In this tailor-made episode, we discuss the advantages and challenges of using and writing pre-generated character sheets. Is there a sweet spot of player choice? And what are the risks of telling players exactly who they are and how they should feel?

Freya watches for waspmen. Violet horseshoes around. Freya posits a post-it plan. Violet digs up a classic Indie game.

As a bonus, we also have a themed mini-debrief of the 2025 UK Games Expo. And that theme is? Themes.

As a double bonus, we introduce a new segment: “game ideas that it turns out somebody else has already done which is great because it means it already exists in the world”!

As a triple bonus, the Journeymon Kickstarter prelaunch page and free quickstart adventure went live while we were editing this episode! Check them out here - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ilgingell/journeymon-monster-trainer-roleplaying/

Timestamps

UGKE discussion - basically from the start

GITITOSEHADWIGBIMIAEITW - about 19:40

Mailbag - about 25:44

Intro & design Qs - about 30:53

History - 1:02:06

Taxonomicon - 1:11:45

Design Dreams - 1:40:00

Wrap up - 2:02:13

TTRPGs discussed

The Vanilla Game

Keep on the Borderlands

OSR in general

D&D (4e, 5e)

Psychodungeon

Voidheart Symphony

Subway Runners

iHunt

Call of Cthulhu

Changeling: the Lost

Tales of the Kytin Age *

Sagas of the Icelanders

For the Honor

Animon Story

Journeymon

Mappa Mundi

SPEEDRUN RPG

Pathfinder 1e

Biosphere Guardians 2050

Trickster’s Net

Rifts

Aberrant

Shadowrun

Savage Worlds

PbtA

Lady Blackbird

Monsterhearts

Dream Askew

World of Darkness (in general)

AD&D

The Adventures of Indiana Jones

Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast

Mistborn Adventure Game

The Exes of Casey Estrada

Last Day at Honkwarts

Genesys

Black Code

Pirate Borg

Edge of the Empire

Armour Astir

Stealing the Throne

Interstitial: Our Hearts Entwined

Mothership

Daggerheart

Other games and things discussed

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

Shadows of the Apt **

https://www.tumblr.com/haveyouplayedthisttrpg

Fullmetal Alchemist

Crescent Moon (board game)

Battlestar Galactica (board game)

The Commedia dell’arte

Lord of the Rings: the Third Age

“I Finished A Videogame”’s LotR adaptations retrospective ***

Escaflowne

Wheel of Time

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Dark Souls

Nier Automata

Root

https://www.youtube.com/@Hollandspiele

Original Podcast Do Not Steal ****

Notes

* as promised in the audio, the artist for this game is Yasen Stoilov https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:37fsd5g3kwmkmi5dvs2yxsgj

** yes, I must mention this every single episode

*** not merely four hours - it’s actually five. Enjoy. https://youtu.be/poMnJKLGYo0?si=ynx0cQu_43vamIZE

**** the bugworld guest episode is not yet up! They must have a mighty buffer. https://open.spotify.com/show/4a3x2GlQw0jsSk4vFTdpus

Violet’s oft-referenced LARP design handbook is “LARP Design: Creating Role-play Experiences”, available from the authors at https://trepo.tuni.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/136330/978-952-03-2260-1.pdf

The Hungarian for “thank you” is “Köszönöm”.

Contact us!

At systemshoppodcast@gmail.com

Additional credits

Our intro music is

"Magic Escape Room" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/