The Idle Digest #11
Idle Cartulary's Digest for September 2025
The winners of the Appendix N Jam were announced only yesterday! Check out The Eternal Empress and The Eldritch Staff! Thanks to all the other judges for their hard work — I’ll be writing up a little about my favourites in October, because no two of the judges agreed on their top two!
I’m still taking submissions for Critique Navidad, where I review a game a day for the whole of December, as a gift to all of the game designers out there who wish they’d had a thoughtful critique of their work! Here’s the form to submit. I’m excited about Critique Navidad — I read a bunch of games last year that I never would have typically, and some of them really blew my mind!
Lonely Play
In September, on Playful Void, I wrote:
I wrote five Bathtub Reviews:
Cryo-Siq, a fascinating Mothership module where you’re hunted by an assassin through a drifting spacecraft.
Straight Arrows, a compelling Mothership module with a fantastic unique art style, that delves deep into themes of poverty and addiction.
Empire of Hatred, a hyper-dense, sprawling hex crawl through a doomed empire filled with cackling, obtuse characters. This is a fascinating one, although I’m not sure I’d bring it to the table.
Tannic and Orestruck, the first module and the most recent module by Amanda P, taking place in the same fairytale world but with a world of perspective between them. I love to look at authors and how they evolve over time!
I also wrote a brief article about reviews and the role of critics within the TTPRG hobby, What do Critics Owe Us?
Pickpocketing
In other news, August continues to be filled with great writing:
Lady Tabletop draws game design lessons from episodes of Bluey
Marin writes about making monsters huntable
Martin also writes an excellent analysis of one of my favourite video game levels of all time, Deus Ex’ Liberty Island (someone do Hitman’s Paris fashion show, please?)
Arnold K teaches referees how to referee, with The Mouth of Mormo
Anna Anthropy gets to Apocalypse World in this series on TTRPG history that’s worth following
If you’re interested in commissioning art, here’s an excellent guide
Chris McDowall does a career retrospective, which might help you if you’re feeling imposter syndrome
Tiered Content Warnings are a nice and easy addition to increase safety in your games
This is a hella simple and elegant reputation system for Mothership — I’d use this one right here without hesitation.
Ben Robbins writes about bringing the table into conversation with itself, in a very thoughtful post that I hope will sprout conversation.
Gamespotting
Some cool stuff is crowdfunding now or soon, although it’s looking like September will be a quiet one:
The Saintly Hollows tops out my excitement meter this month: The sequel to Valley of the Flowers will be funding soon, with not just one, but two books. The first was a surprise hit, and this one feels like a must back.
Witch-War to the Vale of Forbiddiction and Beyond by the Melisonian Arts is an absurd boxed set I’m curious about, but haven’t yet taken the plunge on due to price
The Perilous Pear & Plum Pies of Pudwick is a more reasonably priced crowdfunder from the Melisonian Arts Council as well.
Three From The Locker are a series of pamphlet-sized Pirate Borg modules that look fun
Twisting Unseen is an upcoming Mothership module with some pretty compelling names behind it.
Duginthroat Divided is the next module from Daniel Harila Carleen, who’s a fascinating author and an amazing artist.
Mausritter Month is coming, but in my opinion the creators contributing to it have to do a little more to differentiate their work — from the project page, I’m not sure any of them stand out from the next. Check it out yourself, though, you might disagree.
Mothership Month is also coming, and there are a few striking options:
Certain Fathoms is one of two depthcrawls being funded — before this, I was only aware of Hell on Rev-X!
Terminal Directive is a some kind of time-loop murder mystery.
Roach Hotel is the next module from Norgad, who consistently writes innovative and interesting stuff.
Have a great October! Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter!
Idle Cartulary
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