What Is Chaotican Writer?

Updated

Chaotican Writer is a personal blog by Matthew A Olson about worldbuilding, tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), and fantasy/sci-fi. It publishes long-form posts, convention recaps, game reviews, zine roundups, and downloadable resources, and it also runs a weekly newsletter called Dungeon Delve. It is a good fit if you want practical TTRPG material, indie game discovery, and behind-the-scenes notes from running demos at conventions rather than news or rules reference.

What you'll find on the site

The blog mixes several recurring formats:

  • Convention and event write-ups — for example, "7 New TTRPG Experiences from GameHole Con 2025," which showcases games from Ghostfire Gaming, Splattered Ink Games, Wet Ink Games, Bright Bard Games, Storytellers Forge, Need Games, and Critical Kit Ltd.
  • Playtest and GM takeaways — "Daggerheart Rewind: 7 Takeaways from Running 20 Demos in 20 Hours" reports lessons from running twenty 45-minute Daggerheart demos at Gen Con 2025, aimed at both game masters and players.
  • Community events — the site hosted the July 2025 RPG Blog Carnival on improvisation, roleplaying, and warmups, and published a roundup of participant posts.
  • Reviews — such as a gameplay review of Dirtbags!, described as a 2025 rules-lite, bug-blasting dystopian satire sci-fi shooter RPG.
  • Roundups — zine collections like "Axolotls, Genies, and Kaiju," covering Axolotl with a Gun, Game Genie Apocalypse/Reading the Apocalypse, and Home; a MECH X KAIJU RPG.
  • Usable game material — a d100 city encounters and urban sidequests table for fantasy TTRPGs, with a downloadable PDF version.
  • Fiction — the "Three Fools Saga" narrative excerpts following a thief, a sage, and a paladin, drawn from the Dungeon Delve newsletter.

The Dungeon Delve newsletter

Dungeon Delve is the site's weekly newsletter and the home of the serialized "Three Fools Saga" fiction. The site lists a subscribe page at chaoticanwriter.com/subscribe/. The available site information does not state a price, so check the subscribe page directly for current terms.

Who it's for

If you are… Chaotican Writer is useful for…
A game master Encounter tables, demo-running lessons, and convention-tested game picks
A player Reviews and roundups of indie and rules-lite TTRPGs
A worldbuilder or writer Fantasy/sci-fi craft posts and serialized fiction
An indie designer or blogger Community events like the RPG Blog Carnival and zine coverage

A note on the site's direction

A June 2026 post, "The Future of Chaotican Writer (introducing Odd Fair Press)," announces a shift in how the site is run, with the introduction of Odd Fair Press. If you're deciding whether to follow along long-term, that post is the most current statement of where the blog is heading.