treat your characters like stolen cars

tabletop games i'm writing, reading, playing, and plumbing

[depthlessdungeons]

scribbling in the margins - prep

glowing texts - online/roll20 stuff

dungeon blueprints - maps, visual inspiration, etc

my library - my games

blank spaces left - my WIPs

depthless - my essays: game design, close readings of ttrpgs i like, idk whatever; if it goes on for long enough to get a read more, it's going in here!

[depthlessdungeons]

nirvana the band the 2-page role-playing game

[rollplusbond]

If you're a fan of games and/or a fan of PDFs, we have great news: this year's itch.io bundle is now on sale! Get access to 105 items for just $20, with 100% of proceeds going to Palestine Children's Relief Fund.

Roll +Bond Bundle for PCRF 2026: 105 items for $20.00

[depthlessdungeons]

hi guys 👋 soooo okay obviously i have been very neglectful towards my design diary (which was the initial pitch for this blog), but um. i've published a game!

very exciting!! i'll give a proper pitch for it on here soon (it's a world-building game with PvP enabled – you're ALL bards who write songs about features or creatures whatever you encounter wandering the realm & also you're back-stabbing each other to make sure no one writes a beter song than you), but right now the most important thing about this game is that it's in a charity bundle:

No ICE in Minnesota: 1439 items for $10.00

it's in aid of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, who provide free legal representation to low-income immigrants and refugees in Minnesota and North Dakota – and there are 1,439 ttrpgs & video games & supplements & zines & tools & etc on sale for $10!!!

there is some seriously cool stuff in here if you care at all for rpgs: Rosewood Abbey (monk murder mystery a lá Name of the Rose) + BXLLET (post-apoc western w/ very very cool mechanics about violence & power!) + Girl Underground (Alice in Wonderland & it's a twist-y enough adaptation of PbtA that i would literally buy the bundle on this game alone) + Alone On A Journey (anthology of Takuma Okata's solo rpgs that have inspired so many hacks) + Disparateum (dreamy... setting? rules system? that is worth just reading let alone playing, especially if you're a homestuck fan lol) + FIST: Ultra Edition (paranormal mercenaries with a high turnover rate; "PbtA that plays like OSR") + Sound Check (rock band Firebrands?? helloooooo) + Escape From Dino Island (okay this one i can personally attest to: it is literally the easiest oneshot you will run in your life & also if you are, for example, playing it with a bunch of dinosaur-OBSESSED teens they are going to immediately ditch the Jurassic Park references to ooh & ahh over the character sheets, so. trust 👍) + Serious Reading (as seen on friends at the table) + Lay On Hands (solo dexterity rpg, i read this review & i was sold) + Bump in the Dark (Blades in the Dark but urban fantasy monster-hunters) + many many MANY more, like literally a thousand more

these bundles are always amazing, obviously mainly for the material good they're bringing to the world, but also for the adrenaline shot they inject into the indie games scene! i know i would not have been exposed to a tenth of the games that influence me today without the Bundle for Racial Justice back in 2020 – and i'm linking it because so many people bought it they may not even remember what they have, but it's a real treasure trove!! & it brought so many people into the hobby (or at least this indie side of it) that really we're still feeling its reverberations, so i feel safe in saying Lay of The Land would not exist without it. i mean actually yes this is definitely how i got my copy of i'm sorry did you say street magic, which i hacked for this game, so... literally yes.....

ANYWAY all this to say: check out the bundle!! you never know what you might find!!!!

[depthlessdungeons]

hi guys 👋 soooo okay obviously i have been very neglectful towards my design diary (which was the initial pitch for this blog), but um. i've published a game!

very exciting!! i'll give a proper pitch for it on here soon (it's a world-building game with PvP enabled – you're ALL bards who write songs about features or creatures whatever you encounter wandering the realm & also you're back-stabbing each other to make sure no one writes a beter song than you), but right now the most important thing about this game is that it's in a charity bundle:

No ICE in Minnesota: 1439 items for $10.00

it's in aid of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, who provide free legal representation to low-income immigrants and refugees in Minnesota and North Dakota – and there are 1,439 ttrpgs & video games & supplements & zines & tools & etc on sale for $10!!!

there is some seriously cool stuff in here if you care at all for rpgs: Rosewood Abbey (monk murder mystery a lá Name of the Rose) + BXLLET (post-apoc western w/ very very cool mechanics about violence & power!) + Girl Underground (Alice in Wonderland & it's a twist-y enough adaptation of PbtA that i would literally buy the bundle on this game alone) + Alone On A Journey (anthology of Takuma Okata's solo rpgs that have inspired so many hacks) + Disparateum (dreamy... setting? rules system? that is worth just reading let alone playing, especially if you're a homestuck fan lol) + FIST: Ultra Edition (paranormal mercenaries with a high turnover rate; "PbtA that plays like OSR") + Sound Check (rock band Firebrands?? helloooooo) + Escape From Dino Island (okay this one i can personally attest to: it is literally the easiest oneshot you will run in your life & also if you are, for example, playing it with a bunch of dinosaur-OBSESSED teens they are going to immediately ditch the Jurassic Park references to ooh & ahh over the character sheets, so. trust 👍) + Serious Reading (as seen on friends at the table) + Lay On Hands (solo dexterity rpg, i read this review & i was sold) + Bump in the Dark (Blades in the Dark but urban fantasy monster-hunters) + many many MANY more, like literally a thousand more

these bundles are always amazing, obviously mainly for the material good they're bringing to the world, but also for the adrenaline shot they inject into the indie games scene! i know i would not have been exposed to a tenth of the games that influence me today without the Bundle for Racial Justice back in 2020 – and i'm linking it because so many people bought it they may not even remember what they have, but it's a real treasure trove!! & it brought so many people into the hobby (or at least this indie side of it) that really we're still feeling its reverberations, so i feel safe in saying Lay of The Land would not exist without it. i mean actually yes this is definitely how i got my copy of i'm sorry did you say street magic, which i hacked for this game, so... literally yes.....

ANYWAY all this to say: check out the bundle!! you never know what you might find!!!!

[depthlessdungeons]

more scribblings from that game i was running over the 2020 lockdown – on paper this time!

these are, in order: 1) a magic aquarium/fashion house that was the perfect setting for a heist, 2) an abandoned deep-sea lighthouse infested with undead automaton a lá the stalkers from mortal instruments, and 3) a list of forbidden books available for the discerning customer to purchase, back at the port metropolis

[depthlessdungeons]

more pandemic games + the promised aquarium

[depthlessdungeons]

prep for a monsterhearts game i ran last week

[depthlessdungeons]

well like i said in the tags altho i've played monsterhearts before (hashtag game of the year every year imo 💖) & for the last couple years almost every game i've run has been pbta-adjacent, when i was going over the reference sheets to teach them at the table last wednesday something just. clicked. about how Moves work & when the rules should come in, but more importantly when they should stay out...

lotsa thoughts on The Conversation & what it means for this game below the cut!

okay so, context: monsterhearts builds off of the bakers' apocalypse world, meaning its rules are built up around roleplay, blah blah, fiction-first gaming, blah blah, i'll just let avery explain it:

& so playing is just contributing to this conversation, right, until you say something that triggers a Move – i.e. where the rules step in & tell you what's going to happen next (you roll, you get to heal X amount, you turn your lover into their Darkest Self after having sex, etc)

all familiar so far, but what i kept bumping up against with monsterhearts is that the rules are sooooooo specific – you can Turn Someone On, Shut Someone Down, Keep Your Cool to act in stressful situations, Lash Out Physically, Run Away, Gaze Into The Abyss to learn secrets, Pull Strings to cash in your emotional leverage, Skirt Death, or use some Skin move designed for even more precise circumstances

it's not about rolling + STAT versus some obstacle, fine that's kinda most pbta these days, i understand that, the rules are levers to pull at specific moments... but it's not even that every time you try to manipulate someone, say, you use the same rules – it's not the means of achieving your goals you pick when you choose your Move, but the predetermined outcome

which now that i'm thinking about it is amazing, i mean look at that menu of options above & imagine a world where those are the only things your actions are capable of doing to another human being... you would think you were a monster! that's what avery alder is showing us it feels like to be pressed back under a teenager's skin!!

^ how i would look if i had to be a teenager again

but when you're used to throwing obstacle after obstacle at players, it can be very confusing to try to prompt these rolls! or it was for me.... i mean how do you even roll to sneak past your parents.....

so that's when i circled back to thinking about The Conversation™ seriously... & then eureka! i figured out that, as i said to the other players last week, the 4 most important rules to do this were staring me right in the face – or rather left in the face, because that's where they were up in the top corner of the Player Sheet

here are my notes from the margins of that sheet as i was plotting this all out:

Secret most important 4 rules (Principles): Make main character's life not boring - WHO they are, WHAT they want, WHAT they'll do to get it >>> GOALS: saving face, gaining friends & social security, figuring out who enemies are, getting leverage on others, dumping pain on others Keep the story feral - play to find out what happens, don't domesticate by planning & dictating to other players, power dynamics at table Say what the rules demand - contraints lead to creativity, SHOULD interrupt you, rolling keeps it feral (shakes up expectations & risk of failure) >>> don't look for rolls when it can be settled by conversation!!! moves trigger in very specific circumstances bc escalation that shakes up story Say what honesty demands - communicate what you think important, ask for suggestions, tell THEN show (clarity over style) >>> give players info generously -> can go for throat with real consequences

– which is basically just me summarising how Avery Alder explains them in the book. but what's important, i think, is that these aren't just guides for the MC, they're right there hanging over the rules every player is supposed to read!

so then every player should be shooting for these? actually, the more i looked at those lines, particularily the last two, the more they seemed like the backbone the rest of the game hung around. the more they seemed like – at long last! – the rules for having A Successful Conversation

if everyone is responsible for making the characters' lives interesting, well! that's a significant shakeup from the tradional tabletop dynamic!! where the players default to the GM for what happens next... most pbta games are about shaking that up anyway, but it's good to spell out the responsibility is specifically doled out across the table

i really appreciate how this is trying to encourage a certain level of detachment. i think any good GM develops that skill, and this game tries to prompt the rest of the players towards it too... (most of the group i was playing with on wednesday have DMed d&d at least, which i think definitely helped make our game so directed) this rule sets up several things:

every player is framing the story

you advocate for your character, yeah, but not to keep them safe/untouchable. you WANT to put through the ringer, because that's what puts them in the spotlight, that's what hopefully allows them to develop. it puts you in the shoes of an author writing a character almost, which i like

2. every player is stirring drama

the MC is responsible for what's bubbling in your small sinister town & what dangers seethe offscreen, yes, i.e. they manage the pot – but that's only half of what we care about! we're also here for messy scenes between main characters, the relationships that fall apart, the uneasy power dynamics... this says it's your job as a player to lean scenes towards that – to cause problems on purpose, make big swings, choose divisive goals, start halfway through the action, drive your characters like stolen cars :) all usually moves a GM is making, but which i really love coaching players to do in my games

3. every player is building off of other players

this is just the yes-and/no-but improv beats you figure out like 2 weeks into playing with a good group – but it's still the fastest hack to engagement at the table: to get someone to care about the story, you have to ask for their input, and bring in their ideas... crazy right.........

ALRIGHT! so i'm just gong to pull out the whole next rule bc it's so so essential:

i just love how that's written <3 clearest shortest argument for Play To Find Out i've read, this is why i love avery's games <333

this & the next part (Say What The Rules Demand, which we'll come back to in a minute) are really closely intertwined bc they present rolling the dice a very powerful antidote to this type of thinking:

but i think what really struck me wrt when rules trigger was the part about letting "the story's messy, chaotic momentum guide it forward." wait...... do we.... NEED to be rolling dice in this game?

& the short answer is: no!!! i mean obviously, contrary to what some d&d aficionados argue, if you're not using the rules you may be having a good time but you're not really playing the game (although i would argue this post is a pretty good advocate for dice-rolling not being the most important mechanic of monsterhearts)

but here's a confession: i realised roughly 10 minutes before the end of my game last week that we hadn't rolled a single die the whole evening (to be fair, we'd spent a solid 40 minutes putting together a burn book a lá mean girls at the beginning, but that's another story) but we didn't really need to trigger any moves: the story was barreling along nicely into chaos without them, the characters were having a lovely time wrecking their own lives without any help (okay, so one player did use her Sex Move to have an uncomfortable closet hookup which her boyfriend found soothing & she found confusing – which is pretty firmly monsterhearts), and the NPCs were appeased before any situation escalated into something too ugly to contain, for the time being...

i'm not arguing to take the dice out of monsterhearts. i'm not even saying we won't need to roll a bit of the wild unknown back into our game next session! i'm just saying part of keeping it feral is not trying to force this game into the direction you were expecting it to go – sometimes realising the characters CAN get what they want before things escalate to a roll is part of Saying What Honesty Demands

so how can we say what's honest? well, let's consult my notes again:

MC provides frame for what's possible, establishes scenes, speaks up for world outside main characters --- a world with consequences gives us limits -> but there is power in breaking through them negotiation between what characters want & what honesty demands, life stacked against teens!! rules kick in when you take particular chances --- mediate conflict between characters & world, stops world getting domesticated, gives power back to players --- strictly only kick in when triggered/in particular circumstances, i.e. no "roll + COLD to sneak" otherwise: zoom out, think with some detachment about what most interesting, as if writing TV show --- for example: if character sneaking out of house, MC might evaluate & say parents would definitely notice, player might argue based on established ficton -> work together to pitch most interesting/disasterous/satisfying outcome -> if still at odds making a Move always decides it what's most important is story keeps moving forward

so just play make believe, you ask??!? yes. just play make believe ✌

although i will be trying to jostle us towards more conflict this week, at the very least so i can finally appreciate the world's forerunning Heel Turn Move in all its glory

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oh & btw if you want a general cheatsheet on Strings & Conditions & Harm, here's mine:

Strings = emotional power over another person; leverage or influence or pull makes relationship uneven (even when both have Strings, differents dynamics on different playing fields), respond with authenticity in fiction: snide remark, seductive allure, throw off balance, taunt with emotional manipulation, dangle juicy secret, demand obedience bring in detail from when you got String pulling on player: tempt with XP pulling on NPC: tempting means MC tells you what bribe/threat/coaxing required only have to agree to do what you want if not resolved in scene

Conditions = gossip, unsavoury opinions, interpersonal labels; represent your social predicaments, your emotional weaknesses not necessarily true, but what's said & thought about you shapes how you're treated removed if appropriate action taken, no longer applies to social dynamic examples from book: deadmeat, out of control, preening diva my list: frigid, freak, goody-two-shoes, junkie, clingy, creep, suspect, security threat, bloodied, red-handed, damaged goods, psycho, pathological liar, attention whore, alarmist, SJW, snob, holier-than-thou, delusional, airhead, goner, doomed, irrelevant, cooked, dropout, cheater, sell out, on the bandwagon, faded, disgraced, disgusting

Harm 1 = can do with bare fists - what people gossip about - e.g. push down stairs, break chair over bully's head 2 = weapon or supernatural - requires medical attention, will have cops at door - e.g. slash with giant claws, bash with aluminium bat, trap inside house on fire 3 = something even more catastrophic - death? - e.g. run over with car, push boyfriend off roof

[depthlessdungeons]

still outrageously proud of the nonsense plot me & my friends concocted when we played the brilliant quiet year hack, anomaly (circa july 2020)

[depthlessdungeons]

roll20 notes for a pandemic game i definitely overprepped on

[depthlessdungeons]

very cool map on this brochure from a recent daytrip

[depthlessdungeons]

prep for a monsterhearts game i ran last week

[depthlessdungeons]

what they'll never tell you about playtesting is that the hardest part comes roughly 12 months later when you're trying to decipher your own handwriting 🙃

[depthlessdungeons]

plans for a lady blackbird game that never was </3