J. Walton

J. Walton

@ludopolitics.bsky.social

He/they. I teach about Game Design, Technoscience, & East Asia at Carnegie Mellon. Indie game designer -- Indie RPG Award (2006), IndieCade Night Games (2015), Ennie Judge's Spotlight (2026). Comments my own.

334 followers242 following581 posts

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J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

Hi folks. Not sure if I'm going to post a bunch here -- I'm trying to get back into blogging, actually -- but I want a way to keep track of what y'all are up to, particular in terms of indie games and games scholarship. Nice to see your digital faces again.

J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

It was ET at a drive-in with my parents. I think I was 5yo or less. The opening scene with the flashlights in the woods was so terrifying that I hid in the back seat and didn't come out.

Mark Thompson@markreckons.bsky.social

First film you saw at the cinema. The real first one, not the pretend one you tell people! Mine: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980, Wigan. We were near the front and I can still remember how massive the AT-ATs looked, looming over us out of the snow :) Film, year, where, and whatever stuck with you.

J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

For Friday crowd: CMU Press has formally announced a new series of *peer-reviewed* tabletop games, co-edited by myself & CMU media librarian Ashley Werlinich. We have a call out for GAME SUBMISSIONS for a new anthology series called Promptuary. First volume's theme is Strange Worlds / Anthropocene!

Carnegie Mellon University Press@cmupress.bsky.social

Announcing the newest peer-reviewed series for Carnegie Mellon University Press: games! This week during @meaningfulplay.bsky.social, we're launching our first-ever CFG (call for games) for Promptuary, a playable anthology. www.cmu.edu/university-p... #boardgames #tabletopgaming #stayanalog

cmu.eduGamesCarnegie Mellon University Press has expanded publishing to include a new series of tabletop games, one of the first game series by a university press.
J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

Hey, the CMU Press Games series is live. We've been planning this for a couple years, but it's amazing to be at this point. Submit your Anthropocene-themed games about humans + nonhumans + technology in our weird (post)modern/future times, for a new *peer-reviewed* anthology series.

Carnegie Mellon University Press@cmupress.bsky.social

Announcing the newest peer-reviewed series for Carnegie Mellon University Press: games! This week during @meaningfulplay.bsky.social, we're launching our first-ever CFG (call for games) for Promptuary, a playable anthology. www.cmu.edu/university-p... #boardgames #tabletopgaming #stayanalog

cmu.eduGamesCarnegie Mellon University Press has expanded publishing to include a new series of tabletop games, one of the first game series by a university press.

J. Walton reposted

Possible Worlds Games
@possibleworlds.bsky.social

I've been talking with @ludopolitics.bsky.social (Tacklebox) & Ashley Werlinich about this for a while & am SO excited to see it formally announced. This is explicitly an attempt to build a better pipeline for getting more short, weird tabletop games on tables & into print (with university funding)!

Carnegie Mellon University Press@cmupress.bsky.social

Announcing the newest peer-reviewed series for Carnegie Mellon University Press: games! This week during @meaningfulplay.bsky.social, we're launching our first-ever CFG (call for games) for Promptuary, a playable anthology. www.cmu.edu/university-p... #boardgames #tabletopgaming #stayanalog

cmu.eduGamesCarnegie Mellon University Press has expanded publishing to include a new series of tabletop games, one of the first game series by a university press.
J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

Finally on Fall Break & catching up on everything from the first 7 weeks of the semester. Including this neck for a DIY bass banjo I'm building -- formerly a 27in baritone neck. I added the deeper heel so it can be hanger-bolted to a metal banjo pot & reworked the head for 4 mini bass tuners.

J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

Upright-scale bass banjos were a thing in the 1920s, particularly for banjo orchestras. But there's only one commercially made bass banjo now (the Gold Tone BB-400), and it's full 34in bass scale. I wanted something a 5-string banjo's 26+in scale. Hence -- adapting a 27 baritone neck.

J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

Posted this over the weekend and got no takers. Anybody interested in a "What if RPGs came from Diplomacy" jam, or should I put this idea back on the drawing board?

J. Walton@ludopolitics.bsky.social

Pondering running a 2000s-style Game Jam, inspired by the Oldest Tabletop RPG (c. 1959). Would folks be interested?

J. Walton reposted

Daniel Solis
@danielsolis.bsky.social
Daniel Solis@danielsolis.bsky.social

There are two wolves. One always lies. One controls the lever of trolley track. They're in a state of superposition inside a box. On the trolley are infinite monkeys at infinite typewriters going to an infinite hotel. The trolley must first travel halfway, but before that a quarterway, and so on...

J. Walton reposted

Possible Worlds Games
@possibleworlds.bsky.social

for our midterm we playtested 17 (!!!) new, original, peer-designed TTRPGs in class this week—most by first-time designers—and I genuinely couldn’t be prouder of my students. games are good, y’all.

J. Walton reposted

J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

Replying to @possibleworlds.bsky.social

Don't need no licenses in Indie Land. Just file those serial numbers off. I would totally play "2nd Gen Ninjas with Baggage."

J. Walton reposted

Paul Czege
@paulczege.bsky.social

My contention is that a journaling game done as a 5"x7" card and that's maybe just a few journal entries can be just as affecting and immersive as a longer game.

J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

Designing for ButtonShy's semi-annual 18-Card Contest (theme: Fear), a new tradition. My first attempt this year is about some of the members of the Franklin Expedition abandoning the HMS Terror & Erebus after two winters stuck in the ice and making a doomed march toward the Canadian mainland. Fun.

J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

How can people use AI to write emails when clearly you should: re-read them over at least 8 times before sending them, while making tiny little clever word choices that don't matter, and ensuring they are way too long for any actual human to actually read them. Letters = Victorian art form.

J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

RPG Thought of the Day: There are three primordial structures for campaign-length play -- Dungeon, Overland, and Urban (thanks @johnharper.bsky.social). Urban doesn't come from LOTR, but sneaks in through Lankhmar & especially Cyberpunk. The D&D thing that best embodies all 3 is Planescape.

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J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

There are, of course, other forms of RPG play now. But you still see many takes on those primordial 3 everywhere. And sometimes campaign-length games struggle if they don't clearly embrace one or more of those 3 structures. They need to provide a clear vision of how else to structure long-term play.

J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

Oh, and with RPGs coming from wargaming, the thing that these 3 structures are really trying to answer is: "How do we get from this battle/challenge to the next battle/challenge?" Each structure strongly suggests how the characters shift from one potent situation to the next.

J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

RPG Thought of the Day: There are three primordial structures for campaign-length play -- Dungeon, Overland, and Urban (thanks @johnharper.bsky.social). Urban doesn't come from LOTR, but sneaks in through Lankhmar & especially Cyberpunk. The D&D thing that best embodies all 3 is Planescape.

J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

Corollary: It's pretty hard for a game to do more than 2 of these well, and often they excel at just 1 structure and then also allow for a little of one or both of the others. Often Dungeon is room-by-room + looting, Overland is point/hex/journey crawl, & Urban is factions, patrons, & missions.

J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

I dreamed that Tor Books was publishing a Party Larp by @jmstar.bsky.social called Moon & Amethyst Try Not to Destroy the Earth. Moon (bored nepo-baby) & Amethyst (indulgent aristocrat) are two groovy aliens bringing their eternal roving hippy party to Earth, alongside their semi-friend Sex Head.

J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

Each player makes their own gonzo alien char independently & then arrives to the party in-character, often dressed up but not required. Sex Head is a chill yoga surfer type who is an expert on new forms of intercourse, such as grinding two armpits together or using a chopstick to poke between toes.

J. Walton
@ludopolitics.bsky.social

The book was almost entirely "safety advertisement" images that suggested the overall vibe. For example, one page had a picture of a red-and-white striped spiral staircase, with text that read: “Please avoid building stairs out of bacon. It will be slippery and hazardous.”