History of RPGs

Between 2020 and 2025 I ran a class on the History and Design of Tabletop RPGs. A challenge I faced was presenting historically-important tabletop games in a meaningful (i.e. playable) context in an hour-and-a-half class. Most of the games I wanted to play and discuss have long session times, even when run as one-shots. 

In my quest to bring these titanic games into my classroom, I undertook an absurd task: I created bite-sized versions of these games that could be run in 50 minutes, provide a meaningful amount of the game's dynamics and texture, and still leave room for discussion.

9/1/25: Over the next week, I'll be posting my notes on how I ran these games in class (find them under the "development log," below) along with the actual handouts I gave to my students (under "downloads").

Because I am not the creator or owner of any of these games, I will not be accepting money for any of this material. Instead, if this work is valuable to you, I ask that you support in one of the following ways:

• Purchase one of my paid TTRPGs, like the recently-discounted Coldbloods.
• If you'd like to take an actual class with me, sign up for my upcoming interactive fiction workshop, starting September 27!