Prismatic Wasteland
@prismaticwasteland.com
3x Ennie-winning TTRPG designer
My blog: https://www.prismaticwasteland.com
My games in print: https://www.prismaticwasteland.com/shop
My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PrismaticWasteland
My blog: https://www.prismaticwasteland.com
My games in print: https://www.prismaticwasteland.com/shop
My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PrismaticWasteland
Pinned
Prismatic Wasteland
prismaticwasteland.com
I’m W.F. Smith, tabletop RPG designer and blogger at Prismatic Wasteland, best known for Barkeep on the Borderlands, a pubcrawl fantasy adventure.
⬇️ for my top blogposts, my published adventures, and where you can find me other than my blog, prismaticwasteland.com
⬇️ for my top blogposts, my published adventures, and where you can find me other than my blog, prismaticwasteland.com
Reposted by Prismatic Wasteland
d100 - Magical Toys & Trinkets
Enchanted Items for the Young or Young At Heart
blog.d4caltrops.com/2026/01/d100...
#osr #randomtables #ttrpgs
Enchanted Items for the Young or Young At Heart
blog.d4caltrops.com/2026/01/d100...
#osr #randomtables #ttrpgs
d100 - Magical Toys & Trinkets
W himsical Wonders needn’t always be intended for those who’ve Grown Up. Here are one Hundred Magical Toys & Trinkets aimed at a younger a...
blog.d4caltrops.com
January 10, 2026 at 12:40 AM
d100 - Magical Toys & Trinkets
Enchanted Items for the Young or Young At Heart
blog.d4caltrops.com/2026/01/d100...
#osr #randomtables #ttrpgs
Enchanted Items for the Young or Young At Heart
blog.d4caltrops.com/2026/01/d100...
#osr #randomtables #ttrpgs
Adding an additional and mathematically impossible result to a typical d66 roll in order to relate to the Youth
January 9, 2026 at 7:51 PM
Adding an additional and mathematically impossible result to a typical d66 roll in order to relate to the Youth
Postal service has invented time travel so they can lose your package in new and fascinating ways
January 9, 2026 at 5:35 PM
Postal service has invented time travel so they can lose your package in new and fascinating ways
Reposted by Prismatic Wasteland
If you ever wanted to play @orbitaldropkick.bsky.social's Maleghast using your grandmother's nativity set...now you can!
Playing War Games with your Grandmother's Nativity Set
I worked on this over Christmas. It's a little late but perhaps you (like me) haven't quite cleaned up your tree yet. I have limited exposu...
riseupcomus.blogspot.com
January 9, 2026 at 2:39 PM
If you ever wanted to play @orbitaldropkick.bsky.social's Maleghast using your grandmother's nativity set...now you can!
Reposted by Prismatic Wasteland
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
Reposted by Prismatic Wasteland
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 Prismatic Wasteland
I’m starting a series on ways to use dice in your TTRPGs. Here’s the first: River dice! idlecartulary.com/2026/01/08/r...
River Dice (Make Dice Work For You #1)
Make Dice Work For You is a series where I’ll regularly talk through a new way to use dice in your game. It came out of conversation surrounding What to randomise when you’re randomising, and what …
idlecartulary.com
January 8, 2026 at 10:26 AM
I’m starting a series on ways to use dice in your TTRPGs. Here’s the first: River dice! idlecartulary.com/2026/01/08/r...
Reposted by Prismatic Wasteland
I wrote about the four main types of play environment in D&D: settlements, strongholds, dungeons, & monster lairs, the play experience provided by each, & how each exists on a gradient of complexity & agency which allows the scope of the campaign to grow alongside the player characters' abilities.
Play Environments, Power, Complexity, and Agency in D&D
Location types exist in close proximity to one another but serve very different gameplay functions. There are basically four main location t...
forlornencystment.blogspot.com
January 7, 2026 at 3:48 PM
I wrote about the four main types of play environment in D&D: settlements, strongholds, dungeons, & monster lairs, the play experience provided by each, & how each exists on a gradient of complexity & agency which allows the scope of the campaign to grow alongside the player characters' abilities.
Reposted by Prismatic Wasteland
BEHOLD: 60 festive hexes for your next Christmastime campaign from a variety of your favorite bloggers. Go give them a read and steal the best bits for your games
#osr #ttrpg
#osr #ttrpg
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 6, 2026 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by Prismatic Wasteland
It’s Bloggies season! Here’s a big list of posts I enjoyed. Plus, a recap of my year in blogging and plans for 2026:
Bloggies / New Year
2025 blogging highlights and plans for 2026
dododecahedron.blog
January 6, 2026 at 5:29 PM
It’s Bloggies season! Here’s a big list of posts I enjoyed. Plus, a recap of my year in blogging and plans for 2026:
Reposted by Prismatic Wasteland
The blog says "4-minute read." That's a lie. Here's every finalist from the past three years of The Bloggies.
www.explorersdesign.com/the-bloggies...
www.explorersdesign.com/the-bloggies...
The Bloggies Hall of Fame
Every winner of The Bloggies from 2022 to 2025. Want to melt your rpg brain? Start here.
www.explorersdesign.com
January 6, 2026 at 2:53 PM
The blog says "4-minute read." That's a lie. Here's every finalist from the past three years of The Bloggies.
www.explorersdesign.com/the-bloggies...
www.explorersdesign.com/the-bloggies...
BEHOLD: 60 festive hexes for your next Christmastime campaign from a variety of your favorite bloggers. Go give them a read and steal the best bits for your games
#osr #ttrpg
#osr #ttrpg
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 6, 2026 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by Prismatic Wasteland
This Yuletide, I was lucky enough to jump on a blogging bandwagon with some folks. I was so impressed with some of these entries. And Kati and others did the hard work of organizing all the entries and making this hexmap!
RELEASE: The complete #hexmas map is now available for you to peruse! Download the pdf version to see all the bloggers who contributed to this awesome blogwagon by @prismaticwasteland.com.
#blog #ttrpg #bloggers #blogosphere
bakenshake09.itch.io/hexmas-map-2...
#blog #ttrpg #bloggers #blogosphere
bakenshake09.itch.io/hexmas-map-2...
Hexmas Map 2025 by Bakenshake
A hexcrawl of all the hexes created by Bloggers for Hexmas 2025
bakenshake09.itch.io
January 5, 2026 at 8:12 PM
This Yuletide, I was lucky enough to jump on a blogging bandwagon with some folks. I was so impressed with some of these entries. And Kati and others did the hard work of organizing all the entries and making this hexmap!
Reposted by Prismatic Wasteland
Surprise post! Randomisation errors and how to avoid sabotaging your model with bad use of randomisation! idlecartulary.com/2026/01/06/w... #osr
What to randomise when you’re randomising
You may have noticed that a common theme in my reviews is that I criticise people’s random tables: Their wilderness generators, their wandering monsters, their weather tables, their treasure …
idlecartulary.com
January 5, 2026 at 9:44 PM
Surprise post! Randomisation errors and how to avoid sabotaging your model with bad use of randomisation! idlecartulary.com/2026/01/06/w... #osr
Reposted by Prismatic Wasteland
RELEASE: The complete #hexmas map is now available for you to peruse! Download the pdf version to see all the bloggers who contributed to this awesome blogwagon by @prismaticwasteland.com.
#blog #ttrpg #bloggers #blogosphere
bakenshake09.itch.io/hexmas-map-2...
#blog #ttrpg #bloggers #blogosphere
bakenshake09.itch.io/hexmas-map-2...
Hexmas Map 2025 by Bakenshake
A hexcrawl of all the hexes created by Bloggers for Hexmas 2025
bakenshake09.itch.io
January 5, 2026 at 8:07 PM
RELEASE: The complete #hexmas map is now available for you to peruse! Download the pdf version to see all the bloggers who contributed to this awesome blogwagon by @prismaticwasteland.com.
#blog #ttrpg #bloggers #blogosphere
bakenshake09.itch.io/hexmas-map-2...
#blog #ttrpg #bloggers #blogosphere
bakenshake09.itch.io/hexmas-map-2...
Reposted by Prismatic Wasteland
New blog post! This one about the role played by (the lack of) games media in the tabletop RPG landscape: personable.blog/media-crowdf...
Crowdfunding and The Death of the Media
Reflecting on how the lack of a games press affects how games are funded.
personable.blog
January 5, 2026 at 1:28 PM
New blog post! This one about the role played by (the lack of) games media in the tabletop RPG landscape: personable.blog/media-crowdf...
Reposted by Prismatic Wasteland
aaand the first Bathtub Review of the year is Providers! Does it provide a creepy ass cult and a ripping setting, or have we had enough micro settings for Mothership? Find out!! idlecartulary.com/2026/01/05/b...
Bathtub Review: Providers
Bathtub Reviews are an excuse for me to read modules a little more closely. I’m doing them to critique a wide range of modules from the perspective of my own table and to learn for my own module de…
idlecartulary.com
January 5, 2026 at 10:47 AM
aaand the first Bathtub Review of the year is Providers! Does it provide a creepy ass cult and a ripping setting, or have we had enough micro settings for Mothership? Find out!! idlecartulary.com/2026/01/05/b...
Do it
You are Going to Start a Blog Now
Blogspot resurgence 2026 incoming.
lillyashton.blogspot.com
January 4, 2026 at 6:11 PM
Do it
This is an incredibly entertaining review. Did you wish Hunter S Thompson reviewed TTRPGs? I don’t know why you wished for that, but this blog post granted it. For your Bloggies consideration:
Help me fight this rigged nonsense by adding this little URL to it. It takes 30 seconds and @prismaticwasteland.com hates it.
wayspell.blogspot.com/2024/12/bark...
wayspell.blogspot.com/2024/12/bark...
January 2, 2026 at 9:45 PM
This is an incredibly entertaining review. Did you wish Hunter S Thompson reviewed TTRPGs? I don’t know why you wished for that, but this blog post granted it. For your Bloggies consideration:
If you have a spare $1 a month (budgets are tight so I would not assume anyone does honestly), I have a Patreon where I post early blogposts and early PDFs of my games. Also occasionally some exclusive stuff like this little retrospective.
2025 Retrospective | Prismatic Wasteland
Get more from Prismatic Wasteland on Patreon
www.patreon.com
January 2, 2026 at 4:11 PM
If you have a spare $1 a month (budgets are tight so I would not assume anyone does honestly), I have a Patreon where I post early blogposts and early PDFs of my games. Also occasionally some exclusive stuff like this little retrospective.
Plugging my own critique type post from very early last year that I think was quite good and worth others submitting on my behalf: Monster, Maiden, Madonna, Medusa, a look at how early and more recent TTRPGs have depicted femininity as monstrous (and monsters as feminine)
January 2, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Plugging my own critique type post from very early last year that I think was quite good and worth others submitting on my behalf: Monster, Maiden, Madonna, Medusa, a look at how early and more recent TTRPGs have depicted femininity as monstrous (and monsters as feminine)
I’ve read every monster manual that has ever been put to print and yet never knew dragons could be made of cheese. This earth is full of wonders
December 31, 2025 at 10:38 PM
I’ve read every monster manual that has ever been put to print and yet never knew dragons could be made of cheese. This earth is full of wonders
It's Christmas Day! I haven't missed it! The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. Hallo my fine fellow!
There is still time to blog a Christmas Hex!
There is still time to blog a Christmas Hex!
December 25, 2025 at 1:17 PM
It's Christmas Day! I haven't missed it! The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. Hallo my fine fellow!
There is still time to blog a Christmas Hex!
There is still time to blog a Christmas Hex!
You there, boy, what day is this?
December 25, 2025 at 12:29 PM
You there, boy, what day is this?