November 9, 2022
Session 0, 1, 2, 3
Fourth on RUNEvember, we're entering the World's Grave.
You wake in smothering darkness and claw your way out of a shallow grave. The air hangs heavy with humid decay. In the distance the land cracks into a cavernous maw. You carve the Sigil into your tombstone and set out.
Overview and Realm Mechanics
Another horror-ish one, this one has a unique mechanic: Remains. When enemies die, they (mostly) drop a Remains tile on the map. Enemies interact with these sometimes (consuming them, mostly), and after combat they can be collected for use if they're still on the map. This is a pretty interesting mechanic and gives you reasons to be more aggressive against otherwise not terribly threatening enemies (because sometimes they'll gobble up your precious Remains).
...November 7, 2022
Session 0, 1, 2
On the third stop, we've hit our first pamphlet realm, Obran Express! There are 4 of these right now if my memory serves. These are Realms that fit on a sheet front and back, usually they have 4 points and take like half an hour to play tops.
Glass shatters and screams echo across the Obran Express. Your journey to another realm interrupted, you sigh, scratch a hasty sigil. and draw your weapon. Nothing is ever easy.
...
November 5, 2022
Session 0, Session 1.
Second stop in RUNEvember is Bulwark Hollow:
A stiff breeze stirs the trees around you, the only sounds are that of the rustling leaves, the creak of wood, and the nearby rush of water. Towering mountains, tallest to the north, sweep across the horizon, their peaks snatching at the clouds.
With your Sigil carved into the rock, you head out to find the Rune Lord of Bulwark Hollow.
...
November 4, 2022
I don't feel like writing a novel this month. I've done enough writing lately. What I do feel like is doing something I've been putting off for months: playing @gilarpgs 's RUNE a bunch. And now that the backer copy is out, throughout November, I'm going to play RUNE. I'm going to play so much RUNE. I'm going to play all of RUNE that currently exists.
...November 4, 2022
Session 0 (and a description of what's going on here).
I started off RUNEvember by playing through the Great Serpent Tree:
Standing in a petrified half life, the Great Serpent Tree balances impossibly on the tip of its own tail, scales falling to the ground as branches burst through serpentine flesh. Blood and venom flows down its length, as distant figures move about its stretch, carving up the still breathing beast.
...
November 2, 2022
Follow-up to my post about Total//Effect core mechanics.
I realized I barely described what the rest of the system is in favor of being a Probability Weirdo. Let's do that. I also didn't describe, or even mention any of the three games I'm outlining while I'm writing it somehow. Let's do that too.
The Subsystems
What's a core system for the system? Like what parts do you need? You need the core mechanic, which can in turn be expressed through any of the subsystems listed. Basically aside from how to roll, the concept of escalation, and some concepts around level/tier advancement, there isn't any one system that's "core". My big intentions for this system/toolbox/SRD/whatever are modularity and configurability, which I'm defining as:
...October 31, 2022
So this is my first public post/design blog/etc about a system I'm developing as a SRD/toolkit, Total//Effect. It includes a bunch of probability stuff at the end if you're into that, but I do sum up the important bits if you're not.
I'll start with my initial forays into the humble 3d6 (and the originator of some of these mechanics), 36th Way and LUMEN.
3d6 and 36th Way/LUMEN
Total//Effect's resolution is a kind of combination of two different resolution systems I've used in the past: 36th Way and LUMEN.
...September 2, 2022
Hi there! I’m just going to go over the general history of this project, where it went, what state it ended up in, and takeaways going forward. This is going to be fairly rambly in parts.
How did we get here?
To put it bluntly, the primary reason this exists is because I tried running Pathfinder 2E in late 2019 and hated it. It’s not the only reason though.
...
August 29, 2022
Hi there! Long time no see! I’ve been thinking about 36th Way a bit recently and realized I never finished my class redesign rundown by talking about Alchemist. So let’s do that, then I’ll do a rundown of other stuff. But first…
Why isn’t there a Chaos Mage?
To be perfectly honest, because I don’t like it at all. Having seen it in play, it never seems to have interesting choices and the concept isn’t that interesting. I like wild magic in theory but practically speaking it really slows things down when you’re expected to be engaging with it constantly. Reading through the talents, it’s a pretty bad sign when more than half of them are “take this other class’s spells”. Just not a lot to work with.
...
August 9, 2022
Hi there!
We’re coming up on the 1 year anniversary of APOCALYPSE FRAME v0.1 (which was also my first published game)! So let’s talk about AF v1.0, which I’ve been pretty quiet about up until now. (And especially who I’m working with!)
Book Contents
First off, what’s going to be in it? This seems like it has an obvious answer: the core book has been out for a year. And that’s mostly right, but my plan is to add on some ACES HIGH stuff at the end as Advanced Rules. (Having them as separate documents made more sense for a digital-only release but that’s not going to be the case forever. Plus I think AH has a lot of stuff I consider “core” to the experience, like Crisis Advances and Tyrants.)
...