Pronunciation: "Klay-tun Note-Styne" Designer. Writer. Educator. Tabletop games. Explorers Design. Pro-union and cooperatives. He/Him.
Woke up hungover after winning gold at The Ennies for Best Kiss. Anyway, here’s this month’s Explorateur. Only the freshest links from July. Two really fun reviews. My new favorite podcast. And three thoughts on layout from me in the upfront. www.explorersdesign.com/explorateur-...
The Explorateur: Issue #22Monthly jams, critique, theory, and resources for rpg designers.www.explorersdesign.comIt's always cool to hear one of my old posts resurface! www.explorersdesign.com/turn-the-she... Character sheet's looking great!
Turn the Character Sheet SidewaysTips & tricks for designing character sheets.www.explorersdesign.comEliot Miller | he/they 🏳️🌈Okay the advice of "just turn the character sheet landscape" and "you can leave empty space for your players to write/draw/make notes how they want to" did a lot to improve this design. Thanks @explorersdesign.bsky.social for your tips!
Back when I started Explorers, I probably had a readership of about 50 people a month. This post is from then. It's a list of common mistakes disguised as theory. If your readers are getting confused, these laws might explain why. www.explorersdesign.com/gestalt-laws/
Gestalt Laws for RPG DesignIf the design principles were a glossary, the Gestalt Laws are a survival guide.www.explorersdesign.comI think this is less a wild take and simply a good one. I recommend making your running headers hyperlinks, but why stop there? Page numbers are a good thing to leverage as well, and if you're using master pages, it's one of the easier techniques to execute.
Mike Martens | Clear KeepAnother post thoughtful post from Clayton means another wild take from me: Consider hyperlinking your running page numbers to the table of contents.
A short piece on the power of hyperlinks this week. If you're designing for digital and not using them, you're leaving one of your format's greatest strengths on the table. www.explorersdesign.com/how-to-hyper...
How to Design with HyperlinksUser-friendly definitions, rules, and hacks for your next rpg pdf.www.explorersdesign.comBernie Sanders meme, except this time I'm asking for your vote in The Crit Awards for my newsletter, The Explorateur. A monthly newsletter of links, tools, and inspiration for tabletop rpg designers. Guaranteed to raise your design WIS and INT scores. www.explorersdesign.com/tag/explorat...
I'm not participating in this year's Appx. N Jam, but if you're bored and want to look at some old pulp/pulp-adjacent covers, I have a Cosmos board with 300+ images. www.cosmos.so/explorersdes... Be prepared for some premium schlock, shock, and yeesh.
Pulp Covers — by @explorersdesign363 elementswww.cosmos.soIf you're not tempted to eat your board game's pieces, they're only half as good as they should be.
Chase Taylor-CarterSince @explorersdesign.bsky.social has experienced both sides of the ENNIEs process, I invited him onto the podcast to discuss the weird phenomenon of awards and their equally weird effects. Also, generative AI bullshit, playing genre straight, and why game piece mouthfeel is a valid metric.
Explorers Design has been nominated for Best Online Content in The Ennies 2026! Not sure who to vote for? Let me win you over. Today's post is a special edition of The Explorateur. It features my favorite nominees and a long list of non-rpg design links. 🍻🎉 www.explorersdesign.com/explorateur-...
The Explorateur: Ennies SpecialThe Ennie Awards, my campaign pitch, and the best graphic design links so far.www.explorersdesign.comThank you for including my dog Kash. He’s a great project manager. Terrible typist though.
sam “genial conversationalist” sorensenBEST ONLINE CONTENT again, very weird that this is a category. but these all seem actually somewhat reasonable if you’re into the broader hobby of RPGs. I vote for Explorer’s Design followed by Molten Sulfur, with the remaining as dealer’s choices
It appears voting in the awards has started. I'll share a full rundown later this weekend, until then, I would love your #1, #2, or #3 vote for Best Online Content. (Designing Dungeons & Molten Sulfur are others I'd love to see win.) Ballot: vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2026/
Awards SubmissionWelcome to Explorers Design!
I'm Clayton Notestine, and this is Explorers Design—my virtual design studio and label for all things game, product, and graphic design. This page is a curation of my web...www.explorersdesign.comWhat makes an rpg cover great? Lots of things! We are spoiled for choice in rpgs. So, this week, I thought I'd show off 15 recent and lesser-known favorites w/ commentary. Let me know your favorites! I want to do a part 2. www.explorersdesign.com/great-book-c...
Great Book Covers '26 #1Cover inspiration from across the tabletop rpg industry.www.explorersdesign.com