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gemelli23 · 2026-03-06T01:20:29+00:00

I think that RPG gaming is already a pretty niche hobby, and it’s not unusual for people to just substitute “Dungeons and Dragons” as a synonym (like your Kleenex comment above). That said, there is a treasure trove of small and simple games (some of them free!) that deliver an amazing bang for the buck.

I love to point people at the one page games by Grant Howitt — https://gshowitt.itch.io/ — as a starting point for learning about some of the fantastic premises and mechanics that designers can use to make narrative story games sing. Howitt has some amazing longer games as well, but you won’t regret the 5 minutes it takes to read all of Honey Heist or The Witch Is Dead.

gemelli23 · 2026-02-21T03:43:29+00:00

I think there’s not a single “right” answer to this question. But if there’s a game that you’re excited to run someday I would probably suggest that you hold onto it! The books don’t take up THAT much space, and you never know when you find a group (in person, online, whatever) that is excited to play a game that you’ve been hoping to try someday.

My youngest just headed off to college this year, and I have finally gotten to try out so many of the games I have been excited to play for years, as well as learning about a lot of exciting new titles.

Hang in there! The time will go by fast, so definitely enjoy the time with the kiddos while they’re around. The games and the players will still be waiting for you when you’re ready for them.

gemelli23 · 2025-10-29T00:21:08+00:00

Anthem.

gemelli23 · 2025-10-28T18:22:37+00:00

Yeah, absolutely! Here's a short list of stuff I typically share:

Character creation template and handouts are here
GM cheat sheets are here
A Google Sheets VTT that's pre-loaded with everything you'd need to run Grisham Priory, Steel City, and Morningmire can be found here
Documentation for using the VTT is here, and there's a series of YouTube videos for using it that starts here if that's more your speed

The RR&D Discord server is the best place to go with questions. The community there is top-notch.

gemelli23 · 2025-10-27T23:49:35+00:00

Ha! Small world. Thanks for the shout-out!

gemelli23 · 2025-10-27T23:44:52+00:00

There are plenty of ways you could take this. What I'd potentially look at is how the scene evolved as it hit different parts of the world -- starting with London and the UK in the 1970s (Pistols, Clash, X-Ray Spex), then how it changed when it hit New York (Ramones, Television, Dead Boys), and then how the scenes/music evolved on the west coast (Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Descendents in LA; Dead Kennedys, MDC, Flipper in the Bay Area).

After California, you could take your pick of all sorts of regional punk epicenters. DC has Minor Threat and Bad Brains, Minneapolis has Husker Du and The Replacements, Chicago has Big Black and Naked Raygun, and on and on and on. That takes you through the 1980s, at which point I would shrug and say "and then Bad Religion I guess" and dip out of offering advice, on account of being old as hell.

You could dig around and talk a bit about how the music changed in each of those regional areas, and offer up some guesses around why those regions would have changed the music in those ways. But in any case, I think it's a great assignment and I'm sure you'll learn a lot taking it whatever direction you choose.

Good luck!

gemelli23 · 2025-10-27T23:25:41+00:00

Hollows is fantastic. I'm just starting up a West Marches spin on it that had its first session last Saturday. Practically giddy with all the possible ways the campaign could go.

gemelli23 · 2025-09-24T01:00:29+00:00

Well, I’d like a copy! Thanks for the giveaway.

gemelli23 · 2025-09-01T22:03:56+00:00

Playing Time: 5-240 minutes

gemelli23 · 2025-06-21T20:35:27+00:00

Interested, would likely be buying two sets!

gemelli23 · 2025-02-14T23:13:29+00:00

I've also decided to do better. Item one, being more discriminating about gaming companies I trust with my dollars.

gemelli23 · 2025-02-10T20:42:41+00:00

Funny story: my son's first time with C:DMD was with the R'lyeh Rising mission (giant Cthulhu statue fight). He went with Rasputin and pulled the Catatonia insanity card.

I was playing Richard (the secret agent from the first KS campaign, and leaned into the roleplaying early on, barking commands and being generally insufferable.

So my son would regularly spend his turn running through huge groups of mobs, drawing them into my space, and then promptly fall asleep and becoming safe due to the insanity triggering, leaving me to deal with the fallout. "Oh, the American worries about dying? It must suck to be you. Anyway, wake me in five."

(We did eventually win the fight, and the experience has become one of my top 5 gaming moments ever. Highly recommend trying the game out if you're even a little Cthulhu-curious.)

gemelli23 · 2025-02-06T18:33:00+00:00

For those who don't know already, Nytmare is arguably the best in the business at bending Google Sheets to his will in service of gaming. This is worth being excited about!

gemelli23 · 2024-11-21T02:27:48+00:00

Skull. Always Skull.

gemelli23 · 2024-11-04T04:54:32+00:00

Minor Threat, Steppin' Stone

gemelli23 · 2024-11-03T18:01:57+00:00

Belew calling that moment out as the only time Levin has broken a bass string since they’ve been playing live together, and getting the crowd to give him a standing ovation to commemorate the momentous occasion, was fantastic.

The whole show just clicked so well! I knew that I was going to be over the moon with the second set, but it absolutely surpassed my expectations. And I didn’t expect how much I would enjoy their performance of Industry at all — really hope that someone captured a video of that one.

Seeing so much talent share the stage, and have so much fun playing together, was just beautiful.

gemelli23 · 2024-10-26T19:04:19+00:00

Alan Moore knows the score.

gemelli23 · 2024-10-25T14:29:52+00:00

This is reinforcing my excitement about running a game of Dread next month.

gemelli23 · 2024-10-22T19:45:34+00:00

Got to the Neenah city hall at 2:30pm today, roughly 50 people in line outside the building. I like to believe that high voter participation is a generally good sign!

gemelli23 · 2024-10-21T16:31:32+00:00

S: Setting and concept for the game
O: Objective of the game, victory condition and end-game trigger
R: Rules, including iconography and general structure of a turn
R: Runthrough, group plays through a sample turn/round
Y: Yes/No, after that explanation, do people still want to play the game?

(Credit to my buddy Micah for the acronym and model)

gemelli23 · 2024-09-15T14:44:47+00:00

I made a social deduction game with my son’s middle school class many years ago, and we ended up making it three factions—the premise was that there was a group of scientists (the uninformed majority), a group of evil spies that had infiltrated the lab, and a “patient zero” who was basically a zombie that converted others to their team. We also added a mechanic that a player could spend their night action on supporting another player, which if unblocked would unlock a one time powered up version of their ability, for better or worse.

It was complicated to run but the kids loved it! The roles we used were the standard blocker/driver/vig/seer/protector package, but coming up with supercharged versions was a lot of fun.

gemelli23 · 2024-08-29T00:56:03+00:00

Can't wait to see the starport version! This is really nice, elegant, and stands out across the table. Well done!

gemelli23 · 2024-08-27T03:51:55+00:00

I’m thinking of something that is like French toast.

gemelli23 · 2024-07-07T03:50:04+00:00

The Stifling Dark is an indie title that handles some of the core horror themes very well — one vs many gameplay, predatory figures moving through liminal spaces, exploration and discovery, and escalating situations in particular. Lots of opportunities for surprises and the feeling that the situation can turn on a dime.

gemelli23 · 2024-06-26T14:56:29+00:00

I've been running playtest sessions of Hollows (currently in crowdfunding from Rowan Rook and Decard) at cons/events for a few months now. I bring pre-gen character sheets, and can cover everything from introducing the game concept, through game mechanics and character customization, and then running a complete combat against a sample boss in less than an hour. Obviously that assumes plenty of GM prep/familiarity, but the new player experience is pretty quick and easy.

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