Sam Hollon – Medium

Sam Hollon
in
The Ugly Monster

Creating Monsters: The Three Ingredients of Great Bestiaries

Monster as actor, monster as story, monster as art piece

12 min readDec 8, 2023

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“The Tartaro” from A Folklore Bestiary, a one-eyed giant shining light from its eye toward a bird

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Sam Hollon
in
The Ugly Monster

The Art of Mystery in RPGs

Five principles for better investigation adventures

9 min readNov 14, 2023

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noir-style photograph of a figure descending a staircase

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Sam Hollon
in
The Ugly Monster

Worlds Live Between Story and Genre

How audiences suspend their disbelief

7 min readOct 27, 2023

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A painting of Sadler’s Wells Theatre

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Sam Hollon
in
The Ugly Monster

How Zine Quest Could Remake the Tabletop RPG Landscape

Insights from food trucks and Kickstarter data

10 min readOct 20, 2023

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painting of three faceless figures

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Sam Hollon
in
The Ugly Monster

The One Hard Rule for Creating Good RPG Characters

The what, why, and how of character motivations

7 min readOct 9, 2023

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The One Hard Rule for Creating Good RPG Characters

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Sam Hollon
in
The Ugly Monster

Tabletop RPGs Have a Design Debt to Pay

How bad design haunts us

6 min readOct 1, 2023

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an image from Old School Essentials

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Sam Hollon
in
The Ugly Monster

3 Better Ways to Roll Ability Scores in D&D

Randomness doesn’t have to be unbalanced

5 min readSep 18, 2023

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amber-colored dice on a black background

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Sam Hollon
in
The Ugly Monster

Worldbuilding at the Intersections

How interacting perspectives draw us in

16 min readSep 7, 2023

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colorful Venn Diagram

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Sam Hollon
in
The Ugly Monster

The Most Overlooked Rules in D&D: Why the Dungeon Master Survives

Game design, power dynamics, and culture at the gaming table.

20 min readSep 16, 2022

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The Most Overlooked Rules in D&D:
Why the Dungeon Master Survives

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Sam Hollon
in
UX Collective

Tabletop game UX: 6 types of damage mechanics

Mapping how damage mechanics shape a game’s focus and play experience

16 min readSep 7, 2022

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Five improv performers strike bold poses on a dark stage.

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Sam Hollon

Sam Hollon

Worldbuilder. Design thinker. Improv performer. Computational social scientist. Writes on creativity, storytelling, and tabletop game design.

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