This year at #paxeast I bought... Maybe too many books? Only time will tell. Very, very excited for just about all of these.

I have discovered that I really need to make business cards. The tip I got last night was a white, unfinished back so you can write on it when you hand it out or so the person you give it to can write on it. Time to get designing! #paxeast #gamedev

Almost every random table has a few entries that are duds. Table-writing fatigue is real. It's better to write just the good ideas and then cut down, not beef up. But it's harder when constrained by a preset size, like a deck of cards. There's no good solution except time #ttrpgs #indierpg #gamedev

No game design blog post this month because I'm traveling, but instead enjoy this panorama I took. This kind of landscape is what inspired me to make Far Lands in the first place! Maybe I'll write up a blog post about my inspirations... The original idea came to me while hiking up Hurricane Ridge.

New blog post! In my monthly Far Lands development update, I talk about learning how to rest and the way I think about the energy I have available. #gamedesign #ttrpgs #indierpgs sinful.games/far-lands-up...

Finished reading Vermis III and I cannot recommend it enough as a TTRPG resource. It has spooky art, creatures, & lore just like the first two, but it also has 3-4 incredible dungeons complete with maps and encounters and two awesome cursed cities you could drop into any dark fantasy game. #ttrpg

New blog post! I talk about white space in game design. What it's for, the challenges it presents, and how to turn it into fertile "green space" for ideas to flourish sinful.games/engaging-wit... #gamedev #ttrpgs #gamedesign #indierpg

Got to use this delightful zine by @weirdworks.bsky.social in a game the other day and my players instantly fell in love with Pibb the goblin trader. Really fun lighthearted moment in an otherwise very spooky session. #ttrpgs #indierpg

In His Magesty the Worm today, my players fought some werewolves making a sacrifice to a horrible beast, and on the last round of combat I drew this card (The Moon.) With a draw like that I couldn't *not* infect a player with lycanthropy! #ttrpgs

Getting very excited to run His Magesty the Worm. Got a couple of dungeon levels planned out, which is probably way more than I need for session 0-1 but man does the book provide a lot of really good examples! #ttrpgs

Building a dungeon for His Majesty the Worm and I love the checklist they provide: give the players a reason to: explore, experiment, fight, flee, return, be surprised, and breathe easy. It really helps make a dungeon feel multifaceted and provide narrative ups and downs! #ttrpg #indierpg

In the last month I've done five months of work on Far Lands, and it wasn't just that my timeline was too cautious (though it was!) I talk about how I did it in my newest blog post: sinful.games/far-lands-up... #indierpg #ttrpg #gamedev #indie

Working on my next blog post and hit on a really nice metaphor for what I was trying to describe. What might look like an empty field actually has seeds of ideas planted under the surface. It might be the same seeds every time, but they grow differently every game. #indierpgs #gamedev #ttrpgs

Played Ex Novo by @sharkbombs.bsky.social! What an awesome city-building game. The excellent random tables and the mechanic for tracking the sources of influence for factions in the city over time made it a joy to play. Didn't finish the full game, but I love the weird pigment-based society we made

sinful.games/engaging-wit... I made a blog post about cognitive load and memory in TTRPG design. Check it out and let me know your thoughts on how to make mechanics easier to remember! #indierpg #ttrpg #gamedev

Got physical copies of my RPG bookmarks! Download em for free on my itch store: sinfulgames.itch.io #indierpg #ttrpg

First full print-out of the new-and-improved quick reference sheets and player materials! Can't wait to see how these feel in a playtest! #indierpg #ttrpg #gamedev

I made a blog post breaking down my planned timeline for laying out Far Lands, some sample pages, and some lessons learned in the process. Check it out! sinful.games/far-lands-la... #indierpg #ttrpg #indiegame #gamedev

Finally getting my website polished up. I now have a bio page and a games list. Now I just need to actually write my inaugural blog post and figure out colors / theme for the site (the hardest part!) Oh and maybe a contact form... Though I know how those get spammed.

I built a mailing list for Far Lands! Far lands is a collaborative GMless game of worldbuilding, exploration, cartography, and growing closer to one another on the trail. Expect monthly updates as I make progress on the layout! [Sign up for updates](eepurl.com/jvBlFc) #indierpg #ttrpg #gamedev

Reading through His Magesty the Worm by @riseupcomus.bsky.social and just realized I can build a mega dungeon where each level is themed after a different one of my tarot decks. This is going to be so, so fun. Finally a use for my collection! #indierpg #ttrpg

Thinking about how to get nervous #ttrpg players more comfortable using the author voice: - remember it's an option (cognitive load) - take initiative (mechanical rewards) - know when to speak up (spotlight) - what to say (prompts) - fear of judgement (encouragement) - buy-in (ownership)

Starting to do layout really makes me reckon with just how much text I wrote and weigh the necessity of every word and every paragraph. This is going to get so much more streamlined when I have to fit it all into a physical book! #gamedev #indierpg #ttrpg

Check out my submissions to the ttrpg bookmark jam! The first is a tool for running combat encounters on the battle line between clashing armies: The Battle Line sinfulgames.itch.io/battle-line #indierpg #ttrpg #gamedev

I feel like the pile of books I'm actively reading has gotten out of control in a way that is easily explainable by the book on top (full list in alt text)

Reading Hillfolk by @robindlaws.bsky.social has me unstuck on a game idea that I've had percolating for years. Excited to finally fill in the gaps and give it a playtest!

@lingthusiasm.bsky.social a friend pointed out that when you ask about interest in an activity, it implies "right now" vs "at an unspecified time." ("Can you get pasta from the store?" "do you want to see pictures of my dog?" etc.) Where does that come from? Is it different between culture/language?

I'd always thought of "get extra build points by having a nemesis/dependent" as bad bcos they give you points for something good (more spotlight), but just realized it also creates an incentive for players to make round characters that give the GM more to work with #ttrpg

Too many board games top out at 4 players... Where's the love for my group of 5?

In love with this little game I grabbed from @molomoot.bsky.social at pax unplugged- exactly the sort of worldbuilding game I love! Uses the form factor in a really clever way, beautifully laid out, and really makes me think. #indierpg #ttrpg

Sometimes ya just get the itch to make a paper prototype. I think this siege defense game might have some legs... But will definitely need a lot of testing! #gamedesign #indiegame

Very glad I grabbed this at #paxunplugged this year! Absolutely full of great advice, structure, and inspiration for #ttrpg design.

So excited to read all the cool #indierpg books I grabbed at Unplugged! I always come out of a con so reinvigorated to work on random ideas I've set aside.

I broke my first rule of conventions at #paxunplugged and bought something immediately on the first day. In my defense I didn't know there was a new Cosmic Encounter expansion!

As much as I love tarot for symbolism the deck really shows its age. I think the distribution of themes is too rooted in its original cultural context and doesn't apply to the stories I want to tell in TTRPGs. But I do love interpretation... What oracle decks exist that could work better? #ttrpgs

It is amazing the difference the absolute minimum of layout work does to the experience of reading through this book! Now I just need to actually go learn Scribus or something... #indierpg #gamedev #ttrpgs

Decided to build 6-7 unique worlds for a world-hopping Armour Astir game I'm planning, and man it is fun to just worldbuild from scratch with Spindlewheel and the world tables I wrote for Far Lands. I'm trying to pull from different media touchstones for each and I'm really proud of some of em.

Doing a pass on Far Lands to cut down on how often I say "you may choose to" ...because it was 40+ times. Players can always choose not to follow the rules! The whole game is optional. It's much more succinct to have one reminder at the top and let the rules be rules. #indierpg #ttrpgs

Thinking about how to mechanically support anxious players in taking initiative to interject, to take bigger risks. Bcos I think a lot of games create the right feelings in the players but don't create the right kind of story. Maybe player and character motives have to diverge more to get both.

Just got my copy of Menagerie of Unbearable Things by @thebreadwyrm.bsky.social and wow, this is such an incredible source of inspiration and art for TTRPGs. Just an absolutely inspired piece of work.

Ran Dread for the first time today! Absolutely incredible experience. Setting up the players with rumors about other characters to get them to distrust one another right from the start was so fun! Sometimes a house is a guy. And his wife is a killer robot.

Cursed one-page RPG idea: These are the pools you can spend dice from to do stuff. Spend "spoons" as wild. Have a list of comfort activities that can refill pools or spoons. Earn extra resources by doing embarrassing stuff when one of your pools is empty. Would be tough to build respectfully...

Man, writing examples of play that demonstrate the relevant mechanics without feeling stilted is tough... I didn't expect to get so stuck on this part of the process! Really excited for the next round of playtests though!

Thinking about the template "the world is X but the people are Y." I've always enjoyed "the world is serious but the people are silly," but it can be co evocative with stuff like: "the world is torn but the people are stitched." What other pairs of opposites work? What kind of world do they imply?

So excited to share the cover art for Far Lands! Far lands is a collaborative worldbuilding, map-making, and exploration game about a team of explorers venturing into an uncharted land. Let's see what lies beyond the edge of the map! Art by @arthur.baron-clement.com #indierpg #ttrpg #indie

Baba is tarrasque #D&D

Reading Slugblaster and Ironsworn: Starforged and they really have me thinking about what a game can be.

Ran a siege last session and the mini game worked really well! Each wall had a damage clock and had some dice representing enemy troops. I'd roll all of them and the highest would add damage to the clocks. Player actions could set the highest die to 1 or eliminate the lowest die after damage

Gencon ho! #gencon

Watching through Deep Space 9 solo after a watch where someone who'd seen it before skipped the bad episodes for us and I just know when I hit one I haven't seen before I'm in for a treat.