New Year Game: Star Trek Adventures in the 2270s
The premise for this game is the post Star Trek the Motion Picture era, but before 2278 when the new red uniforms arrived. Starfleet and the Federation are mid-transition to…
Into Darkness, TALKING TO DRAGONS, book 1 of TALES OF DISTANT LANDS
After their meal, they continued their journey, the forest growing darker and more foreboding as the rain intensified. The compass remained steady, its needle pointing unwaveringly ahead. It was late…
Posted inGame Design GM In-Character
The Crossing
The Wanderer rocked violently, a fragile speck in the vast, storm-beaten waters. Spicer, the captain, stood barefoot at the helm, his wiry frame braced against the ship’s shuddering frame as waves…
Posted inCommentary Game Design
Domination….no, not what you’re thinking.
I was a fan of Domination (the RPG) for a while. It was published by Starchilde Publications in 1989. Starchilde also made another game I really liked: Justifiers (and I…
Posted inCommentary Humanydyne
Humanydyne ReadThru at the RPGPub
I was faintly annoyed that the English translation was never completed and Google Translate really struggled. So...I'm doing a slightly AI assisted read-through of the book. https://www.rpgpub.com/threads/humanydyne-a-rather-mechanistic-readthrough.11211/
Posted inGame Design Tales of Distant Lands
New posts on Childbirth and Death in Tales of Distant Lands.
I've done a lot of worldbuilding here and on the RPGPUB but the place where the most content for Tales of Distant Lands lives is on the Patreon. Thers's heaps…
Posted inCommentary
Interview on Randomworlds.
Tonight I was interviewed by the Harboiled GMshoe, Dan Davenport https://gmshoe.wordpress.com/2024/09/22/qa-matt-johnston-rise-of-rlyeh/ We talked about the recent release of Rise of R’lyeh and touched on some recent books we have released.…
Posted inGame Design Rise of R'lyeh
NEW RELEASE: Rise of R’lyeh – a new post apocalyptic vision
The strange aeons arrived and R'lyeh rose from the dark waters. A Dark Past When the darkness came for me, There was no-one who stood in their way In 1998,…
Posted inGame Design Tales of Distant Lands
Tales of Distant Lands – Fights
Drennus is a Privean pirate who fights with a long blade. He's matched against Blackfeather, a Saalian dockworker. Both have seen several scrapes in the past Drennus Body d10, Pirate…
Posted inGame Design Whole New World
Whole New World: Seeking Artists
The art for Enhanced or Through the Silver Gate doesn't vibe well with Whole New World so I'm hunting for an artist again to produce the cool retro-space vibe I…
Posted inGame Design
Using Twilight 2000 Resources with Blade Runner
Blade Runner is one of the published games by Free League which uses a version of the Year Zero Engine (YZE) which eschews dice pools in favour of stepped dice.…
Posted inGame Design Rise of R'lyeh Twilight 2000
New Release: Through The Silver Gate – a new alt-campaign for Twilight 2000
Through the Silver Gate is a new alt-campaign for Twilight 2000 cementing it as a flexible and practical modern task and combat resolution system. It sits alongside Here Be Dragons…
Posted inGame Design GM In-Character
Tales of Distant Lands Playtest: Group 2, Session 2 – AP
Once she was sure that everyone was asleep, Joy crept from her stuffed straw pallet and slipped out of the room. She was sure no-one would have heard her move…
Posted inDe Occulta Enhanced Ex Sanguine
The Fantasy War – putting the War in Wardrobe
I wrote some notes a while ago so forgive me for brevity. This morning on the bus....I kinda expanded them. Images are placeholders, I've pinged my artist, Dino, to produce…
Posted inGame Design
One Page RPG Jam 2024 – Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf
This is an examination of being a starfaring race in the Dark Forest. The idea of a violent and hostile void out there filled with predators lurking in the vast…
Posted inCommentary Game Design
One Page RPG Jam 2024 – Communists in the Funhouse
So, where did this one come from? Communists in the Funhouse is a euphemism used in Denmark to describe a woman who's at a certain stage of her menstrual cycle.…
Posted inGame Design
One Page RPG Jam 2024 – We Go In – Saving the World when you’re not From The World
The third RPG I've posed to the Jam is WE GO IN The concept is being a disaster relief operative. A little like "International Rescue" also known as Thunderbirds. Now…
Posted inGame Design
One Page RPG Jam 2024 – Chosen Men – “Sharpe” by any other name
The second RPG I've posted for the Jam is Chosen Men This game is the "Sharpe" of RPGs. The idea of romping around Spain putting Napoleon back in his place…
Posted inCommentary Game Design
One Page RPG Jam 2024 – Talking to Dragons – an Earthsea-inspired RPG
So far I’ve posted two entries for the Jam The first is....Talking to Dragons This is the base system for "Tales of Distant Lands" and could be considered a QuickStart…
Posted inGame Design
One Page Game Jam 2024
We will be hacking together some entries for the one page game jam over the coming month. Pop onto our discord if you want to join in.