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Posts by Aaron A. Reed

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I Awaken at the Sound of a Dropping Coin by Aaron A. Reed A roleplaying game for two players about the future and the past

Just released this 2-player one that fits the bill... also in the "TTRPGs you can play in 30 minutes or less" category: aareed.itch.io/dropping-coin

6 days ago 1 0 0 0

Unboxing challenge:

I'm looking for more GMless games that you can play together without any reading in advance. Games you can just pick up and follow the instructions cold

Show me what you got!

6 days ago 20 11 24 0
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I Awaken at the Sound of a Dropping Coin by Aaron A. Reed A roleplaying game for two players about the future and the past

I made a new (short) #TTRPG ! It's a two-player storytelling game where one player is a mechanical fortune-teller who only knows the future, and the other a lost and lonely seeker who only knows the past.

(yes I stole the title from Blue Prince)

aareed.itch.io/dropping-coin

1 week ago 8 2 0 0
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Ocean's Eleven meets Dante's Inferno with a mythological twist!

👯 Build the best team for the job
🔥 Dynamic narrative where your choices matter
🎮 Highly replayable
🖌️ 100s of hand-painted illustrations

Wishlist on Steam now: store.steampowered.com/app/3794210/...

1 month ago 96 22 2 8

Go Play NW is an incredible annual event for fans of storytelling roleplaying games, and a wonderful community of kind and generous human beings. They could use a little help getting over the finish line for their annual fundraising drive this year!

1 month ago 4 2 0 0

Still available for one more week!

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
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Downcrawl-Skycrawl Bundle Adventurer! This new Downcrawl-Skycrawl Bundle presents Downcrawl and Skycrawl, twin toolkits from designer Aaron A. Reed that help you create spontaneous tabletop roleplaying adventures in the Deep, ...

Downcrawl 2E and Skycrawl are this week's Bundle of Holding! Get both #TTRPG games and ALL supplements at tremendous savings while you can. Explore weird and wondrous environments in pointcrawl adventures through forgotten labyrinths and skyborne kingdoms...

bundleofholding.com/presents/Dow...

2 months ago 8 4 0 1

If you're like me, you can't get anything done without emotional support tea. I am deeply soothed by the ancient ritual of boiling the water, choosing which tea to get down from the cabinet, letting it steep on the desk beside me, and then completely forgetting about it until the following evening

2 months ago 5 0 0 0
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The Visible Zorker Project (and Patreon) Announcing the Visible Zorker Project and Patreon. The plan: deconstruct every Infocom game, one per month, and make the source code explorable.

Here we go...

Announcing the Visible Zorker Project and Patreon! Remember how I did Visible Zork 1 and 2? I'm going to do Zork 3, and then continue through Infocom's entire canon -- in chronological order, one per month.

blog.zarfhome.com/2026/01/the-...

2 months ago 32 17 1 1
Cropped cover for "The Drizzle Depths" showing woodcut art of a flooded Victorian street, rain drizzling down and faint stalactites dimly visible on a distant roof above.

Cropped cover for "The Drizzle Depths" showing woodcut art of a flooded Victorian street, rain drizzling down and faint stalactites dimly visible on a distant roof above.

Rain falls deep beneath the earth, and will not stop. How will you survive a damper, slimier, flooded underground? Can the Godswimmer be found? Will an Aquaeon Conclave be called? Sink or swim in...

The Drizzle Depths
Downcrawl Adventure Zine #3
#ttrpg

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...

3 months ago 4 3 1 0
DriveThruRPG

And heads up: you can also now get **all three Downcrawl Adventure Zines** together and save a few $$. Each is a unique no-prep adventure for your #Downcrawl2E campaign. www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...

3 months ago 0 0 0 0
Cropped cover for "The Drizzle Depths" showing woodcut art of a flooded Victorian street, rain drizzling down and faint stalactites dimly visible on a distant roof above.

Cropped cover for "The Drizzle Depths" showing woodcut art of a flooded Victorian street, rain drizzling down and faint stalactites dimly visible on a distant roof above.

Rain falls deep beneath the earth, and will not stop. How will you survive a damper, slimier, flooded underground? Can the Godswimmer be found? Will an Aquaeon Conclave be called? Sink or swim in...

The Drizzle Depths
Downcrawl Adventure Zine #3
#ttrpg

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...

3 months ago 4 3 1 0
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On the night before Christmas, your party encounters the bones of a reindeer...

Traverse the Midnight North in Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists.

🎁 Wishlist now: store.steampowered.com/app/3794210/...

3 months ago 30 7 1 0

I understand Christmas is a nice time for some people. If that's you, I hope you have a wonderful week. If it's not, remember you're not alone.

3 months ago 7 0 1 0
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All 35 talks from ThinkyCon 2025 are now available to watch on YouTube · Thinky Games In case you missed any of our 2nd annual online convention centered around the making of the games we love so much, every presentation from ThinkyCon 2025 has now been uploaded to our YouTube channel ...

All 35 talks from THINKY CON, about making puzzle games, are on YouTube: thinkygames.com/news/all-35-...

#puzzlegames #gamedev

5 months ago 16 7 0 0
Wait, No, Hear Me Out: Simulating Encounter AI in Slay the Spire with SQL.

Bring your best warding potions, safety sigils, and blessings: this talk is a light dip of some cursed queries to show how to simulate Slay the Spire's encounter AI with nothing more than SQL (and a lot of free time). Along the way, we'll go over some basic data structures for simulation, declarative vs imperative programming and how (with a little probability) even simple systems can lead to memorable, complex AI.

Wait, No, Hear Me Out: Simulating Encounter AI in Slay the Spire with SQL. Bring your best warding potions, safety sigils, and blessings: this talk is a light dip of some cursed queries to show how to simulate Slay the Spire's encounter AI with nothing more than SQL (and a lot of free time). Along the way, we'll go over some basic data structures for simulation, declarative vs imperative programming and how (with a little probability) even simple systems can lead to memorable, complex AI.

Roguelike Celebration is happening today and my awesome friend Johnathan is giving this inspiring talk (gonna be a great time). www.roguelike.club

5 months ago 7 2 0 0

Hell yeah man! Thanks for sharing the link, it's such great stuff.

6 months ago 1 0 0 0

Nice! Looking forward to reading a deep dive on a tough design space many designers engage with.

6 months ago 43 6 3 1
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"Which would you rather play, a GMless or a diceless RPG"

To which I say, "why not both"

To which you say, "examples please"

Leaving out (checks notes) every single one of my games, let me throw out a few. If I miss your favs, chime in!

6 months ago 102 18 9 0
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Hey it's #SteamSale! You can get
🔥 IMMORTALITY for $9.99
👁️ TELLING LIES for $4.99
☕ HER STORY for $4.99
& wishlist Project C and Project D whilst you are there...
It's a good time to play good games in the present and wish for good games in the future! ✨
store.steampowered.com/developer/Sa...

6 months ago 201 103 3 30

Wow, Alien Earth started out so strong but has sure gotten real dumb the last couple episodes...

7 months ago 2 0 0 0

It’s an honor to help launch this series with @anasalter.bsky.social

7 months ago 7 1 0 0

⬇️ 🚨🚨Heads up, this sale ends tonight!🚨🚨

This is a _rare_ occasion when my physical books are on sale as well my digital stuff (probably increasingly rare if the tariff situation continues to worsen).

7 months ago 6 3 0 0
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The Expressionist Games Manifesto “Work! Intoxication! Brain-racking! Chewing, eating, gorging, rooting up! Rapturous birth pangs! Jabbing of the brush, preferably right…

good morning, i wrote a manifesto about a new direction for game design / play
possumcreek.medium.com/the-expressi...

7 months ago 479 158 23 94

I cannot recommend Aaron's books enough, they are fantastic games and 50 years of text games is an amazing dive into the history of games that has largely been left out of the popular consciousness

7 months ago 4 1 0 0
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Downcrawl 2E - Aaron A. Reed | Downcrawl | DriveThruRPG Explore cursed mazes. Build stalactite cities. Get addicted to mushrooms. Welcome Down. Downcrawl is a tabletop roleplaying toolkit that helps you build and explore a weird, wondrous underworld so far...

Reminder: my #BookSale this weekend includes:

🚪 Subcutanean, spooky novel that changes for each reader: subcutanean.textories.com
⚔️ Downcrawl 2E, #TTRPG of underworld exploration: www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...
💾 50 Years of Text Games, history of interactive fiction: if50.textories.com

7 months ago 10 6 0 2

ReSkies or NuBlues or whatever they're called on here much appreciated 🙏

7 months ago 1 0 0 0

Absolutely! But with only fifty chapters there were hundreds it would have been great to cover that didn't make it in 😭

(I mean that very literally, I had a long list of over 1000 possible games and a shortlist of several hundred...)

7 months ago 1 0 2 0

At that last link BTW you can pick up a print copy of Where The Rock Stops: I only did a tiny print run of 100 zines, so grab it soon if you want it!

Also, this is a rare sale where my physical books are all discounted too, so snag a 50 Years of Text Games or Subcutanean if you've been waiting!

7 months ago 0 0 0 0
Screenshot of DriveThruRPG showing the Downcrawl Deck and other recent RPG titles at a 20% discount.

Screenshot of DriveThruRPG showing the Downcrawl Deck and other recent RPG titles at a 20% discount.

🎃🍁🍂AUTUMN SALE!🍂🍁🎃 All my books and games are on sale for one week only to celebrate the impending arrival of cooler days and pumpkin lattes.
RPGs: www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher...
50 Years of Text Games: if50.textories.com
Subcutanean: subcutanean.textories.com
Cool swag: aaronareed.net/store/

7 months ago 4 5 2 1