2025 is dead. Long live 2026.

It's official. 2025 has been slain. Thank you for killing it. Let's waste no time this month and jump right into last month's discoveries...

Explorers' Loot

• Jackian Magic System. Experimental mechanics that combine Mausritter inventory, Tetris, and engine-building into an alternative Vancian magic system.
  • Lex over on YouTube recorded an awesome read through of The Jackian Magic System. It's unbelievably relaxing. Give it a watch. (Thanks, Lex!)
• How to Design Signals in Books. This is one of my best design-focused articles of the year. A 9-minute primer and guide on page numbers, headers, and more.
• Critmas Gift Guide 2025. It's not a typo. If you're still in the charitable mood this new year, send some much-deserved recognition to a designer you love.

Quests & Rumors

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

• 🗳️The Bloggies are here! Submit your favorite articles, blogs, and series to this year's Bloggies! Voting opens in February. Submissions are open now.
• Zinetopia 2026. Backerkit continues its takeover of the rpg crowdfunding space with its riff on Zinequest. They're accepting projects for Feb 2–27th.
• Subscribe to Rascal News. Independent journalism is a rare thing, and Rascal News—independent journalism for rpgs—is even rarer.
• Make Moves Jam. A year-long exploration and conversation around making moves in the Powered by the Apocalypse tradition. Jam ends Dec 31st, 2026.
• Gaming Like it's 1930. A new year means making games from new material entering the public domain. This year's additions are from 1930. Jam ends Feb 1st.
• Fix Your Hearts or Die Jam. Create a game in honor of David Lynch. In other words: make it unflinching and unusual. Jam ends Feb 24th.
• Nightsong Living World S1. Make something for Fari RPG's upcoming old-school-style game, Nightsong. Build a living world. Jam ends Feb 22nd.
• 48-Word RPG Jam. Create an rpg that's forty-eight words or fewer. A great excuse to make rules and visuals do most of the talking. Jam ends Jan 31st.

Reviews & Critique

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

• Dead Weight: Death Begets Death by Meatcastle. Mothership modules are rich with high concept setups. Dead Weight has that setup and it delivers.
• Crown of Salt by Save Vs. Total Party Kill. The Mörk Borg adventure continues to earn its roses, but not without some noteworthy thorns.
• Carved in Stone by Idle Cartulary. "I’ve often opined the fact that there are too few rpg books designed like children’s history books: This is that book."
• It's Good Because It's Funny by The Weeping Stag. This is a review of The Sinister Secret of Peacock Point by Brad Kerr and how it pairs tone with function.
• Critique Navidad by Idle Cartulary. There were so many incredible spotlights in this year's avalanche of reviews by Nova. It's hard to pick just one.
• 🎙️ Into the Wilds by Between Two Cairns. Podcast. Yochai, Brad, and Sam answer an interesting question about studying rpg modules the way artists do master studies.
• 🎥 Forgotten Shrine 01 by Directsun and Warren D. Video. This isn't a review. It's better. A live session with editorial feedback. This one's packed with insights.

Exhibits & Best-iary

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

• Gloggies Nominations 2025. Goblin Laws of Gaming. If you're not in the know, it's a rules-lite, hack-heavy rpg community. Check it. They blog a lot.
• The Verbs of Play by BAATAG. We have many "frameworks" and "taxonomies" for describing and understanding rpg books. This article is near the top.
• A Digital Post in Praise of Physical RPG Magazines by For Want of a Silver Bullet. A fantastic parade of rpg magazines and why they're awesome.
• How to be the Manager that Freelance TTRPG Writers Love Working With by Leon Barillaro. It's a rare thing—good clients. Be one.
• Taking a Postcolonial Approach to a Classic Traveller Adventure by The Weeping Stag. It's hard to describe just how deep this goes. It's good.
• Idle Cartulary Awards for Excellence in Elfgames by Idle Cartulary. Nova reads and reviews a lot of modules. This is a great collection of standouts.
• 🎙️ The Cairnies 2025 by Between Two Cairns. Podcast. I love a year-end celebration, and this is (unsurprisingly) one of my favorites with a number of exciting announcements.
• 🎙️ 2025 in Rearview (w/ Quinns) by Yes Indie'd. Podcast. Another year-end podcast, this time with the always insightful Thomas Manuel and Quinns from Quinns Quest.
• 🎥 The Golden Age of Indie RPGs: 2010-25 by A.A. Voigt. Video. If the idea of a decadently long video about rpg design movements gets you excited—strap in.
• 🎥 Charlie Ferguson-Avery Interview by The Weekly Scroll. Video. It's always fun hearing about a designer's catalog from the designer themselves.

Theory & Craft

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

• Ten More Tangible Tips Editing Your RPG Manuscript by Sam Sorenson. Sam's tips are like reading The Elements of Style for rpg writing.
• Sam's Three-Question Taxonomy by Sam Sorenson. Elegant and comprehensive. This method meshes well with our current "cultures of play."
• Ten Intangible Tips for Development Editing Your RPG Manuscript by Sam Sorenson. If it's not obvious, Sam's output has been a perfect fit for the Explorateur.
• Common Adventure Pitfalls by Beau Rancourt. "A list of tropes and patterns to avoid (or apply) so published adventures are cleaner."
• Conflict as Motivation and Resolution by Binary Star Games. Everyone always says what combat is doing, but nobody ever asks how combat is doing.
• Mastering the Puzzle Dungeon Through Challenges and Lessons by Puzzle Dungeon/Directsun. Another lesson on making puzzles that are fun.
• How to Run a TTRPG Crowdfunding Campaign by OSR Rocks! A great round-up with links for everything including tools, advice, and planning docs.
• The Default Dungeon is Colonial by Lowercase. Another exploration into how mechanics can tell their own story underneath the game's explicit setting.
• Everything is pointcrawl! by Skeleton Code Machine. "How we can reduce the illusion of choice and instead have players make meaningful decisions?"
• In Support of Belief Based Games by Storygames Chicago. Really interesting thoughts and ideas about designing beliefs, culture, and politics in games.
• 🎥 Designing with Pattern Language by RPG PHD. Video. Here's one for sickos, Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language applied to dungeon and adventure design.

Inspiring & Non-roleplaying

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

• The 173 Best Book Covers of 2025 by Literary Hub. This is a great collection of covers crowdsourced from 52 different book cover designers.
• The Best Movie Posters of 2025 by Posteritati. RPG covers sit somewhere between book covers, movie posters, and shampoo bottles. These look good.
• True Grit Texture Supply. Resource. The New Year's sale is near, and I can say this is one of the best places to get brushes, textures, and more.
• Texturelabs. Resource. If you want to become a wizard with Photoshop, Texturelab's YouTube channel is still at the top of the list. The textures themselves are excellent.
• Typewolf's Book Guide. Resource. I consider Typewolf to be the #1 resource online for type enthusiasts. This post shares the best books for mastering type.
• 🎥 Create Professional Looking Wargames by SPGD. Video. Sam Pearson is an ex-Warhammer designer. His YouTube channel, SPGD, has all kinds of great insights.
• 🎥 This Roll and Write is HUGE by No Pun Included. Video. This review's subject, Tend, showcases a lot of trends I see gaining popularity in indie rpgs.
• 🎥 Is ‘The Old King’s Crown’ 2025’s Best Board Game? by SUSD. Video. A beautiful thematic board game that builds stories on a bed of simple mechanics.

Design Archive

Old articles, famous and the overlooked, resurrected from the dead.

• (Don't) Incentivize Ethical Behavior by Zedeck Siew. "This is my main problem with mechanically rewarding pro-social play: a character’s ethical choice is rendered mercenary."
• Traffic Lights are Communication Tools by Meguey Baker. If I could redirect every conversation about "safety tools" toward "conversation tools," I would.

Missed the last issue? Read it here.

The Explorateur: Issue #14

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

Explorers DesignClayton Notestine

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