Burst of Insight Archive

Pathfinder, like D&D before it, is a direct decedent of Tolkien-esque fantasy. Humans, elves, hobbits (or halflings) travelling together on adventures. An argument could even be made that with books like the Advanced Race Guide we’re perhaps closer to...

Recently, I’ve been writing about experimenting with Pathfinders rules with inspiration coming from outside the Pathfinder rules entirely and some with the optional rules from sources such as Pathfinder Unchained. So what about experimenting with the existing game rules? ...

Unless you were living under a rock, you probably know that this past weekend was Gen Con. The Fastest Four Days in Gaming or something like that. This year was the first time we took the entirety of Marlowe...

Designers leverage the flexibility of the d20 chassis that Pathfinder is built on to build new rules systems that model the exact setting or mood they want to capture. For the last couple of weeks on both this blog...

So today we’ll talk a little about getting your game INTO space. That means starships and space stations. Since most games will involve parties of characters we’ll spend some time today starships that can be a mobile base for...

Welcome to the latest installment of the Burst of Insight blog where we discuss game design. In the last blog, I was talking about agency specifically its absence as a key element of horror design, this week I’d like...

Welcome to the second installment of the Burst of Insight Blog, today I’m going to continue the theme of introductions and tell you a little about myself, how I became a freelance designer, and share a here-to-fore unpublished monster...

Hello Readers, I’m Andrew Marlowe, two-time RPG Superstar Top 16 contestant, and freelance game designer and I’d like to thank you for joining me for this first ever installment of the Burst of Insight designer’s blog. Over the coming...