The various play and design philosophies in RPGs insiting they are different is like two garishly dressed wrestlers cutting promos. It is technically possible for an outsider to tell they are different. But you need a decent appreciation for the lore to tell whis is which. They do the same stuff.

Finally, it's part 2 of Nat meets Donnie, featuring some totally-not-biographical nerd party moments.

Been riding the bike today with the new (to me) 170mm cranks. My word it feels good... Amazing what parts that fit correctly will do to a bike.

Weekend Update: 3/21/2026 Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, something from the archives, and discussions from elsewhere online.

Three Tiers of RPG Purchasing There’s a wide world of games out there, and from a gamer’s perspective it’s an embarrassment of riches. More games than you could ever play or even read, and altogether too many things to do and places to start. How gamers navigate the hobby is important for game…

We're in the planning phases for our once-a-year in-person gaming weekend. On the docket? Dreadship, or Mothership played with a Jenga Tower.

I think the 'are games art' discussion intersects with the 'system does/doesn't matter' discussion in terms of the split between what's in the book and what's at the table. If the play at the table is where the real art is, the game in the book still needs to be usable to make the art.

QTP with a game that has a 10/10 soundtrack

I'm nearly 40 years old. Why have I had years and years of anxiety dreams about college report cards and forgetting to go to class?

In pixel-physics roguelite Noita, you can ingest hallucinogenic mushrooms. If you ingest enough, you trip so hard you alter the laws of physics in the game. If that's not a game mechanic to inspire to, I don't know what is.

Weekend Update: 3/14/2026 Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, something from the archives, and discussions from elsewhere online. DriveThruRPG Top Sellers for…

Yes, please, yes. Beyond the shelf life, 1-2000 words is a much better length to let an idea breathe and develop than 300 characters. Also, it is both inspiring and weirdly upsetting to see people have opinions about something you wrote months after you forgot about it.

A couple of observations: First, as a writer of blog posts, it cannot be overstated how easily secondary formatting runs away from you. Bold, italics, bullets, etc. are best used sparingly in prose. Second, as a paid Powerpoint jockey, good bullet points are a skill. A different skill than prose.

Breaking Down Random Generation Random character generation is an artifact of older editions of D&D, with the OSR and other throwback movements embracing it wholeheartedly. In the present day both old-school D&D derivatives as well as the range of games derived from WFRP’s take on d100 mechanics…

I got back on my Soma Double Cross this week after it sat fallow for the winter. A couple niggling fit issues to resolve, but overall the bike feels great, which is what you want out of your primary bike. One fit issue was easy: the cleat on my right foot was too far forward.

App-locking the PDF threw otherwise great game Cortex Prime into obscurity. Marvel finally got the message after months and released Marvel Multiverse on DrivethruRPG, but it's too little too late. IDW is going to learn a rough lesson, especially given how modestly their crowdfund is going.

'Play to find out what happens' is the agenda from Apocalypse World I employ in all my games. My current game is more like 'play to see how long until this implodes', but I'm loving it.

Weekend Update: 3/7/2026 Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, something from the archives, and discussions from elsewhere online. DriveThruRPG Top Sellers for…

The @levelonewonk.bsky.social dives back into the Carnival of Crowdfunding, with some stragglers from Zine Month and few suprisingly big projects!

I am sitting in a foreign country, looking out my hotel window. Needless to say my posting schedule continues to be disrupted.

Weekend Update: 2/28/2026 Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, something from the archives, and discussions from elsewhere online. DriveThruRPG Top Sellers for…

When we played Tomb of Horrors, the first session, they moved slowly and methodically, ten-foot-poling every corridor but eventually got their asses handed to them and retreated out to forward camp. The next IRL day they realized this dungeon doesn’t play nice and so neither should they. …

Final day of #ZineTopia @backerkit.com! Get Tales from the Cockpit, a Lost & Found solo game of a giant robot, its many pilots, and the passage of time! There are also stranded pilots, mecha mechanics, heists, dream hackers, and fleeing starships in the add-ons!! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...

I missed my post on Monday because I'm on a business trip. These disruptions will continue to be part of my reality, but at least I can take a moment to explain.

It's weird to say this but I'm glad the discourse has caught up with my strangely heterodox opinion 'reading is good and helps you learn things'.

Just seen that “AI is punk” take and… gosh. Was not aware that “counter-culture” in 2026 meant participating in a trillion dollar industry pushed by the world’s most valuable companies and the world’s most powerful nation.

Weekend Update: 2/21/2026 Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, something from the archives, and discussions from elsewhere online. DriveThruRPG Top Sellers for…

www.cnn.com/2026/02/20/p... Huge news not only for trade and supply chain analysts (i.e. me) but anyone who buys imported goods in the US (i.e. everyone). Should also kill the idea that the administration ever had a mandate on trade.

The month of chaos begins! Travelling to London tomorrow.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, while I enjoy reading many of the long threads on here no amount of eyeballs will convince me to jump on that train. I write better in paragraphs and I'm at my best with 2000 word mini-essays.

Interesting thread. I'm not sure I'm ever going to be completely convinced about the positive effects of the OGL, especially given the timing. The Forge started in 1999, RPGNow in 2001. BTRC started in 2003, arguably the first PDF-only TTRPG designer. Did the OGL create growth or just capture it?

Pre-Ryan-Dancey, D&D worked to split up its own fan base among incompatible worlds and sub-worlds. Post-Ryan-Dancey, D&D consolidated its fan base—and a fair portion of everyone else's fan base to boot. 1/2

Ten promising Zine Month projects still looking for that final push over the finish line. Check it out.

Sometimes you give Dancey the benefit of the doubt because OGL created an industry boom in the '00s. But you have to remember he did it for Machiavellian reasons, and successfully killed any number of young RPG publishers. Late-era capitalism is probably the theme the runs through his history.

I just backed Murker of Mörks! Omni-Compatible Borg Adventure! on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/art...

Is Tunnels & Trolls actually the second-ever RPG? I have a whole box on that in Designers & Dragons: The Lost Histories, and it turns out that the answer is pretty arbitrary and depends on your criteria. 🧵1

As I contemplate writing more TTRPG business posts, I feel the need to state outright: How good a game is has almost no effect on how much money it makes, and how big a company is has almost no effect on how good their games are. The main reason players should care about revenue is game survival.

My last Cannibal Halfling post has been read by several thousand people, which means I'm Being Perceived. Here I try to reflect on that a bit.

It was a balmy 40 degrees in Boston today, meaning I was able to take a 20 mile ride on my newest project bike. 'Newest' is extremely relative: The frame is, from all I've been able to research, going to turn 40 before I do.

This is a special message to King Coal and his fossil fuel executive sponsors. The fossil fuel industry knew 114 years ago, what we all know today. These executives are all accomplices in the deliberate destruction of the world headed by King Coal.

Weekend Update: 2/14/2026 Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, something from the archives, and discussions from elsewhere online. DriveThruRPG Top Sellers for…

How interesting a game seems to play is far more of a gating factor than the complexity of its rules.

I don't know who keeps doing this but you have to stop I'm begging you

www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/... Couple interesting points in this video: - Cocks says the company is aiming for 70-80% focus on gaming/collector markets, implying WotC products primarily. - Magic: the Gathering cards for US sales are mostly printed in the US. That's huge for price protection.

Random weird trivia, but I was looking into Hasbro historical filings to see if I could find any info about D&D revenues around edition turnovers (so 2008 and 2014). I did not, but in 2015, Hasbro's reported categories were Boys, Girls, Games, and Preschool. How times have changed.

Over and over again, I'm shown that my writing about RPGs garners the most attention and positive feedback when I utilize my 'day job' skills. I've been a technical, economic, and policy analyst for years in the energy space, starting in electricity and moving to renewables.

Five Tiers of RPG Publishing Hasbro’s annual earnings came out this week, so I took a look. It is truly staggering how much Wizards of the Coast has changed the company since they were acquired; when looking at unadjusted earnings the Wizards of the Coast and Digital Games division was the only…

Harry Potter wanted nothing more than to grow up and become a wizard cop, which I think always said a lot.

Proud to be the 73rd backer 😎 on @BackerKit Crowdfunding for Blades '68! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/e...

That's right, you can now try Intergalactic Bastionland in a very early, messy state. www.bastionland.com/2026/02/inte...