In #RPGaDay2025 Day 4, I responded to "Message" by talking about how difficult it is to communicate long-distance without telephones. This is an update after a reader reminded me of semaphore and other signals at a distance.
https://melestrua.net/2025/12/31/message-rpgaday-2025-day-4-update/
Blog - #RPGaDay2025 - 22 - Ally
TL;DR: Long delayed post about trying to ensure our #ttrpg conventions are open and inclusive spaces.
https://delta-pavonis.blogspot.com/2025/08/rpgaday2025-22-ally.html
Blog - #RPGaDay2025 - 14 - Mystery
TL;DR: A long delayed finalisation of a post on mystery adventures and their structure.
https://delta-pavonis.blogspot.com/2025/08/rpgaday2025-14-mystery.html
#RPGaDay2025 - 20 - Enter (catchup mode)
TL;DR: Thoughts on making the choice to enter the next part of a #ttrpg adventure significant, a threshold to be crossed.
https://delta-pavonis.blogspot.com/2025/08/rpgaday2025-20-enter.html
My after-action report for the #RPGaDAY2025 Challenge. I did a lot of talking about various #TTRPG topics. I felt good about my #RPGaDAY entries.
RPGaDAY2025 After Action Report – TardisCaptain's Blog of Holding
https://tardiscaptain.com/2025/09/02/rpgaday2025-after-action-report/
I didn't realize how much posting about #RPGaDay2025 had become part of my daily routine.
Best of RPGaDAY2025
Some of the highlights of the recent RPGaDAY2025 challenge:
https://polyhedralnonsense.com/2025/09/01/best-of-rpgaday2025/
Best of RPGaDAY2025
The RPGaDAY2025 challenge ended yesterday. I thought I’d put together a quick list of some of my favorite entries.
Maybe not a “best” list, just some of the entries in #RPGaDAY2025 challenge I found interesting. These are all blog posts, as those are the only links I bothered to write down. Quite certain I missed a lot of good ones.
Feel free to add your own favorites.
Patron
Timothy S. Brennan discussed a few types of fantastic Patrons. I particularly liked the bit about making deals with angels.
https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2025/08/rpgaday2025-day-1-patron.html
Message
From Melestrua’s Musings – some ideas about sending Messages in a D&D setting
https://melestrua.net/2025/08/05/message-rpgaday-2025-day-4/
Prompt
Some interesting ideas for adventure hooks over at the Red Wizard blog
https://redwizard.ca/2025/08/promptly-questioning-my-life-choices-a-guide-to-rpg-hooks-that-dont-suck/
Mystery
A cool idea for using clues as currency
https://redwizard.ca/2025/08/the-red-wizards-guide-to-letting-players-ruin-your-perfect-tabletop-mystery/
Sign
Some flavorful tables for signs in the wilderness – tracks, remnants, hints, and actual signs
https://dungeonsandpossums.com/2025/08/rpgaday-2025-18-sign/
Ancient
A bunch of encounters for the Ancient prompt
https://redwizard.ca/2025/08/ancient-should-creep-not-just-crumble/
Origin
Quick and dirty Origin tables for PCs
https://hexed.press/prep/on-the-origins-of-pcs/2547/
Darkness
The Shrouded Market, a fantastic fantasy market at Dungeons & Possums
https://dungeonsandpossums.com/2025/08/rpgaday-2025-13-darkness
Recent
Tables to find out what’s happened at home base, while the players were off adventuring
https://hexed.press/prep/meanwhile-back-at-the-ranch/2611/
Nemesis
A threat called The Gloom
https://hexed.press/prep/the-heart-of-darkness/2637/
Some thoughts on making a petty nemesis for your players
https://redwizard.ca/2025/08/the-petty-rival-building-a-nemesis-without-malice-in-your-ttrpg/
Motive
An overview of the overlooked Traveller adventure Murder on Arcturus Station, and how it relates to mystery scenarios.
https://delta-pavonis.blogspot.com/2025/08/rpgaday2025-6-motive.html
I participated as well. Here’s all 31 entries I made.
The action-packed finale! Well, not so much packed with action, but this compilation post does have extra commentary!
#blog #rpgaday #rpgaday2025 #ttrpg #ttrpgs
https://overthehillgaming.blogspot.com/2025/09/rpgaday-2025-final-week-roundup.html
#rpgaday2025 Thanks to everyone who participated in #RPGaDay this year. I've enjoyed reading your posts, even as I've found the prompts difficult myself. You've all inspired me to keep going if nothing else.
Thank you, autocratik.com & castingshadowsblog.com . The summer wouldn't be the same without you.
A special thank you to @Sophie who's amazing and enjoyable dice rolling #app helped me out with randomised stimuli when I got stuck.
RPGaDAY2025 – Day 31 – Reward – Treating Myself
What’s #RPGaDAY2025 ? See the details here.
Day 31 – Reward
OK. I’m in the home stretch on this RPGaDAY2025 thing. Honestly, it’s been goddamn exhausting at times, but I suppose it’s been decent writing practice.
The prompt for the last day is Reward. So that makes me think about what sort of reward, and who should get it. The players? The characters? The GM?
No…I should get the reward for churning out 30 of these posts. So here’s a list of some RPG stuff I’ve been thinking about buying, and I’ll choose one.
The Candidates
Planet Builder: Appears to be a zine with a lot of tables for generating sci-fi stuff. Would be useful for my ongoing Traveller campaign.
https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Planet-Builder-Print-PDF.html
Alien: The RPG: I’ve held off on this one as I already own Mothership and Hostile, but everything I’ve seen or heard about it seems good.
Dolmenwood: The fantasy forest setting. I have all of the old Wormskin zines, where the setting was first fleshed out. I always liked the atmosphere. There’s an updated 3-book version now with its own OSE style system.
https://necroticgnome.com/collections/core-books
A Whole Bunch of itch.io Stuff: I’ve got a Maybe Buy list on itch that closing in on 200 entries. A lot of it are small RPGs or zines that are quite cheap. I may just collect a bunch of them and buy them en masse.
Exalted Funeral Stuff: There’s always a bunch of interesting stuff over at Exalted. Looking at The Electrum Archive, Slient Titans, Arkos. Basically any of the many science-fantasy settings with Moebius-style art. Perhaps His Majesty The Worm.
Conclusion
OK…I’ve decided. I’m going to have a late-night itch.io buying spree.
#RPGaDay Day 30/31: Experience/Reward
After skipping a day, I'm wrapping up #RPGaDay2025 with a look back and a look ahead.
http://behindthewallgames.com/2025/08/31/rpgaday-day-30-31-experience-reward/
RPGaDAY2025 – Day 30 – Experience – XP in the OSR
What’s #RPGaDAY2025 ? See the details here.
Day 30 – Experience
I’ve recently started running an OSR West Marches game using the Basic Fantasy rules. It’s going pretty well so far, but I think I’m having issues with awarding Experience Points (XP)
Basic Fantasy is mostly a retro-clone of B/X. Here’s how the current (4th) edition explains how to reward XP.
Experience points are given for monsters defeated, and for other challenges as the GM sees fit.
Every monster has an XP value, and some extra points are given if players use their class abilities.
Here’s the problem I’m having. Since I’m running a West Marches game, and I don’t have the same players each session, XP gains are very slow. I’ve run five sessions and none of my players are anywhere close to getting to level two.
The issue for me, as GM, is that since the players are staying at 1st level, it’s limiting what adventures I can run. I can’t give them any higher-level adversaries without risking a TPK. Which can be fun once, but I can’t have it happening every session.
So I’ve been looking at some of the other methods of awarding XP that other OSR games have tries, and worked out which might be best for my game.
XP Methods
Treasure: A pretty common one. I don’t care for it. It forces a GM to have to plan treasure hoards a little too carefully to avoid
Individual Feats: Giving XP every time a player does something cool. I think this would work well in a ongoing campaign with a set roster of players. I’m running a West Marches, and many of the players are entirely new to me, so this seems a little unfair. I don’t want to be perceived as favoring or disfavoring anyone in particular.
Goalposts: Set XP reward for accomplishing certain things in a setting. This is the one I’ll probably go with. It seems to make the most sense in a West Marches.
Here’s my initial ideas for general goalposts. I’ll also have specific goalposts for each scenario. The point totals are per player, and aren’t set in stone. They’re just my first estimates for good values.
Day 31 of the #RPGaDAY2025 Challenge, and we made it. Today, I blog about the rewards of #TTRPG and how they help us. #RPGaDAY
RPGaDAY2025 Day 31: Reward – TardisCaptain's Blog of Holding
https://tardiscaptain.com/2025/08/31/rpgaday2025-day-31-reward/
Some more #MadMax chat and a failed attempt at #RPGaDAY2025
#Furiosa #PostApocalypse #filmreview https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OwSIXejKgTdKPHG3DSQK1?si=1bNm30KMSuGGpJKIGk3Kqw
New #dnd / #rpg post from The Kind GM:
#RPGaDAY2025 – Day 31: Reward
#RPGaDay2025 Day 31: Reward
The true reward is the friends we made along the way. And the tales we get to share. Plus the loot our characters found. And the levels they gained. But mostly the friendship thing. And the stories.
It’s the final day of #RPGaDay2025, Hannah and myself are rewarding ourselves by cracking open a couple of cold ones and talking about what we find to be the most rewarding part of the hobby.
#rpgaday2025 DAY 31 REWARD. There are many forms of reward for PCs, but only two reliably work for players. Fun and friendship.
#RPGaDay2025 Day 31 - Reward
I see talk about "GM Rewards" sometimes, with clubs or conventions seeking ways to incentivise GM attendance, but the truth is, I'd run games without the rewards. I do it because its the only way to be sure there are games I like available and over time, I've become better at being a GM than a PC. As long as it's not made harder to be a GM than a player, I'll show up and run games. #ttrpg
