Brett Rolfe
banner
brettrolfe.bsky.social
Brett Rolfe
@brettrolfe.bsky.social
Educator and game designer, stealing all the best ideas from tabletop gaming and bringing them to the classroom.

Pretending to be a corporate entity at https://schoolhouse.games/
Such a brilliant song!
December 25, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Aways felt Pride and Prejudice would have made a better space opera? Constantly bemoaning the lack of steamy eroticism in War and Peace? Pick up a red pen and fix the problem! schoolhousegames.itch.io/editor-a-boo...
editor by Schoolhouse
a bookmark game
schoolhousegames.itch.io
December 10, 2025 at 3:51 AM
Assuming this black rectangle is the Apocalypse of Infinite Games... as an educator (and very occasional designer) who has always believed the only learning experience better than playing a game is making a game... I AM SO HERE FOR THIS!
December 6, 2025 at 12:39 AM
With most of the content on QQ I’d agree, but this video doesn’t really feel like that. I can see a bunch of people arriving at these games not via the idea of TTRPGs, but just as interesting games about stories… and even discovering TTRPGs through them. Tacklebox feels closer to charades than 5E.
December 1, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Thanks @itsquinns.bsky.social, that’s helpful in helping me estimate ahead of time how expensive I might find your next Quinn’s Quest video…
December 1, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Having said that, I am also a big fan of mash-ups - partly for the intellectual pleasure of it, and partly as a way for making a serious point through juxtaposition. Perhaps I'd try and make that argument for someone like Terry Pratchett, or in the gaming world for something like Monsterhearts.
November 19, 2025 at 10:07 PM
I love the idea that mash-ups are a way to sanitise genres. "This is a new thing," says the designer, "it doesn't have those awkward bits of the old things." Perhaps leaning into the heart of things - from historical genres to contemporary ideologies - will produce more games with 'serious' intent.
November 19, 2025 at 9:57 PM
@diceexploder.com and @itsquinns.bsky.social, freaking amazing conversation guys. A deeply well-informed creative firehose!
'Inventory tetris'? 'Quantum inventory'? Those are going straight in the game design backback... if I have room...
November 18, 2025 at 11:42 PM
This suggests underlying connections we can draw on between mechanics and aspects of the human experience. Sometimes this can be quite direct, but other times feel a bit like the bouba–kiki effect, when some mechanic just 'feels' right as a way of evoking something. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/k...
Bouba/kiki effect - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 10, 2025 at 4:51 AM
Any other Sydney folk interested in buying a few copies of SPINE collectively, to split the extortionate 'Down Under' shipping fee?
November 9, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Could he also help by telling you about OTHER contemporaneous designers and what THEY designed?
November 2, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Excellent! I look forward to playing it one day… though I have to admit, as someone who is more interested in the process of deciphering City of Six Moons than ‘playing’ the end product, I’m most fascinated with the possibility of the play involved in unraveling the story around the artefact :)
October 30, 2025 at 7:45 PM
@amabel.bsky.social I was very curious about the 'discovering an old TTRPG' idea you mentioned, which felt like a kindred spirit to @liz-shrikestudio.bsky.social's 'You Will Die In This Place'. Are you still working on that idea? And if so, how are those games in dialogue?
October 30, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Wonderful interview. Thank you for walking the line between fascinating insight and evil spoilers (from someone a couple of months in and still not done)!
October 30, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Brilliantly affordable. Unfortunately those of us living in the distant Antipodes are cursed with a $25 shipping cost for a $10 book! But we're used to it, and I have asked my favourite Aussie micro-importer (rpgbookshelf.com.au) whether they might be keen to order a bunch...
October 30, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Such a fascinatng conversation. The discussion about appropriate representation raised precisely all the gnarly questions I wrestled with, creating a classroom game exploring the impact of colonial first contact on Indigenous communities. (schoolhouse.games/terra-fabula/)
October 28, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Facinating conversation! @tasharobinson.bsky.social, given the breadth of indie games you've seen, I'm curious whether you have come across play experiences that are about the player directly exploring their own identity and sense of self (rather than doing so through the mediation of a character)?
October 25, 2025 at 3:20 AM
Not at all - I would be delighted if you find it useful!
October 22, 2025 at 8:56 PM
I can imagine cookbooks coming with a handy reference 'GM screen', for a start!
October 17, 2025 at 12:01 PM