More Than a Baker’s Dozen – The Endies

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I’ve gone through my (admittedly sparse) data for my own Endies roundup. Perhaps I ought to have done this before I made the post about the awards, but something I’m trying to get a little better about is posting when the iron is hot1 instead of waiting to perfect a piece.

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Bring on the numbers.

Total Games Played: 15

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Full List

  • Promethean the Created by Onyx Path
    • This was the second last system we played in a long-running multiverse campaign (which I really ought to write about, because it was an experimental form of play that was interesting). Technically some of us were playing Mage the Awakening. Promethean was the more interesting game. I continue to hold nothing but disdain for the layout of these World of Darkness books. The game itself had some fiddly bits I liked, and a lot I didn’t.
  • Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok by Pendelhaven
    • Another beautifully illustrated book that was horrifically laid out. This one was the final system in our multiverse game. I think I would have liked it a lot better if we had played it on its own (and if it had a friendlier character sheet). It had a lot of cool stuff: character bingo boards, character mats for runestones that made it feel board game-y, did I mention gorgeous art?
  • Band-Aids and Bullet Holes by Sam Dunnewold
    • I got to playtest a lot of iterations of this game, and frankly there wasn’t a bad time had – period. Sam has written a fun powderkeg of revenge that rewards my Hollywood-staging-a-scene tendencies. It’s punchy, it’s fast to set up and play, it’s got amazing replay value. Also: my dad would definitely be able to pick up and play this game, despite not being a ttrpg/play pretend guy, therefore I gave this the award: Game My Dad Would Play.
  • Thirsty / Toxic Sword Lesbians by April Kit Walsh & Carly Smallbird, respectively
    • This was the game I played the most sessions of. I’m including both here because Toxic won’t run without Thirsty – it’s truly a modification. I probably have a longer post cooking about TSL, because the honest-to-gods truth about it is that by the end of the campaign I’d hacked it beyond recognition. I think TSL does “adventure game that isn’t DnD and also invites queer characters” really well! I think it didn’t get as queer or thirsty as I was hoping, which is why we used Toxic Sword Lesbians also. And with Toxic, Carly has really amped up the potential messiness. But ultimately, the shape of TSL wasn’t working for my table, even with Toxic slapped on, so I’ve got a whole hack out there now (why didn’t you play Monsterhearts, Audrey? It sounds like you want the messiness of Monsterhearts. Answer: not playing high schoolers.) Regardless, we had a good time with this game, and I gave it this award: Game I Hacked the Most.
  • Metafiction: Fortnite by Marn Lastname/Paddington
    • Metafiction is pretty much what it sounds like. It’s a very meta game! It’s built on Interstitial 2e to emulate death games with fictionally aware (and not aware) characters. I got to playtest a version where our characters were dropped into Fortnite, and I played my 13 year old Naruto OC, saying some truly cringeworthy lines and ultimately running Sasuke down with a tank. It was a very silly time all around. If that sounds like a good time to you, check out the VOD of Paddington running the game.
  • All Saints Go to Hell by Merrilee Bufkin
    • Merrilee, Sera, and I descended into Catholic madness and the result was this very sexy, very fun game about killing saints at the behest of Samael (or, you know, deciding to worship at archangel Michael’s feet instead). We had a single playtest session but it was one of the highlights of my year. I cannot wait to jump back into this one. I gave this one the award: Game Most Likely to Still Be on My Mind in 2026.
  • We Three Shall Meet Again by Sam Dunnewold
    • This is an asymmetrical game about three witches cursed to share one body. It’s not the first time I’ve played the game, but evidenced by the fact that I played again this year (with some new content Sam wrote), it’s a banger. You should check it out.
  • Spine by Asa Donald
    • I played this game on my podcast and my next blog post will likely be about my experience with this game. This game was unrivaled in innovation for me this year. I’m saving the rest for the longer blog post, but please. Go pick up a print copy of this game.
  • SuZi by Sage the Anagogue
    • Yeah, I’m linking to itch.io blocking this game as part of the ridiculous payment processor targeting queer and sex games (a reminder to call them at lodge a complaint). This is a game I loosely playtested right before Sage published it, and I played it three times in a row. It is one half of a larger game. This half has you playing a SuZi, a service robot who, frankly, is probably going to have a rough life. As you go through her life path, you can only end the game in one of two ways: being too damaged to function anymore, or breaking free of your programming. The second half of the game would have players who played the solo half bringing their SuZis together for a group adventure. I can’t say enough about this game. The toyetic properties of the excel sheet you play in were novel to me. The choices I was making for my SuZis were brutal (if there was a choice at all). I ended up with one SuZi that I think might be unrecognizable as a person to others, and I wonder what it might be like to play her in a group, to find or reject personhood or the validation of others. I think about the SuZis I played a lot2. I gave this game the award: Need More Immediately.
  • Dream Askpocalypse
    • This one hasn’t fired yet but I am including it because I FINALLY get to play in one short week. This is hackup of Dream Askew and Apocalypse World 2e/Burned Over that I’ve been putting together with friends, and I’m very excited.
  • Hometown Holiday by Nick Tourville
    • Including this one because it’s on the schedule! I’ll be running it for some friends on stream on December 16. I play this game every year in December because I love cheesy Hallmark holiday movies and this game is such a fun pick up and play way of creating one.
  • Good Society + Interstitial (with a dash of Firebrands)
    • Played this one on stream with my friends and a good time was had by all. If you want to see Eowyn getting into it with Jason Todd, check it out.
  • I Have the High Ground by Jess Levine
    • Played this one in the hospital before giving birth. I think the nurses were curious about it. Say it with me: I have a whole post about this. Great duet game! I gave this game the award: Best Game to Play in the Delivery Room.
  • Filing Jointly by Happy Birthday
    • The TSL group all played this one with our characters (and I with some NPCs) after we wrapped season one. A very funny concept, doing paperwork to itemize character relationships.
  • Sock Puppets by Kurt Refling
    • Despite the cool factor of runestones in Fate of the Norns, I gave Sock Puppets the award: Coolest Components. You really cannot beat a game that asks you to make a whole-ass puppet and then play out a children’s program with behind the scenes puppeteer drama. I wrote a post about running this one on stream and the beauty of trying something new.
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Reading by the Numbers

I read more games than I played this year, big surprise. This was year two of working my way through my massive PDF library and categorizing games as for playing, for reading, for looking at, or freeing up the hard drive space. My numbers here were not as high as I thought, but then, I did get through some pretty long books when it comes to reading, on top of my regular fiction/nonfiction reading, having a job, freelance, and children. Plus I GUESS having a social life.

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A few tiny accolades here:

Vampire Cruise by Amanda Lee Franck : Most Likely to Get Me into OSR

What to say about this one that hasn’t been said? It’s evocative, it’s fresh, it stands out from hundreds of other OSR modules, I feel like I could play it without a system if I wanted.

Himbos of Myth and Mettle by Maxwell Lander : Best Replacement for D&D (and Thirsty Sword Lesbians)

The writing in this game is so solid. Better than a lot of things I read this year and in years past – I think I screenshotted no less than five pages as writing inspiration, purely from a “GM advice” and “play culture” standpoint.

Daggerheart by Darrington Press : Gimme the Physical Copy

Look. I get it. Everyone wanted to eat 5e’s cake this year. Daggerheart is the one that I think comes closest. I’m a sucker for cards during play. The box set they made is gorgeous. I have friends who want to run this, and friends who want to play this. I don’t think I’m escaping this game any time soon.

Looking Back, and Ahead

This took longer to write than I expected! But I had a blast reflecting on my year in games. I played more distinct systems than expected. I think in part this is because in my head I am still that person who plays years-long campaigns of Pathfinder, despite the fact that I haven’t been that person in almost 10 years! The version of myself in my head needs to get with the times: I’ve been writing and playing indie games for almost as long as DnD at this point!

I was going to get into a review of last year’s game wishlist/resolutions, but this post is quite long enough, I think, so say it with me one more time: I’ll have a post about that.

I’m excited to see more Endies posts as they arise!

(Thanks to Hendrek, Asa, and Charlie for posting on bsky so that I may continue being a social media luddite – I’m pleasantly surprised by the reception to The Endies so far.)

  1. I really do wish I’d spent a little more time with the Canva template and told people you have to make a copy of it – whoops. First thought not always best thought, first design definitely not best design. But here we are – a thing that exists is better than the thing I didn’t make. ↩︎
  2. I will stop saying in the text “I probably have a post about this”, but: I probably have a post about this. Take a shot (we’re up to four). ↩︎

The Endie Awards

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Or TTRPGs Wrapped, if you will.

2025 draws to a close, and so another year of playing and reading games has passed. What a year, huh?

After talking with some folks in the Dice Exploder discord, I decided to hit go on an idea I’d been tossing around: The Endie Awards.

What is this?

Simple: write a blog post or share on social media the stats about your time with ttrpgs this year, and/or write some superlatives about games you played or read this year.

OPTIONAL: Tell us what 3-5 games you are looking forward to playing or reading next year, or a couple “ttrpg new year’s resolutions”.

Tag it with #Endies2025, tell your friends, look at the stuff others are sharing in the hashtag, and find a little joy in this end of year stretch (which for me is largely spent in front of the fireplace with a heated blanket and UV lamp to fight the winter blues).

Resources

I’ve put together a canva template if you want to throw your data and superlatives into it, but feel free to make your own!

Endies – Square

Endies – Tall (1080×1920)

Data Categories I’m Using

I did not keep robust data this year (for reason: had a baby). But I do have a general idea of how many games I read, how many games I played, and what I played most.

You might have number of sessions/hours played, number of people/groups played with, number of games purchased/backed, etc. Whatever data you kept and want to share, go for it!

Superlatives I’m Using

Again, you might not want to use the same “awards” as me, and that’s very fine and in fact I encourage it! I don’t know what my list will look like for sure, but some I am considering:

  • Most Hacked Game
  • Game Most Likely to Be on My Mind Still in 2026
  • Favorite Playtested Game
  • PDF Game I Need for My Shelf
  • Game That Got My GM/Referee/MC Wheels Spinning

Ideally this is a celebration of the games you played or read this year – I would caution against making purely negative Endie superlatives. As the name suggests with its homophonic nature, I anticipate a lot of indie games to feature in these posts.

Go forth and post! Can’t wait to see what you played and read this year.

Cheers, LT

Blogwagon: Appendices L & T

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Jumping on the Appendix N blogwagon at the last possible moment to talk a little about some of the media and other things that often inspires my work. The original Appendix N for D&D was, of course, a list of books and authors considered to have inspired Gygax, et al.

My writing process is so slow these days that I know I always forget inspirations unless I write them down as I go. Somewhere in the back of my brain is one of those ancient library card catalogs with all the bits and bobs I’ve squirreled away or that got lodged in there, waiting for me to use them, but by the time something finds itself in this cabinet, it is almost certainly divorced from its original context. Brains are fickle like that. So a couple entries on this list might be a bit vague – maybe you know what I’m talking about and can fill in the blanks for me.

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

The YA book series, not the awful movie. I keep coming back to the idea of moving cities. Alive cities. Cities that devour, a road that never ends, a post apocalypse of a different flavor.

Besides just the setting, though, this series has an unabashedly ugly protagonist and guess what? She still gets the guy. Theirs is a complicated relationship and I cannot begin to tell you how novel it was that not only was an ugly girl a hero, but she was loved? That is simply not the case in most media, especially children’s media.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films by Peter Jackson

Look, I’m not afraid to admit it. I love the books, too, but the movies were my introduction to the series and I cannot tell you how many times I have rewatched them – enough times the summer Fellowship was on VHS that my mom got mad at my brother and I for spending at least an hour a day in the basement in the pitch dark watching, and to this day I still have most of the dialogue memorized.

There’s a lot to be inspired by with this series but the main thing I have stuck in my craw is the idea of going on a journey but being so changed you can’t figure out where you fit anymore. Home isn’t home.

Jupiter Ascending by the Wachowski sisters

It could have been so good if it was good.

Aesthetically, I love this movie and I think I want the attention to detail in sets and costumes to come into play in my games (literally? Figuratively?? I don’t know, but the way this movie makes every character distinct and weird is aspirational).

“But what if it worked?” is my favorite form of inspiration.

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

The inescapable bigness and simultaneous smallness of childhood (and life in general) makes an impression. I think I reread these comics every other year.

A bunch of middle grade b-horror books but particularly the one where a guy makes a wish that goes wrong and he is turned into a tree but still has his thoughts and feelings and is terrified (sorry I don’t remember the name of it)

body horror. It’s a thing I love now. But this book, whatever it was, kept me up at night for multiple nights. Let me know if you know what I’m talking about, I’d love to revisit it.

wow gee LT is that all? What a short list!

we would be here all day if I were more thorough. But, let me just copy in a list of things on the inspirations lists for a few things I’m working on:

Big Trouble in Little China, The Fifth Element, Terry Pratchett’s Thud!, The Sevenwaters Cycle, The Father of Death by the Protomen, Bastion, Pathfinder, Pinochle, mafia games specifically narrated by my father, The Babysitters Club, Survivor, old Saturday Night Live sketches, The Westing Game, a board game called Hide and Thief, The Thing, The Good the Bad and the Weird, Schitts Creek, a community theater run of The Robber Bridegroom, my local conservation magazine, a friend’s unpublished hack of another friend’s game, the “mean tweets” segment of the late show, Batman and Robin (batnipples), Jeff Smith’s Bone, Graeme Base illustrations, and The Decemberists Hazards of Love

some of the stuff on that list is picked for themes, vibes, that sort of thing. Some is for one specific and evocative detail. Not all of it will make it into the Appendix N – or maybe it will. I started typing about how people look to a game’s inspirations to know what the game will be like, in genre or mechanics. But I think I want to see more lists that read less like a sell sheet and more like a collage at someone’s workweek. Even if that is less useful for me as a player trying to discern whether a game is for me or not, I like to see where the inspiration came from.

I am gonna get weirdly specific with it in my next Appendix N and I hope you will too.

cheers, LT

6 Bluey Episodes Every Game Designer Should Watch

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If you have a kid, or nibling, or child you are regularly in contact with, or even just walk through the children’s section at a clothing store, you’re probably aware of Bluey (this is stating it lightly).

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I’ve been enamored with the show as much as the next guy – it’s got short episodes, layered with good writing and themes, and it’s worlds better than the vast majority of current kids tv. But there’s a conversation I keep having about Bluey that I decided to finally document: the show has lessons about play and game design in it.

I think this is largely due to the show being about parenting and existing as a child. Play is how kids learn! Play is maybe not exactly 1:1 with a board game or ttrpg, but there are many principles that are the same (and frankly, people far more versed in game theory than I have written about the importance of childhood playground principles in games).

Really, you can just watch the whole series for a thesis on play (at 10 minutes each with one notable exception, binging the whole thing would take 26ish hours), but assuming you won’t, these are the episodes I’d suggest a game designer unfamiliar with the show watch to get some of the best-distilled advice about play from.

Shadowlands (S1, E5)

“That’s why you can’t change the rules – because the rules make it fun!”

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Bluey and her friends Snickers and Coco are playing at the park. We see Coco playing games technically by the rules, but not in the spirit of them, right off the bat, with Bluey and Snickers clearly frustrated. As they switch to a game called Shadowlands, Coco continually suggests changing the rules to make things easier instead of navigating the challenges, but Bluey insists that she can’t change the rules. Eventually, the kids conclude that the rules make it the game fun.

The takeaway: Rules and restriction challenge us and breed creativity. Games aren’t necessarily about doing things the easy way. Examining why the rules we write reinforce the desired play experience or outcome can help mitigate the potential for ignoring or bending rules. Be firm in how you want the game to be played!

Driving (S3 E20) explores this idea as well, with a time limit on the game Mum and Bluey play.

Octopus (S2, E40)

“How about we can say, ‘Yes! This octopus does that.'”

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Bluey and her friend Chloe are playing a game called Octopus with Bluey’s dad, having tons of fun. When Chloe tries to play the game with her dad, they have a disagreement about what the octopus is allowed to do. Ultimately, they reach a compromise that makes the game fun for everyone and adds a dynamic element to it.

The takeaway: I could say something about compromises in play, and while that’s important for a designer to be aware, the thing that sticks with me from this episode is that hacking games is fun! Different people want different levels of complexity. Realism matter more to some people than others. Set expectations with your game about whether there is room for alterations to gameplay, and consider including a guide to calibrating the game for the desired experience. (Yes, I am saying this after I just said rules are there to make the game fun – so are optional rules and guidance for rules adjustment!)

Bluey does this theme of “compromising during play” a lot. See also: Grannies (S1 E28), Circus (S2 E33), Library (S2 E30), Helicopter (S2 E25), Spy Game (S1 E13), Shops (S1 E23), Neighbours (S1 E47).

Muffin Cone (S2, E43)

“This is gonna make it hard to play Sandwich Shop.”

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Bluey and Bingo have a playdate with Muffin, who has to wear a cone. Because the cone limits her visibility, the girls are unable to play Sandwich Shop. They brainstorm together and come up with games that can be played that incorporate the cone so Muffin can be included.

The takeaway: Accessibility is fun. Simple as. Your game doesn’t HAVE to be accessible to all people, but I urge you to consider the limitations people might have when playing a game. Tailor your safety calibration tools. Make note of the necessary materials and actions. Provide accessible (read: plain-text, audiobook, etc) versions of your game when possible.

Bluey tackles safety discussions specifically in Yoga Ball (S1 E16). Accommodations for specific players is addressed in Charades (S2 E11).

Trampoline (S1, E33)

“What’s going to happen?” “I don’t know. Ready?”

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Bluey and Bingo don’t want Dad to leave for work, so they rope him into a series of elaborate trampoline games. When Dad finally says he has to go do his job, he tells Bluey her job is making up games. She returns to Bingo and invents a whole new game, seeing what happens when they put the hose under the trampoline.

The takeaway: Experimentation is important – maybe the most important part of game design. Playtest, write something new, playtest again, revise, brainstorm, playtest some more. Keep trying things until the result is fun. That is, to me, the big joy of making games: sometimes things don’t work, but sometimes they do! Figuring out if they do or don’t is fun.

Stumpfest (S2, E6)

“They’re ripping up stumps! That’s not playing.” “Are you sure?”

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Bluey’s Dad, her Uncle Stripe, and Lucky’s Dad are ripping up stumps in the backyard. Bluey, Bingo, and Muffin are using one of the stumps as their nail salon. Bluey is mad about having her game interrupted, but she realizes that Dad and his friends are playing in their own way.

The takeaway: Play can look wildly different for everyone. Your game cannot and should not be for absolutely everyone, and that’s okay. Once your game is in the hands of the players, it is out of your hands how they play.

This is another theme that gets a fair bit of screen time. See also: Early Baby (S1 E40), Wild Girls (S3 E44), Space (S3 E34).

Typewriter (S2, E49)

“Please can you pretend that they’re pretend real?”

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Bluey is playing with a typewriter at school but joins her classmates for storytime. When the story concludes, she can’t find the typewriter. She goes on a quest with her friends to find the teacher, pretending along the way that she has a shield to defend against her classmates’ pretend arrows. The teacher doesn’t give her the typewriter; instead, she encourages Bluey to pretend she has a typewriter.

The takeaway: Imagination is key in tabletop games. Props are fun – I love a prop as much as the next guy (more, maybe, if you’re letting me destroy the prop). But the key is what you pretend with them. Suspending your disbelief to play pretend with your friends is what it’s all about. Consider what leaps of imagination are necessary for your game: can props help facilitate that, or will they be an unwelcome limitation?

Bluey’s imagination with vague props is also on display in Flatpack (S2 E24).

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If you’ve got an episode you think I missed in this list, drop it in the comments! I hope if you’ve read this far, even if you don’t check out the show, you look for inspiration for your game design methodology in children’s media and books – nothing like going to the source for play references! Every day I relearn play from my toddler, and it is a joy to do so and to think about games on his terms.

Cheers, LT

I Don’t Know What I’m Doing (and That’s Part of the Fun)

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Recently I had the chance to play Kurt Refling’s Sock Puppets. As the name suggests, players are puppeteer with their own agendas and messy entanglements that inevitably come up in passive aggressive ways during their puppet show.

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The game has a lot that appeals to me – gm-less, fluid improvisational play, a set time limit structure, juicy interpersonal relationships – but I think the best part is the actual making of puppets.

I haven’t made a puppet* since probably sometime in middle school. I haven’t even thought about puppets since I read How to Sell a Haunted House when it came out. I had no real knowledge about making puppets beyond just “put a sock or paper bag on your hand” – or did I? I remembered popsicle stick characters in kindergarten. Toys I played with as a kid that were just kitchen utensils with Mr. Potato Head glasses.

I headed to my craft desk intending to use an old sock with no mate, or a plastic fork, but I found a Styrofoam ball and aluminum straw while I poked around, and that was the start of Grandma Sage.

She came together with scraps of fabric, an old dresser knob, bits of castoff jewelry, and about 30 pins. The final touch was two tiny curls made from wig samples.

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Could I have followed a tutorial to make a sturdier puppet? Sure. Could I have gone with the tried and true “drawn face on a paper lunch sack”? Definitely. Both those options would have been great for the game! But I had fun muddling through puppet-making with all my leftover bits.

Creative muddling is half the game! Maybe even more than half – a lot of the joy of the gameplay part came from getting to use the beautiful, silly things we had made. When it comes to games that ask you to get crafty, to do something creative and tangible, it transforms the experience. I love a theater of the mind, traditional dice rolls or GM-less discussion game as much as the next person, and certainly those games can induce a sense of anxiety about “messing up”. But the grind culture of the present day has eroded a lot of people’s ability to do something crafty or artistic just for fun. Everything is a side hustle, monetized, focused on getting likes and reblogs; the apprehension of creating something that won’t sell or do numbers online is huge, and the idea of creating something just for the sake of it? Preposterous!

Maybe that’s a little bit “old man yells at cloud”, but I really do think it is so important to do creative things for the joy of it, to make imperfect art, to try new things, to work with your hands. (Yes, I am aware of the irony of saying this when my play of Sock Puppets was broadcast – before you judge me harshly, known that I do in fact take my own advice here often, and no, I will not be sharing the creations online.)

If there is something to take away from my musings here, it is that I hope you find the joy in doing something badly, and that you don’t let it keep you from trying again.

You can watch the Sock Puppets playthrough on Youtube.

*for myself – I helped my toddler make a sock puppet last year.

Interstitial Design Dive, Part 2

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Okay, I’m back with more Interstitial.

(Quick aside: check out all the cool playbooks in the Interstitial Playbook Jam!)

Last time we talked about the initial design pitch and how it changed in the final iteration of the book. Let’s look at some individual aspects of the design.

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These ram’s head underlines were a direct homage to the 1E version of the game, which contained a lot of baroque flourishes and more direct references to Kingdom Hearts and its ornate keyblades. I kept these underlines of the chapter titles slightly “off” from the titles themselves – it gives it a little bit of a precarious, forward motion feeling.

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Next we’ve got what I call “background shards”. I’m not a designer who is afraid of white space, but white space wasn’t always the right choice for this game! Interstitial is telling big, messy, interwoven stories about connections that may fade, come back to haunt you, go with you to the grave, etc. So it felt appropriate both from a design perspective and game perspective to have these semi-transparent shard outlines in the background.

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Bullet points. Let’s talk custom bullets. They can get hokey or gimmicky REALLY fast if you’re not careful. But I knew we needed something that wasn’t just a circle or square. This tiny, simple starburst feels both clean enough and evocative enough to fit and not be distracting.

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I love a good “callout box”. I wasn’t sure how to translate this into Interstitial’s layout at first – there are so few of them throughout the game, and they’re all in different chapters and formats. Eventually I landed on a modification of the shard sidebar; the color scheme keeps it consistent with the chapter in which it resides, while the font change helps further distinguish it from the body text that’s conveying rules.

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Last little detail I’ll cover – the “checkboxes” for character playbooks. I couldn’t just use a basic checkbox, naturally. So I’ve got a shard outline (broken, still, naturally) that a player can fill in when they take an ability.

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There’s way more I could discuss (like the ways the artwork interacts with the layout, for instance), but I’ll let readers look at that for themselves!

I had so much fun with this project. It’s really gratifying to do layout that knows the rules and breaks them immediately so that it may look chaotic by design but still be clean enough to navigate easily.

Cheers!

LT

Interstitial 2E Design Dive, Part 1

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I recently had the awesome opportunity to do the layout for Interstitial Second Edition. I’d been aware of Interstitial as the game my podcast friends mostly played – it touts itself as a “fanfiction ttrpg”. The first edition was highly influenced by Kingdom Hearts, and while second edition can definitely still tell those exact sort of stories, it’s broadened its horizons a bit.

The first step for me in any layout job is making a design pitch – this is a compilation of the inspirations and direction the creator has given me along with an early sample layout of a few different spreads.

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Some treatments are more detailed than this, some are not.

Side by side here, you can see how the initial “basic spread” didn’t change much! That’s pretty unusual, but I think both Riley and I had a really clear vision for the aesthetics. The pitch is on the left – this color scheme became the introduction section’s identifier, while the blue and orange (which were really prominent on the final cover art) were reserved for the players’ section.

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I added some additional shards to the lefthand graphic, which you can see in the right example (final layout). The visual interest of just a few more fragments felt right! I also moved the top accent line to the right hand side – this helped the design feel less incongruous, since that top line never did quite line up with the accent line under chapter titles. It also further added to the idea that boundaries are something to break in Interstitial; the stutter in the line hints that this border is not strong enough to contain things.

The fonts were relatively locked in from the beginning. These were taken directly from 1E, which honestly made my job easier. Sometimes text hierarchy takes SO LONG as we find which fonts work, which spacing on body text works, how bullets should look, etc. So it was nice to have a little less uncertainty in that aspect of the layout.

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Artwork from my own game as a placeholder – I do love how she meshes with the color scheme!

The last spread of the pitch document was the playbook spread. I knew there was going to be a lot of information on this one, and we ultimately revised this spread a lot, as you can see in the final version.

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Ultimately, the portraits on every page needed to feature both full body art and the side profile, so I reworked the space a lot. We quickly ran into issues with some of the artwork overlapping the shards and not reading well, so their presence is reduced on playbook spreads.

The main thing I discussed with Riley was how the playbooks were doing double duty as a character sheet. One of my big gripes across the board with PBTA games is how unwieldy the character sheets can be. I don’t want to shuffle through a stack of 5 pages! So each playbook got all of its information condensed to a spread, and the character sheets ended up looking like this:

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My three main desires for the character sheets were:

  1. It had to be one page.
  2. All basic moves (aka reference notes for the game) needed to be present.
  3. It needed to aesthetically tie in to the book.

I’m really happy with how this came out! It’s of course not super printer friendly at its base, but it does print well in black and white. Mostly, I’m pleased that I succeeded in what I hope is a pretty player-friendly one page character sheet!

This is already way longer than I thought it would be, and I didn’t touch on all the individual elements! So let’s call this part one.

Cheers, LT

1d10 Unusual Spell Scrolls

Standard
  1. Scroll of Lethargy. This scroll is written on thick, almost fuzzy, lambskin, rolled neatly and tied with a simple blue thread. The words are languidly written in azure ink. Using this scroll inflicts drowsiness, lack of motivation, and sometimes even exhaustion on the target.
  2. Scroll of Minute Assistance. At first, this scroll seems like a joke. It is barely two inches tall, four inches unrolled. It is in a small glass vial, written on tiny parchment. The text requires a magnifying glass to read. When cast, this scroll grants the caster three putty servants, each no bigger than a thumbnail. The servants have no intelligence of their own, but can follow complex orders. After an hour, these servants dissolve into dust.
  3. Scroll of Unease. The penmanship on this scroll is gouged into the paper, papyrus so fragile it feels like it will crack beneath your fingers. An overwhelming sense of dread impacts the target of the scroll, causing them to be jumpy and paranoid for 24 hours.
  4. Scroll of Reversal. There is hastily-scrawled chickenscratch on both sides of this scroll, and the bend of the paper suggests it has been rolled in both directions. When the user of the scroll spends it, they at first notice no change. However, when they suffer a grievous injury, they are instantly taken back to the minute before it occurred, allowing them a chance to change their fortune.
  5. Scroll of Hungering Hands. The stained, worn, cream-colored paper this spell is written on is hot to the touch. The spell itself is written as a recipe, listing figurative ingredients and instructions. When used, the caster sprouts two mouths, one on each palm. For the next hour, these mouths will attempt to eat anything they touch, including living beings.
  6. Scroll of Selective Listening. This cursed scroll is written in faint ink that almost blends in with the yellow of the paper. It is bound with a padded wooden sheath. Using this scroll, the caster can inflict a minor curse on a target, causing them to hear only fragments of what is said to them. Curiously, the spell seems to most often cause crucial omissions that lead to strife.
  7. Scroll of Confetti. The parchment of this scroll is tissue-thin. The spell itself is written in multicolored ink. When read, the scroll explodes into thousands of pieces of brightly colored paper and glitter in a burst of noise that may temporarily deafen the caster. The confetti sticks to the person, disappearing a little at a time over the course of one week.
  8. Scroll of Lingering. Rolled in the leaves of ferns and smelling faintly of earth, this scroll is a long as its user. When someone in proximity of the caster dies, the spell may be read (but never before). Doing so binds the spirit to a 50 cubic foot area for 10 minutes, during which time spells that can bring it back to life cannot be used.
  9. Scroll of Inevitability. This scroll is curiously blank. The black paper is rolled loosely and instructs the user to write something they hope for in a substance to bleach the parchment. After a month has passed, a spell replaces the wish and the user my cast the spell to force the wish to occur immediately. If the wish was not specific down to the minutest detail, either nothing will happen or the scroll interprets the wish in a way the user did not intend.
  10. Scroll of Radiance. Two ornate golden clasps carved of metal hold this scroll shut. The ink on the pure white page is also in gold. Reading this spell inflicts a 30 foot sphere of blinding, radiant energy on the target, changing all their clothing to the finest garments, cleaning them, and anointing them with oils. For the next week, affected individuals must behave in a “good” manner, have no need to eat, drink, or sleep, and appear to be celestials to anyone who can read their aura.

1d10 Village Myths/Folklore

Standard
  1. Never cut a knot. You must always untangle it, lest the thread spirits grow angry. They lurk in every knot you tie, from your apron strings to the woven talisman above your door to the rug at your hearth. See that the threads hold fast, and they will bring you good fortune.
  2. They say a young man lives in the woods, with a face as sweet as an angel’s and a voice to match. They call him The Deathless. If you wander too far from the path, he’ll come to greet you. You must never follow him or else you’ll be lost in the woods until you starve.
  3. Once there was tricky, clever girl. She saw fit to challenge the way of things, and for that the gods frowned. She challenged them to a contest: three tasks, and whoever completed them first and best would be free to do as they wished. It is a long story, but in their folly, the gods allowed her to choose the tasks, and in so doing, she trapped them in paintings, leaving her free to live as she desired without the overbearing press of the will of the gods.
  4. There is a creature that lives at the bottom of the well. You must whisper your sorrows to it, and in turn it will cry great puddles of tears. Its is a sad life, but our well never runs dry.
  5. If you must cross the river when the water runs high and threatens to sweep you away, tuck a gift of bread and wine into your pocket. Toss them in when you reach the center, in hope of sating the river spirits.
  6. Fear not the dead of night, for the sky is merely a blanket and the stars are pinpricks of light through which the lady of midnight watches and shines her light. The moon is hers, a carefully crafted button that slowly, s l o w l y is done and undone as the days pass.
  7. When you look at the fire in your oven, take care not to stare too long. The vulpine creature that lives in flame can steal your heart through one smoldering gaze.
  8. A pinch of rosemary in your porridge in the morning and a bitter brew of sourgrass and bleeding heart leaf in the evening will ensure your loved one will take notice of you at the next snowfall.
  9. There was a great hero who lived here once. Did you know? They drove off the monsters that had stripped this land bare. A great lord came to them and invited them to his manor, offering riches and acclaim. But the hero refused. Then a mighty king came to the hero, promising honor and and half his kingdom. The hero again refused. Finally, a golden god came to the hero and promised immortality and glory. Still, the hero refused. Here they stayed for the rest of their days, laying down their sword, which became the river you see now, and burying their armor to create fertile farmland for their descendants to tend for years to come.
  10. During the first falling leaves of autumn, you might glimpse the shadowy shapes of children among the branches of the trees. These are the children of trees, gone to plant themselves anew somewhere else.