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Qarsi

@qarsi.bsky.social
162 followers 266 following 312 posts

Writing about TTRPGs at qarsi.bearblog.dev! Mostly diy elfgames. Actually plays Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition.

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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
oh true lol!
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Magnolia Keep @magnoliakeep.itch.io · 03/03/2025
Sallying out of Magnolia Keep, a case against giving monsters spell slots (and also an excuse for me to suck 4E's dick again) magnoliakeep.blogspot.com/2025/03/stop...
magnoliakeep.blogspot.com
Stop Giving Monsters Spell Slots I'm Begging You
A little under a year ago, in the summer of 2023, my friend Marshall asked me for advice on picking a tabletop game for him to run. I threw ...
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Prismatic Wasteland @prismaticwasteland.com · 18/02/2025
🚨 New Blogpost: I started a campaign without a game system, collectively designing any rules as they were needed. Here is how my Calvinball experiment fared and the rules we patched together #ttrpg #osr
prismaticwasteland.com
You Don't Need a Game System Before You Play — Prismatic Wasteland
I played a 3ish-month campaign where we made up the rules as we went along. Here are the rules we came up with and my impressions of this experiment.
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Adam "Graphic Design Is Not My Passion" Seats @iknowadamseats.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
I spent way too long writing this - both in terms of the months it was stewing in my brain and also that it's now 4:20 in the morning and I'm pretty sure I started this like 5 hours ago or more. Yeesh. iknowadamseats.blogspot.com/2025/02/stop...
iknowadamseats.blogspot.com
Stop Just Playing Games You Know You Like
Intro This post has existed in an endless number of forms in my head for months now, so this might as well be the energy we're bringing int...
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Excited for whatever we do though. It’s just as likely we wrap up the campaign by playing Stewpot and start Forbidden Lands like I’ve always been meaning to.
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
The characters ended up being much more interested in running their farm and hiring help than adventuring, so if we continue I’d rather do that then continue the adventure path. Hence BW. Players wanted to still level and build their PF2 characters if we did that, and why not?
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Today we completed the first book of Blood Lords and this marks the end of my Pathfinder 2 experiment. Really didn’t like the module writing, monster design, and how many rolls it took to resolve things. I did end up pitching an insane Burning Wheel PF2 hybrid game among totally different games.
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Oddly this has been my exact game style and it hasn’t been doing it for me! Mostly what I don’t like is the situations haven’t been very clear, at least in the sections I’ve been doing. In particular we just did the far realm watchtower and there was very little to problem solve with.
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
It’s been pretty weak at my table, so you might be right after all
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
I had a lot of fun with the Slaying Stone and Reavers of Harkenwold!
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
I’m sorry D&D 4e stans… I don’t think Madness at Gardmore Abbey is a good adventure 😭
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Cats Have No Lord @catshavenolord.itch.io · 12/02/2025
Somehow having this on Itch felt wrong and I’ve moved it to my blog. When I’ve had more time I may polish up and publish properly, for now I need sleep Long story short, my grandmother is dying and I made a dungeon about a dying wizard to process it #OSR blog.catshavenolord.page/the-flesh-is...
blog.catshavenolord.page
The Flesh is Weak
I briefly had this up on Itch but it somehow didn’t feel right and I’m moving it here. It’s a wierd time here right now. We flew halfway around the world ...
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HODAG RPG @hodagrpg.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Know someone looking for B/W interior art for their game by an ENNIE AWARD WINNING ARTIST? FOR FREE? Please share far and wide! I'll select from all pitches on 3/1/25. :) And if you're aprehenisive, I am personally inviting you, yes, you, to pitch! 🫵
Hodag's sword or science big game scholarship
Ends 3/1/25
Send 500 word or less pitch to hodagmag at Gmail dot com
2 winners will be chosen. 
Half packages are the offer
Please share far And wide
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Prismatic Wasteland @prismaticwasteland.com · 11/02/2025
Did you recently see a bunch of blogposts loosely themed around "elements"? Too many to keep up with? Good news: I tracked them all down and provided brief summaries of all the posts so you can go read all that sound interesting (which may be all of them!) #osr #ttrpg
prismaticweekly.substack.com
Blog Bandwagon: Elements Edition
Your guide to catching up on a deluge of blog posts from a single day
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
In case you missed the first post and wanted to read it first: bsky.app/profile/qars...
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Blog post! Last week I posted about Two Against Darkness, a way to run two D&D4 heroes against OSR adventures. Here’s my post about my design process, monster math from OD&D to 4, and how to run it at levels higher than 1. qarsi.bearblog.dev/two-against-...
qarsi.bearblog.dev
Two Against Darkness - The Madness
I presented a method to run B/X adventures for two D&D4 characters. Now I'll meditate about the differences in math and philosophy between B/X and D&D4, sho...
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Amanda P. will be at PAX Unplugged @weirdwonder.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Conceiving a dungeon involves injecting spaces with barely contained energy that yearns to explode, impacting the surrounding area. One way to develop natural tension is through creating dungeons that hold opposed themes. #osr #ttrpg weirdwonder.bearblog.dev/opposed-them...
weirdwonder.bearblog.dev
Opposed themes and natural tension
Amanda P. discusses dungeon design, specifically themes.
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Sticky Doodler 🔜 PeopleCon 3 @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
People seem to like our catalog, so we're looking into sharing it digitally. In the meantime, I wanted to show you its pages and the creators they feature. First up is @junkfoodgames.bsky.social, who also laid out the catalog. Check out these awesome zines... 1/
Facing zine pages: Junk Food Games' Necromancer Heretic, Death Cap Saute, and Strange Saplings
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Incredible blog post! This is so useful it’s getting in my game yesterday!
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alice @dungeondoll.itch.io · 07/02/2025
blog bandwagon: my contribution to the Prismatic Wasteland 'Elements' blog bandwagon: re-imagining the elemental planes as planets in our solar system! dungeondoll.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-...
dungeondoll.blogspot.com
The Elemental Plane(t)s
This is my contribution to the 'Elements' Blog Bandwagon from the Prismatic Wasteland Discord server. I've never been the biggest fan o...
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Personable | Markus @personable.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Jumping on the Blog Bandwagon, I present a blackjack mechanic for alchemy! Suitable for any role-playing game where you want to add some simple crafting. personabler.blogspot.com/2025/02/elem...
personabler.blogspot.com
Elements of Alchemy: A Blackjack solution
A recurring element of many role playing games is crafting systems, whether for alchemy and magic, or more mundane pursuits. These system o...
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Prismatic Wasteland @prismaticwasteland.com · 07/02/2025
New Post: Control Weather Should Not Be a Spell How a single spell holds back an entire field of magic plus a new character class (Tempestarius) that can control the weather and also gets a storm cloud stronghold (This is for today’s blog bandwagon. Y’know, “elements” as in weather) #osr #ttrpg
prismaticwasteland.com
Control Weather Should Not Be a Spell — Prismatic Wasteland
Control Weather is a cop-out of a spell, combining what should be many different magic effects into a single spell that is high level and accordingly puts a very interesting field of magic out of reac...
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Magnolia Keep @magnoliakeep.itch.io · 07/02/2025
Sallying out of Magnolia Keep, its Periodic Table of the Elements Day! To celebrate, a bunch of us bloggers all made element-themed posts! Mine is on the Rock Lords, demigods fighting in the war between Law and Chaos, with some goodies for Black Sword Hack! magnoliakeep.blogspot.com/2025/02/peri...
magnoliakeep.blogspot.com
Periodic Table Day: The Rock Lords
Hey folks! Today is Periodic Table Day 2025, and as a result, a bunch of us in the Prismatic Wasteland server have decided to grace your ta...
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
New blog post! We’re Blog Bandwagoning! The theme is elements, so I wrote about alchemical oozes: a puzzle monster that eats gold, silver, or you depending on what its made of! qarsi.bearblog.dev/alchemical-o...
qarsi.bearblog.dev
Alchemical Oozes
I'm jumping on the elements bandwagon, we're doing alchemy! Specifically with oozes and acids. It's a little puzzle monster for players to interact with. You...
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Nael Fox -> Extortin' and Gamin' @sfxprb.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Republishing my first "blog post". How to make a bespoke hex jig for mapping your #OSR game or other #TTRPG. Here you go @claytonian.bsky.social. billhook.bearblog.dev/make-a-hex-j...
billhook.bearblog.dev
Make a Hex Jig
I made a little jig out of index cards to make a hex map, and I figured other people might benefit from the experience. Maybe you don’t have hex paper,...
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
New (?) Blog Post! Back on twitter I did a live reading of @riseupcomus.bsky.social His Majesty the Worm. I was pretty happy with it and twitter is a hellhole now so it’s now on my blog! qarsi.bearblog.dev/his-majesty-...
qarsi.bearblog.dev
His Majesty the Worm livetweet archive
When I got His Majesty the Worm in paper, I livetweeted me reading the book. I was pretty happy with my impression, but it's stuck on twitter so here it is, ...
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Michael @michaelklamerus.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Recent posts I've enjoyed on other blogs virtualmoose.org/2025/02/05/b...
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Having been running D&D4 as my primary game for awhile, I think the problem is overstated but I definitely feel tension between the mechanics and the fiction sometimes. Might be worth an observation in the future if it happens more!
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
That’s definitely another side of it, mechanics not matching the fiction (see the huge debates about knocking oozes prone), though it seemed the primary complaint was “why can the fighter only do this move once a day?”
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
I knew I had a lot of blogging built up but this post surprised even me 😅
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
New blog post! This one is a little post for fun about dissociated mechanics, D&D4 powers, and a creative exercise to associate them. qarsi.bearblog.dev/associating-...
qarsi.bearblog.dev
Associating Dissociated Mechanics - D&D4 Powers
D&D4 is famous for . It presents a world, but is infamously wishy-washy with the specifics. This aesthetic complaint is the strongest complaint against D&D4....
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
New blog post! This one is about how I think about settings and lore. Fundamental Truths that let me make up lore on the spot. And a way to let players come up with lore too! qarsi.bearblog.dev/truths-from-...
qarsi.bearblog.dev
Truths from which the lore flows
Awhile back we were in a bit of a fuss about . I also remember a conversation about information and how to make players feel at home in the world. At the tim...
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Making me think, does Quill’s diagetic letter writing make it a solo LARP?
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Evangeline Sorrel @forestoath.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Hey! I just published my first RPG blog post! - It's all about Solo RPG design and how we design interactions within them. Looking at The Wretched by @loottheroom.bsky.social, Ironsworn by @shawntomkin.bsky.social, Lay On Hands by @alfredvalley.bsky.social, and Quill by @scottmalthouse.bsky.social
forestoath.bearblog.dev
Making Solo RPGs ‘gamey’: Points of Interactions.
On the very last day of November 2024, two months ago as of writing this, I attended Dragonmeet. There’s a lot I can say about the convention, and the gr...
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
A worm blog rises 🪱
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
itch.io/jam/parryjam
itch.io
Playtest Zero ParryJam
A game jam from 2025-01-02 to 2025-02-28 hosted by ehronlime.
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Oh also for an iconic daily challenge moment, I’m holding off on #Dungeon25 this month to learn layout and publish my parry game for Playtest Zero’s Parry Jam. The game needs to exist and I must be the one to do it.
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
New blog post! This one is about how I think about settings and lore. Fundamental Truths that let me make up lore on the spot. And a way to let players come up with lore too! qarsi.bearblog.dev/truths-from-...
qarsi.bearblog.dev
Truths from which the lore flows
Awhile back we were in a bit of a fuss about . I also remember a conversation about information and how to make players feel at home in the world. At the tim...
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Rise Up (From the Grave) Comus @riseupcomus.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Wrote this one up Use a different character creation ruleset at different points of the game riseupcomus.blogspot.com/2025/02/diff...
riseupcomus.blogspot.com
Different Character Creation Methods at Different Times
In many RPG books, character creation is right in the front of the book to give the new reader a sense of what the game is about, help them ...
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
🚨 New Blog Alert! 🚨 I’m starting an elfgame blog with an insane one! Only have 2 players? Here’s how to turn OSR adventures into romps for 2 D&D4 heroes with just one notecard! qarsi.bearblog.dev/two-against-...
qarsi.bearblog.dev
Two Against Darkness - The Method
This is a new way to play your B/X compatible adventures. Anything where the monsters are measured in Hit Dice really. With a single index card you can conve...
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
In case it isn’t loading here’s the image! The information should also be on a table on the bottom of the post. It might not have been clear, attack bonus doesn’t change from monster to monster of the same level in D&D4 so it doesn’t here! So for 1st level it’s always +6 vs AC and +4 vs others.
A notecard of statistics for converting monsters from Hit Dice to D&D4. You can find a screenreader friendly table at https://qarsi.bearblog.dev/two-against-darkness-the-method/
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
🚨 New Blog Alert! 🚨 I’m starting an elfgame blog with an insane one! Only have 2 players? Here’s how to turn OSR adventures into romps for 2 D&D4 heroes with just one notecard! qarsi.bearblog.dev/two-against-...
qarsi.bearblog.dev
Two Against Darkness - The Method
This is a new way to play your B/X compatible adventures. Anything where the monsters are measured in Hit Dice really. With a single index card you can conve...
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SachaGoat @sachagoat.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
🔹🏆 BLOGGIES 2024 - PLATINUM WINNER 🏆🔹 I am pleased to announce that after an exhaustive 263 responses, the overall winner of the 2024 Bloggies is... The 1 HP Dragon, from @explorersdesign.bsky.social Read the details and gold medalist speeches here: sachagoat.blot.im/bloggies-202...
sachagoat.blot.im
BLOGGIES 2024 Concludes! - sachagoat
The Bloggies 2024 have come to a close, and what an incredible celebration of TTRPG blogging it has been! A phenomenal range of talent, creativity,
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Lars // Dice Goblin Games @dicegoblin.blog · 02/02/2025
The Zungeon Jam by @idlecartulary.itch.io had me looking into @traversefantasy.itch.io's Bite-Sized Dungeons again - and I found an easy flowchart syntax that makes creating and editing such dungeons really easy! dicegoblin.blog/bite-sized-d...
dicegoblin.blog
Bite-Sized Dungeons in Flowcharts/Mermaid
I discovered Mermaid recently – a syntax to easily write flowcharts with. It’s integrated into Notion, which I use for a lot of my brainstorming/storing of ideas, so that’s pretty…
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
I’m eagerly awaiting your findings!
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Ooh that rocks!
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Does anyone make osr adventures designed so you can print them out and staple them into a little zine yourself? I’ve been thinking a lot about printability in rpgs lately and I want to see more
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SachaGoat @sachagoat.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
🗳️ BLOGGIES 2024 - THE FINALS 🗳️ Congratulations again to the four category winners! Now, it’s time to decide which blog post deserves the top honor. This form will be open for 48 hours. Decide which blog post is the best of 2024! Link to voting form⤵️
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Qarsi @qarsi.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
This one getting knocked out hurt me the most 😔
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Personable | Markus @personable.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
While we all wait for the Bloggie finals voting to open, I hereby present my alternative awards: The Snubbies! My hand-picked favourites of this year's Bloggie finalists that did not get a podium finish. personabler.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-... Please share your own non-winning favourites!
personabler.blogspot.com
The Snubbies: An award for (Bloggie) losers
Another year passes, another set of Bloggies is awarded. A round of applause is in order for the category winners, and a flower bouquet and...
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