Unwritten Earths Symposium

In this episode, Nathan and Eppy respond to listener feedback, talk about a recent play experience, and then go through some of the projects we're each working on or thinking about that are not the One Without Master. It's a high-level survey of where we're at, game-design-wise, going into 2026! Check out Soapbox Game Mechanics! It's from All My Friends Are Stories (Patreon), they have some of the games for sale here, and here's the youtube channel. Eppy's episode hasn't been posted at the time of recording, but should be up eventually! Show Notes: At the Edge: Art of the Fantastic (Allentown Art Museum) Bryant Johnson Jennifer Adcock - check out The Price of Coal and Dollhouse D.R.A.M.A. Kenny Omega vs Haruka (age 9) Invisible Man vs. Invisible Stan (TWO invisible wrestlers!) Apple Human Interface Guidelines Games Mentioned: Quest RPG Mork Borg - Bare Bones Edition (the plain text version) Necronautilus Gamma World 7E Prince Valiant Storytelling RPG Five Star Match Plasmodics: mutant freaks in the weird future And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this episode, we sit down with friend, artist, game designer and art director for Swords Without Master Shel Kahn to talk about... all of those things! We touch on the different roles of art in game design, working with abstract imagery, refining your taste as a chooser-of-images even if commissioning original art isn't realistic, and the ways artwork and visual design elements help out the game design endeavor. Art... it's good! Show Notes: The Swords Without Master Kickstarter - funded now, runs through February 13th 2026! Shel's website and webcomics Buy By Crom! The Beguiling Bookstore Elemei (our glyph artist for Swords) Movies: Captain Blood, Don Juan and Troy Games Mentioned: Traveller and GURPS Traveller TORQ Shel’s Pocket Dungeons Wolfspell And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this episode, Eppy brings a discussion of "technological" creative constraints in game design. We talk about what this means in the context of tabletop, how constraints surface through the design, and how we handle them as designers. This builds on our recent episode about design surfaces, and is ultimately another part of a long-term conversation about, well, game design! We also do our final homework for 2025, bringing some holidays from different projects in our back catalogue to celebrate the season. This is our last episode of the year, and we'll be taking a few weeks off over the holidays. See you in 2026, Scholars! Show Notes: Missile Command Box Cover Yar’s Revenge (and many other similar cover + gameplay images) Sorcerer: An Intense Roleplaying Game by Ron Edwards The Shrike Vampire: the Requiem Trial & Terror: Supernatural Victims Unit (free download!) Fantasy World The City of Fire & Coin And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this episode, Nathan and Eppy reflect on the first year of this podcast, talk about how things change in the doing, and discuss how creating a community is part of the overall endeavor. This leads into a survey of feedback tools and frameworks that can be used to reflect on your game sessions and playtests. Thanks so much for joining us! With one year of the show in the books, we're excited for the next. Show Notes: Two Hundred a Day (A Rockford Files Podcast) Clojure/Conj2025 Lovecraftesque Wreck This Deck Roses and Thorns Stars and Wishes Brief/Debrief EARS Debrief And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this episode, Nathan and Eppy report back on their recent work on PET CRIMES, centering on making digital tools for play. This leads into a discussion of the concept of designing the "surfaces" of your game - what are the things (physical, relational, temporal) that you need to design in order to enable someone to play? This is just the start of this conversation, but it feels like a useful framework as we continue to make games in this season of the podcast! Patrons are getting access to PET CRIMES and it's associated digital tools as we develop them. Join them for just $3/month over at our Patreon! Show Notes: One More Thing online playspace (Google Sheet) Eppy's game Vast and Starlit Jason Morningstar's The Skeletons And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this all-homework episode, we each bring an initial sketch of the cards that could drive each of our card-based game concepts. Nathan's "Big Lore" game explores using card decks to reveal things about the game world and guide character progression, while Eppy's "Exploration Legacy" game uses cards to map out geography as well as encounter types for a game that becomes more unique the more its played. This is early-stage concept stuff, so listen in to hear how the vegan sausage is made! Check out our Patreon for a post that includes the images of the cards we describe in this episode (no subscription required!) Games Mentioned: Search for the Emperor's Treasure, by Tom Wham Minion Hunter from GDW Games The Best of Dragon Magazine Games And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

We're moving into the next season of our podcast! In this one, Nathan and Eppy talk about how we're turning from the scholarly side of our project to the instructional side, and how our show homework is changing to match. What this means for our listeners is that you'll be hearing more about new game designs and works in progress, and less research and hunting out arcane gems from other games. Thanks for listening, Scholars! Remember to sign up for the Swords Without Master fixup campaign, coming early 2026. And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

The Season of Swords is upon us! Nathan and Eppy talk about Eppy's sword & sorcery classic Swords Without Master, how it came to be, how it works, and what's next for the game: a full standalone release, coming early 2026! Show Notes: Swords Without Master is in Worlds Without Master, Issue 3 (for now...) We're pumped to welcome Shel Kahn as our Art Director for the project. And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we tackle our to-be-read piles of recent game acquisitions for our homework, highlighting more recent work that we've both been digging and finding some common themes across different genres and types of game. We then talk about "instructional" and "non-instructional" text in games, what that divide even means, and pursue some questions that that brings up for our own work. Show Notes: Check out the Adventure & Hobbyist Annual 2025 The latest Possible Worlds Games Kickstarter funding 3 new games runs through Friday, 9/26 Games Mentioned: Knight Forlorn (Blackfisk Publishing) Usagi Yojimbo (2nd Edition) (Sanguine Productions - it looks like it's no longer available for purchase) The Price of Coal (Jennifer Adcock) The Crawling Chaos (Plant Smasher Games) Tacklebox/Better Strangers (Possible Worlds Games) 5-Star Match (Leafy Dragon Games) Growing Thylacine (Pidg Sorensen) Necronautilus (World Champ Game Co) Brinkwood: The Blood of Tyrants (from the Far Horizons Co-Op) Tide Breaker (Nick Butler) God's Gonna Cut You Down (Keith Stetson) And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this episode Eppy leads off with a hot take about playtesting, leading us to a discussion of the multiple purposes of playtests, playstorming, techniques for effective playtests, and an introduction of a new feature of the Unwritten Earths Symposium Discord: Playtest Tuesdays! Show Notes: Playtest Tuesdays are on the Discord - you do not need to be a Patreon member to join, and we're aiming at short bursts of targeted play for anyone who would find that helpful. The JiffyCon Community site still exists, for posterity! And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we do our game design homework of looking through game ludographies to chase down a chain of influence. It's a fun journey and we end up in very different places for our arcane gems! We also give an update on the Adventurer & Hobbyist Annual 2025, coming out soon! Show Notes: You can still late pledge for the 2025 Annual Original Story Now Essay Atmosfear VHS/DVD Games Art & System: Games For Expanded Play is the upcoming project that includes a Dog Eat Dog re-release Games Mentioned: Spione: Story Now in Cold War Berlin, by Ron Edwards (oh, and it is available auf Deutsch) Champions Now (Hero Games), Ron's take on Champions Gray Ranks (Bully Pulpit Games) Dog Eat Dog, by Liam Liwanag Burke Puppetland by John Tynes (1995 text/2013 edition from Arc Dream Publishing) Burning Wheel (Burning Wheel Gold is the current edition) My Life With Master (Half Meme Press) Dialect: A Game About Language and How It Dies (Thorny Games) Code of Unaris (Goldleaf Games) Sock Puppets: An RPG by A Smouldering Lighthouse And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we talk about handling multiple ongoing projects as full-time working creative people, and then Nathan brings a game idea for discussion: a game that creates or invokes the simultaneous closed-in-ness and open-ness of sailing. We have some fun ideas for creating slow-burn drama with constrained resources. Have we.... made a game yet? Show Notes: A&E's Hornblower series Tower of Hanoi math problem And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we go to the copyshop to dig up spiralbound games for our game discovery homework, and get deep into the weeds on both format and substance of our picks. Games Mentioned: Black Cadillacs (Steel Toe'd Edition) (here's the Wayback Machine archive of the game page) Tunnels & Trolls, and specifically 7th-7.5 Edition Adventure! Aberrant and Aeon: Trinity Little Grey Cells InSpectres Mechaton/Mobile Frame Zero carry. a game about war. kill puppies for satan Primetime Adventures Nine Worlds Show Notes: Wanderlust notebook that Eppy saw Ashcan Front Tim O’Brien/The Things They Carried/How To Tell a True War Story, Our paraphrased quote “you can’t make an anti-war film” seems to come from François Truffaut And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this laid-back episode we chat about greeting cards and inspiration from non-games for game formats, follow a train of thought about using Valentine's Day exchange as a game mechanic, and check in with each other about how ideas and inspiration from previous episodes are coming together for new game projects. Games Mentioned: Kagematsu Timeline Microscope And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this episode, we welcome Dread co-creator Nat Barmore to the show, try to surprise each other with Arcane Gems from deep cuts in our collections, and talk about Nat's current projects. We talk about Dread, keeping horror campaigns going in long-term play, and approaching real-world cultural conflicts in game design. Thanks for joining us, Nat! Show Notes: Find Nat at his blog and The Impossible Dream website. We also mention Neverwhere, GLOW (the Netflix series), and the original Storyteller System Botch mechanic. Games Mentioned: Michtim: Fluffy Adventures Urchin Amaranthine: Romance, Vendetta, Forever Kingdom of Nothing Lacuna Part 1: The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City (second attempt) Don't Rest Your Head UnderWorld HōL And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we talk about our "white whale" game design projects, both those we're currently in pursuit of and those we managed, at long last, to catch. Show Notes: We talk about these Robin Hoods: Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire (1883), Robin of Sherwood (1984-1986), Disney's Robin Hood (1973), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves(1991), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales (1997) Games Mentioned: Imp of the Perverse Swords Without Master Monkeydome And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we give a production update on the Annual 2025 before measuring our shelves for game discovery. Our homework happened to have a shared theme of hidden information, and we end up discussing the idea of "sleight of hand" to create moments of magic in play. Games Discussed: Lacuna Part 1: The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City (second attempt) Castle Falkenstein Burning Wheel Tunnels and Trolls InSpectres Egyptian Ratscrew/Slap And there's more: The Adventurer & Hobbyist Annual 2025 (still accepting late pledges!) Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we come back from game discovery sabbatical to talk about some esoteric picks from our itch.io libraries, and then discuss how we approach and interact with trends in the larger ttrpg industry, in game design, and in how those intersect for us. Show Notes: We are now recording on Discord, in case things sound different Dissidia Final Fantasy (2008) The Lost Room (2006) (shoutout to Richard Hatem!) Warehouse 13 Games Mentioned: One-Time Journal of Findings in RPG Game Design (Epimas Edition) - Note that this may not be publically available, sorry! Victor’s GMless Oracle by CurseNightGames One Page Dungeons Traverser (unreleased) & The Clay That Woke Fiasco by Bully Pulpit Mythic by Word Mill Games Ironsworn by Tomkin Press 13th Age by Pelgrane Press Nathan's Mech Game Vesna Thaw Solo Wrestling Game - 5- Star Match And there's more: The Adventurer & Hobbyist Annual 2025 (still accepting late pledges!) Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

In this episode we talk about building rituals in and for play, follow a train of thought about building in "blessings" for each other into gameplay, discuss the joy of dice, and come back from sabbatical to assign game discovery homework. Reminder: The Adventurer & Hobbyist Annual 2025 Kickstarter is live through the end of April! Show Notes: Primetime Adventures Star Trek: Lower Decks Time and Temp Masks of the Mummy Kings Our itch.io storefront And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst

Welcome to the Adventurer & Hobbyist Annual 2025! In this episode, we discuss the scenarios in our inaugural Unwritten Earths Symposium publication, design considerations for making these "system-adventurous" scenarios, and the origins of the project. Check out the show notes for a link to the Kickstarter, and thanks for all your support so far! Back the Annual on Kickstarter (live through the end of April, 2025) Check out the preview scenario One Night Only at the Veteran's Lodge. And there's more: Unwritten Earths Symposium Our Patreon Join the Discord Nathan's games Eppy's games Music by Will Jobst