Paid-members only

Hollows

Magical Girls X Hollows - An Experiment

Can you put high femme Japanese magical girls into the game about Victorian mascs fighting giant monsters? Maybe? If you start with the Weapons?

Paid-members only

From The Patreon

Breaking (Down) the Rules - Video

Heart

Multi-classing in Heart: Doubled Rhythms

Minærva McJanda talks about doubling up: running Heart: The City Beneath with custom advances to let you try combining two classes at once.

Salt Featured

SALT design diary: this is how we Role

What makes Salt: The City Adrift different from Heart and Spire, set in the same world? Aside from all the seawater?

vampyres

On the matter of the proposed importation of one (1) vampyre of the old kingdom, August 2026

We asked our erstwhile logistics person Alex to take a look at compliance with the new EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations, and this is what we got instead. We trust this explains the situation and our feelings about it in full.

Falling Angels

I tried writing my standard long blog post to go alongside this game, but it really wasn't working. I've scrapped it. Download Fallen Angels here Here it is boiled down to a brisk set of bullet points: * I've always liked it when one thing

Instating a union

Rowan, Rook and Decard has this week become the first UK tabletop game company to recognise a union. Our team is now represented by the IWGB Game Worker Union. You can read more about this on the IWGB website. The team is working on a deeper dive into why, how,

Design diary

Children of Time design diary 3: All Gods, No Masters

In the third of our Children of Time RPG design diary series, Minærva talks about the approach the game takes to narrative and gameplay authority.

CoT RPG

Jay Dragon & Minærva McJanda talk storytelling game design: full interview

We sat down with two masters of storytelling game design to discuss how to give your players agency, what makes meaning emerge through play, and much (much) more...

Game design

7 Tips for Designing Storytelling TTRPGs From Our Massive Interview With Jay Dragon & Minærva McJanda

Seven key insights for game designers trying to build storytelling systems that hand agency to their players, from two of the top designers in the field.

CoT RPG

Children of Time design diary 2: Focus

In the second of our Children of Time RPG design diary series, Minærva talks about the specific people, places and societies you’ll be telling stories about.

Paid-members only

Games For Crabs

GAMES FOR CRABS DEBRIEF

This weekend I wrote a game about different bronze-age philosophies put forward by a theoretical civilisation of superintelligent beehives. It involves making uninterrupted eye contact with a stranger until I tell you to stop. WAIT, A BEE ISN’T A CRAB! You’re damned right. Let me explain - Games

Members only

LARP

Playing upSpire: how to turn a TTRPG into a parlour LARP

When we heard that there was a freeform Spire LARP taking place in Australia, we wanted to find out more: how do you go about translating the mechanics and vibes of our world into a living, breathing space you can step into? Over to ST and guest writer William Arnott.

CoT RPG

Children of Time design diary 1: Speculation

In the first of our Children of Time RPG design diary series, Minærva talks about why Children of Time is a great foundation for a TTRPG.

The Monthly Email

RRD NEWSLETTER JUNE?

Okay; it’s a week late. Don’t draw attention to it. We’re all ashamed and there’s no need - and no benefit! - to pointing fingers about “whose job” it is to “write” the “newsletter” “once a month.” Everything exists in a context. For example, in my case, that

Paid-members only

Behind the scenes

WHAT IF TOO MANY PEOPLE PLAYED A GAME ALL AT ONCE?

This month, I have mostly been writing 30-player six-table TTRPG scenarios in advance of GenCon 2026. Let’s talk about what’s fun, and what’s interesting, and what’s unfortunately dull about that...

Conventions

What We Did At Pyrkon

Hello, Producer Chant here, because we all went away to Europe and Grant is still sleeping it off. Editor: GRANT’S HERE. Grant’s here. Hello! I’m late to the party and I’m editing this piece now. Or rather: leaving it entirely intact and commenting on it because

UKGE

UKGE 2026: Post Con Deconstruction

With one more UKGE under our belt - the sixth, I think? Covid made it hard to count - it seems like a good moment to share some of our stats and talk about how we run the convention. There’s a growing tradition of post-UKGE roundups from small TTRPG creators,

From The Patreon

A COURT OF SPARKS AND ASHES

It's time for beautiful fey lads at the end of the world. A Court of Sparks and Ashes was made as part of the Romantasy TTRPG Jam, organised by Fistful of Crits. Romantasy is very much not my usual genre. In fact, it's pretty much not

Members only

From The Patreon

ON THE DIFFICULTIES OF PUTTING A CAT IN YOUR GAME

The Monthly Email

GRANT ON HOLIDAY

I’m supposed to be on my holidays, you know. Booked a week off and everything. But I forgot to tell anyone else to write the newsletter, and - honestly - you’d miss me if wasn’t here. No-one else has the weird mix of arm’s-reach disinterest, desperate

Game jam

Havoc Jam WINNERS

We ran the Havoc Engine Jam last month. I’ll be fully honest with you: I wasn’t expecting to see 52 entries, given that the task was to design an entire, fully-fledged roleplaying game (and probably a bunch of pre-gen characters and a scenario). The general standard

Warm and fuzzy Featured

Hello, world, again

If you're reading this, then it's likely you've found the soft launch of Secrets. Welcome. It's not finished yet. Here at RR&D we've worked with subscription approaches for a really long time. Before we were even a real

Nothing to see here

HONK

It is a goose

Members only

From The Patreon

PIG AT A WEDDING & MORE SALT