Traverse Fantasy

Started my long-awaited pirate campaign! I don't know if I've mentioned it here, although I've definitely talked about it in conversations with some of y'all. The basic premise is that elves and dwarves employ extraterrestrial humans as privateers to settle land disputes over a fantasy pseudo-Caribbean; meanwhile, and more centrally to the campaign, orc slaves revolt to liberate themselves and establish a free republic. It's a pretty lazy setup—but it's both distinct from typical Euro-fantasy and more relatable to our various experiences. I can't say that being away from my family wasn't a factor! We left off our first session by the crew taking an offer to raid a plantation in exchange for a ship and whatever loot they find there (specifically, barrels of rum for the Ugly Coyote Inn, which offered one of the pirate characters a rehearsal on the condition that she delivers rum to them—the others asked if they could just get paid instead, to which the own

This is a spiel. A good and proper ramble. I didn't go back over this. I don't like you that much, except for you . Taylor Swift is—was?—the biggest pop star of the years immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s not that she came out of nowhere. Obviously, unless you lived under a rock during the last two decades, she enjoyed a wildly successful career from teen girl country to pop proper (with a notable transition album in RED , my personal favorite). I could tell you my favorite singles from each of her albums up to the point where it seemed like she fell off for good, and so could most people who were around. That’s probably why The Eras Tour was so popular: the mediocre reception to her latest albums weren’t drawing crowds, but we all have more-or-less fond memories of Taylor Swift as a pop artist who “grew up” with us from our childhood (with whatever caveats apply; I’m guilty as charged of being white). Her sudden explosion in popularity is not so much a discove

It's been really fun working on Resourciv! A lot has happened since my first post: wrapping maps with proper continents and climate simulation; combat between meeples; settlement borders that grow with population; animals which roam the frontier for meeples to hunt and collect food for their camps or cities; cultures with their own colors and tribe/city names; and a game observation mode for my convenience / enjoyment (pictured above). That being said, as I get ever-so-closer to completing the game's basic functionality, it gets difficult running up against the game's actual "design". This is especially true for each society's mode of production, the flow of labor and material wealth. Civilization doesn't represent a specific mode of production, but an abstract model of growth and productivity which vary quantitatively between different governments or policies. This is easy to implement, but not very interesting. It does not model the inter

Told y'all I wouldn't be gone-gone! Sorry for not responding to anyone anywhere yet. I so appreciate y'all's encouragement and support, especially in wanting to shift gears here. My approach is just going to be writing when I feel like it, not out of a compulsion to participate here per se. Thank y'all again :) will respond properly soon, just not been active all that much. Played Tuk Fast Tuk Furious with Alex ( To Distant Lands ) and some of his friends tonight! I know that comparing one thing to another, especially of a different medium, is generally unhelpful and non-descriptive. Let me change your mind. Picture Mario Kart , but with your imagination. And you drive lovely little tuk tuks. Can you picture it? Tuk Fast Tuk Furious is a four-player game. Everyone plays the role of a tuk tuk street racer, hoping to win to accomplish some unrelated (and ridiculous) goal. Alex had our race take place in Paris during the lead-up to the 2024 Olympics, with blocked roa

Prereq.: Why Am I Here? The booklet versions of Fantastic Medieval Campaigns are out now (at-cost as per usual)! Links below: Volume 0: Chain of Command (U$3.37) Volume 1: Mortals & Magic (U$3.94) Volume 2: Monsters & Treasures (U$4.22) Volume 3: Fantasy Adventures (U$3.65) So... not been super into TTRPG talk lately, especially in the context of the OSR from which I have been distancing myself (as a community, on blogs and on social media) for a long couple of months. This is partly because of a development in my life where I’m no longer socially isolated due to the pandemic or moving to a new place or my own social hangups—having less time to spend online or even an interest in doing so. However, I have also wanted to distance myself from the OSR community specifically for longer than that. I think that has been obvious, from me being more vocal about my own play preferences as well as my misgivings towards the OSR play style (which, if you have read my blog, you would

I've spent the last two weeks making a super basic Civ -like. You can see in the picture how far I've gotten: units, cities, research, fog of war. At this point it's so bog-standard that it's not worth getting into how it differs in the details. Instead, I'll try to talk big picture about what I'd like to accomplish—if I get that far! Resourciv is a take on the Civ formula more concerned with social development of a culture than exploration, expansion, exploitation, and extermination. (Again, talking as if it's not just messing around and seeing what I can do, which it is.) That's kind of a strange difference, since Civ 's conventions and mechanics implicate its particular perspective on history: one of a clash of civilizations, each with its own essential nature, all converging on a socio-technological path of evolution driven by domination. Different people have offered or implemented their own ideas of how to improve this model, to make it more

I watched a video that YouTube recommended like a cat dragging a dead mouse onto my front porch. I don't usually watch videos like these, and I knew that I would especially dislike this one, but I watched it out of a morbid curiosity about what Reddit-core world-builders have in their brains lately. Today was a rough day at work. You know it. The basic thrust of the video was that medieval stasis is the necessary result of a magical society, one which pursues arcane rather than technological development, and is aided by the extensive lifespans of fantasy races like elves who can dedicate even more continuous time to their pursuits of progress ("What if da Vinci survived another 100 years and invented flight before the Wright Brothers?")—although they might be limited by individual shortsightedness and a lack of willingness to adapt to changing times, compared to younger contemporaries. The narrator describes a potential social conflict between an arcane establishment and