sam “over and under” sorensen

Update: Ive been going through stuff and testing/breaking things in this the last couple of days, and I think y'all have a real reason to be excited about this. Sam has set the stage for something potentially truly ridiculous here. All he needs is your participation and buy-in. Give this a shot!

peep this, and see you there

Where do rpg awards go next? An insider's look into the 2025 Ennie Awards. Part four. What's the point of an award show? And what do we want to see in the future?

The last article in my Awards Debrief is up. What even is the point of an award show? Should anyone care?

www.explorersdesign.com/ennies-4/

Whoaaaa, this is gonna be a good one!

this sounds so sick!! i can't wait to see how this goes!

This sounds absolutely wild and very very fun! PLAY SOME MOSH

This sounds insane, and I'm dying to be a part of it (probably just as another Denizen aboard the Dream).

So this is a big swing for us for Mothership Month. Sam has designed a bespoke REAL-TIME play-by-post wargame for Mothership Month. We have room for hundreds if not thousands of players fighting in a giant faction cold war on the Dream. Read the post for details. Sign-ups on October 13.

I am so immensely stoked for this massive, massive game.

I don't know how Sam does it. These macro-games of his are a sight to behold. Seriously, the vibe is absolutely unlike anything else you'll play, save for some outlandish OG Free Kriegspiel ish - and if you know even a bit of what that sentence means, you need to join!!

such kind words!! thank you!!!

you know it baybeeeee

the logistician strikes again holy shit

thank you!!! it's gonna be nuts but I'm really stoked

This looks absurdly ambitious and I am here for it.

thank you!! it's gonna be nuts!! but yes, please, invite and everyone—there's theoretically(???) no upper limit to the number of Denizens, so come one, come all

the TL;DR on OVER/UNDER vs Cataphracts is that here:
1. there are a bunch more rules and hard designations between player and faction types
2. there's a bunch more economics and currencies, with a fancy Discord bot to support
3. the game can support hundreds or even thousands of players!

Mothership Month 2025 Wargame: OVER/UNDER - Sam Sorensen Starting on October 14th, as a part of Mothership Month 2025—the annual group-crowdfunding campaign and general season of celebration for

on Tuesday, October 14th, as a part of Mothership Month 25, I'm going to launch another real-time play-by-post wargame, open to the public, called OVER/UNDER. the server will open to players on Monday the 13th, but in the meantime you can read about it here: samsorensen.blot.im/mothership-m...

Join us tomorrow, Thursday October 9th at 7:00PM for our TTRPG bookclub. This week, Brindlewood Bay!

Poster by @samsorensen.bsky.social

tomorrow! come chat with us!

banger! banger! banger!

essential reading for RPG industry kiddies

no such thing, imo. I don't think I've ever seen anybody use this term in any kind of consistent or readily-defined way

I think a more useful question might be "what does it mean for a board game [or videogame, or other game] to 'support storytelling'?"

Puzzle Dungeon Design: Themes & Gimmicks Here are a couple of formalized steps for crafting puzzle dungeons that feel at home at the table—and are actually fun.

My friend Directsun is on a mission to get more people creating Zelda-style puzzle dungeons. Give his blog a read and let him talk you into it:

puzzledungeon.com/puzzle-dunge...

Leonard Cohen's Advice for Novice OSR Referees Leonard Cohen's (1978) speaks to a time when the public performance of poetry was transforming into what Marc Smith would call "slam poetry" some six years ...

"Do not be ashamed to be tired. You look good when you're tired. You look like you could go on forever. "

Leonard Cohen's Advice for Novice OSR Referees

kattkirsch.bearblog.dev/leonard-cohe...

hmmm. do you have an example?? I'd be curious to see

both good for spells specifically but not good for the overall structure. I wouldn't pick up a grimoire of magic items, or have a spellbook of 36 monsters in the back of a corebook

compendium's not bad, but I fear it smacks of capital-letter RPG Words, you know? feels too genre-y, too idiosyncratic

both suggest coming at the end of something as a part of a larger whole. if I picked up a book of 50 monsters and nothing else, it'd be odd to refer to the whole project as an appendix or index

yeah "catalogue" is the closest so far, I think, but I agree that the vibes are weird

appendix is good but has connotations otherwise. if I picked up a book of 36 magic items and that was it, it would be weird to call the whole thing an appendix