Welcome! This channel is typically Game Streaming but I do occasionally do some art streams.This channel is strictly ANTI Gen AI do not bring that crap here. Everything about this channel is Human Mad...

Welcome! This channel is typically Game Streaming but I do occasionally do some art streams.This channel is strictly ANTI Gen AI do not bring that crap here. Everything about this channel is Human Mad...

hellow! stoned puppy that loves to plays horror games & indie games. I also cooks on live and love making foods! enjoy the chaos! (18+) :3 — onelittlepuppie streams live on Twitch! Check out their vid...

CatMail with the Family ~ CatMailCo | Streaming cat mail co..

I'm can't get enough!! !throne | Streaming cat mail co..

USPSPSPS | !discord !links !throne !crab | Streaming cat mail co..

[Vtuber EN/FR]Back on that Box grindset! Solo catmail co.! Join the frog company! | Streaming cat mail co..

The Unicorn has awaken to showcase her art, animations and "amazing" gaming skills. Come vibe with me while I'm still awake. :)

YouTube video by ムーチョと一緒! ch

Look what the cat dragged in. Monthly project updates, plus curated blog posts and oddments worth your time.

_Look what the cat dragged in._ Switching things up with a shorter CATMAIL. Let’s see how it works. To reduce eye-glazing for you, dear reader, I moved the big link pile out of the newsletter. Worry not, it isn't gone. The newsletter now includes the posts I have extra thoughts about, while the longer archive list lives on the blog as a companion piece. I'll see how this turns out. Let me know if you have suggestions! **In this Issue** * New blog posts * Rootring and map updates * Favorite reads from the month * Cat Scraps companion archive * * * ## The Yarn Ball _What I've been doing!_ ### New on the Blog Finally back to writing some actual blog posts! * I resurrected an old draft because I kept circling back to it. Recently Marcia referred to some GM work as backend, and I immediately thought "Hang on a minute! Haven't I written something similar before?" So yeah, I cleaned it up and expanded it into a framework for analyzing playstyle, mechanics, and modules: Fullstack Refereeing! * I wrote an essay about what maps in games are for: Against Maps. I was bummed that I missed the last few blog bandwagons, so I was determined to write something for the maps one. It started as a joke, but once I got going the thoughts became clearer. ### Rootring I took a break from rootring for most of the month. I'm still sketching out an event structure for blog events like bandwagons, but it needs more time before I know what shape it should take. A few more blogs joined the ring, so we are up to 111 activated blogs. Reader numbers are also slowly but steadily increasing, which is lovely to see. Rootring is meant to be as much about discovery as it's about the ring itself, so I'm glad people are using it to find new posts to read. ### Blogosphere Map Not much here, just the regular map update on the last day of the month: April 30, 2026. I added some new blogs that started recently and a few older ones I had missed previously. * * * ## Things I Dragged Home _The posts I kept thinking about this month_ * The prose vs. bullet points debate in module design has been exhausting, but at least it gave us **Kati's history dive about bullet points**. Did you know they are a super recent trend in history? I didn't! Gives you some perspective for sure. * Hit points are abstraction. How much abstraction is worth it? I think **Phlox found a sweet spot making all damage 1d6**. It neither makes characters too fragile nor too tough, and seems to keep the tension in a nice place. * I'm just a sicko for tertiary resources that inform games without being about game design in the first place. Clayton looks at **what ideas from urban design are worth stealing**. It has already given me ideas for refining settlements, and I'm excited to translate it further for my own needs. * Character death is one of those OSR-adjacent arguments that keeps coming back, usually with people talking past each other. The RPG Gazette asks **what lethality actually communicates in games** , which feels like the better question. Keep this one handy for the next time the discussion inevitably starts again. * "It is not hard to get people to do things they already want to do. Conversely, it is impossible to get people to do things they do not want to do (for fun)." Bankuei discusses **enthusiastic consent in games** and why you shouldn't keep playing or running games you don't enjoy. Stopping a game isn't the end of the world, or the friendship. * What Do You Do? is a new blog that showed up with a very good question: **how can we give players more agency in dice pool mechanics**? I gotta say, it's pretty cool. It combines counting 6s and skill points with an extra requirement for the lowest die result. That's a lot of player decision-making, and it won't be for everyone, but I feel like it has potential. * My absolute joy in TTRPGs isn't exploring, combat, dungeon delving, or acting as a character. It's when the game world begins to change and I get to live through that change, even when it's grounded and local rather than grand and historical. Bankuei talks about **the mid levels in Errant after years of running it** and how the game isn't really about dungeon crawling, but about how you defy the situation you're put in and make the best of it. That resonated deeply with my favorite parts of play. * Sometimes you want to move play forward without handwaving everything or playing out every single beat. Ty has **a neat procedure for giving players agency over quick outcomes** by shifting table entries between "will happen," "might happen," and "won't happen." Warren D points at a great use case: **don't end on a cliffhanger if scheduling the follow-up is going to be a pain**. * I have a few dream campaigns I'd like to run one day, and a truly long-running Mothership sandbox is one of them. Its capitalist hellhole economy is such a strong motivator for characters. If you don't believe me, look at INJECTOR SEAT's **breakdown of how bad it actually is**. * I'm no Tolkien head, but anytime Josh posts about Middle-earth I drift a little closer to appreciation. I even kinda love the idea of playing a campaign using his **newly published LORE system** together with **the hexcrawl from last year**. Sounds like a blast! * Prepping is one of the great joys of running a game, and everyone seems to have their own method. I can see some overlap with my own prep approach, but Valeria goes much further with **a sicko's guide to prepping a whole campaign world** , including using several worldbuilding games as inspiration. * Sometimes taking ideas from video games is worth exploring. Remember those games where you send out little blorbos to do missions on your behalf? **That's basically what Marcia's Lackeys for Cinco are about**. I also never played Shadow of Mordor, but its Nemesis system is fascinating and has been **adapted for TTRPGs** more than once. * There have been previous attempts to make cooking fun and useful in TTRPGs, but there's a real charm to Hilander's **simple Yahtzee Dice Soup**. Maybe it's the straight-to-the-point nature of "here is how it works," without needing to explain the whole idea behind it. * Okay, okay, is what Varzival is doing here even allowed? Sick of coming up with names? NPCs are referred to by generic titles instead, because they **wear masks that replace their childhood names**. It both simplifies naming and adds a sick layer of worldbuilding. * * * ## Cat Scraps I moved the bigger link pile to its own post this time: **Cat Scraps April 26**. That's where the rest of the month's links live, split into the usual categories. Browse, skim, or ignore without guilt. * * * That's all for this CATMAIL. If you're reading this on the web and want future issues in your inbox, you can subscribe here. Catch you next time!