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ars ludi
@arsludi.lamemage.com.web.brid.gy
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if you asked Ben's brain about gaming, this is what it would say

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“But then there’s the dark side… Let’s talk about the dark side…”
In the intro (which they recorded after the interview) Jason and Brad reflect on how we covered a wide range of topics, and let me tell you, they aren’t kidding. Dice In Mind (episode 159): Ben Robbins of Lame Mage (or listen on Apple Podcasts) We had a very fun, very interesting discussion about a […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
December 21, 2025 at 2:37 AM
arsludi.lamemage.com.web.brid.gy
Rules of Law Update: Examples & Mobile
Rules of Law fits very nicely on two pages. It’s a tight procedure, with not too many weird exceptions or explanations, so that works. But one thing I miss are examples. Because clear rules are great, but just as ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, an example can convey a lot of nuance about […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
December 21, 2025 at 2:37 AM
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Rules of Law Is Ready to Play
Our justice says who we are as a people. What do we punish? Do we enforce our laws fairly for everyone? Do we think our system is just? These are big questions about the foundations of society, so of course I made a game about it, and now Rules of Law is ready to play. […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
December 10, 2025 at 2:36 AM
arsludi.lamemage.com.web.brid.gy
20 Years and 723 Posts Later
It is essential that players like their characters. The character is the lens through which the player experiences everything in the game. It is also essential but not so obvious that they have to like the other players’ characters as well. That’s from my very first post on ars ludi, twenty years ago today. I’ve […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
December 1, 2025 at 1:53 AM
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I Made A Game About Laws
Remember how I said summerlab meant you were going to get games sooner? I was not kidding. I’m putting the finishing touches on a new game right now. Rules of Law is a world-building game about — you guessed it — laws. Because the laws we make, and how we do or do not enforce […]
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November 4, 2025 at 1:10 AM
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Summerlab: Because Lab is Experimental and Summer is Fun
I want to tell you about a new thing we’ve been doing that’s got our engines firing on all cylinders. A thing we call… summerlab. Summerlab is our game design support group / experimental design space. It’s a flag that says “yeah, this isn’t a big multi-year design, this is a smaller project. Maybe a […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
October 29, 2025 at 1:08 AM
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Our Bankrupt Dracharium and the Power of Names
Our merchant cartel — our Dracharium — has cut a deal with the very bandit’s that blocked our trade through Vulture Pass, enlisting them as toll collectors and even building them a fort to secure their control of the road. We’ve given the thieves badges and hoped they won’t turn against us… again. We’ve made […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
October 29, 2025 at 1:09 AM
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The Star-Pattern (part 2): Breaking Free
It’s game night. Precious, precious game night. Everyone is ready to play and have fun. And then two hours later, you realize the players are all talking to the GM but not each other. Your game is stuck in a star-pattern. What can you do to escape this trap and save the fun??? First of […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
October 14, 2025 at 12:50 AM
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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 games work… or fail. And after I’ve listened a bunch, lots of times I’ll nod and say “ooo, […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
October 7, 2025 at 12:39 AM
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World of Pets: “No one cares about your latte art, they want to see your osprey”
I was re-reading this example of play from In This World and I decided it was just too much fun not to share. It’s a great example of a lighthearted session that still makes you think about issues, which is something I see happen a lot with In This World. Big thoughts don’t have to […]
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September 8, 2025 at 12:23 AM
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Zodiac Ring, 20 Years Later
Twenty years ago today I released Zodiac Ring, my very first publication. Which means this is also the 20th anniversary of Lame Mage Productions. There’s no blog post announcement to link to because this was before I even started ars ludi. Of course I had no idea what I was getting into, or that these […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
September 3, 2025 at 12:23 AM
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Civil Service x In This World
Earlier this year, I got to give a talk for the folks at the Civil Service College in Singapore as part of their Infinite Games series: Infinite Games is a series of bi-monthly dialogues between game designers and public officers about serious games, spanning the spectrum of policy areas and manifesting in diverse forms. Game […]
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July 16, 2025 at 12:05 AM
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An Illusion of a Mountain
I had never watched Bob Ross’s Joy of Painting series until that magnificent twitch run back in 2015. The thing that really stuck with me (other than the fact that Bob Ross was a saint now but had clearly been through some shit) was how much he emphasized that paintings were entirely optical illusions. It’s […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
July 16, 2025 at 12:06 AM
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Haters Welcome
I’ve seen some game creators say that if you don’t agree with their politics or their worldview — or frankly just hold hateful or bigoted opinions — they do not want you to play their games. And I get it. I get wanting to punish bad people, to tell them they don’t deserve to enjoy […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
July 9, 2025 at 12:08 AM
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A Satisfying Game
You can make a game that is very easy to learn and play if you ask the players to do very little. But here’s my theory: the more a game lets you contribute — the more it asks of you — the more rewarding play can be. And I mean rewarding in the sense of […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
June 16, 2025 at 11:50 PM
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In This World, In Your Pocket
I made a new mobile PDF of the In This World rules, so you carry it around in your pocket and question assumptions and rethink the world we live in wherever you go. If you already purchased In This World from lamemage.com, you can use the same download link to get the new PDF (or […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
June 11, 2025 at 11:50 PM
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A is for Artificial
artificial (adj) 1. made to copy something natural 2. not what it appears to be; fake The battle lines are drawn. The war between AI and humanity has begun. In fact it is well underway. AI is out there, drawing pictures, writing stories, asking people how their day was. As anyone who has followed my […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
June 16, 2025 at 11:50 PM
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Microscope Hacks the Planet
I got an award for Microscope, pretty unexpectedly. For the original Microscope from way back, not the new Microscope: Chronicle, which of course is not even finished yet. I think they were originally talking about having one category for games from past years (like Microscope) but then opened up the inaugural awards to older entries. […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
June 9, 2025 at 11:51 PM
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Microscope May Update
Chronicle update! Well, a very small update. There are no rule changes, just two points I wanted to clarify. I put it all on a new page at the end of the doc, so if you read the rules before, you just have to look at that one page to get caught up. What’s clarified? […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
May 30, 2025 at 11:48 PM
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Autocrats Are Afraid of You
This is not the post I was working on, but when you revise and rewrite and revise and rewrite as much as I do, real life has a way of getting ahead of you. So let’s talk about 2025. Let’s talk about politics (again). I’m a reasonably well-informed guy, and I try to keep an […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
May 30, 2025 at 11:48 PM
arsludi.lamemage.com.web.brid.gy
Microscope vs Ground Table
As I’ve been working on Microscope: Chronicle, I’ve been revisiting all the core principles of Microscope, taking the watch apart and re-examining each gear under a (don’t say microscope)… magnifying glass to see what could be improved. And now we have these codified Ground Table principles laying out the kind of games we want to […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
May 16, 2025 at 11:48 PM
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Ground Table: Putting Games Through The Crucible
All the hammering and pounding and forge-labor is done (for now). The first draft of the Ground Table principles has been nailed to the door. But how do you test a thing like that? How do you know you got it right? Well one test is the basic gut-check: does it *feel* right. Another is […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
April 29, 2025 at 11:18 PM
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Microscope 2025
Hello, world. It’s 2025 and we all need some joy. What could be better for what ails us than using our brains and being creative together with other humans? So I give you the new Microscope: Chronicle, ready to download and play right now. Take it, gather your people, and make some fun together. It’s […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
May 6, 2025 at 1:05 AM
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The Clock On the Wall Says Chronicle Approaches
I’m generally loathe to give any kind of a release date unless I’m certain I will hit it, but I can say with confidence that the public playtest of Microscope Chronicle will be out before the end of the month. It’s a pinky-promise. I’m just doing the usual endless tidying up. Writing examples is always […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
April 23, 2025 at 11:18 PM
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It Doesn’t Feel Like My Game, It Feels Like Our Game
This may sound kind of weird, but once one of my games is done and released, I don’t really think of it as something *I* made. I mean, of course I know I made it. I spent ages on it. But I also see it as an independent thing that has a life of its […]
arsludi.lamemage.com
April 3, 2025 at 11:17 PM