Games
One of my largest hobbies is the design and playing of games of all sorts, board, card, computer and roleplaying. Over the years I've designed and worked on piles of games in all of those categories both for fun and (more recently) profit. This page has links to many of my gaming projects, both old and new.
The GNAT adventure system
GNAT is a simple and lightweight rule system for solo adventure gamebooks (in the Fighting Fantasy or Fabled Lands style), with an emphasis on fast play and minimal recordkeeping. The GNAT Core Rules are avaialable for anyone to use in their own games.
I'm using GNAT for my World of Paldoria games, such as Grave of the Kraken, City State of Treysham, and Escape from the Tower of Stars, and esteemed gamebook author Paul Partington has also dipped his toes into the system. You can find out more about all these games on the GNAT Gamebooks Homepage.
Buy Now! (Or get for free ...)
Grave of the Kraken
In a world only just recovering from the devastating wizard's war, you are given the task of brokering peace between two rival city states, but the road to Heldad bears dangers you could never anticipate, and an evil rising from the war-torn past.
This game is set in the World of Paldoria and is compatible with all other Paldoria adventures.
Grave of the Kraken is available in Paperback (Amazon) and PDF (DriveThruRPG).
Made with gordianbook.art, go there and make your own!
Tarnished Silver
The fifth in my series of Dragon Warriors' solo adventures, and number fifteen in the Tales of Red Ruin. A strainge silver tower has fallen from the sky, and it's up to you to delve its secrets before the robber-knight Baron Steno does it first.
Solo, and free, get it today: DriveThruRPG, Itch.io
Made with gordianbook.art, go there and make your own!
Catacombs of Dust
The fourth in my series of Dragon Warriors' solo adventures, and number eleven in the Tales of Red Ruin. Catacombs is an epic dungeon delve into a tomb older than the civilisation of Ellesland itself. A semi-open-world-dungeon (if that makes sense) with multiple paths through.
Solo, and free, get it today: DriveThruRPG, Itch.io
Made with gordianbook.art, go there and make your own!
The Beast of the Black Tor
The third in my series of Dragon Warriors' solo adventures, and number nine in the Tales of Red Ruin. Travel to the village of Brengate, where the curse of the Beast is about to fall. Only you can save them.
Solo, and free, get it today: DriveThruRPG, Itch.io
Made with gordianbook.art, go there and make your own!
Icon of Death
The second in my series of Dragon Warriors' solo adventures, and number six in the Tales of Red Ruin. Set out across the trackless wastes of Outremer with a vital mission for Prince Adymas, but beware: death awaits.
Solo, and free, get it today: DriveThruRPG, Itch.io
Made with gordianbook.art, go there and make your own!
Green Water, Crimson Stag
Green Water, Crimson Stag is a tribute to the classic gamebooks and games of Dave Morris. Written for the Dragon Warriors game, Green Water takes you into the haunted Elfhame woods on a quest to save the town of Casterbridge from the curse that has fallen on the Greenwater river. Writing by me, art by me, what's not to love.
Solo, and free, get it today: DriveThruRPG, Itch.io
Made with gordianbook.art, go there and make your own!
Hungry Mouse
Hungry Mouse is a solo mini-game spinoff from InBetween. Journey into the Between as a mouse looking for food for your family. The more you bring home the better. A pen and paper map creation and exploration game..
A copy can be yours for just 2 dollars today! DriveThruRPG, Itch.io
DiceWars
DiceWars is a simple space combat game that uses ships made of polyhedral dice and any flat surface to play. Originally designed in my student days to fill time while waiting for tabletop games to start, the game has been freshly re-designed and illustrated for your pleasure.
A copy can be yours for just 3 dollars today! itch.io
The Teuthic Temple
In 2000 my RPG industry mentor, and sometime employer, Sarah Newton, lost her husband to illness. This left her in some financial distress, and I decided to try and do my best to raise some money for her. The Teuthic Temple is the result — a one page dungeon and octopus-related supplement for Monsters & Magic, Sarah's OSR game.
The adventure is "pay what you want", so get a copy now! DriveThruRPG
Solipsist
Solipsist is my roleplaying game of self-obsessed reality benders. Solipsist was released in conjunction with BoxNinja games in 2008. I sold 300+ print copies and more in PDF, and the game also had an Italian edition.
Solipsist is available in PDF from DriveThruRPG, and in print from Lulu.
Interactive Fiction
The Garden of Earthly Regrets
The Garden of Earthly Regrets was my entry for the 2022 Lindenbaum contest for short gamebooks, where it won a commendation. I then converted it to a playable piece of interactive fiction, which you can try for free on itch.
Garden is available for free on itch.io
A Mouse Speaks to Death
A Mouse Speaks to Death, and remembers its life — by choosing which memories to explore, you shape the life it lived. Mouse is set in the same universe as Inbetween Roleplaying Game.
A Mouse Speaks to Death is available for free on itch.io
Zenith
The tower scrapes the sky above me. Baroque, infolded, its pinnacle lost in the brittle blue of the upper sky. The plain on which it stands is littered with the remains of those who attempted the climb and failed — a jumble of crumpled gliders, the exploded puffballs of abandoned balloons, rocket hulks, vaulting spears, bones.
I don't intend to fail.
Zenith is available for free on itch.io
Currently Playing
D&D 5th Edition : Zelda
A Zelda based campaign for D&D 5E, pased on the Zelda 5E Player's Guide by DA Clark. We are rotating GMs for this, and playing weekly on Roll20 — which means lots of maps, lots of tokens, and lots of custom rules.
See :
- Custom rules
- Zelda 5E Player's Guide
- Zelda 5E Master's Guide
- Breath of the Wild Monster Manual
- Zelda Monster Manual
- Zelda category on D&D Wiki
Also, you can browser our Zelda Image Gallery
Currently Developing
InBetween
In the space between the walls of human houses, unseen, Tribes of Hylin mice live by stealing our stuff and tinkering it into inventions of their own. A tabletop RPG of mice and adventure.
GNAT
An open-source minimal rules system for writing choice-based gamebooks. GNAT Core is the system reference document for GNAT.
See : GNAT Rules Reference
Games I've Published
Sun Keld
Sun Keld was a version of Termite (the first game I ever wrote) based on Dark Sun, which I ran back in the 1990's at University. More recently I re-wrote it from the ground up, ran a very successful 2 year campaign of it, and put the game on my website for you to enjoy.
Other Games
Over the years I've written for, or collaborated on, a number of other people's games.
Other games I've written (or written for)
A Parliament of Rooks
This is my entry for the Murderland game design contest, featuring 1 hour games involving Rooks, Ravens, Crows, Jackdaws and Murder (and no writing things down)
D&D 5th Edition : Princes of the Apocalypse
A (heavy) adaptation of Princes of the Apocalypse with my weekly group.
See : Custom rules
Ironsworn Solo : Iron Seeds
I started a solo Ironsworn saga called Iron Seeds at the start of 2020. You can follow it on RPG.net. See here for a summary and chapter index.
Duality v.2.4
The working draft of my Game Chef 2008 entry
Pokethulhu
Pokethulhu is a fantastic roleplaying game available from cumberland games. Is it a parody of Cthulhu? Is it a parody of Pokemon? Is it a parody of cartoon fans? You decide! These are some pages I have written dedicated to Pokethulhu.
Battleground : Wood Elves of Kaishar
Background material I've written for the Wood Elf faction for the Battleground : Fantasy Warfare wargame.
Other Gaming
Grophland
Grophland is my highly successful Virtual Pet site, attracting thousands of players from all over the world. Come and have a look.
Game Maps
A selection of scanned maps from a number of my games. If you like my maps I'm willing to do more on commission. Please get in touch to negotiate a fee.