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Afraid of Encounters

@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

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17.10.2024
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Latest posts by Afraid of Encounters @isaacisafraid

Immersion is not as important as buy-in.

09.03.2026 20:14 πŸ‘ 82 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 1

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.

09.03.2026 19:36 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

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.

09.03.2026 19:15 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

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.

09.03.2026 06:51 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Myth Attunement 12 new items and new houserules to draw your knights deeper into myth

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

08.03.2026 13:40 πŸ‘ 38 πŸ” 21 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede

An Exchange of Gifts by Anne McCaffrey

An Exchange of Gifts by Anne McCaffrey

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

The Princess and the Goblin by George Macdonald

The Princess and the Goblin by George Macdonald

Let’s do a little tour of the β€œAppendix N” for Perils & Princesses: In addition to Grimm and Anderson and traditional folklore, there’s 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.

07.03.2026 22:42 πŸ‘ 28 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
March Gift Horse: The Mothership Review | Zzarchov Kowolski Get more from Zzarchov Kowolski on Patreon

One of my design heroes has written some incredibly wonderful praise of mothership, highlighting things a lot of people don’t talk about. I’ve got the warm butterflies.

www.patreon.com/posts/152467...

07.03.2026 20:37 πŸ‘ 44 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
Daggerdeck: Playing Daggerheart with cards If you forgot or don’t have d12 dice, you can play a game of Daggerheart that uses playing cards in place of d12s. Β  This post details a fe...

Want to play #Daggerheart completely with cards? You can, with fun mini-games too: dreamshrike.blogspot.com/2026/03/dagg...

07.03.2026 20:42 πŸ‘ 14 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I should've called it Disco & Dragons Elysium. Or should it be Dungeons & Disco Elysium?

07.03.2026 17:13 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

First hour, I'm loving it so far~

07.03.2026 17:10 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Esoteric Ebb title splash at the beginning of the game

Esoteric Ebb title splash at the beginning of the game

I'm playing Dungeons & Dragons Elysium. I mean... Esoteric Ebb.

07.03.2026 16:25 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Mythic Bastionland w/Chris Mcdowall Part 1 YouTube video by Plus One Exp

Let's SEEK THE MYTHS

www.youtube.com/live/YJzDmb-...

07.03.2026 15:04 πŸ‘ 20 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

We live!

07.03.2026 15:03 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

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.

07.03.2026 05:36 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Review - The Drakenfall Faire Mayhem at the Faire The Drakenfall Faire is a 16-page adventure for Perils & Princesses written by Destiny Howell with art by Ryan Lynch of Outrider C...

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

07.03.2026 00:03 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
Screenshot of Dust II from Counter Strike

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

06.03.2026 17:00 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Dredge Quick & Drown by Juniper Harper Lark A Game of Silt, Salt, and Verse by J.H.Lark

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...

04.03.2026 16:32 πŸ‘ 23 πŸ” 19 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Rating Every Room in White Plume Mountain β€” Prismatic Wasteland I review every single room (and some non-rooms) in the original funhouse dungeon and describe what makes them work or not work and what is worth stealing for your dungeons and what you should avoid, a...

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

05.03.2026 13:41 πŸ‘ 116 πŸ” 33 πŸ’¬ 13 πŸ“Œ 7

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

05.03.2026 12:51 πŸ‘ 59 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

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.

05.03.2026 13:20 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

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.

05.03.2026 13:20 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Fake article headline.
"Opinion by Michelle Cottle"
"Is the Cure to Modern Loneliness Searching for Cryptids with Friends?"

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 –just before the swirling vortex of madness consumes them all.

04.03.2026 17:22 πŸ‘ 102 πŸ” 15 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 2
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CATMAIL #2 Look what the cat dragged in. Monthly project updates, plus curated blog posts and oddments worth your time.

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/

04.03.2026 14:41 πŸ‘ 23 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
CATMAIL #2 Look what the cat dragged in. Monthly project updates, plus curated blog posts and oddments worth your time.

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/

04.03.2026 14:55 πŸ‘ 14 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Video Games Are Dying (But Actually For Real This Time [Except Maybe Indies But You Know]) It's 8 p.m. on March 3rd 2026, a little over 24 hours from the conclusion of the Marathon Sever Slam - No not that Marathon , instead its n...

//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...

04.03.2026 03:04 πŸ‘ 26 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2
Post image

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!

04.03.2026 03:37 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
The Play Reports Improv, Play Culture, and Authority

Started thinking about player improv and what the hell that means!

theplayreports.com/posts/player...

#ttrpg #blog #improv #play

03.03.2026 21:26 πŸ‘ 26 πŸ” 18 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
A hooded woman looking through various tomes with a glowing crystal providing her light. She's tired. We all are.

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)

03.03.2026 18:15 πŸ‘ 71 πŸ” 16 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Gallows Corner - A Peasants' Revolt RPG Rise up, ye pitiful commons! Throw off your shackles and take up the call: there is a brighter future beyond the noose!

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...

03.03.2026 12:55 πŸ‘ 39 πŸ” 25 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 4
Preview
Aldi's Razor | Jay Dragon (& Friends) Get more from Jay Dragon (& Friends) on Patreon

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...

03.03.2026 13:00 πŸ‘ 52 πŸ” 15 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 3