Traverse Fantasy

Oh yeah, I forgot I was doing this! Here's some gorgeous art by Norn Noszka to start. :) Last time, I talked about the UX side of your character's inventory. This time, I'm talking about what you can slot into it. I'm trying not to say "structure" and "content" for some reason. Character development? Armor Armor is pretty boring, and I think only one player ( Ènziramire! ) has a defensive item which he basically reskinned as a vodou amulet. Much cooler! I have the basic D&D armor types otherwise, which aren't particularly exciting but are at least useful as a comparison: Leather: +2 defense [12]; 1 slot; resistant against elements. Chainmail: +4 defense [14]; 1 slot; vulnerable to elements. Plate: +6 defense [16]; 2 slots; vulnerable to elements; cannot swim. The defense values are basic bitch. More interesting is to think of armor as making characters more or less vulnerable to elemental harm, even if it otherwise helps one avoid harm i

Taking a break from my home game because real life has gotten a little crazy (later edit: unrelated to the election results!). What better time to blog about tabletop games than when you're not actually playing them? Harharhar! I wanted to share the character sheet I've been using for my game, explain how/why it is the way it is, and reflect on how it's been going. My goal with the sheet was to make it very easy to explain to newcomers, and also immediately intuitive for anyone who's ever previously come into contact with D&D . There's three major sections: the concept section on the top-left where you describe your character and come up with a mini backstory (with a beginning, middle, and not-end); the mechanical part on the top-right where you interface with your character through numbers (honk-shoo); and your character's items on the bottom (represented by cards that you illustrate yourself because it's fun). I guess I'll just go in order. The con

Finally! I've been wanting to write about this for a while, but I've struggled with deciding whether or not I had anything worthwhile to say. Then, I realized, when do I ever not talk just to say things? I'm not an expert about any fucking thing, and this is no different. I'm just a serial chitchatter. I can't help but constantly compare Daddy Yankee's Legendaddy and Rosalía's Motomami when I listen to either of them. Even on a superficial level, they have a lot in common. Both are reggaeton albums that came out in March 2022, and only while I'm writing this did I realize that both titles are parental portmanteaus. Maybe subconsciously I could not help but compare Daddy and Mami , and how one might read either as defining itself in contrast to what the other is not (as one tends to do). Regardless of their titles, thematically, both albums are long-form declarations of each artist's mastery over reggaeton as a musical genre and cultural force. How

When you're the only secondary character who's male and have no choice but to be yaoi bait. Returning to the topic of Sword Art Online ! A couple months ago, I watched the last two seasons of the anime adaptation for the first time since they adapted an arc from the novels that I only read half-way through. I ended up totally hating it, but couldn't put a finger on it. This is my attempt to figure out why. When you take the original novel as a standalone work—that is, as it was first composed—it’s clearly not very interested in “plot”. Although there is an overarching story as the game is cleared and, more centrally, as the romance develops (culminates?) between Asuna and Kirito, the work is far more fascinated by the characters, their sensations of virtual reality, and their implications for experiencing them as life. Kawahara weighs sword fights equally with cooking, fishing, marriage, murder, and even sex. 1 The plot, both of clearing the game and of the romance betwee

Smaller post! I've made a deranged change to the structure of Resourciv . Every team now acts at random intervals; initially, this can be once every 1 to 20 years, but the maximum possible frequency will decrease as individual teams discover communication technologies (not important yet). This means the game gets "faster" as time goes on, but not arbitrarily. I don't like the tendency of later Civ games to railroad history. I'm thinking especially of the three-era system announced for Civ VII , and even the global era system in Civ VI , where historical eras are global rather than entered by individual civilizations. I don't like eras in general, since they reflect a specifically European teleology of history. However, it's better when (at least) these eras are civilizationally specific rather than imposed globally. It's even worse when specific cultures are put into specific era-buckets in Civ VII . Combine that with the world literally expanding bet

What the hell happened to this, right? I think I like to rotate my hobbies every couple of weeks, so I've been back on this. I'm just going to walk through what it all looks like right now. First, I made a nicer-looking main menu from which you can actually pick a culture, a world type, and a world size. Each one of the 32 cultures has its own icon, now, which I pulled mostly from CC art (thank you, Game-icons.net !) and some obscure national flags. My partner offered to make splash art, which I would super appreciate (💖) but don't want to hold her to. In the meantime or either way, I used a random render of a ziggurat from Google Images as a temporary background. May add advanced settings for aridity, erosion, and geomass. Here's the 32 cultures, give me a drum roll... Akkadian, Algonquian, Arabic, Bantu, Canaanite, Celtic, Chinese, Dravidian, Egyptian, Germanic, Hellenic, Hindi, Igbo, Iranian, Iroquoian, Japonic, Korean, Kushite, Latin, Mayan, Mongolian, Nahuan, Numi

From my personal play packet! Possibly the laziest setting ever, but it’s honest. All the gorgeous art shown here is by the delightful Norn Noszka ! World of Faia Faia is the setting of my home campaign, a sort of cosmic crossroads between worlds. Portal-hopping dwarves meet star-sailing terrans on a planet otherwise populated by a species known as faians—some elves, others orcs. Though Faia is a usual fantasy world, it is written to explore realist themes about society and history. Cathedral of Light Elves are faians who were baptized under the Cathedral of Light, a religious institution established by the Snow-White Queen. The elves were initially unified by this swordseer to defend their continent against the dwarves of the Midgard Company. However, they eventually opted to split the Dark Lands of Faia between themselves and the Company. This coincided with the Crusade Against Darkness, a declaration of all uncivilized faians as demons (orcs) from myth-times. They worship Qesem,