We kick off our new season by brainstorming bad ideas for games! Unwieldy mechanics, onerous requirements, obtuse premises; we cover a bunch of bad ideas because we know that inside every bad idea is a good idea waiting to be freed.

Show Notes:

• Minimalist TTRPG Jam 5
• Electric Football

Games Mentioned:

• MonkeyDome
• Microscope (Second Edition now funding!)
• How to Host a Dungeon
• Still Life LARP
• Psi-Run
• Apollo 47
• Diplomacy
• The Skeletons
• Plasmodics

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

Nathan and Eppy discuss transitioning out of the second season of the show. This is a meta episode where we talk about the show, and why it feels right to divide what we're doing in it into seasons. We toss around some ideas for homework for the next season, discuss how it'll line up with our game projects in progress, and go into the concept for the next Unwritten Earths title - the Adventure & Hobbyist Annual 2026! Thanks for listening, Scholars!

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

We welcome friend and fellow Tracy Barnett (the Other Tracy) to the show! We discuss his games (Iron Edda, School Daze, and more), his trajectory as a game designer, changing practices for getting games out into the world, the many benefits of zines and low-fi creation, writing directly into layout, and more. Turns out, making things is good for the soul!

Find Tracy's games at theothertracy.itch.io and on rpgtrader. He's also on Bluesky.

Show Notes:

• Long Tail
• Shoutout to John Harper
• MICE (Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo)
• CZF (Chicago Zine Fest)
• MagCloud

Games Mentioned

• School Daze
• Iron Edda
• You are the Dungeon
• Fate Core, Fate Accelerated and Dresdan Files Accelerated (Evil Hat)
• Dread
• RPG Design Zines
• ndp Poster Games
• Wolfspell

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

We welcome long-time friend and crackerjack game designer Gregor Hutton to the show! This far-ranging discussion includes his games (3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars, Remember Tomorrow), all the ways we work on games while not Working On A Game, keeping the joy alive, the evolving landscape for the kinds of games we make, maths and managing spotlight, and being a good actor in your local community, among so many other things.

Find Gregor's games (Best Friends, Remember Tomorrow, 3:16, Solipsist) at BoxNinja.com and GregorHutton.itch.io.

Show Notes

• Ron Edward's Adept Play Happening (Sweden)
• 2000 AD (Comics)
• Return of the escaped Japanese Snow Monkey (BBC)
• System Matters (German RPG Publisher)
• The World at War (1973-1974 British TV Series)
• Trollen Wheel (for making braided cords)
• Two Games One Name

Games Mentioned

• Shatterzone (West End Games)
• Hell 4 Leather (Joe Prince)
• A|State 2nd Ed (Handiwork Games)
• The Trouble Engine (SRD)
• Big Mother F’n Crab Truckers
• With Great Power: Master Edition (Michael S. Miller)
• Capes (Tony Lower-Basch)
• Night Witches (Bully Pulpit Games)
• Monsterhearts 2 (Buried Without Ceremony)

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we get fancy and talk about the aesthetics of truly-true game mechanics. The same probabilistic outcomes and mechanical functions can be served by many different styles of rule. We talk about different ways to appreciate the form of a game mechanic as well as think about how the expression or description of rules can be a fruitful design space.

Show Notes:

• Balanced Ternary(a base 3 numeral system using -1, 0, 1)
• Amadeus (1984)

Games Mentioned:

• FUDGE/FUDGE Dice
• FATE (Evil Hat Productions)
• How We Came To Live Here (Galileo Games)
• The Time We Have (moreblueberries)
• Moonsailors (Annamyriah de Jong)
• Bacchanal (Half Meme Press)
• Oh Fuck, The Killer!(That House)
• Agon (Revised/PARAGON edition)
• Usagi Yojimbo Role-Playing Game (First Edition)
• Burning Wheel / Mouse Guard
• Violent Delights (Kickstarter preview page)
• HeroQuest / Hero Wars
• Megadamage in Palladium/RIFTS
• Dread
• Imp of the Perverse

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

It's finally time for us to seriously address the elephant in the room for truly-true roleplaying games: fun. We talk about how hard it is to describe fun, what elements of gameplay (can) lead to or combine to create fun, and why "make it fun" isn't a very fruitful design goal. Look, we're game designers, we have to treat fun with the gravitas it deserves!

Show Notes:

• Go Play NW

Games Mentioned:

• No Thanks!
• Moonsailors

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

In this episode, we carefully consider our words in order discuss the different purposes served by creating abstractions with your game rules, and how word choices can both result from and drive game design. Remember, 90% of game design is naming things!

Games Mentioned:

• Swords Without Master
• Mortal Skein
• Imp of the Perverse
• World Wide Wrestling

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst

In this episode, we talk about being at the top of the truly-true Design Ziggurat where small changes have big effects. Specifically, one of the signs that a game is close to done is when enough of the design is settled that an insight that leads to a significant change is just a small thing that doesn't require significant playtesting or changing of anything else. It's not a departure, it's a product of the experience you have with the design.

Games Mentioned:

• Swords Without Master
• Imp of the Perverse

And there's more:

• Unwritten Earths Symposium
• Our Patreon
• Join the Discord
• Nathan's games
• Eppy's games
• Music by Will Jobst