I made my second blog post of the year. But it's really just a revised (and shorter) version of the first. chthonstone.blogspot.com/2025/12/play...

Ah yes, the good ol' murderhobojima genre of rpgs.

I've been away but I'm coming back.

I've been away but I'm coming back.

I've got a new game called We Contain Solitudes that I am putting out today! You can get it here: sevencrowsgames.itch.io/we-contain-s... It's a 2 player ttrpg about troubled souls stuck in a time loop that plays out in prose and soliloquy.

Amazing that not even a month ago I was finally thinking "maybe, at long last, I should start selling my stuff on Itch."

You need to log into soundcloud to listen, but if you do here's Through Ultan's Door via The Nightmares Underneath.

I am basically a nobody, and this is just a suggestion, but if DriveThruRPG want me to see them as the reasonable ones in this situation, I think maybe they should stop trying to drive my audience away from their site, where I sell my games at.

Darn, guess I should have signed up for the Tomb Raider playtest to see what it was all about.

I posted an update to my dad's gofundme earlier today, short version is: George is doing well and he's getting good care. Longer version in the link. Thanks to everybody who donated. www.gofundme.com/f/help-georg...

Our campaign for Tacklebox—a surreal fishing RPG by @ludopolitics.bsky.social ft new cards by @inauthenticity.bsky.social & art by @patrickedell.bsky.social—and Better Strangers—a people-watching RPG by Tyler Crumrine w/ art by Ellie White—is NOW LIVE! Back today! www.kickstarter.com/projects/cru...

I wrote one of my yearly blog posts, this time about how to role-play characters in a setting they are familiar with. Even though the last time I had that conversation was 10 months ago. chthonstone.blogspot.com/2025/05/play...

After a long delay, the latest issue of my Old-School Essentials monster manual zine has been released. Essential Enemies 10: Temples of Greed showcases a bunch of greedy monsters, cultists, criminals, and mercenaries. Available now at DriveThruRPG and Lulu.

People like Classic Traveller because it has the character lifepath minigame, but the real juice is the random sector / speculative trading combo. Every time I go back to mess around with it, I get sucked in again.

Oh hello.

I backed Haft-Zine, a Persian Mythos RPG Zine, on Kickstarter during Zine Month. Boosting because I’m excited for this one but it hasn’t funded yet and the creator is only asking for $450. Punny title aside, it has beautiful artwork and simple yet dramatic mechanics. www.kickstarter.com/...

Our Dungeon Full of Monsters game (by @chthonstone.bsky.social) continued last night. We are still having a great time running it with Caern. Tonight the party narrowly escaped Zebbagrulom’s wrath (leader of the Eyeball Syndicate), on the strict condition that they bring him a wizard to eat.

Look at these weirdo jerks. In the Outlands.

Maybe something is finally coming together, I dunno, but once it's done I can use it to move on to the next thing, at the very least. In the Outlands.

I don't usually post about personal stuff, but over the last year I've been dealing with my dad's declining health, and now that he's had to move into a care home, I've started a gofundme so friends and fans of his can help out. www.gofundme.com/f/help-georg...

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers Day 18 #booksky (Thank you @chthonstone.bsky.social for such an amazing game, that reignited my passion and expanded my horizons for ttrpgs)

On the Banks of the River Knife.

On the Banks of the River Knife.

On the Banks of the River Knife.

Watching an episode of the new Arcane and being immediately reminded that this is the Frenchest fucking thing I have ever seen.

This post about Johnstone Metzger from earlier this year about classifying rpgs based on components remains really good It's useful self-knowledge to understand if you prefer a pre-designed map, world, storyline or improvisational tools chthonstone.blogspot.com/2024/04/type...

The latest issue of my Old-School Essentials monster manual zine is out. Essential Enemies 9: Not of This Earth.

Hexcrawl city.

Game design amirite? (And even this is the simple version.)

People sometimes complain that rpgs are a new art form and so there's a lack of formalized knowledge, and techniques and ideas don't get passed on to new generations etc. The result being you see people re-inventing the wheel or whatever every few years.

For real though, this would be rad. Why can't I discuss procedures for wandering around a map without them NOsr bros telling me it means nothing unless character death is on the line? Where my oYESr homies at?

"By and large, Gamemasters don't need new rules, they need stuff for the players to interact with" is possibly the most succinct expression of the main game design difference between osr and storygames I've heard so far.

I tend to bounce off most taxonomies of rpgs because they usually seem to me like they're just based on vibes, so I decided to try cataloguing materials I actually use in an rpg. The materials the GM uses seemed the most important, so here's a thread.

West coast North American English is the perfect language for d20 ttrpgs, because it has 20 vowel phonemes and 20 consonant phonemes.

West coast North American English is the perfect language for d20 ttrpgs, because it has 20 vowel phonemes and 20 consonant phonemes.

The latest issue of my quarterly Old-School Essentials monster manual zine is now available: Essential Enemies 7: Far Beyond Death.

Our Planar Fantasy bundle on the Bundle of Holding is going strong and has a few days left. Spread the word! bundleofholding.com/presents/Sig...

Next week, I'm pretty sure.

The Go Play Northwest crowd funding campaign is now live! GPNW is a great time with a great community! I'm a regular at the online version, so keep an eye out for that later in the year too. www.backerkit.com/c/projects/g...

It's been close to 6 years since I started messing around with this idea, so I guess it's probably about time I made a book or something.

This is still half price at DriveThruRPG until tomorrow morning.

I don't celebrate holidays but I still got an xmas gift: Essential Enemies 3: The Haunted Forest is the Deal of the Day on DriveThruRPG! 44 pages of Old-School Essentials monster manual zine for only 5 bucks. www.drivethrurpg.com/product/4237...

Essential Enemies 6: In Darkening Woods is now available. This is the second forest-themed issue of my quarterly Old-School Essentials monster manual zine.

Essential Enemies 6: In Darkening Woods is now available. This is the second forest-themed issue of my quarterly Old-School Essentials monster manual zine.

Burn in hell Pissinger.

Well it's November guess I better get a new issue of my monster manual zine out the door by the end of the month.

Started making a new game, in the hopes it will help me finish making an older game. Outlanders, fantasy PbtA. www.patreon.com/posts/outlan...