Game Design as Player Best Practices
Something I’ve noticed from talking a ton over the past few weeks about Band-Aids & Bullet Holes (still on Kickstarter until Friday of the week this publishes) is that so...
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Transcript: Deckbuilding (Signs of the Sojourner) with Lady Tabletop
Listen to this episode here. Further Reading Signs of the Sojourner by Echo Dog Games Band-Aids & Bullet Holes by Sam, on Kickstarter now Slay the Spire 2 by Mega...
A Naming Day: An Under Hollow Hills Occasion to Perform
I’m 7 sessions into MCing a campaign of the Bakers’ excellent, excellent Under Hollow Hills (or UHH from here on out). In UHH you play as members of a fairy...
Transcript: Minigames (Firebrands) with Viditya Voleti
Listen to this episode here. Further Reading Band-Aids & Bullet Holes on Kickstarter Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands by Meguey & Vincent Baker The King Is Dead by Meguey & Vincent Baker Stewpot:...
Transcript: John Wick (2014) and Genre Emulation with Sam Roberts
Listen to this episode here. My new game Band-Aids & Bullet Holes is still on Kickstarter! Check it out today. In honor of BABH, this month on Dice Exploder I'm covering...
Band-Aids & Bullet Holes Design Diary: Ten Guys Named Barf
Band-Aids & Bullet Holes is my upcoming deckbuilder tabletop roleplaying game built for bloody revenge operas inside a tight-knit clique of professional assassins. Here’s a post where I take one...
Transcript: Character Nonmonogamy (Space Post) with Sidney Icarus
Listen to this episode here. Today is the launch of Band-Aids & Bullet Holes, my melodramatic action game of bloody revenge. It's a one shot, capsule game, box set, deckbuilder...
A Dozen-ish Questions for Designing Your Game: In Practice
A month ago or so I wrote this post about some questions I like to ask myself throughout the design process. One of my big mantras from doing Dice Exploder...
Transcript: Calling Cards (Band-Aids & Bullet Holes) with Lady Tabletop and Seraphina
Listen to this episode here. My first stand-alone print game, Band-Aids & Bullet Holes, goes live on Kickstarter next week on May 5th. I have a lot to say about...
Band-Aids & Bullet Holes Design Diary: The Moves That Didn’t Make It
Band-Aids & Bullet Holes is my upcoming deckbuilder tabletop roleplaying game built for bloody revenge operas inside a tight-knit clique of professional assassins. Here’s a post where I take one...
Transcript: Keys (Lady Blackbird) with Whitney Delaglio
Listen to this episode here. I love pregens! But why do I love pregens? I dug into this a bunch on an episode last year with Aaron Lim about the...
Transcript: Weak, Strong, and Regular Moves (Dream Askew / Dream Apart) with Austin Walker
Listen to this episode here. Austin Walker's new game Realis is on Kickstarter now, and it's been making splashes in the indie rpg scene since last year when the ashcan...
Band-Aids & Bullet Holes Design Diary: Be Vulnerable With Someone
Band-Aids & Bullet Holes is my upcoming deckbuilder tabletop roleplaying game built for bloody revenge operas inside a tight-knit clique of professional assassins. Here’s a post where I take one...
Transcript: The Awards 2024 with Nico MacDougall
Listen to this episode here. The Awards are back! The rpg awards show with a bent towards indie games and the guaranteed worst SEO of all time is back for...
Band-Aids & Bullet Holes Design Diary: Combat As Set-Piece
Band-Aids & Bullet Holes is my upcoming deckbuilder tabletop roleplaying game built for bloody revenge operas inside a tight-knit clique of professional assassins. Here’s a post where I take one...
Transcript: Lures (Heaven in the Dust) with Barclay Travis and Bee Alexander
Listen to this episode here. Bee and Barclay are the hosts of Tabletop Book Club, a podcast that is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a show with such fun...
Band-Aids & Bullet Holes Design Diary: Mechanical Problems Meet Diegetic Solutions
Band-Aids & Bullet Holes is my upcoming deckbuilder tabletop roleplaying game built for bloody revenge operas inside a tight-knit clique of professional assassins. Here’s a post where I take one...
Apollo 47 Core
A few months back, people were talking about this Indie Game Reading Club post in which Paul asks where the innovation in games is right now. It’s been years since...
Transcript: Always Give Them The Clue (GUMSHOE) with Tristan Zimmerman
Listen to this episode here. My friend Tristan Zimmerman is currently crowdfunding Ballad Hunters, a GUMSHOE game, meaning it’s based on a core mechanic built for investigation games and gathering...
A Dozen-ish Questions for Designing Your Game
I’m right at the beginning of the design process on a few different projects, one in particular in a pre-mechanical stage: I know what the game is about and roughly...
The Voice of the Text (Triangle Agency) with Seraphina Garcia Ramirez
Listen to this episode here. I bet you’ve heard of this game Triangle Agency. Big exciting Kickstarter, super flashy product design, a game with… spoilers in the back? It’s corporate...
Transcript: Draw Maps, Leave Blanks (Dungeon World) with Tim Denee
Listen to this episode here. If the thesis of last week’s episode was “hey the fiction of your game matters a lot and can even have mechanical effects,” how do...
Transcript: Doskvol’s Lightning Barriers (Blades in the Dark) with Nova
Listen to this episode here. In Blades in the Dark, you play as criminals in Doskvol a haunted city where the ghosts are such a problem that they built giant...
Transcript: Setting Elements (Dream Askew / Dream Apart) with Kodi Gonzaga
Listen to this episode here. There's many ways to decide who has authority over what in an RPG. Traditional games have a bunch of players with one PC each and...