Traverse Fantasy

Hi all! This is kind of a general update post. I've reuploaded the dataset of OSR rulesets ( link )! This comes after some changes and corrections I made to make sure that the dataset is accurate. Please refer to my original posts ( 1 ) ( 2 ) to read about this little project and my findings! I am going to consider this done for the time being. I'm going to post the next version of FMC next month ( link )! I'll make a proper announcement later, but I don't feel compelled to advertise it or anything. It's not commercial, and I'm not a #content #creator or anything. In short, though, it is now one-to-one with the original medieval war game, and it also contains lots of new and wonderful art! I'm really grateful for everyone, new and old, who contributed to this next version. I've also ordered test prints, so we'll see how those turn out! I've published SADFAG on my blog ( link )! What's SADFAG, you might ask? Well, it stands ...

I wanted to talk about a certain quirky algorithm for using two (or more?) dice to index a table. You’re probably familiar with d66, where you roll two six-sided dice: one acting as the tens column, and the other acting as the ones column. It’s similar to how you roll d100 or d% by rolling what are otherwise two ten-sided dice. Anyway, result of d66 maps to a table with 36 entries, each one indexed to numbers like 11, 23, 54, or 66. This method relies upon you deciding which die acts as the tens digit and which one acts as the ones digit. What if it didn’t? d66 (Regular) 1 2 3 4 5 6 d66 ---------------- 1 | 11 12 13 14 15 16 2 | 21 22 23 24 25 26 3 | 31 32 33 34 35 36 4 | 41 42 43 44 45 46 5 | 51 52 53 54 55 56 6 | 61 62 63 64 65 66 Switch Tables Instead, what if the tens digit is the lower of the two rolls? This means that if you roll 1 & 6 or 6 & 1, the result is always 16 because 1 is less than 6. This reduces the total number of entries on the table from 36 t...

YE HAVE HEARD THAT IT WAS SAID BY THEM OF OLD TIME, "Your average human in a flat area without any obstructions in view (think a becalmed sea) can see up to 3 miles" [1]. This fact is the basis of both the six-mile hex where characters cannot see past the edge of the hex, and the three-mile hex where characters can see straight to the middle of the next hex over [2] [3]. There has been some discourse about which format is better, and with which timekeeping system, but I don't want to talk about that today. Instead, I want to talk about horizons. Note the fine print in the quote from Steamtunnel's original post: "in a flat area without any obstructions in view". Treating the horizon as 3 miles away, whether this means the edge of your current hex or the center of a neighboring hex, is intuitive and useful (the literal measurement is not as important as its game function). However, this measure is also something we can treat as variable to interesting effect. ...

This is a followup to a homebrew rules system I’ve used and talked about here a couple times [1] [2]. It was basically a version of Knave with a certain semi-common house rule called “knacks”, special powers or benefits which characters acquire when they level up [3] [4]. Knacks were intended to fill the gap left by Knave lacking character classes, by giving characters the abilities usually granted by being a certain class. My original take on it was to give starting characters two knacks: a “zeroth level” knack representing their race (with humans picking a non-racial knack of their choice) [5], and a “first level” knack along the same lines as above. So, why not take it further? Here I’m going to attempt a little ruleset that gives every character a set of special powers that they can activate at will. However, players have to be careful because they only have a couple “points” to spend each day in order to trigger a power. These abilities are classless and non-sequential (i.e. y...

Good afternoon (at least, to those of you in the CST)! I've just coded and published a random generator for Animal Crossing villagers. Click here to check it out! My partner drew two that she and I generated, and they're really cute. 😊 Keep in mind that I have some other random generators that you can access from my Directory page , including one for Traveller world systems !

Thank all y’all so much for the kind words and feedback on my big math problem! Let’s just get into it: in this post, I’m going to answer some frequently asked questions and also describe the methodology of the project. Click here to view the previous post . Frequently Asked Questions Q1: What do the dimensions on the graph represent? I don’t know, you tell me! The graph does not visualize any specific dimensions or variables, but only the relative distance between each ruleset and the average of each ruleset cluster. It's technically based on principal component analysis of the different dimensions, such that the percentages on each axis represent the percent similarity encoded by that axis—but it's not very useful at a glance, since it's based on a mishmash of different dimensions with different weights. However, you could still extrapolate some relationships between rulesets on different sides of the graph, especially because whatever is on one side is different fro...

I’m visiting my partner’s family this Christmas, and it has been the loveliest holiday season I’ve had in a very long time. It’s actually caused me to reflect a lot on what having a family means, and how important it is to be with other people who love you and want you to be around. It had been a rough year with my family haha, so I’m just really thankful and happy. I’m not able to respond to any comments while I’m away because, as per usual, Blogger doesn’t like my phone. Still, thank y’all for the kind feedback on the recent stats post! I’m happy and maybe even relieved that others found it as fascinating as I did. I’m still working on writing an FAQ and rewriting the methodology, but I’m trying to give myself time to chill. I wish all y’all a happy holiday season! Keep warm if you’re in the upper hemisphere, or cool otherwise.