Tag: game design
All Games Are Zero-Player Games
A meditation on what happens before the button is pressed, if it ever is
The Game Wants to Be Played!
Exploring collectables, repair, stewardship, and games.
My Life as a Cursed Sword: A Review of Artefact
Truly, I really wanted to like Artefact. Several people pointed it out to me as comparable to my current project, Awakened Applewood. Both include conscious objects reckoning with their existence and seeking answers to questions innate to their form that have no correct answer.…
My Life as a Cursed Sword: A Review of Artefact
Truly, I really wanted to like Artefact. Several people pointed it out to me as comparable to my current project, Awakened Applewood. Both include conscious objects reckoning with their existence and seeking answers to questions innate to their form that have no correct answer.…
The Quest Has Changed
During my months away from the Questlog, I’ve been attending to some health matters. When I’ve been able, I’ve been creating, reconsidering, recovering, and exploring what kind of work I actually want to do, both in general and with this space.
The Quest Has Changed
During my months away from the Questlog, I’ve been attending to some health matters. When I’ve been able, I’ve been creating, reconsidering, recovering, and exploring what kind of work I actually want to do, both in general and with this space.
Putting the drive into V_DRIVE
Mecha design and ideas document
Small Souls in a Big World: A Wanderhome Setting
There are two parallel worlds, although none can tell you where one ends and the other begins. The True world is whimsical and rich with emotion, where animalfolk live lives of gentleness, curiosity, and pastoral comfort. The Weird world is a strange, surreal mirror; a medieval…
Small Souls in a Big World: A Wanderhome Setting
There are two parallel worlds, although none can tell you where one ends and the other begins. The True world is whimsical and rich with emotion, where animalfolk live lives of gentleness, curiosity, and pastoral comfort. The Weird world is a strange, surreal mirror; a medieval…
Re-Writing Your Adventure: Stewpot & Narrative Therapy
Stewpot is a 2025 TTRPG from Evil Hat where you and your friends play adventurers who have retired to start a tavern. The book is marketed with a cozy, slice-of-life theme, and you could even bring characters from another more traditional campaign that you’d like to retire.…
Re-Writing Your Adventure: Stewpot & Narrative Therapy
Stewpot is a 2025 TTRPG from Evil Hat where you and your friends play adventurers who have retired to start a tavern. The book is marketed with a cozy, slice-of-life theme, and you could even bring characters from another more traditional campaign that you’d like to retire.…
New York Zoo's Player Empowerment
A Turn-Taking Mechanism That's Stuck With Me
The Journey to Define Cozy Games
I’ve been on a journey for a few months trying to understand coziness in games from a top-down perspective. I think I’ve finally found, in reading some philosophy of language, a workable answer.
The Journey to Define Cozy Games
I’ve been on a journey for a few months trying to understand coziness in games from a top-down perspective. I think I’ve finally found, in reading some philosophy of language, a workable answer.
Notes on Every New System I Play this Year #4: Honey Heist
Disclaimer: I encounter many of these systems for one-shots at meetups, where I sometimes won't even know what I'll be playing going in. Because of this, I'll often only have taken a deeper look at parts of the book that relate to character creation, and flipped through the rest. But I'll always have played them!
Notes on Every New System I Play this Year #3: :Otherscape
Disclaimer: I encounter many of these systems for one-shots at meetups, where I sometimes won't even know what I'll be playing going in. Because of this, I'll often only have taken a deeper look at parts of the book that relate to character creation, and flipped through the rest. But I'll always have played them!
Notes on Every New System I Play this Year #2: Brindlewood Bay
Disclaimer: I encounter many of these systems for one-shots at meetups, where I sometimes won't even know what I'll be playing going in. Because of this, I'll often only have taken a deeper look at parts of the book that relate to character creation, and flipped through the rest. But I'll always have played them!
"We Need to Talk About Goodman Games" vs. "Eating the Book" - Why not both?
Last week, Questing Beast's Ben Milton released a video in which he talked about Dungeon Crawl Classic (DCC) adventures, and why he generally doesn't like them very much. In it, he compares Goodman Game's DCC module "Sailors on a Starless Sea" to Necrotic Gnome's Dolmenwood module "Winter's Daughter", which he likes quite a bit.
On Limited Ammunition in Toaster Gun
I want Doom, but also I don't
Our Web is now online!
We’re back online to share more about Dark Space Society RPG.
Killing Stats #Poise
Follow me as I remove a third of my Core Resolution Systems rules.
Project Introduction #Poise
An Introduction to Poise my umpteenth TTRPG