Blog Posts

Revising Liminal Void, 2024 Edition

February 11, 2024
ttrpg design, total//effect, liminal void

Liminal Void quickstart coverLiminal Void's quickstart has been around a little more than a year now. It's the first Total//Effect thing I put out and it's...fine. It's fine. Total//Effect is a strong backbone, the vibe carries it pretty far in my opinion, and again in my humble opinion, my two quickstart scenarios are decent. (Read it yourself and see if you agree. It's free. Click that little liminal void tag at the bottom if you want to see me everything I've written about it here, which is quite a lot. ...

Valiant Persona, Part 2

February 4, 2024
ttrpg design, valiant horizon, valiant persona

So we started poking at turning Valiant Horizon into Persona in Part 1 by establishing initial premises of what even this kind of game is like. It's got a lot of the DNA of urban fantasy/masquerade style games (WoD, Unknown Armies, etc) but with a very different emphasis, and especially the fact that there's a harder divide between the two "halves". Now we start digging in to what we want to do with that. ...

Valiant Persona, Part 3 of 3*

February 4, 2024
ttrpg design, valiant horizon, valiant persona

*Before I release the extra edition that tacks on like 2 more posts. In Part 1 we established what kind of game we're using. In Part 2 we tied together Valiant Horizon's class system with the tarot thing Persona has going on. In this final installment (because at this point more beyond what I'm covering here would involve just making the thing) we're gonna think about using what we set up in part 2 for a session and campaign structure. ...

Valiant Persona, Part 1

February 3, 2024
ttrpg design, valiant horizon, valiant persona

I'm thinking about Persona* a lot lately, partially because P3 Reload is out and I kind of want to play it but also it's $70 so fuck that shit. But partially it's because I realized while putting together the playlist for Valiant Horizon how well the two concepts overlaid with each other with only a little reflavoring/stretching: Normalish people given extraordinary power Powers come from discrete beings with archetypical distinctions that are intended to match with the character Huge emphasis on relationships and building both towards understanding that archetypical power better and being closer to the person who wields it, is associated with it, etc. ...

Machinations of Amirus Intro+Act 1 Postmortem*

February 2, 2024
vn design, narrat, machinations of court and frame, machinations of amirus

Machinations of Amirus A Machination of Court and Frame Binary Star Games*Does it really count as "mortem" if only like 1/3 of the game is out? I don't know but I'm sure going to post about it! About 6 months ago I put out the intro and first act of a visual novel, Machinations of Amirus. (It's free and will take you about an hour if you want to run through it before reading this. ...

Valiant Horizon is out for real!

January 23, 2024
itch devlog, valiant horizon

Valiant Horizon v1.0 is finally out! Some big changes: 12 incredible illustrations by Charlotte Laskowski! Editing and revision by Marx Shepherd! And some smaller ones: Swarm enemies don’t exist anymore and Prime enemies are a bit different. Relationship rolls are now reversed so high rolls are good. Various little fixes, typos, and tweaks. Thanks so much to everyone who backed the game! I’ll have news about a season pass soon. And for everyone’s generosity, I added one community copy for everyone who bought it (and a few more on top). ...

Class Overview #6: Meet the Tactician and Windmagus!

January 21, 2024
itch devlog, valiant horizon

Hi there! Last class overview devlog, because after these two we’re out of core classes! Introducing the final two, Tactician and Windmagus. Just in time for the full release on January 23rd! The Tactician From the start, I wanted one full-support class - not just for mechanical reasons, but thematically, I wanted someone whose almost exclusive role was to support and boost allies. As mentioned in the Commander overview, I’ve had the idea of Tactician via 36th Way Weigh the Odds Commander via 13th Age Commander via 4E warlord in my head for awhile, and I knew I wanted something like it here - so tying it to full-support made sense. ...

Class Overview #5: Meet the Knight and Ranger!

January 18, 2024
itch devlog, valiant horizon

Hi there! Valiant Horizon v1.0 is coming out on January 23rd! So we’re devlogging fast now. As noted in #1, all role/sub-role talk is referring to Total//Effect’s role and sub-role concepts. The Knight Once of the martial ideas I wanted to replicate was someone who is just absolutely steadfast in every sense: physically and otherwise. I knew I wanted a Knight somewhere too - I just inherently like the idea of a warrior defined by dedication. ...

Class Overview #4: Meet the Earthmagus and Frostmagus!

January 16, 2024
itch devlog, valiant horizon

Hi there! Valiant Horizon v1.0 is coming out on January 23rd! So I’d better get moving on these devlogs. As noted in #1, all role/sub-role talk is referring to Total//Effect’s role and sub-role concepts. The Earthmagus All of my mages (the -magus classes specifically) are just a little off from what people expect. “Earth” is probably the most skipped element in video games on top of that - you see fire/ice/lightning a lot, and earth sometimes comes in as like “acid” or some similar cop-out like that. ...

2 Stats 2 Rolls

January 2, 2024
ttrpg design

Written for Prismatic Wasteland's "make a new mechanic and give it a name" challenge. You have two approaches to a situation on either side of a spectrum. For example, let's say... Soundwaves and Emotions. Decide which is "high" and which is "low", then define your Number between 1 and 10, inclusive. A number skewed towards one side means that you'll have high chances of success but also high chances of consequences for the other side, and vice versa. ...