Regular readers probably know I play a lot of board games. Games are games! I mean of course they’re not all the same, but they all tap into the primal need to play, to connect, to learn. So when my wife and kid planned to be away for a week in early July, I planned… Continue reading I Ran A House Con →

Everyone gets about 1000 months to live. This is a life changing realization I had a few years back. It hit me so hard that I wrote about it. It was a gaze-into-the-abyss moment for me, and for many readers. If you don’t click through the link, the highlights of the piece are that hundreds… Continue reading Memento Mori: the Deep Dive →

A few weeks ago I ran my first scenario for Mothership, the OSR hit about space horror. Space horror is extremely My Jam. Before I ran it I thought I’d have a lot to say about the experience, but a month later I’m just left with one thought: It was okay! Okay’s not bad. But… Continue reading Mothership is Good Enough →

I do love scary stories. Never been a big fan of H.P. Lovecraft, though. Even before I really understood the racism in old Howard’s stories, existential cosmic horror was just okay for me. And the gamer fandom around Mythos stuff gives me the ick. Cthulhu plushies at cons, Mi-Go references with the little IYKYK knowing… Continue reading Lovecraftesque: The Deep Dive →

A few months back, I had a chance to run Soul Muppet’s Inevitable as a one-shot at a local con. Turned out great, and left me wondering how the game would hold up as a longer series. Some of my locals expressed interest in trying Inevitable for the terrific setting and premise, knowing or caring… Continue reading Smoke and Mirrors: Timer Systems and “But At What Cost?” →

Posted on February 2, 2025 by Paul Beakley Phew! The Bloggies are over this year, and the winner was a piece from Explorer’s Design called The 1 HP Dragon. It’s a good piece! Well earned. Given the history of who has run and won the Bloggies the past few years, the Indie Game Reading Club did… Continue reading We’re Number 2! →

Phew! The Bloggies are over this year, and the winner was a piece from Explorer’s Design called The 1 HP Dragon. It’s a good piece! Well earned. Given the history of who has run and won the Bloggies the past few years, the Indie Game Reading Club did very well. We earned second place in… Continue reading We’re Number 2! →

So we’ve already won Gold in the Reviews category. Now we move on to a system in which you can rate the final four. Highest total points gets platinum. The big prize. All the marbles. The marbles would be nice! But in any case, absolutely take a look at all the finalists. We’d love your… Continue reading Bloggies “Post of the Year” Voting Is Live! →

So we’ve already won Gold in the Reviews category. Now we move on to a system in which you can rate the final four. Highest total points gets platinum. The big prize. All the marbles. The marbles would be nice! But in any case, absolutely take a look at all the finalists — they’re all… Continue reading Bloggies “Post of the Year” Voting Is Live! →

Our deep dive of the upcoming game Stonetop just won Gold in the 2024 Bloggies Reviews category. That’s pretty cool! I’d like to direct everyone to the very worthy Silver and Copper winners as well! IGRC friend Patrick Buechner, creator of The Soloist, wrote a terrific set of reviews about sci-fi solo RPGs. We’ve found… Continue reading We Won a Gold! →

Mentioned yesterday that Indie Game Reading Club is in the running in The Bloggies this year. And now we’re in the semifinals! If you like what we’re doing here, please consider tossing a vote our way in the Reviews category: https://forms.gle/ggK1Mxv1hcXMa3Me7 We’re up against a roundup of sci-fi solo games in The Soloist. I have… Continue reading Bloggies Semifinals →

So Prismatic Wasteland nominated a piece from the Indie Game Reading Club for the 2024 Bloggies, hosted this year by sachagoat. This is the … third year, I think, of doing it. Being a predominantly OSR-oriented event The Bloggies have passed under my radar a couple times now. But here we are, nominated. It’s a nice… Continue reading We’re Up For a Bloggie (Bloggy?) →

Hello friends! Did you know our deep dive into Stonetop has been nominated for the Bloggies? The piece has made it to the second round of voting, which is open to the public. The vote form is here if you would like to vote: https://forms.gle/o2TGU1GKDkzfBwS38 The Bloggies home page has a ton of great pieces… Continue reading We’re up for a Bloggy →

A lot of games pass through my doors every year. I think this is everything that arrived in 2024! And a peek at what I’m expecting to arrive in 2025 at the end. What a time to be alive and loving tabletop roleplaying. This is a very long list! Settle in with some eggnog or… Continue reading 2024 Roundup →

English folklore, westerns, Arthuriana, fallen far futures…and time travel! That’s it, those are all my favorite genres and I got to play them all at RinCon, Arizona’s best local convention, late in November. I’ve been reviewing everything I ran, and Publishing Goblin’s Zoetrope: Death Didn’t Take is the last one on the list. Zoetrope: Death… Continue reading Zoetrope: A Very Silly Deep Dive →

Second of three reviews from the latest convention I’ve got a fraught relationship with Westerns. Specifically, it’s hard to keep the Western genre in my head separate from the history of the American West. It’s a long-standing thing going back to when I worked professionally in game design. It’s evolved into both “this is gross… Continue reading Inevitable: The Deep Dive →

Readers may remember our terrific run with Handiwork Games’ a|state earlier this year. Just a great, smart game all around. Designer Morgan Davie took an old Forge-era indie fave and reframed it with Forged in the Dark tech, then went on to add several sharp quality of life improvements to the FitD framework as well.… Continue reading FiveEvil: An Unlikely Winner →

Thought experiment: What’s the ugliest game book you’d still pick off a shelf if you came across it again for the first time? Indie snobs will of course claim it’s a whole long list, but the reality is that we really do judge a book by its cover. That’s why they have covers. Last week… Continue reading Ugly Beautiful Books →

Let me say up front that I love everything Magpie Games has ever put out. I go out of my way to play their stuff, and I’ve run nearly everything they’ve ever put out. Starting with Epyllion way back in the day, through Urban Shadows, Bluebeard’s Bride, Cartel, Zombie World, Pasión de las Pasiones, all… Continue reading Masks: A Late, Deepish Dive →

Something interesting happened at our regular game night this week. It’s personal, not a sweeping theory or a review although there’s a bit of both in there as well. Summer is really hard to schedule and it’s worse if your group has kids. So I typically try to have a big campaign in the fall,… Continue reading Drawing a Blank →