Three Gaming Rules and the Personal Recommendation Index
Rules and tools for fun and profit(?!?!)
Fri Jul 03 2026
Game Boy Pocket Repair Failure
Or 'Why if you have to perform a new delicate task multiple times, you should do each sequentially instead of all at once'
Thu May 14 2026
Hexcrawl to Pointcrawl
It's easy to turn a hexcrawl into a pointcrawl (but not so much the other way around)
Wed Apr 01 2026
Bookmark of Bloggies Archive
I've always meant to keep up with, read, and vote on the Bloggies. Sadly, I've only ever managed to read a few of the winners after the fact. Time to catch up, and then do better next year! (Find this past year's Bloggies here.)
Bookmark of Defuddle
Get the main content of any page as Markdown.
This seems incredibly useful (especially in light of my recent abandoning of read later apps). It inspired me to make a bookmarklets page. Find a bookmarklet for using this there.
Bookmark of Pokémon Is OSR by Prismatic Wasteland
The popularity of the Nuzlocke run in Pokémon ties back to the OSR playstyle in two ways. The obvious is the introduction of lethality. ... The base version of Pokémon lacks this, but with a Nuzlocke, even that random Zubat encounter has the chance of permanently killing off a core member of your Pokémon adventuring party. ... In standard Pokémon, you get to try to catch ‘em all and pick and choose the right combination for your team, making sure you can cover any enemy elemental type combination. Not so with a Nuzlocke. It leans into the random encounter mechanic as a party-building mechanic. Now your team is randomized.
I blame this post for my recent return to Pokémon via the Nuzlocke Challenge.
I just started playing Pokémon LeafGreen for the Game Boy Advance. It will be my first playthough of a generation 3 Pokémon game. (I'm opting to play the 3DS remake of the mainline gen 3 games because I actually own a physical cartridge.) Since I've already played both the originals for Game Boy and the "Let's Go" remakes for Switch, I've decided to do something different: The Nuzlocke Challenge (with some modifications). Check out the details and follow along on my Nuzlocke page.
My Introduction to TTRPGs
Where I started, where I've been, and why system doesn't matter
Tue Feb 17 2026
The Purpose and Size of a Hex
What is the purpose of a hex and what size best serves said purpose?
Sun Feb 15 2026
Bookmark of Blog of the .Day
Every day, Blog of the .Day highlights a new blog.
Hey, this website is todays Blog of the .Day! Fun!
Bookmark of The Rankin Bass Hexmas Crawl by Prismatic Wasteland
Today is the 12th and final day of Christmas (if you take down your tree and garlands before New Year’s, you are missing out on bonus Christmastime), so it is proper to roundup all the entries to the Merry Hexmas blogwagon that ran in December 2025.
I didn't get a chance to participate in the The Rankin Bass Hexmas Crawl, but it sure looks like an exciting project. I hope to run some games in it next holiday season (probably using this map and index from Bakenshake). (Also, important reminder that Christmas didn't end until yesterday. It lasts for twelve days, you low church heathens!)
Bookmark of Consider this: Captured spell books by You see this.
Because at some point, it inevitably becomes treacherous. The master with a powerful pupil feels threatened, because the question isn’t, “Are they holding out on me” but “How much!?”. And the pupil who approaches their master’s power might start to covet the very library they helped to build. It’s no surprise that Wizards shut themselves in their towers, trusting no one at the gates for fear of assassins, trapping their lairs against intruders and thieves, and generally becoming secretive hoarders as rumors spread among the townsfolk… and so on.
If you're into old-school dnd and not already reading "You see this." (not to mention using their excellent tokens), you definitely should be.
Bookmark of Patchwork Newsletter (Vol 1, Issue 2) by Patchwork Paladin
A five-day journey in Moria requires how many pounds of food, water, and oil for light? According to the LoTR 5e game, 1 lb food and 5 lb water, and 4 lbs oil (if l lit continuously) gives 10 lbs/day or 50 lbs for 5 days. 100 lbs if you want to come back the same way. This is why lembas and Gandalf’s light cantrip were so important.
Another great recurring collection of TTRPG news, links, and discussion to add to the growing list (already containing Indie RPG Newsletter, Shiny TTRPG Links, OSR News Roundup, CATMAIL [new!], and a few others on Substack so I won't link to them). A sad thing it highlights though is how much interesting conversation is missed because so much of it is trapped on Discord. (The quote above is a summary of one such discussion.) We need a return to forums! For such talk I recommend The Cauldron. (I should really practice what I preach and post there more often.)
Bookmark of Open Blog Revolution Release by Iko
Blogs are back. It’s not an objective assessment, rather a feeling. But there isn’t a day where I don’t read a post about a creator, developer, designer, publisher, or hobbyist deciding to get back to blogging.
Eko has done some good work here. If I hadn't already hacked together my own setup using Eleventy, I'd probably give it a try. Regardless, looks like a great option for new folks. Blogs, baby!
Bookmark of Mari Lwyd’s Pantri Panic Launched by Rhys Wynne
Today sees my game – Mari Lwyd’s Pantri Panic – launched, as part of the Pico-8 Advent Calendar Jam 2025.
You know I had to load this puppy up on my Miyoo Mini Plus for some festive holiday fun! (So what if my high score is currently only nine hundred something—I'm still getting the hang of it.)
Bookmark of Discovering the indieweb with calm tech by Robert Alexander
I reject the dead Internet theory: I see a vibrant Internet full of humans sharing their experiences and seeking connection. Degradation of the engagement-driven web is well underway, accelerated by AI slop. But the independent web works on a different incentive structure and is resistant to this effect. Humans inherently create, connect, and share: we always have and we always will. If you choose software that works in your interest you’ll find that it’s possible to make meaningful online connections without mental hazard.
Robert shares two great tools here (in addition to his beautiful vision of the internet): Blog Quest (for finding RSS feeds as you browse the web) and StreetPass (the same but for finding Mastodon profiles). I've already installed them both.
Bookmark of scriptorium@christdesert by Nick Simson
Only in the Year of Our Lord 2025, did I learn about scriptorium@christdesert, a web design service run by Benedictine monks in remote New Mexico in the 1990s.
I've heard if monks making beer, wine, and even fruitcake, but never have I heard of an order of monks making websites. I kind of love it. (Too bad they're not still coding.)
I guess this is a retro game review blog now.
At what point does a blog need to be paginated? Asking for a friend.
I kind of really don't like reviewing media. Every book, game, et cetera is special in its own way, right? Still, I'm slowly working my way through my past media, writing reviews. (Plus it gives me coins in my little "gamified intentional media tracker" thing, so that's fun.)
Bookmark of Don't call it a Substack.
We constrain our imaginations when we subordinate our creations to names owned by fascist tycoons. Imagine the author of a book telling people to 'read my Amazon'. A great director trying to promote their film by saying 'click on my Max'. That's how much they've pickled your brain when you refer to your own work and your own voice within the context of their walled garden. There is no such thing as 'my Substack', there is only your writing, and a forever fight against the world of pure enshittification.
Yes! It's called a newsletter, people. They've existed for longer than the internet. Substack didn't invent them. (Also, you should probably leave substack.)
And while we're at it—and this is only tangentially related, but I've got a bone so I'm gonna pick it—they're headphones, not airpods; it's a phone, not an iphone; that's a laptop, not a macbook. Stop giving these companies free advertising. They're not your friends.
Bookmark of Google and HTTP
Google is a guest on the web, as we all are. Guests don't make the rules.
It hadn't occurred to me before reading this that HTTPS might not be a universally good thing, nor did I previously know the history of its push. Maybe blogs don't need it. Maybe most of the web doesn't need it. (But I'll be keeping it for now against my will because Netlify enables it by default and doesn't allow you to turn it off.)
Bookmark of Fix the Signal
It often feels like optimism is an act of revenge, an act of spite or rebellion, because optimism requires diligence and effort whilst pessimism feels like the default, the thing requiring no energy or effort.
Reply to Blaugust Notes on Comments by Rabbit
My thoughts exactly (only written more eloquently than my own post)!
Finally got to play some Mythic Bastionland tonight. Was my first McDowall joint. Definitely lived up to the hype.
Just finished the third and final volume of Taiyō Matsumoto's Tokyo These Days. I don't have the context to really appreciate it, as it is the only manga I've ever read, but I did enjoy it a decent amount. Maybe review forthcoming.
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- Name: Cobb
- Pronouns: he/him
- Fedeverse: @cobb@dice.camp
- Email: hello@cobb.land
A writer, programmer, and game designer currently dwelling in the foothills of Appalachia.
