Well, Hello There

First posts are always weird and awkward, kind of like first dates. If you’ve found this newsletter because you were sort of interested to see if anyone was talking about games on Substack, well, hi. Someone is, and that someone is me, Monte Cook.

I’ve been working professionally in the game industry for over 30 years. I have the honor of being in the Hall of Fame for people like me (it’s called the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts Hall of Fame, but no one can ever remember that). I’ve worked for many different game companies on many different games. I have a list of credits that is…well, it’s long. But you might be most interested to know that I worked for a lot of years on Dungeons & Dragons, specifically as one of the designers on the third edition of that game. You might also be interested to know that I am the co-owner of Monte Cook Games (MCG). We publish Numenera, No Thank You Evil, the Cypher System, Invisible Sun, and a lot more.

Here though, I’m going to be writing not about any of those specific games, but about tabletop roleplaying games in general. I want to break down why we play these games of imagination, hopefully with more insight than just “They’re fun!” (But you know, they are.) As a longtime game designer and publisher, I’m planning to share some thoughts and ideas about what goes into a game, and more importantly why. 

If you’re a lover of roleplaying games, you might find it interesting, either just as an “inside baseball” kind of thing, or to prompt some of your own thoughts about what makes a good game, and what you love about them and why. It might just make your games better.

Plus, you’ll earn a bunch of experience points if you subscribe and you’ll be likely to learn where the next piece of the mystical key lies, but beware, for there are beasts of foul disposition guarding…. you get the idea.