Tales of Xadia and the Limits of Canon

We played four sessions of Tales of Xadia over the past couple months. Tales is the first complete and self-contained game to come out of Cortex Prime, the third generation of the Cortex ruleset by Cam Banks. My personal experience with long-form Cortex play was a rough start with Serenity way back in the day,… Continue reading Tales of Xadia and the Limits of Canon

On-Ramps for Indie Hatchlings

A cold hard fact from the Indie Game Reading Club: you can explore and play ttrpgs without ever mentioning, buying, reading, or playing the most popular game. Our hobby is so much more interesting and diverse than D&D. My list of on-ramps for the indie-curious: Fiasco (new card-driven version or OG): use prompts to sketch… Continue reading On-Ramps for Indie Hatchlings

A Decade of Indie Roleplaying: 2015

For posterity's sake: This is the week the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. I'm torn between feeling like roleplaying is frivolous nonsense, and wanting normalcy as my country realizes this is the real deal. But! I have lots of readers who also crave normalcy, and online play is a great way to while away the… Continue reading A Decade of Indie Roleplaying: 2015

A Decade of Indie Roleplaying: 2013

Another week, another year looking back at the 20-teens and what they brought to small press roleplaying. To recap the games I've focused on so far: 2010 was Apocalypse World, 2011 was Burning Wheel Gold, 2012 was Monsterhearts. All huge games. But 2013 brought one of my all-time favorites, which I continue to play today.… Continue reading A Decade of Indie Roleplaying: 2013

Con Prep and the Unexamined Life

I go deep on prepping games to run at conventions.