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  "description": "Monthly design jams, critique, theory, and inspiration for tabletop rpg designers by rpg designers. Vetted. Looted. Curated. ",
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  "publishedAt": "2026-04-01T04:05:06.000Z",
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  "tags": [
    "Bluesky",
    "The Awards Need Judges!",
    "Old-School Essentials Month.",
    "Cave Jam!",
    "Lean Green Zine Jam.",
    "Blog Bandwagon: Maps!",
    "Total//Effect//Jam.",
    "Islands!! Islands!! Islands!!! Jam",
    "You Cannot Play This TTRPG Jam",
    "Make Moves Jam.",
    "Public Access is Not What You Think",
    "Rating Every Room in White Plume Mountain",
    "Roach Motel",
    "Drought Dragon Desolation",
    "Emergence",
    "Take This You Fiends! (Tunnels & Trolls)",
    "Building Circuits in We Shall Be Monsters",
    "The Voice of the Text (Triangle Agency)",
    "Draw Steel",
    "TTRPG Webrings",
    "root ring",
    "Diceless Resolution",
    "Exquisite Chimera",
    "Designing Location Blocks",
    "State of the OSR (at PAGE)",
    "Interview with Emily Entner",
    "Precious Things",
    "What is a degenerate game state?",
    "Gears of System, Gears of Lore",
    "Elements of a Key 3",
    "Designing for Pirate Borg Pt. 3",
    "Energy Coin Adventure Design",
    "Rules are not neutral!",
    "Dungeons are People",
    "Everything I Know About Making RPGs",
    "Ship of the Dead Podcast is back!",
    "Designing Puzzles for Adventure Games",
    "A Comprehensive Guide to Book Cover Design Cost",
    "King Gizzard and The Poster Wizard",
    "Making Type: John Roshell Comic Craft and Swell Type",
    "BP&O Branding Archive",
    "The Design Blog.",
    "Bingo-Style Experience Points",
    "New Simulationism",
    "The Explorateur: Issue #17Monthly design jams, critique, theory, and inspiration for tabletop rpg designers by rpg designers. Vetted. Looted. Curated.Explorers DesignClayton Notestine",
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  "textContent": "# Three Design ideas for RPGs.\n\n### #1 Content can be helped or hindered by its format.\n\nThe format, size, and dimensions of your publication creates inherent allowances and limitations that compliment or hinder different writing, art, and more. For this reason, format is never automatically transferrable or an insignificant design decision. Some games, like _Apocalypse World_ , sing in epub or physical formats like US Trade, while games like _Triangle Agency_ do not.\n\n### #2 The better you know \"the rules\" the better they break.\n\nThe rules are worth learning _especially_ if you plan on breaking them. Think of them like an inheritance. If you break them without understanding them, you risk repeating the same mistakes and being unoriginal by dint of ignorance. But if you learn the rules (and, more importantly, the reasoning behind them), then you can break the rules in new and targeted ways as innovation, commentary, or rebellion. Part of learning a rule is learning how others broke it last.\n\n### #3 Nothing beats real experience and perspective.\n\nThe more time I spend in physical spaces playing games, reading books, and talking to real people—the better I get at my craft. Mastery over the theoretical is worse than nothing. Play games. Playtest often. Read non-rpg books. Go for walks. Cook food for others. Print shit out. Crumple it up and throw it away. Ride a tram. Drink a pint. Sit on a bench. Memorize different species of birds. Be real.\n\n✋\n\n****Did you know this post gets updated?**** Sometimes I miss something and add it later. Don't forget to check out the web version for the latest treasure trove of links.\n\n### Quests & Rumors\n\nGame jams, contests, and opportunities. Drop me a line on Bluesky.\n\n  * The Awards Need Judges!**** The rpg awards for Weird Shit™ need volunteer judges for this year's selection of 100+ games. Submissions close April 30th.\n  * Old-School Essentials Month.**** Prepare your spirit for a collab project led by Exalted Funeral and Necrotic Gnome on Backerkit. May 5th – June 6th.\n  * Cave Jam!**** Make caves. Or lairs. Every cave tells a story older than fire. And some of them have big frog dudes with clubs and shit. Jam ends April 14th.\n  * Lean Green Zine Jam.**** I love any jam that supports tiny bursts of creativity. This one: Make it small. Make it green. Make it a zine. Ends April 20th.\n  * Blog Bandwagon: Maps!**** This blogging event, hosted by Prismatic Wasteland, is all about maps! Share all of your map ideas. Ends April 27th.\n  * Total//Effect//Jam.**** Binary Star's hosting a jam to celebrate the launch of Null_Space, a sci-fi game with novel mechanics. Jam Feb 16th – April 30th.\n  * Islands!! Islands!! Islands!!! Jam**.** Design weird islands for the game _Islands of Weirdhope_ , a standalone expansion to Eco Mofos!! Ends June 1st.\n  * You Cannot Play This TTRPG Jam**.** This is a game jam for games that do not exist. They won't ever exist. They will never be playable.**** Ends June 21st.\n  * Make Moves Jam.**** Create or share singular Moves using Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) design philosophies. Jam lasts all year. Ends Dec 31st.\n\n\n\n### Reviews & Critique\n\nCritique and examinations of tabletop rpgs, adventures, and more.\n\n  * Public Access is Not What You Think****_by Fail Forward._ This review has spoilers which, to be honest, the \"spoiler\" is what I want reviewed in games.\n  * Rating Every Room in White Plume Mountain****_by Prismatic Wasteland._ The classic TSR module gets a fun room-by-room review with star-ratings.\n  * Roach Motel****_by Idle Cartulary._ If you love graphical layouts with neat little tricks and shorthands, Norgad's work is unmissable. Nova digs deeper...\n  * Drought Dragon Desolation****_by OSR Rocks!_ How much detail is too much? What supports play in Merry Mushmen release by Liam Pádraig Ó Cuilleanáin?\n  * Emergence_by Save vs. Total Party Kill._ Another Mothership module: bleak, weird monsters, and evil corporations. How does Emergence fare with the formula?\n  * Take This You Fiends! (Tunnels & Trolls)****_by False Machine._ Every review of _Tunnels & Trolls_ introduces me to an entirely different game.\n  * Building Circuits in We Shall Be Monsters****_by Skeleton Code Machine._ SCM explores how Seb Pines's latest release uses a zero-luck prompt system.\n  * 🎙️ The Voice of the Text (Triangle Agency) _by Dice Exploder._ Seraphina Garcia Ramirez and Sam D talk _Triangle Agency_ , it's writing, voice, and more.\n  * 📺 Draw Steel _by Questing Beast._ A review and play report that captures a lot of what makes _Draw Steel_ different, which is to say: a whole lot.\n\n\n\n### Design Examples & Best-iary\n\nThe spotlight section of the newsletter full of showcases and projects.\n\n  * TTRPG Webrings****_by Cobb.Land._ I love webrings, they offer a kind of \"walkability\" to connected blogs. Explorers Design is part of the root ring.\n  * ⚙️**** Diceless Resolution****_by New School Revolution._ A super simple resolution system that reminds me of playing rock-paper-scissors in LARPs.\n  * ⚙️ Exquisite Chimera****_by Patchwork Paladin._ I've seen this idea before, but I like this version best. It takes some inspiration from lore blocks, too!\n  * ⚙️**** Designing Location Blocks****_by The Play Reports._ A side-by-side comparison of different games and how locations can work as lore blocks.\n  * 📺 State of the OSR (at PAGE)****_by Limithron._ It's been a year since the last \"State of the OSR\" panel at Gary Con. This time with new guests! A fun show.\n  * **📺** Interview with Emily Entner****_by Wet Ink Games._ Emily's design work speaks for itself: Precious Things, _Glatisant_ , and _The Peddler's Prize_.\n\n\n\n### Theory & Craft\n\nDesign tools, resources, theory, and advice for rpg designers from rpg designers.\n\n  * What is a degenerate game state?****_by Skeleton Code Machine._ Exploring the concept of degenerate strategies and game states in board games and more.\n  * Gears of System, Gears of Lore****_by Old Dog Games._ A post all about rules, their friction and impact, using gears from cars and bikes as a metaphor.\n  * Elements of a Key 3****_by BAATAG._ An audit (and investigation) into different room descriptions from _Holy Mountain Shaker_ to _Keep on the Borderlands._\n  * Designing for Pirate Borg Pt. 3****_by OSR Rocks!_ This three-part series is a great read for designers who plan to publish. A walkthrough on development.\n  * Energy Coin Adventure Design****_by Mindstorm._ A mental model for mapping out dynamic and static elements in an adventure as potential and kinetic.\n  * Rules are not neutral!****_by Humberto Tramujas._ An important reminder that context is inescapable. \"Rules are not neutral; they carry traces of past use.\"\n  * Dungeons are People****_by 3_ ×5 _Arcana._ \"A dungeon worth dying in, has  _personality_. It  _believes_ things, it  _wants_ things... It _is_ a person.\"\n  * Everything I Know About Making RPGs****_by Brackish Draught._ This is a long post with a little bit of everything for everyone from art to advertising.\n  * 🎙️ Ship of the Dead Podcast is back!**** If you like listening to design, craft, and industry chatter. I highly recommend listening to the whole backlog.\n  * **📺** Designing Puzzles for Adventure Games****_by Direct Sun._ Brad Kerr and Joseph R Lewis join Direct Sun to talk all about panels at Gary Con 2026.\n\n\n\n### Inspiring & Non-roleplaying\n\nDesign tools, theory, and inspiration from the world beyond tabletop rpgs.\n\n  * A Comprehensive Guide to Book Cover Design Cost _by I Need a Book Cover._ An invaluable look into the current rates for literary publishing.\n  * King Gizzard and The Poster Wizard****_by True Grit._ An interview and tour with _King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's _poster designer, Amy Jean.\n  * Making Type: John Roshell Comic Craft and Swell Type****_by Adobe._ A conversation with the type designer who pioneered comic book digital lettering.\n  * 💡 BP&O Branding Archive**.** If you like logos, word marks, and color palettes, you'll like this publication that researches and reviews them.\n  * 💡 The Design Blog.**** Similar to the link above, this website has all kinds of inspiration from graphic to interior design for brands of all types.\n\n\n\n### Design Archive\n\nOld articles, missed articles, famous or overlooked, resurfaced for the newsletter.\n\n  * **⚙️** Bingo-Style Experience Points****_by Githyanki Diaspora._ I'm surprised this five-year old post never ended up in everyone's mechanics chop shop.\n  * New Simulationism****_by Sam Sorenson._ This is a manifesto about diegetic play. It has stood the test of time, which is not something most manifestos do.\n\n\n\n* * *\n\n### Missed the last issue? Read it here.\n\nThe Explorateur: Issue #17Monthly design jams, critique, theory, and inspiration for tabletop rpg designers by rpg designers. Vetted. Looted. Curated.Explorers DesignClayton Notestine\n\n* * *\n\n_This newsletter uses the occasional affiliate link to support Explorers Design. If you notice any broken links, mistakes, or bad actors, please let me know._\n\n* * *\n\nExplorers Design_is a production of Clayton Notestine. If you liked this issue, please consider liking, sharing, and subscribing._\n\n## Sign up for Explorers Design\n\nGet The Explorateur, reviews, and other design resources.\n(Or follow along using your favorite RSS Feed...)\n\nSubscribe\n\nEmail sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.\n\nNo spam. Ocassional nonsense. Unsubscribe anytime.",
  "title": "The Explorateur: Issue #18",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-01T20:51:24.712Z"
}