Tag: Writing | Scaldcrow Games

Worlds & Wednesday:The Hardest Thing

People still ask me, every so often, whatever happened to The Dark Fantasy of Sundrah. It’s a fair question, and I’ve decided it deserves a fair answer. So pour yourself something warm, pull up a chair, and let me share a story about lessons learned, failure, and the simple, stubborn act of standing back up.

Worlds & Wednesday: Pulp. Getting it Right.

To boil pulp down to a look is to mistake the ash for the fire. You can paint a cover in faded sepia, scuff the edges, and ape every visual trick of the old masters — and still produce something utterly dead. Why…

Frights & Fables: The Reaper of the Rows

This is the sacred, silly art of the Monster of the Week. You remember the shape of it — that weekly ritual of dread, a fresh creature slouching across the screen like clockwork, like a curse. The story rarely changed. The bones stayed reliably the same. But the beast? The beast was always new. Popcorn that bit back.

Worlds & Wednesday: Yes and No in Editing

Over time I have learned that designing a setting is as much about saying no as it is about saying yes.
A good idea is not automatically the right idea.

Mazes & Mondays: A World like No Other

You are not merely decorating a map, my darlings. You are forging a living engine for adventure — a machine of wonder and dread that hums along on its own strange logic.

Worlds & Wednesday: …for Game Masters

At Scaldcrow Games, there have never been armies of writers, editors, or developers producing books around the clock. There are only a handful of us, and that has always been the case. While I love ambitious projects such as Wild West Horse Opera, Rotwang City, and Cape Noire, those larger worlds require enormous investments of time and energy.

Frights & Fables: Slasher at your Table

A slasher is a peculiar beast. Learn its bones, respect its appetites, and it will reward you with an evening your players never forget. Fumble it, and you’ll have a room full of dice-rollers wondering why the “monster” hasn’t managed to frighten a single soul.

Worlds & Wednesday: Forged in the Crucible

As designers, we often get excited about the details: cool factions, unique locations, interesting characters, or clever mechanics. Those things matter, but before a Pocket World is ready for play, it must answer three essential questions.

Worlds & Wednesdays: From Spark to World

I build them this way because I have always preferred settings that leave room for imagination. Growing up, I often found myself disappointed when I reached the hard edge of a fictional world and discovered there was nothing beyond it. The most inspiring settings are not those that define every detail. They are the ones that leave a few corners unexplored.

Worlds & Wednesdays: Where I Game From

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.