Sam Robson

Do you like vampires? Would you like to play heroic-leaning, but potentially morally ambiguous, vamps 'protecting' their city from hunters & other threats?

Bloodthirst is a rules-light vampire ttrpg built on the LUMEN system. Toss a handful of d6s to shoot, claw and bite your way through waves of enemies. Sanctuary upgrades let you take on more and more adversaries as you play- culminating in bosses like Mirabel, Forsaken Witch and Opal, Callous Slayer.

Interested? This game is currently crowdfunding on Backerkit! Get the complete game (due November 2026) for a special Backerkit price of 20 NZD (about 11 USD or 10 Euros), or explore low-cost early access options.

don't mind me doing new baby photoshoots with my game...

have u checked out shadow / giant 2e yet? my new 2 player TTRPG in the wolf & cub trope a la the mandalorian, the last of us, logan, arcane, telltale's the walking dead, stranger things, and as one middle aged mom enthusiastically added, brother bear?

critics* are raving about it, if you consider critics to include local grandmothers and non-nerdy neighbors who ask "that's a videogame thing right?"

you can find digital copies on my itch page or get the physical 60-page full-color zine online (or in person at gencon!!) from plus one experience

you'll even get to see art by @prose-n-scripts ... plus it includes digital downloads like trifold character sheets, safety worksheets, a digital set up randomizer, a digital prompt card puller, and even an npc trait table bookmark (some of these downloads are even free on itch)

and if all that isn't enough: sales go directly to keeping my dog in supply of treats and so she doesn't level the block with her psychic powers**

*fr tho if you are a reviewer hmu and i'll gladly get a copy to you

Bloodthirst is a rules-light vampire ttrpg I've been working on for the past couple of months. With a handful of d6s you'll shoot, claw and bite your way through waves of enemies. Sanctuary upgrades let you take on more and more adversaries as you play- culminating in bosses like Mirabel, Forsaken Witch and Opal, Callous Slayer.

Interested? Next month I'll be running a two-week Backerkit campaign- follow along at the below link for more updates!

Bloodthirst is a rules-light vampire ttrpg I've been working on for the past couple of months. With a handful of d6s you'll shoot, claw and bite your way through waves of enemies. Sanctuary upgrades let you take on more and more adversaries as you play- culminating in bosses like Mirabel, Forsaken Witch and Opal, Callous Slayer.

Interested? Next month I'll be running a two-week Backerkit campaign- follow along at the below link for more updates!

Solo RPG's are in their heyday! So, here's an intro to them.

Solo RPG's even had a category in the ENNIE's this year, it's never been a better time to get into them! To help, Sam Robson (@dungeonofthedragon) has written an introduction to this kind of game, for KiwiRPG Week 2026 - a week where we celebrate Aotearoa New Zealand's games and game designers.

Catch Sam and Sero create a solo RPG live on stream with the audience's help on the KiwiRPG Twitch channel on Tuesday 7th July, 1pm-4pm NZST / Tuesday 2am BST / Monday 9PM EDT. That same RPG will be played on stream later that day!

Read the blog post here:

No Prep? No Problem!: How I Improvise One Shots

A blog post by Brad Zimmerman, creator of d12GO!, written for KiwiRPG week 2026, a week where game creators and enjoyers across Aotearoa New Zealand celebrate all the awesome games coming out of our little country!

Brad outlines how he improvises one shots, with a super clear outline of 8 steps to coming up with a story to tell in a TTRPG. Does improvising scare you? No worries, with these 8 steps, you can rest assured that you can figure it out!

Catch Brad running a game of d12GO! as a part of KiwiRPG Week 2026 live on our Twitch on Thursday 9th July, 6pm-9pm NZST / Thursday 7am BST / Thursday 2am EDT. The VOD will be linked here after the panel.

Designer Brad Zimmerman leads a game of the flexible and fun d12Go. A completely randomly-rolled game: what will the dice bring, and how will a team of brave players handle it?

Read the blog post here:

Day 3 of KiwiRPG Week has the first panel of the week and birds being chaotic!

The Visual Arts & Games panel is the first panel of KiwiRPG Week, and actually the first panel in the official KiwiRPG Week history! Come see Paul Tobin (Chaosium), Stacy Longstreet (D&D 4e, PikPok), Tim Denee (Blades in ’68), discussing the topic, hosted by Matthew Wills (Swords webcomic). It's actually happening RIGHT NOW! (Shhh, I'm not late at all...)

Then, later today, is a chaotic game of an Aotearoa native bird being a being of chaos! Join Rave (Wayward Masquerade) running players through her game, Tui: Birds of a Feather:

Tui are known for three things – song, style, and rage. The newest crew in the tui mafia are looking to make a name for themselves, and maybe score some points with the Dui.

Watch both on the KiwiRPG Twitch here!

Bloodthirst is a rules-light vampire ttrpg I've been working on for the past couple of months. With a handful of d6s you'll shoot, claw and bite your way through waves of enemies. Sanctuary upgrades let you take on more and more adversaries as you play- culminating in bosses like Mirabel, Forsaken Witch and Opal, Callous Slayer.

Interested? Next month I'll be running a two-week Backerkit campaign- follow along at the below link for more updates!

Bloodthirst is a rules-light vampire ttrpg I've been working on for the past couple of months. With a handful of d6s you'll shoot, claw and bite your way through waves of enemies. Sanctuary upgrades let you take on more and more adversaries as you play- culminating in bosses like Mirabel, Forsaken Witch and Opal, Callous Slayer.

Interested? Next month I'll be running a two-week Backerkit campaign- follow along at the below link for more updates!

Follow along if you like any of the following:

Vampires

Base building

i've been thinking about pangya, an animesque golf game from the early boom of online gaming which was kind of an early gacha game, now playable thanks to the pangya reborn project, which does away with all the nonsense that a lot of live service games put to slow your progression to a crawl and gives you the relaxing golf sandbox experience you deserve.

i've been thinking about my friend @txttletale's proxies, as well as that one bot the name of which I can't recall which generates random cards, and what makes them really different from "playable" mtg cards, what decisions go into balancing cards and what that game says about its universe through slates of cardboard.

i've been thinking about @jdragsky's zeeb, about the physical object that a ttrpg book is, and the tools we rely on for games, the relationship they have to the actual game we play. somewhere, someone has printed out the rules for a random game she thought up with her friends, and i'm thinking of the underlined text, of the things she crossed out, and the stickers her friends gave her to add to the zine. somewhere, someone has a copy of dark heresy's core book absolutely lousy with scrawled notes about ways to make its combat less of a chore, and snide commentaries on later editions of the FFG franchise. i've been thinking about all these books and the way that they change, the way people enter conversations with them through time. the way they defy the book, yet keep it close to their heart always.