gemelli23.bsky.social

Designing insane boss monsters for Hollows is addictive and ridiculously fun. The folks at RR&D allowed me a platform to discuss how I approach my Entity design process here, with my WIP jam entry as a case study: secrets.rowanrookanddecard.com/designing-th...

I have designed fights against mechanical horses, an entire animated graveyard, and a living elevator that the Hunters are inside as it plunges to the bottom of its shaft. A battle against an incarnation of the concept of mortality. A moving train that is starting to come apart at the seams.

Designing insane boss monsters for Hollows is addictive and ridiculously fun. The folks at RR&D allowed me a platform to discuss how I approach my Entity design process here, with my WIP jam entry as a case study: secrets.rowanrookanddecard.com/designing-th...

Wrapped up a Hollows RPG world event yesterday with a bang. Been planning it since July, and running it for the last three weeks with the help of six excellent GMs, two other admins, and maybe 20 players coming in and out.

Huge thanks to everyone who worked on the event, especially to @alexvalente.fyi for being a terrific leader and partner in the whole venture. Can’t wait to see how the next stage of the campaign ends up looking.

Wrapped up a Hollows RPG world event yesterday with a bang. Been planning it since July, and running it for the last three weeks with the help of six excellent GMs, two other admins, and maybe 20 players coming in and out.

The grand finale featured 15 players facing off against the final boss, the former keeper of the Hunters’ refuge, who was making a final desperate attempt to become a demigod. I lost count of how many characters were killed and blossomed during the event.

Anyone who has shared a Discord channel with me over the last two years knows that I have big opinions about Hollows (the new @rowanrookanddecard.bsky.social game by @gshowitt.bsky.social and Chris Taylor). Anyway, let's just make it official with an actual review: gemelli.bearblog.dev/hollows/

How it starts: Decide to run an online session of Every Second Counts by @olddog.games How it proceeds: Think to self, you know, I made a DMI VTT in Sheets, how different would this be How it turns out: And we need a live timer, and baggage die is handled differently, and hang on, I could ...

You can get the game on itch here: olddoggames.itch.io/every-second...

I made a game review! Is this how people make game reviews these days? I sure hope so; it's far too late for me to go back and do something else now. gemelli.bearblog.dev/deathmatch-i...

Back in 2023 I first heard the pitch for Hollows, an RPG where you enter the personal hells of other people and destroy the monsters within, knowing that eventually you will end up becoming one of these monsters yourself. Today I finished running players through the personal hell of a PC they knew.

Hollows should be hitting store shelves this fall. I cannot overstate how much I recommend you checking it out when it’s available.

Back in 2023 I first heard the pitch for Hollows, an RPG where you enter the personal hells of other people and destroy the monsters within, knowing that eventually you will end up becoming one of these monsters yourself. Today I finished running players through the personal hell of a PC they knew.

It’s a chance to reflect on your character’s story and what it ultimately means that is like nothing else I have seen in an RPG. Tragedy through the lens of community, and hope in the face of inevitable ruin.

Back in 2023 I first heard the pitch for Hollows, an RPG where you enter the personal hells of other people and destroy the monsters within, knowing that eventually you will end up becoming one of these monsters yourself. Today I finished running players through the personal hell of a PC they knew.

So the arc of your character progression involves you getting less human, building up corrupted energy that fills you with more and more deadly power, while simultaneously learning more and more about what makes them human, and flawed, and tragic with every session.

Back in 2023 I first heard the pitch for Hollows, an RPG where you enter the personal hells of other people and destroy the monsters within, knowing that eventually you will end up becoming one of these monsters yourself. Today I finished running players through the personal hell of a PC they knew.

This Blades 68 VTT is pretty nearly ready for playtesting! More screens in thread.

This Blades 68 VTT is pretty nearly ready for playtesting! More screens in thread.

This Blades 68 VTT is pretty nearly ready for playtesting! More screens in thread.

This Blades 68 VTT is pretty nearly ready for playtesting! More screens in thread.

This Blades 68 VTT is pretty nearly ready for playtesting! More screens in thread.

I didn't even get 1/4 of the way through reading Blades 68 before the inevitable started to happen.

Here's another example of a Google Sheets VTT, this one created for running games of Eat the Reich (a Havoc engine game by @gshowitt.bsky.social). The first and foremost goal here was to keep the design vibes intact, at least to the extent allowed by putting a game in a god damn spreadsheet.

This started out as a character keeper rather than a GM, but enough player groups asked about integrating dice-rolling that I eventually added that. (It's perfectly fine to run it as a character keeper and do your dice-chucking on a table, but being able to see player results in real time is nice.)