I've been playing Queen's Domain today and oh my god does it have the level design juice. This is such a fun space to move through

loren schmidt@lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 3d ago

i'm going to do a thread on queen's domain, because it's really special and i want to do my part to help people find out about it! this will be live post + design commentary. we begin our adventure as a shipwrecked prince, washed up on the shore of a beach.

Come on up to CCNY this upcoming Friday (10/9) for a talk by the outstanding developer and human being @apthomson.bsky.social for a talk on "how to make Titanium Court", the game that earned them their second Seumas McNally Grand Prize in two years.

Gaming Pathways @ CCNY Presents Guest Speaker AP Thomson

AP Thomson will speak on the process they used to design and develop awarding winning Titanium Court.

eventbrite.com

astonishing! unaccountable! it's another episode of DEAD LETTERS! today, it's Evey Lockhart's WET GRANDPA, an ominous river adventure! join us as we discuss poetic meter, NPCs as ethical traps, "conversational infinity," gigging, and the Madonna. come listen! open.spotify.com/episode/6898...

29: Wet Grandpa

Dead Letters · Episode

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The very smart roleplaying podcast Dead Letters reviewed my old Manifesto of the Turku School. I wrote some thoughts in my blog but it was really nice and I became a regular listener. mikepohjola2.wordpress.com/2026/09/24/t... @dead-letters.bsky.social #roleplaying #larp #gametheory

The Turku Manifesto in Dead Letters

Twenty-six years ago I was young and arrogant enough to publish an artistic manifesto on roleplaying games and larps. (I’m not young anymore.)I proclaimed character immersion (“eläytymi…

mikepohjola2.wordpress.com

it cannot be! another episode of DEAD LETTERS, on Skerples' MAGICAL INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION! join us as we discuss setting guides (yet again), the relative social cachet of GMs as hobbyist game designer and/or improvisers, legwork, and postmodernism! come listen! open.spotify.com/episode/1Y5d...

28: Magical Industrial Revolution

Dead Letters · Episode

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hwaet! it's another episode of DEAD LETTERS! this time, we're discussing "The Invisible Rules of Roleplaying" by Markus Montola! join us as we yap about the definition of roleplaying, non-game roleplaying, cross-media roleplaying, and not roleplaying! come listen! open.spotify.com/episode/61fy...

27: The Invisible Rules of Roleplaying

Dead Letters · Episode

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good morning! are you a DEAD LETTERS listener? interested in thoughtful tabletop RPG discussion? fond of the Aughts aesthetic? then join THE MAILROOM, our forum! it's open to all and equipped with all the features a robust internet message board needs! see you there! deadletters.nyc/forum/index....

the crowd goes wild! it's another episode of DEAD LETTERS, this one on THE BLACK WYRM OF BRANDONSFORD! join us as we discuss the Muppets, topos -> topography -> topology, videogame quest design, the charm of the generic, and proto-OSE editing & layout. come listen! open.spotify.com/episode/2lK9...

26: The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford

Dead Letters · Episode

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rosalindmc.itch.io/rosepulp-cre... For anyone who wants a massive library of pixel art sprites for fantasy creatures! All free for anyone to use for (almost) any project! #pixelart #gamedev

Rosepulp Creature Library by Rosalind

300+ Sprites for fantasy creatures

rosalindmc.itch.io

One of my all-time favorite rules, from Pea Ridge (1980). The designer's great-great-grandfather fought in the battle, and if his unit takes damage you roll a die to see if he survives. If he dies, the designer is never born, and the game doesn't exist, and so automatically ends in a draw.

goodness gracious! it's another episode of DEAD LETTERS, this time about MYTHIC BASTIONLAND! join us as we discuss modular worldbuilding, poetic meter, reading lens of storygames, diegetical detail and logistics play, and randomized quests. come listen! open.spotify.com/s/Xgf3wHR

25: Mythic Bastionland

Dead Letters · Episode

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can it be? a new episode of DEAD LETTERS? about the TURKU SCHOOL MANIFESTO? discussing the immersive and/or empathetic larp style, internal vs external simulationism, and the revolution? in this economy? open.spotify.com/episode/53Vn...

24: The Turku School Manifesto

Dead Letters · Episode

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this death actually provides a really good checklist for RPG designers to go over when adding new features: (1) is it an interesting challenge with redundant soft workarounds, or is it a hard counter? be aware of the shape of the interactions this will have with other systems.

They haven't made graphics better than this yet. Will they ever? Experts disagree.

egads! a new episode of DEAD LETTERS about THE GREAT PENDRAGON CAMPAIGN (1985)—a followup to our last episode! we discuss the relationship between story and play, period lenses on the same era of history, '80s RPG books vs '00s RPG books, and dogs! come listen! open.spotify.com/episode/1x8l...

whosemeasure.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-n...

shock! terror! bafflement! it's a new episode of DEAD LETTERS, this time about PENDRAGON (6e)! join us as we discuss Le Morte d'Arthur, historiographical lenses, gay knights, Crusader Kings, rules-as-psychology, and over-the-shoulder play! open.spotify.com/episode/7sg0...

22: Pendragon 6th Edition

Dead Letters · Episode

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Cross-Country Road Trip Day 1, San Diego->Morro Bay: Got the full LA experience (ate excellent tacos outside an Amazon warehouse then got stuck in gridlock traffic). Here's Bandit posing in front of "Malibu Shaman". Fun fact: her name at the rescue we got her from was "Malibu"

I love Edward Gorey’s theory of art: “Art…is presumably about some certain thing, but is really always about something else, and it’s no good having one without the other, because if you just have the something it is boring and if you just have the something else it’s irritating.”

what's that? why, it's a new episode of DEAD LETTERS, discussing Amanda Lee Franck's YOU GOT A JOB ON THE GARBAGE BARGE! join us as we discuss the spatiality of adventures, the adventure–setting split, frogs, and the distance from home game to published adventure! open.spotify.com/episode/3RVK...

21: YOU GOT A JOB ON THE GARBAGE BARGE

Dead Letters · Episode

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Solid post, I'd even go so far as to say that one of fantasy's defining traits is being the setting most built around play-enabling shorthand.

Serket :3c@serket08.bsky.social · 3mo ago

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

I've been listening to the Dead Letters back catalogue, and I think both Sam and Misha make excellent points about Wolves. Sam is absolutely correct that the way it is written makes it exciting to read - and is thus crucial to getting the prospective GM to actually read it, 1/7

sam “ludonarrative disinterest” sorensen@samsorensen.bsky.social · 5mo ago

new DEAD LETTERS episode! this time, it's the vast, legendary, landmark WOLVES UPON THE COAST, written by that one bald guy! we talk about the Adventure Writing Trust Horizon, reading, horses with unhinged jaws, poetic monster manuals, legwork, and the GM as medium! open.spotify.com/episode/2Z1e...

shock! horror! a new episode of DEAD LETTERS, but not about a tabletop RPG! what are those rascally fellows discussing this time? a videogame! it's THIEF GOLD and immersive sims, physical space, mutual old-school histories, and President Nixon! listen! open.spotify.com/episode/4HCM...

20: Thief Gold

Dead Letters · Episode

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Dropped a new trailer for my game. It's out now! store.steampowered.com/app/2574300/... Join the ground floor of a new generation of ideas!

If you wish TTRPGS were more like birding, I’d encourage y’all to consider looking at Field Agent’s Handbooks, a TTRPG on the birding end of the TTRPG to birding spectrum. Super unique. idlecartulary.com/2025/12/24/c...

sam “ludonarrative disinterest” sorensen@samsorensen.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Good God! it's another episode of DEAD LETTERS, this time about THOUSAND YEAR OLD VAMPIRE! join us as we discuss historical play, Sartre, alea as fate, the role of expectations, bad faith moral choices, and my favorite solo RPG. come listen! open.spotify.com/episode/57QP...

This week's episode of Dead Letters dives into Thousand Year Old Vampire, a journaling game seemingly far from our usual focus. Listen for my take that TTRPGs and birding are opposite activities, and for me to absolutely butcher Sartre by taking the concept of bad faith way beyond stretching point

19: Thousand Year Old Vampire

Dead Letters · Episode

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holy smokes! it's another episode of DEAD LETTERS, this one about Dan ThroneOfSalt's UNICORN MEAT! we discuss adventure premises, the relationship of good and bad qualities, sandbox slices-of-life, the Dishonored heart, and mixed adventure structures! come listen! open.spotify.com/episode/1ZSH...

This is a fun episode, not least because I get to let loose my hot take that the sublime is bad for ttrpgs

sam “ludonarrative disinterest” sorensen@samsorensen.bsky.social · 5mo ago

lo and behold, another episode of DEAD LETTERS! this episode is about the legendary VEINS OF THE EARTH by Scrap and PatStu! we discuss blogposts as drafts, 3D environments, the Shaver Mystery, tangible concepts, alien psychology, and more! come listen! open.spotify.com/episode/3W3t...

Maybe the rudest thing I've ever seen on the internet

HakethKOTB @ Cabinet in the Woods@hakethkotb.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Come on man you ain’t gotta do Justin like that 😭

Other than the more obvious stuff, this is one of the things that spooks me the most about LLMs, although I've been struggling to articulate it. When you ask them a question they take all of human writing and select the one 'best' answer, implicitly positioning that answer as the sum of the truth.

Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical@alwaystheself.bsky.social · 5mo ago

He kept coming back, repeatedly (in the way AI often loops) to this idea of AI (specifically Claude) representing "a position without an address", and it became increasingly clear to me that there was some odd mystification happening. Of course LLM products have an address. It's a corporate address.