Tag: ttrpg
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The NEW Ealdsmyth: An optimized system with psychological growth in mind
I can’t begin to explain how groundbreaking this summer has been for us creators of the Ealdsmyth TTRPG system. Roger Speer, Greg Peterson, and I spent a few days together on a creative retreat, and what we emerged with is an intentional, even more immersive and meaningful system that we call “Ealdsmyth 2026.”
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How EALDSMYTH Prepares Teens for Real-Life Heroism
I regularly work with teenagers as a high-school theatre teacher. Though I wish I could just lecture them into learning life skills, it’s unfortunately not that easy. Teens, like all humans really, need a story worth stepping into to effectively learn how to live.
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The Magic of Mirrors: Using NPCs & Story Beats to Reflect Inner Growth
Have you ever introduced an NPC at your table that just really clicked with your players? Maybe it was a gobliness left behind by a war party that was supposed to foreshadow their bloodthirsty nature but instead became a recipient of their empathy. As Stewards, we can’t always predict what NPCs will connect with our…
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The Creative Potential of Chaos
One thing I learned quickly after getting into TTRPGs is that I love playing games infused with chaos. Whether I’m a player or a Steward, I want to bring chaos to the table, and I want to be challenged by chaos.
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When the Party Fights: Using In-Game Conflict to Teach Real-World Resolution
Conflict is absolutely essential for great storytelling. At the gaming table, it can create drama, tension, and growth… as long as everyone’s onboard. Sometimes, though, what starts as roleplay could actually reveal personal discomfort, and that discomfort is easy to weaponize.
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The Illusion of Knowing
Imagine for a moment that you’re in a dark-but-candlelit room, across a modest table from a wizened woman. She squints at oversized cards spread across the navy-felted table, and she begins to speak: “Ah yes… I see a decision weighing on you…” You hang on to her every word. What if this same narrative trick…
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From the Neighborhood of Make-Believe to the Tabletop
When I was a kid, I had a happy place: It was peaceful, it was slow-moving, and it involved a geriatric changing into a sweater before feeding the fish and playing with a train. My happy place was Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
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Yes, And… Insight: How Improv Rules Make You a Better TTRPG Steward (and Human Being)
The beautiful thing about tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), which a lot of video-game players have difficulty realizing at first, is that the adventure you’re on doesn’t have preprogrammed coding.
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Your First Step into SEL through TTRPGs
Tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) can serve as powerful tools for social-emotional learning (SEL). I made this bold claim in my last blog post. When the TTRPG is rules-lite and optimized for collaborative storytelling (like Ealdsmyth), the potential for SEL increases exponentially.
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Your game needs tattoos. Here’s why…
I don’t have a single tattoo on my body, and yet I had an absolute blast writing my latest book, Under the Skin. It’s all about incorporating tattoos into your tabletop roleplaying gameplay. My obsession with imaginary tattoos started when playing Pathfinder 2nd Edition and leveling up my character so that he could “craft magical…
