What Kind of Content Can I Find on Chaotican Writer?

Chaotican Writer is a blog by Matthew A Olson about worldbuilding, tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), and fantasy/sci-fi. If you are looking for practical GM advice, indie RPG reviews, convention takeaways, or free encounter material, the site covers all of those. It is not a rules database or a storefront; it is a creator's blog with articles, roundups, and downloadable resources.

Worldbuilding and Fantasy/Sci-Fi Inspiration

The site's stated focus is worldbuilding plus fantasy and sci-fi. In practice, that shows up as narrative and setting material rather than abstract theory. One clear example is the Three Fools Saga, a series of narrative excerpts originally published in the Dungeon Delve weekly newsletter, following a thief, a sage, and a paladin on a quest for fortune. If you want to see how a world and its characters get built out over time, this serialized format is the most direct example on the site.

TTRPG Reviews and Gameplay Takeaways

Reviews and play reports are a major content type. Two representative posts:

• Dirtbags! a Sci-Fi Shooter RPG: Gameplay Review — a review of a 2025 rules-lite, bug-blasting dystopian satire indie RPG.
• Daggerheart Rewind: 7 Takeaways from Running 20 Demos in 20 Hours — lessons for game masters and players drawn from running twenty 45-minute demos at Gen Con 2025.

The Daggerheart post is worth noting because it is written from actual demo-running experience rather than a read-through, so the takeaways are aimed at people about to run or play the game.

Convention Coverage

The blog covers tabletop conventions through roundups of new games. 7 New TTRPG Experiences from GameHole Con 2025 showcases games from Ghostfire Gaming, Splattered Ink Games, Wet Ink Games, Bright Bard Games, Storytellers Forge, Need Games, and Critical Kit Ltd. If you want a quick survey of recent indie and small-press releases, this is the format to look for.

Free Resources and Downloadables

Some posts are usable at the table, not just readable:

• d100 City Encounters and Urban Sidequests — a fantasy TTRPG encounter table for city-based environments, with a downloadable PDF version.
• TTRPG zine roundups — for example, a roundup covering Axolotl with a Gun, Game Genie Apocalypse / Reading the Apocalypse, and Home; a MECH X KAIJU RPG.

The encounter table is the clearest "take this to your session tonight" item; the zine roundups are better for discovery than for direct play.

Community Events: The RPG Blog Carnival

The site participates in and hosts the RPG Blog Carnival, a cross-blog writing event. In July 2025 the theme was improvisation, roleplaying, and warmups, and the month closed with a roundup post collecting contributions. If you write about TTRPGs yourself, the carnival is an entry point for joining a wider group of bloggers; if you only read, the roundups function as a curated link list.

What Else Is There

• Site news and direction — posts such as "The Future of Chaotican Writer (introducing Odd Fair Press)!" explain where the blog and its related projects are heading.
• A newsletter — Dungeon Delve is a weekly newsletter, and the site offers a subscribe page for it. Note that the site's own materials only indicate a subscribe option; they do not state terms, frequency guarantees, or cost, so check the subscribe page itself before signing up.

Who This Content Is For

The common thread is tabletop play: most posts assume you run or play RPGs and want either material to use or experience to learn from.