paul
@thecastlebuilder.bsky.social
he/they. perhaps not just another software guy. newbie ttrpg designer. I blog about video games and ttrpgs weekly
blog: https://thoughtsabout.games/
games: https://thecastlebuilder.itch.io/
blog: https://thoughtsabout.games/
games: https://thecastlebuilder.itch.io/
I tragically couldn't fit this screencap into the post but it's too good not to share. This is campaign slogan material right here.
November 11, 2025 at 6:29 PM
I tragically couldn't fit this screencap into the post but it's too good not to share. This is campaign slogan material right here.
I'm back on Backtracking, my blogging project about working through the years and picking backlog games to finally get to. This time I played the cult hit The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay! thoughtsabout.games/blog/posts/b...
Backtracking: The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay (2004)
thoughtsabout.games
November 11, 2025 at 1:19 AM
I'm back on Backtracking, my blogging project about working through the years and picking backlog games to finally get to. This time I played the cult hit The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay! thoughtsabout.games/blog/posts/b...
I was surprised to find one of my free #ttrpg titles (available on itch) re-uploaded to Scribd, so I reported it for removal. But looking at the account, most of their uploads are random rpg materials like character sheets. Was reporting it an overreaction? Was there a valid reason to put it there?
November 10, 2025 at 5:41 PM
I was surprised to find one of my free #ttrpg titles (available on itch) re-uploaded to Scribd, so I reported it for removal. But looking at the account, most of their uploads are random rpg materials like character sheets. Was reporting it an overreaction? Was there a valid reason to put it there?
Reposted by paul
I'm still thinking about this show two years later.
October 19, 2025 at 8:51 PM
I'm still thinking about this show two years later.
Local bookstore chain is having a warehouse sale at one of their locations and the boxes are peppered with probably 20+copies of this book and I *have* to imagine that these were ordered because of a misreading North Carolina as Northern California
November 8, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Local bookstore chain is having a warehouse sale at one of their locations and the boxes are peppered with probably 20+copies of this book and I *have* to imagine that these were ordered because of a misreading North Carolina as Northern California
I've only worked in a couple of niche corners of the games industry (in software roles) but I constantly saw disdain and disrespect for QA folks, especially from leadership but also from engineers. It's viewed as an unskilled stepping-stone role, part of a hustle to advance into "real" contributions
Square Enix wants 70% of its QA work to be handled by generative AI by the end of 2027, in partnership with the University of Tokyo's Matsuo-Iwasawa Laboratory. https://bit.ly/4qKdyQR
November 6, 2025 at 6:00 PM
I've only worked in a couple of niche corners of the games industry (in software roles) but I constantly saw disdain and disrespect for QA folks, especially from leadership but also from engineers. It's viewed as an unskilled stepping-stone role, part of a hustle to advance into "real" contributions
Today's blog post is a little retrospective of the other thing I've been posting about incessantly this past month. Here's some stats, thoughts, and highlights from my #ttrpgpromptober posting last month! thoughtsabout.games/blog/posts/d...
TTRPG Promptober Retrospective
thoughtsabout.games
November 4, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Today's blog post is a little retrospective of the other thing I've been posting about incessantly this past month. Here's some stats, thoughts, and highlights from my #ttrpgpromptober posting last month! thoughtsabout.games/blog/posts/d...
Back to blogging weekly, I hope! I wrote a bit about how roguelite progression works (and works for me) and why Absolum's early hours are engaging me far more than Hades II's mid-to-late hours.
thoughtsabout.games/blog/posts/g...
thoughtsabout.games/blog/posts/g...
Pacing and Progression in Roguelites
thoughtsabout.games
October 27, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Back to blogging weekly, I hope! I wrote a bit about how roguelite progression works (and works for me) and why Absolum's early hours are engaging me far more than Hades II's mid-to-late hours.
thoughtsabout.games/blog/posts/g...
thoughtsabout.games/blog/posts/g...
Reposted by paul
New Side Story is up! Austin is joined first by Keith and Janine to talk Pokemon Legends: Z-A and then by Art, Dre, and Keith again to dig into roguelite beat-'em-up Absolum!
sidestory.show/15-the-mama-...
sidestory.show/15-the-mama-...
Side Story: 15: The Mama Button
This episode contains an extended conversation about the death of a pet. See the chapters below for time stamps. What makes a city good? Is it walkability? A wide variety of dining options? A good cha...
sidestory.show
October 21, 2025 at 10:53 PM
New Side Story is up! Austin is joined first by Keith and Janine to talk Pokemon Legends: Z-A and then by Art, Dre, and Keith again to dig into roguelite beat-'em-up Absolum!
sidestory.show/15-the-mama-...
sidestory.show/15-the-mama-...
I'm still deep in my game design daily challenge rabbit hole and I haven't played as much video games as lately, so I'm going to skip my weekly blog post today.
It's nice to post regularly just to practice getting thoughts out there, but anything I'd want to talk about this week is too half baked
It's nice to post regularly just to practice getting thoughts out there, but anything I'd want to talk about this week is too half baked
October 21, 2025 at 1:44 AM
I'm still deep in my game design daily challenge rabbit hole and I haven't played as much video games as lately, so I'm going to skip my weekly blog post today.
It's nice to post regularly just to practice getting thoughts out there, but anything I'd want to talk about this week is too half baked
It's nice to post regularly just to practice getting thoughts out there, but anything I'd want to talk about this week is too half baked
The blog post for this week is slightly indulgent, because as anyone watching this feed knows, I've been deep in the promptober mines. So, I went ahead and did a little brief commentary about how it's been going and some of the highlights so far!
thoughtsabout.games
October 14, 2025 at 3:57 AM
The blog post for this week is slightly indulgent, because as anyone watching this feed knows, I've been deep in the promptober mines. So, I went ahead and did a little brief commentary about how it's been going and some of the highlights so far!
played brief D&D campaigns (4e and 5e) in college, Call of Cthulhu with coworkers a few years later, then in 2018 stumbled onto @friends-table.bsky.social and was inspired to start GMing for some college buds! Dungeon World was the first game I ran, and FatT's output kept on expanding my taste
For tons of folks, there was that -one- game that blew the doors open and showed what #TTRPGs could be. The one that started the #IndieGame rabbit hole.
What was YOUR "gateway" indie #TTRPG? The first one that made you realize a whole other world was out there?
What was YOUR "gateway" indie #TTRPG? The first one that made you realize a whole other world was out there?
October 13, 2025 at 4:57 AM
played brief D&D campaigns (4e and 5e) in college, Call of Cthulhu with coworkers a few years later, then in 2018 stumbled onto @friends-table.bsky.social and was inspired to start GMing for some college buds! Dungeon World was the first game I ran, and FatT's output kept on expanding my taste
For my weekly blog post, I wrote about how Hades II is, despite it's many triumphs, far less daring than Supergiant's earlier work. I hope the praise in here doesn't come off as hedging; I really do believe that there's great stuff in Hades II! And yet, I yearn for something more experimental...
Hades II - The Safety of Sequels
thoughtsabout.games
October 7, 2025 at 5:56 AM
For my weekly blog post, I wrote about how Hades II is, despite it's many triumphs, far less daring than Supergiant's earlier work. I hope the praise in here doesn't come off as hedging; I really do believe that there's great stuff in Hades II! And yet, I yearn for something more experimental...
Reposted by paul
#ttrpgpromptober sorry that there's maybe nothing funnier to me today than someone illicitly gaining the powers of ROT CLARIFICATION and PROPHECY LUNG and GOSSAMER AMPLIFICATION and CHITIN NULLIFICATION and
October 3, 2025 at 12:01 AM
#ttrpgpromptober sorry that there's maybe nothing funnier to me today than someone illicitly gaining the powers of ROT CLARIFICATION and PROPHECY LUNG and GOSSAMER AMPLIFICATION and CHITIN NULLIFICATION and
If I keep writing Far Too Much™ I'd better make these actually available in text form, so I'm just gonna publish the notion pages:
day 1: thecastlebuilder.notion.site/promptober-D...
day 2: thecastlebuilder.notion.site/promptober-D...
day 1: thecastlebuilder.notion.site/promptober-D...
day 2: thecastlebuilder.notion.site/promptober-D...
I'm afraid that there's a good chance I'm gonna make a whole-ass game for each of these prompts. For day 2 of #ttrpgpromptober, I present to you: WORD WIZARDS
October 3, 2025 at 6:27 AM
If I keep writing Far Too Much™ I'd better make these actually available in text form, so I'm just gonna publish the notion pages:
day 1: thecastlebuilder.notion.site/promptober-D...
day 2: thecastlebuilder.notion.site/promptober-D...
day 1: thecastlebuilder.notion.site/promptober-D...
day 2: thecastlebuilder.notion.site/promptober-D...
I'm terrible at keeping up with these daily-thing-for-a-month challenges but I also chicken out on posting them when I try, so maybe if I share then This Time Will Be Different
#Promptober is here! This time I included two free spaces, for people to make whatever they want (or to even take that day to rest). As usual, please use the #promptober or #ttrpgpromptober tags when you post! please also don't feel shy about tagging me in them so I can reskeet.
October 2, 2025 at 5:31 AM
I'm terrible at keeping up with these daily-thing-for-a-month challenges but I also chicken out on posting them when I try, so maybe if I share then This Time Will Be Different
Reposted by paul
Tell your favorite artists you love their work
September 29, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Tell your favorite artists you love their work
A couple weeks ago I shared a one-shot TTRPG called Dump Stat, a silly game about playing RPGs while trying to figure out what your stats/skills even are. Today, I broke down some of my design intentions. It's a little meandering and longer than I anticipated, but hopefully still pretty interesting!
Designer Commentary - Dump Stat
thoughtsabout.games
September 29, 2025 at 10:35 PM
A couple weeks ago I shared a one-shot TTRPG called Dump Stat, a silly game about playing RPGs while trying to figure out what your stats/skills even are. Today, I broke down some of my design intentions. It's a little meandering and longer than I anticipated, but hopefully still pretty interesting!
this week, I made a meandering attempt to wring something fruitful out of a truly rotten topic: the Difficulty Discourse TM. I do this through the lens of its latest subject, Silksong (which I continue to avoid actual spoilers for, in case that matters to ya)
An Ill-Advised Dip in the Poison Swamp
thoughtsabout.games
September 23, 2025 at 3:03 AM
this week, I made a meandering attempt to wring something fruitful out of a truly rotten topic: the Difficulty Discourse TM. I do this through the lens of its latest subject, Silksong (which I continue to avoid actual spoilers for, in case that matters to ya)
Reposted by paul
i actually love it when i lose my 500 rosaries. i am freed from the burden of devotion and can now roam pharloom with the serenity of the faithless
September 21, 2025 at 2:21 AM
i actually love it when i lose my 500 rosaries. i am freed from the burden of devotion and can now roam pharloom with the serenity of the faithless
Last week I got to introduce some friends to tabletop RPGs, and I did so using one of my favorite nothing-like-D&D one shot games: Fiasco
thoughtsabout.games/blog/posts/d...
thoughtsabout.games/blog/posts/d...
On Introducing TTRPGs
thoughtsabout.games
September 16, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Last week I got to introduce some friends to tabletop RPGs, and I did so using one of my favorite nothing-like-D&D one shot games: Fiasco
thoughtsabout.games/blog/posts/d...
thoughtsabout.games/blog/posts/d...
I made a silly little one-page, one-shot #TTRPG for Dice Exploder's "1 hour or Less" jam! I proooobably missed the mark (it's more of a 90-120 minute game) but I'm still happy with how it turned out, and had fun running a playtest last week and polishing it a bit yesterday!
Dump Stat by paul doyle
A quick, one-shot TTRPG about rolling against silly stats
thecastlebuilder.itch.io
September 12, 2025 at 5:05 PM
I made a silly little one-page, one-shot #TTRPG for Dice Exploder's "1 hour or Less" jam! I proooobably missed the mark (it's more of a 90-120 minute game) but I'm still happy with how it turned out, and had fun running a playtest last week and polishing it a bit yesterday!
Reposted by paul
Here I touch on a few more thoughts about Silksong's place amid the tumultuous state of the games crit industry. But before that, I share my approach to playing a game I've been excited about for 8 years and some first impressions that I've had so far
On Silksong and Savoring
thoughtsabout.games
September 8, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Here I touch on a few more thoughts about Silksong's place amid the tumultuous state of the games crit industry. But before that, I share my approach to playing a game I've been excited about for 8 years and some first impressions that I've had so far
We appear to be in the difficulty discourse mines again, which was inevitable but it always feels strange how pissed off people are. There are a million ways for a game to alienate people but for some reason difficulty seems to create the most negative emotion in the people it alienates.
September 9, 2025 at 5:27 PM
We appear to be in the difficulty discourse mines again, which was inevitable but it always feels strange how pissed off people are. There are a million ways for a game to alienate people but for some reason difficulty seems to create the most negative emotion in the people it alienates.
Here I touch on a few more thoughts about Silksong's place amid the tumultuous state of the games crit industry. But before that, I share my approach to playing a game I've been excited about for 8 years and some first impressions that I've had so far
On Silksong and Savoring
thoughtsabout.games
September 8, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Here I touch on a few more thoughts about Silksong's place amid the tumultuous state of the games crit industry. But before that, I share my approach to playing a game I've been excited about for 8 years and some first impressions that I've had so far