Good Monday, Gamer!
"It is during our darkest moments that we must slash, punch, kick and bite our way to the light.." A. Onassis, merchant
I missed 2 out of 3 games this week. Old dog issues. Summer break transitions. Off-grid camping shenanigans. Guests showing up unexpectedly, staying for dinner… and they don’t even play games. 🤷🏾♂️
Ah well. That’s the song of summer, yeah?
Tick-tock. Tick-tock
I’ve been chewing on clocks lately — probably thanks to running CBR+PNK RPG and following some recent threads over in the Indie Game Reading Club Slack. I totally get clocks for threats. No problem there. But progress clocks? That’s where I get tangled up. Though I do adore the Apocalypse World–style clocks:
All the same size.
Always building toward midnight.
Drama baked right into the visual.
You can annotate them too:
Everything’s fine until 9 o’clock, then the machine starts spitting out foul smoke.
At 10 o’clock, it’s rattling and heating the room.
Midnight? Boom.
In Forged in the Dark games, I often default to a 6-tick clock as my “yardstick.”
There’s a real theatrics to revealing clocks, and I love that drama. But maybe progress clocks only hits for players? Perhaps nothing needs to happen on the GM side, except for tracking? Am I overthinking this?
¯_(ツ)_/¯
CBR+PNK: Gone in Virtual Seconds
I’m prepping the next heist:
The target? The legendary Eleanor.
What’s the Gibsonesque equivalent of Gone in 60 Seconds’ iconic Mustang?
It probably isn’t just a classic ground vehicle — but it’s probably not some sleek hyper-futuristic ride either.
Maybe it’s…
A retrofitted VW Bus?
A black-market sub-orbital jet?
A one-off prototype with lineage, history, ghosts in its bones?
I’m still circling it. But it’s coming.
The One Ring: Moria
We’re heading back into the depths for the next round of Mad-Dice playtests — continuing Year One of Balin’s Expedition to Moria, open-table, West Marches–style.
I’ve got five IRL runs under my belt so far.
I’m going to miss all the minis-as-theatre staging, but the Moria sessions have been entertaining for me. Lots of folks want to play hobbits, so the folks at Free League were on to something with their starter kit for sure!
Invisible Sun: Cracking the Black Cube
Excavated up my Black Cube again and started re-reading Invisible Sun and the Indie Game Reading Club’s deep dive series! I’m gearing up to run it, and I’m thinking hard about:
How to onboard new players fast
What can (and should) wait until later
What do it do?
It’s a whole-ass game — dense, layered, ambitious.
I want to see it live.
Would you be into a read-along series as I work through it?
Let me know.
What’s Happening at Your Table?
What’s got your group excited right now?
What mechanics are you chewing on?
What stories are unfolding?
Drop me a reply — I dig what’s cooking at other tables.
ICYMI
IGRC → Invisible Sun series + Memento Mori Deeeeeeeeeeep Dives.
Keith’s Summer Book List → Got me thinking about my summer reading lineup
Rusty’s House of Swords→ Cam’s forging something new!
Catch ya next week!
Funny you should mention Moria. I have the book and have been thinking of using it for my BW game. The players are on a quest to find the Axe of Dwarvish Lords. But I don't think Dungeon Exploration is what we are after in this Against the Giants/Liberation of Geoff campaign.