Squeezy Is Not So Easy!

For those who enjoy daily word games in the vein of Wordle, Strands, or Connections, I found one recently that's different and fun, called Squeezy. Basically, you have a selection of words on the right-hand side – such as BITER, CAD, ONCE, and RETIRE; and a selection of tiles on...

It Really Is All A Game!

We all love tabletop games, no matter what the flavor, from Chess and Go to GURPS and Munchkin. But do you know about the ancient, storied history of boardgaming?    A fascinating book I've recently become aware of is It's All a Game, by Tristan Donovan. It chronicles gaming's past and...

Check Please?

I know they're kind of old-fashioned nowadays, but if you need a piece of cool evidence in your game (especially a campaign featuring GURPS Mysteries), nothing quite beats a check. A single (fake, of course!) check provides lots of clues that players can follow up on: addresses, names to and from...

Foldit Is Citizen Science, Gamified

My parents were always fond of telling me that video games were a waste of time. While they might have been right on some level – I've dedicated an embarrassing number of hours to Baldur's Gate 3 – I don't think they can really make that argument for Foldit. The object...

Hear The Call With Choose Cthulhu Books 7-10

Imagine: A world of eldritch terrors. A world of bizarre mysteries. A world of extraterrestrial beings.    This is the world of Cthulhu!   Based on classic tales of cosmic horror, Choose Cthulhu is a series of stand-alone game books that take you on a solo journey through the Miskatonic Valley....

Today's Half-Baked Idea: Failure?

I've been experiencing the joy of roguelike games on my Nintendo Switch, which deliver a bite-sized batch of fun on the portable console. For those who aren't familiar, roguelikes are – very briefly – dungeon-crawl-type games with more or less randomly generated environments. One element in some of the genre...

Pew Pew!

I haven't had a chance to play Star Wars Outlaws yet, but I have been amused by early reports of the in-game pet Nix, who has a "pet" command and can be made jealous if you give attention to other animals. I was especially delighted by online reports about what...

CL-CLICK Whirrrr . . .

I just realized how straightforward it would be to recreate classic "instant camera"-type pictures as props for a game. Here's some info on Polaroid photo dimensions to get the right sizes (or use the details as inspiration for your game universe's equivalent). To craft something durable like the originals, I'd...

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