The Idle Digest #1

Idle Cartulary's Digest for November 2024

My friends Prismatic Wasteland, and Clayton Noteskine just started newsletters, and I quite like the format. There’s a few things I wanted to achieve if I were to start a newsletter: There’s a lot of people I don’t reach with my blog, Playful Void, which is where I post most often, because who visits websites regularly? There are a lot of projects I’m excited about, that I’m not reviewing, because they’re not out yet, or are funding soon or just being talked about, and I’d love to share my excitement about them. And finally, there are a lot of other people writing awesome and interesting things out there, and I want to share them!

The Idle Digest is meant to fill these gaps, once per month. It will be pretty simple: In Lonely Play, I’ll summarise what I’ve done this month, give you a glimpse into planned posts in the next month and talk about things I’m currently working on. In Pickpocketing I’ll pick a few items of other people’s writing that I’m excited about right now, whether they’re new and have gotten my brain ticking, or that I’ve found from the distant past anew. And in Gamespotting, I’ll point out any new things that are on my radar in terms of new releases, or current crowdfunding.

Nothing in here will be sponsored, I’ll just talk about stuff I’m excited about.

Lonely Play

In November, on Playful Void, I wrote about:

• I considered hyperdiegesis in modules and TTRPGs. Hyperdiegesis is the stuff in a creative work that is unexplained but implies a larger setting; I wrote about how I love it in TTRPGs, but the problems that accompany it, and how we can overcome those problems both as authors, players, and referees.

• In Artisanal Magical Items for Luddite Referees, wrote about ways to make magical items feel less post-industrial revolution, without making them one-off world-breaking artifacts.

• I wrote about what I think OSR games are, and came to the conclusion that it’s not one thing, but featuring a significant number of features from three different clusters: Rules, Playstyles and Community.

• I read the Dungeon Master’s Guide (2024), and found it wanting, pitched at new Dungeon Masters in terms of content, but in terms of theme pitched at people old enough to remember the animated series and ignoring the new audience that came with Baldur’s Gate and Honor Among Themes, and leaning squarely in the disappointing direction of scripted, railroaded play. This potentially finishes my series on the new releases in Pathfinder (Player Core and GM Core) and official D&D (PHB 2024)

• I wrote four Bathtub Reviews, and this month they were all bangers:

  • Crown of Salt: In this Mork Borg module, you travel into the depths of a dark fairytale setting, and delve into a dungeon while pursued by a monster that you may wish to subdue. One-woman-band Tania Herrera brings the thunder in her first full-length, fully illustrated module, to impressive effect.

  • Whiskers in the Wind: In this Mausritter module, you’ll explore a fable-like forest, with gorgeous art and maps. I am excited to add this to my ongoing Mausritter campaign featuring my 4 and 6 year old girls.

  • Dead Weight: In this Mothership module, you’re trapped on a cargo ship that’s slowly tearing itself apart. Can you discover the cause and end the threat, or will you be sucked into the void of space when your hull is breached? This monster-free Mothership module is short, dense, and compelling, and is perhaps the first Mothership module to feature no stat blocks or necessary murder.

  • When in Rome: This Mothership module is a heist where you break into a derelict space ship, to retrieve the equipment you need to flee your corporate overlords, but when your plan goes awry, you’re put face to face with the horrible alien experiments that have been left behind by them. This is magnificently complex and ambitious, and is perhaps the most interesting Mothership module this year.

Seriously, folks keep ‘em coming, because there hasn’t been a month as strong as November in a while. Look forward to reviews for Saving Saxham, What Child Is This?, The Frozen Temple of Glacier Peak, and Stalls of the Blood Queen in December, and in January it’ll be six-part series on introductory modules!

Also, over on my podcast, Dungeon Regular, I started covering Issue # 10 of Dungeon Magazine, and I’ll be hitting my 50th episode by the end of the year!

Finally, I’ve finished playtesting on my upcoming module release, Sharky! In Sharky, a beast emerges from the ocean to terrorise a sleepy seaside town filled with suspicious characters, and the investigation will bring the heroes into conflict with undead pirates, an evil sea-witch, and an adolescent kraken, all keen to manipulate the beast and you to their nefarious ends! It’s currently in layout, and the spectacular Jay White (Gods of the Forbidden North, Volume 2) has started working on art for a release for Zinequest in February of 2025. It’s less constrained than the Curse of Mizzling Grove was, but keeps a similar density, covering the village of Conchi and surrounds, as well as the 30+ room underwater dungeon Catacomb Cave. I can’t wait to get Sharky into your hands, both digitally and in print through Lulu.

Pickpocketing

In other news, articles I got excited about in November:

• Chris wrote four Errant Class Guides, explaining exactly what’s special about these four classes which appear very basic at first glance, with hindsight of two years of campaign play. Then, he wrote this guide to refereeing Errant, to put a cherry on top. This series reminded me how much I like Errant, and is perfect for the hordes who love Errant but have been scared to bring it to the table.

• Markus wrote about how we relate to crowdfunding as a community in Kickstarter FOMO and the Content Firehose, which struck me hard during the budgetary plague that is Mothership Month.

• Arnold wrote a good guide to designing interesting and fun monsters, both in and out of combat, in Monster Checklist. I really love the checklist format, to be honest, as I’m someone who forgets things easily.

• Then, only yesterday, Arnold followed that up with the Angelmen, a damned eery and well-thought out monster, filled with fascinating world-building and compelling mechanical and tactical storytelling.

• Murkmail talks about utilising real world maps for your TTRPGs, in Be a Map Vulture. It’s just a really fun perspective, in a world dominated by incredible cartographers who are vying for your attention, to consider the alternatives and how they can have their own advantages.

• Zedeck Siew published an entire horrifying module for free on tumble, A Perfect Wife. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but it’s some of his best work, in my opinion, and perfect for a system like Liminal Horror.

• Fae Errant wrote an argument that modules are a scourge that encourage you to over-prep your games, in In Defence of Mediocre Content. I’m not convinced, but I think it’s an interesting perspective and well worth considering.

• As a part of a conversation happening across the blogosphere about whether OSR play does indeed require deadly obstacles, Astrofork talks about making running away interesting, in Running away from danger.

• Clayton compellingly insists that What is an RPG sections are a little absurd, in What is an RPG? It doesn’t matter. I agree fully with Clayton on this topic.

Gamespotting

November is Mothership Month! Well, it goes until the 10th of December, so you still have a chance to back some cool things if you’re that way inclined. My picks, as I can only afford a few just before the holidays are:

• Death Pays All Debts, a heist expansion for Pound of Flesh

• Straight Arrows, an evil Pharma setting

• Daedelus Station, a module about corrupt space racing

• Dog Eat Dog, a new, grimy space station setting

I cannot afford it, but if you loved Games Omnivorous’ previous physical tile hex crawls, they have a new one called Boreal Frostlands that looks beautiful.

Pico also looks absolutely gorgeous, and the pitch appears to be Wildsea but with bugs. I’m considering picking it up to play with my children.

Dawn of the Orcs is a roleplaying game where you play as competing wizards genetically engineering orcs in a war-torn world you build yourself. While this screams excellent concept for a board game to me, I’m excited to see how this turns out, as “Saruman vs Saruman” is a very easy pitch you can make to almost anyone.

Finally, if you’re quick, you can get a copy of Secret Passages, a magazine about old games. I’m a romantic about Fighting Fantasy and Advanced Heroquest, and this is awfully cheap, so if you are too it feels like a no-brainer.

Thanks for subscribing to my new newsletter!

Idle Cartulary