Skeleton Code Machine

Skeleton Code Machine

Home
GET TUMULUS
Archive
About
Tracking ammunition in CY_BORG and other TTRPG systems
Exploring the different ways tabletop games can track ammo spent during combat whether it's an arrow or a bullet, using CY_BORG's ammo check roll as an…
Commodity speculation in Soda Jerk
Exploring how Soda Jerk by Chris Yi uses hidden information, stock manipulation, and influence vs. control in a game about combining soda flavors. Also…
Circus Flohcati: a push your luck card market
Exploring how Reiner Knizia's Circus Flohcati makes an open draft card market feel dynamic without the usual incentives and discard mechanisms. Also…
Let me know what you think! SCM Reader Survey 2025
The third annual Skeleton Code Machine Reader Survey starts now! Let me know what you want to see more (or less) of, which game you loved this year, and…
Tumulus 05. "Step into the fairy ring." 🍄
The latest issue of Tumulus is shipping now, packed with game design inspiration and exercises. Fairies, soup, dark forests, fey contract law, somatic…
Make your own TTRPG bookmark
Exploring the different types of games that can fit on a bookmark, and how books can be used as part of tabletop mechanisms. Also, three new bookmark…
🎁 Skeleton Code Machine Gift Guide 2025
Gift ideas for those who love tabletop board games and roleplaying games, collected from this year's Skeleton Code Machine articles.
Everything is pointcrawl!
Exploring hexcrawls, pointcrawls, and other crawls to see if everything is actually just a pointcrawl. How we can reduce the illusion of choice and…

November 2025

Fair (and fairy) cake-cutting in Pacts
Exploring how the divide and choose ("I cut. You choose.") mechanism in Pacts from DVC combines with area control to create tough choices and meaningful…
Revisiting SPI's 1981 Dragonslayer and what it can teach us
What can we learn from the board game adaptation of the 1981 dark fantasy film Dragonslayer? Quite a bit, both from what it does well and how it might…
Skirmish Week is coming and I need your help.
Which skirmish games do you love? Do skirmish games need minis? Let me know what makes a game a "skirmish game" and which games you'd like to see…
 • Exeunt Press
Using blackjack to raise the dead
Exploring Necromancer Heretic by Junk Food Games and how traditional games can be modified and recontextualized as the basis for modern board games and…
© 2025 Exeunt Press · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture