We’ve wrapped up most of our work for the Hexploration Decks and Tiles.  (We’re just finalizing the box art and working with the printers on some layout issues.) But we want to preview more of the great stuff in these …

Quick Street Name Generator Read more »

[Note: These rules/guidance/ideas come from our Hexploration Decks, currently out to backers to review before printing. These are most of the final 5 Reference cards from the ‘Into the Wilderness’ deck. Because they are cards of 200-225 words each, you …

Hexploration Guidance from the Hexploration Decks Read more »

When crafting our Sidequest Decks: 5 Challenge Quests (each card is a mini-adventure, main map on one side, quest outline on the other side) we needed ideas for puzzles and riddles, as most cards contain at least one of these …

A Great Resource For Puzzles In Your RPGs Read more »

Inkwell Ideas is presently running a Kickstarter campaign featuring four distinct Sidequest Decks and four accompanying NPC Portraits Decks, each tied to a unique theme. Here we’re diving into the details of what to expect and how to use a …

Anatomy of a Sidequest Deck Card Read more »

As you may be aware, Inkwell Ideas is presently running a Kickstarter campaign featuring four distinct Sidequest Decks and four accompanying NPC Portraits Decks, each tied to a unique theme. For this discussion, we’ll delve into the structure of the …

Anatomy of an NPC Portraits Deck Card Read more »

[Editor’s note: This post comes from Andrew Shields, the writer of most of our NPC Portraits Deck cards for our current Fantasy Sidequest & NPC Decks Kickstarter.  Thanks Andrew!] Useful NPCs are a collaboration between the GM and the players. …

What Makes an Effective NPC? Read more »

For our new Sidequest Decks (part of our Fantasy Sidequest & NPC Decks Kickstarter–now underway!) we’re creating over 200 new fantasy maps.  We’re making one new Sidequest Deck and one new NPC Portraits Deck for each of four themes. One …

Sample Sidequest Maps! Read more »

Thanks to our successful Sidequest Decks, I’m often asked what makes a good sidequest? There are six key ingredients for sidequests in general and three that are more specific for our purposes—a product that many GMs can quickly use. First, …

What Makes a Good Sidequest? Read more »

The OGL Situation in General If you’re following tabletop RPG news lately, you know that the proposed Open Game License (OGL: the contract used to allow most 5th edition D&D 3rd party content) changes has dominated discussion like no other.  …

About Our 5e OGL Titles Read more »

I was able to get away to #DragonCon for a couple days, and one excellent event I attended today was “Best Dungeon Ever” with @MonteJCook and @JasonBulmahn.  Here are my notes: We love dungeons because there is a common trope …

DragonCon Best Dungeon Ever Panel Notes Read more »