Coffeefueled Games

Latest — 13 Feb 2026

Grandfather Paradox

The original game was called Let's Kill Hitler. The concept was a kind of reverse Cluedo with time travel. Instead of figuring out who did the murder, everyone's trying to do it, and the problem you're solving is how to make sure your version

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You Don't Need Permission to Hold a Sword

Designing Keep the Fire: Part II In most LRP systems, weapons come with permissions attached. You can hold this. You can't hold that. You can use a sword, not a polearm. You can use a bow (more on those later), not a shield. You can wield a dagger,

Why I'm Scrapping Armour

Designing Keep the Fire: Part I I've been playing LRP for a few decades now. That doesn't mean I have all the answers, but it's given me plenty of insights into friction points, cargo cult aspects, and "why do we do it that

Thinking in the Box

I often try to work inside very tight constraints. That's not because there's something virtuous about restriction but because a small box amplifies decision-making. When space and components are limited, a design is forced to show its workings early. Fluff and theming can't obscure

Building Tread Lightly

I've spent some time recently building microgames - not as an exercise in minimalistic aestheticism, but as a way of putting my work under tight constraints. With very little space and almost no components, there's nowhere for a design to hide and no room for bloat.

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Coffeefueled Games

A personal design practice where I write about board games and system behaviours.

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