I had the pleasure to meet with Mol at GenCon between booths and panels for a quick chat about their take on using dice stacking as a mechanic for world-building in your games!  See how they used it as a base for When the Walls Fall, and get some inspiration for your next game.

What’s your backstory?  What cool stuff do you do?  What have you worked on? 

I currently work with an amazing indie RPG company called Soulmuppet Publishing.  We make a whole range of games, but I also kind of publish things on my own as well. 

That’s how I got into the industry.  I’d been playing the classic D&D, as most of you do, but unknowingly hacking it since the moment I started it because I struggled with the rules.  

It’s built from there!

I’ve been working on a span of different things from adventures for several games to creating my own little world-building tools.  It’s a bit of everything!

Lots of hats!

Most definitely!

Can you tell me a bit about some of the all-ages friendly games you’ve made?  What titles have you released?

The best all-ages game I’ve made is When the Walls Fall.  It is a dice stacking game, but it’s more a world-building tool than just a game. 

It’s really good for getting kids inspired with how to create their own world, but it’s also for everyone; it’s all-ages.

It’s also something a lot of people do at the table.  You sit there, you stack your dice, they fall over, your GM is like… what are you doing?

Now, you can be like, “I have a reason GM!  I promise!”

It’s such a tactile thing!  I know I do it, my kid does it – we bust out the big bucket of dice and like…

How high can you go?

Yeah!  We’ve gotten close to probably 20 d6’s (some were big, so stable base) and kiddo just smacked it over!

If you get it to 20 before they knock it over… 

Oh, you could tell there was a lot of restraint involved!

I actually really struggle with it.  I’ve got slight hand tremors, so I struggle to play it. 

A lot of people go, “I finished the dice tower, now what?”

It’s easy for some!

For dice stacking mechanics, how often have you seen it used in other TTRPGs?

I think I’ve seen other games doing dice stacking, I believe Koriko is a dice-staking game using just d6’s to build your powers. 

I have seen a couple other games utilizing it as a tool, but I think it is a really under-utilized mechanic that we just happen to do without noticing.  I think it’s a bit fascinating. 

Even when the dice fall over, that in itself is a mechanic in the game that we use in the game. 

I’d love to see more people doing that.

What advice do you have for creators or folks who want to get their friends into TTRPGs based on what you’ve made or played? 

I think that sometimes, it’s just getting the people to the table and just playing something.  I know that’s the most obvious answer, but if you have a group of friends that even show a slight interest, you don’t have to launch a massive campaign that will last for 6 months and go from level 1 to level 20. 

You can just go, “I picked up this really cool one-page game and have some dice laying around. Do you want to create a world together?”

Then you do what you’ll do from there!

I think a lot of people feel like this industry is really hard to get into, but you just need to get into it. 

I started from a google doc that I did an inch on.  

Now I’m writing and doing my own layout… you just need to do it!

And then you have a published work to hold in your hands!

It’s that!  It’s now a physical being!   And it looks pretty damn good, if I do say so!

To close out our interview, do you have any shout-outs, final advice, or anything that we’ve missed talking about? 

I’m currently working on a game, Serving Up Disaster, which I’m saying isn’t all-ages friendly.  It could be adjusted to be so, but it’s not made for it. 

It’s based on Kitchen Nightmares, which we know is not quite friendly for all kids because of all the swearing. 

Folks could maybe use fantasy swearing?

I think that all games could be adjusted, and you really want more games to be able to accept that.  There is a wide range of people out there, not just kids who don’t want violence or swearing, but some adults also just want to play a chill game.  

I’m sure that you’ve had other people shout these guys out, Hatchlings Games are an absolutely fantastic group of people making some really great kid-friendly games, teaching sign language, and engaging kids. 

Also, get your kids to write games. 

I’ve got a 10 year old, and she is obsessed with the kind of stuff I do.  She got very cross that she couldn’t come to GenCon by the way! 

Give them a book, give them some dice, and say, “Make a game that we can play!”

It doesn’t have to be perfect.  Let kids express themselves that way.  

Supporting that is so helpful for them to feel seen and be told they can do it. 

They CAN do it. 

There’s so many skills that it also supports.  Like, my kid has been opening a google doc and typing, which is just such a key skill in our day-to-day life that’s not always taught super well.  How do you communicate with someone through text?  How do you express an idea?  

I think that’s fantastic advice, and it’s just good for parenting too! 

Thank you Mol for taking time to chat, especially amongst the GenCon chaos!  It was great getting to meet you, and I look forward to seeing more of your projects in the future too!

You can find Mol’s work with Soulmuppet Publishing here, and you can find Mol’s other games on their itch.io!  There’s also a review of When the Walls Fall on TTRPGkids.

If you liked this post, make sure to subscribe to the TTRPGkids monthly newsletter to stay up to date on the latest reviews, tips and tricks, game and podcast list updates, and more! Thank you for playing tabletop RPGs with your kids and sharing this awesome hobby with the next generation!