Unwritten Earths Symposium

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

Plus Expenses is our bonus show for Patrons, dropping every other week between our regular episodes. This one is on the public feed for everyone, to round out our Origins Interviews episode with our reflections on the convention. Thanks so much for listening - if you dig this, you can get it for just $5 a month over at our Patreon! In this Plus Expenses, we talk about: The Origins interviews, how the convention felt, “networking”, being a two-session guy, Imp of the Perverse, DriveThru Deal of the Day, decision-making for Games on Demand, good playtest/bad session, energy use during games, Eppy’s bluesky post about AI - it won’t help you!, refreshingly human-made focus at the dealer hall, Eppy’s dice adventure, character sheet usage for different contexts, live Swords sheets feedback and development, a Swords Without Master story, a Mortal Skein (playtest) story and playtesting philosophy, our White Whale Episode, not recognizing things when they work, and if you want more of this, sign up for our Patreon - only $5 a month! And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

We went to Origins Game Fair! It was a great time, and we were lucky enough to catch up with old friends and chat with new ones for the show. This episode consists of 6 in-person interview/conversations with game designers, GMs and publishers about Origins, Games on Demand, boothing, and game design theory and practice. We felt extremely fortunate to have the chance to chat with all of these incredible folks, and hope you enjoy the conversations! General Note: These were captured on a shared mic in shared spaces, so the audio quality is... informal. We think it's all listenable but you'll notice variations from interview to interview. The Interviews: Dr. Evan Torner - We talk about Games on Demand at Origins, and playtesting. Check out Analog Game Studies and Evan's work in LARP and tabletop Jim Crocker - We talk about "the year of no hustle" and managing your relationship to the hobby as someone who also makes their living in it "Indie Games Here!" Booth - We talk about boothing at Origins with Viditya Voleti (A Land Once Magic), Brian Flaherty and Elliot Davis (Many Sided Media, moreblueberries), and Nell and Ali of spilledcoffeecreatives Gene Koo - We talk about The Bonsai Diary and cultivating communities of practice (like Designed in the DMV) Vincent Baker - We talk about party games and the changing relationship with convention attendance and boothing TheOtherTracy - We talk about friendship, what getting better at game design means, and talk about a bedrock member of the community that has since passed, Morgan Ellis. Rest in Power, Morgan! And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst