Worlds & Wednesdays: Where I Game From

So that I am able to keep Mazes and Mondays, Tactical Tuesdays, 52 Weeks of Halloween, and Friday Frights and Fables focused on specific genres without confusing you as to what to expect, I am pointing Wednesdays at the behind-the-scenes mischief and the Worlds of Pulp™. This enables me to share with you a little about who I am as well as the hows and whys of what I do. I might focus on certain Worlds of Pulp one week, and upcoming events another, or something entirely different just to add a little meat to the broth.

Worlds of Wednesdays: The Personal Side of My Gaming Life

Hey there. I’m T. Glenn Bane, and if you found your way here, we probably share a table in spirit already. I love tabletop games. That’s the short version. The long version fills up a whole website.

The rest of the week, I keep things pretty focused. I drop genre-specific discussions, breakdowns, and 52 Weeks of Halloween, built around whatever corner of the High Geekdom we’re digging into. Useful stuff, I hope. But Wednesdays are different. Wednesdays are where I get to loosen my collar, set the review checklist aside, and talk about the things that sit closest to me. The immediate stuff. The personal stuff.

So consider this your invitation to understand a little more of what makes me tick.

Who’s Doing the Talking

Let me give you the honest rundown before we go any further.

I’ve been a designer, artist, and art historian since 1993. That’s a long stretch of years spent sketching maps, studying how images tell stories, and figuring out why some games sing while others just sit there. Since 2007, I’ve worked as a TTRPG content creator, professionally, on purpose, for a living. Somewhere in there I racked up a lot of dice, a lot of late nights, and a fair number of scars from rules that looked great on paper and fell apart at the table.

Here’s what none of that does: it doesn’t put me above anybody. The gamer running their first homebrew campaign in their living room is doing the same sacred work I am. I’ve just been at it longer, so I’ve got more stories to trade.

Where I Come From

I’m a small-town guy at heart. My roots run through small-town North Carolina, with deep Appalachian roots that go back generations, and I got here by way of Savannah, GA.

That mix matters more than you’d think. Appalachia taught me storytelling as a birthright. Folks up in those hills can turn a five-minute walk to the mailbox into a legend, and they’ll have you leaning in the whole time. Savannah added the atmosphere: history soaked into every brick, long humid evenings that beg for a good yarn, a slower pace that gives a story room to breathe.

All of that seeps into the games I make and the way I talk about them. I can’t help it, and I wouldn’t want to.

Why This Column Exists

I’ll be straight with you. I’d love to game with every last one of you.

Picture it. I show up at your kitchen table, your garage, your local shop. I run a session, crack a few jokes, watch the whole room lean in when the dice finally break your way. That’s the dream. That’s the version of this hobby I fell for back in the day.

It’s also flat-out impossible. There just aren’t enough Wednesdays in one lifetime to reach everybody’s table.

So I settled on the realistic move instead. Every week, I share the best parts of what I’ve learned. My perspectives, my design notes, the stuff I got wrong and how I clawed my way back from it. That’s something I can actually deliver, over and over, without making a promise I can’t keep. Pull up a chair, even if that chair sits a few hundred miles from mine.

What I’m Working On: Worlds of Pulp™ Pocket Worlds

Now let me tell you about the thing I’m most fired up to share here.

Worlds of Pulp™ Pocket Worlds came straight out of my own frustration. I got tired of games that hand you a novel before they’ll let you play. You know the type. Hundreds of pages, dense stat blocks, a whole evening of prep just to run twenty minutes of actual fun. I wanted the exact opposite.

Each Pocket World is a compact, ready-to-run setting built on the pulp tradition. Fast pacing. Larger-than-life heroes. Villains skulking in the shadows. Ancient mysteries and cliffhangers that keep the whole table leaning forward. Every element earns its spot, because I can’t stand clutter any more than you can.

Here’s the piece that holds it all together: Pocket Worlds operate in conjunction with the Skinny Complete Core Rules. The Skinny system carries the mechanical weight, so each Pocket World gets to focus on flavor and adventure instead of reinventing the wheel. You end up with a full, playable game and none of the bloat. Less bookkeeping, more storytelling. That’s the trade I’ll make every single time.

A few things I genuinely love about how they come together:

• Grab and go. Open the book, round up your crew, start playing. Prep shrinks, play grows.
• Mix and match. Each world stands on its own, but they snap together too. Build the campaign you actually want.
• Pulp all the way down. No generic sandboxes here. Every world carries its own grit and glamour.
• Kind to newcomers. New to the hobby? The lean rules let you learn without a veteran hovering over your shoulder.

The One Belief That Drives Everything

If you strip away all my years and all my rambling, my whole design philosophy comes down to a single line: the story at your table matters more than the rules on my page.

That’s it. I keep the rules lean so they never trip up a big dramatic beat. I keep the settings evocative so you and your friends can fill the gaps with your own imagination. I trust the people at the table, because in my experience gamers are creative, generous, and always ready to surprise you.

Every new Pocket World reflects what the last one taught me. I’m still learning. Still running games, still listening, still tuning the parts that don’t quite land. Honestly, that’s my favorite part of the whole gig.

What You’ll Get from Me on Wednesdays

So here’s the deal with this column. The rest of the week stays genre-focused and review-driven. Wednesdays are the personal channel.

Some weeks I’ll walk you through a new Pocket World or a fresh tool for game masters. Other weeks I’ll open up the design notebook and show you the messy middle, including the mistakes and the fixes. And plenty of weeks I want to hear from you: your house rules, your wildest campaign moments, your questions about the games or the thinking behind them.

This isn’t a broadcast. It’s a conversation between people who care about the same hobby.

Come Hang Out

I can’t make it to your table. I’ve made my peace with the math. What I can do is show up here every Wednesday and hand over the good stuff, the useful stuff, the stuff that might make your next session hit a little harder.

So grab a Pocket World, dust off the Skinny Complete Core Rules, gather your crew, and go make something memorable. Then swing back by and tell me how it went. Drop a comment, share it with your group, and check in next Wednesday.

What’s the last game night that stuck with you? I’d love to hear it. I’ll have the dice ready.

— T. Glenn Bane

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