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…

It’s in April because of the wibblywobbly nature of time. I. Dear Reader, Every month, I do a round-up of new tabletop RPGs that have been listed on itch.io. They come from be browsing the site as well as designers pro-actively telling me via this form. This is the round-up for March! Bloodsucker Elegy: Play…

My understanding is that with a long title, these subtitles aren’t displayed. If so, my hot take is that if Cthulhu does really fhtagn, then it’s just like you and me. I. Dear Reader, Last week, I said I might talk about the Mothership character sheet. And turns out, I am doing that. Incredible. The…

I. Dear Reader, This newsletter is late because I’ve been down with the flu this whole weekend. I could’ve sent it out without this opening section but last week, a lot of people had commented with suggestions and I felt like I’d rather be late but maintain our flow of conversation. Okay, so we were…