HeyJaredJames M. Spahn's RPG Musings
The substack of a veteran RPG designer discussing the design, development, and industry of tabletop roleplaying games.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 16
- Latest publication
- Sep 30, 2026
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- Aug 16, 2026
Latest issues
Pirate Adventures: Mutiny (opens the original)
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One of the more interesting things that has developed in the design of White Box: Pirate Adventures is the strong role played by hirelings. Hirelings have always played an implicitly important role that I wanted to lean into for this game. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. First, let’s talk about play loops.The dungeon crawling play loop is simple. Heck, it’s so simple it’s become a joke: Kick in the door. Kill the monster. Take the treasure. In a nutshell, that’s not incorrect. For Pirate A
White Box: Dungeon Adventures Special Edition Now Available (opens the original)
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WHITE BOX: DUNGEON ADVENTURES SPECIAL EDITION AVAILABLE NOW!Adventure Begins and Ends in the Dungeon!<img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="668" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!sW1G!,w_1456,c_limit,f_
White Box: Dungeon Adventures Releases Tuesday, September 22nd! (opens the original)
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RELEASING TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22nd in PDF, Softcover, and Linen-Wrapped Hardcover!<img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="544" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f98g!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3
Pirate Adventures Development: Crossing Blades (opens the original)
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Swashbuckling is cool. Swashbuckling piracy is what I’m going for in White Box: Pirate Adventures, so I wanted to have a set of rules for duels. Because let’s face it, duels are just cool. I know this from first hand experience because I took three years of 15th century German Longsword fencing and as cool as that is, it’s not nearly as cool as this…So, how do I include that in Pirate Adventures, while keeping it simple. So, here’s what I’ve come up with as
Pirate Adventures: Keeping to the Code (opens the original)
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So, I’ve been tooling White Box: Pirate Adventures around and I think I’ve got the core of my player facing rules down - at least as far as character creation.Attributes stay the same. Core six. 3d6. You know the deal.<img
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