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description=Thoughts about Games: design, culture, and the absurdism of it all;

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Text of the page (random words):
minder to call them at lodge a complaint this is a game i loosely playtested right before sage published it and i played it three times in a row it is one half of a larger game this half has you playing a suzi a service robot who frankly is probably going to have a rough life as you go through her life path you can only end the game in one of two ways being too damaged to function anymore or breaking free of your programming the second half of the game would have players who played the solo half bringing their suzis together for a group adventure i can t say enough about this game the toyetic properties of the excel sheet you play in were novel to me the choices i was making for my suzis were brutal if there was a choice at all i ended up with one suzi that i think might be unrecognizable as a person to others and i wonder what it might be like to play her in a group to find or reject personhood or the validation of others i think about the suzis i played a lot 2 i gave this game the award need more immediately dream askpocalypse this one hasn t fired yet but i am including it because i finally get to play in one short week this is hackup of dream askew and apocalypse world 2e burned over that i ve been putting together with friends and i m very excited hometown holiday by nick tourville including this one because it s on the schedule i ll be running it for some friends on stream on december 16 i play this game every year in december because i love cheesy hallmark holiday movies and this game is such a fun pick up and play way of creating one good society interstitial with a dash of firebrands played this one on stream with my friends and a good time was had by all if you want to see eowyn getting into it with jason todd check it out i have the high ground by jess levine played this one in the hospital before giving birth i think the nurses were curious about it say it with me i have a whole post about this great duet game i gave this game the award best game to play in the delivery room filing jointly by happy birthday the tsl group all played this one with our characters and i with some npcs after we wrapped season one a very funny concept doing paperwork to itemize character relationships sock puppets by kurt refling despite the cool factor of runestones in fate of the norns i gave sock puppets the award coolest components you really cannot beat a game that asks you to make a whole ass puppet and then play out a children s program with behind the scenes puppeteer drama i wrote a post about running this one on stream and the beauty of trying something new reading by the numbers i read more games than i played this year big surprise this was year two of working my way through my massive pdf library and categorizing games as for playing for reading for looking at or freeing up the hard drive space my numbers here were not as high as i thought but then i did get through some pretty long books when it comes to reading on top of my regular fiction nonfiction reading having a job freelance and children plus i guess having a social life a few tiny accolades here vampire cruise by amanda lee franck most likely to get me into osr what to say about this one that hasn t been said it s evocative it s fresh it stands out from hundreds of other osr modules i feel like i could play it without a system if i wanted himbos of myth and mettle by maxwell lander best replacement for d d and thirsty sword lesbians the writing in this game is so solid better than a lot of things i read this year and in years past i think i screenshotted no less than five pages as writing inspiration purely from a gm advice and play culture standpoint daggerheart by darrington press gimme the physical copy look i get it everyone wanted to eat 5e s cake this year daggerheart is the one that i think comes closest i m a sucker for cards during play the box set they made is gorgeous i have friends who want to run this and friends who want to play this i don t think i m escaping this game any time soon looking back and ahead this took longer to write than i expected but i had a blast reflecting on my year in games i played more distinct systems than expected i think in part this is because in my head i am still that person who plays years long campaigns of pathfinder despite the fact that i haven t been that person in almost 10 years the version of myself in my head needs to get with the times i ve been writing and playing indie games for almost as long as dnd at this point i was going to get into a review of last year s game wishlist resolutions but this post is quite long enough i think so say it with me one more time i ll have a post about that i m excited to see more endies posts as they arise thanks to hendrek asa and charlie for posting on bsky so that i may continue being a social media luddite i m pleasantly surprised by the reception to the endies so far i really do wish i d spent a little more time with the canva template and told people you have to make a copy of it whoops first thought not always best thought first design definitely not best design but here we are a thing that exists is better than the thing i didn t make ︎ i will stop saying in the text i probably have a post about this but i probably have a post about this take a shot we re up to four ︎ date december 5 2025 tags endieawards endies endies2025 comments leave a comment the endie awards standard or ttrpgs wrapped if you will 2025 draws to a close and so another year of playing and reading games has passed what a year huh after talking with some folks in the dice exploder discord i decided to hit go on an idea i d been tossing around the endie awards what is this simple write a blog post or share on social media the stats about your time with ttrpgs this year and or write some superlatives about games you played or read this year optional tell us what 3 5 games you are looking forward to playing or reading next year or a couple ttrpg new year s resolutions tag it with endies2025 tell your friends look at the stuff others are sharing in the hashtag and find a little joy in this end of year stretch which for me is largely spent in front of the fireplace with a heated blanket and uv lamp to fight the winter blues resources i ve put together a canva template if you want to throw your data and superlatives into it but feel free to make your own endies square endies tall 1080 1920 data categories i m using i did not keep robust data this year for reason had a baby but i do have a general idea of how many games i read how many games i played and what i played most you might have number of sessions hours played number of people groups played with number of games purchased backed etc whatever data you kept and want to share go for it superlatives i m using again you might not want to use the same awards as me and that s very fine and in fact i encourage it i don t know what my list will look like for sure but some i am considering most hacked game game most likely to be on my mind still in 2026 favorite playtested game pdf game i need for my shelf game that got my gm referee mc wheels spinning ideally this is a celebration of the games you played or read this year i would caution against making purely negative endie superlatives as the name suggests with its homophonic nature i anticipate a lot of indie games to feature in these posts go forth and post can t wait to see what you played and read this year cheers lt date november 30 2025 tags endies2025 comments 11 comments blogwagon appendices l t standard jumping on the appendix n blogwagon at the last possible moment to talk a little about some of the media and other things that often inspires my work the original appendix n for d d was of course a list of books and authors considered to have inspired gygax et al my writing process is so slow these days that i know i always forget inspirations unless i write them down as i go somewhere in the back of my brain is one of those ancient library card catalogs with all the bits and bobs i ve squirreled away or that got lodged in there waiting for me to use them but by the time something finds itself in this cabinet it is almost certainly divorced from its original context brains are fickle like that so a couple entries on this list might be a bit vague maybe you know what i m talking about and can fill in the blanks for me mortal engines by philip reeve the ya book series not the awful movie i keep coming back to the idea of moving cities alive cities cities that devour a road that never ends a post apocalypse of a different flavor besides just the setting though this series has an unabashedly ugly protagonist and guess what she still gets the guy theirs is a complicated relationship and i cannot begin to tell you how novel it was that not only was an ugly girl a hero but she was loved that is simply not the case in most media especially children s media the lord of the rings trilogy of films by peter jackson look i m not afraid to admit it i love the books too but the movies were my introduction to the series and i cannot tell you how many times i have rewatched them enough times the summer fellowship was on vhs that my mom got mad at my brother and i for spending at least an hour a day in the basement in the pitch dark watching and to this day i still have most of the dialogue memorized there s a lot to be inspired by with this series but the main thing i have stuck in my craw is the idea of going on a journey but being so changed you can t figure out where you fit anymore home isn t home jupiter ascending by the wachowski sisters it could have been so good if it was good aesthetically i love this movie and i think i want the attention to detail in sets and costumes to come into play in my games literally figuratively i don t know but the way this movie makes every character distinct and weird is aspirational but what if it worked is my favorite form of inspiration calvin and hobbes by bill watterson the inescapable bigness and simultaneous smallness of childhood and life in general makes an impression i think i reread these comics every other year a bunch of middle grade b horror books but particularly the one where a guy makes a wish that goes wrong and he is turned into a tree but still has his thoughts and feelings and is terrified sorry i don t remember the name of it body horror it s a thing i love now but this book whatever it was kept me up at night for multiple nights let me know if you know what i m talking about i d love to revisit it wow gee lt is that all what a short list we would be here all day if i were more thorough but let me just copy in a list of things on the inspirations lists for a few things i m working on big trouble in little china the fifth element terry pratchett s thud the sevenwaters cycle the father of death by the protomen bastion pathfinder pinochle mafia games specifically narrated by my father the babysitters club survivor old saturday night live sketches the westing game a board game called hide and thief the thing the good the bad and the weird schitts creek a community theater run of the robber bridegroom my local conservation magazine a friend s unpublished hack of another friend s game the mean tweets segment of the late show batman and robin batnipples jeff smith s bone graeme base illustrations and the decemberists hazards of love some of the stuff on that list is picked for themes vibes that sort of thing some is for one specific and evocative detail not all of it will make it into the appendix n or maybe it will i started typing about how people look to a game s inspirations to know what the game will be like in genre or mechanics but i think i want to see more lists that read less like a sell sheet and more like a collage at someone s workweek even if that is less useful for me as a player trying to discern whether a game is for me or not i like to see where the inspiration came from i am gonna get weirdly specific with it in my next appendix n and i hope you will too cheers lt date september 8 2025 tags appendix n blogwagon comments leave a comment 6 bluey episodes every game designer should watch standard if you have a kid or nibling or child you are regularly in contact with or even just walk through the children s section at a clothing store you re probably aware of bluey this is stating it lightly i ve been enamored with the show as much as the next guy it s got short episodes layered with good writing and themes and it s worlds better than the vast majority of current kids tv but there s a conversation i keep having about bluey that i decided to finally document the show has lessons about play and game design in it i think this is largely due to the show being about parenting and existing as a child play is how kids learn play is maybe not exactly 1 1 with a board game or ttrpg but there are many principles that are the same and frankly people far more versed in game theory than i have written about the importance of childhood playground principles in games really you can just watch the whole series for a thesis on play at 10 minutes each with one notable exception binging the whole thing would take 26ish hours but assuming you won t these are the episodes i d suggest a game designer unfamiliar with the show watch to get some of the best distilled advice about play from shadowlands s1 e5 that s why you can t change the rules because the rules make it fun bluey and her friends snickers and coco are playing at the park we see coco playing games technically by the rules but not in the spirit of them right off the bat with bluey and snickers clearly frustrated as they switch to a game called shadowlands coco continually suggests changing the rules to make things easier instead of navigating the challenges but bluey insists that she can t change the rules eventually the kids conclude that the rules make it the game fun the takeaway rules and restriction challenge us and breed creativity games aren t necessarily about doing things the easy way examining why the rules we write reinforce the desired play experience or outcome can help mitigate the potential for ignoring or bending rules be firm in how you want the game to be played driving s3 e20 explores this idea as well with a time limit on the game mum and bluey play octopus s2 e40 how about we can say yes this octopus does that bluey and her friend chloe are playing a game called octopus with bluey s dad having tons of fun when chloe tries to play the game with her dad they have a disagreement about what the octopus is allowed to do ultimately they reach a compromise that makes the game fun for everyone and adds a dynamic element to it the takeaway i could say something about compromises in play and while that s important for a designer to be aware the thing that sticks with me from this episode is that hacking games is fun different people want different levels of complexity realism matter m...