Sirly Whirly Blog

I played Incarnis as a 2-player game. Turns out, that's a very quick way for myth creation, also known as mythopoeia. Mythopoeia is the act of making a myth. It was my core principle behind designing Incarnis: playing the game should empower to be a myth maker. With the truest artisanship, from nothing, Brahlyt made itself. A being and a place at once, Brahlyt basked in the glow of its own being in a state of blissful wholeness. Then, one day, Brahlyt spoke to itself. It presented itself with a beautiful, simian creature, formed from its own essence. 'Look what I made us,' Brahlyt said. And Brahlyt answered, 'We do not need anything other than ourselves.'   The simian crumpled up into a malformed little monkey, stooped and bow-legged. Heart-broken at the dismissal of this love letter to itself, Brahlyt sliced a stone tablet from its centre, and the god split into two; Brahl, god of senses, and Yt, god of craft. Yt clutched the stone tablet to himself as Brahl shriek

Since December I've been running Mausritter on Wednesdays at the RPG night in a local restaurant. It's an open table where each session different players can sign up and drop in. A session takes up 3 hours, and I aim to make each session self-contained, so that players looking for a one-off have a good time. To facilitate this, I've picked up some methods along the way. Maybe they're of use. 📅 Synchronized calendars When a week passes in real time, it passes in game time too. The same is true for the start of a new season. This simplifies high-level time keeping and allows for a full rest in between sessions. 😱 Flight response Mouse knights go where other mice won’t. But even you have limits. 15 minutes before the session ends, you are overwhelmed by the session's building threats and you gain the Flight Response condition. This ensures expeditions are contained within a single session and raises the urgency to seize the available time. 📣 The knight's call A

As a starting RPG player with a diagnosis of severe ADHD, I wanted to give GMing a shot. But once I invited my friends to play, I struggled with a lot of guilt whenever I wasn't fully prepared. I remember wanting to stop GMing completely. But it turned out that there are lots of tools to find a GM-style that suits your needs. Here are the 10 things I wish I knew as a starting game master with ADHD. Illustration by Emiel Boven   (CC BY 4.0) 1. Remember that the GM is a player too As a GM we want to make sure players have a good time. Sometimes we are willing to go so far to make sure of this, that we lose sight of what makes the game fun for us. This is when we need to remind ourselves that we are a player too. Having fun while engaging with the game is non-negotiable. If the game starts feeling like work, that's a red flag. Just take a step back, and look for a way to go back to a place where the game can be enjoyed again or take a break. If unsure, ask a friend or one of the

Today we are cooking something quite delicious; a scrumptious indie tabletop RPG to delight your friends. Put on your best apron and join me as we sizzle some stats!  Ingredients A pantry stuffed with inspiring games to raid.  When you do, always give credit where credit is due and respect copyrights. A pinch of a unique idea.  Get inspired by playing games and engage with their wonderful communities. A group of eager tasters.  Friends, or friendly folk from your favourite game community work best. A trusty set of gaming utensils. Index cards, pencils, dice, playing cards and poker chips let you test almost any idea.  Got your ingredients lined up? If not, get out there and come back when you do...  Ok. Let's cook! Instructions Pitch your unique idea. Get your eager tasters excited for your magnificent meal. Write a Quick Reference with gaps. Raid your pantry for rules that fit your idea. Nothing in your pantry that fits? Play more games! Leave any gaps in your reference for later

A short one this week. I've had many failed attempts at developing a game until I finally did. So I recently jotted down some habits that got me over the finish line. If they can get my cluttered brain there, they can definitely help you.  Play games. Whatever else you do, never grow detached from the pure joy of playing a game. Be a fan of the community. If you ever felt like you could be getting more out of a game, there's probably an entire community of other players like you, with all sorts of community projects ready and waiting for you. Fill the gap yourself. Once you've hung around a community, you'll get a feel of what's out there, like community hacks, modules, creator tools etc. But better yet, you'll get a feel of the things you'd like to have that don't exist. Why wait for someone else to fill that gap? Just give it a go yourself. You don't have to be the best person to do it. You just have to do it. Ideas must first survive contact with

  It is easy to want to be things. I want to be good at sports. I want to be a tidy person. It’s a lot harder to actually be something. Because we are what we do. No matter how unfair and outside of our own control, we can’t be the loving father if we don’t spend time with the child. This blogpost is about choosing what not to be so that we can dedicate our time to what you do want to be. It's not the usual RPG stuff, but it is about making time for other things which are more important, which is why I haven't done much in the RPG sphere lately. And hey, I'm still figuring out what this blog is about as I go! There is an infinity of things to be The difference between what you want to be and what you are can grow bigger and bigger, and you can start feeling the strain as the distance between the two stretches further and further. You can feel disjoint, you can feel like an impostor. Why do we want to be so much, even when we don’t act to realize any of it? Identities