by Rachel Carpenter

Well, this is either a really great idea or a really stupid idea and I can't decide which, so I'm doing it 😜. Mugs of Madness: a 20-card game of chthonic chaos... and coffee! is happening. This is my love letter to Elder Sign/the Arkham Horror Files games. Fantasy Flight could send me a cease and desist or they could be amused and sign it. Or they can ignore my existence. Maybe this little game will do well in the Solitaire PNP Contest (where it WILL be entered- as soon as I get a fully playable prototype working). Or maybe no one will play it all. You never know 'til you try :whistle:...

For those of you who have been following my exploits, this game started as 9-Card Cthulhu and was originally intended for the 2026 9-Card Nanogame Contest. But I didn't really like it with just 9 cards, especially poker-sized ones. And I got busy. And... that didn't happen. But I'm not mad that it didn't happen. Because now I can turn around and do crazy things like:

I love my logo. It's ridiculous. It's chaotic. And it totally fits the game.

Here's a close-up of the cafe's logo. It'll appear on the to-go cups and a few of the mugs...

I'm still working on the iconography and balancing the cards and figuring out the layout. Here's a sneak peek at an easy Order Card:

These will be tarot-sized cards. You can see why. I love the Guest Check section. This is a cafe. In Arkham. Does it need cleaning up? Heck yeah. But, I love how the game is finally coming together.

In other news, I have fixed all of the problems that I identified with Last Leaves yesterday. The files are all ready to go. Yay! Hopefully, I can get a few other games across the finish line so that I can order proof copies! In the meantime, tomorrow will be spent in Arkham, and then catching up here on the Geek.

Tootles for today!

Happy Saturday and happy playing!
-Rachel

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by kamhikamhi

Thanks so much for organizing this!

by pyrosixer9

An item Board Game Designer: Thomas Lehmann has been added to the geeklist 2026 Favorite Designer Challenge

by Lux_Bux

Talking Heads - Born Under Punches
Youtube Video

by sdonohue

We used to have a GM who loved to imprison characters. Usually it was law enforcement, but sometimes it was random bad guys. Either way, you could count on losing all your cool possessions every few adventures. I think it's part of why I never worry about accumulating magic items -- they're just a tool to force compliance.

by HiveGod

The best things happen when characters are detained and interrogated, one by one, by the authorities. Fewer things are more entertaining than when they try to spin why they firebombed an orphanage... and their stories never match! GM heaven.

by BG05

An item RPG Item: Reaver has been added to the geeklist 2026 edition of What was the last RPG book you bought?

by HiveGod

In my *ahem* half-century of RPGing I've churned through an entire old-growth forest of games like that machine from The Lorax... but I've managed to hold on to pretty much every item of consequence, whether actual or nostalgic. There are only a couple I think about from time to time, though not enough to actually do something about it:

Larry Niven's Ringworld & Ringworld Companion
Larry Niven's Known Universe was my childhood Kool-Aid, and I got back in line with different hats and mustaches as many times as I could get away with in order to drink my fill. And being a pretty big fan of Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing (RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu, et al.), this was a no-brainer. I don't think I ever got to play it, but I do have fond memories of poring over the books. I'm not exactly sure what happened to it, as this went missing during a delightfully turbulent time in early college where my girlfriend's ultra-permissive mom let me sleep over—and so I did, often enough that my parents thought I had moved out.

Elder Evils
Back in '07, one of the kids' friends was lamenting not knowing how to end a long-running D&D campaign—so I grabbed this off the shelf and loaned it out. Years later I asked him about it and he had no idea what I was talking about. I should really stop loaning out books—you only ever loan out the good ones (by definition, right?) and so when they don't come back it stings—but if you don't loan out books, what's the point of books? Raid my sacred library, you swine! It brings me pleasure.

A new episode has been added to the database: Episode 172 - It's Schlorpin' Time

A new episode has been added to the database: More RPG Zines (with Nick Edwards)

by MichaelLavoie

Lone Justice - After the Flood
Youtube Video

by Red Wine Pie

It makes sense that more D&D 5e 2014 stuff is coming into thrift shops, as the 2024 version has taken over.