Month: September 2020

projects in the hopper currently

It seems to me that a(nother) brief ramble on the things I’m actively working on/planning/contending with wouldn’t hurt anything so here we go, in no particular order:

  • Nine Black Jewel Moons 2.0, or the expanded version, or however you want to look at it *lol* — this will be much like Lost Emblem Saga (which evolved from Jewel Moons 1.0!) and will be easily smooshed with it. It’s probably getting a mostly-different title since in the creating of an actual place/defining some things, I accidentally(?) another mini-setting. There’s also going to be wee note to the effect that yes, using the setting without the “new stuff bubbling out of primordial chaos” is actually doable and by all means feel free to just use the “stable” part of the setting as-is.
  • A brief zine with a system for dimension/planewalking, and some planes and worlds to go with it (with a gribbly hook or two each, I hope). This will ostensibly be running off the tinyrpg skeleton but since that’s ability tests at its core it’s basically compatible with a sea of OSR/NSR/sworddream/etc stuff out there. I just want my own tiny not!Planescape and I ain’t even sorry
  • Another brief zine-y thing that makes up a fantasy/fantastical city, which will probably be some establishing paragraphs and then a pile of random tables because I have some ideas there. If I can get more than ideas and actually do something, it might get submitted to Arr Roo’s City Jam, but *stares dead-eyed into the calendar* It may also link into the planar thing above; see Planescape and also who doesn’t like weird city-existences?
  • I kind of want to make a little collection of tables for quirks/appearance/location ideas/something-something? I liked the idea of the stuff in Knave and Maze Rats but I dooooon’t really want to use those atm, and also the themes didn’t really gel with what I do in places. Since I like making little tables when I can, why not boil them down some and then put them together?
  • At some point I need to collect up and dust off and format together all the little bits I wrote for RPGaDay like I said I would >.>;;

pondering on the Two Lands and rpgs and projects

I keep wandering back — even while I’m still moving at a snail’s pace on Jewel Moons 2.0 and the “planar” idea for a wee supplement-type and am now debating some swords as well as some random tables of setting-dressing-ness again — to the idea of an rpg (setting?) based properly (“properly”) on pharonic Egypt. Or I should say, wandering back again …

By “properly”, I mean something that while not strictly historical (because you don’t get magic and actually traveling to the underworld etc in a strictly historical setting version), bears a hell of a lot more resemblance to how things actually were/were perceived in Egypt than killer mummies and stupid curses and camels roaming around in 1500 BCE and etc etc.

It’s an idea I keep going back to again and again and not actually doing anything with. Which is annoying. (and when I say I keep going back, I mean my first effort was a never-submitted article to Dragon Magazine that I was working on, that was for character kits. yes, this was for 2e AD&D. I’ve been beating this dead horse in my head for a loooooong time.)

Earlier this year I mostly battened on a lens for PCs that might, well, actually make a reason for adventure; this both kicked up my thoughts on the notion more actively for the first time in ages and also brought a whole heaping helping of frustration to roost because, frankly, fuck 2020 with a rusty chainsaw.

Still, the idea knocks around in my head and wakes up and goes “hi :3” every time I pull a textbook off the shelf.

Another source of dithering all over the map is the subject of just what to use/what I could use/etc etc as a skeleton. TBH? I’ve considered Troika, although while I could do a nice pile of backgrounds I swing back and forth on whether the background pile will help illuminate the setting, or constrict player options. I occasionally consider the tinyrpg skeleton I put together, and then I run backing into the night at the idea (as is my way). Troika is currently in the lead by a smidge?

So this is basically a lot of rambling saying not much of any real use but. Oops?

(Jewel Moons, etc, is still happening. just slowly. there are many things that are making a bad year continue to be a bad year and I am Slow on my best days anyway)

(also, let me end by noting that I still absolutely bloody loathe WordPress’ new setup and this was as “easy” to post how I wanted as nailing jelly to a tree)