Those Who Came Before published!

TL;DR: My science fantasy supplement "Those Who Came Before" (written for Into the Odd Remastered and games derived from it) is published and available on Itch.io!

Thoughts on Blades in the Dark

I just concluded another Blades in the Dark campaign that ran from February 2021 to now, covering 18 sessions, and I think I'm done with Forged in the Dark for a while even though I have really loved it.

Saturday Night Eldritch Fever: Session 1

Photo by Rebecca Swafford on Pexels.com Recently, I started running Call of Cthulhu for some friends. While I've played the game several times, the only time I'd ever actually acted as Keeper (GM) was running a duet game or two for my son. Additionally, rather than use pre-written content (scenarios), I decided to create and … Continue reading Saturday Night Eldritch Fever: Session 1 →

Mental health in horror RPGs

Cthulhu Dark and Trophy Dark have a different way to model harm, including mental harm, and this approach provides a fantastic model for other games. Even in horror gaming - I would say especially in horror gaming - we all should retain the ability to decide what to explore, and systems like the one outlined above give us the opportunity to do that.

Ironsworn: Luthar – Session 1

This represents my first session with Ironsworn. Looking over it now, I can see a few missed opportunities and mistakes. But as a learning experience, I enjoyed it quite a bit! The layout here gave me a little trouble here, but I expect the next session to go a little more smoothly in both play … Continue reading Ironsworn: Luthar – Session 1 →

Is Necronautilus part of the NSR?

Necronautilus is a gorgeous game I enjoy more and more every time I dig into it. But... is it NSR?

Necronautilus review

I have never played another game like Necronautilus, and that's a shame. If you like wordplay, thinking about the relationship between memory and reality, and psychedelic fantasy in space, then you should check out this game.

Who really is my neighbor?

How can we think about in-game communities in a way that motivates players and PCs? I'm looking at structures for my Into the Odd hack to center community defense and improvement.

Replacing the Sanity system in Mothership

The Sanity (Stress and Panic) system in Mothership doesn't appeal to me, and my friends playing the game have commented on it as well. What could we do instead?

Worked example of Into the Odd GM notes

As my players have led a successful revolt in the main town of our Into the Odd campaign, I thought it might be useful to publish the notes I used to run it.