sam “lake geneva” sorensen

doing some cool shit that's not in the rules >>>>>>> doing some cool shit the rules allow you to do

I felt this exact same way until my third Big 5e Book lmao

still applies to the indies but the big trad boys get the old reliable

thanks!! I have more in the works, hopefully coming soon!

I tried this for the first time back in april, only a month or so into the game, and honestly it works better than expected. an even week means it's easy for week-long timers to stay clear, and it means when you pick up the next week all your existing timers more or less stay in place

one of the cool things I've done in cataphracts (for the second time now) is freeze the game for a week when my life gets too busy. from wednesday the 30th to tuesday the 5th (gen con), we just froze time: armies didn't move, messengers didn't travel, supplies didn't get eaten. just... "pause."

🤯

text that reads "When You Deal With Things That Are Not Games, Roll + Life: On a 10+ You do the thing. On a 7­9: You do the thing, but it costs you, or there’s a hard choice, or whatever. Look, we all know how 7­9 works on Act Under Fire."

text that reads: "*Eye for Thematic Content When you play someone else’s game, roll + Creativity. On a hit, something in your game inspires you to how you could do things in your game, gain 1 Idea. On a 10+, also recover 1 Stress. On a miss, you muck their game up with too much touchy­feely narrative stuff; you and they both gain a Stress."

text that reads: "*Curriculum Vitae Name three to five games you have published, and choose a theme for each. Decide which one you are most famous for. Whenever you like, you may decide what the Features for those games were. (Those games were original, and therefore do not use Stats or Playbooks.)"

text that reads "*It’s Complete... Enough Your game does not have to be complete for you to Launch the Kickstarter. You must have at least one completely filled row of progress boxes. Take ­1 to your roll for each row of progress boxes that is entirely or partially unfilled."

this one's actually really good, I'd forgotten how funny it is

ancient wisdom long forgotten: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/26euy...

graphic designers deserve to be credited for graphic design 😤

Does Super Mario Bros. (1985) Have Rules? Yes! No? Maybe? Why do you care? Why does it matter?

i wrote an article about that stupid little question i asked a couple weeks ago, why i asked it, and how the answer to the question can be tremendously beneficial for ttrpg designers
possumcreek.medium.com/does-super-m...

this concludes our Super Official ENnies Awards. thank you

NICEST IMPOSTOR SYNDROME: watching multiple friends win multiple awards, then they invite you(!!!) to to their afterparties

BEST TREND: the enthusiasm for large-scale megagames! many people were very intrigued by cataphracts, players loved the mothership bloodfields battle royale tournament, already I hear more rumors and whispers

BEST GAME DESIGN BRAINWORMS: teeny tiny short-form two-player abstract tabletop games like @marcelineleiman.bsky.social 's sneaky tricky High Tide, or my beloved Lacuna. what if board games were easy and fun??? what if we embrace abstraction and removal without even trying to be representational???

BEST PSYCHIC DAMAGE ACTIVATION KILLPHRASES: "Tolerate." "Batter." "Foam." "Orthodox." "Stress." "Seafloor." "Trample." "Slipper." "Modern."

SWEETEST GLIMPSES: at the last minute I ended up housing with friends from grad school and their dozen-odd other Old Gen Con friends, and so periodically came back to the AirBnB to see them all locked deep into extremely heartfelt, delightful, stupid inside jokes told through games

WEIRDEST VIBES: 16-Bit Barcade. went to two parties there and both times I felt like I'd fallen into somebody's discount ready player one themed bar except the patrons' fashion, which felt like it was made using chatGPT

CUTEST BOY BAND: @archongames.bsky.social out with their evil wizard tower booth and matching dark-fantasy-video-game-protagonist goth fits

BEST ENNIES ACCEPTANCE VIDEO: @prismaticwasteland.com 's slime, specifically the second video where he was already slimed from the first one

BEST ENNIES ACCEPTANCE SPEECH: @rubylavin.bsky.social , specifically discussing the state of the industry and calling for a Free Palestine

BEST FOOD WITHOUT WALKING DISTANCE OF THE CON: Strange Bird!! very tasty pork bao buns, cocktails in extremely fun cups, a rather fruitier sort of vibe

BEST FOOD WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE OF THE CON: Yard House! I'd never been. it's actually pretty good. the za'atar was better than expected

MOST SADLY PREDICTABLE SEMINAR: Medieval Military Logistics. the presenter cited historical examples exclusively from White Man Military History periods and events (alexander, sun tzu, the spartans, the romans, hastings, agincourt, clausewitz, napoleon, ACW, WWI, WWII). I learned nothing new

BEST TRAVEL PLANNING TECH: Booking a place within walking distance of the ICC. Easily an S-tier quality of life upgrade over having to uber back and forth twice a day

Super Official 2025 ENnies Awards, a thread:

[pauses timer] "Travesty."

these programs definitely exist—I have two degrees in game design! a BS from RIT and an MFA from the NYU Game Center (where I teach as an adjunct now). many schools have full programs, but many more have minors / concentrations / electives, too

yes!!

wowowowow congrats!!

imo the ideal hack is one pamphlet. include just enough little gubs and then just say "yeah if you need more rules go look at the core rulebook"