Treygarian Spremeius and the Entrance of the Dragon

The following is a fictional account of the events of the first session of Joe's Book II game written by my character Alison "Ali" Bee. Those existing in the world may find pamphlets with these words written on them sold for pennies or given away, though Ali would avoid giving people stories in which they are characters. If anyone notices mistakes, they are defiantly there on purpose because Ali is a mediocre fan-fiction author, and defiantly not because of any mistakes I have made. If anyone has suggestions for pictures or other details to include, feel free to contact me so I can make this anthology of stories the best one yet. Without further ado, please enjoy Treygarian Spremeius and the Entrance of the Dragon.

Treygarian Spremeius and the Entrance of the Dragon
Book IIXX, Part XXII, Chapter XVII of Treygarian's Journeys
Recorded by Alison "Ali" Bee on December 23rd, 3015

After defeating the Demon Apes of Gorilla Island and making love to the Sorcerous Chimp Princess Zaynab, (Found in last issue's Treygarian Spremeius and the Spiteful Simian Servants of Satan, now on sale for only 2 copper!) Treygarian walked through Zay's portal to a town as familiar as it was dangerous: Havensworth.

It had been a few months since Treygarian had last set foot in the hub of the Alerians, notorious rivals of our good looking hero. It was with no small sense of pride in his own sense of dramatic timing that Sir Spremeius (as he was known in Havensfeld after the events of Treygarian Spremeius: Battles, Blossoms, and Bosoms, the anthology available for the low low price of 5 copper!) noticed he had arrived on the eve of the yearly celebration of his close friends and colleagues the Witch Hunters. Content knowing he soon could talk once more with the eccentric fellows and shake Gerbo's unusually large hand for the lead on the location Olaf the Orangutan's Gorilla Island hideout, our hero grabbed a pint of ale and leaned against a pillar.

For any new readers, it is imperative at this moment that we describe exactly what gazing upon Treygarian Spremeius' body entails. We'll start with his hair. The shoulder length golden shining locks of Treygarian have been compared to rays of sunlight brushed by Dwarven smiths, shampooed by Elven maidens, and conditioned by Aphrodite herself. Looking down one's senses are pierced by his gorgeous blue eyes, strung up by his cheek bones, and struck by his chiseled jaw. His chest swells with imposing pecs, punctuated by erect caltrop like nipples. Abs like rocks protruding from rapids are only loosely concealed by his ruffled shirt, barely buttoned. Treygarian Spremeius is not easy to miss in a crowd.

Another figure difficult to miss was the shark man known as kAAHH. The seven foot tall creature, clothed only in his cummerbund and armed only with his rows of dagger like teeth, sniffed the air. Like any other warm or cold blooded person, kAAHH was enchanted by our hero's presence, and advanced menacingly toward Treygarian's pillar, saliva leaking from his mouth.

"kAAHH can smell what has value, and he knows what has the most worth here. What be the price of your hair, glorious one!?"
Treygarian smiled at the sahuAAHHgin's desire to own what could not be owned, to tie down what must fly free, that gripped so many people he encountered on his journeys.
"I am in need of an adventure soon, and would not be opposed to having a strong warrior on my side. I could trade you a lock of hair for your services on my crew."
Though the warrior made a show of considering declining the offer, his drooling mouth gave away that he could not refuse. As Treygarian Spremeius cut his glowing mane the sahuAAHHgin fell to one knee and greedily snatched the offered filaments and tucked them into his belt.

"Did I hear something about adventure?" A brave voice said from below.
Looking down, Treygarian saw a halfling with a green stone in her forehead. Though Bai Kai Tian was stout of mind and soul, the direct eye contact of Sir Spremeius made her heart flutter so powerfully she almost looked away.
"My order's scrolls say that it is our duty To Defeat Evil, Drive It Out of the Land, and Hear the Celebration of Men and Women. I'm looking for someone to perform my duty with."
Treygarian smiled a smile which felt like being buried in kittens and replied, "It would be my pleasure to lead you to the end of your order's holy quest."
With this response, Kai was sure that the being before her was the chosen one her order told her about as a child. kAAHH's response was a little different.
"You joined us!? For free!? You FOOL! AHHAHHAHAHAH!" he yelled before wandering off in search of more treasure.

"I have another friend who is also searching for justice," Kai said, gesturing toward the roof. Perched above was the bird person Arrano. Arrano's feathers were radiant will all the colors of the rainbow while his equipment was steeled for all the danger which lay. His left eye held all the sorrow of one who suffered a terrible tragedy and his right all the righteous anger of one who would claim vengeance. The two heroes gazed into each other's eyes tenderly as they recognized another who experienced both gentle love and harsh pain in this melancholy and dangerous world we all inhabit. It was obvious to anyone who saw the single tear each of them shed that Treygarian would lead Arrano to the justice he so desperately needed.

As the crowd fell silent from such a beautiful display of emotion, the organizers of the celebration decided to start the official ceremony. Lady Grace Aleria stepped forward and explained that though the celebration today was for the Witch Hunters, they were unfortunately not able to join for the traditional raffled feast. Right as she was about to cancel the whole affair Lady Grace noticed Treygarian in the crowd. Her heart skipped a beat as she thought back to the the times they strove together and fought against one another both in the field and the bedroom. (as detailed both in Treygarian Spremeius: Battles, Blossoms, and Bosoms and the NOW FREE Treygarian Spremeius and the Apocalyptic Apology of the Alerians) Instead of canceling the dinner as she had planned, Lady Grace decided to keep the drawing open in hopes of luring our hero into her castle and, eventually, bedroom.

Disappointed at not being able to see his compatriots the Witch Hunters, Treygarian Spremeius was about to leave when a peculiar figure approached him. Legendary was one of the humanoid war machines from Faen'Dasia know as warforged, possessing a strong mechanical body and a holy third eye on his forehead.
"Excuse me sir, but I am in need of a hero. You see, I am an adventurer from a distant land who wishes to ask the castle what I can do for good in this part of the world. I am afraid that as a foreigner who worships a foreign god the Alerians will not believe that I have a pure and good robotic heart, but if I could be accompanied by one as pure and good looking as you, well there would be no question as to my intentions. With my well oiled hard steel and your well oiled biceps there is no evil which could stand in our way. What say you?"
"How could I say no to such a well built brother in arms?" Treygarian responded with fire in his heart, "I believe destiny has decided I and my party must have another date with Lady Aleria after all."

With his plans now set for the evening, Sir Spremeius walked to the guide waiting to lead the throng of patriotic citizens to their promised dinner. Treygarian walked through the familiar halls of the capital before the group was left in a waiting room.

"Excuse me, but you wouldn't happen to need a doctor?" said a voice from under a mask.
Cara appeared to be a plague doctor judging from her menacing bird like mask. Treygarian was no stranger to physicians chasing after him, trying to capture what it was about his biology that made him the greatest hero in the land.
"I don't think I do miss," Treygarian replied, "I'm still tender from the last time I got physical with a medical professional." (Treygarian Spremeius is of course referring to his encounter with the Dominating Doctor Darwinious, last seen in Treygarian Spremeius and the Evolution of Epistemological Evil, currently going for one copper piece)
"Well I insist you at least consume this vitamin I concocted while I study you further. You wouldn't want to loose your energy on such a long, hard, journey."
Treygarian knew the moment he consumed the offering of the "good" doctor he would be powerless to stop her advances to medicine. Luckily, Cara wasn't the only interesting character currently in the waiting room. Treygarian had made eye contact earlier with the goblin known as Zazu! who clearly had the same love for breaking the shackles of doctoral authority as he our hero. Using the secret goblin hang gestures he learned during his (as yet untold) month long imprisonment with the Hobgoblin Witch Queen Trudu, Treygarian asked for a flask of spirits, the only antidote to the foul potion Cara had brewed for him. With a deft movement Treygarian quaffed both liquids at once, canceling out the vile potion and leaving only the smooth taste of whiskey which only someone as refined as Treygarian could enjoy.
"While I'd love to stay and chat, I'm afraid I have someone to meet," Treygarian said much to the surprise of Cara, who expected her "vitamin" to have taken effect by now. "I'm sure this won't be the last we see of each other," he called over his shoulder to both of them while also signing a thanks to the goblin who kept him safe.

Treygarian was, of course, going to meet with Lady Grace Aleria. He had deduced (correctly) from the time taken that she must have cold feet, nervous that he would remember how she had stolen the diamond the Aquatic Alien Adventists had gifted to him after he stopped a noble faux pas from ending the world. (A story which can still be recounted for FREE in Treygarian Spremeius and the Apocalyptic Apology of the Alerians) It was only as he took a short cut in front of the royal vault that our hero noticed something was off. All of the magical seals usually present had been removed and the vault itself was cracked open instead of sealed. Curious at what could have caused such a change, Sir Spremeius entered the vault.

It was almost exactly as he had remembered it, filled to the brim with relics deemed too dangerous to be anywhere else. Cursed swords, bound demons, and forbidden tomes lined the metal walls, along with a certain jewel only dangerous to the Alerian family because of the embarrassing circumstances under which it was stolen. Treygarian quietly pocketed his lawful property before walking to the secret sanctum at the back of the vault, also left ajar.

"Greetings my beautiful fine fellow
I wish that the circumstances we met under were more mellow

I would love to meet with you after my vile deed is done
Then we could've had some fun, hun."

It was with this vile rhyme that the jester like figure with armor as black as night and red as blood crushed an orb of darkness, causing a huge calamity. The Alerian castle came falling apart as above the sky ripped apart like the jeans jacket the Levi-athan attempted to trap Treygarian in after he flexed his way out of it. (as can be read in the first ever written history of Treygarian Spremeius, Treygarian Spremeius and the Fated Fabric, currently a rare collectible item) Emerging from the hole like Treygarian emerged from the destroyed clothing article was a black dragon so mighty and enormous there could be no question it was here to destroy the world, starting with the castle.

Unfortunately for the dragon, it could not complete its task without interference. With the architecture crumbling around him Treygarian leaped from falling block to falling block, approaching the evil creature. Afraid for its life so soon after appearing, the dragon quickly fled from Sir Spremeius, leaving only the destruction in its wake.

"I guess my date
will have to wait."
Treygarian said as he fell gracefully to the rubble below and began digging the injured out. Following his lead, other heroic individuals crept forward and joined his valiant effort, including a strange woman sparkling skin named Eva who shared glances with our hero while saving countless lives.

An Easy Fix: A New, More Playable, Witch

I think that my Uncle's Witch is very interesting and accurate from historical/simulationist view inside of his AD&D universe. Unfortunately, this means that it is incredibly complicated and unfun from a game design perspective. The following is my idea for how to make the class fit better and become more playable in AD&D games I would be involved in while changing as little as possible.

For this quick fix almost everything would stay the same, including: Familiars, Potion/Poison creation, Taboos, Witch Marks, Candle Magic, Talismans, Control Dolls, Spell research, creation of magic items, penning of scrolls, and special powers.
What changes is their magical literacy, use of Wizard/Clerical Magic Items, and "spheres".

As I see it, there are two glaring flaws with the Witch right now.

First, the Witch is currently intended to be in a uniquely fucked up situation until 3rd level. They start with a number of spells known like a Mage, but they have no way of keeping a spellbook from which to prepare the spells. In Uncle David's world, this means that they are only able to continue preparing the spells which they have previously prepared the day before, and can not prepare spells which they know, but do not have currently loaded.

At third level they are able to now keep a spellbook where they can record and prepare spells from, but since they don't have a copy of the spells they don't have memorized, they will need to find another copy of those spells before they can put them in their book, essentially baring them from preparing them again.

In addition, the Witch's ability to do things which Wizards and Clerics can do but not both comes in slowly, strangely, and haphazardly. There is a logic to it, but it is not predictable or sensible to someone who isn't embroiled in AD&D. It goes as follows: Use magic items Wizard or Illusionists but not Clerics can use @ 3rd, Cleric only items @ 5th, Read scrolls @ 6th, Read any scrolls as thief @ 9th.

Instead of this system, I propose a simpler one. At first level, if a Witch were to attempt to engage in an action which a Cleric or Magic-User could do but not both, they suffer a -50% chance at success. This decreases every level by 5% to 0 at 11th level. This includes learning new spells from Wizard spellbooks or scrolls instead of from another Witch or as their leveling spell.

Now instead of 5 rules which all occur at different levels, there is one rule which represents a Witch slowly becoming more and more literate in traditional magic. Witch's spell books would still be pseudo spell books, and they still would not even be able to learn spells from a Wizard's spellbook till 3rd level when they can cast Read Magic, but now they don't suffer from a very specific and punishing interpretation of the pseudo Vancian casting my Uncle uses in AD&D.

The second problem with the Witch is how confusing the current "sphere" system is. In an attempt to include established but taboo gods in the Witch's portfolio, (namely Bahamat who my uncle has many Witches of) there is a system now where a witch Patron can also grant Clerical Spheres in addition to allowing the Witch to use "witchcraft" (their standard spell casting). These come at the cost of a penalty to learn new spells and high level spell witch spell casting. So a Witch devoted to Asmodeus may gain the ability to spontaneously cast spells from the Evil, Law, and Charm(Rulership) domains, but they would loose the ability to cast 5th, 6th, or 7th level "normal" witch spells and a -15% chance to understand "normal" witch spells of any level.

This doesn't really make sense to me for a number of reasons, but my largest gripe with it is that it is overly complicated and only serves to confuse class identity by buffing what was before a downside (limited spell list) and removing part what made it uniquely powerful/interesting. (the high level unique witch spells) That being said, I think that differentiating Witches based on their Patrons makes sense as a goal, but I suggest a different way of doing it.

Around every new spell level, the Witches Patron (maybe through their familiar, the Patrons organization, or through dream) may reach out to the Witch and ask them to perform a task for the Patron. At low levels this will be minor (take care of someone in the town the Witch is already in, collect an item from a dungeon they're already going to, ect.) but will grow to full blown quests at higher levels. As opportunities for the Witch to prove their loyalty, usefulness, or faith to the Patron the Witch will receive a reward for successful completion of the mission.

Now each Patron can provide powers to the Witch in exchange for the Witch's unique support in various efforts, fulfilling the promise of a pact specific to each Witch. Patrons which are close to and desire godhood can reward the Witch with access to spheres, while others could give physical rewards or magical powers. Patrons with less of a interest or power in the world may not offer as many missions or care if they are completed while others may have severe consequences if the Witch fails to constantly further their goals.

If I were to continue to adjust the Witch there are two more major changes I could see making. Currently the class has access to a hodge-podge of alternate magic systems. I think this is really cool and flavorful, but ends up burying players in a large number of confusing and bizarre options which border on making the class overpowered and mid-high levels in very specific circumstances. Instead of the current system I would have a few different options of specific alternate magic systems the Witch could choose between (like alchemy, charms&dolls, maybe curses&candles?) to provide a more controlled power level and clearer focus for players, while also expanding the world and its cultures.

The second problem I see is that by providing the Witch total control over the powers of their familiar, the mysterious spirit which is flavorful a mentor becomes nothing more than a common minion. I would want to provide tools for a DM to construct familiars as entities of their own with goals, plans, and schemes which may not align with that of the player/character, perhaps even giving them additional powers which are decided by the DM/Patron or chance instead of the witch themselves.

Hopefully these two quick fixes can change the class from being all but unplayable to instead a bit complicated but still fun and engaging. If people have feedback on/want to help with these or the suggested next steps of the class I'd love to hear from them.

EDIT: I have been notified the link to the original Witch isn't working great. Here is a link to the geocities cache of the page it is on, and here is a link to a cache of the whole site.

A E S T H E T I C S

Everyone has things in art which they find appealing for both scrutable and inscrutable reason. Today I want to try to scrute some of the things which end up showing up in my games regularly and attempt to give my personal explanation for why I enjoy and use them. Below are some of my ideas about a few of my aesthetics in RPGs. (and D&D-esque games more specifically) I hope you enjoy.

Self Awareness
I enjoy when art makes statements about things. In fact, a thing made to convey a thing would be pretty close to my definition of art. That being said, calling one's own work, and specifically a D&D game, "art" brings with it many pretensions. As a 23 year old unemployed student living with my parents, the thought of making grandiose statements about life through a game I play on Sundays with my friends strikes me as a bit much. That doesn't stop me, but I find remarking on specific small things which I have intimate experience with much more appropriate. By far the thing which I have the most expertise in compared to the average person is games, which means that my games most end up talking about themselves. This ends up working quite well, since I quite enjoy things which talk about themselves in some way or another.

Just like how joking about my ravenously avid deer readers of whom there are many when really I know that there are only two people who read anything I write (hi Jeff and Keith) makes the absurdity and pain of writing long, personal, rambling think pieces about nonsense no one cares about hurt less, placing characters in my games which make fun of me for making games which attempt to say things makes trying to convey meaning through playing pretend feel a little less silly.

In addition, I find that self awareness helps to solve a bit of the tone problem RPGs can have from time to time. Everyone who sits down to the table has their own ideas about what kind of story they want to tell, and all of those ideas colliding at once can end up making things more awkward than good. Specifically self awareness lets everyone at the table know that, yes, you are aware how ridiculous it is that half the table is trying to rescue a princess from the horrors of capitalism while the other half is trying to burn down a bar and steal a gnomish submarine, all while getting pizza stains on a book older than everyone reading it and making anime jokes. Once we are able to acknowledge how absurd this game we are playing is, I actually find it easier to take it seriously for what it is.

An example of a character who makes a statements about the games I play in is Steve the Sloth Shaman and his buddy Sir Gabriel the Demon Slayer in Alex's Kadab Brazam game. Steve is a dorky kid with very low self esteem who really just wants to have friends and help everyone get along. He despises conflict and would probably be regarded as a pacifist, his only "weapon" proficiency being in Hugs. I try for Steve to say a number of things about the way that we play D&D. First, his morals are (probably) closer mine than any other character I play, and therefore he totally and completely fails to fit in. Steve is not an advocate for genocidal racism, the acquisition of wealth and power through use of force, or really much beyond kicking it with his friends and eating sandwiches. This brings him in conflict with the views and desires of most adventurers, and (imo) points out lots of the morally questionable aspects of the fantasies we revel in when we play games.

An example of me using a character in a game I ran to comment on the game itself was Jules from my Colors DCC game. Jules was the "familiar" of Schwaldon the Prismatic, the great wizard who collected the party and whose many "personalities" were the driving force of the plot. Jules only had a few things characterizing him: his emo hair and appearance, his ability to magically serve as the PC's and Schwaldon's mystical butler, his exasperated sighs and rolled eyes whenever serving as the PC's or Schwaldon's mystical butler, his residence in the basement of the party's house, and his membership in a band consisting of the kitchenware he magically animated in the basement. (He played the bass) The game was intended to in many ways be an examination of depression, and Jules was my way of showing everyone involved that I realized how silly that was. He appeared as a kid of a similar age to me (though much more fashionable) and encompassed most of the more ridiculous stereotypes of depression and/or someone who would write a D&D game about depression and play it with his friends. By laughing at myself and also placing a ridiculous version of myself in the world for everyone to also laugh at I was able to feel more comfortable writing the ridiculous narrative which I ended up making.

Cycles
If my desire for self aware games is a defense mechanism against the real world then my desire for cycles is a desire to bring my favorite parts of learning and understanding in the real world to my games. Pattern recognition is something which comes to us easily as human beings, and making things in patterns is similarly easy. Attempting to spontaneously create a large number of things with no limitations is quite difficult, but attempting to match a given set to ideas is a much more approachable task.

If I need to make 7 new characters for a plot, blindly creating personalities can be difficult, but if I instead base each of them around one of the deadly sins then the characters start to write themselves. In addition, if I think up something interesting and compelling for one of the members of a cycle, I can then take that as an opportunity to adjust and reapply that idea to each of the other members, making them all more fleshed out.

Now of course cycles don't always work and aren't always appropriate. When attempting to create and represent something alien and unknowable, organizing it around an understandable pattern defeats the purpose. In addition, sometimes attempting to squeeze the last few elements into the mold created by the first ones is all but impossible. But this is also why I enjoy using the cycles; they give the world some sort of order which can be understood by everyone involved. In addition, for me trying to make the hardest elements fit in the cycle is when I get the most creative and come up with my best work, even if that creativity comes in the form of redefining what the cycles is/means in order to allow it to fit the elements I want it to.

An example of when I used cycles in a way I think worked was also in my Colors DCC game. It has its name because each of the split personalities of Schwaldon the Prismatic corresponded with a different color. I got to have each of the 7 personalities be based on a different hue and some of the philosophies which I felt went along with them. I got to make names which were anagrams of different synonyms for the colors, give them all a design which matched their colors, and color their personalities appropriately. When I came up with the idea of a relationship between two of the colors I then got to apply the same ideas to each other of the personalities, and create a web of understandings between all of the entities. This ended up with what were (imo) my best defined (if very silly) characters for the players to meet with, since I understood how all my reactions and thoughts for the personalties should be organized.

Hell/Devils
In addition to my embarrassment about attempting to create things I'm proud of and my joy at understanding and decoding the universe, I also have angst about the world we live in. Systems of oppression, evil, or just incompetence seem to perpetuate themselves everywhere in terrible ways which get to the root of the problems in our world. Cycles may do a good job of representing the logic of our reality which I comprehend and appreciate, but I also need a way to convey when I feel the logic of our existence doesn't make sense. For me, Devils and Hell are the perfect vessel to represent these ideas. While a Demon's evil is random and doesn't need to have any rhyme or reason, Devil's evil is instead one of twisted logic. Their thoughts makes some amount of sense, but not in the way you think they would.

This where the three ideas collide. Devils are characterized as simultaneously hyper intelligent and completely lacking in any sense what so ever which allows them and the things they do to occupy a unique space in a narrative. If a farmer winks at the camera or makes a meta pun, it seems silly, but when a Devil does it they instead show their knowledge of this ridiculous and terrible world which they live in, and yet only an insane and disturbed entity would continue live in the same way knowing what they know about their reality. Self aware comments no longer take one out of the game, but instead convey the terrible anti-logic required to be a Devil. In addition, ironic punishment is something which is both famous in stories of Hell and requires some meta knowledge of a story and what is happening. The match of self aware commentary and terrible anti-logical evil is one which draws me back to Devil's as villains time after time.

Cycles also have a role to play in the diabolical too. While the demonic focuses on the individual and what they alone are exceptional at and can do by themselves, Devils instead focus on what is created as a whole. This understanding means that many things will occur in patterns, even if these patterns don't make traditional sense or are artificially created. In the real world forcing something to fit a cycle can lead to awkwardness, but for the Devils forcing a round peg into a square hole is what they do. This allows one to convey Devil's need to make everything fit in a specific cycle when it naturally wouldn't while also using a useful tool to help flesh out designs.


By colliding these three aspects, Devils and Hell become much more interesting to me than most other subjects in D&D games. My love for self reference, well organized and comprehensible systems, and edgy darkness all get fulfilled with just one type of bad guy. In addition, including the outer planes gives the games a philosophical undercurrent which I find incredibly interesting and engaging. Hopefully reading this has given you some idea how these three ideas (and many more) have guided me towards making the things I do today.

Something Small

Hey, its been a while. After Kai left I didn't have a lot of desire to write much and so didn't make much progress on putting anything up here. After that I spent about a week going down to SLO to hang with some friends and then drove back up just in time to continue driving North to Olympia, Washington to celebrate my brother's graduation with him. During this time I started writing something about my personal aesthetics in the games I design, but it got swallowed by the internet. I just got back yesterday, so I wanted to put down a couple of things to not loose my streak of writing.

First I've started working and thinking more seriously about the drafting to populate a town game that I mentioned before. Since the basic "mechanic" is choosing cards and then putting them down and constructing a story based off of the meaning which they provide I've been thinking a lot about all the different interesting ways you can put meaning into cards which require almost no objective game information/rules. A game which does something kind of similar well is the picture/other weirder cards in monikers. The second part of the thinking I've done with the game is the idea of letting people change and add to the game as time goes on ala a legacy game. By providing some arts and crafts supplies to people I hope to have everyone who plays the game (literally) leave a mark on the game. This could be done by adding an image/symbol to a card, decorating the box, making a new card, or even destroying an old card. Giving the game a DIY crafty aesthetic will hopefully encourage the players to do this since it doesn't seem like something precious and more something I threw together. In addition, the idea of a game which uniquely evolves and changes with the group who play it is a pretty enticing one, and expanding the changes to not only be the result of design but to also be design I personally find pretty dope.

Second I just wanted to mention some of the cool stuff I've thought about from continuing to listen to Soren Johnson's podcast Designer Notes, specifically his interview with Amy Hennig. (specifically part 2) One thing which she talks about is how when making a cinematic and narrative game many times things are all very wishy washy until the last moment when they end up being nailed down due to the process, and that it is important to accept and work with that chaos instead of fighting against it. Though there are of course many differences, it reminds me greatly of many of the D&D games I enjoyed the most. If you try to exactly plan things out too far in advanced you end up just stifling the creativity and fun of the players. Instead, keeping things flexible in session and between sessions when planning what comes next leaves the most room for everyone to enjoy the experience no matter what happens. Also, she sounds like a really dope person and its cool to hear what she says.

I'm planning on trying to finish up the town drafting thing in the next couple weeks, so I'm probably going to do a post on its design and also showing off if I do some stuff to make WIZARD SQUABBLE look cool. I may also write my post about my aesthetic preferences in the next couple of weeks, but no promises.

Designing a Moment

I've been thinking about what it really means to write a roleplaying game, what it means to play one with friends, and what meaning one should attempt to garner from making and playing one. Part of this was me writing the Making Decisions nonsense I did before, but I'm also trying to think if I can make something which takes into account all of the ideas I've been thinking and rhetoric I've been spouting. The Hell game is taking an eternity, as it always has and always will, but I want to explore something else while this is happening, to have something a little bit less serious which I can share and show off. Because of this I've been thinking about making a set of games, and specifically having one or two to show off at the Yurt trip up to Alex's work.

The goals of each of these games will be three fold:

1. To give enjoyable and interesting experiences to the people playing, which they can take with them.
2. To allow for the creation of interesting stories which people can incorporate into the stories they tell if they see so fit.
3. To provide an alternative interpretation of how to use mechanics and games which people can take or use to further think about games.

There will be a few assumptions for the games which I want to create:

1. I will attempt to use them to convey a scene/emotion/idea. (For instance: looking in the mirror in the morning for the first time in a while and noticing everything about your face, only for the steam from the shower to fog it up and to loose oneself in the steam. Or the sweet sensation of rubbing vanilla ice cream all over your naked body.)
2. Each game will be a one off, with any continuity only existing in how the players construct the narratives and characters. (If Liz wants to only make Guys and make an overarching plot about how they are all running from the Devil Bloperdink, cool, but that will not be inherent in the rules of the game)
3. I will attempt to use a new mechanic/idea from other games to make for interesting decisions and a new mechanic/idea from rpgs to make for narratives which conform to what the players want and think.

Hopefully I will have 1-3 of these done by the end of the summer, and will be able to "publish" them as something between a 1 page RPG and a print and play board game. Here are some of the ideas which I've had so far:


WIZARD SQUABBLE
A group of Wizards realize they didn't get what they wanted after the treasure has been divided up. We tune in to see their WIZARD SQUABBLE after the fact.
Feeling: The person in front of you in line got the last ice cream on a hot summer day. Seeing the person you have a crush on hanging onto the arm of someone you knew in high school.
"New" Game Mechanic: Writing down actions ahead of time and resolving them in order.
"New" RPG Mechanic: Having an explicit group consensus/discussion on how each individual thing will resolve and turn out.

S T O C K  P H O T O S

Shopkeeper
We follow the lives of a number of residents of a town as their lives indirectly effect each other. In the end, the residents all talk at their funeral.
Feeling: Hearing someone else describe how you've changed in the last few years. Looking in the mirror and noticing what looks the same and what looks different.
"New" Game Mechanic: Players will draft components of their character's life and combine them to make who they are.
"New" RPG Mechanic: At the end of the game, everyone else gets to talk about what they say at your funeral and what they though of your character.

I hope to experience these game with you, dearly avid reader, and to share these experiences and what we think about them. Hopefully we can both shape each others understanding of games, and use it to be better players, designers, and people.

Why are you special?

I like to think that I think a lot about how stuff works in my games. In fact, I like to think that I think too much about thinking about how much I think about how stuff works in my games, and yet I had not until recently thought about thinking about an in universe explanation for why our Heroes of Hell have unique mechanics. Unthinkable.

I had thought from time to time about why the PC's would end up going on an awesome quest in Hell and being able to make a big change, but never quite got down to level of why each of them individually were able to do the awesome things. In this post, I hope to explain to you, my avidly dear readers, why each of the characters has their power and acts in the way they do.

The Bard:
The power of the Bard comes from their belief in the power and reality of their own story and truth. The Bard is an artist who believes that what they say is true and worth sharing. For this reason, in Hell their story is true and worth sharing, meaning they have the ability to sculpt their own reality in a way no other character has.

The Crusader:
The power of the Crusader comes from their belief and representation of an idea. Instead of trying to understand many frameworks and thoughts, the Crusader takes one and becomes the master of it, applying its reality to all facets of the world. This single minded determination bends reality to fit into their understanding, and gives the Crusader dominion over their singular interpretation.

The Fake:
The power of the Fake comes from their understanding that the ultimate function of something is more important than how that function comes about. Nine times out of ten, reality deals with black boxes whose content is unimportant. By knowing and understanding this, the Fake has the power to change the outside of a box without bothering with the inner workings, and so has the power to manipulate how they are perceived and function in the shallow world of Hell.

The Genius:
The power of the Genius comes from their belief that given the time, resources, and will, they can do anything they wish to. They are much more engineer than scientist: more Elon than Einstein. This means that the Genius is a master of reality, who can wield the most powerful forces and cause the most impressive effects, as long as they have enough minutes in the day, dollars in the bank, and shits to give.

The Lord:
The power of the Lord comes from their belief that they should be the one to lead. Whether through birthright or earned through practice, the Lord knows that they should be in charge. Though they are not above getting their hands dirty, they know that their place is at the head of the table, giving orders, passing judgment, and planning big plans. This gives them dominion over those looking for someone to give their services too, those looking for someone who is fit to rule.

The Priest:
The power of the Priest comes from their knowledge of the importance of ideas. Not just knowledge of what is, but of the frameworks and understandings which we put together to represent these things. If they were to write a book it would be called Maps of Meaning,  and it would detail how to create an ideology which could change the way that people look at the world around them. They are able to shape these ideas and understand and effect reality in a way that someone who didn't understand this never could.

I actually do think this image is pretty cool, even if I hate Peterson.

The Rebel:
The power of the Rebel comes from their understanding of the power of relationships. Everyone says its not what you know, its who you know, but only the Rebel is able to take these relationships and understand them well enough to turn them into power.

The Thief:
The power of the Thief comes from their understanding that the concept of individual ownership is not as important as we think it is. Of course this is clear when you take physical objects from people, but it is also true of stealing ideas, copying looks or style, and appropriating techniques and approaches. Even if one has a quality, that does not mean that they alone are that quality, or that it can not be taken from them. By understanding that one does not own beauty, the Thief is able to be beautiful like no one else is.

The Villain:
The power of the Villain comes from their belief that they are special; that they are the chosen one who can on their own cause great changes to the world. The Villain believes that they are above others, they are unique amongst sameness, they are a wolf among sheep. This power means that the Villain are able to put themselves above others and do things which the "plebeians" can not.

A big part of why I ended up thinking about and writing about this particular idea is first reading this article and then Alan Moore's Promethea and thinking about their connection to "self-referential reality" and specifically the characters I made to inhabit and represent ideas and ideals in my Hell game. As always, if anyone reads this and has thoughts please bother me with them, as talking about these ideas is probably my favorite thing other than making jokes about smearing vanilla ice-cream all over my naked body.

Wizardy, Sorcery, and Theft

Much has changed since I last posted anything about the my Hell game here. After all it has been literally years. Today I wanted to share with you what I have done of the current classes so far. Much of this won't make sense without the greater context of the game and what all the words mean, but that's ok. If you read this now and are intrigued, then ask me for my current version of the PH/Design Doc/Whatever I'm calling it. If you are reading this far into the future, chances are that time has passed you by and there is a better place to both find these ideas and to find me talking about what it all means.
My next post I suspect will be an exploration/summary of where each of the character's powers come from.

The Genius

The Genius was a respected and distinguished leader in their field, who was working on an awesome and terrible project for their organization. An outside force came and threatened the Genius, forcing them to be their spy and work against the original organization. Eventually, the Genius' betrayal was discovered, and brought about their demise.

The Genius's power is to prepare terrible and powerful spells which they can unleash to great effect. Any number of spells can be prepared or learned, the only limitation is the Genius' time, resources, and desire to do so.

Play the Genius if you want to create plans and manage resources to wield the most powerful magics to overcome the largest obstacles.

With the Genius, you have access to the widest variety of the most potent rituals, and can learn any of them your character wants to. However, your magical abilities rely on the resources available to you, and failure to manage them well could leave you with many problems.

Examples: Walter White, Rhialto the Marvelous

Str: 9
Int: 18
Wis: 14
Dex: 15
Con: 9
Chr: 12

HP: 8

+lvl: Engineering, Math
+lvl/2: Science, Subterfuge

Traits:
Cowardly ● ● ○ ○ ○
The Genius is terrified constantly and excels at taking any and all opportunities to avoid conflict. This character is the sort of person who would know not to engage in any risky behavior with their assets necessary for survival or would go their entire life without stepping foot in water deeper than an inch.
● – Can check to evaluate the danger of any given situation before getting entangled in it.
● ● – Can quickly disengage from dangerous situations without provoking any immediate response from the engaged characters.

Ingenious ● ○ ○ ○ ○
The Genius is not only very smart, but also apt to apply their intelligence in new and novel ways to solve difficult problems. This character is the sort of person who would give MacGyver a run for their money or fix their car's engine with duct tape and glue instead of buying a new one.
● – Can check to attempt to solve problems without the necessary tools or materials and only a work around and a good description of the method used.

Wizardry:
As the Genius your magical powers all come from your ability to understand and exploit the reality of the world around you. This is done by preparing powerful spells ahead of time and then releasing them once ready. There is no limit to the power and number of spells which can be prepared before hand; however, the time and resources required along with the chance of catastrophic failure steadily increase with the ambition of the caster. The Genius' repertoire is also limited to what they can understand themselves doing, meaning some spells will be off limits based on their Traits.
The number and power of the spells which the Genius has easy access to is based on their level, and detailed in the chart below.



Genius Spell Limits

Level	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3	Rank 4	Rank 5
1	1	-	-	-	-
2	2	-	-	-	-
3	2	1	-	-	-
4	3	2	-	-	-
5	4	2	1	-	-
6	4	2	2	-	-
7	4	3	2	1	-
8	4	3	3	2	-
9	4	3	3	2	1

In order to prepare a spell, the Genius must already know the spell, must have access to materials to create physical components to store the magic, and then spend time in relative peace. If the Genius currently has less spells prepared of the Rank than they are allowed, (as can be seen above) then the preparation takes materials which have no cost and only 10 mins per Rank to prepare fully. If the Genius has access to spells of a given Rank, but already has the above amount (or more) prepared, preparing another takes materials costing 10^(Rank) SP and 1 hour per Rank. If the spell you are trying to prepare is of a higher Rank than you currently have access to, it costs 10^(Rank + 1) SP, takes 4 hours per Rank, and has a failure chance of 15% for every Rank it is above your max castable Rank. This can be offset by 1% for every Rank in an applicable Trait your character has. This failure chance is rolled only when the prepared spell is attempted to be cast. If the spell fails by 10% or less it still occurs but goes a long with a side effect. If the spell fails by 11% to 20% it simply fails to happen. A failure of more than 20% causes a magical backlash which is catastrophic for the caster and any nearby.

In order to learn new spells to prepare, the Genius must first make sure that they don't conflict with their Traits. If the Genius wishes to learn a spell whose powers are at odds with one of their Traits, they must first bring the Trait to Rank zero. Whenever the Genius gains a level, they may learn a new spell of their devising which matches one of their Traits. When inspiration strikes, they have no need to spend any money and the process only takes 8 hours, regardless of the spell's Rank. If the Genius already has a copy of the spell in question, they may learn it simply by taking one day per Rank of the spell to decipher its contents. Finally, if the Genius wishes to learn a spell without already having access to a copy of it, they may spend one thousand SP per Rank of the spell and three days of time per Rank of the spell. This process has a failure rate equal to if the Genius tried to cast the spell. (15% per Rank above current possibility - 1% per applicable Trait Rank)

Casting a spell is as simple as releasing the energy stored in the materials used to prepare it. This means that the materials are used up and destroyed when the spell is cast and that only prepared spells can be cast. There may be some ways for the Genius to mitigate the failure rate of preparing or learning powerful spells, but these are rare and powerful in the extreme.

Preparing Spells If...	Material Cost	Time	Failure Chance
Fits within the chart	0 SP	10 min/Rank	0%
Fits within Rank but not #	10^(Rank) SP	1 hour/Rank	0%
Doesn't fit Rank	10^(Rank +1) SP	4 hour/Rank	15*ΔRank - Traits

Learning Spells If...	Material Cost	Time	Failure Chance
Lvl Up + Match Trait	0 SP	8 Hours	0%
Have Copy of Spell	0 SP	1 day/Rank	0%
No Copy of Spell	1000 * Rank SP	3 days/Rank	15*ΔRank - Traits

Failure results

under 10%	Negative Side Effect
11% to 20%	Harmless Fizzle
over 20%	Catastrophic Side Effect

The Villain

The Villain was a scourge on the land, spreading their dark power into all the cracks and crevices of the world. Eventually they got their hands on a captive who even the Villain couldn't bring themselves to kill, and eventually let go free. The release of the prisoner was the Villain's one redeeming act, and it brought about their demise.

The Villain's power is to invoke powerful Sorceries core to their being without relying on any outside objects, ideologies, or relationships.

Play the Villain if you want to wield terrible forces inherent to you, which no one else can have any effect on.

With the Villain, you can create an island with completely customizable powers which rely only on themselves . However, this power relies on managing their carefully constructed personal and public identity.

Examples: Elric of Melniboné, Gul'dan

Str: 10

Int: 16

Wis: 17

Dex: 11

Con: 13

Chr: 8

HP: 12

+lvl   : Intimidation, _____

+lvl/2 : Philosophy, Authority

Traits:

Distant ● ● ○ ○ ○

The Villain is a solitary person who relies solely on themselves whenever possible. This character is the sort of person who would feel comfortable living alone in a cabin in the woods for 5 years or would feel no remorse eating a pet when stuck on a desert island.

● – Can check to avoid a reaction to any circumstance while putting on sun glasses and walking into the sunset.

● ● – Can posit a question and receive an "objective" and "rational" answer which doesn't rely on or include the emotions or "subjective" aspects which may go along with the answer.

Thoughtful ● ○ ○ ○ ○

The Villain is a pensive person, who thinks deeply about ideas which are important to them. This character is the sort of person who would have a complicated and detailed reasoning for their walk to work every day or would spend two hours in the shower thinking about if a burrito is a sandwich.

● – Can check to ask others to contribute to the character's internal monologue when pondering.

Sorcery:

As the Villain, your personal brand of magic comes simply and naturally to you. Wielding these powers is intrinsic to your own personal view of yourself, much as writing is to a writer, drawing to a drawer, or dancing to a dancer. For this reason, your sorcery requires no preparation before hand, no long arduous rituals, and no complicated wheeling and dealing; it can simply be done.

The magical actions available to the Villain are known as Sorceries. These use the individual magic reserve of the Villain, known as Mana. At any given time, the Villain can hold only a number of Mana points equal to lvl x 5, and can only spend up to lvl x 3 on any given Sorcery. Spending Mana equal or less than the Villain's level on a Sorcery is considered "casual" expenditure, which provides some benefits detailed below.

The Sorceries available to the Villain stem from their perception of who they truly are, defined in Hell as their Traits. For each level of each Trait, the Villain gains another Sorcery which they can use, meaning as they gain a clearer image of themselves, they also gain a clearer image of what they can do. The first Sorcery gained from any Trait will always provide a way for the Villain to gain Mana, with the subsequent Sorceries providing impressive effects which can be used to spend it.

Each Sorcery is defined rather simply, with only the mechanical effects below. This is not because the flavor of each of these Sorceries isn't important, but because the exact nature of the Villain's power is intended to be defined and fleshed out by the player instead. Primarily, it is important for the Villain to have some description for how their power operated when they were alive, and now that they are damned in Hell. This could be the destructive psychological manipulation of others using dark and terrible techniques, an inherited family power to breech the walls between worlds and bring in demons to do your bidding, or something else way cooler that you come up with. Each Sorcery should then be adjusted to fit with the overall flavor. The Animate Defeated Sorcery could be the Villain whispering dark threats to the downed creature stupefying it into a mindless zombie who follows orders, it could be tempting ravenous demons with the corpse of the fallen and then cajoling them to stick around, or it could be something way cooler than either of those. This may partially change the nature of how precisely the Sorceries work, and thats fine.

The Villain's Adjectives can also change how their Sorceries manifest over time. On the surface, Sorceries will change their aesthetics to match the Villain's Adjectives. More interestingly, each new rank will bring with it a new way to change each Sorcery. For the first rank of the Adjective, this is always an opportunity to use a Sorcery without spending Mana if the use aligns with the Adjective and the Mana spent is at or below Casual usage. Past this first modifier, a new one is unlocked at each new Adjective rank with the exact modification determined by the Adjective in question.

Starting Powers:

Basic/Universal

Blast – Fire a ranged attack which does 1d10/Mana spent on a hit

Distant ●

Death Absorption – Can desecrate a helpless being at 0 HP to gain 1 Mana per Hit Die of the effected creature. This destroys their form and prevents them from healing under normal circumstances.

Distant ● ●

Animate Defeated – Can spend 1 Mana/HD on a helpless being at 0 HP to create a (mostly) mindless minion of the same HD.

Thoughtful ●

Meditation – May enter a meditative state which allows for reduced outside effects and the recovery of Mana. Can be used to great effect and time outside of combat (~1 Mana/Hour) or for just a round in combat to gain 1 Mana.

Max Mana Pool:                       lvl x 5

Max Mana per Sorcery:            lvl x 3

Max Mana on Casual Sorcery: lvl

The Thief

The Thief stole with from whomever they desired with not a care in the world, spending weeks and going days without rest to take well earned prizes from their victims. This eventually all came crashing down when they acquired knowledge they shouldn't have, and brought about their own demise.

The Thief's power is to steal not only physical objects, but also the have access to take form the Material, Mind, and Mouth of anything/one encountered in Hell.

Play the Thief if you want to have a finger in everything else's things, knowledge, and relationships, and be able to take them for yourself.

With the Thief, you are never at a dead end and can gain something more with just a little risk and clever use of your powers. However, all this requires keeping and organizing what you know about the other members of Hell along with what you have taken from them.

Example: Cugel the Clever, 

Str: 11

Int: 16

Wis: 8

Dex: 17

Con: 10

Chr: 13

HP: 12  

+lvl   : Subterfuge, Finance

+lvl/2 : Combat, Science

Traits:

Obsessed ● ● ○ ○ ○

The Thief is single minded in their approach to tasks and can easily suffer from tunnel vision and chase goals even after it becomes impractical to do so. This character is the sort of person who would pull 2 all nighters to finish their project right before it was due or would stalk a prospective romantic partner over weeks in order to set up "accidentally" bumping into them and using their gained knowledge to convince them on a first date.

● – Can check to ignore "distractions" when working on and continuing an obsession.

● ● – Can freely follow and track one designated "goal" or "target" even as this would normally become all but impossible.

Inquisitive ● ○ ○ ○ ○

The Thief is relentlessly curious about the world and people around them, and explores those ideas vigorously. This character is the sort of person who would actually be interested in your obscure thesis or would ask embarrassingly personal questions about you in public.

● – Can check to get answers from the DM about things that they probably don't know through investigation.

Theft:

As the Thief, you can "steal" anything you know about. This can be from people, places, things, organizations... pretty much any reasonable noun. The most basic version of this involves simply taking objects you can see from the entity in question. If you want something which isn't visible or you don't know about, you can instead perform a "pat down" to try to get knowledge of the objects the target has on them. The same basic principles apply to taking knowledge from the involved party, or understanding their relationships with others. 

The Thief can go deeper than this, not just taking the surface effects of the Material, Mind, and Mouth, but instead stealing aspects core to them. This once again requires knowledge of what is intended to be stolen, which again can be gained through a "pat down" or information gathering check. Once the Thief has an understanding of the physical properties of the target's Material, the Traits of their Mind, or the Adjectives of their Mouth, they can take what those grant the character those properties. This can either occur to take them away from the effected entity for a given time, provide them to the Thief for some duration, or to provide the Thief with a "token" of what has been stolen to put on their character sheet for use at another time. Some examples of what can be taken are taking the spit of a Dragon to allow you to breathe fire like one (Material), telling a guard a confusing story about renovations in the base so they loose their orientation (Mind), or picking the mannerisms of a Pit Fiend in order to emulate his pompousness at a later date (Mouth).

All of this is done with a check on a d20 using Dex/Int/Chr for Material/Mind/Mouth plus lvl if it aligns with a relevant Trait, with a success on a 10 or higher. The level of success determines how long it will take the target to realize they've been swindled, or sometimes just that something suspicious has happened, (chart below) in addition to how long before stolen "abilities" will expire. Every previous theft in the encounter will cause a -1 on the next roll, as your repeated suspicious actions become more and more likely to attract attention. Thefts against especially powerful or aware entities may cause addition penalties, and strategies taking advantage of the flaws or weaknesses of the target, the surroundings and environment, or using previously acquired resources could provide bonuses.

Just like other actions in this campaign, the details of how the theft is approached should be described and spelled out. This can involve describing how pockets are picked, the lines given to convince someone to divulge sensitive information, or how one studies and imitates another's mannerisms and style.

Time Table

10	Immediately
11	1 round
12	1 min
13	5 mins
14	30 mins
15	1 hour
16	4 hours
17	12 hours
18	1 day
19	1 week
20+	1 month

Making Decisions Part 2

When I sat down to write about making decisions last time I really wanted to write this post, but I felt like I had to start with the foundation that every game should have some underlying goals. With that fundamental assumption out of the way, I'm excited to write about what I really wanted to talk about: Everything.

Everything that happens, should happen for a reason. Every decision can be used to say something, to make your players feel something, to encourage them to do something. Part of why I love roleplaying games so much is that everything is completely mailable, and can happen anyway people want it to. These games are no more than a shared hallucination, a reality built upon conversations and understandings, the archetypal social construction. By changing how the stories we create are told, by adjusting the rules and tone of the systems we use, we can adjust the stories in whatever way we want. With this in mind we can look at everything about our games and ask how we should change them to better suit our goals. Now I'm going to talk about some of the things I think I have learned by looking at game design through this lens, and maybe some of my words can help you.

The first thing I learned was that its easy to just use the rules which are already in the book. The less questions you are forced to ask about the basic and not so basic assumptions which a system makes the less work you have to do. Its much easier to assume that all the decisions which the system's designer made are the right ones for you and to just take them, but this isn't always the case. HP in D&D assumes you want heroes who can take risks and get hit without permanent consequences, the skill system in WoD assumes that each skill and stat will be equally useful in your game, and Champions assumes that you are a robot who derives pleasure from balancing your hero's checkbook and meticulously simulating 12 second of combat over the course of 8 hours. For many groups and games these assumptions may be correct, but its worth taking the time to stop and think if the game which is presented in the rules is really what you want to play. For me personally, the answer "because thats what the book says" is never a sufficient reason to keep a rule the way it is.

That being said, its also easy to not realize the value in a group's continuity of rules. For the most part, everyone will assume that things are the way they were before or how they have always been, and changing these assumptions can come as a shock. If people have been playing with the same understanding of elves in their games for decades then suddenly changing them will come as a surprise which may work against your goals for the game. It may be worth it to not change rules because the shift itself would be too difficult and take away from what one is really trying to convey in their game. A game about political intrigue is not the right situation to introduce new duel wielding rules, even if they are way better than the old ones. In the same vein, changing something can be used as a tool to create confusion, alienation, or surprise, regardless of what the change actually is. Violations of continuity can be used to break up monotony or show something which couldn't be shown without a explicit change.

In the long run, however, I think my most important realization is that it is easy to make decisions for the wrong reasons. This is the main reason why I believe knowing what you want to achieve with your design is so important. Once you have guiding principles you can look at every decision and have a metric to judge what the right and wrong answers are. There is nothing better or worse about playing a game which is fun because of its evocative storytelling or engaging mechanics, but the decisions which need to be made for each of them are drastically different.

For me, the only thing more frustrating than finding a flaw in a design is finding a flaw which I have been making over and over again. Right now that flaw is failing to have solid goals and failing to make decisions which match up with those goals. In the recent Donjon game at THE CABIN, I failed to identify that one of my goals was to have fun by providing a sandbox where people could come up with their own interesting and wacky solutions to the problems presented. Because I didn't realize this I made decisions which failed to allow a diversity of solutions. In my Colors game I didn't think about how my desire for unique, special, and long lasting characters clashed with the DCC mortality system which ended up causing a really unsatisfying encounter the first time someone went to 0 HP. I'm sure that I will make some mistake along these lines again in my upcoming Hell game, but hopefully by explicitly thinking about and laying out these ideas I can avoid some of my mistakes, and help others to do the same.

Making Decisions Part 1

I feel that its really easy for me to loose the forest for the trees when making decisions about roleplaying games. Looking at my past, the questions I though were important were not, what I spent time focusing on was not worth spending time on, and so the decisions I made were wrong. And I don't mean I was subjectively wrong; I mean as objectively wrong as is humanly possible in this beautiful, inscrutable universe of ours.

I don't know what this is but I think it looks pretty.

The reason I am able to say this with such confidence is that I had no set of metrics by which to measure or reason about my decisions. When I was working on my games, constructing narratives, crafting characters, planning encounters, I never had a goal which I was striving to achieve with these decisions. With no goal, my decisions couldn't be correct because I had nothing to measure them by. I had no idea if I was making progress and achieving what I desired or not. For this reason, I think the most important thing to do when writing a game is to come up with the core set of goals which you hope to achieve through the game.

I don't want it to seem like I'm arguing for something totally grandiose and out there when I say this. These goals don't have to be lofty and pretentious like "create world peace," "critique late-stage capitalism," or "convey the experience of smearing vanilla ice cream over your naked body"; 99% of the time the main goal is going to be just "Have Fun," and that's ok. The important thing is that this fun is approached in a consistent and meaningful way to make sure that it is actually reached. In addition, getting a little more specific will probably help in achieving this fun. Do you want this fun to come from telling a funny story and having the players join in? What about from the pure power fantasy of pretending to be awesome and doing awesome things? Maybe the fun is in having a believable system and rewarding players for solving difficult situations using the tools available to them. All of these are valid decisions which would probably lead to fun, yet they all would play totally differently.

I think that once one decides what it is exactly they want to convey and explore in their games, they can then find the best way to do that infinitely better than if they had never specified their goals in the first place. Now that I've written a bit about the importance of setting goals, I next want to write about some pitfalls I have run into in making my games in the past and how I hope to avoid them again.

Rank 1 Genius Spells

The following are the current draft of the 1st level spells which I created for my wizard stand in for the Hell Game, the Genius. My thoughts here are to create spells which are powerful, versatile, and interesting. I also tried to not over define things and constrain the spells' uses and instead provide wiggle room for player and DM.

I think all of these provide diverse and interesting options for play except for Wizard Legs and Wizard Eyes. Wizard Legs is only used in two ways (casting on self or an ally), but provides interesting actions which the Genius and others can take and reinforces the whole coward idea, so I'm ok with it. Wizard Eyes seems to bring into question whether a self referential reality (as Alex likes to put it) would even have hidden signs which to interpret. I already am planning on not really having multiple languages. I think I'm going to leave it in for now as a "hint" spell, which can let me tell the player things which they may have missed or may not put together on their own, though that implies that I shouldn't be giving hints otherwise. Hmmm...

As always I would love feed back, and specifically if these spells sound fun and inspire interesting and cool actions.

Wizard Orbs from the AD&D PH

Rank 1 Genius Spells:


Read the Signs/Wizard Eyes

This spell allows the caster to read the nature of phenomenon normally too ephemeral or esoteric to easily observe. This includes being able to comprehend magical runes, learn adjectives of artifacts, or understand effects of powerful abilities.


Present/Wizard Grab

This spell allows the Genius to magically cause an object which is visible within 10 feet of them to appear in their hand. If there are complications (intervening objects, partial view, tightly held/fastened objects, ect.) then the spell has a chance to fail. This spell can also be cast in reverse to instead magically place an object in the Genius' hand somewhere within 10 feet with the same restrictions.


Stick/Wizard Glue

This spell causes the Genius to be able to create a thick, gooey substance which hardens after a round into an all but unbreakable adhesive. This glue can be made for 1 round/lvl of the Genius after casting.


Grease/Wizard Grease

This spell allows the Genius to spread a slippery and flammable oil like substance over an area or object. Handling greased objects or walking on greased surfaces is incredibly difficult, and requires regular checks to avoid failure. Each casting provides enough grease to cover about an 100 sq. ft. area plus 10 sq. ft. /lvl of the Genius.


Fog/Wizard Mist

This spell allows the Genius to create a thick soupy mist which lowers visibility to about 10 feet and hampers the effects of fires. The Genius can make 100,000 cub. ft. plus another 10,000 cub. ft./lvl, and the fog lasts about an hour.


Escape/Wizard Legs

This spell give the Genius' target powerful locomotion abilities allowing them to run and jump about twice as fast or far as normal. This effect lasts about 1 hour/lvl of the Genius.


Dancing Lights/Wizard Orbs

This spells creates a few flying glowy orbs which the Genius can control. These orbs can fly at a rapid pace anywhere the Genius can see, can provide reasonable illumination, and last as long as the Genius is able to concentrate on them.

A Long Awaited Return

Hello my numerous and avid readers, I'm happy to announce that my hiatus has ended and I am now here to post nonsense once again. In addition to working on my programming project, I am hoping to get back on the ball on writing rpg nonsense again, and will hopefully be posting the relevant ideas here as I work through them.

In addition, for this, my "summer of freedom," I will be trying to post updates on how well I am keeping up with the goals I have set for myself. I'm not sure yet if I want to post these daily or weekly, but I suspect in addition to obvious and boring posts regarding whatever nonsense I come up with, there will be nonsense posts about whatever obvious and boring things I have been doing or failing to do over the course of the week.

I have some ideas that I'm sure will be arriving here shortly, so look forward to more rambles in the coming days.