• #55: Year in Review

    I. Dear Reader, This week, I wanted to do something that I’ve always appreciated other people doing. Which is sharing my itch.io analytics! Disclaimer: There’s not a whole lot to see. I’ve not been very intentional about my design or publishing so far. This was mostly conscious. I didn’t want to pressure myself into being…


  • #54: Collaborative Campaignbuilding

    I. Dear Reader, This week, I want to talk about a very specific, tricky kind of fun: building out a campaign world in Session Zero. If you’ve ever played a game where you had to do this, you probably know what I mean. It’s a tonne of fun to just seed the setting with all…


  • #53: Groundbreakers

    I. Dear Reader, This week, I’m really excited about the 2021 Indie Groundbreaker nominees! These are the awards handed out by the Indie Game Developer Network chosen by a rotating cast of judges. This year has a particularly great line-up! Compared to the Ennies (which was also announced this week), this list is way more…


  • #52: A New World

    I. Dear Reader, This week, we’re back to more or less regular programming where I just excitedly talk about something every issue. Today, its A New World for Whom by Pedro Lhallier, a fantasy setting steeped in magical realism and post-colonial latin america that just exists as a free PDF on twitter as far as…


  • #51: Token Games Are Not About Tokens

    I. Dear Reader, After four issues wandering the dark and proclaiming the good word of FitD, I think it’s time to take a break. That was July, this is August! So let’s talk about token games and how they’re not about tokens. First of all, this is a provocative title but it’s not really a…


  • #50: Surveying the Dark – Part 4

    I. Dear Reader, It’s the milestone Issue #50 for the newsletter which means it’s been almost a year of these weekly dispatches from indie rpg land. I’ve really enjoyed doing these over the last year – even when it gobbles up my precious weekend hours. So I just want to say thanks for reading and…


  • #49: Surveying the Dark (in Spaaace) – Part 3

    I. Dear Reader We continue our wide-reaching survey of Forged in the Dark games. This issue, we travel far indeed… even to the edges of the galaxy and beyond. Here’s a round-up of all the sci-fi FitD games I could find! So, the big one. You probably know Scum and Villainy, maybe the most popular…


  • #48: Surveying the Dark – Part 2

    I. Dear Reader, This week, we’re continuing my misguided overview of the world of Forged in the Dark games. And in today’s newsletter, I’m going to try and quickly slot dozens of games into various categories of fantasy. Is this foolish? Only the normal amount! Disclaimer: I’ve read only a very small percentage of all…


  • #47: Surveying the Dark – Part 1

    I. Dear Reader I love Forged in the Dark games. Have I said that before? I might have let it slip once or twice or a dozen times. And its not that I think this is an unpopular opinion in the slightest – the system gets a lot of love online. For good reason. Blades…


  • #46: StoryGame Skill

    I. Dear Reader, This week, considering its the halfway mark of 2021, I posted a list of all the games Ive played this year on twitter. Most of them were one-shots of games that were designed for campaigns. Which means I got a taste of them but not the full meal. This got me thinking…