shoutouts to dillin and elliot for letting me give them the hard sell on a cover design that i can only describe as Sex Tetris

Ok big things for my mockups: First I just finished a new one! Perfect bound mockup, digest, with four views, including a standing view of the front cover and spine. Find that here:

A great list with plenty of games from some of my favorite designers.

OK, have at it. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of games I want to play this year. I think it's a fun list! youtu.be/1mi7YiRJSWg

The blog says "4-minute read." That's a lie. Here's every finalist from the past three years of The Bloggies. www.explorersdesign.com/the-bloggies...

Loved this post by @capacle.bsky.social about player-character emulators and playing solo RPGs as the GM. I'd love to see more posts like these on solo RPGs.

Today is a day to remind yourself that what you witnessed 5 years ago was true, leveled against your own basic rights to representation as a citizen, planned out in the open, and probably much worse than we imagined. I will be getting ready for the semester today, and thinking.

Last week, @croaker-rpgs.bsky.social posted my guest essay. It explores two frameworks for thinking about solo games. More than anything, really, I wrote it with the hope that I'll see more discussions of solo rpgs as a form - in blogging or essays. Be the change that you want to see, and all that.

Did you catch the January newsletter? It looks at 7 games from the mecha mini-game jam, picked by Aaron Lim and myself. It also spotlights a mecha ttrpg bundle with only a few days left on it.

Screaming Metal: Vector Soul is my solo, juggling-act of a mecha game, where you play either as a pilot, taking missions and getting fucked by your handler, or as the handler, waging political war and sending your pilots on missions that fuck them. www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

There's some cool games in here (including one of mine)!

Five days to go! Get a whole loading bay of giant robot TTRPGs from a crew of indie designers for 80% off. itch.io/b/3426/sprin...

The world is on fire right now, and the beginning of the year is always rough for bills and fees for me. Supporting me by buying a game is the most direct way and you get a sapphic dramatic heroic game out of it too.

Hey, that's me! Inspired by my conversation with @newmadras.bsky.social, I dig into what it means to think about solo rpgs as "open-ended" or "close-ended" and what makes solo RPGs replayable. I end by considering what these ideas could mean for traditional, group RPGs. I hope you check it out!!

Got a zine quest project you need help on? You can hire me for design consulting! gilarpgs.com#hireme

I wrote a blog post! www.technicalgrimoire.com/david/2025/1... Trying to get back in the habit of creativity.

One week from today, I'll be doing a Cyberrats Q&A on Twitch, my first time on the platform. Shepherding me there, and answering all the questions too vivid or colorful for my own brain will be streaming guru and artist extraordinaire @das-boog.bsky.social Get your burning questions in now!

Cooking something wicked and fun for ZIMO this year.

About one day left on my winter sale! itch.io/s/175006/gil...

Looking for more commissions!

We are kicking off the 2026 Playtest Zero season with our annual #ShowcaseZero event for 2025. We’ll have several gamemakers showcase works from last year and talk about their process. Watch it live this weekend at twitch.tv/ehronlime on 9 Jan 2026 6 pm PST/9 pm EST, 10 Jan 2026 10 am (GMT+8)!

I've been horrified so many times during this presidency, especially in recent months. And somehow this nightmare keeps getting worse and worse. Watching the news tonight has left me feeling like the world is peering over the edge of a dangerous precipice.

Diving into 2026, the Lone Toad continues guest posts with Asa Donald of Backward Tabletop. Asa talks about Open-Ended and Close-Ended Solo RPGs, and how traditional play can learn from them. open.substack.com/pub/croakerr...

Design is a physical act. Print it out. Hold it in your hands. Cut it to shape. Paste it onto another book or zine. Design for the hands, the hold, the fold, and the weight. Even if your game is digital-only, the physical prototype will show you the typos.

Especially dangerous when you a name that is only one letter away from "Ass."

The 2025 Indie Groundbreaker Awards are here! Have you published a LARP, table top RPG, card, board, or other analog game in 2025? We want to see it! Submit yours today: forms.gle/Jgnu7Ev5BnkU... Visit www.igdnonline.com/groundbreakers for more details. Submissions close on January 31st.

Weekend Update: 1/3/2026 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.

Hey, that's me! Inspired by my conversation with @newmadras.bsky.social, I dig into what it means to think about solo rpgs as "open-ended" or "close-ended" and what makes solo RPGs replayable. I end by considering what these ideas could mean for traditional, group RPGs. I hope you check it out!!

If you have a favorite series or wrote one yourself, please submit it! I would love to see more series, not just in the bloggies but more generally. One post is rarely enough!

Here's some fun data on The Bloggies' after 24 hrs: Best Series: 33 entries Best Debut Blog: 61 Best Blog Post: 372 - Theory: 132 - Advice: 117 - Gameable: 70 - Critique: 53 The nominations process is going to be tough. That said, I would like to see some more critique and series.

Bumping this for the morning crowd:

It’s Bloggies Time! This is a thread of what I’m nominating, so you can, if you choose, read them and nominate them yourself! Firstly, please nominate something of mine that made an impact on you — a series like Critique Navidad or a single post like my Module-Writing Play by Play! Thanks! 1/🧵

🚨IMPORTANT AWARDS ALERT🚨

A fish bone on a camping trip, around the age of 9.

It's pay what you want, so really there's nothing stopping you from playing this with a friend.

I am a sincere admirer of Nova and her reviews. So, I am honored to see that she picked SPINE as the best RPG of 2025 in the Idle Cartulary Awards for Excellence in Elfgames. If you're wondering about SPINE, please check out Nova's review. And check out the many other games that she picked too.

I've already submitted my favorite posts. And I'd love if you submitted one of my posts. For both, see the 🧵👇 Also, if you have a favorite *series* or wrote one yourself, please submit it! I would love to see more series, not just in the bloggies but more generally. One post is rarely enough!

Submit your favorites of 2025 (and December 2024)! Submit your own, submit others' posts! Submit even if you think someone else already has, multiple submissions are actually very helpful in the process!

I'm running a "high level" (late campaign) streamed one shot of Cyberrats in Space with @rpgsuncovered.bsky.social next month! No experience necessary, express interest below! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I've already submitted my favorite posts. And I'd love if you submitted one of my posts. For both, see the 🧵👇 Also, if you have a favorite *series* or wrote one yourself, please submit it! I would love to see more series, not just in the bloggies but more generally. One post is rarely enough!

Two big announcements this New Year for me. First, the latest issue of The Explorateur is out. It has two of my favorite blog posts I've ever written in it (Including a YouTube read through! Wild!) www.explorersdesign.com/the-explorat... It also has my second announcement...

It's an honor to receive bronze in Best Roleplaying Game for Chain×Link! Thank you so much to @idlecartulary.itch.io for reviewing the game! Be sure to also check out @backwardsttrpg.bsky.social's Spine and @aethercorp.games's Field Agent's Handbooks.

I am a sincere admirer of Nova and her reviews. So, I am honored to see that she picked SPINE as the best RPG of 2025 in the Idle Cartulary Awards for Excellence in Elfgames. If you're wondering about SPINE, please check out Nova's review. And check out the many other games that she picked too.

Two silly big posts today, the first being the Idle Digest for December of 2025, featuring a recap of Critique Navidad for those who couldn’t follow it closely: open.substack.com/pub/idlecart...

A little over a week to go on the Mecha TTRPG Bundle! Get a stack of big stompy metal plated games at 80% off, but only while the deal lasts. itch.io/b/3426/sprin...

I'm proud of the Golden Age video, but I much prefer video essay style pieces. If you are interested in my other work, here's my 5 best videos from this year: Arguably my best writing of the year is my video on Titanomachy's "NIGHTHAWKS," where I talk about how its relationship to Edward Hopper

Planning on running some ads in 2026? Learn from my mistakes: omnes.exeunt.press/p/reddit-ads...

Bumping for the Wednesday morning crowd. (Is that a thing?) January newsletter is out early, given the whole new year thing

Obligatory end of year review post, but I saved it for the VERY last minute. Check out My 2025 on Jackalope Mail: jackalope-mail.neocities.org/posts/2025-1...

The Thunder Perfect Mind is an occult action thriller #ttrpg. If you like the sound of playing powerful undead revenants back from the grave to face the toxic nostalgia for their past, with a focus on breakneck action, interpersonal drama, and occult investigation, follow the KS now!