This year I celebrated the rare intersection of Halloween and a full moon by releasing my first ever self-published, standalone, tabletop RPG. Crying Wolf is a short, sharp, violent survival horror game, about Cassandra truths and monsters hidden in plain sight, inspired by the Aesop fable. It’s my contribution to the “kids vs the horror” genre Stranger Things and It have popularised in recent years, with a specially designed simple system, perfect for one-shot online play as the nights grow darker sooner.
Continue readingMy Games
Existing in 2020
Today’s the day I officially resolved to stop including the phase “regularly blogs” on my resume for freelance writing applications.
Continue readingEnd of 2019
Six months since I last posted! Unlike last time, I’m not going to make the mistake of promising to restart regular blogging again. I should have known better than to tempt fate.
As before, I’ll present evidence of the RPG work I’ve been doing instead of blogging, by way of an apology. Continue reading
Risky Things to do in Dramatic Sequences
After last month’s start to my 7th Sea Explorer’s Society series, “Risky Things to do in a Duel”, I’ve now gone live with the second instalment: “Risky Things to do in Dramatic Sequences”. This one concerns itself with slower paced scenes – arguments, parties and new-in-town “downtime” – but I challenged myself to produce ideas for Consequences and Opportunities that would provide just as much exciting roleplay as combat, even if the stakes weren’t quite as immediate. I’m happy with what I put together, and if page count is anything to go by, I’ve been able to pack in even more content than I managed in “Duel”. Continue reading
Risky Things to do in a Duel
My first attempt at self-publishing an RPG supplement, Risky Things to do in a Duel, is now live on DriveThruRPG. Produced through John Wick Presents’ Explorer’s Society, it’s a mini-supplement for 7th Sea Second Edition that I hope will become part of an ongoing series. Continue reading
Star Trek Adventures: The Ghost Writer
Earlier this year, I had a short piece published in Modiphius Entertainment’s e-zine, Modiphia. It’s a scenario for Star Trek Adventures, “The Ghost Writer”, that presents an ethical dilemma for a Starfleet crew, caught between a dead philosopher, a grieving daughter, and a loyal but dangerously-motivated artificial intelligence. Continue reading
DieScraper
A roleplaying game about Big Action in Tall Buildings, for 2-5 people. (Let’s call this in alpha, it is very much un-playtested.) Continue reading
200 Word RPG Reject: Count to Ten
I’ve been aware of the annual 200 Word RPG Challenge for a few years now, but this is the first year I’m actually submitting something and I’m feeling pretty proud of myself. Better yet, a few friends and my partner have submitted games as well, which has helped to build a lovely sense of camaraderie as we work on each other’s games (most of my best ideas being stolen from them). Continue reading
2 Nights 2 Agents: Furious Game Jam Entry
Over on his blog, Ryan Macklin recently proposed a hack-an-RPG-so-it’ll-run-the-Fast-and-the-Furious game design contest. This is my entry: a hack of Night’s Black Agents. Continue reading
Trash Goblins!
My review of Nine Worlds mentioned that I took part in a Design-An-RPG contest – originally conceived as “75 mins to make a game, 45 mins to create an expansion for someone else’s”. We ended up not following the second half in the end, because other participants got clingy, and didn’t want other people challenging their creative control. But the first part went exactly to plan, and I ended up being embarrassingly proud of the game I produced. So I’m publishing it here. Continue reading