Blog Posts

RUNEvember Session 0: Ground Rules

November 4, 2022
rune, runevember

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. RUNE is in an interesting situation in that it isn't out but it nonetheless has at least 15 unofficial Realms that I'm aware of. ...

RUNEvember Session 1: Great Serpent Tree

November 4, 2022
rune, runevember

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. ...

Total//Effect subsystem overview (aka, the actual game bits) and the three games I'm sketching out with it.

November 2, 2022
ttrpg design, total//effect

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. ...

Total//Effect core mechanic: a painfully thorough examination of every part of the 3d6

October 31, 2022
ttrpg design, total//effect

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. ...

Postmortem

September 2, 2022
itch devlog, 36th way srd

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. To back up a little, I’d been playing various D&Ds regularly (among other systems) for roughly 9 years prior, and irregularly for longer than that. ...

Alchemist, why Occultist/Chaos Mage don't exist, and grab bag of the rest

August 29, 2022
itch devlog, 36th way srd

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. ...

1 year anniversary! Let's talk about v1.0.

August 9, 2022
itch devlog, apocalypse frame

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. ...

Framed by the Apocalypse

August 5, 2022
itch devlog, apocalypse frame

If you’ve ever wanted to take a crack at making your own third-party APOCALYPSE FRAME supplement, now’s your chance! Framed by the Apocalypse, a third-party license for APOCALYPSE FRAME, is now available. In the weeks to come I’ll be releasing more content for it as well, including layout templates and design guidance. Hope to see some cool stuff made with it soon! (Read the original on itch here!)

v0.4.1 release!

August 1, 2022
itch devlog, apocalypse frame

Hi there! v0.4.1 is out. This should hopefully be the last update prior to v1.0. (Exciting stuff in store for v1.0, I can’t wait to show it off!) This includes: Core Backup Armaments are now less specific, you can link any armament with any backup. The previous system was fine but too easy to miss and honestly not very interesting. While on the topic of backups: Shiv (2 dice, 4 Harm, Close) has been replaced with Sword (1 die, 5 Harm, Close, Piercing). ...

v0.1.3 released!

July 26, 2022
itch devlog, anointed

Hi there! I’ve released v0.1.3 of ANOINTED. This one’s mostly about combat tuning as discussed in my last post as well as more character options. I made the changes described there to staggering/unstaggering. Added and changed a bunch of keywords. Added a LOT of new Armaments and changed default loadouts a bit. I also introduced the concept of Variants, which is to say an Armament with a few parameters or one Attack/Maneuver changed but everything else the same. ...