Judd Karlman (he/him)

Me: Vincent, are you a vampire now? Are you here to suck my blood and end my life?

Vincent: *shrug* Maybe, no, y'know....

Me: Hm.

Alternate Scene

Me: Meguey, are you a...

Meguey: Judd, I know this might seem scary but invite me here and hear me out about this vampire-thing.

Me: Okay.

Mythic Bastionland: Once upon a time there was a Key Knight…

This is the story of how she changed as the Realm changed.

Mazel tov!

🤘

5 Lessons from 5 Years I. Dear Reader Thank you to Logan Timmins for making this and sending it to me! It’s officially been 5 years of writing the Indie RPG Newsletter. I started in August 2020 (which maybe makes t…

✨ The Indie RPG Newsletter celebrates 5 years this month. I started in August 2020 trying to build a habit of regularly writing every week. And now we're here: 250 issues, 7000 subscribers, thousands of games and articles shared.

👀

Monday Musings #112 🤬 Musings on My Indolence.

Monday Musings #112 🤬
Check out my new post, musings on Indolence, and Sunday Morning Knights!
Good Monday, Gamers! open.substack.com/pub/playfear...

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.

I'd be stoked if you checked out my newest adventure! It's got quite a bit going on, lots to run for your group, professionally edited, clean layout.

Mythic Bastionland: Once upon a time there was a Key Knight…

This is the story of how she changed as the Realm changed.

YouTube video by Skies of Fortune The State of the Indie TTRPG Scene - Round the Table

I appeared on a podcast and said some words about indie TTRPGs.

My point: We barely know what's out there, and our era is filled with so many innovative games, all more-or-less owned by their creators.

youtu.be/ijNZZsOulZM?...

A plain page with dense and clean text along side a simple hex map with vibrant green and blue colors

A page with bold yellow orange and black coloring where heavy blackletter contrasts against simple text

A cover depicting a hippo in a spiked pith helm in front of a massive explosion with curvy psychedelic text reading "Bombast!" The collage has been rendered in black and white with a splash of color behind it

black letter text reading "HAHA! I'm using logistics!" in front of a edited piece of public domain art of a knight on a horse to turn it into a dithered/engraved look

A mockup of a trifold pamphlet with a bold yellow black and red cover with an industrial look about it.

A spread displaying a piece timeline of events as well as descriptions of locations formatted to look like posts on a social media site.

A incredibly dingy looking map and key, it looks as if it was scapbooked together with typewriter texts and torn paper

A bombastic page showing bright red distorted hexagons and text describing locations

Hey btw you can hire me to do layout on magazines and rpgs. Here is just a small collection of my works. More examples in the thread to come.

When people ask "How do you design a larp?" -- I have 3 responses:

--Get together a group of adults to play costumed "Let's pretend" and let me know how it goes.

--Peruse @goldencobra.bsky.social contest submissions. Now write your own.

--Read our free textbook!

trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024...

Library Student, Year 2175:

"Why was there a zine category called Tim Hutchin's Nonsense?"

"Listen, I can tell you the answer but before I do, just know that it is not racist. We can't say that for many similar questions concerning the Dewey Decimal System and the Library of Congress..."

Going to have to figure out what to do to fill the Sunday morning slot that we've been playing Mythic Bastionland in b/c I adore waking up early and gaming at that time.

I thought it would wipe me out but I feel energized for the rest of the day and get to bed at a decent hour. Mondays are easier.

DUST knight, not Snare Knight.

I got my games all mixed up because the Dust knight has a net that fish willingly swim into.

Sorry, @madjay.bsky.social

As the TTRPG media sphere contracts, we're expanding -- Rascal is hiring a news writer!

We're running a short 2 week pledge drive, offering a 6 month, 25% discount, celebrating our Diana Jones Award... nomination... in order to support this new hire.

Mythic Bastionland Trilogy with Jay, Judd and Thomas - YouTube In which Madjay from Play Fearless, Judd from Githyanki Diaspora and Thomas from the Indie RPG Newsletter get together on 3 Sunday mornings to play Mythic Ba...

And of course it will be added to the youtube playlist:

www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

3/2

Twitch Twitch is the world

We'll be on the Actual Play twitch channel this Sunday morning, 8am EST...

www.twitch.tv/actualplay

2/2

PIC: Wooden panels with carved knights on the sides. A headless and armless wooden knight in the middle. TEXT: Mythic Bastionland 3 sessions HEX with the words: Protect the weak Seek out myths Honor the seers twitch.com/ActualPlay Sundays, 8-10am EST July 20th, 27th and August 10th Thomas Manuel Indie RPG Newsletter and Rascal @newmadras.bsky.social MadJay Play Fearless @madjay.bsky.social Judd Githyanki Diaspora @juddthelibrarian.bsky.social "Knight Ponders the City (headless/armless) and accompanying panels," from The Bastion Free Library's Mythic Era Collection. Used here with library's permission

Looking forward to playing part 3 of 3 w/ @newmadras.bsky.social and @madjay.bsky.social this Sunday morning.

"Once upon a time the Key Knight, regent of the Southern Keep, and her loyal Snare Knight, and the loyal knight's steadfast squire, climbed the Mountain seeking the Peacock Knight..."

1/2

Rascal Subscriber Drive: History Week News blasts about the past.

Help us get the word out! In honor of losing the Diana Jones Award, we're running a discount on subscriptions — get 25% for six months! This coincides with History Week where we're publishing articles that come at the subject of RPG history from all angles and sides!

😈 Announcing Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists, a procedural narrative RPG by A Sharp @radiofreelunch.bsky.social and published by us!

▶ Wishlist the game now on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3794210/...

This was super fun to do! A little community-sourced piece that I got to mess around with. 😁

👀

The Sleeping King Wakes by karlyanders, Kaybee98 System neutral adventure one shot created for the Appendix N game jam.

30. The Sleeping King Wakes by @karlyanddd.bsky.social & @kayspixels.bsky.social

A system-neutral pointcrawl through the dreamscape garden of the titular King 😴

The map, art, & layout within are all gorgeously done in a fun, cartoony art style, and I very much enjoyed the sillier tone

Ink drawing. Small stone tower. Steps. Tree.

Cozy little wizard tower

The Grand Coven Library -- Solo RPG Zine A cozy solo rpg about cataloging magical books.

I'm a flesh and blood human gaming librarian. I'm not made of stone. There is only so far I can be pushed before I have to back certain types of games...

I just backed The Grand Coven Library -- Solo RPG Zine on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/sko...

Mythic Bastionland: tossing together a face to face game A friend was visiting this past week and so I suggested we grab some knights and play Mythic Bastionland.

Mythic Bastionland: tossing together a face to face game

A friend was visiting this past week and so I suggested we grab some knights and play Mythic Bastionland.

Girls of the Genziana Hotel (w/ Hendrik ten Napel) Yes Indie'd Pod · Episode

If you'd like to hear me say 'basically' about fifteen times while @newmadras.bsky.social asks me very thoughtful questions about my gothic horror mystery game, this is the episode for you 👌🏻

Graphic that reads: Bannerless Games Tabletop RPG Grant 10 grants at $200 apiece Applications open until August 31 bannerless.games/grants

Hello again, tabletop RPG designers! The second Bannerless Games Tabletop RPG Grant is now taking applications!

I'm looking to award up to 10 grants at $200 apiece.

Applications open until the end of the month. Apply here: bannerless.games/grants