Rene Plays Games

Time for another one-player one-shot!   This is Two-Hand Path, a modern roll-and-write dungeon crawler by Mikey Hamm , designer of Slugblaster. In Two-Hand Path you play a mage searching the cursed ruins of a post-fall city for loot and power after a supernatural war left everything destroyed.    The mechanics use Yahtzee-style combinations with a full set of polyhedral dice, sending you through v...

Welcome to the finale of the Heart of the Dominion, season 2 of my Ironsworn: Sundered Isles series.    Cassidy, Leigh, and the Captain continue to trek toward the center of the cursed Razor Isle at the heart of the Kyrody Dominion's myriad capital, with the Captain experiencing flashbacks to life in this ruined city's heyday. When they reach the three towering iron pillars at the city's center, e...

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!   This special 1st of the month Perspective Checks episode is with Mat of Role Play Chat , a similar interview-style TTRPG discussion podcast which I think you'll enjoy if you like these episodes!   Mat comes on to talk about the wonde...

Get the 2 New MECH Cities Out Now (for Free!)   Felt like a good time to play through a little bit of me & Raso's Carved by RUNE solo Mech vs. Kaiju TTRPG MECH !   In this demo, I play through Hraunvollr, a city on a fjord below a volcano where a greedy energy company has awakened the ancient lava Dormant Surtr!   ----more----   Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   I made a Ko-Fi if you...

I've heard people like this, so here's an update on some of the games I've got rattling around in my brain, in GoogleDocs, and in various levels of development on notebook pages, sticky notes, and half formed notes on my phone.   If any of these sound like they're games you'd love to play, please let me know so I can get on it and see if I can't put out something you'll love!   Looking forward to...

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!   The second Perspective Checks this month on RPGs and their intersection with creative writing is with Clark R. Rowenson , a.k.a. The Magic Engineer on YouTube, an engineer, author, and writing coach with a lifelong interest in magic...

Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   Welcome back to the Heart of the Dominion and season 2 of my Ironsworn: Sundered Isles series.    The penultimate episode sees Azriel Stirling send off Senator Minos and bring down the ruins beneath the Kyrody capital city of Carcordia, while Drake McCabe and others resurrected by the Church of the Enduring Servants find themselves with a strange new gift...

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!   The first of two Perspective Checks this month on RPGs and their intersection with creative writing is with Steve Morrison of Errant Adventures , an excellent solo actual play podcast which has followed a sci-fi epic through multiple...

Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   Welcome back to the Heart of the Dominion and season 2 of my Ironsworn: Sundered Isles series.    As Cassidy & crew make their way to the Kyrody capital of Carcordia to make contact with the Ebb and find out what's next, Azriel Stirling avoids Kyrody law enforcement by hiding out down in the ruins below the capital, and he's not the only one down ther...

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!   In the 2nd community-focused Perspective Checks of the month, Adrian & Alex from the Dungeons & Degrees Podcast come on to talk about navigating the TTRPG space and finding your people. We keep it silly, do a little self-ther...

Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   Welcome back to the Heart of the Dominion and season 2 of my Ironsworn: Sundered Isles series.    Cassidy and the crew of the Revenant are on their way back to the main island of Kyros to meet up with an Ebb contact in the capital city of Carcordia. Along the way, Cassidy attempts to reverse the Bloodsworn curse on Marama, but their ship is recognized in...

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!   June is (apparently) community month here on Perspective Checks, and the first interview is with Matt Caulder , host of the Whatcha Doing? Podcast , a wonderful interview podcast with creators about their projects, as well as Twitch...

Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   Welcome back to the Heart of the Dominion and season 2 of my Ironsworn: Sundered Isles series.    After cleansing the second altar, the Bloodsworn are affected and taken aboard the Revenant, which is also experiencing negative effects. The crew make for safe harbor on the island of Nuboka, headquarters of the Cynosure Society and Explorer's Guild to rest...

Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   Welcome back to the Heart of the Dominion and season 2 of my Ironsworn: Sundered Isles series.    The small crew of the Revenant scatter to fight the Bloodsworn who have ambushed them at the second altar, and when Cassidy enters the narrow tunnels of the sea cave system where the altar lies, she finds more traps and puzzles await...   Learn more about Iro...

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!   Perspective Checks #2 this month! I'm joined by the prolific duo A Couple of Drakes to talk about their journey in the TTRPG space. If you don't recognize the name, maybe you've heard of any of their incredible games out there, like:...

Get MECH & more in the TTRPGs for Trans Rights - Ohio Itch Bundle!   Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   Welcome back to the Heart of the Dominion and season 2 of my Ironsworn: Sundered Isles series.    Cassidy has an experience with the island of Nameera, but while she is unconscious her crew struggles to escape the island unscathed. After a short sojourn with the nomadic Sularia, the...

Go check out Tales of Aetheria - An Unexpected Quest on Kickstarter now!   Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!   For the first Perspective Checks this month I'm joined by Nicole, a.k.a. Game Master Mom to talk about playing TTRPGs with kids and her upcoming children's bo...

Get MECH & more in the TTRPGs for Trans Rights - Ohio Itch Bundle!   Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   Time for a little one-player one-shot!   I sat down to play Pilgrimage of the Sun Guard by Amanda P! This is a prompt-based solo game about playing the last knight or other capable member of the Sun Guard setting off on a pilgrimage to an ancient holy site for the order. It captures...

Get MECH & more in the TTRPGs for Trans Rights - Ohio Itch Bundle!   Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   Welcome back to the Heart of the Dominion and season 2 of my Ironsworn: Sundered Isles series.    Cassidy & Senator Minos explore the cavern full of mysterious glyphs, but struggle to make sense of the complicated language. Leigh does his best to interpret for the island's bound...

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!   This month I'm joined by Peach of The Dice Sisters discord! They're a community who helps curate and provide safe gaming space for women, nonbinary, and trans TTRPG players. As I say early on in the episode, I'd love to believe that...

Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   Welcome back to the Heart of the Dominion and season 2 of my Ironsworn: Sundered Isles series.    Cassidy leads the Revenant to a mysterious island at the behest of Senator Minos. Along the way, Damaris Iver describes the terrible secrets he began to uncover about the Kyrody Dominion's use of sky iron, the nature of these islands in the Heart of the Domin...

Join the DMs After Dark discord!   Tabletop Two-torial! It's the second episode of this two-player "learn a game together" series and this time I'm joined by Troy from the DMs After Dark for a game of Hunt(er/ed) by Meghan Cross & Dillin Apelyan of the One Shot Podcast Network! Hunt(er/ed) is a game of a hunter and a monster, and the back and forth in the game of life and death between them. T...

Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   Welcome back to the Heart of the Dominion and season 2 of my Ironsworn: Sundered Isles series.    Cassidy has reached Damaris Iver in the guise of the companion Blythe Bannister, but Leigh senses trouble coming to stop their prison break. Someone much higher up the social power ladder has taken an interest into the unfolding events that Cassidy has found...

Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby!   This month is LONG overdue and is a sit down and chat with Christian from the DMs After Dark about playing games in sandbox worlds. Christian and I have been friends for many years now and have been fueling one another's RPG collecti...

Welcome back to the Heart of the Dominion and season 2 of my Ironsworn: Sundered Isles series.    Having fled the horrible ambush on the sky island, Cassidy gets back to the Revenant just as several ships close in on the sky island for their own chance to reap the rare sky iron resources - known in the Dominion as oléthrios iron. She musters the crew and sails boldly back through the ships and mee...