Leyline Press Blog

Learning to kill your game design darlings - Salvage Union Design Blog #11
Learning to kill your game design darlings - Salvage Union Design Blog #11
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned as a game designer is to know when to kill your darlings. As much as you may love an idea, sometimes you... Read more...
Salvage Union Design Blog #10: Designing an easy to play Mech TTRPG with lots of customisation.
Designing an easy to play Mech TTRPG with lots of customisation. (Design Blog #10)
In this blog, we're going to be looking at the design process behind what led us to that formula and how it supported our wider design goal on Salvage Union,... Read more...
How to design a Salvage Union Mech (Design Blog #9)
How to design a Salvage Union Mech (Design Blog #9)
Salvage Union is a post-apocalyptic, Mech, tabletop roleplaying game with accessible mechanics. This is a two part blog post. In the first place we will be explaining the formula we... Read more...
Scrap as XP: How old school DnD inspired progression in Salvage Union. (Art by Hamish Frater)
Scrap as XP: How old school DnD inspired progression in Salvage Union. (Design Blog #9)
Salvage Union is a post-apocalyptic Mech game where players assume the roles of scrap salvagers. We, as the developers, aimed to create a gameplay experience centred around the core concept... Read more...
Scrap, Salvage, and Survival: Exploring the Non-Linear Progression of Salvage Union. (Design Blog #8)
Scrap, Salvage, and Survival: Exploring the Non-Linear Progression of Salvage Union. (Design Blog #8)
Salvage Union is a tabletop RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world where players take the role of Mech Pilots who salvage scrap in the wastes. They live together within a... Read more...
Salvage Union Design Blog #7: Creating a crafting system in a TTRPG that actually works.
Salvage Union Design Blog #7: Creating a crafting system in a TTRPG that actually works.
Our core design goal with Salvage Union was to create a simple-to-learn mech tabletop role-playing game, which retained the essence of the genre while vastly simplifying its mechanics and learning... Read more...
Salvage Union Design Blog #6: Information Gathering in Tabletop Roleplaying Games
Salvage Union Design Blog #6: Information Gathering in Tabletop Roleplaying Games
One of the key mechanics that makes Salvage Union works is the numerous Systems, Modules and Abilities that allow players to directly ask The Mediator (GM) questions and get true... Read more...
Salvage Union Design Blog 4 - Niche Protection in a Skill-less Tabletop RPG System.
Salvage Union Design Blog 4 - Niche Protection in a Skill-less Tabletop RPG System.
In our last article we explored why skill systems and modifiers didn’t work for Salvage Union.  One of the main reasons people want to have skill systems and modifiers in... Read more...
Salvage Union Design Blog #3 - Why Stat Modifiers and Skills Suck in Salvage Union.
Salvage Union Design Blog #3 - Why Stat Modifiers and Skills Suck in Salvage Union.
This is part of a series of design blogs exploring the development of Salvage Union a post-apocalyptic mech tabletop roleplaying game currently live on Kickstarter here.  One of the most common pieces of... Read more...
Salvage Union Design Blog #2 - Why Quest?
Salvage Union Design Blog #2 - Why Quest?
This is part of a series of design blogs exploring the development of Salvage Union a post-apocalyptic mech tabletop roleplaying game currently live on Kickstarter here.  Salvage Union is a hack... Read more...
Salvage Union Design Blog #1 - What is the Quest RPG?
Salvage Union Design Blog #1 - What is the Quest RPG?
Salvage Union is a hack of a fantasy RPG called Quest and in this blog we're going to discuss what Quest is in lead up to explaining why we decided to... Read more...