New Dice Exploder this week: I'm off but @merrileebufkin.itch.io and @jdragsky.bsky.social hold down the fort with an ep all about You Will Die In This Place by @liz-shrikestudio.bsky.social. This ep, like this game, is packed with ideas about gender, the games industry, House of Leaves, and more.

LESS than 1 week remains in the @diceexploder.com 1 Hour or Less Jam so don't forget @jmstar.bsky.social's advice for writing self-contained #TTRPGs: "Whatever happens, it happens in the span of 1 hour. [...] There are fewer variables and loose ends." #RPGs #GameJam

confession: I made this almost a year ago and was afraid to post it

Hello again, tabletop RPG designers! The second Bannerless Games Tabletop RPG Grant is now taking applications! I'm looking to award up to 10 grants at $200 apiece. Applications open until the end of the month. Apply here: bannerless.games/grants

Wow we’re having “games are art” discourse again! Just gonna leave this here. From my dissertation:

I wouldn't shilling so hard if it wasn't an emergency. Had some unexpected expenses this summer (which is the slower season for my household) and we are try to catch up. Please consider grabbing EVERY PAID GAME I HAVE for $15 bucks and/or sharing this around. Thank you so much!

Games I Want to Play That AREN’T D&D — Orbital Blues: The Wanderer Solo rules for sad space cowboys by @moreblueberries.bsky.social @soulmuppet.co.uk

Chase Taylor-Carter interviews @hatchlingdm.itch.io about Underisles, the capstone book in their trilogy of games designed to teach the basics of sign language and Deaf culture, talking about educational games, growth, patience, and how to deal with creative burnout.

Daggerheart, more extensive thoughts: This game understands D&D. It nailed the vibe without trying to replicate the mechanics. Playing Daggerheart felt like playing the D&D everyone dreams of. It’s all the fun stuff and none of the “does a 23 hit? No? Okay, that’s my entire turn.”

DAILY REMINDER: VOTE FOR YAZEBAS BNB AND HIS MAJESTY THE WORM SO I CAN WIN TWO ENNIES IN THE SAME YEAR. IT WOULD BE: -COOL -NICE -SUPER RAD vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2025/

ESPN starting the day strong with one hell of a take; the ttrpg discourse will burn for days and be visible for miles.

Check out the Afterimage podcast on @diceexploder.com’s website, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Thank you to Sam for sharing this beautiful story of your playthrough of City of Winter ❤️ #ttrpgs #storygames #podcast

Help me survive the summer with the SUMMER SURVIVAL SALE. All my games are half-off for the month of July so that I can keep living and paying bills. Don’t got money? Share the sale! Post about my games! Everything and anything helps! Thank you! itch.io/s/156160/not...

Hey I threw up 50 community copies of VOID 1680 AM just for fun. Go check out my award-winning playlist building game you can submit to be broadcast on the air and on YouTube! bannerless.games/voidam

As promised, here’s a TTRPG use for a cassette case: Print some cards, pop them in M:tG sleeves, and boom—point crawl, dungeon crawl, or an NPC kit for a solo game. 40 sleeves, 3d6, 3 tokens/coins. Cards: -Deck of Point Crawl Locations is from SoloRPG -ICRPG Cards Vol. 2 are from RUNEHAMMER GAMES

New episode of Dice Exploder Afterimage, this time about City of Winter from @heartofthedeernicorn.com. I found this game causing me to reflect on my own life, legacy, mortality, and need to make art at a particularly poignant time in my life. It's a beautiful game.

One thing you will never think after reading a great book or listening to a great album or seeing a great piece of art is, “I’m really glad this person remained cautious while they were making this and guarded against being perceived as weird.”

Human the Masquerade is finally available for free. So please stop paging me. rahrahstorytime.itch.io/humanthemasq...

Everyone else has already mentioned Salvaterra, but they may not know he has assembled an entire starter pack full of TTRPG stock artists because there's so many great ones already here on BSky! I really like these Patreons: @evlynmoreau.bsky.social @hairic.bsky.social @bertdrawsstuff.bsky.social

You Will Die In This Place was selected for Gamefound's RPG Party. I'm going to be honest, it came as quite the surprise in what has been a surprising week (I may have forgotten that I even submitted it). Preview page should go live later this month. Aiming to fund physical copies.

I did a lil write up of all the very complicated, very big thoughts that You Will Die In This Place brought up for me !!! It's a great game, check it out! merrileebufkin.substack.com/p/you-will-d...

fuckkkk dude i hate it when the crimson king banishes my gay ass to the cyclopean abyssal labyrinth !!! ughhhhh this keeps happening to me

just finished reading You Will Die In This Place, and as someone who wrote their senior thesis paper on House of Leaves and Borgesian fiction I have SO many thoughts. A really really cool piece of work that I can't wait to watch evolve into its final form liz-shrikestudio.itch.io/you-will-die...

How To Write Your First TTRPG is now available as a free download on itch. I will update it with a printable zine version someday in the future aleshakills.itch.io/how-to-write...

Next week, Dice Exploder's first actual play releases in its entirety: Party by the Apocalypse is an actual play miniseries where we play Apocalypse World while breaking down how it works and the choices we're making as players so you can learn how to better play it.

It might be dangerous (or dangereuse, you could say) but we don’t care! We’re announcing our 16th winner is Liaison (merrileebufkin.itch.io/liaison) by @merrilee.bsky.social

#BigBadCon2024 (A Thought or Two) by @merrilee.bsky.social may give you all the feels about our past convention and we thank them for their kind words.

This week on Party of One, @catlinggun.bsky.social joins me as we enroll in the prestigious, magical BRACKROOT ACADEMY in @cassi.mothwin.com's TANGLED BLESSINGS! Catch it wherever you get your TTRPG podcasts, and tune in in a few weeks for THE UPPERCLASSMEN YEARS!

I just launched a Kickstarter for "Behind the Magic" - my fantasy mockumentary game. Tell the stories of incompetent heroes on a quest to save the world (which they'll likely fail). www.kickstarter.com/projects/ran...

Here's a fun conversation about rumour tables (and random tables more generally) in games. And am always chuffed to hear Lorn Song talked about---my firstborn TTRPG baby; am glad so many folks continue to find it worthy! 1/

Want to discover your next favorite indie TTRPG? We've spotlighted over 300 unique games on Party of One, all in self-contained 90-minute two-player one-shots, covering virtually every genre, setting, and style of play under the sun. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

Always read the Golden Cobra games

Got the "raw feed" for Ramblin' Johnny Jukebox's (@dylantodd.bsky.social) show last night. A solid hour of acid rock, funk, far-out callers and psychedelic visuals. Beats the hell out of yet another lo-fi video IMHO 📻🎶👉 youtu.be/HlWt83Gb1LE

i made a super silly lyric game about shopping at trader joe's, you should check it out: merrileebufkin.itch.io/traderjoes

i posted a new silly goose game about unresolved sexual tension, in case you're looking for a fun lil date idea: merrileebufkin.itch.io/urst

A Place But Not A Home Yet

finally finished my gargantuan (3k word) write up of the session of The King is Dead at BigBadCon this year. i talk about the game itself, the narrative, and my thoughts about my play, check it out here if you're into long winded, self indulgent game write ups! only 5 more write ups to go lol