Valeria Loves
@valerialoves.bsky.social
https://www.valerialoves.com/
The second best trans woman who reviews indie TTRPGs while taking baths, somehow.
The second best trans woman who reviews indie TTRPGs while taking baths, somehow.
Pinned
The Bloggies 2026 submissions are now open!
Submit your favorite posts, series, and debut blogs via the official Bloggies page between now and Jan 31st!
Please share this around. I'll be making regular Bloggies-themed announcements throughout the month.
www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/
Submit your favorite posts, series, and debut blogs via the official Bloggies page between now and Jan 31st!
Please share this around. I'll be making regular Bloggies-themed announcements throughout the month.
www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/
The Bloggies 2026
A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.
www.explorersdesign.com
I think I have a shot at winning Best Debut Blog, which scares me in a wonderfully prickly way.
Starting this blog was the highlight of my year. I deeply appreciate the warm reception y'all have given me.
To pay it forward, I'm listing underrated Bloggie submissions in the🧵.
Starting this blog was the highlight of my year. I deeply appreciate the warm reception y'all have given me.
To pay it forward, I'm listing underrated Bloggie submissions in the🧵.
Reposted by Valeria Loves
What is an OSR? - The Garden Below
a post about not knowing what the OSR is.
thegardenbelow.blot.im
January 1, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Valeria Loves
@valerialoves.bsky.social's review about fabula ultima which made me ask the same question. why don't I hate it?
www.valerialoves.com/why-dont-i-h...
www.valerialoves.com/why-dont-i-h...
Why Don't I Hate Fabula Ultima?
Theoryslop shadowboxing an omnigender Italian
www.valerialoves.com
January 1, 2026 at 6:52 PM
@valerialoves.bsky.social's review about fabula ultima which made me ask the same question. why don't I hate it?
www.valerialoves.com/why-dont-i-h...
www.valerialoves.com/why-dont-i-h...
Reposted by Valeria Loves
@serket08.bsky.social's deep dive into the history of the quantum ogre
www.fluoriteguillotine.com/blog/2025/11...
www.fluoriteguillotine.com/blog/2025/11...
quantum ogre reborn
It’s time we re-examine what we mean when we use the term “quantum ogre”. The seed of this post started when Valeria posted her review of Fabula Ultima and quoted Emanuele Galletto (the game’s author)...
www.fluoriteguillotine.com
January 1, 2026 at 6:52 PM
@serket08.bsky.social's deep dive into the history of the quantum ogre
www.fluoriteguillotine.com/blog/2025/11...
www.fluoriteguillotine.com/blog/2025/11...
Reposted by Valeria Loves
Hey friends, what are the biggest and/or most ridiculous pauldrons you have ever seen depicted in fantasy art?
thank you for your assistance with this very important research
thank you for your assistance with this very important research
January 1, 2026 at 5:55 PM
Hey friends, what are the biggest and/or most ridiculous pauldrons you have ever seen depicted in fantasy art?
thank you for your assistance with this very important research
thank you for your assistance with this very important research
I think I have a shot at winning Best Debut Blog, which scares me in a wonderfully prickly way.
Starting this blog was the highlight of my year. I deeply appreciate the warm reception y'all have given me.
To pay it forward, I'm listing underrated Bloggie submissions in the🧵.
Starting this blog was the highlight of my year. I deeply appreciate the warm reception y'all have given me.
To pay it forward, I'm listing underrated Bloggie submissions in the🧵.
The Bloggies 2026 submissions are now open!
Submit your favorite posts, series, and debut blogs via the official Bloggies page between now and Jan 31st!
Please share this around. I'll be making regular Bloggies-themed announcements throughout the month.
www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/
Submit your favorite posts, series, and debut blogs via the official Bloggies page between now and Jan 31st!
Please share this around. I'll be making regular Bloggies-themed announcements throughout the month.
www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/
The Bloggies 2026
A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.
www.explorersdesign.com
January 1, 2026 at 4:51 PM
I think I have a shot at winning Best Debut Blog, which scares me in a wonderfully prickly way.
Starting this blog was the highlight of my year. I deeply appreciate the warm reception y'all have given me.
To pay it forward, I'm listing underrated Bloggie submissions in the🧵.
Starting this blog was the highlight of my year. I deeply appreciate the warm reception y'all have given me.
To pay it forward, I'm listing underrated Bloggie submissions in the🧵.
Reposted by Valeria Loves
Two big announcements this New Year for me. First, the latest issue of The Explorateur is out. It has two of my favorite blog posts I've ever written in it (Including a YouTube read through! Wild!)
www.explorersdesign.com/the-explorat...
It also has my second announcement...
www.explorersdesign.com/the-explorat...
It also has my second announcement...
The Explorateur: Issue #15
Monthly design jams, critique, theory, and inspiration for tabletop rpg designers by rpg designers. Vetted. Looted. Curated.
www.explorersdesign.com
January 1, 2026 at 3:19 PM
Two big announcements this New Year for me. First, the latest issue of The Explorateur is out. It has two of my favorite blog posts I've ever written in it (Including a YouTube read through! Wild!)
www.explorersdesign.com/the-explorat...
It also has my second announcement...
www.explorersdesign.com/the-explorat...
It also has my second announcement...
Reposted by Valeria Loves
The Bloggies 2026 submissions are now open!
Submit your favorite posts, series, and debut blogs via the official Bloggies page between now and Jan 31st!
Please share this around. I'll be making regular Bloggies-themed announcements throughout the month.
www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/
Submit your favorite posts, series, and debut blogs via the official Bloggies page between now and Jan 31st!
Please share this around. I'll be making regular Bloggies-themed announcements throughout the month.
www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/
The Bloggies 2026
A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.
www.explorersdesign.com
January 1, 2026 at 3:19 PM
The Bloggies 2026 submissions are now open!
Submit your favorite posts, series, and debut blogs via the official Bloggies page between now and Jan 31st!
Please share this around. I'll be making regular Bloggies-themed announcements throughout the month.
www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/
Submit your favorite posts, series, and debut blogs via the official Bloggies page between now and Jan 31st!
Please share this around. I'll be making regular Bloggies-themed announcements throughout the month.
www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/
Reposted by Valeria Loves
Reposted by Valeria Loves
Scrambled to get a 2025 review post out. Instead of talking about me, I dug into my blog dataset and made a bunch of graphs.
elmc.at/2025-in-blog...
elmc.at/2025-in-blog...
2025 in Blog Data
Blogging isn't dead: a 2025 year-in-review of the blogosphere map dataset—posts per month, survival rates, and publishing patterns.
elmc.at
December 31, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Scrambled to get a 2025 review post out. Instead of talking about me, I dug into my blog dataset and made a bunch of graphs.
elmc.at/2025-in-blog...
elmc.at/2025-in-blog...
Indispensable history.
I’ll be linking to this for the next decade.
I’ll be linking to this for the next decade.
My End of Year video is on the "Golden Age of Indie RPGs," from roughly 2010 to 2025. I start with Apocalypse World's release, work through the Google+ Era, and follow design lineages and historical events that have impacted the hobby up through 2025.
The Golden Age of Indie RPGs: 2010-2025
YouTube video by A.A. Voigt
youtu.be
December 31, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Indispensable history.
I’ll be linking to this for the next decade.
I’ll be linking to this for the next decade.
Reposted by Valeria Loves
I rest my case. Jimmy is a girl, QED
![Also there’s the name thing. Jimmy has SO MANY names. James Morgan McGill. Jimmy. Slippin’ Jimmy. Saul Goodman. Gene Takavic. Viktor St. Claire. None of them quite fit!!
The show treats “what is your real name” as genuinely unanswerable which is FASCINATING to me. (You can just be a girl Jimmy!!!) I’m also fascinated with how Jimmy is constantly being told he doesn’t belong. He can pass the bar, he can wear the suits, he can do the job, but Chuck, the bar, the legal establishment keep telling him he’s not really one of them. He didn’t go to the right school. He doesn’t have the right background. He’s faking it!!! There’s something very “you’ll never be a real [x]” about the way the show’s institutional gatekeepers treat him. He meets every formal requirement and it’s never enough because they can clock something essential about him that disqualifies him. And then when Jimmy DOES get institutional approval (Davis & Main) he hates it! So much of the show is about wanting to be yourself and finding out who that is. The question the show keeps asking is: what would a space that’s actually for Jimmy look like? And I simply think she should take HRT about it.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:saoifgy5hqasxd4bhtgmubmj/bafkreidzmhq3z4l4hrobll3f524s4e2jznwkmczegvesfcqewrrmlkypkq@jpeg)
December 28, 2025 at 7:02 PM
I rest my case. Jimmy is a girl, QED
Reposted by Valeria Loves
a dungeon game is grimdark dungeon crawling focused on body horror and the consequences of violence. It's a super fast system with loads of free tools online, and it's pay what you want. More here:
https://dungeon.loottheroom.uk
https://dungeon.loottheroom.uk
A Dungeon Game
The latest entries posted on A Dungeon Game
dungeon.loottheroom.uk
December 27, 2025 at 11:16 PM
a dungeon game is grimdark dungeon crawling focused on body horror and the consequences of violence. It's a super fast system with loads of free tools online, and it's pay what you want. More here:
https://dungeon.loottheroom.uk
https://dungeon.loottheroom.uk
Reposted by Valeria Loves
This was a long time coming: Advice for Running a Hexcrawl, a Decade Too Late.
Save vs. Total Party Kill - Advice for Running a Hexcrawl, A Decade Too Late
Masters of Carcosa is the longest campaign I have run. My friends and I played 23 sessions, starting at the end of 2014, ending near the start of 2016. The game began after Brendan took a break from r...
save.vs.totalpartykill.ca
December 26, 2025 at 6:17 PM
This was a long time coming: Advice for Running a Hexcrawl, a Decade Too Late.
Delightful garbage for your holiday-addled sensory organs. 🎄🎅☃️
Including my Theoryslop Post of the Year™
www.valerialoves.com/joybringers-...
Including my Theoryslop Post of the Year™
www.valerialoves.com/joybringers-...
Joybringers of 2025
Yeah you sickos love lists don’t you.
www.valerialoves.com
December 26, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Delightful garbage for your holiday-addled sensory organs. 🎄🎅☃️
Including my Theoryslop Post of the Year™
www.valerialoves.com/joybringers-...
Including my Theoryslop Post of the Year™
www.valerialoves.com/joybringers-...
The absence of a play aid =/= the imposition of a play hindrance. Pointing out a blind spot of a ruleset is not mutually exclusive with understanding its implications.
Just as rules alone under explain table outcomes, the absence of support does not proscribe unsupported outcomes.
Just as rules alone under explain table outcomes, the absence of support does not proscribe unsupported outcomes.
I've been thinking a lot about Batfam headcanons, cozy roleplay in D&D, and what it means to assert whether or not a game supports a certain kind of play. So I wrote down my thoughts and turned them into an inaugural post on my new itch blog! seraphim-seraphina.itch.io/my-blog/devl...
What do we mean when we say a game “supports” play?
What do we mean when we say a game “supports” play? This is the first in a series whose placeholder title is “Lunch Break Lectures”. I’m trying to create an avenue for putting my thoughts ou...
seraphim-seraphina.itch.io
December 26, 2025 at 4:29 PM
The absence of a play aid =/= the imposition of a play hindrance. Pointing out a blind spot of a ruleset is not mutually exclusive with understanding its implications.
Just as rules alone under explain table outcomes, the absence of support does not proscribe unsupported outcomes.
Just as rules alone under explain table outcomes, the absence of support does not proscribe unsupported outcomes.
Reposted by Valeria Loves
Buy HyperMall - 5e compatible, winner of the Dorpo Award for Best RPG, designed for found family mercenary stories, Ghibli-inspired anime setting, you play as cute gay animal people just trying to get by, if you don't like that it also has an undercurrent of Christian puritanism, wait come back
I get dizzy thinking about all the money you can get by having less morals than your average used car salesman
December 21, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Buy HyperMall - 5e compatible, winner of the Dorpo Award for Best RPG, designed for found family mercenary stories, Ghibli-inspired anime setting, you play as cute gay animal people just trying to get by, if you don't like that it also has an undercurrent of Christian puritanism, wait come back
Reposted by Valeria Loves
Show me your worst hex crawls
December 25, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Show me your worst hex crawls
NEW BLOG!
LOVE IT!
SUBSUME THE NEW BLOG WITH LOVE!
LOVE IT!
SUBSUME THE NEW BLOG WITH LOVE!
robertcassaro.blot.im/stagediving-...
baby's first blog post. I have left a Treasure hidden somewhere within the words (the Treasure is Learning)
baby's first blog post. I have left a Treasure hidden somewhere within the words (the Treasure is Learning)
Stagediving With Strangers - Robert Cassaro
Over/Under was a month-long wargame/larp/chatroom/many other things in support of Tuesday Knight Games Mothership Month. (more info found Mothership
robertcassaro.blot.im
December 24, 2025 at 11:49 AM
NEW BLOG!
LOVE IT!
SUBSUME THE NEW BLOG WITH LOVE!
LOVE IT!
SUBSUME THE NEW BLOG WITH LOVE!
Reposted by Valeria Loves
so i wasnt actually gonna post anything for christmas but i just thought
anyway MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE !!!!
anyway MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE !!!!
December 25, 2024 at 4:07 PM
so i wasnt actually gonna post anything for christmas but i just thought
anyway MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE !!!!
anyway MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE !!!!
@kallidorarho.bsky.social
I’m doing some amateur reporting into the history of #mechsploitation.
Graphed uses of the Tag on AO3. Ran into a question I’m hoping you can help me with.
I know that the spike in Sept is due to the A03 Mechsploitation Jam, but what explains the spike in Feb?
I’m doing some amateur reporting into the history of #mechsploitation.
Graphed uses of the Tag on AO3. Ran into a question I’m hoping you can help me with.
I know that the spike in Sept is due to the A03 Mechsploitation Jam, but what explains the spike in Feb?
December 23, 2025 at 8:20 PM
@kallidorarho.bsky.social
I’m doing some amateur reporting into the history of #mechsploitation.
Graphed uses of the Tag on AO3. Ran into a question I’m hoping you can help me with.
I know that the spike in Sept is due to the A03 Mechsploitation Jam, but what explains the spike in Feb?
I’m doing some amateur reporting into the history of #mechsploitation.
Graphed uses of the Tag on AO3. Ran into a question I’m hoping you can help me with.
I know that the spike in Sept is due to the A03 Mechsploitation Jam, but what explains the spike in Feb?
Reposted by Valeria Loves
Reposted by Valeria Loves
Sure, you know about Vancian Magic, but what about Jackian Magic? (Someone please finish this design.)
www.explorersdesign.com/jackian-magic/
www.explorersdesign.com/jackian-magic/
The Jackian Magic System
Experimental mechanics that combine Mausritter inventory, Tetris, and engine-building into an alternative Vancian magic system.
www.explorersdesign.com
December 23, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Sure, you know about Vancian Magic, but what about Jackian Magic? (Someone please finish this design.)
www.explorersdesign.com/jackian-magic/
www.explorersdesign.com/jackian-magic/
Reposted by Valeria Loves
Reposted by Valeria Loves
Ask and you shall receive
October 13, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Ask and you shall receive
Reposted by Valeria Loves
From the brilliant mind of Magnolia Keep comes the first annual Lizzies! The best and brightest of the blogosphere comes forward, as decided by your second-favorite blogger with a furry pfp!
magnoliakeep.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...
magnoliakeep.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...
The Lizzies 2025
Welcome one and all to the first annual Lizzies , a celebration of all things Liz (that's me)! 2025 has been...a fucking year to be trans in...
magnoliakeep.blogspot.com
December 21, 2025 at 5:24 PM
From the brilliant mind of Magnolia Keep comes the first annual Lizzies! The best and brightest of the blogosphere comes forward, as decided by your second-favorite blogger with a furry pfp!
magnoliakeep.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...
magnoliakeep.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...