index - Grim Tokens

![[blog banner.png]] # Grim Tokens: Journeys in the Astra Obscura Grim Tokens is like a book of grudges, with slightly fewer grudges and a lot more mad rambling. Solo and co-op tabletop games, played to whatever end they manage — an epic campaign, a one-shot that went sideways, a dungeon that has killed better people than me — then tortured afterwards and written up while I still remember which dice betrayed me. Long **Ironsworn: Starforged** campaigns, a **Five Parsecs from Home** crew that keeps making the same mistake and dodging the repo-man, a **ShadowDark** crawl I might slowly learn to survive, a weird mix of Cthulhu and Rocket Punk if I decide to break out **Loner**, and a shelf's worth of others. More than thirty years at the table hasn't made me an *authority* on any of it. It has made me opinionated. Possibly grumpy. Definitely cantankerous. It's a blog, because the writing is the point. It's also a wiki, because every game I mention has a page of its own — what it is, how it plays, and whether it's worth your money. The [[thoughts|shorter pieces]] and the [[articles|longer arguments]] live in between. Everything here starts at a table and ends up in "aggressive discussion." ## Recently What's most recently crossed my table, newest first. | Title | Kind | Date | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :-----------------------: | ---------- | | [[The Organ Moth]] Its hunting cry is said to leave the childless fertile for days, so they walk months into the Wilds to find it. Most of them don't come back. | ![[kind-thought.svg\|26]] | 2026‑11‑05 | | [[We Start in a Tavern - Extended Edition\|We Start in a Tavern: Extended Edition]] Twenty-two games walk into a tavern. Most of them make it to the bar. | ![[kind-thought.svg\|26]] | 2026‑11‑04 | | [[Bound by Stories - On Wes Craven's New Nightmare\|Bound by Stories: On Wes Craven's New Nightmare]] A Halloween rewatch that turns into an argument about third acts, and then into an exercise worth stealing: take the stories you love, strip them to their beats, and move them somewhere they've never been. Most of New Nightmare is the demonstration. The last fifteen percent is the warning. | ![[kind-thought.svg\|26]] | 2026‑10‑31 | | [[Discovery - The Fiction Engine Framework\|Discovery: The Fiction Engine Framework]] There's a quiet second thing in the Ensemble Second Edition announcement. Besides the November 6th release date, it carries the Fiction Engine Framework — the designer's essays on what the engine believes. | ![[kind-thought.svg\|26]] | 2026‑10‑29 | | [[I Attack Is Not an Action\|“I Attack” Is Not an Action]] \"I attack\" is just a shrug with dice attached. A discussion with 김청구 that runs from the abstract attack roll to tactical infinity to a Starforged chokehold, one gangster and one guard on the radio, and ends on whether \"+1 to hit\" is lazy. | ![[kind-article.svg\|26]] | 2026‑10‑27 | | [[SoloFane 005 - What the Skald Sang\|SoloFane 005: What the Skald Sang]] After nearly a year away, SoloFane returns in screenplay form: a skald's recap of the tale so far, a cast of the living and the dead, and a promise to finish what Brynn started. | ![[kind-session.svg\|26]] | 2026‑10‑27 | | [[The Author Is Not at the Table]] The only person the facilitator owes anything to is the person across the table, and the scenario author isn't sitting anywhere near it. He sold you a starting point; everything after that belongs to the people playing. Save the NPC, kill the ending, break the plot — the author has no power here and shouldn't. | ![[kind-thought.svg\|26]] | 2026‑10‑27 | | [[Keep Calm in Ars Magica]] The urge to make Keep Calm posters for Ars Magica arrived late at night and refused to leave. No explanation offered, none required. | ![[kind-thought.svg\|26]] | 2026‑10‑25 | | [[Everything Matters]] Ron Edwards said system matters. Twenty-seven years later, Aaron Marks said premise does. Both pick one thing, elevate it above the rest, and fail in exactly the same way. | ![[kind-article.svg\|26]] | 2026‑10‑24 | | [[Automating Workflow in an RPG Pseudo-Journalistic Publishing Architecture]] The automation isn't there to write the posts. It's there to make everything around the writing cheap, in time and tokens, so the writing is the only part left to spend time on. Which is either productivity or an elaborate way of avoiding the actual work. | ![[kind-thought.svg\|26]] | 2026‑10‑22 | ## Where to Go Almost everyone stumbles in from deeper within — a session, a monster, a moment of illumination. ### On the Table Campaigns and one-shots, dice and all — newest session first, with the whole campaign listed on the [[game-play|Game Play]] page. %% BEGIN GENERATED:campaigns %% | Campaign | Sessions | Latest session | Date | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :------: | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | | [[The Solofull Fane]] Ironsworn / ShadowDark mash-up; a one-shot descent into the temple of Vexitorus. | 6 | [[SoloFane 005 - What the Skald Sang\|SoloFane 005: What the Skald Sang]] After nearly a year away, SoloFane returns in screenplay form: a skald's recap of the tale so far, a cast of the living and the dead, and a promise to finish what Brynn started. | 2026‑10‑27 | | [[Game Play/Running Breathless/Running Breathless\|Running Breathless: Live Sessions]] Captures of Running Breathless, generally played solo. Everybody's running away from something. The hard part is figuring out what. | 1 | [[RB 000 - Escape From Blacksite Delta\|RB 000: Escape From Blacksite Delta]] It's hard being a psychic escaping from an experimental black site. Harder than you know. | 2026‑05‑23 | | [[Hollow Places of the Soul]] An Ironsworn saga about the creation of the first order of mages in the Ironlands, and the struggles to make it real. | 2 | [[HPotS 001 - The First True Man\|Fleshmaker's Fire: The First True Man]] Today we march on the Ironlands! Or rather, we plan to establish the Order of Hermes in an alien land with all new characters – and probably formalize magic ourselves, why not? Join Beinbrytr Kroppkunstner to flee torches and pitchforks with his younger brother today in Ironsworn! | 2024‑01‑19 | %% END GENERATED:campaigns %% ### Fresh Ink [[Thoughts]] are the short ones: one idea, lightly explored. There are 207%%{{thoughts}}%% of them. [[articles|Articles]] are the long ones, where the idea gets to sprawl — 241%%{{articles}}%% of those. The multi-part runs are gathered into [[Collections|collections]], sorted by whichever moved most recently. %% BEGIN GENERATED:fresh-ink %% | Collection | Entries | Latest entry | Date | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :-----: | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | | [[What IS Storygaming]] Four parts on what storygaming actually is — a way of conducting play rather than a stack of mechanics. | 4 | [[What IS Storygaming - Pt IV\|What IS Storygaming? Pt IV]] A storygame doesn't roll to see if you sneak past the guard. It rolls to see if the party keeps the stakes. That gap isn't incidental — it's the definition. | 2026‑10‑07 | | [[RPG a Day]] The collection of every year's RPG a Day creations. | 109 | | | |    ↳ [[RPG a Day 2026\|2026]] | 30 | [[RPGaDay 2026 - 30 - Pride\|RPG a Day 2026 - 30: Pride]] Pride isn't the sin the proverb warns about — it's the engine that keeps you building, and shame is the other hand that keeps you honest. An argument that every game is really a conversation, and that the act of doing is what makes you worth being proud of. | 2026‑09‑30 | |    ↳ [[RPG a Day 2025\|2025]] | 23 | [[Day 29 - Connect, Day 30 - Experience, Day 31 - Reward\|RPG A DAY 2025: Day 29 / 30 / 31 - Connect / Experience / Reward]] Connect, experience, reward. It's not just a series of words or themes. It's a topic. | 2025‑08‑24 | |    ↳ [[RPG a Day 2024\|2024]] | 26 | [[RPG A DAY 2024 - Game or gamer you miss\|RPG A DAY 2024: Game or gamer you miss]] A game you've never heard of in a world long lost to us. | 2024‑08‑25 | |    ↳ [[RPG a Day 2023\|2023]] | 30 | [[RPGaDay 2023 - 30 - Most Obscure RPG You've Ever Played\|RPG a Day 2023 - Day 30/31: Most Obscure RPG You've Ever Played / Favorite RPG of All Time?]] | 2023‑08‑30 | | [[Character Creation Challenge]] One character a day for the whole of January, a different game each time - to see what a system asks of you before you ever sit down to play it. | 92 | | | |    ↳ [[Character Creation Challenge 2026\|2026]] | 31 | [[31 - Alien the RPG Evolved Edition\|Day 31: Alien the RPG: Evolved Edition - Jace Merrick, Corporate Scientist on the Run]] In space, everyone can hear you do accounting and illegal research. Sometimes you have to go on the run. Let's make a character. | 2026‑01‑29 | |    ↳ [[Character Creation Challenge 2025\|2025]] | 31 | [[Character Creation Challenge 2025 - Day 31 - Infaernum\|Character Creation Challenge 2025: Day 31 - Infaernum - Caerdwyn Meyers, Apocalypse Wasteland Scrounger]] It's six days until the end of the world. We have an entire game full of the apocalypse and supplements. And here we are scavenging in the wasteland. Hit it. | 2025‑01‑30 | |    ↳ [[Character Creation Challenge 2024\|2024]] | 30 | [[Character Creation Challenge 2024 - Day 31 - Solipsist\|Character Creation Challenge 2024: Day 31 - Solipsist :: The Wiz, Aspring Genius]] It's our last ride this month, and it's a doozy. How far into subjective reality can a game take you? What would you do if your character had the ability to change the nature of existence at a fundamental level in accordance with his obsessions, limited only by the things that claw him back? That's what we get to find out today in the last hurrah of the Character Creation Challenge 2024 with The Wiz, Aspiring Genius. | 2024‑01‑31 | | [[Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny]] Articles in which an RPG or wargame is rebuilt within another frame. | 10 | | | |    ↳ [[Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny - Battledroids to Steel Rift\|Battledroids to Steel Rift]] | 3 | [[ORP - Battledroids to Steel Rift - Advanced Starter Set\|Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny - Battledroids to Steel Rift: Advanced Starter Set]] Battledroids to Steel Rift Advanced Starter Kit, with mechanics detail, factions, an example mercenary team, and a campaign starter! | 2024‑09‑17 | |    ↳ [[Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny - DND to Ironsworn\|D&D to Ironsworn]] | 7 | [[Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny - The Monsters\|Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny: The Monsters]] We've finally made the run through all the base OD&D classes by finishing up the Fighting Man, but really, isn't that just half of what we need? After all, what's a dungeon without horrific things to inhabit it? | 2024‑06‑01 | | [[Holiday Specials]] Scenarios and write-ups built around a date: holidays, anniversaries, and the odd excuse. | 1 | [[HOLIDAY SPECIAL - May Day (5150)\|May Day (5150)]] The first Grim Tokens Holiday Special! It's almost May Day and nothing says celebrating military might like dropping specialized exo-troops from orbit to blow up as much as they can. 5150 in the house! | 2024‑04‑28 | %% END GENERATED:fresh-ink %% ### The Shelfie Every game with a page in the garden, sorted by what it actually is — **RPGs**, **wargames**, and the adventure-wargame hybrids that refuse to sit still — [[Games|in one index]]. Call it 463%%{{games}}%% of them. %% BEGIN GENERATED:shelfie %% | Game | Kind | Added | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :----------------------: | ---------- | | [[Tenra Bansho Zero]] ![[References/attachments/Tenra Bansho Zero - Rulebook (cover).jpg\|100]] | ![[kind-game.svg\|26]] | 2026‑11‑06 | | [[Adventure!]] | ![[kind-family.svg\|26]] | 2026‑11‑06 | | [[Blood Sports]] | ![[kind-family.svg\|26]] | 2026‑11‑06 | | [[Faster, Pussycat. Kill, Kill]] | ![[kind-family.svg\|26]] | 2026‑11‑06 | | [[Nightmares]] | ![[kind-family.svg\|26]] | 2026‑11‑06 | | [[One-Offs]] | ![[kind-family.svg\|26]] | 2026‑11‑06 | | [[Vietnam]] | ![[kind-family.svg\|26]] | 2026‑11‑06 | | [[Warrior Heroes Fantasy]] | ![[kind-family.svg\|26]] | 2026‑11‑06 | | [[World War II]] | ![[kind-family.svg\|26]] | 2026‑11‑06 | | [[Wretchedverse]] | ![[kind-family.svg\|26]] | 2026‑11‑05 | %% END GENERATED:shelfie %% ## Acknowledgements **[Obsidian](https://obsidian.md)**, for making one of the most convenient data archival and presentation systems known to man, plus providing the publish interface. **[Shawn Tomkin](https://tomkinpress.com)** for giving me an excuse to get off my ass and get back to writing. Once in a while. Sometimes. Occasionally. **[The Forge](http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forge/index.php)**, for accidently making me the man I am today. **[Obsidian Vaults](https://vaults.obsidian-community.com)**, For linking to a variety of exciting and inspiring examples of *Obsidian Publish*. Kind marks are from **[game-icons.net](https://game-icons.net)** (CC BY 3.0): scroll and quill, rule book and die © Delapouite; drama masks © Lorc; thought bubble © Seregacthtuf. --- ## Donations Yes, I'll take your [[donations]]. --- ## Contact You can contact me via: - <a rel="me" href="https://social.vivaldi.net/@lextenebris">Mastodon</a> - [Facebook](https://facebook.com/squidlord) - [Twitter](https://x.com/squidlord)[^1] - [Keet](https://keet.io)[^2] ![[Keet QR.png]] [^1]: It'll always be Twitter, not X, dammit. [^2]: Extremely high privacy and a distributed network? Sure. Of course I have an outpost there.