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But PDF and print copies of my games from a combination of DriveThruRpg, Indie Press Revolution, itchio, and on this site.
Alex White
Blog Expect-three-visitors

Expect Three Visitors - playtest

My latest game is inspired by Scrooge and It’s a wonderful life. A story game of the possibility of redemption, no matter how bad someone is.

Alex White Alex White 12 min read
Blog Born-to-the-purple

Born to the Purple - Design 03

Although the diplomats are agents of their government, it isn’t just the ruling body who call the shots. Who are the other power brokers within each regime?

Alex White Alex White 3 min read
Blog Born-to-the-purple

Born to the Purple - Design 02

What kind of currency do I want in a game? Do I want people worrying about credit balance, or… something else?

Alex White Alex White 3 min read
Blog Born-to-the-purple

Born to the Purple - Design 01

I’m working on a Forged in the Dark (FitD) science fiction game, with a working title of “Born to the Purple”. This is a short discussion of aspects and facts.

Alex White Alex White 6 min read
Blog

Cards as Randomisers

A deck of playing cards provides a wonderful set of randomisers in one convenient package.

Alex White Alex White 4 min read
Blog

2021 Retrospective

Looking back at the ups and downs of 2021 for Plane Sailing Games

Alex White Alex White 8 min read
Blog Inner-circle

Inner Circle - Playtest

I’m opening up the first playtest for Inner Circle. Please join me!

Alex White Alex White 1 min read
Reviews

Review - The Between RPG

A deeply atmospheric game of people with dark secrets hunting monsters in Victorian London.

Alex White Alex White 6 min read
Reviews

Review - iA Writer

My current choice of writing tool is iA Writer. This is why.

Alex White Alex White 5 min read
Blog Inner-circle

Blog - Inner Circle Mechanics

What did I want to achieve? I had two things in mind for Inner Circle a push your luck bidding game Some light guidance/prompts for story elements to include in plans

Alex White Alex White 4 min read
Blog Inner-circle

Blog - Inner Circle Concept

I’m in the process of working on and playtesting my next game, which is called Inner Circle. It is a lightweight black comedy story game about terrible people working for a terrible dictator.

Alex White Alex White 2 min read
Reviews

Review - Jump the Shark RPG

Do you remember Happy Days, with Fonzie, Richie Cunningham and all their pals in a nostalgic situation comedy back in the 1970’s? It was fun, exciting and spawned a whole generation of people

Alex White Alex White 6 min read
Kickstarter

Kickstarter Results Review

At the time of writing I’ve done three kickstarters, and all of them have been successful. I think it might be interesting to do a quick review of how each of them have

Alex White Alex White 6 min read
Reviews

Review - One Page Howitt

During the last year of COVID I’ve had the great delight of enjoying some regular Sunday night games with friends from America. We’ve played a wide range of one-shot games and playtests. Today

Alex White Alex White 6 min read
Blog Barbed-wire

Love & Barbed Wire Playtesting

Playtesting of Love and Barbed Wire has produced some lovely stories. Here are some of the letters which people have created as a result of their playtest games

Alex White Alex White 16 min read
Starguild Blog

Adventures in the Underbelly Update

Things have been very quiet on the front of my first supplement to Starguild: Space Opera Noir. You can see a number of blog posts about work on these rules dating from 2017

Alex White Alex White 4 min read
Blog

Blog - Mysteries in RPGs

I love mysteries - mystery stories, mystery movies and especially mysteries in RPGs.

Alex White Alex White 8 min read
Reviews

Review - Affinity Publisher

Move over indesign, there is a new kid on the block and Affinity Publisher is better for game designers than you!

Alex White Alex White 5 min read
Reviews

Review - The Kraken Wakes

John Wyndham was a master of writing dystopia science fiction from the point of view of ordinary people. I think this is one of his finest, with elements which are directly applicable to

Alex White Alex White 3 min read
Lonely-courage

Lonely Courage Actual Play

I was hugely priviledged to have a number of groups of people record playtest sessions, and agree to have them made available for people to listen to.

Alex White Alex White 2 min read
Reviews Barbed-wire

Review - Love Letters of the Great War

In these days of instant messaging, WhatsApp and texts, the pleasure of writing and receiving letters is perhaps in danger of being forgotten.

Alex White Alex White 3 min read
Blog Barbed-wire

Love & Barbed Wire

My next game project that I am working on is set further back in time, during the first world war - the Great War. The quotes in this blog are from real letters

Alex White Alex White 5 min read
Reviews

Review - Blades in the Dark

Why I think Blades in the Dark is an important new design in tabletop RPG’s

Alex White Alex White 11 min read
Blog

Blog - Retro Rulemaking

It turns out that I’ve been interested in game design since my very earliest days as a gamer. Back in 1975 I read a review of Dungeons & Dragons, couldn’t afford a copy,

Alex White Alex White 3 min read
Reviews

Review - Metatopia 2019

Metatopia 2019 Report Metatopia is the game design festival run by Double Exposure. I was able to visit Metatopia again this year, with a different game in a different state of development. It

Alex White Alex White 24 min read
Reviews

Review - Fate Core

Description and mechanics brought together beautifully through the rules for ‘Aspects’

Alex White Alex White 6 min read
Blog

Evolution of a website

Changes to the technology underlying this site

Alex White Alex White 6 min read
Reviews

Review - Timewatch RPG

Time travel as an RPG genre is one with infinite possibilities, but really hard to do right. For my money, Timewatch is the best example out there today, and I’m going to tell

Alex White Alex White 4 min read
Games Lonely-courage

A Cool and Lonely Courage

This is an ENNIE-nominated tragic role playing story game about the women of the SOE (Special Operations Executive) during world war 2, for two to five players.

Alex White Alex White 1 min read
Kickstarter

Kickstarter - Planning Funding v2.0

I’m working out the funding for a kickstarter again, and once more it is proving complex to get a really clear view on what the target goal should be. I’ve found it necessary

Alex White Alex White 3 min read
Lonely-courage

Lonely Courage Playtesting

I don’t think that any game designers underrate the value of playtesting. I want to tell you some of the improvements that I’ve been able to make to Lonely Courage as a result

Alex White Alex White 8 min read
Games

Our Last Best Hope - Lovecraft Style

Have you ever wanted to save the world from monstrous Cthulhu style threats from the lovecraftian mythos, in a one-shot game that follows classic disaster movie tropes? Then read on!

Alex White Alex White 5 min read
Reviews Lonely-courage

Book Review - Between Silk and Cyanide, a code makers war

Leo Marks was the principal code-maker for the SOE during the war. This book which is filled with wry humour and bureaucratic frustration covers his war from 1942-45. He was considered the “one

Alex White Alex White 6 min read
Reviews Lonely-courage

Book Review - Lonely Courage by Rick Stroud

This is the true stories of seven of the SOE heroines who fought to free Nazi-occupied France. The author has taken a chronological view of events from the rise of Hitler in 1933

Alex White Alex White 3 min read
Games Innsmouth

Innsmouth Summer Camp

This is information for a hack of Grey Ranks. It allows you to tell lovecraftian stories of horror and love for teenagers in Innsmouth, the spooky fishing town which has a rather too

Alex White Alex White 20 min read
Lonely-courage

Stories of Lonely Courage

Here are some stories from people who have played the game. The first one is based on the kitchen table recording which can be downloaded on this site. The following ones were told

Alex White Alex White 38 min read
Reviews

Metatopia 2018

What does a tiny game design company do in order to get high quality feedback on a new game they are developing? Why, go to Metatopia of course!

Alex White Alex White 14 min read
Reviews Innsmouth

Grey Ranks - Review

I had always wanted to try a ‘story game’, but was afraid to try. I didn’t think I’d have the creative wits to be any good at it, let alone enjoy it. So

Alex White Alex White 4 min read
Games Starguild

Adventures in the Underbelly

Adventures which focus on the dark places, where evil people work on forbidden science. In this case that is Cybernetics and Psionics

Alex White Alex White 1 min read
Games Starguild

Gateway to Adventure

Six new adventures for Starguild: Space Opera Noir.

Alex White Alex White 1 min read
Reviews

Ten Candles

I have come to understand that some of the very best games have mechanics which support the theme of the game in some way. For me the outstanding example of this is Ten

Alex White Alex White 3 min read
Reviews

Book Review - 1984

So I decided to re-read 1984. I first read it about thirty years ago as a teenager, and I remember it being dreary and with a bit of horror at the end. Reading

Alex White Alex White 2 min read
Games Starguild

Starguild: Space Opera Noir

In space, nobody can hear you scheme… Space Opera style science fiction, with a noir twist!

Alex White Alex White 1 min read
Starguild Blog

Underbelly Setting Dials

What kind of power level do you want cybernetics and psionics to have in your Starguild game? Whether you like rare and dangerous or powers that wouldn’t look out of place in a

Alex White Alex White 2 min read
Starguild Blog

What do psionic powers look like?

Psychic powers cover a wide range of science fiction mental powers. They are broadly divided into six disciplines, each of which have a number of talents which can be gained within them.

Alex White Alex White 3 min read
Starguild Blog

What Do Cybernetics Look Like?

Cybernetics are man-machine interfaces of one kind or another. Characters and opponents can use money to build in additional capabilities of one kind or another, but at a cost – every bit of

Alex White Alex White 1 min read
Starguild Blog

Starguild Core Game Design

In this page I describe the fundamentals of the Starguild game - backgrounds, ability scores, skills, saves and Non-Player Characters

Alex White Alex White 24 min read
Starguild Blog

Influences on Starguild

When setting out to write an RPG, it is useful to consider all the influences which you have had along the way. Starguild was a long time in the making, and these are

Alex White Alex White 9 min read
Starguild Blog

Professional Art on the pages

As a result of the successful kickstarter, art is coming in from the three main artists that I have commissioned. These page excerpts show their work and my goodness I’m pleased with the

Alex White Alex White 1 min read
Kickstarter

Kickstarter 6 - The print proof

I want to be able to underline the fact that the game is done apart from additional artwork, and there seems to be no better way of doing that than being able to

Alex White Alex White 2 min read
Kickstarter

Kickstarter 5 - Making the video

Planning and preparing the kickstarter video is somewhat less straightforward than I might have hoped…

Alex White Alex White 4 min read
Kickstarter

Kickstarter 4 – The Shipping Forecast

If you live in the U.K. You are probably aware of the shipping forecast. It is an institution beloved of many in this island nation, because it reflects our relationship with the sea.

Alex White Alex White 4 min read
Kickstarter

Kickstarter 3 – How many words on the back cover?

How much text should you put on the back cover of a book? Well, I guess the first question to ask is “What is it there to do?” Actually, that might be the

Alex White Alex White 9 min read
Kickstarter

Kickstarter 2 - What proportion of each pledge counts towards your goal?

This is the second of my short blog posts about my path towards kickstarting Starguild. How much money do you need to raise, and what should you set your kickstarter target at?

Alex White Alex White 1 min read
Kickstarter

Kickstarter 1 - So you're planning a kickstarter

This is the first of a series of short blog articles about my kickstarter planning process. I hope you might find them useful or thought provoking

Alex White Alex White 2 min read
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