Two and a half years ago I wrote a series of posts about adapting Cortex Prime for Star Wars. I've had some sessions and learned some lessons since then, not just about StarCortexPrimeWars but also about what parts of the expansive Cortex toolkit work best for me. As usual, preferences vary, I'm not your dad, do what you like. Let's go.
Finding the right words is worth it, especially when they're going on a character sheet. Take the time to nail the right vibe and your games will be better for it.
I followed the principles laid out in my recent post about getting car chases into tabletop rpgs and ended up with this mildly-playtested rules system.
I'm working on another game, because tinkering with otherwise perfectly functional games is part of the hobby for me.
Car chases in TTRPGs continue to be my white whale. I've watched a ton of car chases in movies, real life, and video games, but the problem is you don't often read car chases. It's primarily a visual spectacle, and so the challenge in translating a good chase to a roleplaying game lies in finding where the decision points are.
Insomniacs is out! The journey through its design has ironically mirrored an Insomniacs campaign - an incredibly long odyssey punctuated by false hope, mistakes, research projects, and self-discovery.
I've got maybe a year or so of my Insomniacs playtest campaign under my belt, but I'm struggling with how to put that into actionable content in the book. I don't think I've ever used a setting or module verbatim, and I don't know how other GMs adapt canned material for their own campaigns. I have a couple paths forward I can take, however, trails blazed by other designers that have inspired me.
I've made tremendous progress on Insomniacs' interior in the past few weeks but I also redid the cover. Inspired by Ian Hubert's Blender videos, I tried my hand at making an entire stasis pod with an unwilling occupant. It's not that different from my original cover idea, and the first one has a nice negative … Continue reading Can’t Sleep. Space’ll Eat Me.
The Reverent Between is what the Somnambulist's AI called the gulf of stars between the crew's last stop at 186 Herculis and their fruitful colonization prospects in the constellation Lyra. I'm also deep in Insomniacs' editing and layout process, and that is its own sort of thoughtful journey. The Pillar of Contemplation The Pillar was … Continue reading Insomniacs: The Reverent Between
When I was working on my last game, Glow in the Dark, I ran into this late-game slump where I'd foolishly formatted the text in my draft and now had to redo all the graphic design work. I'm proud to say that apparently that was a learning experience, because I've moved the Insomniacs text over from my google doc into Affinity Publisher way earlier than I did for Glow.
Never get out of the car
Never get out of the car
Never get out of the car
Never get out of the car
the alien art of designer joshua a.c. newman
Hacking OSR, 5e, and Mini games
Never get out of the car
Never get out of the car
Never get out of the car
novelist
Mostly about games, but with occasional detours into other nerdy territories.
Deep reads, analysis, and talk about small press roleplaying
game design musings from the VSCA
Urban adventuring and all that baggage
Never get out of the car
Don't Roll a One 