Blog

This is the first of my design diaries for The Long Road Home. The Setting.

My first playtest of the rules was lovely. We skipped a chapter or two, and didn’t do the homecoming, but soon got into the rythym of the game.

Looking back at 2022 for Plane Sailing Games

Well, what a furore. Who had on their bingo card for 2023 an uproar over an RPG license which is over twenty years old? Not me for sure.

I’m launching a System Reference Document that describes the mechanisms which I’ve used for some of my highly regarded story games. I hope that other people will be able to take it and

My latest game is inspired by Scrooge and It’s a wonderful life. A story game of the possibility of redemption, no matter how bad someone is.

Although the diplomats are agents of their government, it isn’t just the ruling body who call the shots. Who are the other power brokers within each regime?

What kind of currency do I want in a game? Do I want people worrying about credit balance, or… something else?

I’m working on a Forged in the Dark (FitD) science fiction game, with a working title of “Born to the Purple”. This is a short discussion of aspects and facts.

A deck of playing cards provides a wonderful set of randomisers in one convenient package.

Looking back at the ups and downs of 2021 for Plane Sailing Games

I’m opening up the first playtest for Inner Circle. Please join me!

What did I want to achieve? I had two things in mind for Inner Circle a push your luck bidding game Some light guidance/prompts for story elements to include in plans

I’m in the process of working on and playtesting my next game, which is called Inner Circle. It is a lightweight black comedy story game about terrible people working for a terrible dictator.

Playtesting of Love and Barbed Wire has produced some lovely stories. Here are some of the letters which people have created as a result of their playtest games

Things have been very quiet on the front of my first supplement to Starguild: Space Opera Noir. You can see a number of blog posts about work on these rules dating from 2017

I love mysteries - mystery stories, mystery movies and especially mysteries in RPGs.

My next game project that I am working on is set further back in time, during the first world war - the Great War. The quotes in this blog are from real letters

It turns out that I’ve been interested in game design since my very earliest days as a gamer. Back in 1975 I read a review of Dungeons & Dragons, couldn’t afford a copy,

Changes to the technology underlying this site

What kind of power level do you want cybernetics and psionics to have in your Starguild game? Whether you like rare and dangerous or powers that wouldn’t look out of place in a

Psychic powers cover a wide range of science fiction mental powers. They are broadly divided into six disciplines, each of which have a number of talents which can be gained within them.

Cybernetics are man-machine interfaces of one kind or another. Characters and opponents can use money to build in additional capabilities of one kind or another, but at a cost – every bit of

In this page I describe the fundamentals of the Starguild game - backgrounds, ability scores, skills, saves and Non-Player Characters

When setting out to write an RPG, it is useful to consider all the influences which you have had along the way. Starguild was a long time in the making, and these are

As a result of the successful kickstarter, art is coming in from the three main artists that I have commissioned. These page excerpts show their work and my goodness I’m pleased with the