Idle Cartulary
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Compression and decompression
Tom commented on my post Only two or three things that they felt that this approach (or at least my examples) were over-compressed, and it got me thinking. Like, obviously I disagree, but I think there’s a little more nuance to it. Firstly, yes, you can write one paragraph per thing. But, in my opinion,… Continue reading
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Bathtub Review: Aberrant Reflections
Bathtub Reviews are an excuse for me to read modules a little more closely, but I’m doing this as a critique from the perspective of me, playing, and designing modules myself. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited harsh critiques on usually excellent modules. I’m writing them on my phone in the bath. Aberrant Reflections is… Continue reading
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The Bridewell Bestiary
There are about 40 monsters in Bridewell. I’m going to playtest in Trophy Gold, maybe Into the Odd, two systems that are easy to stat for, so here is a dual bestiary. This is why I wrote the other week. I’ll write about ten at a time, I suppose. Content Warning: Horror, implied abuse, murder.… Continue reading
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Playtest Report – Bridewell Session 3
My Bridewell playtest campaign continued today with Marcia and Alex joining. It was a longer session as I’m out of hospital. We’re playing in my own hack of Trophy Gold. There will be Bridewell spoilers, but if you’re a part of the playtest, you can definitely read this. Erstwhile the disaster girlfriend joined Ursaline the… Continue reading
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How To Write an Interesting Encounter
This is an expanded transcript of a tweet thread, because Ty rightly recommended it belonged here. I’d recommend checking the thread out, if it exists, it’s full of great stuff! Somebody asked me deep in the above thread what I thought made an interesting encounter, and while I don’t have typical taste, this is what… Continue reading
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The You’re Not An Idiot Principle
One of my guiding principles in Bridewell is “The reader is not an idiot”. What do I mean by this? I’m assuming that someone reading my (independently published, single-creator, idiosyncratic horror sandbox influenced by haiku, 17th century literature, and queer rage) setting sandbox has come to it with the wherewithal to figure out how to… Continue reading
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Playtest Report – Bridewell Session 2
My Bridewell playtest campaign continued today with Marcia, Sandro, and with Zedeck joining. It was a shorter session because I was running it from in hospital! We’re playing in my own hack of Trophy Gold. There will be Bridewell spoilers, but if you’re a part of the playtest, you can definitely read this. Vero the… Continue reading
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Monsters in Trophy Gold
Trophy Gold monsters really have only one stat: Endurance. Endurance is between 2 and 12, and players pool their efforts and take the two best results to equal to or beat the endurance to defeat the monster. The problem is, I’m not really sure how to set Endurance. From my experience, it’s hard to get… Continue reading
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