Tag: RPG

Lessons from the Isle of Joy: Time Records (Strict and Otherwise)

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This post is, yes, me trying to convince you to check out my latest RPG project, the Isle of Joy over on Kickstarter right now. However, since I’m not used to selling my stuff, I am going wrap the sales pitch in bacon some short essays on actionable related to RPGs. Maybe they’ll be things most GMs have figured out for themselves, maybe not, but I’d like to share what I got from the experience of designing and playtesting the book.  Today, I’m going to address how time and pacing works when it comes to worldbuilding or, rather, when it comes …

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Lessons from the Isle of Joy: XP in a Survival Game

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This post is, yes, me trying to convince you to check out my latest RPG project, the Isle of Joy over on Kickstarter right now. However, since I’m not used to selling my stuff, I am going wrap the sales pitch in bacon some short essays on actionable related to RPGs. Maybe they’ll be things most GMs have figured out for themselves, maybe not, but I’d like to share what I got from the experience of designing and playtesting the book.  Today, I’m going to address how to handle the question of XP in a game where the focus becomes survival …

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Lessons from the Isle of Joy: Languages

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This post is, yes, me trying to convince you to check out my latest RPG project, the Isle of Joy over on Kickstarter right now. However, since I’m not used to selling my stuff, I am going wrap the sales pitch in bacon some short essays on actionable related to RPGs. Maybe they’ll be things most GMs have figured out for themselves, maybe not, but I’d like to share what I got from the experience of designing and playtesting the book.  When we were playtesting Isle of Joy, one thing that came up was languages. The Isle is a weird place, …

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Isle of Joy: Kickstarter Coming Soon!

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While this blog is not heavily-trafficked, I thought it would probably be a good idea to post this here, because at least according to my site’s stats, a few real people do drop by from time to time.  If you’re following me on social media, you’re probably aware that there’s a Kickstarter coming up for my Isle of Joy adventure book. One of the elevator pitches I’ve seen is, “If Jodorowsky directed The Tempest for A24, but an RPG,” and that feels right to me. If that appeals to you, then head over here to be notified when the campaign …

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Duskvol in Newsprint, Redux—And a Bit About My Process

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A while back, I shared some of the newsprint projects I’ve created for the Blades in the Dark game I play in. Since then, I’ve been saving up more, and I think it’s about time to share. However, our GM, Jeremy Tolbert, suggested I write a little more about my process for this stuff, so I figured I’d dig into that. 

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Duskvol in Newsprint

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So, I’ve been ridiculously productive lately. I count the following: 4–5 separate projects related to RPGs, 3 related to music, and 1 short story I’ve started working on. I could probably go on at length about all of them, but I was urged to write about one of the RPG-related projects first, so that’s what I’m writing up.  I play in a biweekly RPG group organized and run by Jeremy Tolbert. Lately, we’ve been playing Blades in the Dark. If you don’t know what that is, I’ll assume you’re not into RPGs, but just in case: imagine a steampunky London …

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#dungeon23, Days 10-20: Medium Lunar Fragment

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This entry is part 2 of 8 in the series #dungeon23

This post is part of a series detailing my participation in #dungeon23. Feel free to follow the link above to check out the series in order, or see the first post in the series if you don’t know what this project is. Days 10-20 were a bit of a challenge, mainly because our admins at work cheerfully made this week a hellish mess for anyone teaching a winter class. That is to say, this is rough, and yes, there were days when I jotted down a few days’ worth of entries to “catch up”; there were days where I got …

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#dungeon23, Days 1-9: The Lunar Surface Access Complex

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This entry is part 1 of 8 in the series #dungeon23

So, I’ve joined in on the #dungeon23 thing. (Or, #facility23? Er, whatever. Check out the original post if you don’t know what this is.) I will be posting here intermittently about it—probably after each “chunk” is finished, rather than on a fixed schedule like once a week. I’m not sure whether I’ll bounce each post to social media or just just toot/tweet them occasionally: I guess we’ll see.  My first chunk this year took 9 days, so that’s what I’m updating about. (I know it’s the 10th of the year, but this is everything up to and including yesterday. I …

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The Punch Line by Zzarchov Kowolski

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This entry is part 47 of 56 in the series 2022 Reads

As with other posts in this series, these #booksread2022 posts get published with some lag. I’m trying to be more punctual, though, and this one’s very recent. This is a very short old-school RPG adventure module. I’m tempted actually to call it an “adventure concept” because it’s very light on details, beyond statblocks, and designed to be something you can drop into your game easily. Aside from the NPCs, there’s some material about an insane clown cult (I was so tempted to say “posse”) operating in the area of the village where the adventure is sited (and NPC writeups/stats for …

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Sirenswail by Dave Mitchell

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This entry is part 30 of 56 in the series 2022 Reads

As always, I’m posting this quite a while after finishing the book. This was given to me by my friend Ahimsa Kerp, to whom I shall be returning it soon.   Dave Mitchell’s Sirenswail is a 2016 old-school adventure. It’s basically The Wicker Man in the age of Cromwell with some magic and weirdness mixed in. The historical setting is, obviously, because it was designed for use with LotFP, but you could adapt it to any old-school game and, with some work, to any setting you’d use for an elfgame.  It’s a part of that familiar subgenre of adventures focused on …

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