About & Contact — Serious Wizard

Welcome, I am the Serious Wizard. This site is where I document the design, development, and occasional spectacular failure of The Middle Lands, a fantasy TTRPG I have been building, breaking, and rebuilding for a while. It will also contain my musings about a number of topics.

The Middle Lands is a serious project, despite the name of this blog. It draws from over a decade of playing D&D 5e, OSR games, and loving grimdark settings. The goal is a system that feels dangerous the way those games do, but with enough character depth that losing someone actually stings.

I've designed systems within 5e and have spearheaded the design on sever 5e products. I have a strong desire to create and after a life in the film business I've moved on to new ventures. The Middle Lands is the culmination of what I love in TTRPG's and I'm hoping you'll love it as well.

✦

Design Influences

D&D 5e The floor. Breadth of content, player accessibility, the cultural lingua franca of the hobby.
Osric/AD&D/DCC The ceiling of lethality. "The dungeon does not care about your backstory."
Forbidden Lands The push mechanic. The elegant brutality of Year Zero Engine.
Warhammer Fantasy RPG And Symbarum The tone. Corruption as a mechanic. The sense that the world is losing.
Traveller Skills that make each character different with their own niche.
Draw Steel Tactical combat with forced movement and environmental damage.

Frequently Asked

When it's done. This is my baby, and I want to wait to release it until it's something I'm reall proud of. I plan on keeping the rules and digital tools on the website for free until I release a print version.

Yes, I plan on keeping materials free and updated with my latest version. I will eventually open a more official playtest, subscribers to The Dispatch newsletter will hear first. Sign up at the bottom of any page.

I plan on keeping the core rules materials free digitally. I will eventually work on getting a print version that will likely be crowd funded. I also hope to eventually create a license to use the system.

It's a joke about how the games I maintain a duality of broaching serious concepts that often turn into silly fun at the table.

Reach out via the contact form below. For art enquiries, include a portfolio link. For writing, a sample of something you've written for games. For playtesting, just say hello, I'm friendly. The wizard is serious, but I am not.