Recent content by Thondor

  1. Thondor

    HexLands Free Hex Map Web App

    Neat. Took me a few tries to get that the water could and does link up nicely if you just drag it correctly! Interesting that it saves as a json. I had to try popping it open into notepad++ changing something and reloading it. It worked.
  2. Thondor

    RPG Sales of 2025

    The annual site-wide sale at the Compose Dream Games RPG Marketplace is on. All print titles are 20% off and all PDFs are 25% off. With 77 publisher's and both a Canadian and United Kingdom location, we image you'll find something of note. Head either to...
  3. CDGArnesonWeek2025-pic.jpg

    CDGArnesonWeek2025-pic.jpg

  4. Thondor

    RPGs webstores. How does it work?

    My experience running a Canadian RPG distributor and online retailer RIGHT now, says we punch well above our weight. Both in terms of designers, and in terms of demand. I suppose one could argue that most RPG businesses are basically at the hobby level mind you, it depends on what you mean by that!
  5. Thondor

    RPGs webstores. How does it work?

    Compose Dream Games has been operating in Canada since 2017. I run it. We carry a lot of indie titles, and have them available in both Print with PDF and PDF only. We dominantly carry Canadian publishers, with the largest secondary publisher count from the UK. We operate in both of those...
  6. Thondor

    Release Compose Dream Games RPG Marketplace - New Releases in 2025

    We’ve got quite the mix to share today! Kicking things off with a pair of solo play experiences, followed by a GMless story-driven game, then a light diceless title, and rounding it all out with a big, high-level 5e adventure. Something here for just about every table Cartograph (Ravensridge...
  7. Thondor

    Release Compose Dream Games RPG Marketplace - New Releases in 2025

    Time to highlight some of our UK Publishers! We've carried Hatchling Games titles in Canada before, but now we have their titles in both markets. Plane Sailing Games just join us this past week, and Headless Press this month, welcome aboard! Love & Barbed Wire (Plane Sailing Games) A two...
  8. Thondor

    Release Compose Dream Games RPG Marketplace - New Releases in 2025

    A little late in the year to start calling out the new releases from the year -- but we've just had a pallet land in the UK from our Canadian Warehouse, so now many of them are available in both markets. Here's a few highlights: Going for Broke (Buried Without Ceremony) A fast-paced sitcom RPG...
  9. Thondor

    Would ACKS be a good fit to capture the BECMI-feel?

    Seems pretty similar yeah. The Revised books themselves suggest using the existing ACKS adventures from the prior edition several times (in the Judges Journal). We still have some of the fancy gold-foil covers and judges screens available through Compose Dream Games (and the PDFs too of...
  10. Thondor

    What makes a successful superhero game?

    Designer of Simple Superheroes #0 here. I'm currently running sessions of the in-development variant Supervillains Unleashed. As many designers do . . . I have opinions about what makes a supers game great. One is rather strong and isn't what some here say they want: heroes from different...
  11. Thondor

    Alternatives to map-and-key

    As you describe what you are doing, you are primarily using Event List (or Scenario). That's how I define it anyway in this post Alternatives to map-and-key As for the "best interests" which I generalized to Conflict Agendas, this is something that the players actively create in play. Games...
  12. Thondor

    Alternatives to map-and-key

    Because that's what narrativist mechanics do. They let player's directly manipulate the story in a way that only the GM normally can. Lot's of people get tripped up on this thinking that "immersive" = narrative and for many people the meta nature of narrativist mechanics takes them out of...
  13. Thondor

    Alternatives to map-and-key

    Here’s the types I think we’ve covered so far: Map-and-key Draw a map, fill it with content. Where the players go, there is where the game goes. covered in OP Event List (or Scenario) May have a time line, may be partially location based, can activate based on player actions or NPC...
  14. Thondor

    Alternatives to map-and-key

    I think they did. Implicitly if not explicitly in the OP. Alright so it seems like the "best interests" that Permerton is talking about could be generalized, because there do seem to be a number of games that tend to structure themselves this way. I think this tends to harken to more "drama"...
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