Pinned
Mapping the Blogosphere
An interactive graph of TTRPG blogs, showing who links to whom, how communities change over time, plus stats and how it all works.
elmc.at
Spent the last month mapping the blogosphere by its links. The graph is finally ready
Communities clump into a big hex and the whole thing looks like a star map
What are blogs anyway but stars in the sky?
elmc.at/mapping-the-...
To check out the graph directly follow this link:
graph.elmc.at
Communities clump into a big hex and the whole thing looks like a star map
What are blogs anyway but stars in the sky?
elmc.at/mapping-the-...
To check out the graph directly follow this link:
graph.elmc.at
Reposted by elmcat
Just so you all know this (overly) linear map is also from a Jennell Jaquays' product... Loops are good, but are neither necessary or sufficient for good map design.
January 15, 2026 at 2:21 PM
Just so you all know this (overly) linear map is also from a Jennell Jaquays' product... Loops are good, but are neither necessary or sufficient for good map design.
Reposted by elmcat
January issue of Carouse just dropped!
If you like indie TTRPGs check out this collaborative newsletter from a diverse group of indie creators.
www.carouse.blog/january-2026...
If you like indie TTRPGs check out this collaborative newsletter from a diverse group of indie creators.
www.carouse.blog/january-2026...
January 2026 - The Carousies
Happy New Year! This issue is a little different; in place of our usual columns and gameable goodness we're handing out some awards! Plus, you'll find a thoughtful review by Sprinting Owl of a unique ...
www.carouse.blog
January 15, 2026 at 1:25 PM
January issue of Carouse just dropped!
If you like indie TTRPGs check out this collaborative newsletter from a diverse group of indie creators.
www.carouse.blog/january-2026...
If you like indie TTRPGs check out this collaborative newsletter from a diverse group of indie creators.
www.carouse.blog/january-2026...
My daily Bloggies picks (15):
I love downtime, and @benlaurence.bsky.social dropped a fantastic new mothership android downtime action about trying to become more human
maziriansgarden.blogspot.com/2025/02/beco...
I love downtime, and @benlaurence.bsky.social dropped a fantastic new mothership android downtime action about trying to become more human
maziriansgarden.blogspot.com/2025/02/beco...
Becoming "Human" (Mothership Downtime)
Mothership has a wonderful character creation process, where a few random “flavor” rolls both convey a lot about the setting, as well as ta...
maziriansgarden.blogspot.com
January 15, 2026 at 1:15 PM
My daily Bloggies picks (15):
I love downtime, and @benlaurence.bsky.social dropped a fantastic new mothership android downtime action about trying to become more human
maziriansgarden.blogspot.com/2025/02/beco...
I love downtime, and @benlaurence.bsky.social dropped a fantastic new mothership android downtime action about trying to become more human
maziriansgarden.blogspot.com/2025/02/beco...
Reposted by elmcat
My first session of Mythic Bastionland was today. I was a little nervous, as I hadn't ran anything in over a year! (The last game I ran was the Mothership module Another Bug Hunt.) This was a quiet session, but fun all the same. Sometimes that's how the dice go. Some thoughts on my blog.
Save vs. Total Party Kill - My First Mythic Bastionland Session
I spent a little bit of time over the last two days getting ready to play Mythic Bastionland. I made a map over the holidays, but didn’t finish filling it with stuff at the time. I was writing down NP...
save.vs.totalpartykill.ca
January 15, 2026 at 5:04 AM
My first session of Mythic Bastionland was today. I was a little nervous, as I hadn't ran anything in over a year! (The last game I ran was the Mothership module Another Bug Hunt.) This was a quiet session, but fun all the same. Sometimes that's how the dice go. Some thoughts on my blog.
Reposted by elmcat
I hate LA so much lol
January 13, 2026 at 4:23 PM
I hate LA so much lol
Reposted by elmcat
The Gloggies, the goblin step-brother of the Bloggies, just announced its winners for this year!
If you want some gameable ideas for your murky dungeon game, the collection here is awesome.
mediumsandmessages.bearblog.dev/the-winners-...
If you want some gameable ideas for your murky dungeon game, the collection here is awesome.
mediumsandmessages.bearblog.dev/the-winners-...
The Winners of the 2025 Gloggies
The best 7-ish posts from the glogosphere as voted on by members of the community.
mediumsandmessages.bearblog.dev
January 14, 2026 at 4:02 PM
The Gloggies, the goblin step-brother of the Bloggies, just announced its winners for this year!
If you want some gameable ideas for your murky dungeon game, the collection here is awesome.
mediumsandmessages.bearblog.dev/the-winners-...
If you want some gameable ideas for your murky dungeon game, the collection here is awesome.
mediumsandmessages.bearblog.dev/the-winners-...
Reposted by elmcat
I was underwhelmed by the minimalist sandbox in B2: The Keep on the Borderlands, so I made my own:
Creating a New Regional Sandbox for B2: The Keep on the Borderlands
Over on Bluesky, I recently finished up my readthrough of Dungeon Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands - actually, by the time this post ...
forlornencystment.blogspot.com
January 14, 2026 at 4:29 PM
I was underwhelmed by the minimalist sandbox in B2: The Keep on the Borderlands, so I made my own:
Reposted by elmcat
Playtest early.
Lo-res prototypes: Encourage players to focus on fewer parts. Are easier to change. Encourage a wider range of feedback.
High-res prototypes, or semi-complete games, can be hard to test. They're often too busy, complicated, and polished to get honest, sometimes tough, feedback.
Lo-res prototypes: Encourage players to focus on fewer parts. Are easier to change. Encourage a wider range of feedback.
High-res prototypes, or semi-complete games, can be hard to test. They're often too busy, complicated, and polished to get honest, sometimes tough, feedback.
January 14, 2026 at 2:42 PM
Playtest early.
Lo-res prototypes: Encourage players to focus on fewer parts. Are easier to change. Encourage a wider range of feedback.
High-res prototypes, or semi-complete games, can be hard to test. They're often too busy, complicated, and polished to get honest, sometimes tough, feedback.
Lo-res prototypes: Encourage players to focus on fewer parts. Are easier to change. Encourage a wider range of feedback.
High-res prototypes, or semi-complete games, can be hard to test. They're often too busy, complicated, and polished to get honest, sometimes tough, feedback.
Reposted by elmcat
A tale of playtesting and how you don’t really know what mechanics work until you bring ones that don’t work to your table, maybe more than once
Playtest Early, Playtest Often — Prismatic Wasteland
To design a game, you have to break a few eggs and discard some rules or completely rewrite them. But you won’t know what to discard and what to rewrite until you feed those eggs to your players.
www.prismaticwasteland.com
January 14, 2026 at 2:08 PM
A tale of playtesting and how you don’t really know what mechanics work until you bring ones that don’t work to your table, maybe more than once
Reposted by elmcat
My daily Bloggies picks (14):
@prismaticwasteland.com breaks down male-gaze encounter design around gender-coded monsters in early d&d modules, and how it keeps resurfacing decades later. encounters written for horny straight dungeon bros
www.prismaticwasteland.com/blog/monster...
@prismaticwasteland.com breaks down male-gaze encounter design around gender-coded monsters in early d&d modules, and how it keeps resurfacing decades later. encounters written for horny straight dungeon bros
www.prismaticwasteland.com/blog/monster...
Monster, Maiden, Madonna, Medusa — Prismatic Wasteland
The medusa is a cool monster that was the victim of TSR’s honeypot encounter design like so many other female-coded monsters. A close reading of woman monsters in Keep on the Borderlands, White Plume ...
www.prismaticwasteland.com
January 14, 2026 at 1:12 PM
My daily Bloggies picks (14):
@prismaticwasteland.com breaks down male-gaze encounter design around gender-coded monsters in early d&d modules, and how it keeps resurfacing decades later. encounters written for horny straight dungeon bros
www.prismaticwasteland.com/blog/monster...
@prismaticwasteland.com breaks down male-gaze encounter design around gender-coded monsters in early d&d modules, and how it keeps resurfacing decades later. encounters written for horny straight dungeon bros
www.prismaticwasteland.com/blog/monster...
Reposted by elmcat
A lot of people conceptualize random encounters as the party encountering the monsters, but they make more sense the other way: the monsters encounter the party.
Below is a thread on what most people get wrong about encounter activities and what there is to be done about it. (1/14)
Below is a thread on what most people get wrong about encounter activities and what there is to be done about it. (1/14)
January 12, 2026 at 7:52 PM
A lot of people conceptualize random encounters as the party encountering the monsters, but they make more sense the other way: the monsters encounter the party.
Below is a thread on what most people get wrong about encounter activities and what there is to be done about it. (1/14)
Below is a thread on what most people get wrong about encounter activities and what there is to be done about it. (1/14)
My daily Bloggies picks (13):
@goblinpunch.bsky.social encourages you to write your own dungeon. we should be empowering people to create. ideally a game system already gives you that confidence, but if not, maybe this post will
goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-du...
@goblinpunch.bsky.social encourages you to write your own dungeon. we should be empowering people to create. ideally a game system already gives you that confidence, but if not, maybe this post will
goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-du...
A Dungeon of Your Own
Have you written your own dungeon? Everyone should write a dungeon at least once. You'll be able to write stuff that you like, and stuff th...
goblinpunch.blogspot.com
January 13, 2026 at 3:45 PM
My daily Bloggies picks (13):
@goblinpunch.bsky.social encourages you to write your own dungeon. we should be empowering people to create. ideally a game system already gives you that confidence, but if not, maybe this post will
goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-du...
@goblinpunch.bsky.social encourages you to write your own dungeon. we should be empowering people to create. ideally a game system already gives you that confidence, but if not, maybe this post will
goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-du...
Reposted by elmcat
New mindstorm post! 2026 is the year of the shameless self-indulgent posting. I've started a new game, and this first post is both design notes and play report. Check it out if you like PIRATES
www.mindstormpress.com/shimmernight...
www.mindstormpress.com/shimmernight...
Shimmernight: Session One
I talk about the launch of my new campaign, with both notes on designing a nautical campaign and a play report.
www.mindstormpress.com
January 12, 2026 at 2:37 PM
New mindstorm post! 2026 is the year of the shameless self-indulgent posting. I've started a new game, and this first post is both design notes and play report. Check it out if you like PIRATES
www.mindstormpress.com/shimmernight...
www.mindstormpress.com/shimmernight...
@apoleen.bsky.social on redundancies as fear formalized into engineering. in space horror, before the monster, there's the vacuum: an omnipresent, unforgiving universe that doesn't care
distractedatthetable.substack.com/p/the-most-h...
distractedatthetable.substack.com/p/the-most-h...
The Most Human Part of Space Horror? Redundancies.
Real horrors of space start long before the monster arrives. Redundant systems, manual overrides, and ugly industrial design reveal a deeper truth: before we feared aliens, we feared the vacuum.
distractedatthetable.substack.com
January 12, 2026 at 2:34 PM
@apoleen.bsky.social on redundancies as fear formalized into engineering. in space horror, before the monster, there's the vacuum: an omnipresent, unforgiving universe that doesn't care
distractedatthetable.substack.com/p/the-most-h...
distractedatthetable.substack.com/p/the-most-h...
Reposted by elmcat
Shiny TTRPG links #259
A bumper post-holiday crop of links
seedofworlds.blogspot.com/2026/01/shin...
#ttrpg #osr #dnd #diyrpg
A bumper post-holiday crop of links
seedofworlds.blogspot.com/2026/01/shin...
#ttrpg #osr #dnd #diyrpg
January 12, 2026 at 10:32 AM
Shiny TTRPG links #259
A bumper post-holiday crop of links
seedofworlds.blogspot.com/2026/01/shin...
#ttrpg #osr #dnd #diyrpg
A bumper post-holiday crop of links
seedofworlds.blogspot.com/2026/01/shin...
#ttrpg #osr #dnd #diyrpg
Reposted by elmcat
The "traditional" structure of TTRPGs puts an enormous amount of pressure on the GM to learn/refine & very little on the players.
Which is somehow seen as more reasonable than spreading the load of learning/contribution across the whole table.
Broader implications about community in there, y'all.
Which is somehow seen as more reasonable than spreading the load of learning/contribution across the whole table.
Broader implications about community in there, y'all.
January 11, 2026 at 5:05 PM
The "traditional" structure of TTRPGs puts an enormous amount of pressure on the GM to learn/refine & very little on the players.
Which is somehow seen as more reasonable than spreading the load of learning/contribution across the whole table.
Broader implications about community in there, y'all.
Which is somehow seen as more reasonable than spreading the load of learning/contribution across the whole table.
Broader implications about community in there, y'all.
Reposted by elmcat
Rules of D&D (according to me)
- a player must host
- a player must provide snacks
- all players must take notes
- the DM must be served the beverage of their choice
- all are responsible for the emotional well-being of the ppl at the table
- all should talk about their expectations in advance
- a player must host
- a player must provide snacks
- all players must take notes
- the DM must be served the beverage of their choice
- all are responsible for the emotional well-being of the ppl at the table
- all should talk about their expectations in advance
January 11, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Rules of D&D (according to me)
- a player must host
- a player must provide snacks
- all players must take notes
- the DM must be served the beverage of their choice
- all are responsible for the emotional well-being of the ppl at the table
- all should talk about their expectations in advance
- a player must host
- a player must provide snacks
- all players must take notes
- the DM must be served the beverage of their choice
- all are responsible for the emotional well-being of the ppl at the table
- all should talk about their expectations in advance
My daily Bloggies picks (11):
@lamemage.com on a common table problem: if all communication is GM-facing, teamwork withers and collaboration shrinks. same pattern as workplace micromanagement
arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/48...
@lamemage.com on a common table problem: if all communication is GM-facing, teamwork withers and collaboration shrinks. same pattern as workplace micromanagement
arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/48...
The Star-Pattern: a Pitfall of GMing
When someone tells me about a session of a GMed game (like D&D) that they didn't enjoy, I put on my investigator cap and ask a bunch of questions about what happened. Because I like understanding why ...
arsludi.lamemage.com
January 11, 2026 at 12:55 PM
My daily Bloggies picks (11):
@lamemage.com on a common table problem: if all communication is GM-facing, teamwork withers and collaboration shrinks. same pattern as workplace micromanagement
arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/48...
@lamemage.com on a common table problem: if all communication is GM-facing, teamwork withers and collaboration shrinks. same pattern as workplace micromanagement
arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/48...
Reposted by elmcat
I'm famously anti-Xmas TTRPG guy. I don't like Santa or even Krampus in my games. But this is some good shit here. It's fun. I will allow it.
The Rankin Bass Hexmas Crawl — Prismatic Wasteland
A Christmas-themed hexcrawl setting with 60 hexes written from bloggers across the blogosphere.
www.prismaticwasteland.com
January 11, 2026 at 11:42 AM
I'm famously anti-Xmas TTRPG guy. I don't like Santa or even Krampus in my games. But this is some good shit here. It's fun. I will allow it.
Reposted by elmcat
New Blog Post: Eating the Book--a response to 'We Need to Talk About Goodman Games.'
Wherein I critique that Questing Beast Video, articulate different approaches to game preparation, and advocate for more intellectually curious criticism in the RPG space.
orthopraxy.bearblog.dev/eating-the-b...
Wherein I critique that Questing Beast Video, articulate different approaches to game preparation, and advocate for more intellectually curious criticism in the RPG space.
orthopraxy.bearblog.dev/eating-the-b...
Eating the Book--a response to 'We Need to Talk About Goodman Games'
Look--I get that people have their opinions about how things ought to work, yeah? here in the OSR/NSR/POSR space, people like their fancy interior covers wi...
orthopraxy.bearblog.dev
January 10, 2026 at 8:06 PM
New Blog Post: Eating the Book--a response to 'We Need to Talk About Goodman Games.'
Wherein I critique that Questing Beast Video, articulate different approaches to game preparation, and advocate for more intellectually curious criticism in the RPG space.
orthopraxy.bearblog.dev/eating-the-b...
Wherein I critique that Questing Beast Video, articulate different approaches to game preparation, and advocate for more intellectually curious criticism in the RPG space.
orthopraxy.bearblog.dev/eating-the-b...
Reposted by elmcat
Been working on this one for a while — it's a little bit of history of a key foundation of internet technology, and a little bit of an explainer about how people _actually_ invent things. This is the amazing (true!) story of how Markdown took over the world. www.anildash.com/2026/01/09/h...
How Markdown took over the world - Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
www.anildash.com
January 9, 2026 at 4:17 PM
Been working on this one for a while — it's a little bit of history of a key foundation of internet technology, and a little bit of an explainer about how people _actually_ invent things. This is the amazing (true!) story of how Markdown took over the world. www.anildash.com/2026/01/09/h...
My daily Bloggies picks (10):
I really enjoyed the Print-and-Play Manifesto by @sandroad.moe. what's more diy than printing your own zines? god damn, I need to get a printer
www.failforward.moe/2025/04/sand...
I really enjoyed the Print-and-Play Manifesto by @sandroad.moe. what's more diy than printing your own zines? god damn, I need to get a printer
www.failforward.moe/2025/04/sand...
Sandro's Print-and-Play Manifesto
So those tariffs, huh? Years of folks collectively manifesting US global economic dominance and imperialism to take a hit has finally begun ...
www.failforward.moe
January 10, 2026 at 2:11 PM
My daily Bloggies picks (10):
I really enjoyed the Print-and-Play Manifesto by @sandroad.moe. what's more diy than printing your own zines? god damn, I need to get a printer
www.failforward.moe/2025/04/sand...
I really enjoyed the Print-and-Play Manifesto by @sandroad.moe. what's more diy than printing your own zines? god damn, I need to get a printer
www.failforward.moe/2025/04/sand...
Reposted by elmcat
Forcing myself to write again - to think carefully in a way I feared I'd let atrophy - dramatically improved my self-esteem.
BLOG! It's so fun!
www.joanwestenberg.com/the-case-for...
Thank you to @prismaticwasteland.com and @diyanddragons.bsky.social for introducing me to this post.
BLOG! It's so fun!
www.joanwestenberg.com/the-case-for...
Thank you to @prismaticwasteland.com and @diyanddragons.bsky.social for introducing me to this post.
The Case for Blogging in the Ruins
In 1751, Denis Diderot began publishing his Encyclopédie, a project that would eventually span 28 volumes and take more than two decades to complete. The French government banned it twice. The Catholi...
www.joanwestenberg.com
January 9, 2026 at 2:12 PM
Forcing myself to write again - to think carefully in a way I feared I'd let atrophy - dramatically improved my self-esteem.
BLOG! It's so fun!
www.joanwestenberg.com/the-case-for...
Thank you to @prismaticwasteland.com and @diyanddragons.bsky.social for introducing me to this post.
BLOG! It's so fun!
www.joanwestenberg.com/the-case-for...
Thank you to @prismaticwasteland.com and @diyanddragons.bsky.social for introducing me to this post.
Reposted by elmcat
New blogpost: take those pesky dice out of your adventure gaming with new and updated experimental adventuring mechanics.
bommyknocker.bearblog.dev/bid-based-ad...
#osr #blog
bommyknocker.bearblog.dev/bid-based-ad...
#osr #blog
Bid-based adventuring - Blood, Sweat & Tears v0.2
A randomless system for scoundrels
bommyknocker.bearblog.dev
January 9, 2026 at 1:56 PM
New blogpost: take those pesky dice out of your adventure gaming with new and updated experimental adventuring mechanics.
bommyknocker.bearblog.dev/bid-based-ad...
#osr #blog
bommyknocker.bearblog.dev/bid-based-ad...
#osr #blog