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Mazes & Mondays: Relics in a Fallen World
Today, we’re going to explore a topic that often gets overlooked in the thrill of dungeon delving: the ethical dilemmas of treasure hunting in a world shaped by survival and corruption.
Read MoreFrights & Fables: Horror and Vigilance
The Most Dangerous Thing a City Can Do Is Forget
Every door in Häxanburg has an iron bell.
Every threshold still bears chalk, twine, or nail.
Every year, Locking Day arrives with parades, ribbons, and cheerful indifference.
Ask the people why any of it exists and you’ll get smiles, shrugs, and tourism pamphlets.
Read MoreWords & Wonders: Soul Gaming
I want to talk to you for a minute—not as a designer, not as a publisher, but as the kid who grew up rolling dice at a kitchen table and learned something important there.
Soul Gaming is not a mechanic.
It’s not a feature bullet.
It’s not a brand term, even if I’ve used the phrase enough that it’s become associated with my work.
Soul Gaming is a choice.
Read MoreTactical Tuesdays: Beyond the Swan Song
If you are running a game where danger, decisions, and consequences matter, then failure must be treated as a functional state, not a narrative embarrassment and not a cue to quietly reset the board.
Read MoreMazes & Mondays: The Broken World
Power vacuums don’t wait for heroes. They get filled—by mercenaries, cultists, guilds, warlords, desperate healers, and people who never wanted power but found it lying unclaimed in the rubble.
Read MoreFrights & Fables: Doors versus Monsters
We insist it is born from the monster—the fang, the claw, the shriek in the dark. We place our faith in spectacle and persuade ourselves that fear arrives fully formed, snarling and complete.
But it does not.
Fear is far more patient than that.
Read MoreWords & Wonders: Genre to Extremes
Today, we’re exploring how you can push your chosen genre to its limits in your tabletop games for greater impact and engagement. Let’s discuss why fully embracing the spirit of your game’s genre—sometimes even to the point of caricature—can lead to memorable adventures and a more unified experience for everyone at the table.
Read MoreTactical Tuesdays: All Agents Attack
If you want encounters that hit hard, twist unexpectedly, and keep players sharp, you need more than a single threat tossed in their path. You need layers. You need timing. You need subtlety sharpened into a blade.
Read MoreMazes & Mondays: High-Tension Villages
Whether you’re bandaging wounds in a swamp, hauling relics from a crumbling ruin, or holding the line against screaming goblin hordes, sooner or later you’ll need a few extra hands—preferably ones not attached to undead things.
Read MoreFrights & Fables: Perception v. Pragmatism
Step into the shadows, my friends. We gather to discuss the most exquisite of horrors—the terror that blossoms entirely from within the mind. The monsters scratching at the door are frightening, surely. But the monsters hiding behind the eyes of your storyteller are truly terrifying.
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