Introducing Gordian Blade

One more TTRPG blog ought to do the trick

There comes a time in the lives of many fledgling TTRPG game masters where study and experience coalesce into enough strong opinions that it becomes physiologically impossible not to start a blog. Friends, my time has arrived!

My name is Ben Torell, and I’ve been playing TTRPGs since 2013 (my mid 20’s) starting with D&D 3.5e. I’ve played quite a few more systems since then (13th Age, D&D 5e, Blades in the Dark, Band of Blades, Lancer, Vaesen, Star Trek Adventures, Agon, Stonetop, Masks, Mausritter, Mothership, Knave, Slipgate Chokepoint, Cyberpunk Red, and Fabula Ultima, to name a few) and read many many more, and while I don’t think that exposure to lots of TTRPGs necessarily justifies a more authoritative opinion than any other, I do think it has helped to shape my opinions and hone my tastes quite a bit. At the moment, my tastes are cleaving closer to the NSR ethos with heavy emphasis on situation-based prep run in a way that facilitates player agency, though it would be impossible to ignore influences from other games as well.

The name “Gordian Blade” comes from a card from the game Android: Netrunner, a game in which I was heavily involved from 2014-2018. The card itself is a solid 8/10 — a good staple to have at your disposal, but most of the time you’re going to pick something more specialized and efficient to your game plan. But honestly, I just always really liked the name. The story of the Gordian Knot has always tickled me, and I suppose I’d like to think of this blog as an attempt to solve some problems I’ve noticed when it comes to running TTRPGs by questioning presuppositions and approaching problems with a fresh mind. I recognize that this is a lofty goal, and I expect I’ll be leaning on the advice of many who have come before me, such as Justin Alexander, Chris McDowell, Matt Colville, Yochai Gal, Mike Shea, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Ben Milton, and many more. However, I wouldn’t be starting this blog if I didn’t think I had some potentially helpful insights to share with the world, and I’m excited to share these ideas with you.

My first project will be focusing on the game Lancer, a tactical combat RPG where you play as mecha pilots in an advanced sci-fi society. I’ve found that many GMs in the Lancer community find running the game in an open-ended, non-linear fashion to be difficult, if not impossible, and maybe even wrong. When I ran Lancer, I was determined to find a way to run Lancer without resorting to a strictly linear campaign structure. Fortunately, I feel like I succeeded, though it required the development of a few useful tools and techniques to get the job done. I’m looking forward to diving into that subject in the next post!

If you want to follow along, I would love it if you would subscribe to stay up to date with each post as they are released!