iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

When I wrote the first draft of Sock Puppets, I imagined a very small group of nerds waving puppets over webcams. I did not imagine anyone playing it in front of an audience at a convention that has nearly 80,000 attendees. If anyone's at Dragon Con in Atlanta GA (US) next weekend, look for socks.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

witness a beautiful puppet. witness, behind it, the pile of catastrophe that happens every time i run Sock Puppets in real life.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

i am so grateful for the attention and support that the solo TTRPG scene has given to The Hourglass Sings. i feel lucky whenever a game finds its audience, but this connection in particular has been a happy surprise. special shoutout to @hime.vtubers.social, whose kind coverage has gone a long way.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Someone in one of my tabletop communities asked how to make her own TTRPGs. I didn't LOVE any of the articles I came across, so I wrote one of my own fueled by stubbornness and Vyvanse. This is the best 101 I can provide on the process of taking an RPG from idea to finished game. Hope it helps.

buttondown.com

A Guide to Creating Your Own TTRPG

Today's letter is something a little different: an article I wrote about how to create your own TTRPG. I don't usually share guides or resources here, but I...

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

I have rolled the dice that were in the dicebox and which you were probably saving for saving throws Forgive me they were shiny so neat and unrolled

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Jes the human @jesthehuman.itch.io · 09/02/2026

The No ICE in Minnesota Charity Bundle has officially LAUNCHED! There are 1,439 games to discover for a $10+ donation to Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota! Purchase the bundle here: itch.io/b/3484/no-ic...

graphic that says no ice in Minnesota itch.io charity bundle

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Stories that aren't mine (from places I haven't been). A letter with a few feelings about mailing an object I mistook for a friend, the peculiarities of translation, and a bittersweet feeling in a place that's been abandoned. buttondown.com/Kurt/archive...

buttondown.com

Stories that aren't mine (from places I haven't been).

Hello darlings. I’ve been sipping at an idea these past weeks. Nursing it like a drink on a night that’s on the edge of over. Stories don’t really belong to...

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

i'm sitting on a couple panels at a convention this year. i know deep down that i'm Smart & Helpful Guy Who Knows Stuff, but do y'all ever feel like --

A crude MS Paint drawing of a small person smiling nervously. In front of the small person, a placard reads "Kurt Refling: Baby / Imposter." On either side of Kurt, the shoulders of two people can be seen, heads out-of-frame like adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon. The left figure wears a suit jacket; the right figure wears a blouse.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

never before has a sock puppets post included video. now i am spoiled forever. listen to this perfect bumpo.

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Ian Howard @leafydragongames.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

As one of the KS rewards for Sock Puppets — a LARP where you make and operate actual puppets — the inimitable @kurtrefling.bsky.social offered the chance for backers to play a game with Herman, the puppet Kurt built to hype the game. So what game did I pick? SOCK PUPPETS.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

In an act of radical approachability & mediocre puppetry, I made a quickstart video for Sock Puppets: a TTRPG about puppets and their problems. I made this because I want more games you can just... play. No homework. No tests. I also wanted to make bad, embarrassing jokes. youtu.be/DcAZH6iwcXU

youtu.be

How to Play Sock Puppets, ft. Herman

YouTube video by An Open Hand

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Indie Press Revolution @ipr.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Hey, did we mention we have Desperation back in stock?

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

So many people do not have a place in their lives where they can play with other people. I mean really be playful. And the capacity is always there, just waiting to be let out.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

went to a white elephant gift exchange this weekend where everyone had to bring something hand-made. nobody said i *wasn't* allowed to bring watercolour gnomes, so obviously that's what i did.

An amateur watercolour painting of a forest scene. A gnome couple sits in the foreground at the root of a tree. Behind them, a forested hillside angles upwards to the right, while a creek passes by on the left.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

In February, I ran a $10,000 TTRPG Kickstarter for one of my games. My take-home for the year will be $1,500. Here's the full financial breakdown. Footnotes in replies. 🧵 (If you'd like to read this as a post instead of images, feel free to click through here: www.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/... )

I have a (very) small TTRPG business. I have a day job and sell my games in my spare time, which means I occupy a weird middle space between hobbyist and publisher. I'm a publish-ish. A hoblisher. It's a space that a lot of your favourite small designers exist in, and it's not very well documented.

In the interest of financial transparency, I'm going to share my revenues and expenses for the 2025 calendar year, then a breakdown¹.

The Numbers
I had a pretty big Kickstarter this year, doing all the fulfillment myself ². Those figures make up most of my earnings and expenses! But these are totals for all my TTRPGs. All values are in Canadian dollars ³.

Expenses
Printing - $7,100
Shipping - $3,500
Marketing - $800
Formatting - $800
Software - $200
Total Expenses - $12,400

Revenues
Kickstarter - $10,500
Distributors - $3,600
Online Storefronts - $1,100
Translation Royalties - $500
Total Revenues - $15,700

Net Earnings - $3,300

Breakdown
Printing - $7,100

Did you know it costs money to make physical objects? It's true. I wanted to do a full print run because while print on demand is cheaper at my scale, it attracts less backers. People like to have a book.

This was my first time ever printing and shipping my books myself, and I'm still getting used to looking at the total. It's actually several print runs of about 500 units each.

I used a local print shop that was very affordable. These figures include test prints. My prints were a mix of perfect-bound and saddle-stitched booklets, all 40 pages or under. I have a bunch of copies in my little apartment storage locker, so I'm probably gonna be in a less spendy spot next year for this one.
Shipping - $3,500

I live in Canada, which means I can't just stick a bunch of zines in lettermail and send it to my countrymen. For better or worse, the US is the main market for TTRPGs, and in spite of my Canadian-printed booklets being duty-free ⁴, it still costs some money to cross over.

This number is a mix of shipping to individual backers and bulk shipments to distributors. The cost includes supplies, and a pretty spiffy label printer that I snagged second-hand. I managed to avoid ULINE ⁵ for like 99% of this, which I feel pretty good about. The cost also includes the duties I paid to ship my puppet, which I find very funny.

Marketing - $800

This is a broader category than it sounds like. It includes some ads for the Kickstarter on podcasts and social media, but also travel and materials for convention appearances ⁶ . Travel was most expensive, but I've really enjoyed getting to see my games played in-person... and to meet the many lovely designers I've connected with over the years.

Formatting - $800

A historic bottleneck for me. I pay formatters and illustrators because they generally make my games look better than I could, or -- even better -- actually finish the visuals for the games I've been telling myself I'll finish for years.

Software & Digital Assets - $200

Digital assets (fonts, textures) and tools for formatting, mostly. One-time costs because I don't play the Adobe game ⁷ .

Kickstarter Revenue - $10,500

This is what it sounds like.

Bafflingly, I still don't really know why my Kickstarter was successful, even though I tried really hard to get tracking tools to work for me. It's kind of opaque. Maybe people just like socks.

Distributor Revenue - $3,600

This is my "reliable" source of RPG income. Money comes in through Indie Press Revolution and Compose Dream Games, which are the two big distributors / marketplaces for indie titles in the US and Canada, respectively. I am very fortunate to have these partnerships, because it gets my games to way more people than I could on my own (at least without taking on way more stress).

I thought about adding a third distributor -- someone who distributes to other distributors -- but the cut was a little high, so I balked. I'm glad the avenue exists for people who want to take on more risk or really get their stuff out there, but I had to make a call to decide how much stress I was willing to carry for a hobby.

Online Storefront Revenue - $1,100

This is itch.io, mostly. Most people reach my game page by Google, so it's a bit of a mystery how they find my stuff. Always nice to get the notification. Always a surprise, too.

Translation Royalties - $500

Yeah, so this was completely unexpected. I got a message in my inbox one day from an Italian gentleman who works for a game company; he asked if I was interested in an Italian edition. And he had a friend in a German game company who wanted to know the same... so now I'm internationally published in three languages ⁸ , which is wild.

This rules for many reasons, but the most relevant for this post is that it's very little work on my end for a 10% cut. The figure here is an advance.

Summary & Closing Thoughts
I earned about $15,000 and get to keep about $3,000, half of which is gonna go to taxes. This may sound like a lot, but I make a decent living wage at my day job, and the TTRPG earnings are basically processed as an extension of my personal income^(9).

I feel actually very lucky when I see those numbers. Is that strange? Maybe. As a small business, I would be drowning. But as an art project... it's a huge windfall, right? A windfall that comes with the privilege of seeing people celebrate and engage with my art, which is all I really want at the end of the day.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Looks like it's official! System Matters is publishing a German version of Sock Puppets. I was delighted to discover that the German translation of Sock Puppets is "Sockenpuppen"... which is just adorable.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

i don't usually post about my weekly indie TTRPG livestream, but this session featured a well dug into the sky... and someone drew it. thanks to friend of the show sierra for this bizarre, delightful gift. and thanks to nick wedig for Florilegium, a TTRPG about magic. nickwedig.itch.io/florilegium

A poster reads: UPPER FRESCIA WAITS FOR NO-ONE! Two peasants carrying shovels walk up a tower that leads into the open sky.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

sock puppets in this cool indie game store's new inventory picture is looking like

Two people sit beside each other as a selfie is taken in a car. The person on the left has extremely colorful hair and a bright smile. The person on the right is unsmiling and monochrome. Editor's note: I believe this picture was originally shared on the internet by one of the people pictured, and that they were sisters? These distant memories. Who can say. Certainly easier to ramble into alt text then verify for you.

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Can't overstate this! It feels wonderful to know that someone had a good time with your game. It's not just that they appreciate your work. Someone's day, maybe a day with their friends, got better because of something you put into the world. It's a special feeling.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

I wrote an article about how to manage your art in the event of your death, for tabletop RPG designers. Sharing here as screenshots with alt text. Or, follow the link below: www.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/...

Some folks may have seen the article going around about J.D. Maxwell's absence after his Grimwild crowdfunding campaign. We don't know what happened to Grimwild's designer, and I would ask that we not speculate on the nature of his absence here. Still, this raised certain questions in my community of practice about art after death of the artist.

There are real options for how to handle creative works after death or incapacitation, if you make preparations while you're around. I'm going to share a practical approach in this thread.

Quickly, before we start: if you're not in the headspace to read this, that's okay. Close the tab. Your responsibility is to your well-being. Making a plan for your art is firmly in extra credit territory. It's okay to set this aside.

I'll break this down into four steps.

1. Keep organized records (ongoing).
2. Elect caretakers.
3. Set up a dead man's switch.
4. Document your wishes.

Both 2 and 4 are areas that benefit from an estate plan (including a legal will) if there's money involved. I am not going to discuss the drafting of formal wills here, but understand that wills are very important. See post-script in the comments.

Absence isn't the only time that itemized protocols would be helpful, though. If I think "I need to upload my game to itch.io," I'm either going to see none of these steps (and assume I'll be done instantly), or see all of these steps as an amorphous, daunting process that disinclines me to ever bother doing it. Breaking larger tasks into smaller ones helps you see the labour as something that can be performed in small pieces, and helps you plan an appropriate amount of time to get it done.

Plus, memory is unreliable! If there's something I only do once a year, will I remember those steps when it's time to do them again? Maybe not. That's why it's useful to have operating procedures written out, for you and anyone else who comes after.

2 - Elect caretakers.
If not you, then who?

The ideal person to handle your creative output after your passing is someone who you trust, and who values and understands your art. This is a little tricky, because those two things don't always exist in the same person. You might have a spouse, sibling, parent or child you loves you very much, but has no personal interest in your hobby.

Ask multiple people. If you get multiple affirmative responses, that means you have backups. Organize them in a hierarchy of responsibility so that if Person A is too busy (or overwhelmed, or absent, or already passed) when the unthinkable happens, Person B can then accept or decline the duty. If you ask a bunch of people and don't set a hierarchy, now you have a committee. And nobody wants to have to deal with a committee.

Much like being the executor of a will, caring for someone's art is an honour-flavoured burden. Your job is to choose people who are both willing and able to do this, and to make "no" a comfortable answer for them if they need it.

3 - Set up a dead man's switch.
A dead man's switch is anything that's designed to trigger if the operator is incapacitated or dead. This is what fires the message to your art's caretakers.

The simplest way to do this is probably Google's Inactive Account Manager. If your Google account is inactive for a specified period, Google's systems will attempt to contact you several times (through several avenues). If you fail to respond, it will provide access to some or all of your files or accounts to one or more people of your choosing. If you don't store your files on Google Drive, you can still use this feature to provide access to documents with sensitive information -- though be careful with what you choose to store in plaintext.

Some password managers also have this service. So do some paid services, but you need to be confident that they'll still be around if you aren't.

4 - Document your wishes.
Finally, this is what your art's caretaker is actually responsible for. Make sure your instructions are clear and feasible. You want it to be extremely obvious where your works are kept and what you want done with them. Consider:

Should some or all of your drafts be made public? Which ones? Where would they be published?

Do you want to offer certain collaborators or publishers the chance to finish and distribute some works? If so, how will rights (& revenue) be divided?

Is there any community you want to be informed of your passing, local or online? Would that include a message from you?

You may also have business concerns related to active Kickstarters or distribution. The approach to handling this will depend on your region and business structure.

If you read all of this and thought: This is too much work, nobody would care, and we've gone beyond the scope of my concerns or interest. Well, perfect. You've learned something. If there's no business stuff involved that would frazzle your loved ones, then it's okay to let your art die too. Maybe its job was to make you smile, or think, or learn something. Maybe it existed to bring a little bit of joy to a small group of people in a strange and scary world.

Maybe that's all any of us exist to do, really.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

I celebrated the fifth anniversary of my first published game with a crossword puzzle. If I was a more sane person, that sentence would mean "I had a bubble bath and did a crossword puzzle in the tub." But no. I made one. Which, it turns out, is wildly difficult. You can play it or read more here.

buttondown.com

It's the fifth anniversary of my first game, so I made you something.

Hello darlings. You would think that after a few decades swimming in the stuff, I would be less surprised by time. The funny way it warps and flows and comes...

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

I'm gonna be a tease about this one.

Text within a halo of dots. The text reads:
Name: #ERROR
Class: Xenon
Age: 83
Type: Mender / Local / Ghost
Grandchildren: 2
[name, common interest] x2
Achievement: 1
[career / hobby / obstacle overcome]
Regret: 1
[missed opportunity / harm caused]

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Nick @deepdark.games · 02/08/2025

You can get HOME from IPR, but I'd also highly recommend: Curios by @smolghost.bsky.social (a really cool investigation game that's a literal envelope full of evidence!) & The Hourglass Sings by @kurtrefling.bsky.social (GMless worldbuilding inspired by Zelda!)

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Indie Press Revolution @ipr.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

6/17 Sock Puppets and friends!

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Peter Elroy @fanterland.itch.io · 12/07/2025

This week at #RPGNightUtrecht we played Sock Puppets by @kurtrefling.bsky.social . What a unique joy it was! And a shining example of how you don't need mechanics when players know exactly what to do.

Craft materials and sock puppets at the play table.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

[Heated arbitration with the fetus union.] And why do you work on the nose in week 8? Don't sniff around in there. It's not OSHA-compliant. You know what else gets made in that cavity. Use week 8 for something useful; develop empathy. [An aide whispers in my ear.] WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT'S YEAR 8.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

i hope there's a D&D guy out there who thinks it's spelled "fivey".

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Taylor Felicity @rollforfelicity.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

I got to play @kurtrefling.bsky.social’s Sock Puppets today and decided it wasn’t enough to make a puppet, I had to also dress like a children’s show puppeteer

Mirror selfie of me with my puppet, Large Bean. I’m wearing a rainbow striped dress and Sesame Street scrunchies.

Selfie of me (a human) and Large Bean (a sock puppet)

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Moonshot filmed a playthrough of my Sock Puppets TTRPG. All 4 players made their puppets in advance and didn't show each other until they were live. Please witness the exact moment Andrew wheeled in "Dr. Bean." The whole stream is SO funny. See it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGIJ...

A screenshot of a live playthrough of a tabletop RPG. At the top-left, a human-sized puppet is wheeled onscreen. At the bottom-left, a hand puppet fills the frame. On the right, both other plays laugh in open-mouthed astonishment.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

So exciting!!! I'm sad I'll miss this live* but I'm psyched to watch the VOD. I'm told the puppets are 🧑‍🍳💋.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Last summer, a neighbour posted lots of vegetable juice on the local Buy Nothing group: a space for folks to lend or donate things they don't need anymore. I raised my hand -- far be it for a me to turn down free vegetables -- and walked over to the neighbour's address. (1/8)

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Sam's podcast (Afterimage) is the best attempt to capture the feeling of tabletop play ever made. Sam has shared, with my permission, a pretty rabid take from me on actual play in the thread. I'll take space here to ground and elaborate. (1/6)

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Himeutsugi ❦ 🦜🧮 dice roller vtuber @hime.vtubers.social · 13/06/2025

We're continuing on with The Hourglass Sings by @kurtrefling.bsky.social tonight! www.twitch.tv/himeutsugi #vtuber #vsky #solorpg #solottrpg

Hime standing in front of the cover of indie TTRPG The Hourglass Sings

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

IPR is bringing Sock Puppets and all its friends to Origins this year, so here's some glamour shots of my little TTRPGs. Vibes: Avenue Q, Majora's Mask, Lassie. (I know marketing is like 80% bragging, but you might wanna stop by early! Sock Puppets sold out at UKGE, to my delight and surprise.)

A copy of a book titled Sock Puppets sits on a table. The book reads, "A roleplaying game about puppets and their problems." The cover image pictures a concerned-looking sock on a puppet show set, complete with lights and a camera.

The game is surrounded by crafting supplies: scissors, glue, markets, stickers, paper, and so many googly eyes.

A game titled "The Hourglass Sings" sits on a sandy surface. The cover art, done in pixel art reminiscent of cross-stitch, shows a seated figure with a hurdy-gurdy on their back. The figure is facing away from the viewer, looking out at a town that extends into distant mountains. Additional text indicates that the game is 1 - 6 players, and is made by Kurt Refling.

Surrounding the book are various decorations: dried flowers; a pocket watch; three bronze triangles; circular cards; and, a vessel spilling sand.

A zine sits on a wooden table. The title reads "Big Dog Big Volcano". The cover art pictures a mountain in the background, and a woman with her dog in the foreground. The mountain, title text, and characters all have the same silhouette. Text reads: "A TTRPG by Kurt Refling & Kathleen Hartin. 3 players, 60-90 minutes."

Several implements surround the book: dice spilling out from a dice bag; a water bottle; a frond of a plant; and driftwood.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

i'm still really proud of how the silhouettes of the volcano, title text and characters echo each other

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

I've released 15 TTRPGs. Most of them have terrible names. Here's what I did wrong, so you don't make the same mistake. Linking as a blog post, but also pasting as images in case you really hate clicking off-site (continued in thread). www.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/...

Earlier today, I teased a friend for naming their TTRPG EA Sports¹. I realized about five seconds later that almost all my games have their own name problems, most of which were not on purpose. So now it's time for me to eat my humble pie and tell you all my sins.

The bad names fall into 3-ish categories. I'll write a quick explanation paragraph, then give the examples.

Sin 1 - You Can't Search For This:
This is the one thing I am begging you to take away from this post. Always do a quick search for your game's name, or you'll end up being one of the seven people who chose to name their TTRPG Apotheosis. (I think it's back down to 6. The clever guy who got there first rebranded for the second edition.)

As a general rule, if a search of "Your Game's Name game" still won't find your work, rethink.

Excuse Meow!: I am far from the only person who liked this pun. Most famously, it is an episode from Australian children's television show The Wiggles.

Faewater: This one is actually too good, so a dice company stole it². I take solace in the fact that the set is out of stock, and they for some reason needed a warning on the page that their dice are really sharp and may result in death. (It actually says that.)

The Junk Drawer: Common expression, and now there's two of us.

This Spells Trouble: Once again, this is a common expression in English. And now there's two of us. (Somehow STILL better than the working title, the navel-gazing This Strange World.)

Sock Puppets: Not only is this unsearchable, but searching its name on social media brings up the most toxic, depressing threads on any platform.

Sin 2 - You Won't Remember This (or the Concept is Unclear):
Your game title should stick in people's heads. For most people, "you won't remember this" applies because you've chosen a fantasy word that's much too difficult to spell. For me, it's probably because I got too poetic.

Here We Used to Fly: Oh, do you mean Where We Used to Fly, as everyone I have ever spoken to calls it? (This was my big game for a while in spite of the confusion, so I'll take the W. wait. uh. actually. i guess i didn't.)

Letters We Didn't Write Together: I thought this was a super pretty title for a collection of game poems. But that's kind of the problem -- it's not an epistolary game, which the title strongly implies. It doesn't even really tell you that it's more than one game!

Sin 3 - You Had to Be There:
This is a name that's an inside joke. And I know you're thinking what kind of goober names a game after an inside joke? Me, twice.

But that's not the only way to make this mistake. Sometimes you just get too into your own worldbuilding. Ask yourself: did you name your game after an in-world location that's only interesting to you? Is "The Flame Lord's Castle" actually a good name, or do you just have a fond memory of it?

Chuck & Noodles: A pun that only exists because my Discord server was joking about using a pasta divination mechanic. This is also bad because it's a joke name for a SAD GAME.

Star Chapters: A magical girl game. I don't think most people realize I'm playing with "Cardcaptors," which means the title reference is illegible.

This is Just Who We Are: The Tangent Game: Awful. What is it even about? Granted, the beloved game group I created this for chose the name, so it's not entirely my fault. But this game's branding is so bad that even I forget it exists.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

if moonshot hits 1k on their weekend streamathon, they'll play sock puppets but here's the catch: it's also for a good cause 🏳️‍⚧️

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

hime played for 3 hours, drew 6 cards and almost cried. you may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

i ran Sock Puppets at a convention this weekend -- a game about puppeteers being selfish and weird on a failing children's tv show. one of the puppeteers has a weird kink; their player gets to choose what the kink is. she chose puppets. we were horrified. it was incredible.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

if you like solo actual plays, you can tune in tonight at 9pm eastern to see himeutsugi play through The Hourglass Sings!

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

my TTRPG streaming group is exceedingly distractible. we go on tangents, we tell out-of-game anecdotes. someday we'll get a heckler who hits us with "it's not an ACTUAL PLAY if you don't ACTUALLY PLAY" and they'll be so right and i'll give them a little crown that says "biggie roasts" on it.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

It's the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, so I made my TTRPG tribute free for the next 3 days (when the moon falls). There are 5 full-page works of pixel art that I did by hand, and over 150 unique prompts. Labour of love from me. a-smouldering-lighthouse.itch.io/hourglass

a-smouldering-lighthouse.itch.io

The Hourglass Sings by A Smouldering Lighthouse

A Majora's Mask-inspired storytelling game.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Introduce yourself with your top 5 #TTRPG picks! ❧ Wanderhome ❧ i'm sorry did you say street magic ❧ For the Queen ❧ Legend of Aesthetic ❧ Fall of Magic

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

turned to my partner this morning. said, "cool beat." nodded towards a tapping: tip tip tip tip tip tip tip tip TIKKAtip tip tip tip tip tip tip tip TIKKAtip. we both groove for a second. anyway the upstairs neighbour left his sink on so now i'm replacing my bathroom ceiling.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

a coworker asked me how you win a tabletop RPG. so i confessed. the jig is up, gang. now everyone knows there's no winner; we're just giving other grown-ups social permission to imagine stuff.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

if i'm tagged in people's puppet posts for the rest of time, i won't get tired of it. please click through and see this fabulous puppet, oh my god.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

i always love to see pictures of my games in-play, but @deepdark.games is doing more for my marketing with that cackle than any blurb could ever do.

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Kurt Refling @kurtrefling.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

something they don't tell you about TTRPG conventions is that they get better every year. acquaintances become friends; friends introduce you to new friends. very grateful for all the darlings i saw at @breakoutcon.bsky.social this year, and the new folks i was delighted to meet for the first time.

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Reposted by Kurt Refling

Jason Bostwick @jasonbostwick.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Amazing and restorative time seeing friends at Breakout, made some killer zine trades and played with some great people! Already taking notes for Breakout Bites 2026

A spread of TTRPG zines on a table littered with ceramic tokens and a ceramic dish with an illustration of a hot dog and sprite on it.
The zines are:
Sock Puppets by Kurt Refling
Two Hand Path by Mikey Hamm
Oddfolk by Maxwell Lander
Band or Horses by Aaron Lim
Antler River RPG Trafe
Bad Moon Good Game, Sordid Truths, and Print It Yourself by Justin Vandermeer

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