Blog
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The Under, Under Construction
A Knightcore Adventure. Content warning: demons (in various icky representations, including children), hell, torture, maiming, curses, hags, burning, and miscellaneous adult themes. Hell prides itself on its thorough bureaucratic apparatus...
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Mrs Claus Must Die
Something from another world has possessed Mrs Claus and turned her into a giant, bloodthirsty monster. She has slain Santa. Much of the workshop lies in ruins, and many elves have died. You have cornered her into the warehouse and locked it up...
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Knightcore the RPG
Knightcore, aka castlecore, is an aesthetic that combines gleaming armor, soft, flowing fabrics, and ethereal, haunting glows. Now it is also a roleplaying game. The world—a fantasy imagining of Mythic Britain—is a place of chaos...
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BIRCON 2025 Report
October 11th, 2025 was the second Berlin International Roleplaying Convention—or BIRCON for short—in the heart of Berlin. I'm one of the organizers, and I was there in the dual capacity of convention staff and Mottokrosh Machinations vendor...
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Violent Nemorous Passage - A Wolden Adventure
This Wolden RPG adventure has just completed its playtest, and is currently being properly written up and illustrated. Check back here for updates! Changelog 27th May, 2025: Added Mangrove Swamps, ...
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Introducing Wolden
A Forest RPG of Wayward Cults Wolden is a rules-light, flavor-heavy game in the OSR/NSR vein of roleplaying games, which encourages player facing decision making, and has open and dynamic environments that react to character actions...
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d66 Open Lock Fail Forwards
Failing Forward Skill Checks A lot of GM advice says to “fail forward”, and rightly so. That means that when a player fails a roll to do a thing, instead of just failing to do said thing, they succeed but with a complication...
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Compelling Arena Fights
A staple of stories and games, yet all too often: dry. Use the following tables and tools to create memorable arena fights and set pieces, with fun, dynamic scenery, and delightfully deadly surprises. ...
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Pirate Borg: Heist the Black Flag
Hot on the heel of the previous Pirate Borg play report (and free one-shot adventure!) comes another round. We're only half-way through this adventure, so I won't be posting the full adventure just yet to avoid spoilers for my players...
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Pirate Borg Play Report and Adventure
To those who know me (Frank // Mottokrosh), it is no secret that I am currently obsessed with Pirate Borg. Naturally I am a fan of rules-light but flavorful systems (hello, devil's luck), but there is just something about the Dark Caribbean setting...
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Dragonmeet 2023
Last week a small contingent of Machinators made it to Dragonmeet 2023 in London, armed with stacks of our regular machinations, our still shiny Capes and Cloaks and Cowls and a Parks, and a preview printing for the upcoming The Eternal Grind Café...
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System Crashers Come to Eld Swinton
In this mystery adventure the System Crashers travel to a small but affluent hamlet in the Barony of Swine, either for personal reasons, for a job, or both. While coming face to face with many facets of societal injustice...
