Category: Gaming

  • Questions to the Editor: Editorial Assessments

    ( This was originally a thread I posted on Twitter, but I copied it here in case that was easier for folks to read. I also didn’t want this to disappear into that Great Algorithm in the Sky. Enjoy!) Let’s talk about the editorial assessment. For me it serves a few purposes: 1) it gets…

  • Down The Rat Hole

    This week at The Rat Hole, I interview Argentinian TTRPG designer Tomas Gimenez Rioja about his new liminal horror storytelling game, What Is It That Lies Beyond The Immenseness of the Dark?. We also talked about TTRPGs in the Global South and a few other things. It’s a good read, go check it out!

  • Interlude: Pre-Rolling

    Back when I ran a whole lot of Pathfinder on a regular basis, I got in the habit of pre-rolling a bunch of d20 rolls. Before a session I would roll the d20 a bunch of times, say twenty or thirty, and record those numbers in order. Then when I needed a roll for an…

  • Let’s Stat at the Beginning, Part 2

    Sometimes you plan to come back to something right away, only for life to decide, “Haha! Nope!” Sorry to be away so long folks, but I am back! If you are just joining us (welcome!) I am posting some ideas around a developmental edit of D&D 5e, as if I had been engaged to give…

  • Let’s Stat at the Beginning, Part One

    Back in the Before Times (2022) I talked about taking on a little personal project, to approach D&D 5e as if I were doing a developmental edit on a manuscript. Basically, taking the “just house rule it!” advice we’re barraged with on social media whenever a problem with the game is brought up, and going…

  • Dungeon23 and Me

    If you’re hanging around TTRPG twitter, chances are good you’ve seen the hashtag “dungeon23” about, along with its companions “city23”, “setting23”, and so on. Search those hashtags and you’ll find all sorts of settings, locations, monsters, magic items, created by the folks taking part, as well as discussion about the ideas behind the projects. But…

  • Looking Forward

    This past year was a hell of a ride, and almost nothing about it I would have seen coming from where I was in January 2022. I had just cleared 2000 followers on Twitter, there were so many friends I hadn’t met yet, so many projects coming that weren’t even on my radar. And so…

  • Wandering Grateful

    Last night we aired the second part of Ways and Wanderings: The Beginning, the Wanderhome RPG actual play that started planning back in June. I had mixed feeling as I watched it; proud to see the thing we had accomplished on screen and shared with people, but also sad as the project came to a…

  • Solo Saturday Part Two!

    This past Saturday was Solo Saturday the First! By every metric I care about it was a rousing success: folks came by and engaged, I had returning viewers, some of the creators dropped by at various points, money was donated to Extra Life, I got new followers, and I played four excellent games. It was…

  • Solo Saturday!

    Tomorrow, starting at 10am MST/Noon EST, I am playing eight hours of Solo TTRPGs in support of Extra Life! There will also be chatting, and prize giveaways, and stuff. “Oo, stuff! Tell us more about the Stuff, Brent!” I will, I promise, but let’s take things in order. Games! Picking up from where I left…