A creative outlet in any form seeks to make something that evokes emotion. Game design, much like any creative outlet, wants to evoke those same emotions. That said, the methods to achieve them are a bit different from other more “traditional” art. It vicariously rides the lines between inspiration and execution, as both are imperative to game design.

A game mechanic is much like a seed, planting an idea or story in the player’s mind so that it may grow into something more. This sprout takes shape within the player’s mind, often as a character, creature, or specific scene of action.

Of Gilded Words and Poisonous Tongues!

In the Lord Ruler’s Final Empire, blood is destiny. A skaa birth condemns you to a hard life of labor and service. A Terris birth marks you forever as an outsider, an uncomfortable reminder of a bygone era. To be born noble is to live at the peak of political and social power, blessed with the potential for Allomancy — but it also means a life of vicious politicking, ruthless competition, and the perpetual risk of betrayal and ruin. As a noble Hero, you face the same question as all who defy this grim order: do you have the courage to shrug off blood and destiny, to stand against the brutality of this world, and fight for a better future… for everyone?

“Renegade to bring Welcome to Night Vale to the world of RPGs!” Renegade Game Studios is excited to announce that they will produce and publish a Welcome to Night Vale Roleplaying Game, which will land on players’ tables in 2024. “Joseph and Jeffrey have created a fantastic world full of vibrant characters, mystery, and rich […]

Digital tabletop juggernauts combine powers to create an industry-leading platform for digital play, promising a seamless future of cross-platform PDF support and synchronized content libraries on the largest virtual tabletop.

They Came from Beyond the Grave! is a dramatic, hammy, and horrifying tabletop roleplaying game encompassing the shock, terror, eroticism, and humor of 1970s horror. This game allows you to play with all the magnificent content from the movies of Hammer, Amicus, and Roger Corman, and promises the fun and thrills of the horror movie genre!

In They Came from Beyond the Grave!, you play humans faced with the horrors of the supernatural. You’ll find yourself pitted against vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and constructed critters, along with demons, slashers, and THE DEVIL HIMSELF. Adventures range from the one-shot exploration of a haunted house, to the multi-era play across the 19th century and 1970s.

Unleash Your Hero Digitally – Pathfinder Nexus Launches in 2022

Today Demiplane, a leading digital platform for tabletop roleplaying fans, announced a multi-year licensing agreement with Paizo Inc. to create Pathfinder Nexus, the official digital toolset and game companion for the award-winning Pathfinder tabletop roleplaying game. Pathfinder Nexus is set to release in early 2022. Pre-orders with early access to the new platform begin today.

We’re Elizabeth Chaipraditkul and Steffie de Vaan, and we wanted to tell you about our newly launched RPG Patreon. We’ve been active in the RPG industry for some years now. Liz was the lead developer for the Crescent Empire book for 7th Sea, author of the Book of Lore for Bluebeard’s Bride, and owns her own Indie company Angry Hamster Publishing which published Witch: Fated Souls. Steffie wrote for the Changeling the Lost 2nd Edition Corebook, Beckett’s Jyhad Diary (Vampire: the Masquerade), and is the developer for Promethean: The Created and the upcoming Legendlore RPG. So you’d think we have lots of creative outlets. And we do. They’re just… still not enough. Hence our Patreon, to finally release our bottled ideas into the world.

Long before the Empire, created by the Kalasans after they stormed Rûl and wrested it from the clutches of the dread Witch-King, whose wicked legions had overwhelmed and plunged the continent into darkness, an ancient people known as the Edene ruled over the land. Like the Kalasans so many centuries after them, the Edene were also bold conquerors who arrived on the shores of the continent, fleeing the destruction of their homeland far across the Auroral Ocean, They arrived in Rûl, handily defeating the First People and their faerie allies who had called the continent home for centuries, and founded a new civilization in the ruins of the one that came before. The Edene claimed their empire would last a thousand years, but like so many fledgling empires since the dawn of time who believed the same, the Edene themselves were drowned in the ebbing and flowing tides of history, yet another civilization of grand ambition lost and mostly forgotten.

Return now to dying Mars in its last age of glory. A planet of flashing swords and choking sands, of winking courtesans and lantern-lit canal cities.

Mars, where fortune and heartbreak are two sides of the same obsidian chit, where lost cities and dry oceans stretch between the last bastions of civilization. Where the First Martians, the monument-builders, are but a haunted memory. Where the Red Martians become decadent and reckless in their last days. Where the Pale Martians rule the wastes, remembering a history whose weight would crush a lesser people.

Torg Eternity is a table-top roleplaying game based on the original 1990 version of Torg created by West End Games. It has been re-imagined and updated for the Near Now. Now, you can play a Storm Knight in this RPG published by Ulisses Spiele in today’s setting. The Torg Eternity Kickstarter has already funded! Now, […]

Decades of GMing Experience at Your Fingertips!

“Kobold Press builds on its excellent track record with another great release—new and provocative.”
—Mike Mearls

Whether it’s advice from grognards who were running games at the dawn of RPGs, or suggestions from the new generation of game designers, these 21 essays by experts are here to help you improve your GMing skills and create fun, amazing, memorable campaigns that’ll be talked about for years.

In this book, master GMs and storytellers give you advice about solo campaigns, shy players, cell phones, and making rulings on the fly. Are you unprepared for the game you’re running half an hour from now? Did you accidentally kill all the PCs? Do you want to run a game for kids? Did the plot take a sudden turn and the PCs have gone into uncharted territory? We’ve got you covered.

Unknown Armies is an occult game about broken people conspiring to fix the world. It’s about humanity, and how those among us who are the most obsessed have the power to alter reality until it aligns with their fevered desires. It’s about getting what you want despite others trying to keep it from you.

Unknown Armies presents magick as it might exist in a world co-created by Tim Powers and James Ellroy, as twisting wrinkles in reality created by greater and greater risk, sacrifice, and obsession. In Unknown Armies we ask, what would you risk to change the world? Your friends? Your family? Your health? Your sanity? Magick finds a way to ask the very most from you, until you achieve what you want or you are left with nothing.

Changeling the Lost First Edition, which was published in 2007 for the Chronicles of Darkness, is now available as a fantastic deal on Bundle of Holding. This offer will expire on Monday, April 3, 2017, so be sure to mark your calendar if you want to take advantage of the offer. “Taken from your home, […]

In 2015, the dark fantasy Shadow of the Demon Lord RPG launched on Kickstarter and was an overwhelming success. “In the game, you create and play characters struggling to survive in a land sliding toward oblivion, a place infested by demons, roaming mobs of undead, strange magic, unhinged cultists, and all in the ruins of […]

Writing Inclusive Games: Creating RPGs Sans Fail teaches game writers crucial skills and industry knowledge to facilitate better representation. Instructors Monica Valentinelli, from FlamesRising.com, and K. Tempest Bradford will cover Stereotypes and Tropes related to Race and Ethnicity, Disability, Gender and Sexuality, Religion, Class, and more, plus strategies for building characters and worlds while avoiding engaging in stereotypes or cultural appropriation. The course covers tips and tricks to addressing problems on your team, how to better facilitate conversation with your game developer, and sample art notes that are occasionally asked of writers.

The class is appropriate for all game writers from all backgrounds and any skill level.

Hi all, Hannah here! 2016 was a big year for John Wick Presents. The biggest event of the year, and the one you’ve probably heard all about, was the Kickstarter campaign for 7th Sea: 2nd Edition.

A high-adventure game of swashbuckling and intrigue, 7th Sea has maintained a devoted fan base since its first release in 1999. When John decided it was time to bring 7th Sea back to the gaming table, the response surpassed everyone’s wildest expectations. The Kickstarter campaign ended with 11,483 backers from around the world and over $1.3 million dollars. Not only was it an amazing show of support from existing fans, but thousands of new gamers would be welcomed to the world of 7th Sea for the first time.

Dungeons & Dragons was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at the Strong Museum for Play.

First published in 1974, Dungeons & Dragons has inspired many millions of gamers to create stories and adventures and has brought people together from all backgrounds to share those experiences. We are extremely proud D&D has been recognized by the Strong Museum, and we owe what the game is today to you, our fans. As stewards of D&D, we will continue to make great entertainment to inspire your creativity.

Nathan Stewart, Senior Director of D&D at Wizards of the Coast, was on hand in Rochester, NY to witness the induction ceremony and speak on behalf of Dungeons & Dragons. D&D means so much to so many people, but it is especially important to young people as they learn and grow.

The Best Games are Played in the Dead of Winter

Midwinter Gaming Convention is a 4 day convention held each January in Milwaukee, WI. Started in January of 2000, this event was founded on a Classic World of Darkness Live Action Role Playing game (LARP), and over the years grew to become a full gaming convention offering everything from Tabletop RPG’s, CCG’s, Miniatures, LARPs and of course, Board Games.

At this point in we have decided to create and curate our own Board Game Library. In this way we can be fully assured that the services offered our Board Game guests are everything we expect to offer as a convention. We can maintain consistency and continue to grow toward a future of improving and expanding our Board Game track.

I had one of those moments a few weeks back, the kind where you’re forced to stop and wonder what you’ve been up to for the past several months. We were driving through the redwoods, and we stopped at the base of a very large tree. I suppose that’s an understatement, given the fact that they are, indeed, “the” redwoods, but to actually be there… To listen to nothing–no birds, no frogs, no crickets–nothing… The only bit that’s left when there’s total silence is either that or the thoughts swirling around in my head. Usually it’s the latter, which often turns into some musical refrain. Sadly.

There Was A Dark, Dark House is a Halloween adventure for the FirstFable RPG published by OneBookShelf.

This tale is inspired by ghost stories told around a campfire. It can be as scary or funny as you want.

Your children will love playing an active part in this spooky tale!

The FirstFable core book is needed to run There Was A Dark, Dark House.

A portion of the proceeds of every sale of There Was A Dark, Dark House will automatically be donated to the RPG Creators Relief Fund.