Can you name some TTRPGs that show the breadth of what TTRPGs can do? That is, some interesting ones, that do things you wouldn't expect a TTRPG to do? I'm on a podcast tomorrow and want some to hand!
On Patreon, I've started a new series about how to design tabletop RPGs. This is the first post and there'll be lots more.
I'd love to know what you think (it's a paid post). And please do share this!
www.patreon.com/posts/how-to...
I'd bury myself in archives and research something weird like forest law.
(When you say public consumption, if I'm allowed to run stuff for small groups, I might attach myself to a charity or similar)
When I do taxes, about half of my time is taken resolving Patreon's receipts: you download a receipt for money paid on every single day, which doesn't match the amounts charged to my bank account. Crazy.
Fortune & Felicity, from a few years ago, was amazing. I think you're right that there's more that could be done!
I finally watched K-Pop Demon Hunters and it's great. Your Idol is absolutely the best song, I'm obsessed.
I'm sort of interested what your instructions were for this panel: did you say that Superman should look uncertain?
Wow, this is a new season of Lovecraft Investigations, and it's about The Call of Cthulhu. Huge.
(Obviously I first thought it was a Lovecraft Investigations scenario for the Call of Cthulhu RPG.)
www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...
I've had a lovely day in the garden, writing Alien Archaeology and a guide to writing TTRPGs (it'll start appearing on my Patreon soon). And it feels like summer. Beautiful.
It’s low prep, highly flexible, easy to explain—and until 4 PM BST, it’s 60% off on DriveThruRPG.
Sanction is DriveThruRPG Deal of the Day—and for the foreseeable future, it will see further expansion and development. Come along for the ride 😉 /fin
legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/4709...
That feels right actually. TTRPGs are about participating and improvising. Theatre is about watching a polished piece of writing/acting. Yeah.
It's the way it turns something serious and real into a powerful human situation. I just feel TTRPGs struggle to get there.
I meant the content, really, rather than streaming to cinemas.
I once talked with @lumpley.bsky.social about a games meet-up where everyone would cook for each other.
But this was on Google+ and there are none that remember it.
I saw All My Sons - it's a theatre performance shown in the cinema - and it's making me wonder again why TTRPG can't do something this incredible
My favourite sentence in this article is: "My students have taken delight in being lectured by Mycock, and shown great creativity in citing my research in their essays."
And, like all the other indie writers, I was fascinated by narrative. The idea of playing with the Lovecraftian narrative and shaping a game around that was too hard to resist.
It's complex! I can email you something if it helps?
I wrote for Trail of Cthulhu and I was also an indie designer, at the time that free games such as Lady Blackbird came out. So that's the simplest way to explain it: Cthulhu + free game, in a way that lets me write scenarios.
I don't mind talking about Cthulhu Dark if it's helpful
TTRPG about me
First game: Fighting Fantasy
Last game: Arkham Horror
Longest Game: Night Witches
Favourite Game: Oh I don't know. The Quiet Year maybe?
Favourite Mechanics: In Steal Away Jordan, when two characters agree something, they roll to see who sets the exact terms.
Favourite Art: 3:16
I didn't know that. Moon was one of the inspirations for Cosmic Dark
It's a great book. I also loved the options reading to a new essay. I keep thinking about the essay I wrote.
Yes! I haven't actually listened yet but I will.
This series is incredible. I had to stop myself listening to the whole thing at once, because I wanted it to last
That's really interesting. Um. I think it's "How does the game produce the kind of play it does?", which is often but not always about mechanics. I often play interesting big games: Arkham Horror, Fallen London, the Free League ones.
Oh same answer
I love this question. I occasionally look through games to find interesting mechanics. But what I really make time to do, especially at conventions, is play games I haven't played before.
Have you ever run up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum and thrown your arms in the air like Rocky?
I'm reading The Husbands by @hollygramazio.bsky.social , who I once saw give a talk about clapping games. It's a great book, it seems to be 99p on Kindle and it got me through a flight from Crete to the UK.
Some artwork from the inside of the Innsmouth Terror by John Hedge & Friends
The Dramatis Personae page of the Innsmouth Terror by John Hedge & Friends
The introduction page of the Innsmouth Terror by John Hedge & Friends
The front cover of the Innsmouth Terror by John Hedge & Friends
My latest Call of Cthulhu scenario THE INNSMOUTH TERROR is now available in Print on Demand for only $11.99
And... oh, it's pretty team. It's so very pretty...