"I've just got to finish these character creation rules" has been a near-magical way to ensure I create a whole new section and don't touch the character creation rules.

Q for #ttrpg designers more experienced than I: How do you decide when to create a system that abstracts a situation vs. when do you let player discussion of the fiction determine a situation? Do you abstract procedures that aren't core to the story or do you mechanize core moments to "gameify" it?

Loot that drops after defeating me: - a box cutter - 1d6+1 native edible plants - a flash drive with Linux Mint - 1d3 mechanical pencils - a notebook - a deck of cards - a King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard CD

Plunge your spaghetti western heroes to their terrible, terrible doom in TWILIGHT COUNTRY! A card-based horror TTRPG from @plusoneexp.bsky.social Get it here! plusoneexp.com/products/twi... #wildwest #horror #ttrpg #indierpg #indiegame #dnd #d&d #horrorrpg #dungeonsanddragons #zinequest #zineclub

I forgot my gloves and it's still cool af outside so I'm walking around with my hands in my pockets like

2026 bad, indie TTRPGs good. Thank you that is all.

🎄Happy Holidays from the Bright Bard team! 🎄 In celebration of our biggest year yet we are giving YOU a present! Trash to Treasure: Panic at the Panto is a free adventure using the Havoc Engine! Play as your favorite trash goblin in a Holiday Special as you save Yule! Link below 👇

Last minute shopping and too late for shipping? @plusoneexp.bsky.social has the perfect weird indie gift card for the perfect weird indie gamer in your life. plusoneexp.com/products/1-g...

Here it is. The final 24 hours. You've helped coax banked embers into a steady flame. Tell me, what is one thing you'll bring with you into What-Comes-Next? Seeds? Thread? A good kitchen knife? What will you make of what's left? Together, let's light up the world. www.kickstarter.com/projects/lum...

There's only a few days 'til xmas, so if you're panic shopping, maybe consider The Wassailing of Claus Manor and all its attendant expansion zines for your loved ones? And if someone's been REALLY good, maybe they deserve the deluxe family deck. MAYBE. plusoneexp.com/collections/...

Essential dungeon crawl monsters: 1. Big and dumb 2. Small but there's lots 3. Tentacles don't go there 4. Evil horse 5. Fun facts about mushrooms 6. Eye 7. Punchable child 8. Dude that looks like another dude 9. Hostile architecture 10. Capitalism allegory 11. Uncomfortable implications 12. Steve

Hey so this is what peak looks like

Just tried valorant again after 3 years Game still mid. I don't know what I expected

In PINE TAR, the latest zine for The Wassailing of Claus Manor, I had Santa claim that one could learn to do what he does by becoming a burglar. Same set of tasks, with only the last link in the chain of events reversed: taking instead of giving. Makes you think. plusoneexp.com/products/the...

I may be in the minority, but for me, chaos and shenanigans are not the goal at a #ttrpg table. I'm not against humor, but I love serious stories and games with stakes, and players and characters who take the secondary world and situations seriously. Just me?

import this 🐍

I continue to be such a hater of cinematic trailers I get why they exist, but I just don’t feel like they give me any of the info *I* want to know about an upcoming game. These days, if I see a game trailer, I will skim for actual gameplay frames first before I bother watching the full thing.

Twilight Country: the perfect gift if you're looking for a niche #horror #ttrpg Embrace the lonesome cold of the frontier. Embrace Twilight Country at plusoneexp.com/products/twi... #rpg #indierpg #indiegames #wildwest #weirdwest #gothic #western #slasher #lovecraft #PaxUnplugged #PaxU #zineclub

Was trying to find a concise definition of "chrome" in wargaming and was able to find this one at @armchairdragoons.bsky.social which seems helpful:

Oh wow Twilight Country has sold over 100 copies Nice

When you grin sinisterly because your next game conviently coincides with this game jam, roll with the questions: - are you ready to make hard moves? - are you pumped to see other designers make hard moves?

The reason your fantasy pantheon doesn't feel authentic is because you're starting from the wrong end. Real polytheism is syncretic – just deities from neighbouring cultures getting smashed together at high speed and leaving it for nerds with too much time on their hands to make sense of it. [1/2]

If I hear another one of my friends say they're "adapting dnd" instead of learning a new system because "learning a new system is hard" I am going to set myself on fire and finish reading all the rules of a given indie #ttrpg before I burn to death

In the RPG community, statements that shouldn't be controversial in any way -- like "you should read the rulebook before playing the game" -- are instead seen as radical and unreasonable because D&D's core rules are 900+ pages. It's like everyone's first board game was Advanced Squad Leader.

listen. listen to me. libraries are getting indie TTRPGs in circulation. high school teachers are bringing weird stuff to the teenz TTRPG club. we continue to be in a beautiful moment for showing more people the full breadth of what games can be. nurture it by playing & loving games!!! a gift!!!!!

Me when I GM a game system I wrote and the players enter a fail state

One side effect of working #GamesOnDemand every day of #PaxU is I can now run the adventure I prepped with no notes, possibly even in my sleep Repetition is magic ya'll #PaxUnplugged #ttrpg #gamemaster

Mfw 6 min 34 sec into this video

I am so pumped to see so many #ttrpg designers using playing cards in their games more. Dice are cool and all, but cards do so much more: + can be in a hand, deck, discard, or traded + more levers for designers: not just #, but suit, color, face card + curate probabilities by removing cards [1/4]

Chronos sounds like a constipated Minecraft villager on autotune #hades #hades2

Here’s my Spotify Wrapped 🎵✨

Cyberpunk reinvention of the spaghetti west ghost town trope where the town still bustles with automated machines kinds goes hard. Too bad it's also becoming reality :/

Just rolled credits on #Hades2 in under 100 runs Y'all that ending was cool af, and I'm glad there's seemingly more post-game plot to explore than in Hades 1

My b I just got stuck

Hey I'm in this right at the end! Thanks for having me on the show :) #ttrpg #indierpg #gamedesign #gamedev #gamemechanics #PaxU

Hey history sickos, I need your help! I have this idea floating of a #ttrpg where you play as the Punic Gods taking revenge on the Roman Pantheon for the destruction of Carthage. [1/3]

Have you seen @amabel.bsky.social 's most recent video? If you're in the TTRPG or board game world I think it's important that you do youtu.be/dgfVE_qbWC8?...

No. The Thing is a movie about a bunch of people who all distrust and hate each other trapped in one building as the tension between them slowly builds until it reaches a breaking point. It's a Thanksgiving movie.

Horror story where AI makes realistic synthetic pets but they're anthropomorphized in subtle ways which allude to the manufacturer using the same hardware as synthetic humans, leading to an implication that there might be a human mind trapped in that animal body and oh wait FullMetal Alchemist Ep 4

Going to my day job like I didn't just have the coolest fucking weekend ever at #PaxU guys this is what copium looks like

When I first met @rrookstudio.bsky.social at GenCon 2025 we talked about the value of introducing the suburbs as a setting into TTRPGs. Perhaps this'll be a good tool for GMs/game writers looking to do so!

My body is a machine that turns to do lists into 11 hours in Hades 2

HUGE Ws FOR @plusoneexp.bsky.social AND THE GANG LETS GOOOOO

I finally got around to finishing Hades 1's post credits story, now I can get in on the Hades 2 hype... Hey wait a minute why isn't there any media about the Punic gods? *a Wikipedia search later* ... I have a TTRPG idea about forgotten gods. Gonna log that one for later 😈

PAXU is over. Safe travels everyone! As the poem goes: “The gamers were nestled all snug in their beds; While visions of soup dumplings danced in their heads;” 🥟 #PAXU #PAXUnplugged #dimsum 🥟

Just wrapped up my last #GamesOnDemand session at #PaxUnplugged. These daring survivors were the only group to survive my custom adventure for Twilight Country. Thanks for playing y'all :D #PaxU #TTRPG #ZineClub #Wildest #Horror

LAST TWILIGHT COUNTRY GAME ON DEMAND AT 3 PM! If you don't get a chance to expose yourself to the horrors, you can get it at the @plusoneexp.bsky.social booth or online at plusoneexp.com/products/twi... #GamesOnDemand #PaxU #paxunplugged #zineclub #ttrpg

Catch me at #GamesOnDemand 's designer meet and greet Saturday here at #PaxU! I've got a spooky #ttrpg to introduce

@quinnblackwell.bsky.social and I are tag teaming (tag team name TBD drop suggestions below) a Meet & Greet at Booth #4143 this morning at 11am Eastern in the #PAXUnplugged Expo Hall! Hope to see you there!