Common Play Studio See the work
Common Play Studio

Things worth
learning, built
to be played.

A one-person studio making guides, games, and reference tools — for card games, fighting games, history classrooms, certification exams, and the AI tools on your desk. All free. All in the browser. No signup, ever.

7Projects live
$0To use any of them
0Accounts required
100%Works on a phone
The work

Seven things you can open right now.

Each one started as something I actually needed and couldn't find — a rules answer at the table, a way to teach a hard chapter, a straight answer about an exam or a tool that everyone assumes you already understand.

Newest
School leadership · Exam prep

NY School Leadership Prep

Two exams, one study system. Free, open study tracks for the NYSTCE School Building Leader (109/110) and School District Leader (103/104) assessments — with the part nobody explains up front: which one you actually need for the job you want. Official NYSED material is labeled separately from practitioner-written commentary, so you always know what you're reading.

18 study pages197 practice items with rationales460 recall cardsPrintable PDFs + answer keysNo account, no fee
Start studying sblsdl
Card game · Reference

The Illuminary

A quick-reference library for Disney Lorcana: core rules and keyword glossary, nine ways to play, both Illumineer's Quest co-op scenarios, deck-building math, and the tournament + rotation picture. Built to answer a table argument in ten seconds.

9 formatsWeb + PDFBoardside-ready
Open the library lorcana
History · Playable

The Suffrage Trail Collection

164 years of the fight for women's voting rights, told as two games. A choice-driven 8-bit story following five historical figures, and a first-person walk through a memorial park. Made for a classroom period, and it holds up outside one.

2D story · 15–20 min3D park · 10–15 minDesktop + touch
Play the collection suffragetrail
Fighting games · Guide

Street Fighter 6: Beginner's Handbook

Fourteen chapters from install to your first ranked set, assuming zero fighting-game background. Modern vs. Classic controls, the Drive Gauge, anti-airs, frame data in plain English, six starter characters, and a practice mindset that keeps you from quitting in week two.

14 chapters31 fighters coveredGlossary included
Read the handbook sf6guide
Story · Mobile-first

Troop 16: The Long Hike Home

A paged narrative built for the phone in your pocket — tap forward, tap back, or jump to any point in the story. Designed to read the way you'd actually read it: one screen at a time, thumb on the edge.

Page-by-pageJump navigationPhone-native
Start the hike longhike
AI tools · Quick start

Claude Pro Quick Start

You just upgraded — now what? What actually unlocked (Cowork, Research, Projects, Opus, Claude Code), how the usage bar really works, the habits that stretch it, and what to do when you hit the wall mid-task.

Day-one onboardingUsage explainedNo fluff
Get started claudeproqs
AI tools · Setup

Prompting Is Not the Skill

Four setup guides — Claude, ChatGPT Plus, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Gemini for Workspace — built on one argument: the wording of your prompt matters far less than the context it lands in. No email capture, no prompt library to buy.

4 platformsShared diagnosisUses built-in features
Fix your setup llmconfig
Steve Borba
About

Common Play Studio

I'm a teacher by trade, and a builder by habit. Common Play Studio is where the things I make end up.

The through-line isn't a subject. It's a shape: take something that's genuinely worth knowing but annoying to learn, and rebuild the on-ramp. Sometimes that's a rules reference you can scan mid-game. Sometimes it's a history unit you can walk around inside. Sometimes it's a certification exam nobody explains to you until you're already paying for it.

Everything here is free, loads fast, works on a phone, and asks nothing of you. That's not a business model. It's the point.

  • Play is a serious methodPeople learn faster when they're allowed to try things and be wrong. Every project here is built to be poked at, not read at.
  • The on-ramp is the hard partMost subjects aren't too difficult — they're badly introduced. I spend the effort on the first ten minutes.
  • Free, and actually freeNo accounts, no email capture, no upsell at the bottom. Open the link, use the thing, close the tab.
  • Built for the room it's used inA phone at a game table. A projector in a classroom. A laptop at 11pm. It should work wherever you actually are.

Got something worth building?

Curriculum, a classroom tool, a guide that ought to exist, or just a note that something here is wrong — all welcome.