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Posts by Date

2024

Dress For the Job You Want

Follow Neue Questen

A Wild Lukehart Appears at ECCC!

A Spacesuit and A Wrench, But No Gun

Cathy Grant is Captain Danger’s Sister (part 2)

Worlds In The Wild

Cathy Grant is Captain Danger’s Sister

“For other times of loss”

A Whole Stack of Worlds

In This Murder

2023

What’s Making This Downfall So Good?

Making History Out of Order, But With Kingdom

“To buy D&D, you went to the store that sold the trains…”

Prophecies Can Be Good or Bad

Gameplay Video: Wild Worlds of Dating

In This World Is Out

Summerween

Voyage of the Astral Swan

In This House, A Mouse

“Was ist eure nächste Queste?”

Damage Per Second

Say Hello to Chop Downhouse

Follow In German

My Mom’s a Mech Merc on Mars

Now you can play In This World too

Do you remember Remember Tomorrow?

Time Is A Tentacle

Beware False Prophets

Barbie x Microscope

You got Kingdom in my D&D!

A Place to Talk About GMless Games

Just Him and His Dad

In This Life

Combining Worlds: See You Space Cowboy…

Early Access Released

Gameplay Video: In This World

In This World, In Your Head

In This World, Story Games Are Joy

It’s Raining Mechs

In This World Kickstarter Has Launched!

One Week Until Launch

Calling All Streamers

In This World Prepares to Launch

In This World vs The Trident of Progress

The Shackles of Precognition

Where the Ball Lies

“Ooh, let’s be bad!” Microscope player says before Breaking the Rules

Schoolhouse Rock: How you spread it around

Microscope In Spanish

Emic vs Etic: Invent Words You Can Use

Cars vs Clouds: A Tale of Two Kingdoms

Two-Player Creativity Is Harder

In This World, Playtesters Are Awesome

God Is the Algorithm

New Version of In This World Is Ready

More Playtesters!

Santa Walks Among Us…

2022

In This World, Two Things Collide

One Missing Corner

In This World, You Can’t Stop Thinking

In This World, The Playtest Chugs Along

“the stories it lets me tell with my dearest friends”

Ghost of Astariole’s Wife

In This World, It’s Time to Game

Playtest In This World

Uncanny Valley Androids & Secret Sacred Laws

In This World

“That sparrow has seen some shit”

Classic Cartography: Star Frontiers

Mind of Sandra Birch

Finger Dice

Metal of the Gods

“The rules are there to help you get the most out of your time”

Festival of Rain

Pick a Hat, Any Hat…

All the Stuff You Never See

It Never Ends

He Needed His Anger

Lockdown Level-Up: Mind Over Matter

Their Power to Oppress

Field Game: Tips & Strategies

Ring the Nug: the Kingdomon Field Game

Microscope In the Classroom: Collaboration Is Not Easy

The Designer Ouroboros

What Made That Game Great?

2021: A Year of Legacy

Does It Add Beauty to The World?

An Item or Object to Be Processed

2021

Three Kinds of Insight

Spot & Listen in 3e

Kingdomon: Back to Kin Je’do

Kingdomon: Enter the Sub-Verse

Building Better Gods

Quest: Escape the Haunted House!

“If it weren’t for those darn kids..!”

Aushi Finds Their Magic

Mercenaries vs Terraformers

Which Kid Touches the Giant Robot?

West Marches: A Survivor’s Story

Only Say Yes to a Yes

Blood of the Star-Dragon

Gods & Kingdomon

Behold, You Can Get Email Notifications!

Downfall: Revolution

Evergreen

Feelings > Actions

A Careful Balance of Agreement & Disagreement

K2: Books Are Shipping!

K2: Start the Presses

Kingdom Is Ready to Play

Teaching Games

Follow Invades Spain

Microscope Comes to Japan

K2: The Price of Overthrow

Watering My Seeds With Tears

Nail Your Setup

2020

First Rule of Gaming

Late to the Kingdom

Kingdomon: Launching Into Legacy

Kingdomon: You Must Acquire Them All!

Making Characters: The Fine Art of (Not) Fitting In

What’s the Korean word for Microscope?

Kingdom Kickstarter is loose

The Sword of Thanormyr

Kingdom Kickstarter Coming In September

K2 Playtest Ends September 15

All We Have To Decide

Your Kingdom’s Legacy

The Trouble With Touchstones

New K2 for June

“And then later they high-five each other in the hallway”

Live Interview on Electric Dice

Kingdom Duet

Grand Experiments: Bloody Morder

Story Games Online: What I’ve Learned So Far

Kingdom Playtest Wants You

Kingdom, Second Edition

K2

Angels & Offspring

Last Stand of the Murderfists

Rewrite the Ending Together

2019

A Kingdom In Letters

Goody Patience of Salem

It Was A Monster Mash

Great Players

Names Are Hard

Nessun Dorma

An Ode to The New Hotness

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

The Teeth Sneak Up On You In Follow

Say Hi at Reboot Game Labs

The Flipside of the Quest

PAX East: What Should I Check Out?

2018

A Scene Less Traveled

Gladiator: Choose Your Champion!

Union Released

A More Perfect Union

Microscope meets 9th Grade English Class

West Marches: Layers of History

Story Games 101: Protagonist, Be Transparent

Story Games 101: Saying Terrible Things

“But we know… they’re gonna die” (Games and Education Interview)

Farewell, Story Games Seattle!

The Fall and Rise (and Fall) of Antal

Real Dinosaurs Are Bitey

We See Dead People

2017

Union Stands Alone

“Is it… sentient?”

300 Games Later

Kingdom: Return of Time Passes

Indie RPG Award for Best Supplement

Hot Off the Presses

Diminishing Returns of Random Fiction

Lawyers Never Die

Follow Is Ready for You

Do You Think You’re Beautiful?

Teaching Teachers How to Teach

All Your Base

An Eye for an Eye

Kill All Enlightened Robots

“I just like saying ‘overthrow the government'” (GMless RPGs, ECCC 2017)

Emerald City Comicon: A Full House of Story Games

Emerald City Comicon: The Game Schedule

Emerald City Comicon: Attack of the Story Games!

2016

The Scarlet Letter: Microscope in the Classroom

Lord of the Flies: Kingdom in the Classroom

Follow Early Access

Follow Races to the Finish

Heartbreak at Suicide Ridge

Murder of Crows, Pride of Lions

Follow Kickstarter is Live!

Awaken, Kanaguk!

Story Games 101: Angle the Chairs

PAX 2016: Veni Vidi Ludi

Defy Everyone

Microscope Oracle: Capes & Justice

That Winning Face

PAX 2016: Games on Demand

The Colony: Strength vs Beauty, Truckers vs Slugs (Follow at Go Play NW, part 3)

The Dragon: the Sacred Flame (Follow at Go Play NW, part 2)

Legacies are Mini-Focuses

Follow at Go Play NW: Rebels and Dragons and Truckers, Oh My!

The Blooded

Boom, Stone Age

“You know why I got the funny voices? Years of GMing”

Kingdom v1.3

You don’t vote for kings!

Microscope Seeds: Secrets & Squirrels

“I have never been so proud of her…”

A Good Week (for Betrayal!)

Hackers & Homework

Follow Needs Playtesters

Hide In Your Own Body

Microscope Seed: Brave New World

Eye of the Kraken

Coffee & Kickstarters

The owl knows better

Forget It’s a Playtest

Follow the plan, or follow your heart…

Oracles for Everyone

A Kingdom Without Issues

ECCC: A fireside chat about GM-less games

Your Kingdom Goes On Without You

Happy Birthday, Microscope!

History Is a Lie

Story Games 101: Shifting to Third Person

Breaking the Oracles

Unleash the Scribes!

Microscope Explorer Released

2015

A Decade of Ludi

“If you like role-playing games, you have to like people” (GMless RPGs, PAX 2015)

PAX: Talking ’bout GM-less Games

“Arrr why won’t my kids grow up faster?!?”

Flight of the Madamas

West Marches: Secrets & Answers (part 1)

Dear West Marches

Lights, Camera, Downfall!

Microscope Explorer Kicks Off

Echo: Take Your Time

Summer Is Coming

Guilt Con 2015

Getting ready for Microscope Explorer

“Fantasy worlds that break history’s back”

ECCC Games On Demand

Microscope Echo Needs Playtesters

Dark Side of the Moon

By This Ring I Swear

“The people at the table are what matters”

“What do people that play Microscope need?”

2014

Microscope After School

The Adventures of Meteor Man

“I asked the other 13 yr old what he liked best? Freedom.”

The Coaster Double-Dares You

Fleeing From Goblins, West Marches-style

“Bring me the finest gamers in town! Bring them on a platter!”

Microscope? Reddit.

Microscope Chronicle Playtest Closing

Watch the Unwatchable Foreign Film

Actual Play Roundup: The 53rd Focus

Playing Games at PAX

For Neptune! For Freedom!

Love for LUG Con

Don’t Forget Gollum

The Second Spawn: Microscope Chronicle

Most Intellectual RPG

Tooth of Shirat

Microscope Explorer

Actual Play Roundup: Unicorn vs Death (GPNW 2014)

Microscope Union Needs Playtesters

“My Dad, he’s full of stars!”

Getting Microscope Books Overseas

Uncontrolled Orders & Predictions

Necropolis: Fingers Worked to the Bone

Rewriting Your Game From Memory

Burn the Witch! A Salem Kingdom

Terraforming VikingCon

Return to the Angry Red Planet

My Emerald City Comic Con Schedule

Temporary Kingdoms

They Have Perspective

Emerald City Comic Con 2014: The Time Is Now

Aaron Allston

“How Weirdly Powerless”

Actual Play Roundup: A Beetle Pushing the Sun

Kingdom on IPR & Amazon

“Unpredictability is Key”

A Battle of Men Against Men

A Beginner’s Guide to Making Scenes

2013

Brain Trust

The Temple Stands Empty

A Kingdom (book) of Your Own

Start the Presses

Battle of the Planets

Kingdom: What Changed

Hail to the Playtesters

Kingdom Released

LUG Con Microscope Interview

That Old Idea of “Game”

Who’s the real witch in Salem?

Early Kingdom Emerges

Ruby Slippers

ConTessa: Collaborative World-Building

Microscope on Google+

Six Years of Power

Such a rare and sacred time

Kingdom Q&A

Cowboys, Muppets & Mystics

My Kingdom for a Kickstarter

Story Games Seattle FAQ

Women in Gaming Communities (Norwescon 2013)

GMless RPG talk (Norwescon 2013)

Every Single One

Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice…

Beowulf, the Microscope game

My Norwescon Schedule: Talk a lot, don’t you?

You’re no White Knight (aka kids being awesome gamers)

Emerald City Comic Con: Snatched from the jaws of defeat

Microscope Seeds: To the Stars…

Microscope Seeds: Who Watches the Watchmen?

All ECCC Systems Are Go!

Flight of the Hornet

To ECCC or not to ECCC? That is the question.

Pride Goeth

Eowyn

2012

“We reject Kings, Princes, Santas and other Tyrants…”

Kingdom Playtest Deadline: December 20

Actual Play Roundup: Is anything more epic than a psionic scream heard across the stars?

Moments in the Cold War

Defining Story Games

Playtesting While the Kingdom Burns

D&D vs Story Games (PAX 2012)

My PAX Schedule

Starfall

I ♥ Unicorns

“There is so much more we could be doing”

Another Kingdom a’Comin

Actual Play Roundup: Something Fractal in the State of Denmark

One Blog to Rule Them All

“You’re the only one who’s ready.”

Kingdom Playtest Ends in 2 Weeks

Living or Dead?

Our Ground is Level and Our Table is Round

Kingdom Playtest Deadline: June 6

“How is this possible? How can I enjoy role-playing games without a GM?!?” (ECCC 2012)

Once and Future Zombie

Emerald City Comic Con: Dance the Victory Dance

Gamers ♥ Dinosaurs

Kingdom Needs Playtesters

Microscope On Your iPhone

West Marches at Emerald City Comic Con

“Why would they do that?!? Let’s go and find out…”

What is Kingdom?

Actual Play Roundup: Day in the Live(s)

Happy Birthday, Microscope!

Top 100

“This is a family business. Emphasis on the word business. Emphasis on the word family.”

“You’d know because your flesh would start to melt from your bones!”

The Dungeon Ouroboros

Fugit Omnis

Proverbial Music

Talking ’bout Story Games

Walk a Mile in Their Dice: The practical limitations of “Don’t be a dick”

Eliciting Reactions: Cart Meet Horse

Push Concede

“It was a gaming pyramid scheme.”

A Good Year for Gaming, Examined

A Good Year for Gaming

2011

Mighty Morphin’ Microscope

Second Class Clones: PAX Microscope

“There’s a much better randomizer that we use: human beings”

Microscope Q&A: RPG Geek

I’d like to thank the Academy…

GMless Role-playing Games (PAX 2011, part 6)

GMless Role-playing Games (PAX 2011, part 5)

GMless Role-playing Games (PAX 2011, part 4)

Microscope Q&A: In a forest, in Poland

GMless Role-playing Games (PAX 2011, part 3)

My kingdom for a playtest

GMless Role-playing Games (PAX 2011, part 2)

GMless Role-playing Games (PAX 2011, part 1)

Musashi: Suppressing Useful Actions

Live Action Microscope

Go Play NW 2011: Full Circle

My PAX Workshop: GMless RPGs

It’s Science

Actual Play Roundup: PvP (Plant-versus-Plant)

Fabricated Realities: Thing of Beauty

Microscope Reviews: Spit In Its Eye

Quake-pocalypse: That’s no moon! Oh wait, it is.

Polaris: Freedom of the Press

Quake-pocalypse: But A Very Dignified Squeal

Actual Play Roundup: You Banned Humans?

Quake-pocalypse: Don’t Mess With Gravity

We Are Here to Game

Making Music

Quake-pocalypse: Techno-priests & Infinity Boxes

Microscope Reviews: May Roundup

Lottery & The Pickup Donut (part 2)

Lottery & The Pickup Donut

Quake-pocalypse: A Flower for Ulysses

RPG Book Club, May-June

Actual Play Roundup: We don’t need no stinkin’ capes!

Microscope Reviews: Yep, they get it

That’s a lot of hats

Pitter-patter of Game Storm

Actual Play Roundup: Microscope Online

Instant Names: Mythic Flavor

Actual Play Roundup: You had me at Biolords

Lame Mage 2.0

Back In Stock

Microscope Reviews: the First Wave

All my heroes are Playtesters

Books Away!

Say hello to my little friend…

Microscope Released

Look what I got in the mail

2010

Behind the Scenes: What You See Is What You Get

Antagonism 101

We have always been at war with Eurasia

Trick or Treat

Bears Are Not (That) Scary

Insane Clown Planet

It’s a wrap!

Movie Kisses

Rex Populi

Three Weeks and Counting

Pitching New Game Systems, or “Let’s play Star*Axe!”

Playtest Deadline: September 30

Microscope Quatro: the Ultimate Playtest

Expect the Unexpected: Microscope at GPNW 2010

Braunstein 2010

Or maybe G is for Go Play

You Will Miss That Really Cool Game

Lingua Franca

G is for Great

Mars Colony Triple-header

Competition Likes Precision

[guest author] The Chargen Circle

Define Busy

F is for Fingers

We have forks

Crisscrossing Players and Plots and Not Losing Your Mind

Now he’s my real brother

Playtest Update: Wider Events

[guest author] Rest in Peace, San Holo

Why can’t you just have that?

Go Play NW MMX

What rules are you breaking?

2009

Doom of the Gods

You are probably not taking enough risk

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Swarrrrmmm!

D is for Drama

Character Monologue: Tell Us What It’s Like To Be You

Dinosaur Hruck

Shippensburg Archives

That’s Duchess to you

Microscope Playtest Update #3

Not So Fast (Or So Slow)

Alluring Eyes, Low Social Boundaries

Microscope Playtest Update #2

Many Shades of History: Microscope Actual Play

Braunstein On Demand

[guest author] Capes: My Story Games Eureka Moment

Microscope Playtest Update #1

Game Plugin: the Blame Game

Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Obvious.

Microscope floods GPNW, citizens seek high ground

How the West Was Won

Microscope Needs Playtesters

GoPlay NW 2009

Surprise, it’s Amazon!

Shippensburg Adventure Game Camp

The Past is Never Closed, and other data storage problems

Grand Experiments: Eclipse is a Robot!

Anthology of Game Blogs

What is Microscope?

TerpCon Needs Gamers

Microscope Paradox

“The walls are invisible, not the ceiling!”

“Never cross the Emperor, or the Holy Ones…”

[guest author] Microscope liftoff!

Solidifying Microscope

The Thesis: Practice and Escapism

Instant Names: the One-Letter Trick

Benefits of Tyranny

Partners In Crime: Teaming Up at the Table

Meeting of Microscopes

Dauntless Mission #4: the Ruby Aurora

2008

Stepping Stones: Telling More Interesting Lies

Boredom & the No-Prep Game

Leeuwenhoek

InSpace blasts off

InSpace Mission Update

Not So Grand Experiments: the Battle of Chuck E. Cheese (part 2)

Not So Grand Experiments: the Battle of Chuck E. Cheese

Your Mission… InSpace

Dauntless Mission #3: Plague at Prospect Station

Making the Party: Wedge Issues

Braunstein Memories Additions

[guest author] Royale Arms 2: The Case of the Vile Vial

Dauntless Mission #2: Trapped in the Void

Games I want to play: Geiger Counter scenarios

[guest author] Time flies when you’re on The Dauntless

Dauntless Mission #1: InSpectres In Spaaaace!

Scidealist

Braunstein Memories

Braunstein at GenCon

Braunstein: the Roots of Roleplaying Games

My Precious…

Missing In Agon

Advanced Agon: Three Flavors of Myth

Advanced Agon: Wrath of the Gods

Advanced Agon: Deeper Quests

Say Yes or Face the Dungeon

Treasure Tells A Story

[guest author] Adventures in 4e DM-ing

Game Plugin: Instant Rivalries

[guest author] GoPlayNW, Go!

Game Plugins: a Working Definition

Lame Mage hits 1000

Try Something New: the Indie Exploration Kit

Grand Experiments: We’ll always have Lorngard

Widen the Fun

Beast of Kolkoris unleashed

Perils of Abstract Defeat

West Marches: Running Your Own

Keeping the Peace: Applying Social Sanctions

Beast of Kolkoris in playtesting

Game vs World

Temple of Hera released

Temple of Hera goes to playtesting

Spears & Playtesting

Bad Trap Syndrome (part 2), Curing the Bad Trap Blues

Bad Trap Syndrome

AGON Spears & Glory

Hornblower: Red-Green Vote

Happy Birthday Dr Null

Be Interested

When did Zargon become such a dick?

Lame Mage Gets A Blog

Dr Null Adventure Paths

My Indie Realization

Search Ars Ludi

Play is the point. Become an expert player.

Not So Grand Experiments: Dream Cantos

The Enemy Within

Kit Bashing: Polaris Spycraft (Agents of Northstar)

[guest author] You are what you play(ed)

[guest author] Making the introductions

2007

A Tale of Two Blogs

Flipping Coins: Dice for a Desert Island

Under Construction

Yin & Yang of GMing

Grand Experiments: West Marches (part 4), Death & Danger

Grand Experiments: West Marches (part 3), Recycling

Grand Experiments: West Marches (part 2), Sharing Info

Grand Experiments: West Marches

Backdrop Plots: May You Live In Interesting Times

d20 Hit Point Piles

Rolling for Roleplaying: the Virtual Roll

Guide my GenCon

Initiative: the Silent Killer

Three’s a Crowd

Don’t Roll, Think

Burning Spotlight

It’s Not A Movie

Plot vs Premise: Running Crime Games

Choosing New Games: the Character Sheet Test

Learn to Explain Failure

Steal This Game

Shiny New Format

Playtesting Your Own Games

Art is Powerful

M&M Universal Combat Maneuver

Unknown Parties

Pax Evil Genius

Color Blind Gamers

Rules Influence Style

Gone to playtesting

Western Paranoia (part 3), Tangled Threads

Western Paranoia (part 2), Tripod of Deceit

Western Paranoia (part 1), Run Club Experiment

2006

Situations not Plots

Anatomy of an Action Scene

Bottling GM Skills

One Year Old

Computer Games vs Tabletop Games: Learning Curve

Left Hand and the Right Hand

The Second AI

M&M Field Battle Rules

Revelations

M&M Damage Roll

Run Club

Play Constructively: Pass the Ball

M&M PL balance: Picking up the bazooka

Dungeons & Doomsday Devices: Superhero Base Raids

Four Types of Supervillains

Done with Death

What is an Action Shtick? (part 2)

Give Them Details (part 2), Gratuitous Details

Give Them Details

Ask Questions

Same Description, Same Rule

Three Sins of Players

Scaring Players: Creating the "oh sheet!" moment

Naming Games (part 2), Episode Titles

Naming Games

Screening Player Characters

M&M Red Flags

Buffing is not Teamwork

Continuum of Roleplaying

Blessing of the Dice Gods

Developing a Gaming Vocabulary

Why Did Your Game Suck?

d20 Fast Mob Attack Rules

Writing Game Material: The Audience of My Audience

Who Ends the Game?

NormalVision (part 4), Taking it Farther

Character Creation: Second Line of Defense

2005

NormalVision (part 3), Preparing a Scene

NormalVision (part 2), When Should I Use It?

NormalVision (part 1)

Comments Fixed

What is an Action Shtick?

Making the Party: Instant Consensus

Question Your Assumptions

d20 Point Buy – Wild Card Option

Making the Party