Graham Walmsley 🎲
@grahamwalmsley.bsky.social
I design games, especially tabletop roleplaying games (Cthulhu Dark, Cosmic Dark). I also write books on storytelling (Play Unsafe) and drift into interactive fiction (39 Steps) and LARP (Will That Be All). And I love theatre, art and history.
This is true: Vampire produced some really obsessive behaviour and, LARP, well, LARP intensifies everything.
Natalie P (is not a vampire) 🦇@sashette.bsky.social · 7h agoI've got something in my brain about #ttrpg players and parasocial relationships, but I'm not in the right headspace. We've all witnessed the rise in a parasocial relationship with D&D5e alone, buoyed by Critical Role and a few key others. But that pales in the shadow of Vampire: The Masquerade.
Day 5, #RPGaDay: Burden. Encumbrance rules were a bit of a joke in 2000s indie games, but they had potential. Those decisions of what you keep with you and what burdens you are fertile emotional territory.
I did a set of 'editor's desk' blogs to help ttrpg creators. This was the first: why people tend to overuse colons, and how understanding bullet lists can help to get them under control. silverbranch.co.uk/2025/03/cont... #ttrpgcreator
[Editor's desk] Controlling colons and dodging bullets
TTRPG and boardgame writers tend to throw around too many colons. A lot of it is about right and wrong ways to use bullets. Tim Gray explains.
silverbranch.co.uk
Day 4 of #RPGaDay, Charm: I love talky games, so I'd love to do more with persuasion mechanics. It's hard though. How do you build persuasion mechanics, but still retain the feeling that, as a player, it's not just a die roll and what you say matters?
Day 3, #RPGaDay: Poise. I always liked Initiative in Vaesen: you drew cards for initiative order, but then could swap them, so that you could go first and help another player. Or you could force enemies to go later in initiative order. It turned a boring rule into a cooperative one.
Remember, when IPR sell out of Cthulhu Dark, it's gone! Unless I send them some more or they've got some sitting in the warehouse obviously.
Indie Press Revolution@ipr.bsky.social · 3d ago#GenCon2026 Exhibit Hall opens at 10am on its finaly day, and closes at 4pm. We're sold out of some games at #Booth449 but still have plenty to choose from! www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Gen-Co...
Day 2, #RPGaDay: Stature. I once saw a T-shirt that said "I'm a pretty big deal on a website you've never heard of". I think status in communities is like that: it's a bit silly and not something to think about.
Play Unsafe is pretty much about having no discipline I think.
Spencer (best served with game)@freethrall.bsky.social · 4d agoI'm lucky to be blessed with a wonderfully talented group which obviously helps me immensely. This is also a good opportunity to mention the new edition of @grahamwalmsley.bsky.social's Play Unsafe. Not a title that screams discipline but it's all about being truly present at the gaming table.
Finished a draft of the first Alien Archaeology scenario! It was a joy to write. I think I need a pause before doing the second scenario but also don't know what to do with myself.
Day 1 of #RPGaDay: Discipline. One of the best games I've written - and one of the most overlooked - is Disciplinary, in which you play a 1950s disciplinary committee reviewing a decision to dismiss a (probably) queer employee. www.goldencobra.org/submissions2...
Golden Cobra Challenge
goldencobra.org
here's another throwback from 2016 a private poster commission inspired by Moby Dick honestly still really love this one, both the concept and execution i worked on pre-inked scratchboard for this one (so fully black) instead of the usual white claybord that i ink myself 30x40cm
After we saw Pride, the woman sat next to us apologised for crying too loud. We said we'd been crying too. Then she bought us a T-shirt.
If you're at GenCon, you'll find Cosmic Dark, Stealing Cthulhu and Cthulhu Dark at Indie Press Revolution (@ipr.bsky.social), booth 449. Please go and buy literally everything from them!
If you're at GenCon this weekend, @ipr.bsky.social has copies of Cosmic Dark, Cthulhu Dark and Stealing Cthulhu, which you should buy. They're at booth 449, which you can find by counting numbers.
Here are three horror games for you to play during Summerween! These spooky games are sure to get you in the spirit for spooky season.
In Alien Archaeology, there's a rule that you can ask "How old is it?" and "Where is it from?". But those questions are complex: does it mean where the object saw most use, where the material was from...? Anyway, that's the bit I'm writing this morning.
One thing I never did was a post-mortem of Sir. Perhaps this is as good a time and place as any to talk about some of that. It started in 2010 when Channel 4 had some money to spend on making educational games. For some reason they asked me. ->thread
Jim Rossignol@rossignol.bsky.social · 2w agoIn surprising computer game news: Sir, You Are Being Hunted finally made it to console, just fourteen years after release on PC. It's out now on Switch, PS5, and Xbox. (And Steam and GoG, of course.)
This morning, coffee and Alien Archaeology. They've reached the first planet and are wandering around working out what happened here. It's lovely to write: I'm taking it slowly and letting the text breathe.
Back in the day, we used to do so many housecons. I'm not sure why we stopped? I see my gaming friends at Contingency, Concrete Cow and similar, I think. Oh we did rent a cottage to play games too.
Sean Nittner@seannittner.bsky.social · 2w agoSince stepping down as steward of Big Bad, I’ve focused on small events, what I call housecons. No flights, no hotel, communal meals, and scheduling that is either very loose (let’s play some games) or fully scheduled in advance (welcome to SeanCon, here’s your itinerary). My thoughts.
I've never liked Session Zero. Back in the day, indie games often said "In your first session, you'll talk and design the world you'll play in". No we won't! Have you want any idea how hard it is to get people together? We want to play something!
Kieron Gillen@kierongillen.bsky.social · 2w agoI am resisted writing "Because session zero is weird, right? Like a sticking plaster over a gaping design flaw in trad TTRPGs. Imagine playing a boardgame where you get together to do all the set up a week early, and then the facilitator tells everyone to pack up and go home? It's weird. It's WEIRD"
I'm really enjoying writing Alien Archaeology*. It's the chill thing I do when I've got a free moment. It's a while since I've enjoyed writing something this much. * Codename
Every year I buy a set of Easter bunny decorations, who become part of an ongoing crime saga we have been developing for years. The bedroom bunnies feud with the lounge bunnies, then they team up, then the business bunnies arrive, and so on ad lapinum.
Gail Simone@gailsimone.bsky.social · 2w agoOkay, my QUESTION OF THE DAY is… What is your weirdest actual accomplishment? Not the biggest necessarily…but the weirdest?
This is a great, thoughtful thread on a small but successful Kickstarter. Also, here's the campaign, so back it if you'd like to. www.kickstarter.com/projects/mem...
Embers of Humanity RPG - Print Edition
A hope-filled, post-apocalyptic ttrpg about regular people surviving after the end of the world.
kickstarter.com
John Hedge@johnthehedge.bsky.social · 2w agoAs my first Kickstarter wobbles to it's (rather successful) conclusion, I'm taking a beat to celebrate success, consider the wins and think what I'd do different next time.
The Art of Mini Golf at Battersea Arts Centre is fantastic. You start by playing with normal balls, then you end up hitting square balls, inflatable balls and dice. Every course is designed by a different artist.
This morning, I'm getting a lot of pleasure from writing the first scenario from Alien Archaeology. It's so much easier now I've written a set of pregens (all of whom I love). Alien Archaeology might be a codename.
