TTRPGs

If you’re new to Wet Junk or looking for my best TTRPG writing, here’s a curated selection of posts that represent my approach to game design, GMing, and player psychology:

• Click here for how to play a TTRPG for free. This includes a links to free TTRPGs available on the web legally. A few of them I wrote on my own blog and I plan to add to this list when time permits.
• Click here for a first time GM checklist. Why not?
• Click here for how different people want different kinds of fun and why, and how to appeal to it as a game designer or GM for greater player interest and engagement.
• Click here for an in-depth post about how to speed up play in D&D where I describe cutting away core parts of the game that you think you need, but they're getting in your way. Click here for a more concise version.
• Click here for my analysis of the D&D 5e (2014) core rule books focusing on rules that give the GM (or DM) the authority to run the game their way and change what they want about the rules, setting, etc.
• Click here for an explanation about how and why to do speech / social interaction (without dice) in a TTRPG.
• Click here for a very succinct explanation of what alignments are and how to use them because no one agrees on them.
• Click here for a correct post about tieflings.
• Click here for a thorough, conversational, slightly irreverent, and grounded analyst about class design in TTRPGs.
• Click here for how to fix modern class design, a follow up to the post above it.
• Click here for human-centric worldbuilding and why monster PCs and fantasy-races spoil tone.
• Click here for a post about managing expectations in TTRPGs; an honest breakdown of influences, disinterests, motives, and why mismatched tone ruins games. This is where I define the kind of low‑fantasy, human‑centric, horror‑adjacent style I actually want to run.
• Click here for five essential GM rules for managing expectations covering realism, curated settings, tone discipline, and compatible playstyles. This post explains how to prevent mismatched tone and stop players from derailing your game with chaotic‑neutral nonsense.
• Click here for a practical guide to grounded, immersive play

These posts represent the heart of how I think about TTRPGs. Aw crap, that's all nerd stuff, isn't it?