Ian Howard

Reposting for the weekend crowd: Infinite Paths, coming soon to Kickstarter!

Infinite Paths is a d10-based solo TTRPG system that can easily be adapted to your favorite genre or setting, or you can use the settings included in the book to get going right away!

These two little zine games are available now over at Knave of Cups!

knaveofcups.com

ssssssssss

Gamess are due THISS coming Monday, the 13th.

Let'ss ssee your larp ideasss cook!!

www.goldencobra.org

The KS is expected for late October/early November, so follow along at the link above to get notified when it goes live!

While you're waiting, enjoy this gorgeous full cover illustration, one of several illustrations that the immensely talented @boxen.bsky.social is providing for the book!

3/3

Included in the book are full rules for character creation and advancement, conflict resolution, and more. Players can create their own worlds to explore or use one of the provided settings to get started. Pursue world-changing quests while hounded by dangerous forces in any genre you wish!

2/3

Coming soon: Infinite Paths A solo TTRPG system

I'm thrilled to finally announce Leafy Dragon Games' next project: Infinite Paths!

Designed by @jamiethul.bsky.social, this sleek solo TTRPG system lets players jump into an epic adventure of their own creation in just a few minutes.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/lea...

1/3

The Crownfell base game box, standing beside the playmat, with some cards on the mat, mid-game.

The crowd sale for #Crownfell has been approved for November 18! Add-ons include a neoprene playmat and a solo expansion.

This 2-player asymmetric chess-like has 17 cards unique movement and abilities.

Sign up to be notified here (shares appreciated!) 🧡 www.thegamecrafter.com/crowdsale/cr...

And you can find Here We Used to Fly, a GM-less game of young adults exploring a now-abandoned theme park they frequented in childhood which I codesigned with Kurt Refling, at the links below.

CAN: composedreamgames.com/marketplace/...

UK: composedreamgames.co.uk/A-Smoulderin...

You can check out 5-Star Match, a solo RPG where you build and book your own professional wrestling promotion, at the links below.

CAN: composedreamgames.com/marketplace/...

UK: composedreamgames.co.uk/leafy-dragon...

Canada and UK friends: did you know that Compose Dream Games is running a sale all this week? And did you know that you can pick up TWO different games I've worked on there? It's true! Now's as good a time as any to pick up print copies of 5-Star Match or Here We Used to Fly at a discount!

5-STAR MATCH appeared in HQ!
Wrestling ttrpg written by @leafydragongames.bsky.social. Cover art painted by Dan English. Interior illustrations by Yours Truly. When comp copies arrive, I feel like the winner on right.

Support small independent publishers:
leafydragongames.wpcomstaging.com/shop/

Yeah, I’ve always had trouble buying him as a serious wrestler, and I felt like even the matches with Okada were kinda hokey in spots. This clip doesn’t really change that for me, but anybody who’d work so dang hard to make a kid feel like the best wrestler in the world gets a big thumbs up from me.

I’ve never understood the appeal of Kenny Omega, but this? This is one of the best things I’ve ever seen in wrestling. Huge kudos to Omega, for real.

Illustration of a hugely muscled nerd in chinos, pink glasses with yellow tape on the bridge, and a yellow shirt with the sleeves ripped off. He's gonna stuff YOU in a locker! Background is yellow and bright pink stripes, and includes text (top) "World Wide Wrestling New Artwork by Lukasz Kowalczuk" (bottom) "The Monster"

We are over halfway funded for World Wide Wrestling 2E: Repackaged! So, I'll have more to share from @elkowalczuk.bsky.social soon (and, y'all, there's some hot fire incoming). Until then, here's his take on perhaps the all-time most-played Gimmick, The Monster.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/ndp...

World Wide Wrestling 2E: Repackaged Reprinting the Premier Pro Wrestling ttrpg of Narrative Action - In Hardcover For the First Time!

IT'S TIME!

💪Jump into the ring to help reprint World Wide Wrestling, the premier ttrpg of pro wrestling narration action!

📙Debuting a Hardcover Edition for the first time ever!

🤼 New Gimmick art, play aid materials, and more!

Thanks for everything, friends!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/ndp...

It’s Golden Cobra tiiiiiiiiiime! Everybody up let’s go let’s go let’s go!

Make weird games and put them out into the world!

Drawing Dungeon by Soucy Games Sharpen your pencil and prepare to delve into the dungeon! Switch between exploring new rooms and defeating the monsters inside them to earn more items and treasure!

It's a release!
Drawing Dungeon is a roll-and-write dungeon crawl I've been working on for a few months now!
Four maps and a playtime of 15-20 minutes per session, all for $3!
Explore the dungeon, collect treasure, and defeat the boss (or die trying)!

Square promo graphic with word "Sunday" in large translucent red text at top, repeating with slight overlap 6 times down to slightly smaller yellow translucent text. Text at bottom "World Wide Wrestling Reprint Campaign Launches 9/14". Superimposed are two character illustrations, (left) "The Manager" man with mustache in cowboy hat and green-and-brown western-style suit, holding a microphone and pointing (right) "The Anointed" woman with short brown bob, facing away from the viewer but turning to smirk over her shoulder with a "number 1" finger pointing up, in pink and gray cheerleader-esque wrestling gear.

We're going to ring the bell this Sunday, September 14th, for the World Wide Wrestling reprint + hardcover campaign! We're close, but can we get to 250 followers by then? Please share!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/ndp...

KINGDOMITES:
BRUTAL FRONTIER
9.13.25

EMAIL ME!

HODAGMAG AT GMAIL DOT COM WITH THE SUBJECT LINE "GET BRUTAL!" TO LEARN MORE!

CLAIM YOUR SPOT NOW!

Square promo graphic of The Manager, a stately Bathory-esque woman bearing a jeweled microphone, wearing red and yellow gothic robes and striding out of a cloud of yellow mist. Includes text The Manager, New Artwork by Lukasz Kowalczuk

Square promo graphic for the World Wide Wrestling reprint Kickstarter campaign. Features luchador in purple and pink gear and large woman with purple facepaint and black and purple gear, both in dramatic "ready to fight" poses. Text "Sign up now, you don't want to miss this!" and "Reprint Campaign Coming Soon" on either side of the orange and blue World WIde Wrestling: Action Drama Lucha "sunrise" logo.

Another new Gimmick illustration for the upcoming World Wide Wrestling 2E reprint campaign, from @elkowalczuk.bsky.social. The Manager always needs to be ready to jump in the ring to give their meal ticket an edge!

Launching soon, follow so you don't miss it!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/ndp...

Join our small but mighty team as we continue on our journey to celebrate and connect people to the world of indie RPGs and solo games!

Tabletop Bookshelf is looking for a hospitality-minded, tech-savvy tabletop RPG enthusiast to help build our audience and community (link in comments)

Oooh, what do you like about Twilight Dice? I use a very bare-bones free app that’s just called “Dice3D” (by developer 7pixels) which covers *most* of my needs.

I do sometimes wish there was an all-in-one RPG app that included dice, coins, standard deck and Tarot cards, and even a Jenga tower! 😆

I typically journal digitally using a Google doc set to “work offline” so I can access it anywhere, anytime. Using my phone (with a dice roller app) often means I have to be more economical and focus on key actions/emotions. I also read through the entire doc as a refresher to start every session.

✍️ I'm working on a piece for the next issue of The Soloist about journaling tips for solo RPGs.

What do you find useful when keeping a record of your solo play? Would love to here your ideas and resources.

#Soloist #soloRPG

My absolute favorite thing about making games has to be collaborating with artists. There’s something so great about handing an artist a vague description and having them send back something totally incredible. Every time I get a new sketch or an illustration back it puts me in a good mood all day!

A scary looking warrior flexes in a fiery landscape.

Barbarian Sci-fi Game Zine you-know-what-ing next week.

Hand drawn.

Bespoke 2d6 system.

Print and play.

Share this post and one or two might fall off the truck early!

If you wanna review copy for your blog, pm me.

You aren't gonna wanna miss this one!

Travis makes some cool stuff, and now’s as good a time as any to check it out!

Some folks may have seen the article going around about J.D. Maxwell's absence after his Grimwild crowdfunding campaign. We don't know what happened to Grimwild's designer, and I would ask that we not speculate on the nature of his absence here. Still, this raised certain questions in my community of practice about art after death of the artist. There are real options for how to handle creative works after death or incapacitation, if you make preparations while you're around. I'm going to share a practical approach in this thread. Quickly, before we start: if you're not in the headspace to read this, that's okay. Close the tab. Your responsibility is to your well-being. Making a plan for your art is firmly in extra credit territory. It's okay to set this aside. I'll break this down into four steps. 1. Keep organized records (ongoing). 2. Elect caretakers. 3. Set up a dead man's switch. 4. Document your wishes. Both 2 and 4 are areas that benefit from an estate plan (including a legal will) if there's money involved. I am not going to discuss the drafting of formal wills here, but understand that wills are very important. See post-script in the comments.

1 - Keep organized records (ongoing). This is, of course, the biggest pain in the ass. It's also the item on this list that will actually help you while you're here. There are four kinds of information that matter: Creative works This is your art itself, of course. You probably have some that are completed, some abandoned and some works-in-progress. Where are they kept? Do you have a document tracking your catalogue? Financial records If there's one thing this kicks your ass into organizing, make it this. What did you spend on your projects? Where do you keep those receipts? Do you have any annual expenses? Do you have any contracts, active or past-tense? What about annual subscriptions for creative tools? Is your stock being held as consignment by any distributors? All of this should be documented somewhere. Operating procedures This is the sneaky kind of knowledge that tends to be completely kept in the brain. That's partly because it seems superfluous: if I told you I uploaded a game to itch.io, how much work would you imagine that really takes? Well, let's map it out: in practice, I... (1) Log in, (2) start a new project ("upload" a new project in itch lingo), (3) write a tagline and choose a URL, (4) add classifications and tags, (5) price it, (6) upload 3 to 5 screenshots, (7) create and upload a 630 x 500 pixel thumbnail, (8) actually upload the file(s), (9) write a description, which for me includes a thematic quote, the pitch, box info (player count / runtime / materials) and the contents of the file downloads, (10) choose tags, (11) write an engaging announcement post nested in a personal anecdote for my newsletter (and sometimes also Reddit), (12) set visibility to public, and (13) save. If I asked a friend to upload my game for me, how much of that would be a stumbling block?

Absence isn't the only time that itemized protocols would be helpful, though. If I think "I need to upload my game to itch.io," I'm either going to see none of these steps (and assume I'll be done instantly), or see all of these steps as an amorphous, daunting process that disinclines me to ever bother doing it. Breaking larger tasks into smaller ones helps you see the labour as something that can be performed in small pieces, and helps you plan an appropriate amount of time to get it done. Plus, memory is unreliable! If there's something I only do once a year, will I remember those steps when it's time to do them again? Maybe not. That's why it's useful to have operating procedures written out, for you and anyone else who comes after. 2 - Elect caretakers. If not you, then who? The ideal person to handle your creative output after your passing is someone who you trust, and who values and understands your art. This is a little tricky, because those two things don't always exist in the same person. You might have a spouse, sibling, parent or child you loves you very much, but has no personal interest in your hobby. Ask multiple people. If you get multiple affirmative responses, that means you have backups. Organize them in a hierarchy of responsibility so that if Person A is too busy (or overwhelmed, or absent, or already passed) when the unthinkable happens, Person B can then accept or decline the duty. If you ask a bunch of people and don't set a hierarchy, now you have a committee. And nobody wants to have to deal with a committee. Much like being the executor of a will, caring for someone's art is an honour-flavoured burden. Your job is to choose people who are both willing and able to do this, and to make "no" a comfortable answer for them if they need it. 3 - Set up a dead man's switch. A dead man's switch is anything that's designed to trigger if the operator is incapacitated or dead. This is what fires the message to your art's caretakers.

The simplest way to do this is probably Google's Inactive Account Manager. If your Google account is inactive for a specified period, Google's systems will attempt to contact you several times (through several avenues). If you fail to respond, it will provide access to some or all of your files or accounts to one or more people of your choosing. If you don't store your files on Google Drive, you can still use this feature to provide access to documents with sensitive information -- though be careful with what you choose to store in plaintext. Some password managers also have this service. So do some paid services, but you need to be confident that they'll still be around if you aren't. 4 - Document your wishes. Finally, this is what your art's caretaker is actually responsible for. Make sure your instructions are clear and feasible. You want it to be extremely obvious where your works are kept and what you want done with them. Consider: Should some or all of your drafts be made public? Which ones? Where would they be published? Do you want to offer certain collaborators or publishers the chance to finish and distribute some works? If so, how will rights (& revenue) be divided? Is there any community you want to be informed of your passing, local or online? Would that include a message from you? You may also have business concerns related to active Kickstarters or distribution. The approach to handling this will depend on your region and business structure. If you read all of this and thought: This is too much work, nobody would care, and we've gone beyond the scope of my concerns or interest. Well, perfect. You've learned something. If there's no business stuff involved that would frazzle your loved ones, then it's okay to let your art die too. Maybe its job was to make you smile, or think, or learn something. Maybe it existed to bring a little bit of joy to a small group of people in a strange and scary world. Maybe that's all any of us exist to do, really.

I wrote an article about how to manage your art in the event of your death, for tabletop RPG designers. Sharing here as screenshots with alt text.

Or, follow the link below:

www.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/...

I’ve read a LOT of crowdfunding threads full of helpful tips, but this is the first I’ve seen that really speaks to the *emotional drain* of running a crowdfund. I’ll be keeping these stress-management tips in mind for the next one!

Folks in the center of the Venn diagram where one circle is "I'm not really big into pro wrestling" and another circle is "But I can see how it would be fun to play with bigger-than-life personalities and over-the-top drama" and the third is "I'm a fan of clever #ttrpg design," let's chat!