• Jan Mini-Letter

    I. Dear Reader, No post this week but please enjoy the links! As always, Thomas II. Media of the Week III. Links of the Week Rascal News (It’s been a great week on the site so apologies for sharing so many links!) Articles IV. Small Ads All links in the newsletter are completely based on…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Incomplete Games

    I. Dear Reader So last week, I talked about the quest for complete games and mentioned that one of the reasons they’re so rare is because some people like them that way. The other reason is that they’re really hard to do. Complete games often feel like the realm of professional businesses (and of course,…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Complete Games

    I. Dear Reader, When D&D (1974) first came out, it wasn’t a complete game. In The Elusive Shift, Jon Peterson quotes a person saying in 1979 that “D&D is, in fact, less a game than a design-a-game kit”. Over the last 50 years, that’s a tension that hasn’t gone anywhere. Today, there are lots of…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Two Zero Two Five

    I. Dear Reader, It’s a new year and this newsletter continues its inexorable march towards its 5th anniversary. Nothing shall stop it except all the usual things that stop stuff like this. I hope you enjoyed the pre-planned surprise of not receiving an email in your inbox last week. It was nice to take a…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Games of the Year 2024

    I. Dear Reader Today, I join the proud tradition of making up award categories as an excuse to talk about games (shoutout to the Ramanan Sivaranjan Awards for Excellence in Gaming). I don’t have a cool name for the awards yet but here they are anyway: Game That Made My Brain Ask “What The Hell…

    Thomas Manuel

  • 2024 in Review

    I. Dear Reader, Over on Yes Indie’d, I get together with Quinns to do a look back on the year – for Quinns Quest, for me, for RPGs in general. I’ll repeat some of those things here for all the people who don’t like podcasts but this will just be a general look-back on the…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Best of the Newsletter 2024

    I. Dear Reader, Here’s ten of my favourite bits of writing from the newsletter this year. Thanks as well for reading and coming along with me for a whole year of posts. If you’ve got 5 minutes, I would greatly appreciate you filling out the annual survey! Last year, it helped me understand who my…

    Thomas Manuel

  • New Games on Itch in Oct & Nov 2024

    I. Dear Reader Welcome to another itch.io round up. If this is the first post like this that you’re seeing: every two months I highlight around ten new games. Most of these games are small in scope and I usually have not played or even read them. I’m often just picking them based on whats…

    Thomas Manuel

  • November Links

    I. Dear Reader, Nothing in this section today. It’s one of those weeks where I’ve thrown out more words than I’ve written. So enjoy the links and have a good week ahead. Yours, crumpling up paper into balls and throwing them at baskets, Thomas II. Media of the Week Heart of the Deernicorn recorded a…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Dreaming about next year

    I. Dear Reader, I’ve been thinking about next year – like many people, I’m just waiting for the pages of the calendar to turn, even though there’s no reason to assume that would help with anything. As far as games are concerned, I have three ideas I would like to try. All of them with…

    Thomas Manuel