Can't overstate this! It feels wonderful to know that someone had a good time with your game. It's not just that they appreciate your work. Someone's day, maybe a day with their friends, got better because of something you put into the world. It's a special feeling.

I wrote an article about how to manage your art in the event of your death, for tabletop RPG designers. Sharing here as screenshots with alt text. Or, follow the link below: www.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/...

I celebrated the fifth anniversary of my first published game with a crossword puzzle. If I was a more sane person, that sentence would mean "I had a bubble bath and did a crossword puzzle in the tub." But no. I made one. Which, it turns out, is wildly difficult. You can play it or read more here.

I'm gonna be a tease about this one.

You can get HOME from IPR, but I'd also highly recommend: Curios by @smolghost.bsky.social (a really cool investigation game that's a literal envelope full of evidence!) & The Hourglass Sings by @kurtrefling.bsky.social (GMless worldbuilding inspired by Zelda!)

6/17 Sock Puppets and friends!

This week at #RPGNightUtrecht we played Sock Puppets by @kurtrefling.bsky.social . What a unique joy it was! And a shining example of how you don't need mechanics when players know exactly what to do.

[Heated arbitration with the fetus union.] And why do you work on the nose in week 8? Don't sniff around in there. It's not OSHA-compliant. You know what else gets made in that cavity. Use week 8 for something useful; develop empathy. [An aide whispers in my ear.] WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT'S YEAR 8.

i hope there's a D&D guy out there who thinks it's spelled "fivey".

I got to play @kurtrefling.bsky.social’s Sock Puppets today and decided it wasn’t enough to make a puppet, I had to also dress like a children’s show puppeteer

Moonshot filmed a playthrough of my Sock Puppets TTRPG. All 4 players made their puppets in advance and didn't show each other until they were live. Please witness the exact moment Andrew wheeled in "Dr. Bean." The whole stream is SO funny. See it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGIJ...

So exciting!!! I'm sad I'll miss this live* but I'm psyched to watch the VOD. I'm told the puppets are 🧑‍🍳💋.

Last summer, a neighbour posted lots of vegetable juice on the local Buy Nothing group: a space for folks to lend or donate things they don't need anymore. I raised my hand -- far be it for a me to turn down free vegetables -- and walked over to the neighbour's address. (1/8)

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Sam's podcast (Afterimage) is the best attempt to capture the feeling of tabletop play ever made. Sam has shared, with my permission, a pretty rabid take from me on actual play in the thread. I'll take space here to ground and elaborate. (1/6)

We're continuing on with The Hourglass Sings by @kurtrefling.bsky.social tonight! www.twitch.tv/himeutsugi #vtuber #vsky #solorpg #solottrpg

IPR is bringing Sock Puppets and all its friends to Origins this year, so here's some glamour shots of my little TTRPGs. Vibes: Avenue Q, Majora's Mask, Lassie. (I know marketing is like 80% bragging, but you might wanna stop by early! Sock Puppets sold out at UKGE, to my delight and surprise.)

i'm still really proud of how the silhouettes of the volcano, title text and characters echo each other

I've released 15 TTRPGs. Most of them have terrible names. Here's what I did wrong, so you don't make the same mistake. Linking as a blog post, but also pasting as images in case you really hate clicking off-site (continued in thread). www.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/...

if moonshot hits 1k on their weekend streamathon, they'll play sock puppets but here's the catch: it's also for a good cause 🏳️‍⚧️

hime played for 3 hours, drew 6 cards and almost cried. you may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

i ran Sock Puppets at a convention this weekend -- a game about puppeteers being selfish and weird on a failing children's tv show. one of the puppeteers has a weird kink; their player gets to choose what the kink is. she chose puppets. we were horrified. it was incredible.

if you like solo actual plays, you can tune in tonight at 9pm eastern to see himeutsugi play through The Hourglass Sings!

my TTRPG streaming group is exceedingly distractible. we go on tangents, we tell out-of-game anecdotes. someday we'll get a heckler who hits us with "it's not an ACTUAL PLAY if you don't ACTUALLY PLAY" and they'll be so right and i'll give them a little crown that says "biggie roasts" on it.

It's the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, so I made my TTRPG tribute free for the next 3 days (when the moon falls). There are 5 full-page works of pixel art that I did by hand, and over 150 unique prompts. Labour of love from me. a-smouldering-lighthouse.itch.io/hourglass

Introduce yourself with your top 5 #TTRPG picks! ❧ Wanderhome ❧ i'm sorry did you say street magic ❧ For the Queen ❧ Legend of Aesthetic ❧ Fall of Magic

turned to my partner this morning. said, "cool beat." nodded towards a tapping: tip tip tip tip tip tip tip tip TIKKAtip tip tip tip tip tip tip tip TIKKAtip. we both groove for a second. anyway the upstairs neighbour left his sink on so now i'm replacing my bathroom ceiling.

a coworker asked me how you win a tabletop RPG. so i confessed. the jig is up, gang. now everyone knows there's no winner; we're just giving other grown-ups social permission to imagine stuff.

if i'm tagged in people's puppet posts for the rest of time, i won't get tired of it. please click through and see this fabulous puppet, oh my god.

i always love to see pictures of my games in-play, but @deepdark.games is doing more for my marketing with that cackle than any blurb could ever do.

something they don't tell you about TTRPG conventions is that they get better every year. acquaintances become friends; friends introduce you to new friends. very grateful for all the darlings i saw at @breakoutcon.bsky.social this year, and the new folks i was delighted to meet for the first time.

Amazing and restorative time seeing friends at Breakout, made some killer zine trades and played with some great people! Already taking notes for Breakout Bites 2026

Just put together a little zine with my Toronto food recommendations and a map of my favourite bookstores. If you're going to @breakoutcon.bsky.social this weekend say hi and I'll give you a copy! stockpotpress.itch.io/breakout-bit...

jason morningstar is one of the most clever, consistent, prolific designers in the TTRPG scene. i am so excited for zhenya's wonder tales, which is a dark, lush game with years of careful development and stunning card art. go go go seeeee www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

90 pounds of my own game arrived today. i feel CRAZY looking at this. it's SO MANY.

feasting on all the nice things people have been saying about sock puppets like i'm the cookie monster. spare bits of praise getting everywhere. none of it is really being digested by me but you can tell i'm having a grand old time.

sometimes i'm given the username "krefling". in theory, this is my first initial and last name. in practice, it is a wretched goblin-like creature. it rides a dachshund and can be bribed with pellets of talc. there is a horde approaching the castle. they are not a threat.

do y'all wanna hear me tell a story about a giant psychic hermit crab? no? what if i told you i played it 100% straight, and that it's "frankly disgusting how wonderful this story is"? catch me guest hosting Alone at the Table, playing the brilliant TTRPG Colossal. pnc.st/s/alone-at-t...

some angel bought this unhinged puppet through my "puppet tier". he was like $200. there were warnings all over the crowdfund that his eyeball might fall off. and yet. i keep doing things for this game that i think are jokes then learn again & again that actually puppets are unironically great.

oh hey, it's the signup schedule for a con i'm running games at. (hands up if you're at breakout in march! come say hi!!)

One of the brightest minds in game design is now free to spend full days creating, instead of managing logistics. So happy to hear that everyone at PCG found a new home.

i made a jokey, we'll-never-make-this-much-money stretch goal for my puppet TTRPG on kickstarter. $5k for a video of herman the puppet narrating the rules in full. "ha ha!" i said. "good joke! fun gag!" well, friends, the joke is on me, because -- www.kickstarter.com/projects/ref...

omg ian is making me blush

i made a tabletop RPG about puppets. naturally, this required making a puppet. it took 3 years for a tiny game, but i learned forbidden knowledge. it turns out everyone has a wretched little puppet voice inside them. also, muppets are really hard to make (but i did it anyway). live now, 🔗 in 🧵.

here's a game where you make puppets and ruin a perfectly good puppet show. i learned a lot while making it (did u know everyone has a wretched puppet voice inside them waiting to get out?), but i mostly learned that @lithish.com makes AMAZING ART. coming in feb. www.kickstarter.com/projects/ref...

i thought it would be fun to prank a friend by playing Nickelback's Photograph (2005) on repeat on a bathroom speaker for hours until they discovered it. well, reader. it was i who was pranked, months later, opening my YouTube Music recap to hear - -

nintendo music is so funny dude. you're like "what's this banger?" and it's Bathing, from ninetendogs

i welcome any explanations at all as to what is going on with my tofu packaging any at all. please help, actually

one of the cool things about larp design is that you can just tell people to make a flower crown and cry about it (this is not a boffer larp, but i do also want to hear about your +5 sword of lachrymosity)

Playing online is convenient and all, but you just can't beat getting together around a real volcano.

it occurs to me that we only call them TTRPGs because we play them on tables. if we start playing on volcanoes or beside boomboxes or in monster trucks, we could rename the whole hobby and suddenly be really cool, actually.