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Prismatic Wisdom
Prismatic Wisdom collects all of my blog’s best advice, theory, and mechanical innovations from my blog’s inception in 2020 up to 2024, when I really peaked to be honest. Practical advice and tools for running exploration-based adventures and sticky encounters exist alongside my hottest takes on Keep on the Borderlands, apolitical TTRPGs, the state of the OSR, and many more essays, in a beautiful, full-color tome with eye-popping illustrations and layout.
At 200 pages, it is filled with more wisdom than can be efficiently bullet-pointed, but some of the certified bangers include:
The Complete Hexcrawl Checklist
The Keep on the Borderlands is Full of Lies
The Basic Procedure of the OSR
Spell Lists are Not Magical
30+ more essays (now with fewer spelling errors!)
Online writing is fragile, susceptible to all manner of linkrot and enshittification. It’s so much nicer to have something on your shelf, in your hands, at your gaming table, where you can flip to a page and say “ah, here it is!”
What you’ll get…
The book: A5 Hardback, 200 pages, high-quality print and paper. The cover is die-cut which gives the eye a nice three-dimensionality. 1st printing, limited copies
The downloads: a PDF of the book is automatically sent to your inbox so you can put it on your iPad to appease children that crave the glowing screen
At 200 pages, it is filled with more wisdom than can be efficiently bullet-pointed, but some of the certified bangers include:
The Complete Hexcrawl Checklist
The Keep on the Borderlands is Full of Lies
The Basic Procedure of the OSR
Spell Lists are Not Magical
30+ more essays (now with fewer spelling errors!)
Online writing is fragile, susceptible to all manner of linkrot and enshittification. It’s so much nicer to have something on your shelf, in your hands, at your gaming table, where you can flip to a page and say “ah, here it is!”
What you’ll get…
The book: A5 Hardback, 200 pages, high-quality print and paper. The cover is die-cut which gives the eye a nice three-dimensionality. 1st printing, limited copies
The downloads: a PDF of the book is automatically sent to your inbox so you can put it on your iPad to appease children that crave the glowing screen
204 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2025
2 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 10, 2025
“Prismatic Wisdom” is a fascinating compendium of essays drawn from the Prismatic Wasteland blog which is one of the liveliest voices in the modern OSR and indie TTRPG scene. The collection gathers the author’s reflections on design, procedure, creativity, and the culture of tabletop RPGs.
It’s half workshop, half manifesto: a toolkit for GMs and designers who love rules-light games but crave depth of thought.
It comes with some truly practical gems (others are not that impressive). Each essay is concise, clear, and written with a friendly confidence; the tone of a designer who has mostly tested these ideas and reflected on them. Here are some thematic examples:
“Hexcrawl Checklist: an indispensable wilderness design guide, covering terrain, factions, encounters, and time. Every hex should hold potential interest, and the world must feel alive through dynamic events.
“Encounter Checklist” reframes encounters as decision points rather than obstacles emphasizing choices, stakes, and consequences.
“Your Taverns Need a Procedure” turns the classic tavern scene into a structured social hub, avoiding the “awkward silence” and injecting purpose into each visit.
“The Secret to Realism in Games” reminds us that realism isn’t simulation; it’s consistent cause and effect.
“Lore! What Is It Good For?” argues that lore should be discovered through play, not dumped in encyclopedic preambles.
“Posters, Posers and POSR(s)” examines the evolution of the OSR into its next phase — more hybrid, aesthetic, and introspective — what some call “post-OSR.”
“What Even Is a Procedure?” defines one of the blog’s favorite terms: a repeatable play loop that guides player–GM interaction.
“Shopping, Listing, Picking and Gambling” dissects character creation and equipment selection, blending randomness and player agency to streamline early play.
“Universal, System-Neutral Stats” discusses how to write stat blocks that make sense in the fiction, not just in mechanics — a “diegetic” rather than a purely numerical approach.
“Calendars, Not Just Maps” is another strong essay, encouraging GMs to track time as a living force: festivals, seasons, deadlines, and faction moves make the world breathe just as much as geography does.
Many more articles are provided in this volume, though if you are already familiar with the blog, obviously you are already aware of the content.
What makes Prismatic Wisdom engaging is its balance of creativity and pragmatism. It doesn’t drown the reader in theory, but every page gives you something you can actually use next session — a checklist, a structure, or a philosophical nudge.
However, a small word of caution for long-time veterans: many of these ideas, while well articulated, are not exactly new. The author, firmly rooted in the indie and OSR blogosphere, sometimes treats rediscoveries as revelations.
Old-school readers will recognize precedents:
Equipment selection by limited choices (this or that)? Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1984) did it.
Priority-based magic or stat systems? Shadowrun (1989) used them extensively.
Time and faction calendars? Traveller, Chivalry and Sorcery and Birthright built them decades ago.
That said, what the author brings is refinement — these concepts are polished, contextualized, and expressed in an accessible modern language. The essays are genuinely useful even if you’ve “seen it all before.”
One recurring thread in the book is the supposed “death” of the OSR — a belief that the movement has fragmented or lost its unity. The author mentions that the old blog circles and G+ communities have vanished. While it’s true that the meeting grounds changed, the obituary feels premature.
OSR creativity is alive and well — it just moved to Discords, small presses, and new hybrids. In fact, the 2024 ENNIE Awards prove the point: Shadowdark RPG (an unapologetically OSR-inspired game) swept Product of the Year, Best Game, Best Rules, and Best Layout & Design. Far from gone, the OSR spirit remains one of the most vibrant creative engines in tabletop gaming.
Prismatic Wisdom is part design manual, part time capsule of the blog-era OSR. It’s witty, well-structured, and full of ideas that invite experimentation. Even when it treads familiar ground, it does so with clarity and enthusiasm.
If you’re a GM or designer who thrives on procedures, checklists, and creative prompts — or you simply miss the thoughtful energy of old RPG blogs — this collection will feel like coming back home. The final list with the links to the original mentioned articles and references is also well thought of.
It’s half workshop, half manifesto: a toolkit for GMs and designers who love rules-light games but crave depth of thought.
It comes with some truly practical gems (others are not that impressive). Each essay is concise, clear, and written with a friendly confidence; the tone of a designer who has mostly tested these ideas and reflected on them. Here are some thematic examples:
“Hexcrawl Checklist: an indispensable wilderness design guide, covering terrain, factions, encounters, and time. Every hex should hold potential interest, and the world must feel alive through dynamic events.
“Encounter Checklist” reframes encounters as decision points rather than obstacles emphasizing choices, stakes, and consequences.
“Your Taverns Need a Procedure” turns the classic tavern scene into a structured social hub, avoiding the “awkward silence” and injecting purpose into each visit.
“The Secret to Realism in Games” reminds us that realism isn’t simulation; it’s consistent cause and effect.
“Lore! What Is It Good For?” argues that lore should be discovered through play, not dumped in encyclopedic preambles.
“Posters, Posers and POSR(s)” examines the evolution of the OSR into its next phase — more hybrid, aesthetic, and introspective — what some call “post-OSR.”
“What Even Is a Procedure?” defines one of the blog’s favorite terms: a repeatable play loop that guides player–GM interaction.
“Shopping, Listing, Picking and Gambling” dissects character creation and equipment selection, blending randomness and player agency to streamline early play.
“Universal, System-Neutral Stats” discusses how to write stat blocks that make sense in the fiction, not just in mechanics — a “diegetic” rather than a purely numerical approach.
“Calendars, Not Just Maps” is another strong essay, encouraging GMs to track time as a living force: festivals, seasons, deadlines, and faction moves make the world breathe just as much as geography does.
Many more articles are provided in this volume, though if you are already familiar with the blog, obviously you are already aware of the content.
What makes Prismatic Wisdom engaging is its balance of creativity and pragmatism. It doesn’t drown the reader in theory, but every page gives you something you can actually use next session — a checklist, a structure, or a philosophical nudge.
However, a small word of caution for long-time veterans: many of these ideas, while well articulated, are not exactly new. The author, firmly rooted in the indie and OSR blogosphere, sometimes treats rediscoveries as revelations.
Old-school readers will recognize precedents:
Equipment selection by limited choices (this or that)? Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1984) did it.
Priority-based magic or stat systems? Shadowrun (1989) used them extensively.
Time and faction calendars? Traveller, Chivalry and Sorcery and Birthright built them decades ago.
That said, what the author brings is refinement — these concepts are polished, contextualized, and expressed in an accessible modern language. The essays are genuinely useful even if you’ve “seen it all before.”
One recurring thread in the book is the supposed “death” of the OSR — a belief that the movement has fragmented or lost its unity. The author mentions that the old blog circles and G+ communities have vanished. While it’s true that the meeting grounds changed, the obituary feels premature.
OSR creativity is alive and well — it just moved to Discords, small presses, and new hybrids. In fact, the 2024 ENNIE Awards prove the point: Shadowdark RPG (an unapologetically OSR-inspired game) swept Product of the Year, Best Game, Best Rules, and Best Layout & Design. Far from gone, the OSR spirit remains one of the most vibrant creative engines in tabletop gaming.
Prismatic Wisdom is part design manual, part time capsule of the blog-era OSR. It’s witty, well-structured, and full of ideas that invite experimentation. Even when it treads familiar ground, it does so with clarity and enthusiasm.
If you’re a GM or designer who thrives on procedures, checklists, and creative prompts — or you simply miss the thoughtful energy of old RPG blogs — this collection will feel like coming back home. The final list with the links to the original mentioned articles and references is also well thought of.
September 6, 2025
An Invaluable Resource to Every TTRPG Creator
This collection of blog posts is wonderfully curated and provides all manner of concepts, suggestions, thievery, and philosophy for your game.
This just became my most reliable book for rpg reference. Excited to revisit it again and again.
This collection of blog posts is wonderfully curated and provides all manner of concepts, suggestions, thievery, and philosophy for your game.
This just became my most reliable book for rpg reference. Excited to revisit it again and again.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews