back" he said. Over the last three months, I've keyed every hex in the bounds of the Shire, including rumors, nested random encounters, and five embedded mini-dungeons. I've collated them into a document, linked on the blog:

I come to you like Paul Revere on the back of a liger. The Bloggies are coming! Like, share, and subscribe. www.explorersdesign.com/the-bloggies...

another issue of the indie ttrpg focused newsletter Carouse! Carouse! has dropped. I drew the banner image...inspired by Bill Watterson's Calvin and his insane snowmen www.carouse.blog/december-202...

The Explorateur #14 is out now! The only newsletter designed to level-up your design skills (how's that for sales copy?). Please like, share, and subscribe. If you have any links you particularly like, drop a comment on Explorers Design or here. www.explorersdesign.com/explorateur-...

Waiter, more theoryslop please! I wrote a little bit about how to use historiography as a lens for understanding what narrative means in tabletop games. #osr #ttrpg tbr.bearblog.dev/narrative-an...

Starting at 1pm Central Time! Get REAL with Small Business SaturDAG with commissions done TO ORDER day of!!! FANTASY! SCI-FI! HORROR! SUPERHEROES! AND MORE! PLUS, A ONCE IN-A-LIFETIME OPPURTUNITY TO GET YOUR "MICE GAME" CHARACTERS DONE BY A CERTIFIED HATER!

Spent the last month mapping the blogosphere by its links. The graph is finally ready Communities clump into a big hex and the whole thing looks like a star map What are blogs anyway but stars in the sky? elmc.at/mapping-the-... To check out the graph directly follow this link: graph.elmc.at

Every RPG blogger is allowed one “What is the OSR?” post. Here’s mine:

The Castle Automatic is a dungeon where you control the time of year, time of day, and the weather to solve puzzles, avoid vampires, and reclaim the world's most magical treasures. Be an Early Worm and back the preorder at a discounted price! www.exaltedfuneral.com/pages/the-ca...

Added a community detection algorithm to the data and it found five clusters. The layout now forms a pentagram unintentionally fitting for this little satanic panic hobby. Here's a fun scroll through the years

Took a break from writing about role-playing game design to post about… board game design! dododecahedron.blog/2025/11/12/p...

The Black Cauldron, Saruman, and especially the wizards from Patricia Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles were the inspiration for this crusty old Magus and the creepy homunculus he’s summoning. Another illustration for the next fairy tale role playing adventure for Perils & Princesses.

tiny spot illustration - survival skills... I love the magic user just sitting there reading while the others work. #ttrpgart #osr #indieartist #inkillustration #spotart

In Castle Kelpsprot, the megadungeon I’m running, I use specific naming conventions for different factions. Members of one faction all have virtue names (Clement, Harmony, Prudence), while members of another faction are named after “vermin” (Flea, Rat, Roach). Helpful in a game with many characters!

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...