Back to back posting because I finished Final Fantasy much quicker than I anticipated. It took me five months to finish 12 and seven days to finish 1. I have a lot of thoughts about Final Fantasy's combat mechanics and how they're different from D&D. www.fluoriteguillotine.com/blog/2026/08...

final fantasy could have been a ttrpg

The first one, I mean. If you’re new here, this is the third post in a series where I talk about video games from a ttrpg perspective. Video games are one of my major inspirations as a GM and ttrpg de...

fluoriteguillotine.com

I've decided to make talking about video games into a full series, though I'm mostly doing this as I play through Final Fantasy. These posts are an analysis from a ttrpg lens and focus on how game mechanics could translate to the table. www.fluoriteguillotine.com/blog/2026/08...

final fantasy xii could have been a ttrpg

I’ve been playing my way through Final Fantasy and other Japanese roleplaying games, and I have many thoughts on how their design translates to the tabletop medium. Earlier this year, I was inspired t...

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"You can fly her, Vaan, just do it like I told you." "Penelo, watch for interference from Bahamut's skystone. The Strahl's a fickle girl. You keep her working for us."

A few years ago I picked up this coffee table tome from Bitmap Books -- a guide to Japanese roleplaying games. Contained within are essays and deep dives into over 600 JRPGs and the history of Japanese roleplaying.

3am thoughts on why I like fantasy motifs. www.fluoriteguillotine.com/blog/2026/07...

i’m beginning to think some of you don’t want to kill dragons

Symbolism is important. I have never experienced an easy dragon fight. I used to hate monsters in ttrpgs because I felt like fights were never interesting unless the opposition was using tactics. I’ve...

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I've been playing Sword World 2.5 for the past several weeks and it's been an incredible time. I have so much love for this system and I'm excited to share the experience with you. www.fluoriteguillotine.com/blog/2026/07...

exploring sword world 2.5

Sword World 2.5 has been on my list of games to play for several years now, ever since I saw this youtube series discussing Japanese TRPG culture. My understanding of ttrpgs was exclusively limited to...

fluoriteguillotine.com

Tonight in Fabula Ultima: my players destroyed the central processing unit of the local Talon hive -- the lair of magitek cops with mind control powers.

Last year I wrote a ttrpg manifesto trying to outline a style of play I enjoy. I have since refined those thoughts and arrived at a more clear vision of that philosophy. This is the "lost" seventh culture of play. www.fluoriteguillotine.com/blog/2026/05...

the lost manifesto: optimizer culture

In 2025, I wrote a post called “alternative game fantasy: a manifesto“. It was my best attempt at expressing dissatisfaction with the six cultures of play, specifically because I feel left out of the ...

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New ttrpg review / impression! My comrades and I have been playing Sentinel Comics: The Roleplaying Game. www.fluoriteguillotine.com/blog/2026/05...

disassembling sentinel comics

During college, I used to attend weekly board game nights with some friends. Sentinels of the Multiverse was a repeat favorite: a cooperative, fixed-deck card game. The game is easy enough to play whi...

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The #dnd wisdom my teenage self spent too much time searching for. www.valerialoves.com/a-sickos-gui...

A Sicko’s Guide to Prepping D&D

A decade of knowledge applied to the most common questions in tabletop.

valerialoves.com

Today in Fabula Ultima, my players fought a sentient plant villain that had been abducting people around the city. While they managed to stop it from regenerating new tendrils, it KO'd one of the players and dragged them underground before escaping.

I have flown too close to the sun. As a joke, I told my player that if he made a Megalovania remix, I'd put Sans Undertale in our Fabula Ultima game. 5 minutes ago, he posted this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyGN...

Megalovania - Undertale Cover

YouTube video by _NetNomad

youtube.com

More work on Alypia's design... Boots.

I've been playing GURPS with some folks from Paper Cult for the past couple of months. These are my reflections following the conclusion of our mini-campaign. www.fluoriteguillotine.com/blog/2026/03...

looking for the fingerprints on GURPS

We started preparing for our GURPS mini campaign about two months ago. Myself and several other intrepid explorers from the Paper Cult forums have been running a variety of our unplayed games in an ef...

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Lesbians want one thing and it's to eat baked goods with Gaia FFXIV.

If you've never seen the intro to Dirty Pair: Project Eden, you may be surprised to discover that it's one of the most beautiful things ever animated.

im in this! i've always wanted to be part of a webring and elmcat has made the dream real.

elmcat@elmc.at · 5mo ago

Have been working on a new project for blog discovery. It's now live! Check out rootr.ing! A new small hub and webring for ttrpg blogs. Read about here: elmc.at/rootring-is-...

in the words of @farmergadda.bsky.social we must all make personal manifestos and have religious schisms about them. juniper's energy here is exactly what we need.

Juniper Harper Lark@juniperhl.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Manifestos are cool as hell. So cool that I printed a bunch out, cut them up, and stuck them back together into my own. Plaintext version and links to vivisected works to follow once i've had a night out. thegardenbelow.blot.im/satisfaction...

Here's a meme: I want uglier games that are harder to understand made by people who've never read a TTRPG, and I'm not kidding. I have written a manifesto against understanding. Against bullet points. Against it all. www.patreon.com/posts/152873...

the homestuck character vriska serket has this monologue about how you don't have to be a good person to be a hero. as a kid growing up in a deeply religious household, she made me feel like it was worth living despite my "sins"

Samberry/サムベリー🍓@killingangel.bsky.social · 5mo ago

hi lil trans ppl

it was hard to pick but here's a 2026 top 9

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)

I played Final Fantasy Tactics and it was a game of all time. Delita Heiral lives rent free in my head now, so I decided to unpack the ways in which this game has influenced my ttrpg design. www.fluoriteguillotine.com/blog/2026/03...

final fantasy tactics could have been a ttrpg

I need to be less of a tourist when it comes to Japanese roleplaying games. I exist downstream from decades of culture and art that exists in conversation with itself, and I thoroughly enjoy the bypro...

fluoriteguillotine.com

It's up! It's short! It's free! levikornelsen.itch.io/instructiona...

Instructional Design For Tabletop Roleplaying by Levi Kornelsen

A primer on applying Instructional Design to Tabletop RPGs

levikornelsen.itch.io

Aldori swordlord commission:

I have a documented love for triple triad and this is a really good analysis for what makes a minigame sing.

Breanna@antipylona.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Princéton: Bluff City Vacations is a Pokémon/Friends at the Table fangame that starts small and then cascades out into more and more and more! Oh man, is that Triple Triad? Why is the Triple Triad here better than the one in FFXIV?

Bug man.

I love the Total//Effect system so this jam is perfect to kick off my first project of the year! I'm still brainstorming but I've got ideas for a Valiant Horizon supplement...

Binary@binarystar.games · 6mo ago

itch.io/jam/total-ef... Total//Effect//Jam is live! Make your own Total//Effect game or make supplements for one!

#私はこういう絵を描いています