Idle Cartulary

  • Dice Exploder Guest…me!

    Hey! Dice Exploder is a great podcast full of design interest and people being excited. It’s great stuff! I’m on there repping the DIY elf game scene this week! We talk about Lorn Song of the Bachelor, the Isle, Rumour Tables and random tables more generally! Check it out here! I can’t figure out how… Continue reading

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  • The Curse of Mizzling Grove

    My kickstarter for Zinequest: the Curse of Mizzling Grove is now live! Check it out here! I’m really proud of this one! I’m holding myself back a little compared to all my other projects, and so this is a constrained, 20 room dungeon and its immediate surrounds, laid out clearly with a one location per… Continue reading

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  • Designing an overworld-like megadungon

    I stalled on my in progress no pressure megadungeon project, partially because I’ve been busy, partially because I wrote my Megadungeon as an Overworld post and I want to try that out. I’ve been trying to figure out what a theme for a betwixt could be, and I’ve found a theme: “Theseus’ labyrinth crossed with… Continue reading

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  • Bathtub Review: Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier

    Bathtub Reviews are an excuse for me to read modules a little more closely. I’m doing them to critique a wide range of modules from the perspective of my own table and to learn for my own module design. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited critiques. I’m writing them on my phone in the bath.… Continue reading

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  • Diagetic advancement and inventory

    People really seem to have trouble with diagetic advancement in games like Cairn, which is really disappointing in many ways, because I prefer diagetic advancement to mechanical advancement almost universally. Like, it makes more sense, right? I was chatting with Sam on discord about something, honestly, completely different, and I came up with this approach… Continue reading

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  • I Read Mausritter

    I Read Games reviews are me reading games when I have nothing better to do, like read a module or write or play a game. I don’t seriously believe that I can judge a game without playing it, usually a lot, so I don’t take these very seriously. But I can talk about its choices… Continue reading

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  • Bathtub Review: The Valley of Flowers

    Bathtub Reviews are an excuse for me to read modules a little more closely. I’m doing them to critique a wide range of modules from the perspective of my own table and to learn for my own module design. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited critiques. I’m writing them on my phone in the bath.… Continue reading

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  • Jaquaysing

    Anne wrote this post about the background on the use of the word Jacquaysing: Xandering is slandering. It collects a lot of evidence of bad faith acting of the author of the term “Xandering”, and reflects strongly how I feel about the term. I’d encourage you all read it. Thanks, Anne. Idle Cartulary Playful Void… Continue reading

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  • Rules Sketch: Safe Zones

    Thinking about saving throws for NPCs, after a comment last night (thanks Tuck!). Now, there needs to be some mechanism to account for monsters having special responses particularly to spells and area of effects, so I’d been including Saving Throws as Class, like in some versions of B/X. But Psionic Combat opened a new angle… Continue reading

  • Rules Sketch: Spell Duels

    Like, I just wrote a whole psionic duel system, and I want a cool one for wizards and priests as well. They operate differently from one another, and I’m inclined not to do a priest duel, but honestly the most memorable duel I’ve ever run was between two clerics in 5e, so that seems silly.… Continue reading

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