#and i go home and play a ttrpg with my friends once a week. and i knit and i write and i watch silly little shows

[dragons-and-yellow-roses]

It doesn't feel real that I'm moving soon. Like I still go to work and make my silly little posts and go home and knit my silly little garments and drink a lot of coffee and eat poorly and go to therapy but in a little over a month my life is going to change so much for the better. Wild.

[dungeonofthedragon]

Ttrpg Recs: my bookshelf!

I don't have that many games in physical form. But inspired by the lovely Dael Kingsmill's recent video, I want to do a little post about the ones I do own.

Animal Adventures by Steamforged Games

Animal Adventures is a third party setting for 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons. I picked up Secrets of Gullet Cove on clearance, and it's full of fun adventure hooks for a younger audience than usual for 5E. However, a member of my dnd group wants to run this at some stage, so it has a wider appeal among fans of cute critter rpgs too.

It's fairly easy to incorporate ideas from this book into your home games. A guest in my Strixhaven campaign wanted to play a character who had been transformed into a cat. The cat stats from this book fit right in with the other characters, who were all created using official 5E materials.

Fate Accelerated by Evil Hat

The first rpg I ever purchased! It's simple, streamlined, and flexible enough to run in any setting you can imagine. We'd planned to play 'card games in space' at one stage (after watching too much yu-gi-oh), and the system works as well for that as it does for urban fantasy, pirates, or magic schools. You can access the rules of this game for free at the link in the heading.

The main issue I ran into with Fate is that it uses a specialised set of dice called Fudge dice- but as long as you have a device that can download a dice app, you're good to go!

Girl By Moonlight by Evil Hat

I backed this one on Kickstarter. It's not the easiest book to navigate but, gosh, it's just so beautiful and the game is a great time once you get the hang of it! I ended up ordering five copies, because a bunch of my friends wanted the game too and Expensive International Shipping is more manageable if you split it. Tragic magical girls from the creators of Thirsty Sword Lesbians? It is just as excellent as I'd hoped.

Just the other week we played At the Brink of the Abyss using the core book and relevant one-session playkit. Transcendence is a great mechanic- players get to describe their character's unique transformation and feel powerful with the addition of new abilities! Our Midnight Quill was running around invisible for half the game. Raven's mother was knocked out with a well-flung shoe. It was very fun and very silly.

Girl By Moonlight is a Forged in the Dark game. If you're familiar with Blades in the Dark, Brinkwood, Court of Blades, or my own simplified fitd game Voidwalkers, the system is easily picked up.

Lex Arcana by Quality Games

Lex Arcana is an interesting one. It has a fascinating premise: a Roman empire that never fell, in a low-magic setting. I had a lot of fun running this as a short adventure for my classics-buff brother's birthday last year. However, the group agreed that it would be difficult to play this one long term.

This has nothing to do with the rules system, which has an enjoyable amount of crunch for those who like their games that way, but enough abstraction that running it was not a complete nightmare for a more narratively inclined GM such as myself. Rather, it was difficult for us to get past the fact that so many of its adventure modules involve you preventing indigenous populations from breaking away from the empire, often casting their spiritual views in a negative light.

I had an idea for a campaign called 'Enemies of the Empire', which involves the party having to go up against it, but we'll see if it ever comes to fruition.

Tales of Xadia by Fandom Tabletop

I love the Cortex system. I love systems that use dice pools, and my first experience with that was the Tales of Xadia playtest. I couldn't afford the full version when it released, and so I was very excited when I received it for my birthday last year in glorious hardcover!

Tales of Xadia is set in the world of the Dragon Prince (even if you're not into ttrpgs, the book is excellent for additional lore nuggets. For a year or more it was our best resource for what earthblood elves might look like.) It's a world of high magic, mages and assassins and bold warriors, imperious dragons and reclusive elves. And it's totally classless- score one for the fans of classless systems!

[iantimony]

yay tuesday is back

return of tuesday! i had two weeks in the UK which was very fun but i am definitely vacationed out - i miss my routine. longer trips like that are only fun towards the end if you have a home base that isn't just a hotel room.

listening: newest coral bones ep is very chill. it's only three songs and they're all very vibey but i think my favorite is 'seatac'. i wish they were still posting on bandcamp. alas.

SeaTac - Coral Bones

also got back into listening to the altogether - their album 'when we were kids' is very travel-coded to me for some reason, it was on loop my entire train ride from london up to edinburgh. (i'm also pretty sure brian david gilbert of all people is featured on this album haha)

Billy & Anne - The Altogether

finally, i saw st. vincent live in london this past weekend!!! it was a really good concert, lots of fun, interesting venue. she's definitely got an insane stage presence. the opening act (heartworms) was fun too, my brother and his friend weren't interested and described it as 'moody goth bullshit' and i was like well. that is right up my alley. you boys enjoy the bar im gonna go be moody and goth. it was good!

i think if i do standing room tickets again i need to invest in some platform shoes, at least two or three inches, because some of that was a struggle to see Anything ... i did manage to find a spot where i had a decent little corridor between heads to see the stage, however i was directly behind a guy in a bowler (?? fedora?? idfk) hat and his boyfriend who kept moving around and dancing (fine) and gyrating (also fine ?? i do not consider st. vincent particularly gyrate-able music but what do i know) so i also had to do some leaning side-to-side to see around them. one of her songs has a line about jumping off the london bridge and the way they both looked at each other and pointed gleefully at themselves while going "meeee" was very funny. i bet they're on tumblr, they had the vibes. hello gay guys at the london st. vincent concert, if you're reading this.

reading: i read 'when the angels left the old country' by sacha lamb in the two days that i was alone in edinburgh before my brother came! it was good, speedy read, i enjoyed the characters and overall conceit well enough. probably not on the to-buy list, i'd just rented an ebook for my trip.

some miscellanous articles from my pocket emails:

How to Coexist With a Belligerent Catbird by Caitlin Gibson (<3)

The Last Kid in Ninth Grade Without an iPhone by Liz Kreiger (this was relatable as a kid whose parents did Not let her get anything more complex than a flipphone for emergencies until i got myself one as a senior in high school and i think i was better off for it)

The Case for Doing Laundry Every Day by Rebecca Onion (insane, IMO)

watching: mostly fallow, did watch one of the dunmeshi eps that came out when i was gone with the boy yesterday and will probably watch the second one tonight.

i have Opened the jenny nicholson star wars hotel video, not yet watched, but saw in my patreon emails from friends at the table that the tablefriends did a related episode on their star wars podcast, which, i then noticed like [leo decaprio pointing meme] xeecee spotted in the credits for the cover art ?? i'm not surprised they are aware of each other but i thought it was funny

playing: fallow! completely, for once! no ttrpgs, no video games, etc. i guess i played a Lot of solitaire on my flight back from the uk, maybe that counts lol

making: i did a lot of sketching on my trip! i made a watercolor travel journal that somehow doesn't have enough pages so i'll have to rebind it but oh well. no watercolor pics for now but i'm excited to share those as i go! in the meantime, some sketches i did in the east princes street gardent, the scottish parliament, and the victoria and albert museum in london respectively:

i think once i finish the travel journal ill try to do a higher quality scan of it and upload a pdf somewhere, i feel like that will be fun.

eating: ough i ate a lot of good food in the uk. mostly the non-british food unsurprisingly but i Did have some really good fish & chips moments. last meal of the trip especially we got a recommendation from one of my brother's friends who goes to cambridge and ouuuugh that shit was So good.

misc: it's good to be back ... now i'm back in The Grind (work) but i don't mind it. despite the jetlag i'm feeling refocused and excited to get moving on stuff again. i liked a lot of stuff about the uk (trains, vibes) but i also did not like some stuff (why are the cold meds So weak there lmfao) and overall i'm glad to e home :)

[justawhimm]

you’re real

fandom: cyb//erp//unk 2077 summary: it's the first time he's really been alone with derry since she's been born. being the extrovert he is, though, he's losing his mind a little with the lack of people around to talk to. at least derry's a pretty good listener. this series explores the births of his four children and some moments of his parenting style toward each of them.

chapters: 2/8

content warnings: mention of alcohol use, mention of initial resentment toward an unborn children, mention familial issues

notes: Just a reminder that Derry isn't my creation! She's from the Cyb/erpu/nk TTRPG sourcebook known as Cyb//erGen//erat//ions, but has since been deemed noncanon. But! I liked the idea of her, so I'm writing about her.

Current Year: Early 2007 Kerry's Age: 19

cross posted on ao3

Being forced into a vacation wasn't necessarily how he was expecting the end of the tour to look like. … Ok, that sounded stupid as soon as he thought it out completely. Of course he would've had to have a break, regardless of whether he was still pregnant by the end of tour or not. Kinda inevitable and all of that. The part Kerry really hated and didn't expect to be an issue was the fact that he had to miss Nancy's wedding because he was fresh off giving birth and the idea of taking the baby on a plane sounded like a special kind of torture.

Nancy assured him it was fine. There wasn't much they could do about it. She insisted someone would record the ceremony, so he'd be able to watch it all with the rest of the band once everyone got back.

So, that left him. Alone. With his new daughter.

Derry Eur/ody/ne's birth had been all over the screamsheets for a while, unsurprisingly. What did surprise him was the fact that he'd actually decided to keep her. How? Well… fuck, he still wasn't totally sure yet. Just about a month postpartum, he was still struggling to figure out the details. There was a lot to think about. But honestly, he couldn't stand the idea of giving her to anyone else anymore. She was his. His tiny, insufferable virus. 

That sentiment had changed a lot over the weeks, though. He thought he was going to hate her from the moment he set eyes on her, but that was far from the truth of the matter. No, no… fuck, it really wasn't difficult to realize within just a few hours that he adored her. And much to the dismay of Johnny, he actually liked her name, too. 

What was so bad about it, after all? Sure, it was unconventional, but he thought it fit her pretty damn well. If she hated it, then whatever. She could change it when she got older. He didn't give a fuck. It was her life.

Back to the matter at hand.

For the first time since the day she was born, Kerry was alone with his daughter.

His bandmates and best friends were gone, off at the wedding. Probably getting drunk. God, he wished that was him. Kerry didn't really have contact with his parents anymore. Yeah, that was… mostly on him (Long story. He wouldn't dwell on it in his mind for long). That left him without anyone to rely on but himself.

It wasn't really like he was swimming in eddies, either. So hiring a nanny or something just wasn't an option. Hell, even getting any help from Johnny when he was home was almost impossible to attain. His kid, his problem, apparently. Guess he got that, yeah, but fuck. He would've hoped that maybe Johnny would have a single compassionate bone in his whole damn body.  Sometimes that was just asking way too much out of him.

Derry's little gurgles pulled Kerry out from letting his mind wander. Brown eyes trailed down to look at the baby girl on his chest, smiling at her slightly. That was one thing that kept him from getting too pissy with the idea of being a dad: the fact that she was so fuckin' cute.

"You sure sound like you're havin' a hell of a time," He remarked, pecking the top of her head. "Bet you're about as bored as I am, lil' Derry-Berry. All you've got ta do is eat, sleep, and shit. Can't even play with the toys your Aunt Denny got ya yet. Poor baby. Just… stuck with your dear ol' dad." Kerry sighed. He was beginning to feel ridiculous, talking to her like this. What was the point? Or maybe he was just so lonely and bored that he didn't give much of a shit.

"Ain't it pathetic, kid?" Kerry adjusted how he sat, his hold on her. He held her in a way where she was practically sitting at the end of his torso, his hands keeping her up and his fingers supporting her neck and head. It was hard not to smile at her, seeing her peer at him with those big eyes. "Dad's just… talkin' to you, but you don't really talk back. And I never really know what the fuck I'm doin'. Not like that's too much of a surprise, though. Don't think I ever know what I'm doin' in life. Your lolo and lola would probably already hate how I'm raisin' you, but… I'm doing my best."

Derry blinked at him, making a little "o" briefly with her mouth. She was so fuckin' cute, Kerry could hardly stand it. Bringing her closer, he'd press his lips to her cheek to make it squish against her face slightly. With that, he'd adjust how he held her again. He would let her lie back down in his arms, sitting himself up properly so he could look down at her.

"I don't think I'll do too bad… Doubt I'd be the worst dad in the world. Not by a long shot. I don't know who you're gonna be yet, but hopefully I'll instill a little bit of patience in that cute baby face of yours! 'Cause trust me, you'll need it when it comes to me. I'll get it eventually. You just might need to sit my ass down and tell me how it is sometimes. Yeah. Yeah… Just have some faith in me, Derry. I know I was a piece of shit while you were doing all your growing shit, but I wanna do right by you. I might still act like an asshole sometimes, but I promise I love you."

But that wasn't enough, and Kerry knew that. As much as he knew his parents loved him, they didn't give a shit about what he wanted. It was out of caring, out of love, but it'd caused more damage than anything else. Kerry never wanted that with Derry.

"I wanna listen to you. I want you to love me, too."

[wanderingandfound]

So, I’m not a shopping-spree-type person. But I am a get-my-credit-card-out-only-once-in-a-while-so-I-should-make-the-best-of-it-type person. Why? Laziness, IDK.

So, came home from my run, wallet was in my hand and not my jacket pocket, decided to get the TTRPGs for trans rights Florida. Then went to try backing the Hi Nay IndieGoGo campaign (I tried a few weeks ago and the payment wouldn’t go through, but it did tonight). And then, because once I get going I have very little self-control, I went and backed the Fifth Season RPG and the Rivers of London RPG. I hadn’t been going to because as much as I love those books, I don’t know who I would play those particular games with. But then last month I had one (1) video call with my friend and DM and like, he told me I should and that broke what little resolve I had.

All of that is to say, it is after midnight now and I am looking at the Rivers of London RPG PDF and shocked at the length. I knew it was based on Call of Cthulu 7th edition, but I have never played any edition of CoC. I knew it was like, a ““traditional”“ TTRPG so the book would probably be long, but I wasn’t expecting 402 pages long. And there seems to be so much more text per page than like, Blades in the Dark, let alone Dungeon World (with is maybe the only hundreds-of-pages-long TTRPG I’ve read all the way through).

[naumin]

february updates

omg the entire last week of february I was like 'i don't need to make an updates post this month i didn't do much' but this morning I woke up and I was like wait i did make stuff and I want people to look at it.

✏️ hourly comic day was February 1st! i drew my comics for the 7th year in a row... (weakly punches the air) you can read them in full at the bottom of this post or on tumblr or on bluesky!

 🦋 yeahhh, i'm on bluesky. i log in... and i post things! it's definitely a website. that you can follow me on, if you like. (i do still post on twitter, but it's less art and mostly baldur's gate 3 livetweets rn)

🎲 i'm playing baldur's gate 3 for the first time. sorry i shouldnt really post this in my updates but i did draw some little comics about my experience. it's fun, though dnd is pretty crazy in that how are you gonna give me a dialogue option that's the equivalent of a big wink at the camera going 'they used to think my people were ideologically evil once' while functionally every character still sneers or runs screaming at the sight of me. granted i AM evil but that should only be apparent after opening a dialogue with me 🙄 if anything though at least the biological essentialism is making me interested in looking into other ttrpg systems out there.

👯 i DID finish the huran enki primer graphic! it will go up on substar/socials promptly (this week i promise). also, the ballet yuri year one book is formatted. it just needs a foreword from me and revelguts (who i write the story with, if you didn't know). the book will be available for all subscribers and for sale for something like $3-ish on my itch.io this month if all goes well.

(btw, if you're interested in purchasing some of the zines on my itch, it's worth it to follow me there because i do sales occasionally!)

📔🔖 speaking of zines, i wrote a comprehensive post on how i format, print, and bind my zines at home. read it on tumblr or gdocs, print it, share it with your friends! make stuff!!!

🌟 god i think that's mostly everything. i’m still doing commissions regularly, you can get email alerts for slots by signing up to my pinglist, or following me on vgen. and i know i just said i was gonna post on subscribestar every 2 weeks but then i posted every week lolll but that's because i love you so and can't bear to be apart. see u in next month's post ❤️

[underleveledjosh]

As a Childfree Man, Here are Things I Find Meaning in Instead of Having Children:

The guitar solos in the metal and rock music I listen to as well as those songs' emotional and philosophical and horror themes that resonate with me deeply. I want to learn guitar to replicate those amazing sounds with my own twist.

How my dog, Terra, loves me unconditionally. I rescued her from the shelter where she was abandoned at by her previous owners when they found out she was pregnant with the puppies (she had the puppies in the shelter, I wasn't allowed to officially adopt her until a few days after she got neutered, and by the time the puppies found their own homes). I love the way she runs up to me and my family after we return home and the goofy way she smiles when I give her belly rubs and how excited she gets waiting for me when I give her the nicer wet food once per week.

Hanging out with my friends and family, playing games, or talking about whatever random stuff is on our minds at a given time. I now have a job, so I can finally afford to give them gifts. I love and cherish each one of them.

Engaging in my hobbies such as playing video games or TTRPGs or writing and world building my own fantastical worlds. I would like to be a somewhat popular author in the future.

As you can see, none of that involves child rearing whatsoever. I know those traditionalists and Christians in the upper echelons are expecting every single common man like me and have some kids so I can be spiritually fulfilled or whatever, but having a kid is too risky and stressful, and I don't want that at all. Knowing what pregnancy does to women, and how often pregnancy related complications still occur and kill women, I don't want to get any girl I date and marry pregnant for that reason, and I'd only date women who have also decided to be child free for life.

Not to mention that, genetically speaking, I have a joke that goes "the only good part about my family's genetics are aesthetic" since people in my family do tend to be at least above average looking, but there's a bunch of various hereditary health issues, including the fact that my ADHD, depression, and anxiety could very well be hereditary. My anxiety and depression has been severe for quite a while (I am better now due to years of therapy and medication), and I've self harmed on-and-off and I've came close to taking the quick way out several times. I don't want any child to suffer like I did. Ethically and morally speaking, knowing I could pass that on makes me want to never be a biological father.

The only exception I'd consider to lose childfree status is adopting a teenager, but I'd need to have more expansive finances and a more robust personal support network for that. Other than that, I'm having no biological children, and soon, I'm going to ask my parents about me getting a vasectomy while I'm still on their insurance.

If I had biological children, I'd have less time to rock and learn guitar, I would have less time to give attention to my dog (and Terra is a girl that gets jealous), I'd have less time to engage in my gaming and writing hobbies, and I'd have less time to hang out with friends and family. Why would I sacrifice my (barely existing) sleep schedule and my livelihood as I know it just to do something that doesn't either make me money or actually makes me feel spiritually and emotionally fulfilled?

[prayerstorancor]

The First Invocation

Hello world.

This is all an attempt to get the venom out of my head. For context, I'm a pagan who has decided that if none of the other gods out there feel like I should interact with them because they aren't culturally mine, then fine I'll make my own. It started with creative writing and over the years have shifted to explanations on my methods because language supposes another. Speaker and listener. So instead of screaming into the unfeeling void, I'm offering my prayers up to the gods I fashion and find. The tumblr story of Arepo lives rent free in my head.

I feel foolish.

But at the end of the day they've taken shape and have contextualized my impulses. They've helped correct some as well. I've a half dozen gods now. Small things. My wife wants me to write about them. I do want to but it's not a high priority. So why have I fashioned a tumblr of all things? Simple enough really. I want to get the things in my head out of my head.

So yeah, basically just a place for me to whine.

And so I pray to Rancor, god of ruminative anger. I take my aggression, frustrations with life, and deeply felt worries. I roll them around until they become pearls of hatred and then cast them into Rancor's embrace. Do with them what you will. I give them freely. I know they'll wash back up and I'll have to throw them back out but at least for a little while please take care of them for me Rancor.

The Groupchat.

I've been in a groupchat with what was once my primary TTRPG table for years now. It's basically a dead chat these days and I resent having to keep facebook messenger on my phone because it's the only conversation that still uses it. I resent seeing how the people in that chat interact with their other friends. It sucks to know that for a few years that I was in the inner circle. But now it's a dead chat where I occasionally write about the latest weird book I've picked up because I love rpg books. I get back a small chorus of 'That's crazy bro' and one word answers and each time I feel a little less inclined to write anything.

I've been trying to settle into a new rhythm this week. Work is at my home computer since I moved to work-from-home. Do something away from my computer for awhile. In the evening poke at a game I'm playing for a bit. End the night around 10 by going to lay in bed and read a book from my collection of ttrpgs. I'm doing this to try and be a little healthier and a little less eye-strained since thats been a problem for the last six months.

Reading about the neat systems, the worlds, the themes, and the other underpinings. The weird mechanics! Figuring out why the book exists as opposed to being part of a system like 5e because it's got a weird take on how you build a dice pool or you can split a die into smaller ones to make a roll safer but now it's impossible to get as good of a roll because math. I love all of that. I want to share the things I like.

That's crazy bro.

Yeah...

I sometimes imagine that I'll be brave and just delete the damn app because I've given it psychic weight and it will be a relief. I won't have to try to keep maintaining a crumbling one-sided attempt at friendship. We can go to being generally positive acquaintances. I think well of them. Maybe they think well of me. We see each other at events and give a polite upnod.

Oh Rancor. Please take this frustration with a declining friendship and polish it smooth and safe to touch. Wear away its edges to the point where it's okay. Take this loneliness and emptiness so that I can fill it with something else instead. Take this absence of not going to my wedding, never throwing me a bachelor's party, so often requiring me to put the hand forward first, and let me feel okay that it was beautiful while it lasted but it is okay to let go.

Rancor please take this sorrow and loneliness. Please take the stifling away from wanting to share about the dumb thing I'm interested in. I want to exist in this world. I don't want to go back to the small crevasses I once dwelt in.

[wodealto]

Why Did I Start VSRD?

Early 2021, I was prepped and bound for Tokyo with my dear wife and so ready to indulge in a pile of nerdy culture. Coming home, I was so ready to dive head first into DnD and TTRPGs. A new passion, burning inside of me.

I’d been digging at the music scene for 10 years and was more than ready to jump ship for something that would inspire me once again. What with covid on the horizon and people jumping online to play DnD games with their friends, it was the perfect time to become a homebrewer.

Imagine this: having an old hard drive from 2006 with a weird, psuedo-rpg that I tried playing with my friends, as well as notes for a single DnD game I ran at the end of that year. Imagine having notes for a whole, fantasy world in a notebook you took on holiday and going: maybe I can make something of this!

So, I changed all my handles to an alias of my own making and set about writing 5th edition homebrew for “Vagrant Sun: Volume 1- Obelisk”.

From then until about mid-2022, I was writing constantly. Races, subclasses, origins, factions, monster stats, encounters, magic items and a whole, goddamn newsletter that I was posting on Patreon every day of the week. I’d even published a bunch of things to DM’s Guild and managed to make enough to pay my small-business bills, buy some art assets and make something of myself.

Scoot ahead to the start of 2023 when suddenly, Open 5e, OGL 2.0, Open SRD and the like are shooting across the internet. An all out war with Dungeons & Dragons, Hasbro and WOTC. A violent thrash for the heart of the game; between players and corporations. I’d made hundreds of new, creative friends over that time. Worked with some of the coolest people I’ve ever met and made those spaces we inhabit much safer for newer, disadvantaged people.

And over the course of a few months, they left. Many moving on to full time work, elsewhere. The internet wasn’t a safe or habitable place to be for an Indie TTRPG creator. If you were queer, disabled or even remotely socially inclined, you had a target on your back. Many people made the right decision for their health and safety and moved onto greener pastures.

But- at the same time- I found my work on DM’s Guild had been de-listed. All this homebrew content that was inspired by and applicable for non “Vagrant Sun” settings was suddenly too much of a side-step from the kind of content they were going to publish that I’d all but lost that form of income.

People came and went. My patreon rose and fell and over the course of 6 months, I’d fallen out of touch with everything that I’d enjoyed about TTRPG spaces. The rising up, the encouragement, the vacuous and avalanche-like sharing of each other’s work. The unmitigated support. It was much harder to come by.

But I’d made my decision. I had 5 years worth of work under my belt and a bounty of practice. I had simply come to far to give up now.

But where do I go when I have a love-hate relationship with the game that started it all AND I’d have to start from scratch?

Well, digging out those old hard drives again, I had resurrected the bones of a game. One that only ever had one session. One that started out as an idea to roll some dice with friends and family and that gave me the opportunity just to write. Simply to put pen to paper and tell stories that, maybe, no one would ever hear.

And by mid- 2023, I’d released the first playtest for VSRD. Just a character sheet- nothing more. A module you could plug into another d20 game of your choosing. I didn’t have any plans beyond posting a couple of ideas and seeing what people thought.

But the handful of people that liked and supported it- that handed me a few dollars for my time- lit a little fire under me. How could I hope to compete with brilliant creators who’d been making games since before I’d left high school? Designers with impeccable taste and a gift for art like I’d never have. Let alone the deathly whale that is WOTC and whatever AI-scripted garbage they wanted the masses to buy.

And yet, little by little, inch by inch, I’ve been able to keep working. Paycheck to paycheck. Story to story. Edit to draft to re-export to upload, there’s been a continuous line of encouragements that have kept me putting pen to the page.

And now, a soundtrack and 10 playtests deep, I’m beginning to see why this is so important.

It’s like a protest- longing for all the things we used to have as TTRPG fans. What it used to mean to be a DnD or a fantasy nerd. What it means to indulge in fiction with your imagination and not your wallet. How it is when all we have are a few hours and a willingness to take part in a little imaginative story-telling.

So that’s how I got here. It’s why I decided to build a new platform under the name “wøde”. It’s what I’ve become in the wake of building a healthy relationship with my mind, my body, my work and my life. It’s the result of countless, little moments of defiance where, even when the world wanted to topple what matters to me, I’ve not given up.

And I hope you never give up either.

If all you want to be is a creator, an artist or a maker, know that your work is enough. You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone. The world is always going to try and throw you to the cobblestones and kick your teeth in.

So make steps to build a new world. That’s what I did. And that’s what I’m going to do.

(complete with typos and run-on sentences, because drafting is for squares when you've got actual drafting to do!)

itchio | bandcamp | tumblr 

instagram | twitter | bluesky

wøde; they/them. Guest on Nukunu Country. Autistic TTRPG millennial. A Jack of all Spades.

[thevalleyisjolly]

uno reverse card for you: top five favorite things you've written! and also, top five most memorable moments you've gotten to play with your character(s) in a ttrpg?

*proceeds to draw 4* This is how you play Uno, right? XD Thank you so much, this is a lot of fun! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Favourite Things I've Written:

To date my most popular fic, in the face of death's mystery is one of those rare things I've written where I look back on it and I remain satisfied with how it turned out. It was a big passion project that started out as a crack post and then turned much more serious into an actual story with themes and arcs. After months of writing and rewriting sections, I can still remember the thrill of realizing one day that it could be finished in time for ACOC Week 2021 (all credit to Jackrabbit for putting that together!) and that really gave me the final push I needed to get it done.

My Middle English literature course did a capstone project where we performed some of the York plays, and since there were far more people interested in acting than there were roles, me and two other students formed a scriptwriting team to combine the plays and write new characters and lines. We didn't write in Middle English, but I'm still really proud how much we managed to capture the rhythm and patterns of Middle English verse in contemporary English rhyme.

The credit for this one starts with you, because I read One With The Shadows and it not only inspired me to write ACOC fic but it also specifically inspired me to write the manner of things (in the dark). Probably the most poetic prose I've ever written, and I'm still really happy with how it turned out. Writing body horror and eldritch imagery is pretty far from my usual wheelhouse, so it was really fun to experiment with a new style and dive into the characters through this lens.

Perhaps it's recency bias, but I just had a lot of fun writing Contrapuntal Calculus. I know my writing thing is very niche fics with incredibly specific scenarios, but this was particularly niche even by my standards and I'm still quite happy with it. It's also serving as a nice little reminder to myself to write the fics I want to write and not worry about how it's going to be received. Get ready y'all for more incredibly niche fic concepts once I figure out what a writing schedule is ✌️

I once took a Shakespeare class where one of the projects was to reimagine Shakespeare in another medium. Being a musical theatre kid, I rewrote and performed "Satisfied" from Hamilton for Lady Macbeth as "Safe at Night." I'm not posting the recording because I'm not a singer and it was bad, but I stand by my parody lyrics because they were fucking incredible.

Memorable TTRPG Moments

My character technically wasn't there to witness it, but we were infiltrating a temple of our cleric's god to find out whether its priests were on the side of the villainous pirate lord (not to be confused with the non-villainous pirates), and our DM narrated this absolutely incredible scene where our cleric looked into the scrying pool and saw the pirate lord's forces attacking his home town, only to be met out in the harbour by one of his oldest friends, a fellow cleric and pirate. He sailed his ship into the middle of the attacking fleet, killed one of the pirate lord's lieutenants in personal combat but suffered a deadly wound, then messaged our cleric farewell and ignited all the gunpowder in his ship. It was such an emotional and cinematic moment, beautifully narrated by our DM, and it'll stay with me forever.

That time Vyce, with a handful of HP left, leapt over a burning tar trap, jumped up onto the back of the giant undead corpse of the villainous pirate lord, stabbed out his cursed emerald eye, and then yanked his head back as he fell so that our cleric could behead him. Simply an incredible HDYWTDT, that was about the coolest Vyce has ever been and it was the coolest he'll ever get.

I played a goblin monk in a Spelljammer mini-campaign, and our DM ruled that monks could use their Deflect Missile ability on large missiles in ship-to-ship combat. Me and the other party monk (yes we had two monks, yes I apologize to the DM but hell yeah, we had two monks) spent every single battle standing on the prow of our space ship just deflecting giant ballista and boulders with our fists. At one point, I rolled a Nat 20 and the DM narrated this tiny little goblin catching a whole boulder and lobbing it back at the other ship. On the flip side, I also got one-hit KO'ed after getting hit by a Nat 20 boulder (we were playing with brutal critical rules), but that was equally awesome in a different direction and our very merciful DM allowed me to live if the ship took damage instead.

That time I played polecat!Matt Murdock, started flirting with a big beefy otter sailor, rolled so well that we became boyfriends, and then we ended up adopting a child together <3

Before we found out his backstory, Vyce's nemesis was a mysterious bard named Frode who kept appearing, dropping lore, and generally being completely insufferable. During one such encounter, Vyce attempted to intimidate him by taking a bite out of a whole lemon with the rind still on. Now, Vyce has a -2 to Charisma, but I'm sure you can already guess what he rolled on that check. The fact that Frode was just mildly amused made it all the more worse for him and all the more entertaining for me. I love my cringefail uncharismatic son so much <3

[saintofvoid]

Not saying you have no reason to feel "bleh", sometimes the brain just insists, but there is so much character in the little snippets and commentary and photos you do. Even if they are similar to other people's (which is really hard not to do), they are so unique to themselves it's absolutely worth it.

Hopefully you're feeling better soon, and can find joy in creating and talking about your boys again ❤

Its late so I'm gonna kinda reply to this with what has been going on on my end and where this funk is coming from. Putting it under a read more to spare everyone, but first and foremost I do appreciate all of you beyond belief for reaching out and having such kind words to say. I know its just a me thing but sometimes it all does just get to me. With that being said, feel free to ignore the whole next bit.

I 100% understand and accept its never going to be completely possible to make completely original characters, especially given the restricted format we have for CP2077. I wish we had more power to craft our characters, more like Fallout 4's character creator (which despite the game's flaws I still go back to just to make characters lol). The problem is I see Valor in game and these screenshots of him and while I do like how he looks... its not him. Not completely. His scars are wrong, he doesn't have his tattoos, hair isn't right, he's missing the ports on his body, and overall things just aren't 100% with him. But despite all that, 3rd time around I think he looks pretty good. Again though am limited to what the game allows so a part of me does get a bit offed when I see other ppls Vs that look a bit too similar. I know its just me, I don't take it to heart, its just upsetting reminder I can't make him look how he's supposed to. Same with Umbra, he looks nothing like how he looks in our TTRPG and it really hurts because I spent a long time making him with our GM and I can't show that. Its not possible in game and my art doesn't do him any justice. So it gets frustrating because I look at some of these guys and they're not my characters, just similar figures to them, but not them.

Which is really hard especially when it comes to Val because long ago he was a self insert that I used to project how I wanted to look. I Have never done well with identifying as trans, I don't like to glamorize it or be recognized for it. I'm saving up for chest surgery but I'm fucking terrified of having the scars. I just don't want to be associated and recognized with it after my transition just because it's been really rough to go through in general. I haven't enjoyed this journey at all really, and really wish I didn't have to go through it. Valor in the RPG was my way of coping and going through stuff. Instead of gender though it was his association with cyberware and having parts of his body and "humanity" removed, replaced with machine and wires. I don't project onto him as much as I once did but he still will and forever hold pieces of that history because that's how I made him.

With all that, all I really do have is my words. Part of the problem with that is there's literally years worth of lore. I've been playing the same campaign with the same group of friends since my freshman year of college. So like 6/7 years now? There's a lot. The issue is these are people I'm really good friends with. This game has become a kind of safe zone for us. We're all a bunch of artist that mainly specialized in horror content. We were part of a movie club that mainly watched horror movies. We're the bitches that watched the Saw series during our free hour in the school library, like we are chill. That also just kinda means there's a lot of dark and twisted subject matter that ends up in our games. Characters having experienced some fucked up shit, witnessed some fucked up shit, and have done some fucked up shit. Feel kinda weird posting or sharing some of the more dark things in detail. So end up watering them down and they don't always feel right.

Top of all that, I just don't have the time to do things I wanna do. I feel so goddamn pressured at home and like I should be doing more. I honestly don't know how half these people have the time to learn and do the amount of mods and edits they do. I'm not gonna lie, I'm envious of it. I get 8-10 hours of being yelled at by customers, and then I may or may not have an hour long drive to take my brother to work or pick him up some days, and then whatever my parents have going on. I want to get back into art, I want to learn 3D modeling, I want to learn how to properly mod but I'm usually so stressed out or just exhausted nothing sticks so I don't even bother really. It sucks, because I want to learn, I want to do things, but I can't. I feel like because I have so little private and personal time now if I can't get things quick enough its not worth the effort. Its frustrating but again that's all on me.

And in other news, lotta people around me are dying or have had family die do to COVID and other things. Earlier this year a close friend of mine lost her dad to COVID and she's still struggling with that. A family friend of ours died earlier this week at the age of 35 from unknown causes. I have another friend who is in the psych ward because he is once again dealing with mental stuff and wellness check did not turn up well. Round it all off, my grandpa has basically given up on his life as well, flat out saying there's nothing worth living for anymore. Given his health issues I know its only a matter of time until I'm saying my final goodbye to him as well. So its rough, and fucking sucks. Not much I can do about it, but it makes me feel fucking worse with my own depression and suicidal thoughts. I know I'd never act on the thoughts, but seeing how death effects those around me makes me feel fucking worse for even thinking about it.

The part that sucks the most about it all, and even something I've expressed to my therapist is I'm completely self aware that its all in my head. I know I can't control these situations, and that skills take time to be acquired and grow. I am so grateful for all friends and support I do have, here, on disco, irl, I see the kind words and love and it really means a lot. I feel like a horrible friend because I don't know what to do really. I know its in my head, and I know what I can and can't control. I know what I need to do, yet I don't feel any better. I feel worse, I feel like I'm distant, and dismissive. I feel like what content I am putting out is stale and boring. I just feel lost and I'm not sure what piece I'm missing to really get things going again. I love my characters, I love making stuff with them. I love the story arch I have for Val and Ker and I want to share all of that with you all. I just feel really weird.

[heavensdog]

Plotting Monsters of the Week?

This is a crunch post that should have minimal spoilers! As I’ve been working on Heaven’s Dog (as well as some previous, unfinished projects like a mahou shoujo ttrpg lol), one of the things that comes up a lot for me is how to handle Monsters of the Week when I want to keep the plot tight. They always seem to be so much filler, right? Derived from a studio’s desire to milk the basic premise of the show without changing the status quo too much?

Well, that’s never exactly how it’s felt for me, but for a while I was forced to wonder if that’s what they were for . . . maybe you who are reading this already know what purpose monsters of the week serve and I’m just slow on the uptake, but for those of you who don’t, I wanted to talk a bit about my process when it comes to Monsters of the Week~!

(Cut for length! There may be some book one spoilers as well though! Nothing as major as the last one, lol)

So, the monster of the week format in magical girl stories provides two crucial benefits to the story, regarding pacing and character development.

First of all, the Monster of the Week format allows you to slow the pace down and keep the audience from being too overwhelmed by the sheer amount of drama there is in a good magical girl story (since magical girl stories are traditionally shoujo, there’s a lot of emotional back and forth, and this tends to stick even when the genre receives a demographic shift); it gives you time to appreciate the “before” and “after” beats of the protagonists’s development by letting you really become familiar with who they are before they do all their character growth, and before things like betrayals and deaths come into play too much, it lets you appreciate the role side characters and mascots and everyone have to play.

The Monster of the Week format is not necessary (works by Arina Tanemura almost never use them, for example, and she’s one of my pacing idols while still delivering some pretty heartwrenching emotional turmoil), but it can be really nice to get that nostalgic, summer’s-just-around-the-corner feeling of growing up that is so endearing about the genre. Sailor Moon would not hit nearly as powerfully with Usagi’s development if we didn’t have time to sit with her while her special attack was literally ultrasonic crying.

However, despite all it’s good sides, it can be really hard to work in, because it does dramatically change the pacing, and what exactly are you supposed to put in there while you have all this delicious plot later? It requires you to be good at your more dramatic fantasy plotting as well as slice of life plotting, and then you have to mix them together, and if you do it badly it can just feel like a pacing nightmare . . . but the key is in your protagonists character arc!

So for example, the Agent of Heaven’s character arc in book one is “realizing they can’t go on living the way they have been”; they’ve been stuck since they were a kid, trying to play the hero of what is starting to feel like a losing battle.

So first of all, we need to establish the starting position of the Agent of Heaven -- what is the thing that keeps them pinned in place? What is the core belief that keeps them fighting?

That answer is where the battle in the prologue comes into play -- the Agent of Heaven is fundamentally an outsider who yearns to connect with other people. This is why you get a selection for why they feel disconnected from their family, as well as who they want to connect with the most -- and why the victim of Lapis’s first attack is someone on the fringes of their friend group who yearns to connect to the others.

The victory over the monster of the week then shapes the protagonist’s development -- if the monster of the week is a question posed to the protagonist, then the victory is the answer the protagonist finds to it, and the solution to their emotional dilemma. In the Agent of Heaven’s case, they resolve this conflict by transforming, allowing them to bond with Iriel, and shaping the core belief that if they can help people, they can be deserving to bond with them.

(Obviously, there then need to be choices available so that you can color and shape this belief to what resonates with you, the reader, but that core belief is still at the heart of the Agent of Heaven ahahahah. . . |||orz balancing a strong narrative with reader customization can be a little difficult, but it’s worth it to see what people come up with too . . . . )

However, in the Agent of Heaven’s case, this is the wrong solution, so then the next Monster of the Week battles are designed to challenge that answer: by reminding the Agent of Heaven that they need to rely on other people, that they can’t save everyone, that sometimes they can cause damage too, and that even when you connect to people, relationships take time to develop and you won’t immediately be able to know everything about them.

So these points form the basis of Book One, which is the Monster of the Week book lol:

The first encounter with Flint represents the counter argument “You can’t save everyone”; Rosewood oneshots Flint without the Agent of Heaven being able to do anything to stop it, and then proceeds to try to befriend the Agent of Heaven. This simultaneously takes away someone from the Agent of Heaven and provides the Agent of Heaven with someone new to connect with, despite the Agent’s internal databanks saying “if you can’t save people, you don’t deserve people”; saving people does not change how lonely the Agent is or isn’t, or how much people want to be around them.

The second argument is then that they need to rely on other people, which is a two part argument, I think -- one, being able to rely on other people to watch your back, and two, being able to rely on other people to notice when something is wrong. These involve the Agent of Heaven being threatened by an external and internal source, and Rosewood coming to the rescue even though Rosewood is New To The Picture, for no other reason than Rosewood notices and cares enough to do something about it; this is also the big moment where the Agent learns to rely on Rosewood, to whatever extent, which feeds into how Rosewood’s later actions affect the Agent.

So in this case, we need an external threat that involves the Agent not being able to look after themselves -- so I’ve translated this into a situation where Rosewood drags them out to socialize, and they end up either drunk when Lapis attacks, or else they end up switching drinks with someone who was getting targeted by a sexual predator of some sort and end up roofied; Rosewood is able to protect them long enough for them to transform and they are able to defeat the monster Lapis created without anyone getting hurt because of Rosewood’s help~

Then for the internal threat, the Agent ends up staying home while Iriel, Rosewood and Abaddon go out for something, and Rosewood comes back to find the Agent behaving in a self destructive manner; as they’re helping the Agent calm down and detangle their thoughts, Lapis drops by to visit and things between them and Rosewood escalate, causing a monster to be summoned, and the Agent of Heaven is once again able to rely on Rosewood to defeat it cleanly without doing any damage.

The third argument, “sometimes you are going to hurt people” is then able to become something affirming, allowing the Agent of Heaven to begin learning that they can forgive themselves for doing things that hurt other’s and trying to do better next time, rather than living in a cycle of lashing out and having to deny it in order to protect themselves; when it’s built on the idea that they can connect with people and need to connect with people even if they can’t save everyone, then they can also begin to question the necessity of saving everyone from themselves, and start focusing on the future of what kind of person they want to be.

In this scenario, Rosewood probably gets sick, and Iriel suggests that the Agent of Heaven stay out of trouble until Rosewood is better, since Rosewood is able to keep things so organized, but the Agent ends up seeking out a fight anyway and because Rosewood isn’t there to contain their wrath, they end up causing a lot of damage. Iriel still forgives them, and Rosewood is impressed by how powerful the Agent is, and the Agent is able to consider what they want to do with that power.

And then the final point, when Rosewood betrays the Agent of Heaven, comes with the question of “how can you trust people when it takes time to know their true intentions”, but I’ve talked about that a bit.

Anyway, this turned out a little rambly, but that’s that!

[theonyxpath]

Our Legendlore KS only has days left to run, and actually ends on Thursday this week, so as my final push for folks to check it out, I’m not going to try and convince you like last week. I’m going to let two excellent writers do that!

Here’s a great description of Legendlore, written, as only he can, by our own Matthew Dawkins:

But why should you back it? Well, in this time where some gamers are clinging on to the notion that “all orcs are evil from birth”, “disability has no place in fantasy adventures” and “there’s no such thing as a good drow” (they haven’t heard of Drizzt), Legendlore says the opposite.

Legendlore is a fantasy setting where diversity is a strength, we don’t shy away from complex societies and cultures, and where you can damn well buy yourself a wheelchair especially designed for dungeon crawling, or sit on a bloody floating disc! This is a game that embraces the fact that it’s magical, it’s wondrous, and yes, there’s evil out there in need of vanquishing, but there’s also a brilliant world to discover and enlightenment and wisdom to be found.

I’m in love with the art, the writing, and skilful design of this game, which uses the 5th Edition system to amazing effect. I’m impressed by the effort and energy Steffie De Vaan and her entire team of writers have poured into it. It’s a game I want to play, and if you feel orcs are better only as black and white villains, I invite you to read the manuscript – which is available as a free download from DriveThruRPG.com – and feel as impressed as I do.

And here’s developer Steffie De Vann’s excellent take on why she loves the game:

Legendlore offers a rich and layered world. No one is born good or evil, nor does it have ‘evil races.’ People come in all colors, genders, orientations, and alignments. You can be a black trans feminine elf & be right at home in the Realm. Our iconics put our ‘money where our mouth is’ – our elf is a trans black woman, our pixie a non-binary person, our dwarf is a combat veteran in a wheelchair, and I could go on. This is a game that believes diversity is strength. It’s an isekai/portal game, and we created Backgrounds ranging from ‘Activist’ and ‘RPG Aficionado’ to ‘Working Poor.’

The world of Legendlore is home to a sentient 1974’s Ford Mustang, parasite mushrooms that try to kill you by YELLING VERY LOUDLY (trust me, it’s effective), sacred Chipmunks, and the descendants of Amelia Earhart running an aviation nation. It pairs this whimsy with a genuinely complex world. For example, the orcs used to live in what’s now the nation of Drohm. Orcs ambassadors are petitioning the other nations to recognize their sovereignty, but doing so would give Drohm the excuse it needs to go to war – and make no mistake, Darkoth the Darklord *wants* to go to war. Are the orcs right? YES. Should the other nations help them out? HECK YES. Is it understandable that the nations are dragging their feet because war is good for no one except the Generals? Also yes. If that sounds like a conundrum you want to tackle, and sway the fate of Azoth, this is a game for you.

If that sound good to you, go check us out on KS. And if you’re still on the fence – there’s a link in there to a free preview manuscript.

In fact, Steffie has been posting examples of the Legendlore characters she mentions above:

This is Aaliyah, our elven iconic. She’s a Black trans woman who uses a mix of ASL and forestspeak signs to communicate. She’s a peaceful ambassador foremost, but doesn’t back down from a fight when it comes to that.

This is Najda, our dwarven iconic. She is a Muslim army vet who was wounded during her tour in Afghanistan. She now works in a Los Angeles comic book store, where she discovered a crossing into the world of Legendlore.

Here’s Jada, our pixie iconic. Pixies are born agender, and choose a gender as they grow up. Feminine pixies have 2 antenna, masculine pixies have 0, and non-binary pixies have 1. Pixies are as fierce as they are small, they love laughing and hate bullies.

There you go, and here’s the link to the Legendlore Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/339646881/legendlore-rpg-setting-for-5th-edition-fantasy-roleplaying-0

Let the Streets Run Red art by Oliver Specht

Besides Legendlore, What Else?

Just a warning, and it may just be a short-term issue, but right now it seems that we can’t ship anything to Canada or Mexico. We haven’t yet heard whether we can receive packages from those countries, but since our most prolific printers are based in Canada, we may experience some delays in our traditionally printed projects.

Right now, we’re only having issues with getting the physical printer proofs sent back and forth for approvals, and not the actual books themselves.

You’d think after all the panels and Actual Playing I did during the Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Con a few weeks ago that I’d be all talked out. Well, that does not seem to be the case. Ever.

Naw, I love telling folks about what Onyx Path is and the game worlds we make! I just can’t help myself, we have so many exciting and fun things going on!

Last week, Mike and the gang over at the This Week In Geek podcast interviewed me about WW and Onyx Path, and it turned into a sort of oral history of how the companies transformed into each successive version, and just where game lines branched off to different companies and editions.

If that sort of stuff is interesting for you, here ya go: http://thisweekingeek.net/news/interviews/fan-service-interview-rich-thomas-onyx-path-june-2020

Then this weekend, I sat in on a retrospective of the Art of Mage at Ascension Con 2020 along with Satyros Phil Brucato and artists Mark Jackson and Echo Chernik. Echo took on the slideshow duties and we all discussed the Mage art that came up as it appeared.

That was pretty great, and it was certainly a treat to chat with folks I haven’t talked to in years. Hopefully, that recording will show up on YouTube soon and we’ll get you all a link.

Cults of the Blood Gods art by Thomas Denmark

What wasn’t great last week were a couple of issues that we needed to deal with. While we dealt with them as best as we could, we realized that at core our little crew of folks here are simply not HR experts. And more importantly, we shouldn’t try to be.

We need to concentrate on making great games and amazing worlds, like we do.

Which means that tomorrow, I’m interviewing our current best prospect for an HR point-of-contact for the company. Someone who is HR trained and has worked in HR at other companies. And very important for us, someone who is unconnected to Onyx Path and has never been a gamer or in the TTRPG business.

We need someone who doesn’t have the connections or baggage that might make it hard to be objective when they review HR concerns. Hopefully, my interview is the one, and once everything is good to go we’ll include info concerning them prominently on our website so folks know who to contact.

I mean, it’s important that our worlds are all about excitement, and fear, and victory, and defeat. What our creators and community go through in the real world shouldn’t also require all those moments. We want everyone playing our games and reading our books to be safe while they explore our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

The Legendlore Kickstarter is in its last few days and ends this Thursday, and now we’re really building towards Stretch Goals: the GM’s Screen, and starting the Legendlore Companion book PDF!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/339646881/legendlore-rpg-setting-for-5th-edition-fantasy-roleplaying-0

Grab your friends and escape to another world!

You’ve found an enchanted portal — a transition point — between worlds. The portal, called a Crossing, takes you to a world you thought only existed in novels and films: a magical land where dragons roam the skies, orcs and hobgoblins terrorize weary travelers, and unicorns prance through the forest. It is a world where humans join other peoples such as elves, trolls, dwarves, changelings, and the dreaded creatures who steal the night. It is a world of fantasy — of imagination.

It is the Realm.

It is Legendlore.

Next Up On Kickstarter: They Came From Beyond the Grave!

Onyx Path Media!

This week: the return of the return of the Scion Actual Play as Eddy and Dixie’s characters dig further into the machinations of the gods!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

All our panels and games from Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention are still available on twitch.tv/theonyxpath! All you need to do is head on over to the website and subscribe. If you have an Amazon Prime account, you can do so for free and access our entire catalogue of videos!

Legendlore‘s Kickstarter is coming to an end, but Jen Vaughn’s actual play is still going on our Twitch channel every week on Friday night! Lost in the Crossing is an amazing story played through by a fantastic GM and excellent roleplayers, and handles the Legendlore world from the perspective of visitors and native inhabitants of the Realm! Make sure you’re tuning in every Friday or catching up afterwards by subscribing.

That’s not all for Legendlore, as we have actual plays by Steffie de Vaan and Corinne McCrory over on our YouTube channel, which you can find here https://youtu.be/UaQXSlEatDw and here https://youtu.be/RRvnJOrmNzM! Please give our GMs some support and tune in!

This week on Twitch, expect to see:

V5 – Chicago by Night

Realms of Pugmire – Paws & Claws

Legendlore – The Metal Scourge

Dystopia Rising: Evolution – Thieves of Old York

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – They Came from Devil’s Reef!

Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale

Mage: The Awakening – Occultists Anonymous

Legendlore – Lost in the Crossing

Scarred Lands – Purge of the Serpentholds

Chronicles of Darkness – Tooth and Claw

Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale

Get watching for some fantastic insight into how to run these wonderful games.

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Legendlore – The Metal Scourge: https://youtu.be/ECRrErPLm64

Storytellers with Coffee – Safety Tools: https://youtu.be/FjG-YbG_Q1k

Mage: The Ascension – Technocracy Reloaded: https://youtu.be/9Al7ZdkLGiM

Even more Legendlore – The Metal Scourge: https://youtu.be/RRvnJOrmNzM

#OnyxPathCon | How to Write for TTRPGs [Panel]: https://youtu.be/UKmJQEhInP8

Subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

Occultists Anonymous continues right here with their excellent Mage: The Awakening chronicle:

Episode 108: Car-V Heist While Songbird prepares for a dangerous summoning, Atratus and Wyrd hit the junkyards with an overly elaborate plan to make an overly elaborate gift. How very Mage of them… https://youtu.be/wSy3c74jkfM

Episode 109: Crown of Blood Wyrd and Atratus enjoy the joy of a well-made gift and the good vibes that comes with that. Songbird joins together with Hadramiel to summon an Angel of Death to anoint a Vampire Prince in power. https://youtu.be/QxB6Ml6uStY

A Bunch of Gamers continue their actual play of They Came from Beneath the Sea! and conclude it with a mini review: https://youtu.be/qIMwcOZmR8k

The Botch Pit have released a wonderful new guide for Changeling: The Lost right here. Do give them a like and a subscribe: https://youtu.be/Bd0UZQZt2OM

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

Available this Wednesday, we present Dystopia Rising: Evolution shirts and posters on our RedBubble store!

Conventions!

Though dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s what’s left of our current list of upcoming conventions (and really, we’re just waiting for this last one to be cancelled even though it’s Nov/Dec). Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with:

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Anima

M20 Technocracy Operative’s Dossier (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Squeaks In The Deep (Realms of Pugmire)

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

CtL 2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Second Draft

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

V5 Children of the Blood (was The Faithful Undead) (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Manuscript Approval

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Under Alien Skies (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Post-Approval Development

Editing

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Indexing

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Tales of Aquatic Terror – Handing off to Meredith to AD.

WoD Ghost Hunters (KS) – Prepping KS assets.

Aberrant – AD’d. Sketches from HIVE in.

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2

Deviant

Legendlore – KS running.

Technocracy Reloaded (KS)

Cults of the Blood God – Rolling along.

Scion: Dragon (KS) – Waiting on art notes.

Masks of the Mythos (KS) – Pinging potential cover and fulls artist.

Scion: Demigod (KS) – Art rolling. KS assets AD’d.

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (KS) – Prepping KS assets.

TC: Adventure! (KS) – Shen Fei cover art finishing.

Geist: One Foot In the Grave – AD’d.

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

TC Aeon Terra Firma

V5 Let the Streets Run Red – working layout now.

Pugmire Adventure

Scion Titanomachy

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart – Errata gathering.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Page XXs.

Contagion Chronicle – Backer PDF out to backers, gathering errata.

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

Magic Item Decks (Scarred Lands)

Yugman’s Guide Support Decks (Scarred Lands)

Dark Eras 2 Screen and booklet

At Press

Scion Companion – Awaiting errata from devs.

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – PoD files uploaded.

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Press proofs signed off on, PoD files uploaded.

Creature Collection 5e – PoD proof ordered. Traditional files sent to printer.

Pirates of Pugmire – Files at press. PoD proofs ordered.

Pirates of Pugmire Screen – Files at press.

Pugmire Buried Bones – PoD files uploaded.

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition Dark Eras Compilation – Creating PoD file.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

This coming week is a big one for our household with the birthdays of two of our widdle kiddies (really not widdle at all any more), and the July 4th celebration of the American colonies’ independence from Great Britain! “And just as Tom here has written, we say To Hell With Great Britain!” Sorry, Matthew…

In sadder news, we acknowledge the passing of Jim Holloway, noted artist for Paranoia and Star Frontiers and many early issues of Dragon Magazine. Personally, I very much enjoyed his style, and he brought a technical expertise and a sense of humor to the early TTRPG business that it sorely needed.

[privatelivebait]

Quarantine Survey

I have been tagged in this by @alexis-royce and if nothing else, I follow orders. Where are you isolated? Stationed at home in Scotland. Relatively safe all things considered. What are you currently reading or watching?  I am reading my way through the Warhammer Legends book collection. Currently reading Faith and Fire. Not really watching anything noteworthy at the moment. If you can go outside, what do you like to do during this time? Time outside has been mostly spent either going to the shop for supplies once a week or keeping the dogs exercised in the back garden. Self isolation is not a new experience for me and so has not really caused issues with how I typically operate.

Any fascinating concept you’re studying?  Learning a little bit of Gaelic (30 mins a day), but I am still working full time from home. So I have no real extra amount of free time than usual.  

What kind of acts of creativity/forms of art are you currently doing? I paint Warhammer figures in my spare time (I have a seperate blog for my shitty pictures), but I am the mythical hobbyist who does not have a backlog and so I am plum out of luck with GW shutting down. I have been filling the gap with TTRPG character creation. Mostly DnD but with some other stuff sprinkled in. I am also slowly working on my costuming efforts. Other than that I am not terribly artistic/creative in any regard.

A song that resonates with your state of mind at the moment?  What I listen to is fairly eclectic and shifting these days. A lot Nier, Domina and the Doom: Eternal soundtracks currently. Panic by Gooseworx has also been fairly stuck in my brain.

Favourite impulsive/“bad” coping techniques? This one seems like an odd question, as typically I am encouraged to not put bad coping techniques on a pedestal. I will instead say that my “go-to” bad strategy is that I shut off from my emotions and simply exist for a while. 

.Favourite healthy/’good’ coping techniques?

Currently they are getting on with my painting (currently on hold), speaking to my friends (they’re all good people) when able and playing games when I can build up the energy (rarely).

I never know who to tag on these things, so I will tag @literallyjustaswarmofbees who generally seems to be into these sort of things and anyone else who follows me and wants a shot.

[serverstuck]

Come join SERVERSTUCK, a Fantroll RP server for anyone from Homestuck Veterans to Hiveswap Enthusiasts!

Pester your chums and make new friends!!

Over 350 players

A Year and a Half worth of experience

A custom TTRPG system based on Powered by the Apocalypse, as seen in Monster of the Week: SUBGRUBS & SNAZZARDS

Mutants, Limes, Ghosts, Robots and more!

Lore Events from Murder Trials for an Assassinated Heiress to Robot Invasions from Space to Clowns crossing dimensions to crumple existence itself!

A super fun and friendly community to roleplay with or just hang out in!

We’re the best and brightest of Homestuck in 2019, and we want you! Join today, and make yourself right at home with Serverstuck!

Join today!

FAQ!

Q: So what kind of roleplay is gonna happen in this server?

A: Serverstuck is more of a casual type RP than a plot based one. Nobody will be entering SGRUB, but other mishaps and mayhem are definitely on the table in the form of events that the admins will run!

Q: I don’t know much about trolls, I only played Hiveswap- will that be okay?

A: Absolutely! I went through all of the wiki, the comic and game, and now the Friendsim, and made a few educated guesses based on the Trollcall, and compiled all the info on trolls I could into a handy bullet point guide that can easily be glanced over in 10 minutes! You could even join with zero experience with trolls!

Q: I’m not very good at script RP… I prefer to Text in character. Is this the server for me?

A: You know it! Along with channels for locations trolls might chill around, we have multiple social media channels, from Chittr to Mirthful Mingle, for all your script RP needs!

Q: What kind of players can we expect to see?

A: The mod team wants a friendly atmosphere, and as such, we hope to recruit friendly members! People looking for drama, arguments or debate would probably be better off in other servers since this one is meant to be pretty peaceful!

Q: Hey, I submitted an ask, or reblogged an old ad, and I never got accepted! What gives?

A: I am so fucking sorry. listen for a while i was the only dude running the blog and giving out 1k invites was hell. However, our whole mod team is on board now, so you should get invites faster than ever!

Q: It’s 2019. Why are you still doing this?

A: O-our lusii say we’re valid…

Q: How many trolls can I play?

A: We each start with one troll, but as time progresses, you’ll have a shittonne more! INFINITE TROLLS, BABEY

Q: Is murder legal?

A: Absolutely, once you have consent and have discussed with both the other party and a mod!

Q: Have you any rules that we should know about first?

A: The only one you gotta know off the bat is we don’t allow Fuschia Fantrolls, since there’s only ever one on the planet at a time!

Q: What will I do with my Fuschia trolls?

A: You can still have em! They can easily be revamped to be either Olive or Violet, depending!

Q: I take a long time to make stuff, and I don’t RP often. Can I still join?

A: Uh-huh! We’re cool with you coming in and just hanging out with other fans in the general chat!

Q: Are there any organized events we can take part in?

A: You know it! We have events every few weeks! The assassination of the Heiress! A brainstealing robot invasion! The Grinch stole 12th Perigee’s Eve! And a tonne of other stuff, too!

Q: Tell me about the TTRPG system you mentioned!

A: Subgrubs and Snazzards is a mod of Apocalypse World, just like Monster of the Week, which you may know from The Adventure Zone Amnesty! It’s simple, to the point, and a hundred percent customisable!

Q: What does this server have over other fantroll servers?

A: Well, we’re managed with a fully functional mod team who all take equal part in running the server, tend to players needs on a moments notice, have a years worth of experience under our wings, and will actively avoid encouraging drama. Trust us- there’s a few copycat servers out there, we know, but we’re the OG, and we won’t crumble under pressure! ;D

Q: 300 players sounds like it’ll be overwhelming…

A: Not to worry! Not all of our players are active daily! Consider it more like a hotel, where many people just check in and out, with a few residents living there on a permanent basis! Either way, you’ll never run out of people to thread with!

Q: I have a question that isn’t on this list.

A: Then shoot me an ask, bud! I’ll help you out in no time!

ART IS BY @swirlygerm-art! Go follow em, you fucklenut, they’re one of Serverstuck’s beloved mods and our iconic artist!

[zeroconnectionn]

been writing braime au drabbles on my priv acct for fun but i cant finish any of them so..... to those looking for ideas, here are some au’s that i can’t get off my mind and would love to see more of in ao3/tumblr (under the cut bc it’s so long im so sorry):

crimson peak - i mean c’mon... it’s perfect guys.....i have no idea who would play dr. alan though. maybe the hound??? but like platonic

real steel - lisTEN i couldnt stop thinking about this all day... selwyn is jaime’s former boxing coach... which makes brienne his old-and-soon-to-be-rekindled flame that practiced w him back in the day... cersei + robert are dead and there’s a custody battle over lil tommen.... jaime, his “nephew” tommen, and brienne teach Oath, the sparring robot some killer boxing moves and fight their way to robo championship, becoming a family

pacific rim - i found only one on ao3!! braime would totally be drift compatible and the best part is that cersei doesnt have to be evil here. in my drabble, jaime loses cersei and his right hand to a category 5 kaiju attack. cue angst. he retires as a pilot but decides to stay at the base to train cadets (the real reason he cant pilot anymore is because he keeps chasing after cersei in the drift, clinging onto her memory desperately ohoho). brienne is one of the cadets he trains but jaime cant stand her naivete and b/w outlook on the world (deep down tho, its because he once held the same ideals as she did that resulted in cersei’s death. he sees her as a liability to her future co-pilot) so he picks on her a lot. brienne, sick of his shit, boldly challenges him to a duel, setting the terms that if she wins, jaime has to stop picking on her but if he wins, she has to quit the jaeger programme. to NO ONE’S SURPRISE, the duels ends w a tie! i named their jaeger Ursa Maiden because... you know... 

battle: los angeles - is there enough military fics?? lance corporal tarth kicking alien ass and saving staff sergeant lannister gives me strength

harry potter - WE COULD DO SO MANY THINGS WITH THIS... brienne the halfblood hufflepuff prefect and jaime the pureblood gryffindor troublemaker. rival quidditch captains? best duelers of their respective years? eventual auror partners? all three, because destiny has fated them to be together always? also consider: jaime was said to have murdered the then minister of magic but was not sentenced to azkaban thanks to tywin pulling a few strings. and honourable, hardworking brienne, the first hufflepuff and woman to get an Outstanding in DADA for NEWTS, the first person to best jaime aka the lion of gryffindor in a duel, and the one lucky enough to be mentored by auror!Renly. also i think we can all agree jaime would say “wait til my father hears about this” to get out of trouble

the walking dead - dudes i have not been able to stop thinking about this au too, like jaime and brienne from opposing communities, meeting each other during a supply run and fighting over a jackpot supply of Useful Things but when they’re just about to kill each other over it- SURPRISE! a convenient horde appears! they become temporary allies to survive, somehow saving each others’ asses along the way, jaime getting bit on his hand trying to save her and brienne repaying the favour by chopping off his hand to stop the infection, they spend a week in an abandoned cabin in the woods to recuperate, jaime bathing in the river with her where he explains why he had to kill the twd!aerys + possible romance, confusion w where they stand w each other and whether or not they can continue this fragile alliance if they go back home, jaime selfishly telling her they could just stay here in the cabin, start a new life together and never go back to their respective communities, brienne saying she can’t bc there are people to protect back home (from his people) so she leaves, jaime leaves too because cersei’s back home but he’s worried that the next time he meets brienne, it’ll be as enemies.... do y’alls feel this

superheroes - jaime is the perfect charismatic speedster?? and brienne w super strength??? if u guys play ttrpgs, jaime would be The Legacy or The Reformed and brienne the Transformed in Masks

kingsman - brienne is lancelot and tyrion is merlin AMIRITE

dragon age - (da:o timeline) brienne, a templar from lothering saves jaime, one of the commanders of king cailan’s army and survivor of the Battle of Ostagar who was captured by howe’s men and labelled a traitor (he’d be in one of the cages like Sten!). eventually they get conscripted into the grey wardens by the Warden, becoming the Warden’s travelling companions. would be cute if the Warden wanted to save time and send them off on a treaty mission together. also how perfect would it be if the couslands were the starks... rendon howe could be littlefinger too...

mass effect - i friggin loved me3 multiplayer so i can totally see brienne as a n7 destroyer and jaime as a n7 slayer. the two of them would’ve made such a good team that they were considered instrumental to the reaper’s defeat on earth. also they totally survive the war and settle down in the citadel and adopt a bunch of alien + human orphans. maybe before the war, they were spectres who butt heads a lot bc of diff mission interests. 

the proposal - I NEED TO KNOW, HAS ANYONE DONE THIS YET??? bc if there is, i wanna read it immediately. in my head, jaime could be the jerk boss who begs brienne to marry him to avoid getting deported. but instead of going back to tarth that weekend, they go to casterly rock to meet jamie’s family. same premise as the 2009 film, but slightly different and way more fun with cersei and tyrion around. also consider: the image of gwen dancing and singing to Get Low

to all the boys i’ve loved before - okay... hear me out... lara jean is brienne, kitty is arya, and sansa is margot but younger than brienne and instead of college, she’s in paris for a highschool student exchange programme. brienne is also a step-sister to the girls, cat took her in after her parents’ deaths. MEANWHILE josh is teen!sandor who sansa broke up with before she left for paris but is still best friends with brienne, peter is jaime(!!!) who kissed her during truth or dare years ago, and lucas is of course renly!! also gen is cersei but jamie’s cousin instead of sister. this is so complicated but i find it so cute still?????

i found this au from a prompt list on tumblr and its perfect: “single parents whose children are rivals in a talent show/ sports competition”. the children are tommen and arya, but brienne is arya’s foster mum since cate and ned’s death

naruto - ok so they’re both from different villages but become allies for a dangerous mission.... or brienne is hunting jaime bc he’s a missing nin from her village (catelyn would make a great kage holy shit).... whatever it is, you could totally work in a bath house scene :)

bleach - BRIENNE IS ASSIGNED TO JAIME’S DIVISION AS HIS NEW LIEUTENANT IMAGINE THEIR DYNAMIC sometimes i lay awake thinking about how tite kubo would draw brienne and jaime. [holding a butter knife] he better not give her ginormous boobs

where rainbows end/love rosie - y’all feel this too or is it just me, like just the idea of brienne opening a beach hotel in tarth... i need more brienne by the ocean fics in my life tbh. also im such a sucker for fics made up of purely texts between the characters then ending it with them meeting ahdasdjadsjad anyway Jaime is Alex and Hyle as Greg.

I Wish I Could Write These But Should You Find It Equally Interesting To Write About, Please, By All Means, Take My Brain Juice And Make It Beautiful And Let Me Know So I Can Give You Kudos And Comments Full of Squealing and Love