explorersdesign.bsky.social
Pronunciation: "Klay-tun Note-Styne" Designer. Writer. 2025 ENNIES Judge. Tabletop games. Explorers Design. Pro-union and cooperatives. He/Him.
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I have two newsletters. Explorers Design (a general rpg design blog) and The Explorateur (a monthly curation of rpg design links and resources).
www.explorersdesign.com Explorers Design
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This beats my back patio catbirds, they’re mean little bastards
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That's awesome to hear! I was similarly inspired by Widdershins Wanderings' article, A Lock with No Key, which inspired mine. It's all inspirations all the way down.
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Hey! Thank you. I’ll put this into the current issue.
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It’s my monthly excuse to geek out about stuff.
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I didn’t know you were on Bluesky. Big fan of… well… all of your stuff, especially The Vintage RPG Podcast.
Thanks for the repost!
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The next level of design is wanting to make things for a font. I want to make something for Dragonsteel.
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It goes on sale fairly often too! A few of my designer friends share it every time it goes on sale.
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Final thoughts...
If you think I missed one, let me know. I have a master list of type foundries and designers, so I plan on making more lists in the future.
You can find this list on Explorers Design with more notes and advice here:
www.explorersdesign.com/10-budget-fo...
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Budget-friendly Option #10:
Taylor Penton. This indie type designer hand draws typefaces that feel like they belong in surf shops, cocktail clubs, and t-shirt tags. ~$30.00/typeface
(This designer's work is begging to be in a modern rpg/mystery setting.)
www.taylorpenton.com/fonts?ref=ex...
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Budget-friendly Option #9:
Brandon Nickerson. There's a good chance you already know this one. BN has designed a lot of fonts over the years, all of them by hand for a perfectly imperfect look. $35.00/typeface. (Sign up for the newslettter.)
www.bnicks.com?ref=explorer...
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Budget-friendly Option #8:
Simple Bits. This tiny design studio based out of Salem, Massachusetts produces awesome little typefaces, books, and merchandise. Typefaces are priced at $25.00 a piece. They're good for covers and signage.
simplebits.shop/collections/...
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Budget-friendly Option #7:
Future Fonts. Fresh fonts from a curated list of designers. The catch here is that the fonts are new, newer than new, actually—they're not done. Buying a font here means you're buying the early release version. ~$40.00
www.future-fonts.com?ref=explorer...
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Budget-friendly Option #6:
SilverStag Type Foundry. If you love hand lettering, you'll love this one-person shop full of eclectic typefaces. The average font usually ranges somewhere between €29,00-€35,00.
silverstagtype.com?ref=explorer...
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Budget-friendly option #5:
Pretend Foundry. The name is funny but the fonts are 100% real. And they're well-made! The average cost is around $15. As close to free as you can get.
pretendfoundry.com?ref=explorer...
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Budget-friendly option #4:
Atypical Type Foundry. The last of the "expensive" type foundries. The variety here is good. They also have some free typefaces you've never seen in an rpg zine.
atypical.gr?ref=explorer...
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Budget-friendly option #3:
Central Type. Like option two, this option is one of the more expensive "budget-friendly" options. The cool thing with central type is that their fonts are big and bold—perfect for covers.
www.centraltype.com?ref=explorer...
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Budget-friendly option #2:
Type of Feeling Type Foundry. The typefaces in here will cost you a bit more ($140 v ~$500), just shy of most indie budgets, but they're incredibly well-made. My favorite of their catalog is Ssonder.
typeoffeeling.com?ref=explorer...
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Budget-friendly option #1:
A subscription to Pangram Pangram Foundry. We use this type foundry all the time at work when clients have limited budgets. With a subscription (~$40) you can try out hundreds of styles.
Great for workhorse fonts. Lots of glyphs.
pangrampangram.com?ref=explorer...
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Before you spend any of your indie budget:
More than 50% of your rpg's look is its treatment. With the right arrangement and pairings, even the most basic typefaces can look fresh. So, before you spend your money, check out open-source alternatives.
www.explorersdesign.com/free-fonts-l...
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Congrats! Voted for you.
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You always find a way to add just a drop of ominous implication.
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Oh wow, thank you for the kind note! Especially about how accessible and helpful they are. I’m always going back and making edits in an attempt to make them clearer.
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You can read the entirety of today's design delve on Explorers Design. In it I share what I liked and didn't like about the adventure, how type creates genre expectations, and how brevity affords certain advantages.
www.explorersdesign.com/exploring-ro...
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Design finds and primes audiences with certain expectations and tolerances.
My takeaway in this latest design delve is that micro-adventures are often imperfect, but I'm more likely to tolerate their shortcoming, because they're easy to fix.
The shorter the adventure, the more slack you get.
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The Royal Art Gallery Heist is tackling one of the hardest design challenges in rpgs: an adventure module, room descriptions and all, in just a few pages.
How does it land? Like most small form factor adventures—with a few bruises, cut corners, and tantalizing what-ifs.
But here's the loot...
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If Royal were a supplement for a storygame, like PbtA, its tension b/w density and clarity might have been optional. Most storygames' gameplay rests on prompts and mechanics, negating the need for detailed scenarios and modules.
But this game's visual design serves a different kind of game design.
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The thing that got me interested about The Royal Art Gallery Heist was this inherent tension in the work.
It is short and dense like most micro adventures, but it's laid out with type and graphics that are orderly, spacious, and clean.
This makes it a visual outlier within the form factor.
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After leaving Twitter (and doing quite a few design delves), I've gotten less interested in rehashing the "building blocks" of a game's design in favor of more conceptual analysis.
Right now, design delves have three acts: the delve (analysis), the lore (design background), and loot (lessons).
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When I was on Twitter, I used to breakdown games into their visual design components. Things like format (page size), typefaces (fonts), art, and layout.
I still do a bit of that. Especially in this delve. Royal uses some iconic fonts to give itself a real bold but clean look that's approachable.
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Are design delves reviews? No. I would describe them as explorations. Less "Is this worth buying?" and more "What do these design decisions show?"
In the end, they're an excuse to exercise curiosity, learn, and frankly just fawn over good-looking and fun-to-read games.
Speaking of which...
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I'll be stealing your Sean Connery. Not well, of course. But he will make an appearance.