Three Design ideas for RPGs.

#1 Until you can explain it simply, you don't understand it fully.

This is a good thing. It means you still have something to discover about the game, rule, or idea that you're trying to describe. I heard this bit of wisdom from an architect ages ago and I can't help but apply it to everything—game design, marketing, politics—you name it. Plain and approachable language doesn't mean a lack of knowledge, but the presence of it. Until you have that plain articulation, you don't have it figured out. Keep chipping at it. Sometimes the thing that unlocks everything else is the name.

#2 Separate your project goals from its table stakes.

I've been thinking about this lately after running design workshops at my day job. It's a common mistake. A project starts with a goal and it's a nothing burger. The equivalent of a restaurant declaring, "Our mission is to serve good food." Of course it is. Bad food puts you out of business. Good goals are unique and specific—they close doors and create focus. Stand for something. Banality makes a project weak, un-focused, and vulnerable to drift. Don't try to make a "good" game. Try to make a game that does specific things well.

#3 Consider putting that dividing line somewhere else.

Sometimes designers put a column-width line between their headers and its respective body copy. In most cases that's wrong. Controversial, but you should never sever the head from its body. If you want to underline the type, use the underline feature. Don't use a dividing line. You want the relationship between your header and body copy to remain connected. When you use a dividing line as decoration, you rob it of its function and risk creating confusion. Instead, put the line above the headline so that it separates it from other sections. For most projects, you don't even need dividing lines, whitespace does the same thing unobtrusively. Open a well-designed textbook or cookbook, and you'll notice that the space between a section's header and paragraph is smaller than the vertical space between the end of one section's body copy and the next section's header.

Explorers' Loot

• The Bloggies Concludes for 2026. If you somehow haven't seen the nominees and winners of this year's Bloggies, you're missing out.
• Designing Lore Blocks. I revisited the character schema designed by Zedeck Siew and Munkao in Reach of the Roach God, and retooled it into a stat block replacement for stat-free games.
• Explorers UI Updates. I've managed to make updates to the website's code. I tweaked accordions, removed Google tagging, and added a floating table to the sidebar for desktop users. Please hold the applause until the end.

Quests & Rumors

Game jams, contests, and opportunities. Drop me a line on Bluesky.

• Old-School Essentials Month. Prepare your spirit for a collab project led by Exalted Funeral and Necrotic Gnome on Backerkit. May 5th – June 6th.
• Lean Green Zine Jam. I love any jam that supports tiny bursts of creativity. This one: Make it small. Make it green. Make it a zine. Ends April 20th.
• Total//Effect//Jam. Binary Star's hosting a jam to celebrate the launch of Null_Space, a sci-fi game with novel mechanics. Jam Feb 16th – April 30th.
• Make Moves Jam. Create or share singular Moves using Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) design philosophies. Jam lasts all year. Ends Dec 31st.

Reviews & Critique

Critique and examinations of tabletop rpgs, adventures, and more.

• Daggerheart - a Dishonest Review (full of Lies) by Valeria Loves. Another incisive review delivered in the style of an insult comic routine.
• 🎙️ Settlers of a Dead God by Dead Letters. Sam, Misha, and Walid give a crash course on setting guides before asking, "How does Settlers do?"
• 🎙️ Triangle Agency by Dead Letters. I couldn't share only one episode. Triangle Agency is a brain-burner. A sublime drowning of theory awaits you.
• 🎙️ Resonant by Ansible Uplink. Chris Airiau and David Kenny cover a lot of design ground in this review of Amanda P.'s sci-fi module. A long listen.
• 📺 Public Access by Quinns Quest. The Carved from Brindlewood system gets some love in this episode. We get some insight into Quinns' playstyle, too.
• 📺 Legends of the Mist by Deficient Master. This frenetic video covers one of my favorite games. If you like mechanics like FATE's, give it a watch.

Design Examples & Best-iary

The spotlight section of the newsletter full of showcases and projects.

• 🎙️ We Read the Bloggies. If you don't want to read the nominees from this year's Bloggies, I have good news: You don't have to. You can listen to them!
• Bloggies for Casuals by The Dolent Chronicle. A great primer for casuals who don't have it in them to read 80+ posts (you are likely not the audience).
• ⚙️ Armour for Lodestar by Rambled Worlds. If you like a more granular armor system, I think this multi-layered AP sub-system is particularly fun.
• ⚙️ Shoulder Tables by Bommyknocker Press. This random encounter/events table might look familiar, but I love the framing here. Finally a satisfying label.
• ⚙️ Be of Good Cheer by Goblin Punch. A fun GLOG-inspired system for healing that links to downtime activities like sharing meals and having friends.
• 📺 Gallows Corner RPG Readthrough by Bastionland. What a beautiful game to look at. This history-inspired game about peasants is worth the look.

Theory & Craft

Design tools, resources, theory, and advice for rpg designers from rpg designers.

• Product Photography by Graftbound Press. Another educational how-to post from Graftbound. This kind of effort beats mockups every time for me.
• Tyranny of the Form by Nate Whittington. "Is the zine throttling the creativity of the scene? I think, emphatically, yes." A thought-provoking read.
• The Visual Design of Blades '68 by Old Dog Games. Tim's one of the best designers working in rpgs today, and this sneak peek into '68 feels like a heist.
• You Need to Describe Doors by Murkdice. Information leads to better decision making. So why do most adventures not describe doors anymore?
• Talking to the Dungeon by Failure Tolerated. How does a dungeon converse with its players? How does an adventure speak to interactivity?
• Writing things in Networks is Unreasonably Effective by Dungeon Merlin. I like how much this design truth is doubly true in analog rpgs.
• Pokemon is OSR by Prismatic Wasteland. I see some overlap. Dungeon delving, resource management, and party constraints—now with Team Rocket.
• Unblocking Yourself: Dungeonize your Home by Rise Up Comus. I love any creative technique, this system would work remarkably well for Mausritter.
• Navigation Games by Knight at the Opera. Answering the question: How do you run (and design) a dungeon that players navigate and explore diegetically
• 📺 The Layout Rogues Guild: ZiMo Workshop w/Mike Martens by Plus One Exp. This is an entry-level college lecture on layout, type, and design.

Inspiring & Non-roleplaying

Design tools, theory, and inspiration from the world beyond tabletop rpgs.

• Communities are not Fungible by JA Westenberg. A sobering read that pulls ideas from urban design and other fields about the nature of community.
• A Comprehensive Guide to Book Cover Design Cost. Shout out to Lone Archivist who shared this with a few of us designers. A cool look outside rpgs.
• Overlay Fact Sheet. Another great find from designer, BESW. This one is all about those accessiblity overlays on websites (and why they're not ideal).
• 🗄️ Jules Vernacular. Take a tour through France and marvel at all of the immaculate signage, from blackletter-appointed inns to mid-century grocers.
• 🗄️ The Tenth Muse. 120,000+ artworks from museums and institutions — searchable by feeling, mood, atmosphere, era, and medium. (With a grid view.)

Design Archive

Old articles, missed articles, famous or overlooked, resurfaced for the newsletter.

• The New Transparency by Jared Sinclair. An influential list of principles. They're idiosyncratic—aggressively so—which results in compelling results.
• Designing an Afrocentric Megadungeon by Alife Allah. I really loved the perspective on this post, it got my gears turning on how culture informs design.

Missed the last issue? Read it here.

The Explorateur: Issue #16

Monthly design jams, critique, theory, and inspiration for tabletop rpg designers by rpg designers. Vetted. Looted. Curated.

Explorers DesignClayton Notestine

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