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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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,

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

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

Changes to the technology underlying this site

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

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.

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

Six new adventures for Starguild: Space Opera Noir.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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?

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