Conflict Resolution is Indie Gaming on Hard Mode

We started playing Nathan Paoletta’s Imp of the Perverse last week. It’s a funky, specific horror game that evokes Edgar Allan Poe vibes in 1830s-1850s Jacksonian America. Playing the first session reminded me about how hard I find conflict resolution games. Imp of the Perverse is squarely in that camp of design. Conflict resolution is… Continue reading Conflict Resolution is Indie Gaming on Hard Mode

Indie Game Reading Club 2019: A Retrospective

Hello and welcome, welcome. It’s been a busy year! So let’s go over it all. Please read to the end, where I announce the launch of my Patreon. 🙂 2019: Games Played My two main themes of 2019 were fewer, longer runs at home and more conventions. I usually only make two conventions a year,… Continue reading Indie Game Reading Club 2019: A Retrospective

I’m Just Playing My Character: Alibis In Play

I recently wrapped up our Band of Blades campaign and thought it’d be nice to take a little break on the other side of the table. So my best buddy is running Magpie’s Masks for us for a while. Masks is a game about teen superheroes. I don’t know much about the teen supers subgenre,… Continue reading I’m Just Playing My Character: Alibis In Play

The Secret Indie Underbelly of RinCon

My alternate clickbait-y title was The Sordid Secret Small Press Scene at RinCon. I kind of wish it actually was any of those things, but it's not: we just wrapped up RinCon, a very mainstream, lovely, family-friendly gaming convention in Tucson, Arizona. And I played a bunch of small-press stuff while I was there. RinCon… Continue reading The Secret Indie Underbelly of RinCon

Dust Devils: Blast from the Past

Matt Snyder's Dust Devils was the first RPG in the storygame style I really "got." I'm going to run it for the first time in more than a decade (!!!) at RinCon in a few weeks, so I refreshed myself on the rules the other night. It's quite a dive into the earliest ideas of… Continue reading Dust Devils: Blast from the Past