gamesfromthewildwood

Hey, I'm Luke (my pronouns are they/them). 

I'm a queer non-binary game designer, performer, and professional GM.

My games are sincere, spooky, sad, and specific in both their themes and their setting. My work is emotional and honest; informed by a poetic sensibility; grounded in a sense of place and genre; interested in people, their pasts, and internal landscapes; and focused on "soft" narrative mechanics rather than complex procedures.

THROUGH THE SMOOT is a Forged in the Dark roleplaying game about bold and curious villagers borrowing the shapes of animals to escape their mundane lives and travel into Faerie. There are contests, brawls, chases and escapes, riddles, desperate deceptions, promises—heartfelt, false, or unwise, and wonder and peril in equal parts.

You play to find out if the villagers can make it there and back again (maybe even with something to show for it) amidst the dangers of gluttonous giants, haughty nobles, tricksy goblins, strange beasts, watchful dragons, ill-tempered sorcerers, and their own foolishness.

There is something rotten in the Low Cantrefs. No-one knows quite when it started but all agree that the land is living under a shadow. Has been living under a shadow, for long decades now. Folks have had good reason, in recent years, to remember and repeat the old superstitions that ward off creatures born of Sorcery, and the Dead.

But nonetheless, in the midst of this, life goes on. Fields are planted. Cottages are built, and roofs thatched. Namedays and baptisms are celebrated, and the harvest welcomed in. Babies are born. People fall in love,make new friends, cling to grudges, and forgive old wrongs.

And as faded traces of past glories crumble around them, children grow up

TALES FROM THE LOW CANTREFS is a hearth fantasy coming-of-age roleplaying game Powered by the Apocalypse and inspired by the Old Kingdom trilogy and the Chronicles of Prydain. It tells stories about adolescence and self-acceptance, about grief and sacrifice, about duty and responsibility, and a slowly gathering apocalypse.

Podcast with Luke talking about Dream Anew, utopian storytelling, and belonging outside belonging: insertquesthere with Ray Cox.

Podcast with Luke talking about Grand Guignol, Harvest, and the history of the Australian indie games movement: Third Floor Wars with Craig Shipman.

Podcast with Luke talking about Heaven Has No Taste and queer games: Game Closet episode 65 with Taylor LaBresh.