notes from the dungeon desk
Toronto · Indie & Tabletop
We play the indie RPGs, crawl the dungeons, and read the rulebooks so your next game night lands. Honest reviews, lore essays, and design breakdowns — published every week from Spadina Avenue.
What we publish
Four running series, each on its own cadence. Free to read; members get the full archive and early drafts.
weekly · Thursdays
A full playtest of one indie or small-press system every week — mechanics, safety tools, table feel, and whether it survives contact with real players. Two-to-three sessions before a word gets written.
Free to read · Member archive CA$6/mo
bi-weekly · Mondays
We take one classic or new megadungeon apart room by room — encounter pacing, treasure logic, map tricks — and hand you a printable one-page GM cheat sheet you can run cold.
Free column · Cheat sheets CA$4 each
monthly · first Sunday
A long-form essay on how a single game builds its world — cosmology, factions, the quiet economics of a setting — with practical notes on stealing those ideas for your own campaign.
Free · 12–18 minute read
seasonal · Kensington Market
We host an open one-shot night four times a year near Kensington Market, then write the honest play report — what clicked, what dragged, and who nearly TPK'd. Seats are first-come.
Meetup CA$10 (table & snacks) · report free
From the archive
Filter by column. Every post is spoiler-flagged and rated on a plain five-die scale.
indie rpg · 4.5/5
Stress and panic dice that actually earn their place. A tight horror system we ran until 2 a.m.
dungeon · 5/5
Why the wandering-monster clock still holds up, plus a one-page pacing sheet you can steal.
lore · essay
How a broke detective's ledger builds an entire failed city, and what tables can borrow from it.
indie rpg · 4/5
A GM-less pastoral that rewards patience. Gorgeous, gentle, and not for every group — here's who it's for.
dungeon · 3.5/5
The best teaching dungeon there is — we ran it for four first-timers and logged every lesson.
lore · essay
Six moves to make your setting's power blocs behave like people, not scenery. With examples.
Since 2019
412
Reviews published
1,900+
Hours at the table
28k
Newsletter readers
16
Meetups hosted in Toronto
Reader mail
Watch this month's roundtable, then read the notes people actually send us.
The March roundtable · 14 min
"The Barrowmaze cheat sheet saved my first session as a GM. I ran it cold at my kitchen table and nobody could tell I was terrified."
"I bought Mothership because of your three-session review, not the hype. You were right about the panic dice — best CA$25 I've spent on a game this year."
"Came to the Kensington meetup as a total stranger and left with a monthly group. The play report even got my TPK right."
Good questions
Every weekly column and essay is free. Membership at CA$6 a month unlocks the full six-year archive, downloadable GM cheat sheets, and early drafts before they go public. You can read us for years without ever paying — the members just keep the lights on.
We accept review copies but never accept payment for a review or a score. Any post based on a free copy says so clearly at the top. We also play a game for at least two full sessions before writing, so a slick pitch never substitutes for time at the table.
Four times a year we run an open one-shot night near Kensington Market. Tickets are CA$10 to cover the table and snacks, seats are first-come, and beginners are genuinely welcome — pre-made characters are provided. We announce dates in the newsletter about three weeks ahead.
Yes to both. Use the contact form with a short outline or the game you'd like covered. We reply to every pitch within about a week, and we pay guest contributors a flat CA$120 for accepted long-form pieces. Reader requests genuinely shape the review calendar.
Say hello
One email a week: the new review, meetup dates, and a dungeon map worth stealing. Pitches, corrections, and review copies welcome too.
Phone
+1 (416) 555-2768Studio
126 Spadina Avenue, Suite 305, Toronto, ON M5V 2L4
Desk hours
Mon–Fri 11am–7pm · Game nights Thu