WiddershinsWanderings

They call me and my friends "HERETICS" and "CULTISTS" in the local TTRPG scene afraidofencounters.bearblog.dev/being-called...

campaign prep??? elmc.at/thirty-quest...

I've been running a sandbox campaign for my kids! Read all about the joys and challenges of running an OSR game for kids under 10. With special thanks to @n8hps.bsky.social 's Dogtooth Valley for a great little module. widdershinswanderings.bearblog.dev/running-cair...

Hey, yall. This just launched and has absolutely nothing to do with @yochaigal.bsky.social as he likes to say. And if he weren't slinging zines at Arcane Con right now he'd be pumping it up, so yall should pick up the slack. This is pretty awesome. So many good creators on this. #osr

Me, my wife, and my friends bought the Cairn 2e Box Set for our local TTRPG community, so that people can borrow it for free and play the game 📷 by my friendg

BASTION ELYSIUM An Electric Bastionland apartment crawl adventure for 3–5 players. What if Disco Elysium were set entirely in an apartment building? Coming soon! Cover art by Citaaticat #osr #ttrpg

Want to learn the basics of Cairn? Want to introduce your in-laws or a group of Jr High kids to the concepts quickly? Have a 5-minute tutorial! youtu.be/vTLZZqTmp98 #osr #nsr #cairn2e

A few spreads from my upcoming horror adventure, The Forgetting of Lockwood Manor. Art by @robbiaburns.bsky.social and layout by @adamhensley.bsky.social. Out in time for Halloween!

THE MONKEY KING'S MANY FACES Just a quick run-through of the many, many shapes Hanuman / Sun Wu Kong takes, around the world, in Southeast Asia---and also a stealth announcement that I will have a new adventure out at the end of the year: slowlorispress.com/post/8295484...

A new, unexpected entry in my series on Developing the Sandbox! I have gone down a rabbit hole of time (a wormhole?) & have gotten SUPER into using a calendar for my B1 game. Here, I talk about all the stuff you can track in your campaign calendar! #TTRPG #D&D #AD&D #OSR

I've been talking about play style preferences lately, but there's another aspect of table culture that I think is a key determining factor on whether a gaming table stays together. Whether you're playing Cairn, Mothership, or Vampire. widdershinswanderings.bearblog.dev/ttrpg-table-...

There are two pieces of tech that I have found really useful while building the Middle-earth Hexcrawl. As near as I know, they're innovations (although nothing is really new), so perhaps you would like to hear them! The first is called GEE BILL, WHY DOES YOUR MOM LETY OU HAVE TWO ENCOUNTER TABLES 🧵

Today on Between Two Cairns, @betterlegends.bsky.social, @bradkerr.net and I review The Ground Shakes Beneath Poxblood Parish by Mucilage., and answer the following question: "How do you encourage risky behavior in players?" Also we discuss ska for WAY too long. www.patreon.com/betweentwoca...

I've finished my series on Play Style Preferences inspired by @betterlegends.bsky.social 's RPG Preference Matrix. I think it's a great way of figuring out what everyone at a table wants out of their game. widdershinswanderings.bearblog.dev/play-style-p...

I wrote a manifesto. It's mostly for me, but maybe it can be for you too! seraphim-seraphina.itch.io/my-blog/devl...

Finally ponied up for physical copies of these two modules. Two great modules that gross you out to good effect.

I finally got around to writing my recap of Between Two Cons! Which ruled. This is the first post on my new blog, too! It includes pictures from the weekend, some favorite moments, and summaries of the games I played. More detailed play reports to come. blog.maximlowe.com/between-two-...

The first Cairn Press "double feature" ends in three days! We are 200% funded, the zines are complete and ready for print, and we are fulfilling in the US, CA, UK, EU, AUS and NZ! Also, if you pledge for both zines you can get them for cheaper than retail! www.kickstarter.com/projects/cai...

Today's post: I respond - at great length - to @samsorensen.bsky.social & co.'s review of Unicorn Meat. There was a lot I agreed with, a lot I very much didn't, and so it goes. throneofsalt.blogspot.com/2026/07/a-re...

No-brainer purchase. Hexagnome never disappoints.

3d6 DTL dives head-first into @bradkerr.net 's #OSE Quick Delve Against the Horselord in our first recorded in-person session! Arson! Unnecessary taxidermy! Patricidal mandolin pluckers! Very sudden trees! #OSR #TTRPG #ActualPlay Links below!

Clayton continues to be one of the best sources of insightful yet practical information in the hobby.

I'll be at the Cairn Press booth both mornings. Feel free to swing by for a chat and maybe buy a zine or two!

BLACKOUT is my first module for Mothership, taking your crew underground to restore a colony power supply, and finding some unexpected things... Featuring art by @emo-sludge.com pointlessmonument.itch.io/blackout

When a dragon has just 1 hit point and a maze of obstacles, combat is like an open-ended puzzle. The challenge: the player characters only have 1 hit point too—and the dragon has a lot fewer obstacles. A small playtesting update about death without hit points:

Reposting because I truly believe we can make it! I only need about 40 more backers to reach my second stretch goal of drawing A BUNCH OF WEAPONS, ARMOR AND MAGIC ITEMS.

The Cairn Press June Newsletter is out! sendy.cairnrpg.com/w/Ujuc96HCBR... Subscribe at news.cairnrpg.com!

[angelic choir singing] A blog search that works!

Next in my series on developing the sandbox, I wrote about how to breathe life into villages, hamlets, & thorps. These locations are the bread & butter of low level D&D sandbox play. They are different than towns & cities. How? Read on to find out. #D&D #AD&D #OSR

Into the mines we go! Our abbreviated tour of @weirdwonder.bsky.social 's Orestruck scenario for the Cairn RPG concludes with burning tree sap magic, minecart mishaps, thieving bone bats, and one really big beastie. #OSR #NSR #TTRPG @cairnrpg.com Links below!

The pre-launch page for the very first Cairn Press Double Feature is live! www.kickstarter.com/projects/cai...

Today on Between Two Cairns, @bradkerr.net, @betterlegends.bsky.social and I review The Knight Errant by @isaacisafraid.bsky.social, and answer a mootsack question about whether we have enough OSR modules already. www.patreon.com/posts/knight...

We'll be LIVE ON STAGE at #BetweenTwoCons! (It's like our regular show, but we're all in the SAME SPACE. 🤯) Come to Portland! tabletop.events/conventions/... #OSR #NSR #TTRPG #Actualplay

Wrote a quick review of a Cairn adventure I’ve run a few times now. Give it a look. It’s free. www.explorersdesign.com/reviewing-bl...

START for BREAK!! RPG The new adventure for the award-winning, anime inspired TTRPG is live on Kickstarter. 👍 Back 🙏 Share 🎉 Rejoice www.kickstarter.com/projects/gre...

Always in the market for a Hexagnome module.

I've created printable (and editable) pregens of all 20 Cairn 2e backgrounds. These took way longer than they should have. drive.google.com/file/d/1lscZ...

As a follow-up to last week's post about writing modules, I wrote another post on writing adventures for Cairn, and how that might be different than other OSR systems. newschoolrevolution.com/writing-modu...

⚡ NEW BLOG POST! I'm back talking about adventure design, this time laying out a mental model for 'energy' inside of an adventure. It's a simple and effective way to categorize elements inside of the scenario and look for stagnation and chaos. Check it out! ⚡ www.mindstormpress.com/energy-coin-...

Presenting our live recording of Between Two Cairns at Gary Con XVIII! @bradkerr.net, @betterlegends.bsky.social and I review D3: Vault of the Drow by Gary Gygax in another Gamer Blast from the Past! youtu.be/I_zrshbGR34?... Patrons received this video early.

youtu.be/GnApAmrF2Rw

Blogpost: I've often mentioned the local meetup I run in conversations on here and elsewhere. Now, after 3 years, here's an overview of how I did it and what we've been playing. pointlessmonument.blot.im/60-systems-a...

🚨TTRPG KEYSTONE ADVICE ALERT🚨 If you are a person who runs or plays roleplaying games, please read this. Internalise it. It'll save your table from aggressively wasting each other's valuable play time! 1/

Have been working on a new project for blog discovery. It's now live! Check out rootr.ing! A new small hub and webring for ttrpg blogs. Read about here: elmc.at/rootring-is-...

While working on a more substantive project, I got to thinking about a maladaption I've noticed in many referees. Then a few hours later, a friend of mine did the exact thing I was thinking of right in front of me. So I wrote about it. www.paperspencils.com/referee-sabo...

It’s hard to truly understand the immortality of an elf as a human player, but not hard to understand the mortality of animal-folk- therefore: icastlight.blogspot.com/2026/03/ratl...

I wrote about my experiences teaching Cairn to middle school kids, but my advice works just as well for adults as it does for adolescents. widdershinswanderings.bearblog.dev/teaching-cai...

What's next for 3d6 DTL? Well... #NSR #OSR #TTRPG @bastionland.bsky.social