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sanddusted-wisteria · 2 years ago

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A Builder, a Researcher, and a Rooftop, Ch. 11: Camellia sinensis

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Eyes tired from having to read under the dim moonlight, Qi scanned the diagram again, double-checking for errors. Then he triple-checked. The builder would be here soon, and he needed to get this one right. Out of every diagram he’d made in recent memory, this was one of the most important ones. For some reason, his usual, near-absolute confidence in his designs was absent today. Why was that?

A shadow fell over the page. “Hey, what’s that?”

The builder was standing over Qi, peeking curiously at the diagram.

“A new diagram.” He handed it over to them. “It’s a sort of beverage container. A very interesting design. It uses a vacuum chamber to reduce the amount of heat convection and conduction on the liquid from the outside. The contents can therefore maintain a significantly different temperature to the ambient environment for much longer than it would in a standard container.”

“S-so…basically, hot drinks stay hot longer, and cool drinks stay cool longer.”

“Basically, yes. Does it seem feasible to build? I have a vacuum pump, so I can assist you with that part of the process.”

They hummed and scanned over the blueprint and the materials list. Qi still felt a little uncertain. It was reasonable, right?

“Oh yeah, this is absolutely doable.” Qi felt a small ripple of relief. “Already have all the materials. I can get it done in a few days.”

“Wonderful,” Qi replied, trying not to sound too excited.

The builder rolled up the diagram. “I guess this is for tea?”

“It is. When you brought hot food last week, it reminded me of a device that I found mentioned in several data disk records. Apparently working people in the Old World used these so-called ‘thermos’ things to keep their coffee or tea hot on their commutes. I managed to recreate the design, and I’m curious to see if it works.” That was definitely the only reason. It most certainly wasn’t also because Qi felt obliged to repay the builder for their kindness from last week.

“A ‘thur-mis’…huh? Fun word to say.”

“Yes. Based on the root ‘thermo-’, meaning ‘heat’. A fitting and memorable name for a product.”

“I’ll definitely remember it.”

“In any case, I figure we can test it next week, if possible. I can brew my afternoon tea, put it in this container, and we can see how it fares when you stop by that night.”

“Sounds cool. I’ll get it to you as soon as I can. Shouldn’t take too long.”

“Good,” said Qi. “Hopefully it works as intended.” The builder nodded, not knowing the full weight of his words.

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Qi idly turned the thermos over in his hands as he waited for the builder, feeling the hopefully-still-warm tea sloshing around inside. He perked up at the sound of their steps, grabbing the cups out of his lap.

“Oh…”

He looked up to see the builder on the landing with two boxes of food in their hand. They pursed their lips. “Maybe the food was a bad idea. Forgot that we’re on a slope.”

Qi looked down at his hands, thermos in one and cups in the other, with nowhere to set anything down to pour it. “It…appears I neglected to consider that as well.”

The builder let out a snort. “Well, I guess we can at least sit down here,” they said, tapping their foot against the flat deck at the bottom of the slope. “View’s not gonna be as good, though.”

“Best not to let this go to waste,” Qi said as he stood up and carefully made his way down.

They sat down across from each other. The builder passed a box over to Qi’s side while Qi set a cup down by the builder. He twisted the thermos’s lid off carefully, and flinched when a puff of steam immediately rose up and fogged his glasses. The builder laughed.

“I see that it works,” Qi said, blinking as the fog gradually dissipated from his lenses.

“Good job us,” the builder said as they held out their cup for Qi to pour. They nodded in thanks as he topped it off, and brought it up to their nose to breathe in its warm, grassy aroma. “Do you drink the same tea all the time?”

“Depends,” Qi said, pouring his own cup. “Usually I just use the local stuff. Minimally withered fresh tea leaves. More efficient time- and money-wise. But if I’m in the middle of a big project, sometimes I order black teas from Highwind. More expensive, but more caffeinated.”

“Better taste, too?”

“Taste is not my priority. Caffeination comes first.”

The builder let out a chuckle that sounded more concerned than amused. “It’s 10:30 at night, Qi. We don’t need to be getting caffeine-d up at this hour.”

Qi shrugged. “One cup probably won’t affect our sleep too much.” He took a sip, pleased to find it as good as a fresh cup. “Hm. That does remind me, though. I do have a bag of mint tea sitting around in my pantry. I never drink it, since it’s not caffeinated, but perhaps it would be good for occasions like these.”

A cheeky grin rose on the builder’s face. “Did…?”

“Yes, yes, Mint was the one who gave it to me,” Qi sighed. “He thought it was funny, but he forgot that herbal teas don’t have any caffeine and are next to useless for me. Luckily, I reminded him of that, and he has yet to repeat the same mistake.”

The builder’s grin wavered a little at the corners. “Uh—harsh, but okay.”

“It was a present, so I didn’t throw it out,” he backpedaled. “I’m sure it’s fine, it’s just not the tea I need. If we’re opting to avoid caffeine this late at night, we might get some use out of it after all.”

They took a sip from their cup. “Sounds good. I’ve only really had the tea you give me sometimes when I pop in. A different kind sounds interesting. Plus, I’m sure Mint will be happy to know you’re finally using his gift.”

“Perhaps I’ll inform him of the joyous occasion in my next letter,” he intoned, drawing a snort out of the builder.

“Oh right!” they suddenly exclaimed. “Food. Hope it’s still warm…” They lifted the lid off their wooden box.

Qi reached down and did the same with his own box, revealing two freshly steamed buns. The sweetish smell of the bread blended seamlessly with the smell of the tea. He took a bite out of the soft bread and the sweet and tangy meat filling, washing it down with the grassy flavor of tea. The pleasant warmth from both was more than enough to stave off the chill of the desert night.

The builder raised an eyebrow. “Good?” they mumbled through a mouthful of bread.

Sublime, Qi thought. But he just nodded with a hum of assent. The same subdued smile from several weeks prior crossed the builder’s face again. The warmth in his body only seemed to grow at the sight.

“The tea’s really good with it, too. Thanks for that, by the way.”

Qi shrugged. “It’s nothing, really.”

The builder raised an eyebrow. “Is it? It’s not precious minutes shaved off the workday to brew some extra tea?”

Brewing an extra cup for the builder whenever they came over (day or night) added another 3-5 minutes per brew. It also cut into his water supply by a small, but noticeable amount. Regularly giving them tea forced him to order a few extra units of water every time he needed a refill. But despite that…

“I don’t particularly mind.”

The builder stared back at him blankly—wait, no. That was a look of surprise. A subtle one, but surprise all the same. “Huh.” The mild disbelief on their face slowly faded into a more thoughtful look. “Well, still. Thanks. It…feels nice to know that you’re thinking of me.”

That got his mind humming. Hopefully his face didn’t show it. By some instinct, Qi was able to clamp his tongue down before it made him say anything silly out loud. All that left his throat was a noncommittal hum.

“Shame about the view, though, gotta say,” they said, tapping the railing next to them. The empty street’s not as interesting.” They leaned their head out to get a better look below. “Feels like someone’ll pop up to yell at us from down there.”

“Indeed,” Qi said, looking up. “Our view of the sky is limited down here. If we want to keep bringing food and drink up here, we might be stuck with this, unfortunately.”

“Hmm…” The builder looked towards the rooftop, pondering. “Do you know the angle of this roof?”

“No…?” Qi frowned. “Why?”

“It’s fine. I can take a protractor to it later.” They took another sip with a smile. “Bring some tea again next week. Think I might have a solution.”

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One week passed, and Qi was once again seated on the roof with the thermos full of mint tea in his hands, wondering what the builder had in store.

“Hey!” He heard the builder call up the stairs. The first thing he saw when they emerged was the energetic grin on their face.

“Tiny table!” They brandished an odd-looking stool triumphantly over their head.

Qi squinted. “What?”

They brought it over next to him and smacked it down, hitting the metal with a clack. “Tiny table!” The top board was perfectly level, the legs cut slanted to match the exact angle of the roof and fitted with rubber feet to keep it from sliding down. “Now we can put tea and stuff down so we don’t need to move. Isn’t it cute?!”

“I’m…not sure if a furniture item can reasonably be described as ‘cute’…”

“Aw come on,” the builder pouted. “It’s tiny!”

“I’m sure its utility far outweighs the…cuteness.”

“Okay, well, why don’t you put that thermos down and we’ll put that to the test?” they said with a roll of their eyes, though he could hear the levity in their voice.

The table was big enough to comfortably hold the thermos and the two cups Qi had brought. Solidly constructed, too. Not a single wobble or slip.

“I still think it looks cute…” the builder mumbled.

“And I still think that its utility is its defining feature,” said Qi as he opened the thermos and poured their cups.

“Agree to disagree,” the builder hummed, taking their cup.

Qi lifted his own cup to his lips. The warmth of the tea was offset by a mild chilly sensation–the menthol in the mint. It felt incredibly pleasant running down his throat. He let out a hum. “I have to say, despite the lack of caffeine, I actually quite like it.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty good,” the builder said. “Mint got it from…where?”

“He bought it in Atara, but it’s an import from Seesai. Well known for their herbs.”

They nodded. “He’s got good taste.”

“He mostly bought it for the sake of a joke, so that’s questionable,” Qi snorted. “Though I suppose I have to retract my previous evaluation of uselessness. Next time I write to him, I’ll have to thank him properly.”

“And admit that there’s more to tea than caffeine.”

“Indeed. What a miscalculation on my part. Perhaps it would do me some good to try some other kinds of tea sometimes… When I’m not in need of a significant caffeine dose, of course.”

The builder smiled. “Save me a cup if you find any good ones.”

“Well, with this thermos, I suppose that makes it easy.”

“And the tiny table.”

“Yes, of course, and the tiny table,” Qi sighed.

The builder let out a short laugh. “You can keep it, by the way.”

“Oh? Why me? You made this.”

“I made it for you. You’ve got the tea. Best leave it with you so you can just bring it out whenever you feel like having some.”

“Ah. That is logical. Thank you, then.”

“‘Course.” The builder took one last sip and set their empty cup back down on the table. “Well, I gotta go to bed now,” they said, stretching their arms over their head. “Thanks again. This was nice.”

Qi felt a light upwards tug on his lips. Normally, he would have suppressed it, but just this once, he let it go. “I agree. I’ll be sure to bring more tea every so often.” The builder smiled and nodded.

Qi gathered up the thermos, cups, and table, and the two of them left the roof, waving goodnight as they reached the bottom and headed their separate ways.

Qi headed inside, blinking rapidly to adjust to the fluorescent lights of the lab. He rinsed the dishes off in the kitchen sink and put them away.

He knelt down to set the tiny table down on the floor near his dining table, leaning it against the cabinet holding all his tea-related things. He stared at it for a moment instead of getting up and ready for bed, his mind wandering.

First the food, then the thermos, and now this. All things of relatively negligible physical value, but still requiring a significant investment of time to make. All things the builder was willing to do for him without hesitation or even much reward.

What was it that they told him last week?

It feels nice to know that you’re thinking of me.

“…I could say the same to you,” Qi murmured to the walls of his empty home.

He stood up before his mind could catch up with what he said, and headed to his room to get ready for bed.

Even after he brushed his teeth and buried himself under his blankets, Qi swore that he could still feel the warm and tingly sensation of the mint tea running down his throat.

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A/N: Herbal teas aren't technically tea in the strictest sense, since they don't actually use tea leaves (Camellia sinensis). It's more a catch-all term for any non-caffeinated drink made by soaking anything plant-based (herbs, spices, fruit, etc) in water. I thought about writing a segment where the builder and Qi argue about the semantics of tea (the drink) vs. tea (the plant), but couldn't really figure out a way to make it work. Maybe a future silli oneshot.

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#shady's fics #my time at sandrock #mtas fanfic #camellia sinensis: the scientific name of the tea plant #tiny table!#brr

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anim-ttrpgs · 2 months ago

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If any of y'all had tips for aspiring TTRPG creators, what would they be? I'm hosting a "How to Make your own TTRPG" panel at a con this weekend, and anything to show folks from a fellow indie studio would be great!

Yeah a bunch. Each one of these could basically be its own post, but here are the condensed versions.

Social Media

You need social media. No one will ever hear of your game without a strong social media presence. And as much as it sucks, your best bet is probably tumblr. It’s the only populated social media site that allows your posts to be widely circulated without you having to pay, and also long form enough to actually include information. I dedicate one day a week entirely to social media and that’s just about the only reason we make any money at all.

Also, when using tumblr, the first five tags you put on a post are the most important, those are the tags that make it show up on people’s dashboards. The first twenty tags are the ones that make it show up in search results. Don’t put the name of your game in the first five tags generally, because if no one has heard of it yet, no one is following those tags.

Don’t Paywall Your Game

You deserve to be paid for your work if you indeed did any work at all (we’ll get to that), but that just isn’t the world we live in. Unless you have an advertising budget to essentially trick people into buying a game that might end up being crap, you need something to prove that your game is worth spending money on. Without an advertising budget, that proof has to be your game. Setting your game to pay-what-you-want, or providing “community copies,” lets people try your game before they buy. Plenty of people will buy up-front when given the option, and others who can’t afford it at that moment will download it for free then come back and pay later. Some people will never pay, but what that means for you is that they either never experience your game, or they pirate it. People experiencing your game, showing it to their friends, and talking about it is one of the most valuable pieces of advertisement you can ever have. It will ultimately lead to more people who are willing and able to pay learning about your game.

Start Small but Not Too Small

Do not make a one-page game for your first game. Do not be like us and make a 700-page game for your first game. Try to aim for something between 20 and 200 pages, especially if you’re one person or a small team.

Play and Read a lot of RPGs or Your Game Will Suck

Would you watch a movie by a director who had only ever watched one movie? Would you read a book by an author who had only ever read one book? Hell no, those would suck.

Read many rpg rulebooks, from many different genres and decades, play as many of them as you can (by the rules) to understand how the rules work and why they’re there. This will give you the creative tools you need to make something that isn’t just a weaker version of the last RPG you played. No, listening to "actual plays" does not count.

Most actual plays stray significantly from presenting a regular gameplay experience in favor of an experience that is entertaining for an audience. If you want to learn martial arts, you should be watching martial arts tournaments, not WWE.

If you want an actual play podcast that has my “actually mostly presents a real gameplay experience” approval, try Tiny Table.

If you say you don’t have time to read rulebooks, then you don’t have time to design a good game. Studying is part of the process of creating. If you don't, you won't even know about gleeblor.

This will let you know whether your "innovation" is more like "Cars don't need to run on gasoline!" or "Cars don't need crumple zones and airbags!"

The Rules Matter, So Design with Intent

The rules matter the rules fucking matter holy shit what you actually write down on the page matters I can’t believe this is actually the seemingly most needed piece of advice on this list. The. rules. matter.

Design your game to be played in the way you designed it. The rules affect the tone and genre of your game, they affect the type of people PCs can be and the kind of stories that will result from gameplay. Bonuses encourage PC behaviors, penalties discourage PC behaviors.

Do not fall for the trap of “oh well people will just play it their own way based on vibes anyway so it doesn’t matter what I write the rules to be.” Write that you wrote this game to be played by the rules and that significant changes to the rules mean that players are no-longer playing the game you made. Write like you deserve for your art to be acknowledged by its audience. If you don’t, then there is no point in anyone playing the game you made, because if the person who wrote it doesn’t even care what the rules say, why should anyone? The people whose “playing” of TTRPGs consists of never opening the rulebook and improving based on “vibes” will still do that no matter what, but the people who would have actually tried to engage with your game will find that it sucks if you don’t even care what the rules are yourself.

Playtest

You need to playtest your game if you want it to work as intended. You need multiple sets of eyes on it. If you don’t have the opportunity personally to do so, just release your game anyway with the acknowledgement that it’s unfinished. Call it an alpha or a beta version, and ask for people that do play it to give feedback, then update and fix the game based on that feedback.

Ignore Feedback

Most people do not have any game design credibility, perhaps least of all TTRPG players. You do not, in fact, have to listen to everything people say about your game. Once you ask for feedback, people will come to you with the most deranged, asinine, bad-faith “feedback” you can imagine, and then get really mad at you when you don’t fall to your knees and kiss their feet about it. You do not need to take this feedback at face value, instead you need to learn to read between the lines and find out which parts of the rules text are being misinterpreted by players, and which incorrect assumptions players are making about your game. Then, you update and improve the game by clearing those up. Only like 30% of “feedback” you receive will actually be a directly helpful suggestion in its own right at face value.

You can’t please everyone, and shouldn’t, so appeal to the people who actually like your game for being what it is, not the people who don’t.

Read Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

Yeah this one sounds self-serving but hear me out. Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is as much a treatise on TTRPG game design as it is a game itself. When it presents mechanics and rules, it tells you what they are, why they are, how they are, and what you’re intended to do with them. This makes it an excellent example to read for anyone wanting to get serious about game design and learn how TTRPGs tick under the hood, and an excellent example of a TTRPG that expects players to play it the way it was written to be played, and why that is a good thing. Also you can download it for free.

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