Essays, actual play, theory talk, and general navel-gazing about story-focused roleplaying, aka “indie” games. And trindie. And OSR. If you’re small and scrappy, I want to talk about what you’re doing! If you’re fighting to grow, I want to talk about what you’re doing! Basically if it’s roleplaying (tabletop, freeform, larp, whatevs) and it’s not the monolith of D&D, it’s in my wheelhouse.
Thomas Manuel interviewed me for his Yes Indie'd podcast recently and the show just hit the air. Good interview, and we got into a lot of fun stuff about the nature and purpose of critique, my approach to community building, and being in games a very, very long time. https://yesindiedpod.buzzsprout.com/315560/12857066-reading-indie-games-at-the-club-w-paul-beakley
This is it! We made it! These are the last three reviews from the pile of games I've been working through the past several weeks. As always, my caveat: these are reviews based on my reading, not play ... although this week, Under Hollow Hills will get a deeper treatment because I actually have played… Continue reading Under Hollow Hills, Haxen, Traveler’s Ironsworn (last of the Q1 review stack)
Okay, wow. Still drilling through this pile of games and, yeah, we're into the second quarter of the year already. But there are games to read and things to say. Let's get into it. Reminder that these are read-only reviews I'm doing! I haven't gotten to play these games so they're not deep technical dives.… Continue reading Q1 Reviews (Part 3, halfway there)
Last week I hit the first three of too many games that have arrived, quite suddenly, on my doorstep. This week I continue working through the pile. I'll keep going until someone stops me. Apocalypse Keys Apocalypse Keys is a PbtA-based game inspired by Hellboy/BPRD but over the years of development has grown into something… Continue reading Q1 Reviews (Part 2 of too many parts)
The optics, they're bad. So...I indulged in a lot of retail therapy when the lockdowns started. I backed many games. Too many, one might argue. But if you've ever participated in a crowdsourcing campaign, you know how it diabolically gives you multiple serotonin hits: first when you back it, later when you spend the money,… Continue reading Q1 Reviews (Part 1 of many, sob)
