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I. A look back on 2025!
Salutations, friends,
We’ve finally reached it…. the Edge of Time Itself; the sliver of a moment where the planet breaches into a new dimension, one time-zone at a time. In other less ponderous, but no less extravagant words… a new year is upon us!
This means, more than anything else, that we all have a rare moment as a band of enthusiastic, creative, and handsome adventurers to embrace change and watch magic unfold in the coming year.
However, before we pop the corks off of our champagne, its customary to look back on the past year,.. and doubly so for Dungeon Delve, being that this is the first year of the newsletter!
Reached a total of 200+ subscribers from all walks of RPGing; from GMing, to design, world-building, development, and playing!
Delivered 47.5 magnificent issues, all round-ups with the latest on-goings in the large-or-small TTRPG space.
Highlighted over 80 crowdfunding campaigns, dozens of jams, and hundreds of great GM and design posts across the TTRPG blogosphere.
Put out 10 articles on the Chaotican Writer main site, and a handful of new random name generators!
Of course, 47.5 issues is a lot to sift through! … Therefore, I’ve gathered together some timeless entries which you can read and enjoy!
#35) Theatre of the Maze
There’s so much to say! … Honestly, thank you for reading this little Substack round-up rag. If I have in any way helped you on your journey through the TTRPG wilderness, please leave a comment below, or reach out to me directly!
II. My ENDIES AWARDS 2025!
This year, Lady Tabletop unveiled The Endie Awards, a self-run awards ceremony and blog-or-social-media ritual where YOU share a summary of your gaming exploits in the year 2025! … Equipped with #Endies2025 hashtag!
Can’t miss out on an opportunity to get geeky and look at my RPG hobby gains as a whole.
Most Repetatively Played Game in One-Shot Form: … Daggerheart
At GenCon this past year, I ran 20 one-shots of the first two chapters of “The Sablewood Messengers”, one hour each. Read about it here, and my insights into Daggerheart as a whole! … In addition, I’ve run it three more times with friends at other events!
Favorite Playtested Game (TIE): … Dirtbags!
BreakOut Con in Toronto brought forth a handful of magical moments, but none as punk as playing a this rules-lite, cinematic sci-fi looter-shooter inspired TTRPG by The Dungeons Key! Check out the physical / digital game here, and my review of it here!
Favorite Playtested Game (TIE): … Framework: Diceless RPG
At GameHole Con, I crossed paths with Darryl T Jones and son of Splattered Ink Games, and along with my friend Devon, hung out at the neighboring hotel to play a couple games. He showcased Framework, and I was surprised just how fluid a diceless system could be. And YOU can playtest it too!
Best Game I Got to Revisit: … Dread
The other game we played… was Dread, a horror RPG based upon a jenga-tower. Each pull of the tower means a risk of utter disaster, as the collapse of the tower could mean death, madness, or more! My recount of an old playthrough.
Most Kickass Artist With Cool Products: … J.P. Coovert
J.P. Coovert has put out multiple amazing publications, including those inspired by Castlevanya, Dragon Warrior, and other old school video games. The art style is fun, animated, and succeeds in creating a cherished sense of nostalgia. I also picked up Dragon Town, which I hope to run for my nieces in the near future.
III. The Treasure Chest
«««««««»»»» This Weeks Free Resource!! ««««»»»»»»»
For the digital game devs, graphics fellows, and retro enthusiasts, a collaboration of artist called the Liberated Pixel Effort has pooled together hand-crafted sprites into an app called LPC Character Generator; a tool for creating spritesheets that you can use in games! … Whether you’re looking for TTRPG character art, token art, video game entity art, or something to spice up your media presence, you can design avatars from a long list of assets! (Just make sure to credit the artists ala CC 3.0 where necessary)
IV. Looting the Room
RPG Bundles and Deals
Dark Horse Comics hosts a number of discounted lore-book PDFs for various TTRPG franchises on DriveThruRPG for those looking to amp up their Witcher, Cyberpunk, Dragon Age, and Critical Role collections!
[4 DAYS LEFT] Pathfinder 2nd Edition Holiday Haul Bundle on Humble Bundle has old and new campaigns, core books, JPG/PDF maps, and more!
$487.00$45.00With season 2 in full swing, Modiphius is discounting the Fallout TTRPG game
$94.98$35.50 … and other supplements on DriveThruRPG. … as well as offering a plethora of physical books for their 33% sale on their own website!An ongoing cause, especially in a food insecure world! Power Word Meal is addresses global hunger, offering a bundle with a one-shot and a new species for DnD and Pathfinder. Just $16 can feed 20 people!
Ongoing bundles and deals!! HawtPixel Font Firesale | Tome of Worldbuilding | No-Prep Game Master | West Marches Campaign Playstyle Book | How to Solo Any Game | Ancestry and Culture 5E
V. Markings on the Wall
NEW Crowdfunding Campaign
Ultimate Toolbox - The bestselling system-neutral compendium is getting a glow-up! … With over 400 pages of charts, tables, and random generators, this resource is ready for any RPG campaign. Create NPCs, quest, encounters, and much more!
RPG News and Finds
From humble beginnings to a gaming platform, Dicegeeks is celebrating 10-years of content, taking a look back on the journey and a big special thanks to readers! .. Also check out on Substack!
Aaron Voigt has put out a 1.5 hour long Youtube video deep-dive into the timeline and history of the indie RPG scene, highlighting the major moments and movements which led to its renaissance, and its current day!
For those who prefer reading to video-viewing, here is the writeup!
Like clockwork, Thought Punks posts and shares its open source TTRPG resources page every week on Bluesky, containing all manner of open RPG SRDs, games, music, AI-free art sources, and more!
Also, be sure to check out TP’s Motif Story Engine SRD!
Speaking of which, this classic Dicebreaker article from 2021 has a handful of great options to base a small TTRPG zine or project on for those getting started with homebrewing or game development! Check out 9 best tabletop RPG systems to hack into a custom game!
Its not all accents and theater! The craft of voicing characters and NPCs in games is more simple, more subtle, and more deliberate than portraying an archetype. J. R. Zambrano at Bell of Lost Souls presents D&D: How to Do a Character Voice, No Accent Needed!
For those deep into the Powered By The Apocalypse ecosystem, Chris Longhurst has assembled a brief history of PbtA. Here is a preview of the visual timeline:
Thanks for reading CWs Dungeon Delve! … Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. … Here is last weeks entry!