Graham Walmsley

We're part of a fantasy book club, which consists mostly of young women under 30, and they are so excited about new ACoTaR books. So excited. It gives me life.

The Winters Tale. It's late Shakespeare, so he's doing crazy things with the verse, and I love the bit where it goes "Anyway let's pick this up 100 years later". Also, "She's warm" is really sweet.

There is a subtle design skill around using dice probabilities to inject things into a TTRPG narrative. It's largely been forgotten, but you can see it clearly in indie games from 2004-2009 or so.

being able to sell a game is one of the factors in game design. it can be something you decide you don't care about (same as not caring about hit points), but if it is something you do care about, than it's a valid way to shape other design decisions.

Ballad Hunters launches on Kickstarter March 17. Investigate deadly folk ballads in Regency Britain using a bold new twist on the GUMSHOE system. Thirteen ready to play adventures. Two to three hour sessions. Songs that shape fate. Follow the trail before the last verse is sung.

Another part of Bayt al Azif issue 6, that has been there throughout every issue, is Grave Spirits by @evanjohnstondesign.bsky.social ! The latest in the case files of Dr. Niles Harriford draws to its conclusion! What will happen to Doc in this final chapter?

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher...

This is obviously a great title. I was thinking of other Tolkein quotes using the word Dark, such as In Dark Places, but this beats that

Love it

This is usually the kind of thing where I drop them an email and, see how it goes and hope I'm surprised. But...I don't know the situation, I'm probably overoptimistic about these things, etc etc.

It's very good!

And I like that it sits in that category of "Looks clean and professional" but not "Huge amounts of glossy art"

I wrote for this, along with a whole bunch of experts in interactive fiction. Sign up here for a copy.

(I am not an expert in interactive fiction obviously although I wrote that one game once)

@jon.inkle.co Who did the cover, out of interest?

For weird reasons, I've got a subscription to the Financial Times, which ends tonight. I'll miss it, especially the book reviews.

It's not a series *yet*

This is amazing. Read the manual. No, really, read the photograph of the manual

Teenage Ninja Fighting School - A Shonen Anime RPG Zine Teen ninjas, big feelings, and bigger fights—a narrative-first anime TTRPG of friendship, wild named attacks, and saving the world!

We hit goal! So excited!

We need another $2k to reach our first stretch goal, fancier binding for the books!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/pet...

The thing is, I really like The Next Day (2013). I keep going back to listen to it. I also loved Blackstar (2016), although it's too painful to listen to often.

And then it's probably Ziggy Stardust. Not exactly deep cuts, but I genuinely love those albums.

If you're looking to back ZineQuest projects, I know of this by the wonderful @gejwatts.bsky.social .

Tell me if you know others!

www.backerkit.com/c/projects/e...

Coming soon: Play Unsafe An all-new edition of Graham Walmsley's classic book about playing tabletop roleplaying games.

Reminder: you can follow the Play Unsafe Kickstarter now without worrying that it'll hit a round number of followers or anything. It just passed 333 and there aren't really any interesting numbers approaching.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/gra...

Try thinking about editing

Don't get me wrong, it's a good number of followers and I'm really happy, but not near a round hundred. Also thanks to James for pointing out that it was near an approximation of Pi.

I asked people whether 20 years made it sound old, but apparently it's "authoritative".

Oh, I know, time is crazy.

Oh I like that!

Coming soon: Play Unsafe An all-new edition of Graham Walmsley's classic book about playing tabletop roleplaying games.

If you hate that thing where creators say "Follow this Kickstarter and let's get to [a round number] of followers"...

...this is a really good time to follow the Play Unsafe Kickstarter, because it's nowhere near a round number of followers. #kickstarter #ttrpg

www.kickstarter.com/projects/gra...

If you go to karaoke, the 20-year-olds sing Islands In The Stream and Country Roads.

The Earthsea books are great.

I mean, let's be honest, Ian Fleming and Frederick Forsyth. And do we count Fighting Fantasy books, because...

EC Elliott wrote the Kemlo books, which I happened to plough through when I was younger.

And then there are authors I've read but don't particularly want to mention. You can guess. And I read lots of PD James back in the day, but her later books left a bit of a weird aftertaste.