Category: Game Design
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Design Diary #002: The Haunting of Dresden Manor
The last few weeks have been busy, between summer vacation and work and life! However, I finally found time this morning to sit down and work more on The Haunting of Dresden Manor. I’ve now completed a first draft of my expanded list of clues, evidence, threats, and spooks (I’m not calling them dangers any…
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Design Diary: The Haunting of Dresden Manor #001
I’ve started a playtest draft of my next project, a gothic mystery scenario called The Haunting of Dresden Manor. I’m excited by this project because I believe that it pushes the boundaries of mystery scenario design in TTRPGs, because it will simultaneously be: If you’ve ever tried to run a proper investgative mystery scenario, you’ll…
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Game Review: Dungeons & Kittens
(In case anyone is wondering, I received no compensation for this post. I just played this game, enjoyed it, and wanted to tell y’all about it!) Last weekend, one of the players in my regular 5e Vecna: Eve of Ruin campaign (heavily modded, of course) was missing. Since we’re near the climax of the story,…
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Mystery Advice from a Master: Raymond Chandler
To help get me in the mindset for my new project, a mystery scenario called The Haunting the Dresden Manor, I spent a few days this month with one of the masters of the genre: Raymond Chandler, and specifically The Annotated Big Sleep, edited by Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson, and my esteemed colleague Anthony Rizzuto.…
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Dundracon 2026 Review
Dundracon is a weird con for me, because I don’t know in advance which games I’ll get to play. At Dundracon, you don’t sign up for games in advance. Instead, you rank three games in which you want to play in each time block, and then the con randomly draws names by ranking until each…
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Light in the Wilderness: A Rustic Dark Fantasy Encounter
As you warm your hands over the dying embers of your campfire, you hear a crackling in the trees behind you. You turn, one hand going instinctively to the hilt of your dagger…