Watch Well Games #88
Special 5th Friday issue featuring a curation of RPG material.
Welcome to our community newsletter!
Hi there. I’m K.J. with your newsletter for this special fifth Friday issue.
Today:
💎 Hidden Gems: Looking back at a few newsletters you may have missed and why they’re worth your time.
But first I offer up a few quick random thoughts in “What’s Up, K.J.?”
🤔 “What’s Up, K.J.?”
It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these types of columns. First, I finished Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch and Richard Osman’s We Solve Murders. Speaking of books (and since I’m highlighting previous newsletters), did you know I wrote a book review? It covered the intriguing read of Outside the Box by Magnus Seter.
So what’s on my reading list next? Probably Pratchett’s Thud!, although a few friends have insisted I start the Dungeon Crawler Crawl series. With an upcoming GURPS-lite espionage game set in 1960s Berlin, I’m tempted to get into some John le Carré books. What are you currently reading?
Lastly, as I was wrapping up this newsletter, I got a notification that Free League announced its freeleagueunbound.com platform. The games listed so far are limited, and the character creation tool isn’t out yet, but the site looks interesting enough to keep an eye on its development. FL also announced new content for The One Ring. The tree books (two expansions and revised Core Rules) are designed to be “fully compatible with previously released supplements and adventures.” Fans can sign up on Backerkit for project news and updates.
💎 Hidden Gem #1: GM advice 🧠
In the earlier days of Watch Well Games, a few guests wrote some gamemaster advice articles.
Before Luke Saunders (Murkdice) rose to extreme popularity, he graciously offered to write a few guest articles for me. He discusses this topic of GMs incorporating PCs’ backstories. You can never go wrong with reading content from someone with such a keen mind for game mechanics.
On equal ground with the same sharp thinking for giving chill gamemaster advice is the duo Sean Ringrose and Andrew Stauffer of SRAS Games. In issue #33 they give us their thoughts on this same topic.
💎 Hidden Gem #2: Special Guest Interviews 🎙️
Not an exhaustive list, but here are some of my favorites.
Ever play World of Darkness, Chronicles of Darkness, Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, TORG: Eternity, Cyberpunk RED, Robert E. Howard’s Conan, Pacific Rim, Shadowrun, or Firefly? Then you’ve already had a small sampling of distinguished guest Monica Valentinelli, who fit time into her very busy schedule for an interview.
Lee Wade truly set the bar for Call of Cthulhu fans craving solo campaigns. His 340-page entry into the Miskatonic Repository on DriveThruRPG broke away to enter one of the site’s top tiers for best-sellers (Platinum). In issue #20, he shares some thoughts for those who aspire to someday do the same.
Some other interviews I enjoyed being a part of.
Issue 10 was one of my very first interviews, and it was with Dragonzine founder & editor Śraddhāpa Shan Welsh (Dragon Cult Games).
Issue 12 features Nicklas Brandin and Tomas Brattström, who publish the popular Dragonbane zine Karkion.
Issues 39 and 40 both cover two stellar Dragonbane game creators (who have created material for other games as well). In issue 39, you’ll find a rare audio with Andreas Lundström of Nordic Skalds and Sweden Rolls fame. In issue 40, meet Robin Fjärem, whose title Shadow Over Gloomshire was nominated to Fenix Awards (2025).
Likewise in issue 42, where award-winning creator Jörgen Karlsson of Dunderdagar provides insight on how he got started in TTRPGs. If you’re looking for superb adventures and fantastic artwork, this is a great option.
Issue 45 presents another rare audio format for my interview with John Hedge, who has pulled off a successful Kickstarter for his hope-filled apocalyptic RPG Embers of Humanity.
💎 Hidden Gem #3: Record of Lodoss War series 📺
While it could/should be under Hidden Gem #1, I’m setting it apart because it’s just really good insight for gamemasters. CJ Weigel wrote an entire GM-advice series based on the beloved Record of Lodoss War series. He used his Shadowdark campaign as the experimental base for his tips.
You can find this in issues #37, 38, 40, 42, 44, 47, and 49.
🙇🏼♀️ Conclusion
This newsletter has allowed me to share my play-through reports and reviews for several different TTRPGs (my favorite probably being this one and this one), MÖRKTOBER 2025 art creations here and here, homebrew content, a VTT token set I made to benefit Feeding America, a short video showing how to play one of my PocketQuest games, an announcement about my game being in 9th Level Games’ Level 1 Anthology for Free RPG Day 2025, free one-page games like this one (and one I never published), a free recipebook for a game, and one character creation video (and still only one, as these take a lot of time for a team of one to create). Lots of free maps from my cartography partner are between issues 13 through 50.
Click on the links for the bits and bobs that sound most interesting to you. Find something new or rediscover something you enjoyed as a long-time reader of my Substack. Drop me a line if you’d like to share your thoughts on this. Also, let me know what you’d like to see in the future:
🤍 Thanks for reading Watch Well Games.
Issue 48 announced the name of the Watch Well Games mascot. 🦔
Newsletters are always free and release every 2nd and 4th Friday with special 5th Fridays when possible. Enjoy what you read here?