Friends of Marz and friends of Ours at @wizardstaffing.bsky.social and @skeletalgames.bsky.social present: A thrilling Magic and D&D combo event in the loft at the beautiful Ramova Theater in Bridgeport, Chicago! Play Magic, play D&D, play Magic&D&D. Get tix now! www.tixr.com/groups/ramov...
😳
Right?! (The Alien 3 assembly cut is an intense, fascinating study, for sure. I've been hoarding it on disc for fear I'd never find it again.) (I've never seen that side of the moon.)
Are the designers of those games involved in the design of this one, too?
Visit for the game demos, check out the local artist making dice, and shop a curated selection of choice wares from @goblinmkt.bsky.social while supplies last!
Tomorrow? Tomorrow marks the return of the Tabletop Games Demo Expo in Chicago: a chill gathering of game designers, artists, and players talking shop and playing demos of new and forthcoming games—especially #ttrpg! Free to attend from 12pm–5pm, get all the info at demoexpo.games
White text on a snowy blue backdrop reads: "FREE! Tabletop Games Demo Expo, Chicago, January 17, 2026, Noon — 5pm, http://demoexpo.games
"Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Tabletop Games Demo Expo is. You have to see it for yourself... This Saturday!" On 1/17 from 12pm — 5pm in Chicago at the Co-Prosperity gallery, play in-development TTRPGs with their local designers! Learn more at demoexpo.games
Visit with us as Chicago-area designers share their new and in-progress tabletop games — especially #ttrpg — at the Tabletop Games Demo Expo on Saturday from noon to 5pm. It's FREE to attend as a player! @goblinmkt.bsky.social is bringing a selection of game-related wares to buy! demoexpo.games
Visit the Tabletop Games Demo Expo this Saturday from noon to 5pm to try out new and in-development TTRPGs from Chicago-area designers. Join us in shopping the curated wares of @goblinmkt.bsky.social at the Co-Prosperity gallery. Maybe find your next favorite game! Learn more: demoexpo.games
Whoa! Tickets have sold out for our epic fundraising TTRPG event on 1/17. Great thanks to all ye players joining us to confront tyrannical Titans at the event! ALSO—the Tabletop Games Demo Expo is that afternoon and FREE to attend! demoexpo.games
Snowy ground overlaid with a calligram reading "Level Eater" and the date January 17, 2026, followed by the URL leveleater.com in red
Tickets for Level Eater 16 are on sale today — even NOW. Join us for our celebrated, epic #ttrpg adventure raising funds for local arts in Chicago. Be heroic. Fight evil. Play D&D with us! Learn more and pursue tickets at leveleater.com — stay tuned for glimpses of new art and lore, as well!
We plan to shout loud when tickets are on sale, too. We are so excited to gather for adventure in the depth of winter on January 17, 2026, for Level Eater's newest fundraising epic!
Tickets for Level Eater 16 go on sale this week! We just told readers of our newsletter when to find them. Check your spam folders if you don't see today's letter soon. We're developing a bunch of stirring quests for this one—and artists are hard at work on exhibits, illustrations, and merch!
"Will you defend the queen?"
"I am as certain as certain can be," he said.
"Are you willing to bet your copy of _For the Queen_ on that?" they asked.
"Um, gosh, well," he felt hot and cold all at once.
You know how hyperbolic this is, yes? This sounds like the game-content-per-page faux objectivity during the time of the first OGL. How do you, Quinns, determine how long an RPG *should have been?* What do you think publishers get for making books longer? Seriously curious.
Quinns' wit, there, might not be worth the effects this'll have against games that *want* to be other sizes (and the people who make them). It reads like a wink that'll launch a hundred ships. Yet: Reading books is okay, actually, and RPGs are happily made in many sizes, which is great.
Not all RPGs are good at the same things, in the same ways, for the same purposes. Describe your experiences with a game, from product to play. Go ahead and make it about you. Rate it only when absolutely necessary. Rankings are tired, weak technology. We can do better. #TTRPG
The games you love? Celebrate them. Spend your words and your hours on the art you appreciate—spend less of those on the art that doesn't do it for you. Here's a game about it: Celebrate games without using the words "best" or "worst." Each celebration is worth 100pts. Each best/worst is –50pts.
Substituting market factors, sales numbers, publication scale, and similar product-based metrics are distinctly less relevant to RPGs where sales have highly limited relationships to participation and personal impact, anyway. Just as "box office" is novel trivia to have for cinephiles, e.g.
We simply do not have visibility and understanding of what is happening at so many game tables, involving so many different games. More profoundly, how do you measure the impact of a game on the participants? On what scale is "artistic impact" measured? What other media are measured thus?
The best roleplaying game does not exist. So many games are excellent, even exquisite, at what they do and for whom they do it. Many unique properties that make RPGs what they are—emergent, collaborative, participatory, and so on—make the full impact of any RPG something close to immeasurable.
White text on a blue, faceted backdrop reads: Free! Tabletop Games Demo Expo, Chicago, January 17, 2026 (and then the URL in the post).
The Tabletop Games Demo Expo returns January 17th, 2026, at Co-Prosperity in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood. FREE from noon to 5pm, we host designers, artists, and players of great #TTRPG and board games to discover and play new and in-the-works games from locals! demoexpo.games
On a snowy-white background, above snow-covered calligraphy that reads LEVEL EATER, black capital letters read JANUARY 17, 2026. A fleck of what might be blood is on the snow. In red text: leveleater.com
Today is a good day to sign up for the newsletter at leveleater.com — and January 17, 2026, looks to be a good day to join us in Chicago for an adventure. Stay tuned.
This show, and the people who make it, are so good at what they do that we are intimidated by it and would not have it any other way. Mighty thanks and high fives to all the humans who have made Party of One what it is: Wondrous.
The Resurrectionists?
Heck yeah, Oz!
How much to find out how we'll live?
The adventurers who dared to take on the debut event of SALVAGE ERA? They returned a stolen artifact to its rightful place, ending a curse upon the Never Sea. Also, they saved a robot, met ghosts, escaped a deathtrap, and so much more. They were heroic and they fought evil. Thanks, heroes! #ttrpg
Catch us at the free Tabletop Games Demo Expo at Co-Prosperity this Saturday!
More info: demoexpo.games/
SALVAGE ERA debuts this weekend with an epic #ttrpg adventure in Chicago. A handful of tickets are still available! We even offer stickers with game-affecting powers on them as part of our fundraiser! salvage-era.com