Idle Cartulary
-
Bathtub Review: Break Their Pride By A Woman’s Hand
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. Break Their Pride… Continue reading
-
Bathtub Review: What We Give To Alien Gods
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. I have backed… Continue reading
-
Bathtub Review: The Thawing Kingdom
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. The Thawing Kingdom… Continue reading
-
The Tension Jar
I don’t remember where I got this idea from, but when I ran dungeons, before the overloaded encounter die, I used the tension jar. This overloaded overloaded encounter die made me think of this. The original version of the tension die was this: When the company did something loud, risky or stupid I’d add a… Continue reading
-
I Can’t Sleep and Am Thinking of Dungeons
I can’t sleep and am thinking of senses in which dungeons have stories A dungeon has a story in the same sense that a mall has a story, one I do not know and consisting the experience of its inhabitants, visitors, and it’s changing physicality A dungeon has a story in the sense that when… Continue reading
-
Internal conflicts in OSR play
A few years ago I ran the AD&D DL series of modules, the Dragonlance Chronicles. They are a perfect example of the worst inclinations of the Weiss-Hickman plot-driven rail-roading modules that began with Ravenloft and continue to this day. I decided to pick it apart and place it into a sandbox. It worked. However, I… Continue reading
-
Time bubbling
Timekeeping is important when you’re running multiple groups simultaneously in the same world. Doing this means you get to do half the preparation, and might get to re-use preparation on a second group. It’s pretty good GMing practice for people like me, who want to play a lot, but can’t find easy ways to play… Continue reading
-
Not ancestries, factions with food preferences
I started writing this at one time, and then realised it dovetailed with a conversation that Sandro and I were having on discord about food. So I mushed them together. Ancestries are boring. Don’t use them. Instead, develop factions with each other, because they come with built-in red barrels. To do so, pull from the… Continue reading
-
What’s your apocalypse?
I was writing a post about a timekeeping technique called Time Bubbling (coming soon!), and I realised that there was a worldbuilding technique that I think is essential to most fantasy worlds that we play treasure-hunting in: Apocalypsing. Don’t worry, this one will be a quick one. Most D&D-likes are post-apocalyptic. When you’re world-building, the… Continue reading
Want to support Playful Void or Bathtub Reviews? Donate to or join my Ko-fi!
I use affiliate links where I can, to keep reviewing sustainable! Please click them if you’re considering buying something I’ve reviewed! Want to know more?
Have a module, adventure or supplement you’d like me to review? Read my review policy here, and then email me at idle dot cartulary at gmail dot com, or direct message me on Discord!
Recent Posts
- Bathtub Review: More of Me
- Bathtub Review: The Waking of Willoughby Hall
- Bathtub Review: Roach Motel
- Bathtub Review: Cursed Cave of a Billion Bats
- Taking the Highest Die (Make Dice Work For You #4)
Categories
- Appendix Nova
- Bathtub Reviews
- Content
- Critique Navidad!
- Design
- I Read A Game
- Intentional Reviews
- Make Dice Work For You
- Reveries
- Session Reports
- Techniques
- Theory
- Uncategorized
- Zungeon Zundays
Playful Void 