Girlframe, Frames, Individuals

I. Spotlight

There’s been a couple of great Girlframe video reviews that have come out recently. It’s very cool to see. If you haven’t heard of Girlframe, the titles of the videos should give you a sense of it. It’s an intense game, so go in duly warned.

II. Media of the Week

Johann Nohr and Andre Novoa who are both known for their visual artistry primarily have a cool podcast about all the other aspects that go into game making and publishing. This one is all about the logistics side of things.

Sam Sorenson spoke at NarraScope 2026 about Over/Under and it’s a great overview of the 1000+ person Discord game as well as analysis of the various frames you can understand games through.

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III. Links of the Week

Articles

Thursday Garreau has a great pair of posts exploring the pre-history of Doskvol and Blades in the Dark. It’s a really fun exploration of the campaigns and games that led to the game’s existence in the form that we know it today.
Aaron Marks writes about how RPGs constantly iterate on themselves even after publishing: “Even though the published version of the game hadn’t changed, we had rules modifications delivered fresh…so long as someone in the group was on the Discord and at least nominally engaging with the fannish side of the game’s community.”
Elmcat writes (angrily but accurately!) about the limitations of how we talk about games without including the cultures of play that surround them: “The moment you say any of this too directly, I kid you not, someone is going to hear “your fun is wrong”. So you have to begin every conversation with the tedious ritual of apology. Of course all playstyles are valid. Of course you can do what you want at your table. Of course this is only my opinion.”
Explorer’s Design has a great post about how to pick page sizes for TTRPGs.
On the Nordic Larp site, an interesting post called “why I hate post-larp compliment threads” tackling the social dynamics that emerge in and outside of games even when the goal is “tell people how much you liked their contribution”.

News

The first Wizards of the Coast union has officially been formed as the Magic the Gathering Arena (a videogame) team has won an National Labor Relations Board vote that shows the majority of the team’s members were in support.
Finland has added roleplaying (both tabletop and larp) into its encyclopedia of national heritage, officially recognising it as an important part of modern Finnish culture.

IV. What am I playing?

This is a day late but I wanted to get it out even though I was caught up all weekend. We’re at an interesting place for Band of Blades and Apocalypse World: Warriors of the World Ablaze where we’re all really happy with the game and feel like we’ve hit the peak of it and are sorta seeing the ending coming at us. With Band of Blades, there’s an ending and we’re seeing it come — it’s like when you’re reading a book and can see you have only 20 pages left. It’s bittersweet. It’s also unclear if the group continues with another game as people’s schedules are changing.

With Apocalypse World, we could play forever and maybe we should. But that’s now how the group has ever worked. We’ve always switched games and GMs. So now even though things are great, our play culture is asserting itself: should we keep going? should we do our usual thing and skip? There’s no right answer here. On one hand, of course, we should keep playing the game we’re loving. On the other hand, our GM could use a break probably, they’re looking forward to being a player. One of our players hasn’t been able to play this campaign as much due to their personal schedule, maybe if we start a new game, they’ll be more plugged in.

There’s also another reason that I’ve never quite articulated: I think this campaign might be a bit too much about my character. Or rather, two characters — mine and their sister. Because we as players have been the most regular, because we keep doing cool stuff, and because their combined motivations are so strong, we’ve always got the strongest claim for spotlight at any given moment of time. I like that and I also don’t like that. It’s fun but I’m also worried about it.

This worry isn’t healthy — it’s a manifestation of the general anxiety I feel about everything I do. Nothing debilitating, but a haunting presence nonetheless.

But I worry less about being the one who talks most when I GM. The social permission, the structural benefits for other players — that’s enough to ease my mind, mostly. In some ways, GMing is probably one of the most pro-social ways we have to allow people who want to make themselves the centre of attention to do that. (I’m not really trying to talk about anybody else except me here so apologies if that comes across as harsh — I’m in a maudlin mood.)

V. Small Ads

All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.

Nine suspects. A lurking evil. A trail of clues. Murder at the Mudpools], a 5e compatible investigative mystery. Plus adventure supplement. On Kickstarter now.
Virtual Battle Mat: the simplest VTT online. Drop a map, place tokens, play. Voice and video built in. No rules engine, any system. Feels like a real table. vbm.games

This newsletter is sponsored by the wonderful Bundle of Holding. Check out the latest bundles below:

Two bundles for early fantasy RPG, Chivalry and Sorcery, with a new collection of sourcebooks.
Also, you can also grab a whole bundle of Torchbearer.
Then, Mappa Mundi, a rules-light game of exploration and ecology.

Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. If you’d like to support this newsletter, share it with a friend. If you’d like to know more about my work, check out the coolest RPG website in the world Rascal News or listen to me talking to other people on the Yes Indie’d Podcast.