Someone is going to have to decide if purple is cool or not. I. Dear Reader, One of the big divides I see in RPGs is between folks who like their games to have strong opinions or not. If you don’t like opinionated games, it might be because you see it as overly formal or…

I think matrices and graphs might be getting over-represented on this newsletter. I. Dear Reader, I talk about playstyles a lot. Or at least, I talk about playstyles a lot more than the average. I’m always saying “trad”, “storygame”, “OSR”, etc – they’re completely imperfect labels, for sure. But for me, I prefer that imperfection…

I. Dear Reader, It’s the itch.io round-up of new games! Now coming to you once every two months because that sounds easier. Usual disclaimer: This comes from be browsing itch.io and people self-submitting through the form. I haven’t played these games and mostly am just going by how interesting they sound to me. Okay, let’s…

And adventure, thy name is prep I guess I. Dear Reader, If you identify the beginning of tabletop roleplaying with the arrival of D&D (and you don’t have to), then the hobby begins with the idea of the game’s text being a “toolkit”. Basically, the book only has some of the parts of the game.…

a follow-up tip I. Dear Reader, I. One of the games I’m in currently is a fortnightly game of Becky Annison’s Bite Marks. It’s a very cool RPG where you play a pack of werewolves with messy inter-personal dynamics and suchlike. I picked the Alpha playbook, which is exactly what it sounds like. The game…

I. Dear Reader, I’m travelling again! So this week is another issue with just links, but there’s a bumper crop of interesting stuff to read. Enjoy! Back next week, Thomas PS. Here’s a picture of some dachshunds (I think!) looking at a frog. II. Media of the Week Liber Ludorum launches a podcast and in…

Just the links this week! I. Dear Reader, I’ve been traveling these last few days so this week’s newsletter is just some links. This will be the case next week also, so some advance warning. But should be back after that! See you then, Thomas II. Media of the Week Nothing this week! I’m almost…

fun conversations over on the Yes Indie’d Podcast I. Dear Reader Over on the Yes Indie’d Podcast, I had a really nice conversation with Fiona Hopkins and Stephanie Burt about their lovely podcast, Team Up Moves, where they play and review superhero RPGs. I want to talk about something that came up right at the…

The long-delayed answer to why I’m doing this newsletter. I. Dear Reader, I think I like the idea of being a critic. It feels like a role that comes with respect, maybe even power. But when I think of this critic, I’m imagining a taste-maker, someone who is an arbiter of value. Someone who decides…

I know it sounds like a band name but it’s actually about a deck of cards as a pacing tool. I. Dear Reader, At some point early last year, I started working on a Forged in the Dark game that was tentatively titled Depths Unfathomable. It was a post-apocalyptic game about diving underwater, recovering lost…