Immersion is not as important as buy-in.
@isaacisafraid
He/Him, Game Dev (Narrative Designer/Game Writer), Tabletop RPG Designer, 2026 Bloggies finalist. I write, roleplay, and roll dice to tell stories. https://isaacisafraid.itch.io/ https://afraidofencounters.bearblog.dev/ Nusantara, Maritime Southeast Asia
Immersion is not as important as buy-in.
One thing I really noticed about the session (Liminal Horror set in West Java during Ramadan) was that a lot of the cultural atmosphere I want to capture for Mausantara lives inside people who are immersed in the culture. And I have no idea how to get it across to let who aren't.
This was one of the absolute highlights of my trip to Indonesia this year. So many creative people in one room. One of the players in my session started teaching himself to draw five months ago and started writing a zine sized module two months ago. It's almost ready to publish.
Today I came across @scenefour.bsky.social Instagram reels. I love them! I believe more short video Tabletop RPG content should be like his videos. Insightful, educational, and encouraging people to try out different Tabletop RPGs.
New blogpost, daydreaming of Mythic Bastionland:
A knight can interact with the themes of a myth to draw closer to it.
PLUS 12 myth-specific relics.
#osr #ttrpg #blog
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede
An Exchange of Gifts by Anne McCaffrey
The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
The Princess and the Goblin by George Macdonald
Letβs do a little tour of the βAppendix Nβ for Perils & Princesses: In addition to Grimm and Anderson and traditional folklore, thereβs a particular genre of fairy tale adventure story with humble fantasy heroes that really has laid the foundation for the world building of P&P.
One of my design heroes has written some incredibly wonderful praise of mothership, highlighting things a lot of people donβt talk about. Iβve got the warm butterflies.
www.patreon.com/posts/152467...
Want to play #Daggerheart completely with cards? You can, with fun mini-games too: dreamshrike.blogspot.com/2026/03/dagg...
I should've called it Disco & Dragons Elysium. Or should it be Dungeons & Disco Elysium?
First hour, I'm loving it so far~
Esoteric Ebb title splash at the beginning of the game
I'm playing Dungeons & Dragons Elysium. I mean... Esoteric Ebb.
We live!
There's always going to be some minor thing in any other occasion that somehow become a huge challenge when fasting during Ramadhan. One of those minor things is someone's opinion on the internet.
Weekly Review!
We're looking at The Drakenfall Faire, a fun one-shot for Perils & Princesses by @dhowl37.bsky.social and @outridercreative.bsky.social.
A fun time at the faire can quickly turn into chaos with some magical dragons.
blog.catshavenolord.page/review-the-d...
#TTRPG #OSR
Screenshot of Dust II from Counter Strike
A game jam where everyone makes a TTRPG dungeon, but it has to match the paths and layout of the CS Dust II map.
#ttrpg #gamejam #dust2jam
The playtest for Dredge Quick and Drown is live, for free, on my itch! Its a game sort of like if you took the Southern Reach Trilogy and set it on the edge of Ankh Morpork. Its also about the only part of Dark Souls that matters: the poison swamps.
juniper-h-lark.itch.io/dredge-quick...
I rate every room in White Plume Mountain (X out of 5 Stars) and explain why each room does, or does not, work and how you can take these lessons into designing your own dungeons, be they of the funhouse variety or not
#osr #ttrpg
Not sure how many of my research and writing goals I'm going to accomplish this year. Still finishing up two big projects. RACE & THE CTHULHU MYTHOS remained on pause. Two manuscripts are with the publisher, where they've been since last year, no ETA for publication.
Still, 1 like = 1 research goal
2+ years of mourning and I'm ready to finally run a campaign for my favorite Tabletop RPG. I know he would have wanted me to run it again and finally finish it.
Woke up this morning thinking about Masks of Nyarlathotep. It just so happens that it's my late friend's birthday, one of the players from my earlier Masks of Nyarlathotep run. I decided to open a game ad in my community to look for players for my Call of Cthulhu: Masks of Nyarlathotep 2nd run.
Fake article headline. "Opinion by Michelle Cottle" "Is the Cure to Modern Loneliness Searching for Cryptids with Friends?"
Call of Cthulhu campaign about a bunch of lonely people off the internet coming together to search for monsters and finding themselves βjust before the swirling vortex of madness consumes them all.
New month, new newsletter. Talking about why I didn't blog this month haha
Also including a ton of links to posts I found interesting!
elmc.at/catmail-2/
A new link-collecting newsletter has dropped. It's really good. I like that it includes @elmc.at's projects, I'm especially interested in their more robust webring idea.
elmc.at/catmail-2/
//oolala two posts in one day cultural critique op-ed eat your heart out - - -
VIDEO GAMES ARE DYING
/for real this time
//except for indies but you know
:: a measured observation ::
www.failforward.moe/2026/03/vide...
Its nearly 4am my time, so im not gonna get it up on itch today, but im happy to announce the playtest ashcan of DQ&D is formatted and finished and ready to publish!
Started thinking about player improv and what the hell that means!
theplayreports.com/posts/player...
#ttrpg #blog #improv #play
A hooded woman looking through various tomes with a glowing crystal providing her light. She's tired. We all are.
A thread of non-obvious things that either influenced BREAK!! and/or make for good BREAK!! inspiration in my opinion. I am going to add to this as I think of new ones (or maybe even find them)
We're in the final eight hours for GALLOWS CORNER!
Our print files are being finalised tomorrow and delivered on Thursday, so backers will have copies in hand by the summer.
Make sure you get your copy by backing today! www.kickstarter.com/projects/thr...
i keep getting into (enjoyable and fun) arguments about the nature of games that can run the risk of getting lost in the sauce with overly broad definitions, so i invented a lil logic tool
www.patreon.com/posts/152130...