Open Hearth Gaming Community

We can’t let the market decide what we remember and forget Emily Friedman and Evan Torner on why gaming histories matter.

On Rascal today, Emily Friedman and Evan Torner talk about the fragility of digital spaces, the danger of letting the market decide who gets remembered, and how history was always more diverse than we might think.

Valkyrie Profile

I watch myself GM a LOT and it never stops hurting my feelings how varied NPC voices sound in my head but then when I'm talking they all just sound exactly like me.

Awesome! So glad you dug that set up. Dread's an amazing game to actually get to the table.

It’s astonishing to me that establishment Dems are still out here six months later saying “if we just throw trans people under the bus, MAGA will be satisfied,” and MAGA have already moved on to concentration camps and ending gay marriage and all but forgotten about trans people.

I recently inherited an old 1981 card game called Dragonmaster that features superb art by Bob Pepper (1938-2019). High quality scans of the deck below.

Not sci-fi but seems like an artist @70sscifiart.bsky.social might know more about?

#dragonmaster #cardgame #bobpepper

screenshot from the RRD discord of a message I posted today. It reads: "Grant Howitt — 2:26 PM Hey there - sorry about the delay in response. I wrote this game so long ago I cannot remember my motivations behind doing so and the rules you describe seem alien to me. I suggest you follow your heart and choose whatever option feels right to you."

instituting a statute of limitations on rules queries in the Discord

Hugh Laurie, Matthew Macfadyen, Riz Amed, Michelle Gomez and Cush Jumbo have all announced that every single trans life is worth less than a paycheck.

Draw Steel sets new standards for alt text in their books A deep dive into what an Art Description is, how it works, and who it’s for, including an interview with alt text writer, Jen Kretchmer.

Draw Steel's art description guide isn't just a new approach to alt-text. It synthesizes museum-tested accessibility with an eye towards poetry and metaphor.

Lin spoke with @dreamwisp.bsky.social about MCDM's mission-in-progress and creating "more visceral and tactile" descriptions.

@catrambo.bsky.social really striking diy with what looks to be a Breyer horse

www.tumblr.com/goldeneyesbl...

Around the Hearth | Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History: Ep. 3 Underground This time Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History jumps forward in time to the mid-1990s. Hosts Jay Brown and Lowell Francis look at Underground (1993), Mayfair's attempt to build on the DC Heroes sy...

Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History: Ep. 3 Underground
@madjay.bsky.social & Lowell look at Underground (1993), Mayfair's reworking of DC Heroes w/ a dystopian, cyberpunk supers world.

Content warning: cannibalism, PTSD, transphobia, regressive treatment of disabilities & mental illness.
#ttrpg

LORD OF LIGHT (Thomas Lee, 1981)

Astronauts from Earth use technology to turn themselves into gods in order to subjugate the hostile natives of a planet they intend to colonize.
Designed by Jack Kirby and based on a novel by Roger Zelazny.

There has never been a better time to draft language for an amendment to the Constitution for the complete public funding of campaigns, with the campaign premised on the promise that no one will ever be asked to donate another penny to a politician ever again

Picked this deck box up from @ultimateguard.bsky.social and I was so excited until I flipped it over. Looks like my art was extended with ai.

@magic.wizards.com needs to make sure their partners don’t do this.

I would have happily extended this for a couple hundred $$. Instead it looks awful!

What an amazing all-star design team.

If you’re in usamerica: now’s the time to sign up for PBS Passport! Support public tv and get a bunch of shows and entertainment!

It starts at $5 a month (you can pick how much you want to donate) and many employers will match your monthly donation!

Find your station here: www.pbs.org/stations/

I wish I could schedule this to repost every day. leavesubstack.com

my fave posters, i love them so much!

Was very lucky to do a cover for a reprint of GODS OF JADE AND SHADOW by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Arcadia Books 💚

TTRPG designers challenge: Enjoy Media Without Getting Another Game Idea

The @dianajonesaward.org gave its 2025 award to two of its nominees for the first time in the award’s history.

To the climate change themed board game Daybreak and to Endless Quest author and former TSR employee Rose Estes.

YouTube video by Gnome Anne TTRPG Panel: Play-to-lose games & Doomed heroes

DOOMED, our panel on play-to-lose TTRPG and doomed heroes, is live on YouTube! Go leave a nice comment!

ft
💔@dare2dreamrpg.bsky.social
💔@kiennas.bsky.social
💔@carrion-comfort.com
💔@jellymuppet.bsky.social

Produced by @samsighs.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8yg...

a man with long hair holds a sword in his right hand ALT: a man with long hair holds a sword in his right hand

you know what UB set i want? The Untamed. Unbelievably gay Chinese supernatural martial arts drama that i've now watched through 4 times completely

Absolutely this.

Daimajin

Around the Hearth | Fireside Chat with Agatha: Ep 1 Lowell Francis In the inaugural episode of Fireside Chat with Agatha, Agatha is joined by Lowell Francis, Community Manager for the Open Hearth and designer of Hearts of Wulin, to talk game design. Listen as Agat...

Fireside Chat with Agatha: Ep 1 Lowell Francis

In the inaugural episode of Fireside Chat with Agatha, Agatha Cheng (Asians Represent, Deadly Society) is joined by Lowell Francis, Community Manager for the Open Hearth and designer of Hearts of Wulin, to talk game design.
#ttrpg

A blue box to the left with four sillhouette-style humans, each notably wearing wizard-like robes from the Harry Potter universe. The box says Codenames and Back to Hogwarts on it, with Harry Potter in golden letters at the bottom. To the right, a cartoon astronaut head in a Harry Potter scarf winks, a variation of the logo of board game publisher Czech Games Edition.

Reviewers including No Pun Included and Shut Up & Sit Down are boycotting Codenames publisher CGE for releasing a new Harry Potter-themed game while ignoring JK Rowling’s anti-trans rhetoric:

boardgamewire.com/index.php/20...

I've got a new article on cover homages & references, looking at the AD&D adventure modules, with highlights including Ravenloft, Tsojcanth, and ToEE.

www.designers-and-dragons.com/2025/07/28/h...

Painting of man standing about to say a brave truth (the meme)

Dragon Age: Veilguard is a really good game, and people saying it broke/ignored all the existing lore don't fully understand the lore

Some others just wanna be mad because it's more queer and less white than any game previous has dared to be 😌

Screenshot of Cge games post that they've pinned saying "why we created new licensed version of codenames" in relation to their announcements to have a Harry Potter themed codenames game with their moeny going to a know attacker of trans people

@czechgames.com

Love how they don't even mention the actual issue, the fact that they are partnering with a terf who has actively said every penny she receives tells her that she is in the right.

Working with this person actively harms women, trans or not and your cowardice is showing