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Game Design Blog Last 100 Posts
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Legendary Nordic Monsters Funds! The Kickstarter campaign I designed for Nordic Monsters (Legendary Games) has funded with a successful wrap! The project closed with $45,639 USD funded by 920 backers. Be sure to check it out for late pledges here.Nordic Monsters brings you an awesome array of creatures from across Scandinavia, featuring monsters from the myths and legends of…
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Hidden Paths Subscription I have launched Hidden Paths, my subscriber hub on my professional Facebook profile. A subscription is priced at just $1.99/month, and immediately pays for itself with multiple featured monthly discounts. What subscribers can expect to be exclusive to them: • Exclusive TTRPG content posts not available anywhere else.• Access to an exclusive TTRPG zine released…
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Advanced Name Generator As a weekend project recently, just for fun, I developed a random name generator for Sarah Dahlinger's Astra Fauna. There are tons of name generators out there, so the approach I took was to create a web app that was concise, compact, and client-side, yet also included several features I thought would be most useful.Features…
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Dungeon Maps Magazine The first new title from Paths to Adventure for 2026 is available now! Presenting Dungeon Maps Magazine! Each issue contains a full 14 virtual tabletop (VTT) ready map packs featuring cartography from map master, Justin Andrew Mason. 7 maps with a fantasy theme and another 7 maps with a science fiction theme. Each map set…
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Storefront Facelift & Organization The Tabletop RPG publisher imprint page at DriveThruRPG.com has been re-organized to make it much easier to find titles among the hundreds that have been published, along with these changes, the entire interface has received a facelift. The shop section of this website has been updated to adhere to these new categories as well.
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Pathfinder Quest Funds! The BackerKit campaign I designed for Paizo's Pathfinder Quest has funded after highly successful wrap! The project closed with $916,118 USD funded by 3,772 backers. Be sure to check it out here.
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New Random Dungeon Map Generator I've just released a new Random Dungeon Map Generator. The web app creates a random dungeon with a click. Entirely unique and generated on the fly. It has options to create Small Maps (4-6 rooms) for one-shots, Large Maps (7-12 Rooms), and X-Large maps (13-19 rooms). It's highly customizable including features like: Just click the…
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Tavern Sign Crafter Updated Version 3.0 of the Tavern Sign Crafter was released on 08/19/2025. This updated version has a dynamic interface, live preview, and an export (to PNG) option. It currently it still uses the same asset library that I created back in 2016, but I may get around to releasing an update for that soon. Click here…
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Widdershins Clock — Collaborative Poetic Storytelling Game Widdershins Clock is a rules-lite collaborative poetic storytelling game for four to six players. To play, you'll need a single six-sided die, something to write on and with, and optionally five “muse” tokens per player. About the Game — The goal of the game is for the players to collaboratively compose a poem that tells…
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Science Fiction VTT Map Value Bundles Joining the best selling Fantasy Adventure value bundles, the long awaited Science Fiction value bundles are now available! Themed sets with a 25% discount off individual map pricing. Sci-fi cartography by Justin Andrew Mason. These have been marked as featured titles in the Paths to Adventure shop as well!
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New Paths to Adventure Website Launches As the sun sets on our intrepid knight, and the old logo is retired, I'd like to welcome you to the new (and much improved) PTA website! The previous blog site was created back in 2013 when the imprint was founded using Google's Blogspot platform. The layout and functionality didn't undergo many changes in the…
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Machine Mods & Customization My love for retro 80s and 90s 8-bit video games is a big part of my nostalgic vibe. From collecting old games and consoles, to video game history preservation, to pixel art and chiptune music. I've only started to dabble into modding machines, but its a crafty venue I plan on spending more of my…
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The Green Knight's Helm The Green Knight’s helm is a mod project I undertook awhile back while paying homage to a childhood adventure. An unwitting quest that went awry, and then concluded nearly two decades later by the conversion of universal oddities. For this project to come about, some really strange temporal twists were traveled both by me, and…
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Starfinder Space Goblin In spacez, no wun can hear yoo singsong¿ When Starfinder (Paizo) released, I went all in. I think I have everything published in the first two years, as well as packaged miniatures that were never released, the auctioned rule book with all the design team signatures, special edition dice… and then could never find a…
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Painting TTRPG Miniatures I'll be the first to admit that my talents do not currently reside in the arena of miniature painting. Despite my lack in skill and experience, I still quite enjoy the process. I find it an amazing stress reliever and distraction when I need to "touch grass" but don't actually want to. The level of…
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Mini-Dungeon: A Decade of Adventure I've written a short history of the Mini-Dungeon series (AAW Games), its roots delving back to the seminal era of tabletop roleplaying games, and how a simple idea spawned over decade of adventure, two hardcover books, multiple cross-promotion releases, an old-school zine, and over 300 published adventures all available in print and for virtual tabletops….
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Into the Wintery Gale: A Retrospective It has been a decade since I wrote the adventures series for AAW Games, and I felt it deserved a retrospective glance. Starting with the hardcover book, Wrath of the Jötunn, the Into the Wintery Gale series would be my first major project as a game designer, and the lessons learned would prove to be…
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Two Major Projects Featured in Forbes I'm excited to see that two of my major projects are both listed in the top five recommendations of the 2024 Forbes gift guide published by Forbes Media. Both Mini-Dungeon Tome I and Mini-Dungeon Tome II (AAW Games) are recommended must have holiday gifts for Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters. Between the two books, I…
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Libram of Lost Spells Funds The Kickstarter campaign I designed for The Libram of Lost Spells (TPK Games) has funded! The project closed with $66,040 USD funded by 1,022 backers. Be sure to check out this vast hardcover tome filled with lost spells and more from earlier editions of D&D, resurrected for use with the 5th Edition rules.
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Now in Your Local Library via Hoopla D&D 5th Edition comes to the library system! Proud to announce the top AAW Games titles in ebook format are now available to most library systems via the Hoopla digital web and mobile apps in the United States, Australia/New Zealand, and other English-speaking countries. Be sure to check out some really great books that I…
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Featured in Game Trade Magazine The Mini-Dungeon Tome II (AAW Games) is featured in the April Issue #290 of Game Trade Magazine detailing its over 110 adventures and special Limited Edition print. It's always a neat feeling to unexpectedly find your projects in media publications.
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Music & Sound Effects for Your Campaign I just developed and pushed into live production a massive library of audio effects and ambient music that streams directly through a convenient categorized soundboard for AAW Games subscribers. The audio catalog include the hundreds of audio assets published by the company including all the adventure soundtracks. Anyone with a subscription based service to their…
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Gary Gygax Documentary Available Now The Gary Gygax documentary for which I was a producer and content creator for, "The Dreams in Gary's Basement" (Dorks of Yore; Directed by Pat Kilbane), is now available on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and via digital streaming at rpghistory.net. The documentary was selected for Beloit International Film Festival 2025 and was the Gen Con Film…
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Mini-Dungeon Tome II for Pathfinder 2E Funds The Kickstarter campaign I designed for Mini-Dungeon Tome II for Pathfinder 2E (AAW Games) has funded! The project closed with $29,229 USD funded by 517 backers. I contributed dozens of maps and authored adventures for this tome consisting of more than 120 one-shot adventures. Check out this fantastic hardcover book filled with adventures designed to…
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Mediterranean Monsters Funds The Kickstarter campaign I designed for Mediterranean Monsters & Mythology (Legendary Games) has funded! The project closed with $69,276 USD funded by 1,195 backers. This amazing book brings to life more than 120 incredible creatures drawn from the myths and legends from around the Mediterranean Sea.
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Rultmoork Box Set Released This was my first opportunity to design a box cover for a tabletop roleplaying book set, and I was given creative freedom to "make it pop". Since the printer had the capability of printing the interior as well, I went ahead and designed a full wrap to try and capture the essence of the Rulemoork…
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Gaming Memory—The Hobby Shop Sweltering summer radiated from the sun overhead. There was not a cloud in sight and the heat wavered and undulated against spongy asphalt through the obscenest humidity. It was high noon during mid-summer in southwestern Kentucky. The constant rhythmic gusts of passing vehicles on the busy road provided some reprieve from the torrid broil, but…
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Gaming Memory—A New Kind of Adventure My Introduction to Tabletop RPG Gaming & My First Player Characters It was the frigid winter of 1991. I was eleven years old and attending Christian County Middle School in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Among the small niche of new friends I had made that year was a guy named Scotty. In those days your "home room"…
Justin’s Web Journal Last 100 Posts
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Anomie Ano'you. I am in a bit of a mood today, so here’s my version of a “hot take”… I think we are existing in a state of anomie. Particularly with the way we communicate on the internet and via social media. It is increasingly challenging for people to take a measure of themselves, much less others….
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Neon Blue Just a late-night glitch shuddered in rasping touch, beneath broken moans, whispers and empty promise. Between breaths no one noticed the song had ended. With skipping rhythm and heartbeat we sang to ourselves clad in crestfallen skies to dance like two fools searching for a place where for a moment nothing mattered. Don’t stop— Don’t…
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What is Authenticity? What is authenticity? It seems like a simple question. Authenticity is embracing who one really is. But, who is that? I've come to the conclusion that I am a hundred different people. There's a whole village in here. All of them share many of the same traits; those core notions that I believe manifest the…
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Morning News Waking eyes heavy against the whisper of a cool breeze. Door ajar, I hear the waggish spill of a songbird, its gaze traced in perfect komorebi. It doesn't know Discordance. I watch death. Glowing vivity from the screen sears into memory brumes of pitch obscuring blooms of flame that swallow moments lost to meaning. Again?…
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Pondering Generative AI Rather than bantering on about the typical narratives that inundate topical discourse regarding debates about generative AI and LLMs, I'm going to just forego those arguments to make a post focused on my own observations. While keeping an eye on the AI industry (and tech industry at large), social trends, and common vernacular as it…
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Final Fantasy: My Most Impactful Song A trend recently passed through a circle of friends asking, “What song had the greatest impact on your life?” The answers were intriguing and varied, yet I only saw a handful of responses that actually answered the fundamental question. Not your favorite song. Not a song you listen to frequently. Not a song that represents…
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Your First Programming Language The Question: What was the first programming language you learned? The Asnwer: The very first? BASIC/QBASIC, when I was eleven in 1991, on an old Compaq Deskpro 286 with an amber CRT monitor that I had snagged secondhand from one of my Dad's coworkers after begging for months for a computer so I could "make…
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A Discussion About Politics I don't make public statements about politics often. However, while terrible things happen to those with little or no control over the policies leading to that treatment, and while the public discourse continues to essentially be, "my team vs. your team", I'd like to make my own opinion known: It doesn't matter what political system,…
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Building A Custom Soundboard (Brainstorming) So, one of the ideas I've been mulling around has been creating a custom sound board. This means creating a lot of sound effects from scratch and building a library that can be indexed logically for quick reference. Especially on the fly, during a game session. I'm creating this journal entry as sort of a…
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The Green Knight's Helm The Green Knight’s helm is a mod project I undertook awhile back while paying homage to a childhood adventure. An unwitting quest that went awry, and then concluded nearly two decades later by the conversion of universal oddities. For this project to come about, some really strange temporal twists were traveled both by me, and…
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The Dissolution of Japan's Otaku Coin It feels a bit like the end of an era. This evening I received an email from the Tokyo-based Otaku Coin Association (OCA) notifying me that the association, having fulfilled its purpose, is being dissolved at the end of 2024. One of many strange chapters in my life, I got involved with the OCA in…
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12 Years a Game Designer: An Introspective This post is just an introspective. After a bit of a break, I'm back. Needed to step outside myself for awhile to reassess life, creative ventures, and plans for the future. I seem to experience these major introspective moments about once a decade. I think maybe it's just a weird part of being a creative;…
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Technoarcheology? Assuming that data survives somehow beyond decades into centuries, I'm curious how social media may be used by future digital archeologist. There are already archives of websites that date back 25 years or more. I can even find some of my early web design works in those archives. How future generations will view us as…
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Game: The Game (Brainstorming) I’m almost certain some variant of this concept probably exists somewhere, but since the idea randomly came to my mind during a personal fun thought experiment about a game where the players design the game they're playing by playing the game. I figured I’d share for kicks. GAME: A GAME For 2 or more players….
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Seeking my Old BBS Door Games Almost all of the BBS software and door games I programmed when I was a kid have been lost to time. It was just one of those things when I was growing up I never really thought about keeping, especially as Bulletin Board Systems gave way to regular internet access and the world wide web….
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The Energy Drink of Major League Gaming Anyone remember when NOS Energy Drink was associated more with gaming than with NASCAR? I do. It's so strange that they've gone out of their way to scrub as much of that association as they can from existence. Not even their Wikipedia article mentions it, despite it once literally being their main shtick. Only a…
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Printing: Old World Meets New World I was helping a friend understand some of the subtleties of prepping graphic design for print this afternoon, and had a momentary flashback to my teens. Just a fun reflection on how much the print industry has changed in the last two decades. When I was a teenager in the late 1990s and working in…
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Monuments Temporal acuity beckons anecdotes like signposts, aides-mémoires, marmoreal icons chiseled in neural static like monuments they tower across horizons aglow with elation, casting dismal shadow until gentle caress becomes nostalgia traversing well-worn paths with bellicose indignation I divert my vision, yet the reflections remain. From the Poetry Collection of Justin's Personal Web Journal.
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The Ephemeral Nature of Digital Memories I suspect that the often ephemeral nature of digital memories will play a key role in the continuing evolution of human society. Particularly where the impact of nostalgia and personal reflection are concerned. While I think this is mostly a constructive shift that allows for more meaningful interconnectivity, more responsible resource allocation, and a much…
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Making Music with the Endless Cosmos Loud clacking of mechanical keys accompanied the static-laden broadcast sputtering from a poorly-tuned radio station as the night waxed deep into the witching hour. The WKDF 103 call-sign brushed through the hiss, bringing the distinctive voice of Ozzy Osbourne declaring, “Nashville’s best rock!” My thirteen year-old self paused long enough to guzzle the last of…
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Gaming Memory—The Hobby Shop Sweltering summer radiated from the sun overhead. There was not a cloud in sight and the heat wavered and undulated against spongy asphalt through the obscenest humidity. It was high noon during mid-summer in southwestern Kentucky. The constant rhythmic gusts of passing vehicles on the busy road provided some reprieve from the torrid broil, but…
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Gaming Memory—A New Kind of Adventure My Introduction to Tabletop RPG Gaming & My First Player Characters It was the frigid winter of 1991. I was eleven years old and attending Christian County Middle School in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Among the small niche of new friends I had made that year was a guy named Scotty. In those days your "home room"…
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That Time I Forgot Who I Was Or, how creating a short-lived internet radio station helped me find direction, and why. This post is a reflection on my history, delving into a period a decade past when I had to make some difficult decisions about who I want to be. I think it's worth sharing as an example of how its possible…
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Descent Shamans gather upon that ancient hill— Where verdant-born youth once gripped vibrant bright in motherly embrace Where now linger the withered and worn. Fractured. Forgotten. Medicine-men made of wildfire and whispers yearning for release, a final moment. A worthy memory for the ending of a season. From the Poetry Collection of Justin's Personal Web Journal.
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Morning Static Sometimes the subconscious mind seems fundamentally sadistic. Like some assassin charged with the slaughter of tranquility; waiting for the most inopportune, unexpected moment to dredge up old memories that have lain still and dormant for years. Recollections that, out of context, would seem innocuous, but given the full breadth of causal observation, instead weigh heavy…
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The Human Song I was watching a documentary on the Chauvet caves of Southern France which contain a plethora of the oldest cave paintings still in existence. One chapter of the presentation focused on a more general area-wide examination of the early human cultures of that area. A 40,000 year old ivory flute, discovered around Hohle Fels near…
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Destroying Beauty Tracing upon youth's bitter edge, so practiced in deceit, they adore and desire all they cannot keep. Ten smiles hang upside down falling from tangled branch beneath. The wishing tree weeps in moments suspended upon threads of white yarn rendered bloody in fingerprints crimson stained, frayed, and worn. The children laugh, madly reveling in their…