I. Dear Reader Welcome to the 2023 newsletter pledge drive! I’m sad to announce that every year, I’m going to be annoying for exactly 4 (or maybe 5) weeks and explain to you why you should be actively supporting my work. The upside is that I will not be annoying for the rest of the…

I. Dear Reader, Another regularly scheduled roundup of games that have been released on itch.io that caught my eye over the last two months. Usual disclaimer that I haven’t really read or played these games; they just seem cool based on the pitch alone. Also, most of them now come to me by people using…

I. Dear Reader, Been a busy week so just a round-up of the links! See you next week, Thomas II. Media of the Week I enjoyed this interview with the very poetic Luke Jordan of Wild Woods Games over on Third Floor Wars. There’s also an actual play of Grand Guignol by the same designer…

I. Dear Reader The Awards are a frustratingly-named but wonderfully pleasant , grassroots attempt at celebrating unique indie RPGs. Their tagline is “Make Weird Shit. Make Shit Weird.” Every year, a whole new roster of judges spend months picking what they think of innovative games worth celebrating. This year’s winners were announced over video stream…

I. Dear Reader Another quick recommendation this week: I’ve been watching the animated TV show, Scavengers Reign this week. It’s a far future scifi drama about a group of people marooned on an alien planet who are trying to survive. A major emphasis on alien there. Every aspect of the planet is full of wonder,…

I. Dear Reader Been incredibly sick all week. Have gotten zero work done but have been recuperating alongside Elden Ring. The game was on sale and I had heard that unlike other FromSoft games, you can run away from monsters. That’s all I want really, the option to not learn how to parry and instead…

doctors hate this one weird trick for naming your characters in a way that makes things simpler but also more interesting I. Dear Reader, I’ve been a playing a lot of games recently where the players’ characters and many NPCs are all part of the same organization. This could be a pastoral community, a military…

I. Dear Reader, The problem with asking if games are art is that the answer can be as simple and as complicated as you have time for. In some sense, anyone trying to be stingy about what qualifies as art is fighting a battle that was decided a long time ago. Today, anything can be…

I. Dear Reader, Befote I get to talking about roleplaying games but before that, if you can contribute to humanitarian aid in Gaza through orgs like PCRF or MAP, please do. I’m running two sessions of This Ship Is No Mother during the Shared Hearth online event. It’s a kind of mini online gaming convention…