Ben Rosenbloom's Boring Machine

I've been continuing to mess around writing for Heart (in fact, you can read some more of my design work in the 70-page fanzine , recently published, which includes really fun writing from a plethora of others), so today I'm back with a review of Bloodthirsty , by E.R.F. Jordan! 

I don't imagine anyone will ever complain that I only read or write about the most fashionable or hot button topics of the contemporary moment. But I imagine it is still odd to be reviewing a book series that, to my eyes, has largely dropped out of the subcultural spotlight. Ah well. Such is my curse. The Terra Ignota series is in my mind once again for a couple of reasons - one, it was recommended to me very strongly by friends, and they continue to talk about it; two, I'm finally reading the Book of the New Sun, after having listened to Shelved by Genre's unit on those books (and they're cited as inspirational to Palmer, the author of Terra Ignota); and three, they keep coming up on a discord server I'm on, where most of the time, people are posting about how much they like them. I, unfortunately, did not like them. Even worse, I have not yet seen anyone online articulate exactly what it is that I did not like about them. Most of the online commentary I've see...

I'm working my way through more games of crowdfunds past. Today, I'm looking at Venture & Dungeon (which are  technically two different games, but bundled together).

I'm back to take a look at another game that's been sitting on my shelf for years and years! Today I'll be reading through World Champ Game Co.'s A Guide To Casting Phantoms In The Revolution .

Work on NEW BLOOD continues! While I'm thinking about designing for Heart, I've been wanting to read as much as I can. Today, I'm looking at a cool little supplement, a collection of a bunch of character options, including what are called "Extra Advances," which were in Spire but not Heart  (or the core book at least). It's called ARCANA, and it's by Eric Scott!

Welcome back to another archive delve! Well, kind of - the text I'm reading today is close to the top of my pile! After securing my personal pan pizza, I think I want to shake up the format a little bit, and mix in some recent releases with the older stuff, maybe meet in the middle kind of Memento-style. I might switch up the title scheme! But for now Archive Delve will be specifically for stuff I crowdfunded, and hopefully I'll publish some other reviews of other stuff I'm reading, just for fun.  Today, we're reading Inscrutable Cities , by Julian K. Jarboe, and published by Possum Creek Games! I'm a fan of PCG's other stuff, like  Wanderhome  and Yazeba's Bed and Breakfast (they have a bigger, cool catalogue, but those two are the standouts to me). Inscrutable  is obviously riffing off of Calvino's Invisible Cities , which I also  quite enjoy, so I have high hopes. Let's delve!

I've been plugging away at NEW BLOOD , my supplement for HEART: The City Beneath , and running some play-by-post games, and recently there was even a video review, so I think it's safe to say I'm a little heart pilled right now. Ah, sorry, I'm getting word that that's a different thing. Anyway, it's been a kind of busy month, actually, between updates. I've been really enjoying my time in Heart's system and setting! But I missed reading and writing about reading - so I thought I would take a look at some of the other stuff that's come out for Heart recently. Today, I'm taking a look through Misha Handman's Called to the Heart !

This past week featured some classic TTRPG discourse - notable not just for the eternal recurrence of topic, but that the leading luminary in the actual play/streaming space (Brennan Lee Mulligan) seemed to be wading in. I've largely stopped paying as much attention to this debate (in no small part because it's usually localized to Twitter, which I don't enjoy being on) but I do think it's fun to think, read, and talk about. I'm inching closer to writing the first part of that manifesto I've been threatening, and even if I recover my faculties and divert from that  particular madness, I think it would at least be fun to write something about it. At the very least, I think it would be fun to make my friends read it. Anyway, that's part of why I missed my usual window for a weekly delve, and why I think I'm reaching for something that advertises itself as philosophical. Today I'm reading Jesse Burneko's Dungeons & Dilemmas !

Another week, another archive delve! Today I'm taking a look at The Curse of the House of Rookwood  by Brian Bình and Michael Addison.

I'm nearing the end of the zines I'd highlighted for this first round of archive delving! Right now my plan is to finish up a few more, and then get to other blogging. Today, I'm reading Terror of the Stratosfiend #1 .

I'm back with another quick delve into the archive! More of a heroic jaunt, really. Today I'm reading through Our Queen Crumbles , by Jason Brown.

I'm back for another delve into the archive! I've been wrapped up with writing for NEW BLOOD and Daybreak on the Battlefield, as well as scheduling playtests, which has been eating up my ttrpg energy. But I've saved up enough to do a quick little read-through of Moonsailors , an offering from ZineQuest 2.

My weekly cycle was broken by illness, but I'm back at it again! This week I'm reading Barrow Keep: Den of Spies , an OSR-ish module from 2020. I read this a while back, but bounced off of it - in the intervening years, I've read, listened to, and played a lot more games and modules, including in the OSR vein, so I want to see if I can make better progress. Plus, it's got a Bathtub Review , which I put off reading because I didn't want it to influence my own, and I want to finally get to read it (Nova's reviews are fun and insightful, and one of the blogs that inspired me to start my own).

This time, I'm taking a look at Salt in Wounds , which is very nearly the first tabletop related thing I ever crowdfunded. I'm gearing up to run a fantasy module which is entirely different and not at all related, but it got me in the mood to read some more fantasy stuff. I tried breaking my once-a-week pattern, but it wound up being way too long. Skip to the end if you want just the tl;dr review.

In light of upcoming ZineQuest '24, I thought it would be fun to dig through some of my more zine-like treasures. So up today is Mouth Brood , from Amanda Lee Franck and Games Omnivorous. I splurged for the physical copy of this little module for reasons I don't quite remember, although it probably has to do with the Annihilation -esque vibe it gives off, and the delightful illustration of fungi on the cover. Technically outside of my goal of going through my crowdfunding pile, but it's too cool to pass up. Let's delve!

Time for a little more archival work! Today I'll be reading through Winter Harvest ! It's been awfully cold this past week, and I've been thinking about wintertime, and this is another game from some of my earlier kickstarter purchases. This is one I do  remember reading through - but I don't remember any content! The blurb puts me in mind of what I think of as a spate of cozy games, coinciding with and following Wanderhome's emergence onto the scene (even though I think Wanderhome doesn't neatly fit "cozy", or is doing something different with coziness). But that's a different game for a different time! Let's get feasting.

Perhaps you, like I, have backed a tabletop RPG or other product on any of the variety of crowdfunding websites. Or maybe you've bought one of the intimidatingly large bundles of games for a good cause. It's possible you've heard a cool game featured on an actual play podcast or stream or video series, and wanted to pick it up. And of course, you try to follow the trends and check out interesting new releases. Well, I don't know about you - but if you are  in such a position, having bought many more games than you've read (and read many more games than you've played), you might find yourself considering, like I have, what to do with such a vast treasure. Richard Kelly has provided me with one possible answer - save the world. Or at least, a library. Heroic Archivist is a game in which you accrue points by reading through your backlog of games, and potentially earn more points by rating and reviewing. These points can then be spent in a little dice battle again...

Several months ago, I watched Art, Agency, Alienation , a lengthy video essay with a lofty goal to tackle some persistent questions about games. Without ballooning into my own 3 hour long video, I thought to myself "you know, I like reading ttrpgs! I like writing about them! I think I have something interesting to say about game design!" Thus this blog. I got several drafts deep, exploring a handful of directions, but ultimately I'd seen a lot of the thoughts I'd had about Art, Agency, Alienation  enunciated very clearly and also much more succinctly than I'm capable of. The thing that I haven't seen yet is people talking about Root (: The RPG). This started as a review - "semi-motivated" by the comments Huntsman makes in their video essay, but mostly just because I'm genuinely interested in what makes a PbtA game tick.