In Call of Cthulhu, we remember librarians are the heroes! #ttrpg

Sure, maybe you don't need more dice. But these ones help protect free speech and privacy online 🎲 shop.eff.org/products/li...

It’s so convenient that the New Years drop at the same time as new Wordle, Connections, and Strands come online, at least here in the PNW. Hat tip to whoever arranged that.

In my Dalelands campaign, the players have a simple trend. If someone hires them to murder someone, they kill them. Regardless of how obviously the goblin bandit/orc mercenary/weirdo mage is ready to tell them their life story. Except today...

Yesterday I mentioned that the new D&D Starter Set is the best D&D product I own. Here's one of the reason why - the maps. The encounter maps have the perfect mix of utility and character. They're interesting places. I run my games on Maps, and the assets from the Starter Set are my go-to pieces.

The Beautiful Mess of 5E Mike Mearls, Mike Shea, Shawn, and Teos discuss the many forms of 5E. We look at how D&D 5E was designed in a open way and how this impacts our hobby. Recorded at Gamehole Con! www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ4T... masteringdungeons.podbean.com #DnD #ttrpg

Behold! The massive RPG Moral Panic video I've been researching and assembling for years, and why people who call the whole affair the Satanic Panic are wrong. I'm so damned happy to finally have this beast out of my system. youtu.be/OpjV-melB-c

It's not a fight until everyone is bloodied!

No matter how hard people try to convince us having empathy is wrong, it is right. No matter how hard people try to convince us that diversity is a weakness, it is a strength. No matter how hard people try to convince us that love is limited, it is unlimited.

It’s been a good day. The pressure is on to deliver, but at least he’s getting the chance.

I address the first scandal of my political life—Momgate.

5e has a metagame that we never talk about. The PHB provides the players with plenty of solutions to monsters. The Monster Manual... kind of ignores all of them? What if we thought about boss monsters as creatures equipped to deal with the realities of the PHB? www.patreon.com/posts/boss-m...

A new adventure for RuneQuest! The Hunt for the Storm Calf is a stand-alone scenario that contains everything for a riveting adventure in the far east of Dragon Pass! (And featuring vivid cover art by @ossihiekkala.bsky.social!)

We have a number of positions open within the D&D TRPG studio, including multiple Game Designer roles! If you're interested in joining our adventuring party, apply here and elsewhere on the Hasbro jobs portal: jobs.hasbro.com/job/Renton-G... #WOTCstaff #dnd

I don't know this for sure, but it sounds right. 4e's flaw were all of process. There was never a design document or a single person who transparently managed design changes. It was a vibes-based approach. Example: I think we had a month of design time for each of the first three adventures.

If you run D&D 5e, you might find that your boss monsters die easily. There's actually a simple reason for that! The game was built around the assumption that characters would engage in about 20 rounds of combat between long rests. We were probably off by a factor of 5.

THANK YOU, backers! Only a few RPG crowdfunding campaigns not based on popular licenses or 5E have ever broken $1,000,000 in a crowdfunding campaign. We are beyond excited and humbled to see Cypher enter those ranks. Thank you for making this an unforgettable campaign! mymcg.info/cypher

omg a rare #WOTCStaff post from LaTia, could it be in (almost) EXACTLY one (1) hour, I will be grilling @justiceraminarman.bsky.social on all things Heroes of the Borderlands, asking the hard-hitting (community sourced) questions that everyone wants the answers to. you should come join us :)

Hello travellers! Inspired by MCDM's new Draw Steel adventure, this is my take on the Delian Tomb! This is fan art and not endorsed by MCDM in any way. Let me know what you think of the Knightly tomb.

Most TTRPGs rely on vibes to function. Players and GMs get a vague understanding of how the game works and dive into play. When writing a game, consider how you can make Team Vibes and Team I Actually Read the Goddamn Book play nice. www.patreon.com/posts/simpli...

Dippin’ Dots is the most post apocalyptic of desserts because, as the “ice cream of the future” they imply something terrible happened to our ice cream of the present

stories like this are basically free ads for Mamdani's campaign.

he should be making merch RIGHT NOW

Backgrounds in 5e are fun, but after character creation they don't do a lot. For Odyssey, I want to make them to carry forward a bit better. www.patreon.com/posts/backgr...

Happy Mothership Day 👽 Seven years ago today the Mothership Player’s Survival Guide debuted at Origins 2018! We only printed 50 copies and made a single post advertising it on G+ (rip). We sold out that weekend and it’s been an insane ride ever since. Thank you.

Over on Patreon, I redesigned sneak attack so it no longer peters out past tier 1. The basic changes: * Turn sneak attack into a resource pool spent each turn. * Give the rogue more attacks. www.patreon.com/posts/rethin...

Congratulations to Ashraf Braden, Diana Jones Award Emerging Designer! Ashraf Braden is best known for Legends of Uganda, a DCC zine dedicated to bringing Ugandan myths and urban legends to the gaming table. Read more: goodman-games.com/congratulati...

I know multiple DMs running Drakkenheim, and every one of them has had nothing but great things to say about it.

Tabletop Gaymers turns 10! We’re kicking off our anniversary celebration at Origins, June 18–22. It all starts with a fabulous party sponsored by @settlersofcatan! Join us for a celebration of LGBTQIA+ visibility and joy in tabletop gaming. Stay tuned for party details! #TabletopGaymers10 #CATAN

Easily the best monster book I've seen. We could put it on every top 10 list published for the next 5 years and I'd still call it underrated.

i hope Trump watches Escape from New York next and asks for Manhattan to be returned to its 1997 state: a walled maximum security prison containing only prisoners and the worlds they have made.

Some notes on what is to be found in the new, two volume edition of Playing at the World. playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2025/05/play...

Caverns of Thracia continues to be a master work of dungeon design and @nickoten.bsky.social does a nice job further laying out why in this post, go read it: pathikablog.com/2025/05/05/h... And make time to at least run a ~10 session game of Thracia with OD&D or clone!

I had a ton of fun in this conversation!

I feel like I’m losing my mind with the lack of wall to wall coverage on disappearing *children with cancer* i keep saying this, but it’s not 5% of the uproar that came from Biden’s debate. “kids peeing in litter boxes”, a thing that never happened, got orders of magnitude more coverage.

Begging GMs to just tell your players information you clearly want them to know instead of rolling perception/insight/knowledge/whatever

Q: "How do you respond to Governor Newsom?" Sen. Van Hollen: "I think Americans are tired of elected officials or politicians who are all finger to the wind...Anybody who can't stand up for the Constitution and the right of due process doesn't deserve to lead."

Skill challenges have always fascinated me. The core design suffered from a lot of the process dysfunction that sank 4e, but I think the core idea makes a lot of sense. I've taken another tilt at that windmill over on my Patreon. Core works with any D&D-like game. www.patreon.com/posts/skill-...

Strange men on golf courses distributing tariffs is no basis for a system of government. Bring back the women lying in ponds.

If scheduling is the boss monster of a TTRPG campaign, why are we so casual about wasting time when we finally get a chance to play? I wrote up the threat timer last week for Shadowdark as an answer to that question. Linked below are the rules adapted for 5e. www.patreon.com/posts/threat...

Last year we announced we were merging the mechanical crunch of the d20 system with the narrative flexibility of Fate. Some of you were skeptical of this move, and it turns out: you were right. We've reflected. We've deliberated. We've acted. So today we're proud to announce: Fate 5E 2024 Edition!

I wrote my own explanation for one of the OSR's older maxims, "Combat is a fail state." It ended up being a sequel- prequel to my other article The 1 HP Dragon. I guess I'm still not out of the rulings-not-rules mines. www.explorersdesign.com/failstate-co...

I got a chance to sit down with @bananachangames.bsky.social and talk about talk horror, heart break, and the creator within all of us. Come check out this conversation with a #TTRPG visionary over at @thecomicon.bsky.social Link >> tinyurl.com/5n8r3348

I've struggled with designing rules for exploration until I hit a breakthrough. Why not tie wandering monster checks (or their equivalent) to the passage of real world time, rather than in-game activity? It was a simple change, but made my games run smoothly. Link below:

After weeks and many many many great chats, I'm taking a stab at the secret economics of D&D. youtu.be/E7G_33sXJeI

We're officially launching the Chaosium Discord server! discord.gg/phXSCzd7Sj

Governor Tim Walz says when Democrats are back in power, people are "not going to expect us to tinker around the edge with the ACA; they're going to expect universal healthcare."

I'm launching a playtest for my new approach to monsters over on my Patreon. The material is available at the free tier. www.patreon.com/posts/monste...

The Creative Boom in Tabletop RPGs

Ursula le Guin, on the accusation that fantasy is an escape from reality