Character Creation and other stuff or How much progress justifies a blog post?
This post is going to be a bit all over the place, because that's the direction development has taken. A while ago, I posted this, which talks about burnout, and plans for the future. I then posted a few more systems then dropped off the face of the planet to retreat to my writing cave for a while.
One of the things I said in that post about burnout what that in order to hedge against it, I would simply switch the system that I'm writing about so I could keep the novelty of writing ttrpg mechanics high enough to not burn out again. Good news! This has worked very well. Bad news, this style of flitting about between systems makes for bad blog posts if I want to keep them cohesive. So I've been sitting in my cave, tapping my keyboard until one of these systems comes to proper fruition... Anyways more than one system is now in a playable state so I'm actually overdue. Now, without further ado -
Funny Patch Note Section
Links here are to other blog posts for the purpose of context
Character Creation has been (almost) entirely re-written (I'm now realizing I haven't made a dedicated post for this when it had the previous system what am I doing truly)
Professions (classes) have been obliterated and their remnants spread through other systems, as fortold
Combat makes a tenuous return and I'm taking another crack at ranged weapons. This time with gunpowder.
Primadelics now exists in universe as a concrete thing with categories of different primadelics based on their production process (as well as skeletons for players engaging with those production processes - this is part of the crafting system)
Natural primadelic plants and fungus now exist
Morale points are now a mechanic that allow you to re-roll checks (maybe - if not that it will be something in the spirit of that)
The skeleton for Cooking has been implemented (I watched a lot of Dungeon Meshi in the meanwhile) and has importance in raising Morale points and making Primadelic foods
The groundwork for the skeleton of Tinkering has been laid
The groundwork for the skeleton of Inventory management and Encumbrance has been laid
The groundwork for the skeleton of a system for increasing skills (among other things) has been laid
Other stuff in my scratch pad, mainly stuff to make humans more interesting. This reminds me I haven't done a blog post on Magi yet.
So, needless to say, some of these have enough content to make into their own blog posts. Stuff that says "groundwork" means I've done a lot of thinking and desperately need to actually write the core of those systems down - at most those ones have a paragraph outlining the general idea I have. Skeletons are very bare bones pseudo-rules.
The question now becomes what do I talk about in this particular post with so much to choose from? The answer is yes, but briefly.
Character Creation
This has been my white whale for some time now. Gutting the previous character creation and making a new one (which isn't finished but sh) hasn't been particularly easy, but I've been itching to actually make characters and conscript my friends into playtesting other mechanics that I also think are cool. Thankfully, it's now in a functional state.
Character Creation will get its own post at some point, but the general idea is you choose a species, a background, and a training before assigning the rest of your stats like assigning skill pips and figuring out your starting HP. Some of this is still in flux, but I'll go through the process really quick.
First, you choose a species. A species gives you special stats unique to that species, as well as other things like a size, speed, number of fine manipulators (hands or hand analogues), etc.
After species you choose a background, which currently gives you an Attribute increase and a skill pip in a skill of your choice from a list. You also get a keepsake with your background, like a dice set, childhood toy, or family heirloom.
Once you choose a background you choose a training, which more represents what your character does now. This gives you a head start into engaging with particular parts of the game, like Soldier if you want combat skills or Rhetorician if you want to craft arguments. They give you most of your items, and make you better in certain skills of your choosing from a list.
After all this is decided you assign the things everyone gets, assigning skill pips, determine your Health Points using your Size and Vitality, Stamina Points using your endurance skill and Vitality, and otherwise just fill in the character sheet in the section known as "copying from the book."
Oh man it looks like that's all the time we have for Character Creation let me please introduce the next sect-
Combat and Guns Specifically
Can't believe they cut me off. Alright so I've made blog posts about Combat before, this post explains where I left it last. It's also linked above in the list but I would never make you scroll back up that far. Anyways combat isn't getting totally re-written from scratch, at least not as far as I'm aware. There are good ideas in there I want to use, so I'm going back into playtesting. For melee and ranged weapons this means playtesting their current state and seeing whether or not I (and my friends) still like it. Firearms, however, are getting a little silly.
Originally, I had firearms work like any other ranged weapon. They are, of course, very common in certain parts of Patek. Balancing them against melee and other ranged weapons while making them both fun to play with and staying true to how impactful they are is hard to do, and it didn't really work. Recently, I decided to tackle this issue again on a whim and watched a lot of videos and read a lot of information about historical weaponry. Particularly matchlocks, wheellocks, and flintlocks.
Before I go entirely too into the weeds with how I came to the conclusions I did (this will get its own blog post once I playtest them) currently muzzle-loading firearms (most all of them) take an action to load. They also take an action to fire. This would take two turns. Matchlocks also need match cord to fire, which takes a quick action to light and will stay lit for a while. wheellocks and matchlocks also both need a quick action to prime and deal with the lock mechanism to get them ready to fire. None of this takes more than 2 turns, even if you want to load and fire a matchlock when your match isn't yet lit, but it does eat your turn resources. The one kind of gun currently that only needs an action to load and an action to fire are snaplocks, a kind of flintlock. On top of this you also need to buy the shot and powder, or paper cartridges, or even make your own paper cartridges, and clean your gun every day (read: have cleaning tools in your inventory).
So that seems like a lot and not entirely fun, why is it so tough to use and take care of a gun? Well, you also need to buy arrows for your bow, so jot that down. But part of the reason it's so involved, other than being historically accurate and painting a better idea of what their place is in the setting, is because now I can make them have big damage rolls. While a bow may do something like 2d6 damage, a gun has a different formula and may have you roll something like 1d4+8 for its damage. This is a system that I think I would enjoy playing with, including the bookkeeping for gunpowder and cartridges etc, but we'll see if I'm insane or not when I playtest it.
Primadelics
Ok so, last time we left primadelics it was here. More things have happened! I'll talk about Primadelic classes first. Actually no, I'll let the current mechanic explain what a primadelic is first, I'm aching to put microfiction in this post.
Primadelics are objects which are imbued with prima materia to cause effects when imbibed, smoked, or otherwise activated so the magic can be released. The word is also used to refer to the crafting and study of primadelics, though Orician scholars would much rather use "primadeliology" and "primadelistics" for those terms. For some reason, the terms never gained traction. If the distinction between the craft and the object must be drawn in clear terms, the craft is called "applied primadelics."
There are four classes of primadelics, those being Food, Tinctures, Incense, and Esters.
Tinctures are created by distilling a spirit (like gin) from particular herbs or ingredients that are soluble in alcohol. Much like spagyric tinctures in alchemy, because that's what they're based on. The magic is infused thanks to an alchemical spell that the final product is distilled over, and voila - portable healing in the blink of an eye. Or a few eyes, the effect is a bit delayed but it's still fast enough to close wounds faster than they can be inflicted at times.
Esters are made in a very similar way to tinctures, they're made by distilling the essential oil, called an oil of essentia, from an ingredient such as orange peels or anything else that has esters in it. The oil is then placed into a vessel that itself is an alchemical spell, which infuses it with prima materia and allows the effect of the oil to come out in things like candles, soaps, incenses, and foods as you add it to these things.
Incenses are what they say on the tin. There are two ways to make an incense a primadelic, one is to add an oil of essentia and burn it to release the effects of the oil. Another way, which is a bit more powerful, is to dry the incense in a particular shape to make it a sigil. Once it's done drying, you can burn it for the effect of the sigil. You can also do this while also having added an oil of essentia for two different effects.
Food is perhaps the most imprecise primadelic, but I like it quite a bit. To make a primadelic food, you have to have cookware that is also an alchemical spell. A masterfully engraved cast iron skillet, perhaps. Most primadelic food effects are from plants which are themselves primadelics, or from oils of essentia.
Natural primadelics often come in the form of plants, and I'll write about them in another blog post because I don't think I can be brief about it if I'm being honest.
Cooking
This is my favorite system I've written. In fact I like it so much I'll just let it speak for itself: here's the section on Dish Quality and Morale.
Cooking, like any art form, has conventions. Flair and style play no small part, and a properly completed dish has composition not unlike a painting or sonata. Food is uniquely suited, however, for the adventurer and common man. A full belly after an exquisite meal can propel a man through situations they may have thought impossible, tapping into a well of strength that can brighten the darkest of times. To reflect this, creating a completed dish requires a combination of ingredients, tastes, textures, seasoning, skill, and presentation. All of this results in a quality level assigned to the dish, which confers a morale bonus. Refer to the Quality table for how much morale this confers and special notes about certain qualities.
Yes I've been enjoying watching Dungeon Meshi, why do you ask?
There are some other fiddly things with liked and disliked tastes and textures conferring morale bonuses or penalties, but that's something for future me to write for now.
That's all for now
There are other things on the list, I know, but I'll write about them when they're ready. Thank you very much for reading this far, I'm continuing to internally playtest stuff (conscripting my friends to become lab hamsters) and once that's done I'll start releasing systems on my website one by one until they're all finished. This will of course take a long time, but Character Creation is almost ready for this treatment. It shall be the first of many.
i've been working on my neocities website and wanted to compile a bunch of places where one can find decor. this is not an extensive list, but rather a bunch of places where you can start finding resources.
please note that various pages could strain the eyes, including flashing lights or colors. pages called 'blinkies' usually have flashing colors throughout. [* = prominent flashing lights]
all websites, resources, and thoughts are beneath the cut
decor
effects for mouse cursors, text, and sites - https://www.mf2fm.com/rv/
assorted decor, images, and more - https://shishka.neocities.org/shishka/toybox
* random gifs from the internet archive - https://gifcities.org
https://pinkukingdom.neocities.org/toybox
http://whimsical.heartette.net/material [has tos you need to follow]
https://cinni.net/?z=/toybox/ [love this website so much]
* assorted early internet graphics - https://www.glitter-graphics.com
get started with website creation - https://www.tumblr.com/oddmerit/685644129978499072/note-cause-im-getting-sick-and-tired-of-terfs
all types of resources - https://punkwasp.leprd.space/resources/
* = prominent flashing lights/colors
i suggest not linking back (aka hotlinking) to the resources on the website. instead upload it yourself onto either neocities or an image hosting site and include credit. this way, if the person hosting the image deletes their page or loses the image somehow, your website will still be fine. (i didn't do this and had to find everything all over again... )
i have found that the best websites to use as companions to neocities are w3schools, pinterest, tumblr, and any image hosting site. w3schools for coding tutorials. pinterest for inspiration or for graphics. tumblr for any type of decor and advice. to edit my code and have a live preview, i use codepen.io.
since you read through all this, maybe take a look at my neocities site and follow me! <3
Session summary I wrote for the L5R game I bullied my friend into running. This was mostly a prologue session to help us all get into character so not too much happened beyond us hanging out at an inn.
Most esteemed Grandmother,
I hope this letter finds you well, and that Kyuden-Bayushi has not felt too much excitement in my absence.
We ourselves have made roost in a most bucolic region of the country, to say the least. We have taken succor in a quaint little hamlet, so small and so deeply knotted in the boughs of the Shinomen it does not even have a name. Were it not for the reassuring presence of Todo and Kuro both, I fear my courage would have cracked and shattered under the noise of this accursed forest. I had hoped some time away from home would have given me some much needed levity, and the fresh air strengthened my all-too faltering constitution; as it was during our wandering year.
Instead I am beset every night by a soundscape I am loath to put to ink, lest it burrow and bite itself a permanent home in my ears. The leaves and boughs howl in shadows, whorling and swarming, sucking up the sounds of conversation from us three like some consuming vacuum of noise. I can’t help but fear that around every corner is still a hidden, waiting blade eager to cut my throat. The only difference being that it hides beneath the chitter and scraping of leaves and wood rather than the agitated rustling of a traitorous courtier’s robe.
The village itself has, thankfully, been somewhat less noisome. We have booked rooms at the local inn (from whence I take brush to paper and write to you these words) and while lacking in many amenities, it does possess a certain rustic charm I admit courts some fondness into my heart.
Our arrival came near the evening, and we quickly accustomed ourselves to the locality.
Among the usual, unremarkable peasants were a few characters of some note.
The first is nothing less than a Toritaka of the Falcon. An auspicious sign from heaven, given our mission. Upon my asking, she availed us of her assistance rather quickly, and has agreed to join us in traveling to Falcon Castle. I believe she will prove a crucial asset to our goals in this place, and if all goes well may be the latchkey which opens the Falcon to the influence of the Scorpion. Whether or not the rather ambitious goals of some among the Silk and Shadow Court come to fruition, the assistance of the Falcon is non-negotiable to any effort to pull more of the Shinomen into our sphere of influence; of this I am absolutely convinced having now been here in person.
The other was, to my surprise, an exile of the Doji. The exile is self imposed, it would seem, as she seems more interested in gambling with the peasantry than the courts of proper Samurai. As I listened to her little game, I was struck by that particular aggravation which inevitably strikes when a Crane opens its mouth to caw and croak. My suspicions were confirmed when, upon being pressured by Kuro’s reconnaissance, she expressed an ability to evade scrutiny far beyond that of a peasant. It was clear to me she was here under false pretense.
I confronted the false pigeon in her room, (in doing so, I learned that the keys given to us opened not just our room, but all the guest rooms! Some plot by the duplicitous innkeep, I have no doubt) and within a few minutes I had peeled away her mask of deceit and discovered the truth of her past. I am pleased to say that, by the end, the Scorpion had gained a new agent in this lost Doji.
We begin our journey to the Falcon’s nest come sunrise. When we arrive I hope to send you my next letter, permitted that my ink and paper do not run out by then.
Took a foray into logo design and decided to surprise my roommate with a logo for the website she's making for her ttrpg Prima-Materia. it's been a long time coming and I'm happy to have been part of the creation process for the past 3 years, every day she gets closer to releasing the game and her world building and ideas have been so fun and interesting to listen to, I have several years worth of memes i'll be able to make once she releases it!
this is for @girlcodedcreature creator and developer of @prima-materia-ttrpg
it's true if you'd believe it. Actually I haven't updated anything about this project for frankly way too long so I may as well do a quick lil update.
I am in fact still working on Prima Materia despite not having made a blog post in one gorbillion years. I've been working on destroying the technical debt of my own organization system because organizing a project of this size has actually been decently difficult and I did stupid things like mixing drafts and notes in my Obsidian docs. Blog post on that will be coming soon, and because I'm in a place where I'm almost ready to put PDFs out again, the website will drop with it :3
it's meee I'm your guardian angel hiiiiii 😇 okay🙏 so. in about six months, you're gonna die of starvation. 🥺 and if I don't protect you, I will get: #fired! 🫢 and that is No Good 🙅♀️ hahaaa So. 🙏 I looked into causes of starvation, and it turns out: Your death is totally preventable! 😯 Uh oh! 😆 There's more than enough food to sustain you without interfering with anyone else's survival, but you're not allowed to have it! 🤨 Whaaat? 🤷♀️ Apparently, your death is premeditated by thousands of things called "shareholders." So. 🙏 I've been killing people,
I continue to not be dead, though unfortunately Prima Materia has been on the back burner for a bit as personal stuff has kept me from it. I am trying to get back into the writing groove, and it seems to be marginally successful.
Even more unfortunately, the host I was using for the site no longer hosts projects, so I have to find a new host.
In the meantime, I continue to overhaul melee weapons, and have written a wealth mechanic involving banks, lines of credit, check fraud, and armed debt collectors. I'm also making a list of blog posts I need to write because I think having that list of tasks will be beneficial.
I'm watching how to create minecraft datapacks cause unfortunately I have this terrible affliction called "ambition" and I want to make a few versions of a generated structure for a server. A different affliction known as "hubris" makes me believe I can do this in less than a week
that I made this morning when I realized today was Valentine's Day (I was under the impression it was only like... the eighth) I had fun I love screen printing errors so I tried to replicate that, although I fixed the miscolored couch cause I couldn't live with a half colored couch and assume they forgot to color that part lol
happy Valentine's day, hope everyone who celebrates is enjoying today and hope those who don't have a Day
Inspired by this post and the conversation surrounding it.
So the RPG world is facing a multitude of interconnected problems. Let’s talk about them, shall we?
---
1: The Problem(s)
Writing this, I find it hard to pinpoint a way to frame the subject of this post as a single thing. But it’s also impossible to treat it as it it’s a collection of separate problems. In reality, the issues facing the indie RPG world are A Hydra; a many-headed conglomeration of related issues, which each require organized, dedicated work to solve. A few examples:
The Normie-Indie Divide
A problem close to my heart, The Normie-Indie Divide describes the gradient between the mainstream of an artistic hobby and the really independent stuff. I compare this to movies a lot, but the more apt analogy is video games. The N-I-D in the videogame industry is so small as to be virtually nonexistent.
We can see this via a number of factors – one example being that the same outlets which cover massive blockbusters & sequels like Assassin’s Creed and God of War, also cover popular indie titles like Celeste and Hollow Knight. Then, freelance journalists who write for those publications (Jacob Geller is an example) go on to cover much smaller games on their own time, and so on. There’s a smooth gradient between the media coverage of the huge stuff, all the way down to a thriving (if still underserved) super-independant industry.
The N-I-D in RPGs feels uncrossable. The most well known RPG is so big it’s currenly riding the high of its second major hollywood adaptation in 20 years, and the second most popular – Vampire the Masquerade – is an unknown even to some indie RPG fans.* This hobby is shockingly impenetrable, even to those of us who spend our days swimming in the deepest end of the pool.
The Supply & Demand Problem
This one’s simple: People are pumping out RPGs by the truckload, and there are just too many! Not only does this make it hard to sift through everything to find the thing you want to read, play, or review, it also makes it nearly impossible to get anyone’s eyeballs on the cool thing you just released!
As others have pointed out, this problem is exacerbated by the fact that relative to some other art media, it’s pretty quick and painless to whip up your own zine or one-pager and publish it on itch. This disincentivises even the most invested of us from looking at a ton of new games, and means that sharing your work can feel like you’re being ignored by a huge crowd.
A Road To Solutions
If all of that is making you feel pretty bad for the future of this medium, you’re not alone. It can feel pretty hopeless facing all of these problems as an indie designer when all the tools you have at your disposal are a tumblr account and a few indie friends to complain to.
But the truth is, I think that this Hydra is eminently slayable. I just don’t think we can do it alone. That in mind, I’ve spent a large portion of my day putting together…
The Call to Action
I think there needs to be organized, persistent effort put into the future of this hobby and this industry, and I think it needs to start the way all good movements do: with a lot of petty, semantic argumentation over definitions and implementation. And to kick things off, here’s my step zero: If you’re reading this post because I’ve tagged you in it (or because I’ve sent you a link to it), my Dms are open. I want to put together a discord group chat† of my peers within RPG tumblr who are invested in tackling The Hydra, such that we can start brainstorming plans of attack to disseminate into the wider community.
The issues I wish to address are these:
The Normie-Indie Divide: How do we go about cultivating a casual audience of indie RPG fans who can bring sustainability and longevity to the industry?
The Supply & Demand Problem: How do we minimize the cognitive load of sorting through the huge volume of work extant in this medium, and more generally encourage peer-to-peer interaction within the community, like news coverage, reviews, and marketing?
The Cognitive Frontload Problem: How do we make it easier to actually engage with a given RPG, considering the amount of cognitive & temporal investment needed? Further, how do we make RPGs, both general and specific, more accessible to readers with a wide variety of abilities, preferences, and available time?
The Insular Community Problem: How do we better connect this hobby with itself, such that it feels a little less like several dozen cliques across 4-6 platforms, and more like the growing, evolving single hobbyist community that it is? Further, how do we make this hobby more accessible to newbies outside the influence of The Hegemons of the Coast?
And more. I’m positive I haven’t thought of everything, and that’s exactly why this needs to be a group effort.
As a last note: Please tag other people! The folks I’ve mentioned here are just those who I personally feel I know well enough to tag; let’s get the rest of the community involved! If you know someone who would be interested who isn’t on tumblr, they can email me: [email protected].
*I’m not kidding. Multiple times within the last four months, I’ve introduced VtM to people who I would consider pretty in the sauce of RPGs. I’m talking folks who’ve played Heart: The City Beneath or Wanderhome. It’s bizarre.
†I need to stress that this is only a start. I’m not looking to start a big public discord unless that’s what a group of folks decide is the right call. By “group chat,” I mean “a chat which exists for long enough to hold 1-3 group voice calls to discuss and hash things out, before it’s dissolved in favor of the execution of whatever plans we devise.”
Man, I just keep making more work for myself (positive). I'm going to end up doing more writing on Tumblr than on any projects today.
I have a few ideas and I'm excited to hear what other people come up with. Also, I appreciate the naming of the issue. THE HYDRA is very good.
I'm going to tag @thefiresontheheight, @acrisius-ii and @bugbearsandbookends. I don't know any of you super well, but we've had at least one positive interaction in the past and I would appreciate your perspectives. And also @stoicheincat, @thecoppercompendium, @vidityavoleti, whom I know even less, but have had very minor interaction with.
I am absolutely up for this, been thinking quite a bit about it lately too. I'll tag a few too: @rathayibacter @in-case-of-grace @goblincow are probably the ones I've had the most conversations with.
I'm definitely down! I've had some thoughts on this, the first of which may be a lil controversial:
One of the things we, as a community, need to do to cross the NID is to spend more time lifting up games we enjoy than we spend dunking on That One Game With The Dragons. Seriously. It does not help anyone to spend most of our time complaining about a game many of us don't even play anymore. How are new people supposed to get excited about indie games if a lot of what they come across from the community is negativity?
Simply stop talking about That Dragon Game. Don't give it air. Focus on the stuff you do like! Excitement will draw people in. I think a lot of what we should try doing is in a similar vein— talking about and sharing a variety of games we enjoy.
I think @goblinmixtape in particular has done a lot of great work on this front with their reviews on TikTok (and now YouTube.). The folk at Rascal News and Wyrd Science have also done some great work to try and spread things out, as well.
I run a single page book club with a goal of getting myself and others to explore more of that particular niche, which I think has been successful so far! Book clubs can do a lot to introduce folk to new games, like the one run by the @anim-ttrpgs folk.
Irt the cognitive frontload problem— I think normalizing and encouraging more folk with Big Games to include quickstart guides could help a bit, but I also think simply getting folk to see games in action before playing can help ease them in. (This could be done via things like APs, reviews, and even just simple video/visual tutorials!)
There's a lot of possibilities! I'd love to talk more with folk to see what we can do for the whole hydra, cutting myself short here as this has already gone a bit long!
(Also gonna tag @thydungeongal as someone who I've had a lot of great conversation with on TTRPG topics that I couldn't manage to weave in here more naturally.)
ttrpg doodles cause I haven't done digital art in a bit (I've been very busy with training for a new job tbh)
the first two are characters im making for my friend's ( @girlcodedcreature ) ttrpg @prima-materia-ttrpg and the last one is one of my DnD party member's character
We'll get to it @girlcodedcreature - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
