Traverse Fantasy

Thank y'all so much for y'all's interest in the last one! Will respond when I can, just preparing for a (nice) busy week and weekend :) in any case, yep... they're back ! Been using them. Just slightly different. Bracket Hearts Power Aptitude Defense Speed Grunt 2 1 +1 11 3 Elite 4 2 +2 12 4 Champ 8 3 +4 14 5 Boss 16 4 +8 18 6 Minion* 1 1 +0 10 2 To translate each of the columns: Hearts: How much damage they can take. Power: How much damage they can deal per turn, possibly split into multiple attacks or spent on special effects. Aptitude: Attack bonus, or more generally for D20 checks if applicable. Defense: Roll against for D20 checks to attack. Speed: Initiative score to beat . Then, you can quickly build encounters by spending heart budgets on opponents (hold off on minions): Difficulty Heart Budget Easy 1/PC Medium 2/PC Hard 3/PC Deadly 4/PC Having used this to plan sessions an...

Procedure? I hardly know her! Harharharharhar. Travel, exploration, combat. That's what we're talking about. Wait, what's this? DISCLAIMER The author wrote this article out of her interest in this hobby, and also to synthesize this with her other interests in literary, mathematical, or political theory . Any criticism in this article was written in pursuit of that interest, and it is not intended as ammunition in factional disputes nor as a personal denouncement of the individuals whose works are being criticized. The author also has no interest in petty arguments on any topics discussed in this article. What the fuck? Anyway. Art by Norn Noszka !! Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah The word ‘procedure’ is interesting in that became a sort of buzzword for marketing rulebooks without people necessarily agreeing on what the word meant or referred to. Some held the notion that ‘procedure’ referred to the discursive, non-written structures that which encode how a table interacts wit...

Okay so basically last Friday I was going to post about play procedures—the basic bitch shit for travel, exploration, and combat—but then I was like busy with nice real life things and didn't really care enough to post here. The truth is I wanted to participate in a blog bandwagon about economy shit just because I think it's fun? And the posts up until now were just to make it look like a coincidence? But again I don't really care enough to put the effort in to do that. I just care enough to write into the void and hit "publish". That being said, I am really happy with what I have going on with this. The campaign's goals aren't super oriented around treasure or money or stuff like that, but I think of it as like when you're playing Fall Guys (yeah) and you get special currency to spend on fun useless things. In this case, you don't really spend it on useless things, but it just feels fun and that’s more the point of it than anything else. Here...

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...