Tabletop Will Phillips

🤔 Wait, what's Rattle and Rend?

A miniatures-agnostic 10mm skirmish game designed for busy players who want a game that is easy to play and has a small footprint - both to play and to store.

Fully-playable Alpha rules are out!

facebook.com/groups/rattleandrend

Enjoying how the small board and terrain for my 10mm #wargamimg project Rattle and Rend has come together.

feeling that at this very moment

I'd like to hear from other hobbyist tabletop designers who struggle w/ lingering burnout from the 'hustle & grind' nature of social media marketing and networking.

Have you managed to to create a 'successful' (choose your definition) game? How so? How do you manage the marketing effort?

A recent playtest battle of Rattle and Rend: rules-light, miniatures-agnostic 10mm scale skirmishes played on a 16x16in board.

It's my response to wargames that are too big, too complex, and take up too much space.

#wargaming #skirmishgames #10mmminiatures #10mmwargaming

YouTube video by Matthew Colville What Are Backstories For? | Running the Game

Link:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_zi...

I admit I rarely watch all of Matt Coville's long videos, but when I do, I often appreciate his insight and approach - even if it doesn't align with the type of games I often run.

His recent take on worldbuilding and PC backstories - and how little is often needed - was a refreshing take.

Funny how “platforms can do what they want” and “free speech just means the government can’t censor you” stop being smug comebacks when it’s your favorite niche getting wiped. 🤷

Interesting!

I GM six grown-ups. Too many players. Everything takes too long to run, even with the rules-lite systems I design and play.

Twice a month, regularly scheduled since Covid restrictions lifted. Like clockwork.

It's been three months since I had a full table.
Maybe there's a reason I'm okay with six.

As someone who's gone through that a few times in UX/UXR, it's been hard times in tech for a while now. Sorry to read that.

What Tumblr’s Ban on 'Adult Content' Actually Did Tumblr’s ban on “adult content” is a treasure trove of problems: filtering technology that doesn’t work, a law that forces companies to make decisions that make others unsafe, and the problems that ar...

Censorship sucks - even (especially?) from risk-averse private platforms who "can do what they want."

Here's an article from the EFF on how this all went at Tumblr, years ago:

www.eff.org/tossedout/tu...

Like poetry! Ungh.

Funny how “platforms can do what they want” and “free speech just means the government can’t censor you” stop being smug comebacks when it’s your favorite niche getting wiped. 🤷

* I mean there was that hobby drama that cost Crane his gig at Kickstarter when he tried to sneak Kobel onto that project.

Is this him another iteration of throwing his friend / professional peer a bone? That's pure speculation on my part.

Why buy the brand from the original creators* if you're going to hollow out the core elements of the game?

I know there have been other attempts at such radical reinvention of a game between editions, but it's 7:30 & my brain is fully online yet.

3.5→4E?
7th Sea had something similar, right?

2/2

Finally read some of the Dungeon World 2 dev blogs and... huh.

There are so many fundamental changes that any value there was in the "Dungeon World" name as a recognizable stepping stone from D&D to #PbtA / storygame-esque stuff will be lost.

Strange choices.

1/2

#ttrpg

I mean I don't want to brag but I had a solid eight downloads today plus the files on Google Drive that I don't even have analytics on b/c I'm such a pro, soooooo...

Nice. Pendraken makes good stuff.

A recent playtest battle of Rattle and Rend: rules-light, miniatures-agnostic 10mm scale skirmishes played on a 16x16in board.

It's my response to wargames that are too big, too complex, and take up too much space.

#wargaming #skirmishgames #10mmminiatures #10mmwargaming

Yeah, that's the trick, isn't it? It's hard for me to separate the act of rules design with the desire for others to play those rules, though. Maybe it's vanity.

I'd like to hear from other hobbyist tabletop designers who struggle w/ lingering burnout from the 'hustle & grind' nature of social media marketing and networking.

Have you managed to to create a 'successful' (choose your definition) game? How so? How do you manage the marketing effort?

I am Frankelda: Fantasia Film Festival 2025  The enchanting I am Frankelda is a heady brew of stop-motion animation and layered storytelling.  The film makes its North American premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival 2025.  Arturo and Roy Ambriz, the writer/producer/directors of the singular I am Frankelda (Soy Frankelda), showcase their heritage and unique voice in equal measure in their debut feature film. The immensely entertaining and visually inventive gothic musical tells the story of a would-be writer and a prince of the underworld set in 19th-century Mexico.

Adam's #Fantasia 2025 coverage continues with the enchanting I am Frankelda. A heady brew of stop-motion animation and layered storytelling. The film makes its North American premiere at the fest.

Got the cartography itch today. Most of my maps lately have been in printer-friendly greyscale. It's been a long while since I went all-in on color and texture.

This is a WIP refresh of The Vast Boral: the setting for my in-development skirmish game Rattle and Rend.

#fantasymaps #cartography

This uh is not how I saw my my little lunch time painting break going.

www.instagram.com/p/DMN-EZFu_1...

Oh maaaaaaaaan, that French fold book cover used as the table of contents is SO CLEVER.

It's definitely where I've landed with overland and even dungeon based exploration.

ICYMI

A highlighted section of text from the book Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. It reads: "Domesticated dinosaurs?" Hammond snorted. "Nobody wants domesticated dinosaurs, Henry. They want the real thing." "But that's my point," Wu said. "I don't think they do. They want to see their expectation, which is quite different." Hammond was frowning. "You said yourself, John, this park is entertainment," Wu said. "And entertainment has nothing to do with reality. Entertainment is antithetical to reality."

So as some of you know, in historical games studies I coined the term ‘authenticity lite’ to describe the type of ‘accuracy/authenticity’ players & developers actually want from games focused on the past. And I just want to share this section of ‘Jurassic Park’ which works brilliantly for it. 🗃️

An unexpected antique book find for the personal library from this weekend:

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 by Arthur Conan Doyle. This volume is from c. 1895, published by Donohue, Henneberry & Co.

#bookcollector #antiques #oldbooks #arthurconandoyle #HundredYearsWar