This is the archive index — a year-by-year reference for every post published on Red Circle Games before 2025. If you want the thematic narrative version, the nine-year retrospective covers those years with considerably more reflection and commentary. This page is the structured reference: what was published, when, and what it is about.
Gaps are noted honestly. There are a few.
2017
The founding year. Thirteen posts across eight months, covering the concept, the aesthetics, the technology stack, safety, and several game ideas that have yet to actually run.
Welcome to Red Circle Games!
30 April 2017 · Tags: LRP, LARP, rcg, rpg
The first post. Introduces the blog’s intent: musings on Role Playing and Live Action Role Playing, with a particular interest in where technology intersects with both. Sets out what the site will cover and why. Short, direct, and honest about the fact that the author is a tech professional who has been running games for a long time and has things to say about it.
Scrivener
1 May 2017 · Tags: technology, writing, github, scrivener
An early look at using Scrivener as a writing and organisation tool for game design and campaign prep, alongside GitHub workflows. Explores how software built for novelists and screenwriters can serve the same purpose for game masters, particularly for managing the volume of notes a sustained campaign generates.
Game Licensing
7 May 2017 · Tags: licensing, OGL, GPL
A look at how software licensing concepts — open source, copyleft, the Open Game Licence — apply to tabletop RPG content. Connects the open source movement to the OGL and asks what the implications are for game designers and publishers who want to build on existing systems. Prescient given what happened with the OGL in 2023.
Inspiration
16 May 2017 · Tags: film, music, books, inspiration
On the sources of inspiration for L(A)RP and RPG design: film, TV, music, theatre, books, and graphic novels. Argues that inspiration should be drawn from everywhere, that mixing genres is a feature rather than a bug, and that having a clear aesthetic target before you start designing a game makes everything else easier.
Neo Noir Gaming
26 May 2017 · Tags: LRP, LARP, game-style, theme, film-noir, neo-noir
An exploration of the neo-noir aesthetic as a framework for LARP and TTRPG design. The argument: darkness as an undercurrent, scenes as pockets of light in a shadowed room, moral ambiguity as a design feature rather than an oversight. Covers the visual and emotional language of the genre and how to aim for it deliberately rather than by accident.
Minimal Viable Products
10 June 2017 · Tags: mvp, production, quality
Borrows the Minimum Viable Product concept from software development and applies it to game design. What is the minimum you need to propose a game, to pitch a LARP, to put something in front of players that they can actually respond to? The answer, in keeping with the blog’s central concept, is simpler than most people assume.
Web Hosting Platforms
24 June 2017 · Tags: technology, web, media, documentation
A practical look at using web hosting and social media platforms for organising gaming and L(A)RP events. Covers the options available in 2017 — Facebook, forums, dedicated sites — and the trade-offs between them for event communication, player recruitment and ongoing campaign management.
LRP, LARP or to L(A)RP
1 July 2017 · Tags: LRP, LARP, L(A)RP, glossary, terminology
A look at the terminology of Live Action Role Play — why LRP, LARP and L(A)RP all exist, what the differences are (geographic, historical, political), and why the hobby probably needs a proper glossary more than it needs consensus on an acronym. Introduces the RCG preferred form L(A)RP as a deliberate inclusive bracket rather than a correction.
Suitable Props
30 September 2017 · Tags: LRP, LARP, L(A)RP, safety, props
On what makes a prop suitable for LARP — physical safety, game function, and the line between costume and prop. Uses the John Wick and Aliens LARP settings as examples of how the right props establish a game’s world more effectively than almost any other design decision. Also covers the TTRPG equivalent: what the iconic items of a character class are and what they mean for player identity.
(Note: the post is dated 31 September for historical reasons — leave it as-is.)
Red Circle Game
15 October 2017 · Tags: LaRP, rcg, freeform
The foundational post for the blog’s central concept: a Red Circle Game is the minimum viable game. The minimum you need to play a LARP is a circle — a boundary you can choose to step into and out of. The minimum you need to play is consent: a shared agreement about what the space is and who gets to be in it. Simple enough to sound obvious, which is a sign you are onto something real.
Play by Mail
10 November 2017 · Tags: rpg, play-by-mail, tales-from-the-loop, game-design
An exploration of Play by Mail (PbM) as a game mechanic — not email, actual physical post, with the time delays and tangible props that implies. Uses Tales from the Loop as the setting hook: a 1984-set game where the postal mechanic reinforces the period texture. Argues that real mail as a game component creates a quality of anticipation and physical artefact that digital systems cannot replicate.
One Night in the Star Chamber
11 November 2017 · Tags: LaRP, star-chamber, pbm, rpg, game-design
A game concept: running the historical Court of the Star Chamber as a Play by Mail game, with a unified GM voice, physical post as a game component, and player-driven alternative history. Explores the design problem of invite-only events (necessary for quality of play, problematic for inclusivity), the mechanics of a shared narrative voice across multiple player letters, and how Facebook groups could support the out-of-game organisation.
John Wick: The Continental
1 December 2017 · Tags: film, props, john-wick, airsoft, settings
A design exploration of a John Wick LARP set in and around The Continental. Covers the central design problem: how do you create the film’s high-gloss visual world on a LARP budget, and how do you prevent the game becoming a rapid bloody turnover of players? Covers props (coins, blood seals, the Etsy economy of John Wick merchandise), location scouting, and the mechanics of the assassin social contract.
2018
One post published in December, looking at the near-future of tech in LARP.
Coming Trends
21 December 2018 · Tags: LaRP, trends, tech, game-design
A look at emerging technology trends and what they might mean for LARP in 2019 and beyond. Covers Nordic LARP’s growing influence across Europe, the rise of high-production-value repeated LARP events, Internet of Bodies (IoB) as a game component concept, RFID player identity, GPS tracking on large event sites, and the question of whether Google Glass (or something like it) was ready for another attempt. Still waiting on some of these.
2019
No posts published.
2020
No posts published. The pandemic deserves some of the blame.
2021
Two posts, both in December, marking a return after a long gap.
One More Time with Feeling!
18 December 2021 · Tags: ideation, rcg, larp, blog
A short return post after an extended absence. Honest about having stepped away and lost the creative momentum, and cautiously optimistic about what might come next. More of a recommitment than a full post, but recommitments have their own value.
Trauma Team 2077
31 December 2021 · Tags: cyberpunk, rcg, airsoft, trauma-team, larp
A concept for a Cyberpunk 2077-inspired airsoft LARP based on the Trauma Team International premise: medics-for-hire operating in a corporate dystopia, with mission-based run-outs, colour-coded sets, and a clear visual identity drawn from the Cyberpunk 2077 game and Trauma Team comic. One of the more developed LARP concepts on this blog. Still waiting to run.
2022
One post, picking up from the 2021 return and documenting the start of an actual campaign.
Thoughts on a New Campaign
9 February 2022 · Tags: TTRPG, D&D, GM, DM
Documents the beginning of a Dungeons & Dragons 5e campaign run in the Forgotten Realms setting — how it started, how players were recruited via Facebook, the tools chosen for running it online, and the thinking behind picking D&D 5e as the system for a group of players ranging from experienced veterans to complete newcomers. The first post to cover sustained actual play rather than design theory.
2023
Three posts in December, covering the campaign, technology, and session zero.
Time Gone By
1 December 2023 · Tags: TTRPG, D&D, GM, DM
Another return post, eighteen months after the campaign started. Acknowledges the gap, redirects new readers to the foundational posts, and restates the intention to actually write more. Notable for its honesty about the difficulty of being a consistent blogger when the game itself keeps demanding attention.
Technology, Trends and Developments
2 December 2023 · Tags: TTRPG, SaaS, AI, LLM, VTT, world-building, GM
A survey of the tools used to run the 2022 campaign: D&D Beyond, Discord, Google Drive, Pinterest for visual reference, and the emerging AI assistants that were becoming impossible to ignore. Covers the practical experience of adopting each, the trade-offs, and what the landscape looked like before the full wave of LLM-based tools arrived. The precursor to the 2024 AI post.
What is Session Zero
3 December 2023 · Tags: TTRPG, session-zero
An introduction to Session Zero — the pre-campaign meeting that sets expectations, surfaces player needs, agrees on content boundaries, and establishes the social contract of the table. Argues that Session Zero is not optional if you want people to actually have fun, and that the work it does (psychological safety, shared expectations, communication scaffolding) is as important as any rule in any rulebook.
2024
Five posts across May and June, returning to the blog in earnest after the longest consistent gap since 2018.
Here We Go Again
3 May 2024 · Tags: ideation, campaigns, ttrpg
Another return post — the third, if you are counting. Covers what the author is currently playing, reading and thinking about: Dragonbane, Daggerheart, the platform landscape (D&D Beyond, Demiplane, VTTs), and a collection of books on GMing and encounter design. Sets out what the next batch of posts will try to cover. More momentum than this one managed to find, as it turned out.
When Dungeons & Dragons Becomes the Generic Name
5 May 2024 · Tags: dnd, TTRPG
A short, pointed post asking whether Dungeons & Dragons has become an eponymous term — a generic name for the entire hobby, the way Hoover became a word for vacuum cleaner. Looks at how WotC and Hasbro’s strategy of making D&D a cultural phenomenon may have also made the brand linguistically dominant in a way that obscures the rest of the hobby. The precursor to the 2026 “Beyond the Dungeon” post.
Do Owlbears Shit in the Woods?
8 May 2024 · Tags: DM, gm, three-pillars, roleplay, exploration, combat, ttrpg
A discussion of what makes an encounter in TTRPG — and when a combat encounter becomes something else. Uses the three pillars framework (combat, exploration, interaction) to ask whether challenge rating is a useful design tool or a trap that pushes GMs toward the combat pillar by default. Written from the perspective of a forever-GM who leans toward the interaction pillar and Rules of Cool over Rules as Written.
Things on My Mind
10 May 2024 · Tags: planning
A public accountability post: the _drafts/ folder exposed. Lists the ideas that have been
sitting unfinished since 2017 in some cases — GPS tracking of LARP players, RFID player
identity, a Strontium Dog LARP, a Bad Company LARP, invite-only events, and more. The
argument for publishing it: visibility creates accountability. Some of these drafts
eventually became GitHub issues; a few have since been written up properly.
AI Assistants and Gaming
1 June 2024 · Tags: TTRPG, AI, LRP, LARP, avrae, discord, bots
The long-delayed AI post, originally started as a series of thoughts in 2017 and finally published in 2024. Covers AI assistants in TTRPG from Avrae (open source, Discord-integrated D&D rules bot) to the new wave of LLM-based tools. Addresses the ethics — AI as a plagiaristic device, responsible use at home, conscious consumption of commercial AI content — and predicts that an actual AI would take a named role in a LARP or TTRPG scenario. It did. Revisited in AI in TTRPGs — Two Years On in 2026.
This index covers all posts published before 2025. For posts from 2026 onwards, see the nine-year retrospective and the individual post archives.