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Recent posts from across the ring.
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Earlier
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Over the summer I wrote a one page RPG called Nuclear Angels: The Wasted World. It's free and you can check it out on itch right now. In this post I'll talk about what went...
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[This is the first in a hopefully long running series of flash fiction that I aim to write as exercises in writing daily. I will not post all of them, but this is the first,...
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Challenged by Trick the Giant to commemorate the founding and server-activation of the Vienna DM Supergroup with a post on the theme of Community - I was brainstorming what I...
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Reaction rolls are my favorite part of OSR/NSR play. But they have been around forever, in largely unchanged form, since the early days of DnD. That got me thinking: can we...
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I am a sensitive person, and the world is too hard for me right now. Collage by me. Enough 2 (2026).I came home because I wanted meaning and purpose. When I watched Andor, I...
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Para tener algo más que ideas sobre lo que pasas en el mundo de nuestra saga, necesitamos un sistema de facciones.
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Recently, in my homebrew Worlds Without Number sandbox campaign, the party was camping outside of a corrupted keep they've been exploring the last few sessions. The camp was...
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The question “How do I make a fantasy setting feel real?” is one people never really ever stop grappling with. Especially in games.There is a lot of good input on this topic:...
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In collaboration with Loch "Nothic's Eye" Eil.For your next encounter table, consider orcs.
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You’re here on a narrow frozen road clinging to the edge of a very steep, very snowy cliff. You are on the slopes of Monte Zakazaña, the highest mountain in the Sierra Xelar,...
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Many people all over the world have been saying things along the lines of, "Michael, can you write a list of other works that have influenced you? I need to know because...
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I've been thinking about loot for the past two days, ever since Sandro wrote The Loot Sicko's Dilemma. I think Sandro's interests and touchpoints vary from mine, so it was a...
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If you should apply anything from this article, you must, like me, apologize for adding cruft to Chris’s elegant design. Shame, shame! Apologies also if you read this and find...
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Following my article on running sandbox adventures, I share practical tips for running city-based campaigns. Often considered the hardest challenge for GMs, I share my prep...
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There is a large and very beautiful old house, which would, a hundred years ago, have housed a wealthy family and their staff, but which is now rented out to whoever, whenever,...
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New to the ongoing blog series called STQK "Would you like to know more?" Hello there, I rolled up two PCs according to Gamma World 1e rules and supplied background and...
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Over on Bluesky I did a readthrough of both the orange cover and green cover versions of Dungeon Module B3: Palace of the Silver Princess. My reading of the orange version was...
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Sometimes it matters which tool we pick up. It's 1981. The Roland TB-303 is a new bass synthesiser. It was designed to act as a substitute for a bass guitar player, much like a...
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Considering how to express the setting of "Your Sector, Your Problem" (SHIELD/Stargate Command but responsible for a sector of inhabited alien worlds) through saving throws as...
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I can trace a lot of my hobbies along crooked paths back to a fuzzy origin, a ball of time and memory that might be as narrow as a year or as wide as a range of years. But it’s...
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I’d like to be so bold as to suggest that we have a problem. Trans-females are obviously having a moment in political discourse, and their characterization has shifted in...
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Today Clayton of Explorers Design released an incredible article about an issue that's been living rent free in my brain and I finally have a word for: Dominant Mechanics -...
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Or in what state a layout designer will find your game text most usable, based on my own experience and tips from members of the Explorer’s Design Discord. In the five years...
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Challenges in the Slumbering CastleThere is only 1 enemy to fight in the Slumbering Castle¹. The place is empty. Initially I pondered including all kinds of enemies² but...
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The Endless Capsule Game that will Never let the OSR Die
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Rules form relationships with each other. Some share play. Some hog it.
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and an album recommendation
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An interesting post from Clayton discusses what he calls Dominant Mechanics: “Dominant Mechanics are rules that cannot co-exist in a system without monopolizing play and...
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Game writing income, publications and future plans Hi, The year is nicely underway and the whole world feels, well, not better. What a mess. It feels like our make believe...
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Announcing the release of the first illustrated adventure for Glowburn & Radscars! Feature Presentation is now available for download. Venture into the irradiated wilderness...