I have decided that my Arch-Nemesis is named Otto Korekt. He is a former spy from the GDR. He hacks into everything I write and changes things. He does this to cloud my work and annoy me. I will persever.

Metatopia 2025 is now in the books. I’m back at work and holding on to an amazing weekend with wonderful people! it was great to talk to everyone, even if it was only for a minute! So many games! So many cool ideas!

When you play a lot of @deltagreen.bsky.social, you see the world a little differently. The agents had trouble contacting their handler because…

I had to get a new copy of DREAD by @epidiah.bsky.social My old copy just gave up and… well, anyway, it’s gone.

500 good words on a project and clean laundry. Lately, thats a hell of a victory!

Back in the '80s I had a group of D&D players who were totally into empowerment fantasy. They showed up with mostly barbarians with a “17” dump stat. Yes, everything else was an “18." I figured "what the hell, roll with it!" I told them to roll a d6 and add those points to their stats however…

So there I was brooding over something, with roadrunner quietly running in the background. (Try it! It works!) When @lumpley.bsky.social drops a super post on that sinking feeling that "you aren’t going to succeed" in a game, and how much he loves it. "BONG!" I realized that Chuck Jones' wrote…

Under hollow hills hits a sweet spot for me personally. Talking with @megueyb.bsky.social about it was like a walk in the Fae realms. If you ever worked, or just loved, live performance this game will take you places. Old friends you just met, or astounding new sights you’ve seen a thousand times.

Good morning friends! To celebrate Pride, we're putting the Under Hollow Hills collection on sale on itch: itch.io/s/154748/und... There are community copies too. Check it out!

Still going. Still writing.

I’m not very good at handling GIFs

Movie you’ve watched more than six times using gifs. (“Hard mode” no Star Wars, Star Trek, or LOTR)

If you run @deltagreen.bsky.social's Impossible landscapes, you will begin in Washington Sq. Park on Aug 10, 1995. For maximum realism make a loop where someone comes up and says "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke" quietly, every 45 seconds. Play this the entire time the agents are within the park.

I’m not a great writer, but I keep trying! I was recently asked about the best trick/hack/app I’ve found. After thinking awhile, I said "a cheap notebook and a cheap mechanical pencil." Catch thoughts as you have them. No batteries, architecture to manage, or updates required! Just write!

1. First RPG? - AD&D 1E 2. First you ever ran? - AD&D 1E 3. Played the most? - AD&D 1E>2E 4. Run the most? - AD&D 2E probably. 5. Favorite? - Delta Green 6. Most recently played? Delta Green 7. Most recently run? Delta Green It will take time to beat AD&D, played A LOT as a kid.

My sweet spot in Delta Green is highly a competent character who is completely out of their depth and gloriously struggle to figure out how to apply their skills to *THIS* situation. …or a rando who understands they have NO skills that are relevant, but recognize "this is fucked up!"

Sustaining. Doing what I can. Writing when I can. I’m still here.

Is it a game? Is it a setting? Is it a scenario? I may have found Schrödinger's design envelope.

I love that game designers across at least six time zones are virtually pawing through @megueyb.bsky.social's button box, oohing and ahhing, and guessing at the provenance of each one. Just made my night.

This advice is important now, and will be even more important in two weeks, when the next administration is going to flood the zone with horribleness, with the intent of overwhelming everyone into compliance. Pick your battles and keep your focus. Trust others are doing the same elsewhere.

I had a conversation the other day that I can’t stop thinking about. The crux line aimed at me was: "You artists just make shit up! We hate you for it. It isn't right!” I walked away at that point. It’s a real world BLOCK.

For anyone running Delta Green, don’t forget the COVERUP! It can be the most mind numbing, horrific and humanity challenging part of any plot line. If you are hand waving it you are leaving the best part out.

Thinking about, and sending energy, to all the Happy Jacks Crew, the Boggards +, Rennfairies, and other LA denizens who are dealing with the apocalypse. 🔥🔥🔥 PERSEVERE!

Over at @morrus.bsky.social's site, @planesailinggames.com wonderful game The Long Road Home is in the latest print news! This is one of my favorite games.

Note to self: Must finish 1E before adding more to the 2E folder, or starting 3E. I mean it, me. Knock it off!

Last child in the Woods is very much worth reading. Meguey Baker mentions it in her excellent article lumpley.games/2024/12/29/t... It’s one of my favorite books. I first picked up a review copy at Strand Books before it was released. It is equally applicable to adults.

When I started gaming, there were THREE simultaneous versions of D&D. It was more like a collection of stuff you made a game with. We added stuff from MERP, Harn, Arduin, JG, the encyclopedia and old National Geos. Really anywhere we found something fun/useful. I still look at gaming that way.

Ran a short casual playtest this a.m. Had fun! Never got near the specific mechanic I had in mind. Thats okay! It generated a lot of ideas.

The two loudest noises in the world: A BOOM when you expect a click. And A CLICK when you expect a boom.

Have a beautiful solstice, everyone!

Taking a break from writing. Cleaning up the work room! If I need to hide, I can sneak behind my mending pile, hide in the books I’ve read stacks, or disappear into the forest of outdoor gear. There could be a cat in here, or a whole tribe of cats! I’d never know.

Free day today! Should be writing a particular game project. Wrote 3K words across three OTHER projects and outlined a new idea. Even wrote a 900 word email for work. For my main project? 172 words. Is this normal? Is this how most writers work? Is this how only some writers work? Just me?

I have a small request for all designers out there, please put a published/released/light-of-day date in your work! It will seriously help the history nerds and industry researchers out there! I’m not pushing for ISBN or (C) date, it could be as simple as "Spring 2025."

Notes from the underground. Make sure you have multiple ways to keep in contact with your people! Don't rely on any one platform or app. Also, learn to communicate without cellphones. Just thinking out loud.

The Affinity suits have allowed us -- as an indie micro-business -- to do so much more than we could ever have hoped, including allowing me to do the full layout for our first game. Fill the survey in, whether you're a current user or not. If you're not, tell them you won't ever be! #fuckAI

In 1979, my dad bought me my AD&D PHB for $14.95, at the Compleat Stratigist in King of Prussia PA. It was a B&W hardcover of 128 pages. In today's adjusted dollars, thats $65. He also got me a handful of Game Science polyhedral dice. All for about $18 total. So much joy came out of that one trip.

I traced the use of Hexes in gaming back to a statistician named Alexander M. Mood who was working for the War Department. He used them in as a movement grid for conflict simulations. In 1952, Charles Roberts, of Avalon Hill, saw a picture of a RAND corporation simulation that used a hex map.

Two: Rereading Zelazny's Roadmarks. It’s an old favorite. There is a game in there somewhere. The last time I tried to coax it out was when AD&D was brand new. I ran four sessions of seat of pants rules. It was fun! More recent design techniques give me hope. One: it’s an experimental novel

Last year, an awesome person pushed me to go to a couple Cons for a day each. "Try it out" she said. I attended Metatopia and PAXU. The last Con I went to before that was Gen Con East in 1982. Metatopia has me hooked, because of the people!

Metatopia 2024 was absolutely and exactly what I needed. So much work to do! Oh, and on games too!

The high you got from those old games was because of the novelty and the people. It WAS exciting! It still is. The people are the key. OSR: don’t call it a comeback, it’s been here for years…

Hello World!