Posts

Post-apocalypse settings vary widely, but the matter of who characters trust is always important.

Throwing people together into a game is not always the best way to build a gaming community. Socializing in a no-pressure environment is a great alternative.

How your campaign interacts with canon is important, but there are other ways to think about licensed settings.

Before you build out plans for your post-apocalyptic campaign, think about what you want from it.

What does a player character do when they have to choose between what is right and what is expected of them?

Arkhane Asylum’s GODS follows a path less taken.

The Stoic philosophers have something to say about players destroying the best-laid plans of gamemasters.

It can be easy to get excited about a new published setting, but it pays to evaluate it before bringing it to the table.

There is no One True Way to play tabletop RPGs, but Setting First is oriented around three particular approaches to play.

Eighty-two sessions into a Degenesis campaign, I reflect on how I’ve run the game so far, what my players and I have learned, and what the game has given us.

Paleomythic combines tight, elegant mechanics, clever character differentiation, and just enough but not too much worldbuilding.

Why is it that there is no moral panic about computer RPGs in the way that there was in the early days of tabletop roleplaying?

Before the Internet gave us the pleasure and torture of instant connectivity, I ran many an adventure with the help of the US Postal Service.

There are some things a human artist can provide that AI tools just can’t match.

As GMs and players, we can use status to inform the creation of NPCs and PCs.

The new Twilight: 2000 seems to be tailor made for me, but I do wonder when I’ll get to run it.

Give me a subjective review based on actual play, not another faux-objective review based on just reading the rules.

Posts on TTRPG worldbuilding, managing campaigns, running sessions, and thoughts on tabletop roleplaying as a hobby.

Why are we drawn to play tabletop RPGs, what can we learn from Guillermo Del Toro, and how do roleplaying games boost our mental health?

Just like our world, a tabletop RPG campaign won’t feel real without a few absurdities.

My understanding of believability in roleplaying games, particularly with regard to violence, has shifted over the years.

The Eclipse Phase setting can prompt thoughtful gamers to explore their assumptions about political, social, and economic structures in a context of wild adventure.

On the benefits of making room in my life for tabletop roleplaying by eliminating something else.

How to not pick a game system that fits your favorite setting, and how to do it right.

There’s a reason tabletop RPG settings that offer a breadth of possibilities are so popular.