Scrap Heap 2: Kickstarter, Cataphracts, and some ideas

My week off from thinking is over. Let's overthink. In this scrap heap:

• War-Torn Ice Moon, now live on Kickstarter
• My Cataphracts campaign
• Ideas for play-by-post campaigns
• Some blog posts I like

Let's start with the big news.

WAR-TORN ICE MOON

On Monday, the Kickstarter for War-Torn Ice Moon went live!

And funded in 6 hours!!!

I could try to wax poetic about how crazy that is, or crazy this all is, but it's too crazy for even that!

Mockup made with permission using Europa art by Finn (@Sharp_Sticks)! He's working with us on the book!

As you probably know from previous posts and it being the only thing I've talked about for 5 months, this an expansion for FIST based off the "Europa War" setting of my invention that went omega viral in April. (I'm really proud of the tagline "FROM ONE COLD WAR TO ANOTHER." (By default, FIST assumes a Cold War-era espionage backdrop.))

Countless little ideas mentioned in those funny chat log posts, or mentioned in those gritty anecdotes, or spontaneously born from the flood of public interest, have been expanded on and rolled into the book. Dozens of throwaway thoughts and "Woah What If"s have been made into gameable, interesting, unique components. (When I say gameable, I mean incorporating it into an RPG campaign should yield interesting narrative and/or mechanical interactions...) It's all been discussed and iterated across many full days and full nights at my computer, my writing partner's place, or a coffee spot. This thing is full.

The book is very fun, at the risk of having to eat my words later. We're making sure nearly every distinct "thing" on Europa has 1. something Cool about it and 2. something Funny about it. That standard has paid dividends towards fun factor. There is a very large, very busy world waiting for you to tear into it in a few months.

Eagle-eyed readers will notice this cover is slightly different from the cover in other pictures.
This is because I had better design ideas After everything went live. Fail

It's unreal to imagine holding the final book. Multiple times, I've gone to the local game store JUST to hold other books and better imagine what holding mine will be like. Literally I'll go in, grab 8.5" x 11" inch paperbacks with similar page counts, and just hold them in my hands. A dozen or so and then I leave. I study the weight, the texture, the presence it takes up on your person and in your vision. 

Sidebar. I obsessively tell people at the store that I'm in one of the books. Have you heard of Planegea? It's a 5E setting and campaign book in a prehistoric composite of the Forgotten Realms, when it was just the one plane of existence. (Hence Pangea + Plane!) I won a sweepstakes to work with the writing team to add an item to the book. One advertisement of Planegea in a server = One entry in the raffle; so obviously I made myself a nuisance. I was something like 60% of the entries.

I can't help myself since my local store stocks Planegea. (Maybe it's been the same copy all this time, and no one has bought it? Scary to think about) I just tell people "By the way, I'm credited in that book over there." It's a ridiculous thing to do, and I earnestly can't stop. It usually goes like this: An employee asks if I'm finding everything alright, I say that I am, and then I spring the trap. My writing partner hits me in the head with a big club. Repeat in two weeks.

I am bolding the start of the paragraphs to see if that works as little headers that are also part of the sentence. I'm a sucker for useless bullshit. On that note, while I'm thinking about it, I don't talk like this in real life or online. Not at all. I'm shooting for the bluntly sharp, world-weary, laugh-at-yourself kind of tone usually found in the autobiographies of comedians. This is my blog voice. 

There is a cost to going beast mode on a single idea for so long. I'm tired. I don't post on Twitter anymore! I don't write for other stuff anymore! My idea well has dried up. When I have time to sit and think, I don't go somewhere new, I go to Europa. When my buddy and I have time to collab, we don't have Creative Nights, we have Europa Nights. I love what we're doing, so this isn't really a problem. But it also kind of is a problem- how will the Europa stuff stay fresh if I'm not stretching my brain muscles correctly? Well, it's my fault for shutting out everything else. It's because I wanted to keep the ball rolling at all costs. But now it's rolling! 

Now that victory is assured, I'm taking steps to make sure that I'm not smothering my spark. The project is funded, and we've got a nice stretch of time to bag this thing. I feel safe thinking about other stuff, and even spending some time on that other stuff. Which is part of why I'm making this post! I think that does it for my Europa Commentary. I have a lot of other stuff I want to talk about.

CATAPHRACTS

I am in a game of Cataphracts and it is awesome. Sam Sorensen has made a real-time play-by-post operations level roleplaying wargame, and it is surprisingly approachable. (Believe me, if I understand it, it is approachable.) 

• Real-time: a day in the game world equals a day in the real world. Travel takes days or weeks, certain things take a month.
• Play-by-post: (How WE do it at least) In a Discord server, every player has a private channel with the game master. They submit their orders (we march here, we attack them) and when those actions resolve they submit new ones.
• Operations level: No need to concern yourself with the actions of single people. Your strategy is grand. Six mile hexes, a huge game area, supplies a major concern.
• Roleplaying wargame: It isn't a wargame like you might first imagine. You definitely want good units like Epic Horsemen and Elite Spearguard, but you are a character in a fictional world, not an all-seeing strategist. You parlay at meetings, discuss with advisors, write letters. It's a game of war.

I am Spahbod Varazdat of House Vatavidarna, Commander of Shakhar, 48. I am the best spahbod in the world. I am the highest ranking official in the Empire's Satrapy besides the Satrap herself, and no one acts like it. 

I can't say a whole lot about my campaign, because sharing actionable intelligence is obviously forbidden. So here's some general stuff that all commanders know. This should give you a good idea of the life of a commander.

• An army marches on its stomach, and some days they make a really big fucking stink about it 
• Intercepted messages are fun to mess with, almost as much fun as the intercepted messengers
• Listen, sometimes you gotta sack your own town. Just try not to make it a habit
• You are a maker of war and a bringer of death. You don't have to say please when giving orders
• If you to complicate everything and make your game master hate you: give peace a chance
• Don't bother with tactics or maneuvers, just only fight battles you'll win #SunTzu

Our game master has added a tasteful amount of custom material to fit the setting, like faction-specific units. Marsh-trained pikemen, elephant riders, civilian militia turned berserkers, the works- all genius and exciting. Each empire also has their own religion, and I'm like 90% sure that each religion is just actually true. Like God, Allah, and Brahma just hover above their respective loyal nations, occasionally blessing a virtuous follower with +1 At War Rolls and other boons. (These are all perversions of the truth to avoid actionable intel leaks.)

A year-long war of push, pull, love, death, blood and glory could be yours... the only obstacle is having a good game master. Honestly, the pressure seems to come from how many people are involved, not the complexity of executing any specific order. It's easy to file 1 guy's command and move him on the map. Now do that 25 times, and answer all their questions, get them to answer yours, and remind them of shit, and get 2 people's attention when it's time for them to kill each other, and so on, ad infinitum.

I love the real-time aspect more than the big armies or being the head honcho. I love how long the different actions take, the anticipation across days and weeks as your plan comes together. You sit with certain ideas for a long while (The enemy is over there, we are the superior force, these 2 groups are aligned, etc), and then find them uprooted or disproven, and now that's your life. 

The possibilities are for real endless. The bulk of the rules' page count is procedures that account for all the little scenarios you'll come across, like morale tests and sieges and food shortages and such; the core mechanics are as forward and simple as possible. That means you can take this system anywhere. And boy, do I want to take it places. Like so many others in this sphere of the hobby, this game has lit a fire in my mind.

Check out At Your Order by one of my favorite blogs, Garamondia. It reframes everything as being on giant vehicles. 

And now...

IDEAS FOR OTHER REAL-TIME PLAY-BY-POST OPERATIONS LEVEL GAMES

Post-apocalypse setting

Mad Max-adjacent (isn't it all?) for those vehicles and crazies. 

You are the warlord of a warband. Rove, raid, raze, trample. Maraud. 

In place of armies, great hosts of thundering engines.

In place of detachments, vehicles. War rigs, dune buggies, technicals, sandrails, tanks, bikes bikes bikes.

In place of triple digit troop counts, maybe single digit crews of war boys?

Fervor over Morale. Largely the same, but with new complications if it gets too high. If your underlings are TOO eager to serve you, they might get twitchy and pull a Witness Me at a bad time.

Spitballing a situation

Rumor has it there is a "Green Place"-like oasis in this corner of the desert. Warlords from all over have come to search for it, or kill the ones looking for it and take their shit.

War parties criss-cross the wastes, skirmishing and colliding and crashing and burning. The few struggling settlements are the only sources of gas, bullets, men, steel, and hope. Goods have to get from A to B somehow, so intrepid car-jockeys and engine tamers take to the sand to move supplies and keep the wasteland alive.

You might be...

• a survivor with a small band of like-minded have-nots
• an iron despot with a legion of hot-blooded maniacs
• a mercenary escort party accompanying a water tanker
• the bandits ambushing that tanker at Ambush Ridge
• the tar striders giving chase when the fighting spills into the tar-lands
• the township just trying to eke out an existence

Oh shit, imagine playing as the keepers of the Green Place, springing ambushes on any who learn of your secret paradise. Wondering who to trust and who to make an example of. You could set a bunch of traps in the wastes, plant false clues leading people away from you... Maybe your ultimate campaign goal is not to stay hidden forever, but to move enough of your green / biofuel / pure water / whatever before you're inevitably uncovered, so that by then it's all already safely elsewhere. Or maybe your goal is to find someone worthy of the secret and the mantle of Steward, protector of the last fertile soil on Earth.

Imagine being a demagogue with a flock of sycophants (I love those words so much), cooking up the perfect lies to further your legend and get them to give their lives for you. You could use downtime to mythologize yourself, having your historians tell tall-tales around oil drum campfires under the desert sky. The crazier your war boys, the better they try to serve you... as long as the charade is maintained!

Remember the Motorfliers from Furiosa? God

Does it make for good Real-Time Play-by-Post Operations Level gameplay? 

(Can we think of a better name for this? Phract-like? Phractal?) It sounds fun to live out the struggle of vast distances, and the delirium of post-everything scarcity. I really want to drive across the desert with a big horde of cars, even if its aimless.

There'd be a focus on getting a good Inner Circle for your faction- a little cadre of NPCs that help with the upkeep and round out your capabilties. Think of all the whack jobs you can acquire; engineers, lorekeepers, warrior trainers, number-crunchers, deluded soothsayers and such. Lieutenants and enforcers that keep your rabble in check.

Hmm, I guess battles could take place on the move? In fact, they all should, it's the ideal battle in this world. Maybe motorcycles, being very maneuverable but frail compared to a car, receive both an attack bonus and a hit point reduction during high speed chases.

The golden age of piracy

You are the captain of this fine vessel and her crew. Maybe even a small fleet, depending on your faction and standing, or your desire to cooperate with other players.

Spitballing a situation

Ok, it takes place in an Arc of islands within sailing distance of some kind of mainland, which is occupied by a big snobby Empire. This Empire is plundering faraway lands, and wants to put ports on the Arc islands (Who do they think they are?) to service their returning treasure ships- great vessels of war, full to bursting with stolen gold. 

Besides ports, they've offered (or threatened) to "grant" the Arc all the benefits of Empiredom in exchange for full authority. 

The Arc islands have troubles of their own; they are plagued by pirates (many of which are criminals or exiles from the Empire), who view the island societies as vulnerable and their trade ships as free game- not to mention that the islands aren't even united under one government yet, and thus one cannot speak for all.

Also, the plundered lands called, and they want their plunder back. And maybe a nice little colony of their own, to help them put pressure on that there Empire?

Things are busy here.

You might be...

• daring outlaw with a crew of criminals on a stolen merchant ship, living in pursuit of freedom
• the same but much more murderous and explicitly seeking wealth, possibly so you can bury it
• sailor in the Arc militia trying to rally the various islands together and repel foreign adversaries
• imperial captain of a galleon; bristling with cannons, trained soldiers, and plunder from faraway
• privateer from faraway, come to intercept imperial ships and recover goods stolen from your lands

Imagine being an imperial criminal in a prison hulk, freed by pure circumstance during the escape of a much more notorious pirate captain. You go to the local cities in disguise, gathering your former associates and slowly building a new crew. You earn a nickname like Steel Nick or Loathsome McCorquodale, and eventually meet the captain you escaped with, earning his respect. You sail up and down coasts, zigzag between islands, evading imperial patrols and militia hunters to keep sticking up merchants. Life is good.

Imagine being a were-kraken. You got cursed by a sea witch for your misdeeds committed in the name of the law (or chaos), and on the 31st day of the game, you wake up on the beach among splintered driftwood and green blood. Your ship is moored nearby, a hole in the side where you burst out from while transforming. Nearby, a coastal village burns in the wake of your rampage. I don't know, this idea is out of nowhere but really grabbing me.

Does it make for good Real-Time Play-by-Post Operations Level gameplay? 

This is the same spin At Your Order! puts on Cataphracts' simple RT PBP OL G blueprint- put them in a vehicle. Your vessel is your home, your weapon, and your sole method of locomotion in the setting. Sailing is a great fit for real-time travel, and a single boat can very easily be abstracted into manageable systems and qualities to oversee. Find a good ship doctor, a carpenter, some generals to compliment your plans, or scurvy dogs to stab huge knives into maps for you, and to help with your ship ops.

It'd be fun moving and selling cargo, and executing the dance of a robbery, and amassing and losing crewmates... On the pirate side of things, you'll want to gobble up small-time crooks for your crew, but small-timers get locked up or killed fast, so stage breakouts and interrupt executions for that sweet loyalty bonus. Keeping them in line means appealing to their vices, so steal plenty of rum and stop at plenty of really shitty ports. And don't let them get delusions of grandeur, or they'll try to break away with a crew of their own.

On the imperial / civilized side of things, building manpower is less of an ordeal, as the Empire has no shortage of sailors to send you. While insurbordination is rare, it's simple to keep them in line when it does happen: you can simply have the offender's family sent to a penal colony for hard labor. Easy. A bigger concern is probably officials just below you in rank, who want to see you fail so they can have your job (and living quarters).

POSTS THAT I LIKED

Here are some posts I read recently that are doing things to me.

Six Dungeon Gods

Some lovely gods or animist spirits for dungeons. I'm a big fan of Locheil's art for each one.

Girls Like Us (procedures for a city campaign)

A terse, evocative post that has set my mind on fire in a different way: procedures-as-NPCs.

It's quick and amazing, read it. 

The Powers-That-Be of the city, the essences that make life there so exhausting and exacting and maddening and deadly, the very things that make the concrete a jungle, are also NPCs. The Hustle, the Grid, the Noise, the Dark are somewhere between characters, forces, and gods. Presences? They are avatars of the principles of the city setting. Honestly, trying to pin it down with words dullens it.

They're there, and they're also literally "there." 

Their whims are the way of life in the city. You have to learn how to appease them, or you'll drown in their retribution. Their desires and fixations are the mechanics of the setting. You can invoke them, proffer and plead to them, placate them, scorn them, make wagers and trades with them, but you can't change them, and you certainly can't get rid of them. You might as well worship them.

I don't think the Evil City 4 march in and introduce themselves when you first get an apartment in the city, and I don't think The Dark holds press conferences about increasing murder. I think they're more subtle and unreal than big known faces. Still, making use of these Presences calls for a level of personal involvement, I think, or else they don't really need to be NPCs. 

In my head, they'd be best used as muses of sorts; maybe they're voices in your head, or shadows looming over you while you mull over your current crisis. Figures of otherworldly, mercurial beauty (or ugliness) that show up during an ordeal to give you a costly way out, or a warning, or unwanted advice. You can call upon them, but it's fun to imagine them coming to you, like a devil with a bargain. But they do also need you; they're man-made, in a way. You can use that to your advantage.

It makes me want to do procedures-as-NPCs for everything. They work uniquely well for a city; the one described in the post is a place of body modding and feverish self-fascinations, but its 4 presences articulate what's tempting and scary and powerful in any fictional city. Have you seen Seven (often stylized Se7en)? That vision of a city is good. Nauseating, suffocating, hungry... meticulous and well-oiled, but the oil is sewage and blood. Anything where the environment gets lots of characterization and narrative presence can have Powers-That-Be.

Giving it a shot for that pirate setting... What are the omnipresent forces at play there? We don't want it to just be a spirit presiding over each faction, but the actual pillars of the setting personified. What things or actions color the area and the things going on there? 

So... for one, the anarchic force of whimsy and vice that seafaring enables, a force that pirates are tuned in to very well. It likes when you take, taste, and disobey, and it wants freedom and honor (in a thief way). The Dance, the Jig?

Maybe one for the allure of wealth and land urging on the imperialist countries, like a kind of manifestation of manifest destiny. It likes when you seize, overcome, and convert, and it wants materials and people. It wants more. The Call?

One for the sea, infinitely vast and capricious. Everything depends on it, and it knows that. It likes when you explore, confront, and flow, and it wants to be respected. The... Sea.

Do we need 4? We've got the Sea, the Dance, the Call... Davy Jones, Jolly Roger, Victoria. 

Sort of a different thing than the original post, but a very fun excercise.

Testudis (Cataphracts Setting, Hexmap, Rules)

Going back to Cataphracts, this is an awesome setting for it. A boatload of unique units and special mechanics for each of the Peoples.

ENOUGH

Holy shit, I accidentally 3,635 words about what's on my mind lately. 

Good! Now I just need to purposefully 15,000 more for War-Torn Ice Moon.

War-Torn Ice Moon: Update + Outline

 Yup, still happening! Here's a quick rundown.

• The grand outline is solidified. I believe we know everything the book will have.
• We've written 10,000 words out of an estimated 20,000. (Unrefined rough draft wording, of course)
• All of the new rules are devised and fleshed out, just in need of proper wording and playtesting.

We're in Phase 2

I'd like to be done writing in August. I mean, I'd like to be done writing tomorrow. But right after the last time I estimated completion, my car broke down and my tooth broke down. So then I played Animal Well to cope. But we're back on track, and going strong!

It's time to finally share some details. Let's jog through the entire damn book real quick.

Outline

The first section is the new rules for FIST. They're made with Europa in mind, but perfectly suitable for use in the paranormal Cold War setting.

• Squads, a way to consolidate enemies into coordinated groups. They can execute unique Tactics they wouldn't have as individuals, and attack multiple players simultaneously per Failure roll. Dangerous... but players can make them too! Bring some grunts along on missions. Optionally, you can sacrifice squad members for roll bonuses.
  
  
• Extra Base Upgrade Options. There's 6 in base FIST; Backup, Defense, Expert, Offense, Storage, and Support. We're using those as categories of upgrade, and ideally, we'll have 6 unique options for each. For example, Backup by default is a squad of NPC goons you can send on missions or bring with you on yours. We're adding 6 different takes on Backup's idea of "calling in some dudes", from mercenaries (weak, plentiful, disloyal) to an embedded agent (disguised as an enemy), to a distress call that you hope the right faction will answer.
  
  
• Assets. A new advancement method, usable alongside or in place of XP or the standard way. Players acquire Assets for completing missions, fulfilling their roles, or as bonuses for going the extra mile during missions (or as the main reward of the mission). They represent your characters acquiring materials, tools, manpower, favors, and other resources during and between missions, which can be exchanged for Traits, extra max HP, or even field equipment and Base Upgrades.
  
  
• Dogtags. When a player character dies, they drop their dogtag or similar sentimental item. Other players can scoop them up to keep your memory alive. Plus, holding it and thinking hard about your dead bro will max out the value of one War Die, or other one-time character-relevant bonus.
  
  
• SEVERAL MORE, such as Morale, Standing, and Heat. Gotta save some for later...
  
  

The rest is all Europa, starting with these intro materials.

• Campaign Setup, where we break down what makes this different from standard FIST, how best to run it, the "gameplay loop" of War Forever, some suggested optional rules from the base game, and some examples of play.
  
  
• A Player Primer, which contains some "origin stories" for players to brainstorm how they got to this evil ass moon. Examples: Ice Miners, PMCs, Tourists, and even the rogue paranormal mercenary outfit themselves, FIST. The primer also has suggested goals for your players to work towards, such as conquering or escaping Europa. This will probably be where some character Traits unique to Europa will go (likely 18), plus some premade characters (4 to 8).
  
  
• Welcome to Europa, a smorgasbord of information about what this place is like moment to moment, divided into 3 sections: War-Torn, Ice, and Moon. (More comprehensive than it might seem.) This section also includes a simple timeline of what was going on before the war started, and the key questions you'll want to answer to make this your Europa.
  
  

Lastly, the War Chest, a massive collection of people, places, and things to populate your ice moon. Many are presented with suggestions for fitting them into your table's overarching story, unique situations involving them, and their interactions with other gameplay elements. There's also generators, tables, in-universe chat logs, read-alouds, table brainstorming prompts, examples of buildings and regions, and an introductory mission.

• Locations. Kind of broad, right? This part covers key landmarks and features across Europa's 4 layers: the surface, in the ice, the undersea, and low orbit. There's different environments in each, such as debris fields and cryogeysers, which impact what's there and thus the kinds of missions to go on. The surface section also details how to roll up or hand-make one of Europa's many Facilities, from the smallest guard outposts to the largest drill cities. There's "common" locations, like the plentiful howler nests and barracks, and "unique" locations, like the one and only Tomb of the Alien Ghost Hero.
  
  
• Factions. Armies, corporations, rogue cells, hordes, herds, and cults. We load up on these. We want you to have a wealth of options for major and minor forces at play. Wherever on Europa your game is set, you'll have a living conflict area with a huge array of mission possibilities, tons of people to fight or recruit, shit to steal, and groups to ally with or attack. Factions have named members, qualities to tack onto NPCs to make them part of that group, and multi-phase agendas. Here's the loglines for some select factions: Geneticist fishermen, felons with robot armies, cargo mafia, a thousand clones of the same guy, Clown Ops, guys who found a nuke, and Yeti No Human Kill Human Yeti Team.
  
  
• NPCs. Roughly divided into 6 categories, each of which contains 6 or more beings, most of which have at least 6 variations or adjustments to suit your situation. Grunts are your fodder and newbies, with different ways to mess up under pressure. Elites are specially trained, specially equipped, or just abnormal freaks. Specialists are experts in particular fields and often have helpful capabilities if recruited (or captured). Robots include all manner of building-controlling AI, worker androids, janky soldier-bots, and unstoppable metal murder machines. Fauna are true creatures and beasties. Aliens are sapient beings, such as yetis, cryoliths, and there are rumors of xenoplasmic beings wandering the tunnels... Outside of those categories are Legends; individual beings with moon-wide reputations and amazing skills. You may know some, like xSnoWolfx and Ursa Polaris. 
  
  
• Items. You've got your essential survival gear, like breathable air grenades in 6 different scents. There's also your less essentials, like space suits, armors, moon tents, laser drills and laser saws, and life-saving heatsinks. You've got jabs, nanite-chemical cocktail injections originally meant to "augment productivity" before the war. There's prosthetic limbs and proxy organs, both custom-made and cheap-ass. Grab some grub, like ice-meal, cryoffee, and xenoplasm. There's conventional weapons, there's plasma variants that use heatsinks, and of course there's repurposed industrial tools, Isaac Clarke style. For getting around, hop on an ice crawler, a slush trawler, a yeti, or any number of jury-rigged turbo sleds. And if you run into any xenoterica, like a cryolith prism or virulescent urn, be smart and don't mess with that shit. It's weird and dangerous.
  
  

Okay now help me out

Yes, you! After reading all that, did anything feel missing? I'm concerned, perhaps irrationally, that something fundamental is missing, and that when people finally read it, they'll say "Okay, now what?" or "How can I use this without [thing]?" So if anything essential seems missing- not a wishlist item, like a cool enemy or item, but something crucial that makes it usable for assembling a tabletop campaign- please sound off, here or on X the everything app. If I add it, I'll get you back somehow, probably with a free paperback copy. 

So what else is up

I played Animal Well. Animal Well is the only game in the world, play it. I also saw Hundreds of Beavers. Hundreds of Beavers is the only movie in the world, watch it. Otherwise, just gettin' by, man. See you in the next one!

d20 Princeling Trinkets

Featured in Princeling Gambit for PC.

1. Puppet of Father

From the toy box. Great for convincing servants to let you into forbidden areas. Only works if he's unconscious. Will start going about his duties and nagging you if not stowed quickly.

2. Trick Hoop and Stick

Grandfather's pride. The names "Trochus" and "Clavis" are messily etched into the wood. An older model that will impress other boys your age, to the point of obsession. Use wisely.

3. One Day-sy

A handful of seeds from mother's greenhouse. Place one and tell it something you wish to do one day, and it will grow as tall and strong as a tree in a single minute. You no longer have that wish.

4. Black Kerchief

Taken from the hearse driver's coat. Any who dry their own tears with this leaves behind a secret, readable in the embroidery by the trained eye. Secrecy proportional to tears.

5. Bespoke Cello

Gift from your instructor. A tune opens the back panel like a door, and the interior is spacious enough for you or objects. Different tunes open different interiors, some of which are occupied.

6. Deck of "Cards"

Underside of the parlor card table. Contains 52 jokers. A joker placed on someone's person makes them the unluckiest in any room. The more jokers placed, the harder it becomes to stifle your laughter.

7. Length of Rigging

Souvenir from uncle. Salty, frayed and restless. One end pulls toward adventure, the other towards treasure. Stringing this into the dumbwaiter's pulleys will let it take you to places besides the estate.

8. Handmade Handmaid

Inert until Miss Hilda's passing. Will listen to one burdensome thought, alleviating guilt and its associated penalties. The staff fear it and hide it from you, usually in the attic.

9. Gargoyle Gravel

Rubble from fallen gargoyles has many uses. A handful wards off fear, a pocketful wards off sleep, and a mouthful wards off day. Gargoyles will accept it as a snack, and repay you by falling at perfect moments.

10. Jewelry Box

On your aunt's vanity mirror. Made of dark tortoise shell. People forget about things placed in the box within a few days. Take care to leave it some place where you'll bump into it again.

11. Hearth Hounds

On either side atop the great room mantelpiece. Twin spaniels of cream white pottery, vigilantly listening for conspiracy against their masters. When shattered, releases its accumulated rumors for your perusal. Be a dear and scoop the shards into the fire so it may reform by the next morning.

12. Sneaking Key

Left on a random side of the hedge maze. Opens the side cabinets on rosewood sideboards in each sitting room, wherein lies a convenient series of passages betwixt them. If you should bump into a sideling, be polite and thank them for use of their work.

13. Lurking Key

Left at the end of the hedge maze. Opens the rear drawer on the walnut end tables in each drawing room. Inside lies crawlable passages betwixt them. If you pass by an endling, be polite and compliment their handiwork. 

(Be warned: sidelings and endlings don't get along, and one may take offense if they discover you've mingled with the other.)

14. Ice Sculpture of an Angel

In the meltwater tray of the ice box in the kitchen. A new one sneaks in each week. Letting it melt on a slumbering person will make them extremely agreeable the following day. Shattering it on them, however, crushes their spirits until they leave.

15. Cracked Hand Mirror

In the fountain. Lets you tell mother stories of your exploits.

16. Silvered Hedge Clippers

Stashed somewhere in the topiary garden. Your only defense against the briar of the maze. Too sharp for someone your age to be handling, but thankfully incapable of harming the innocent. 

17. Familiar Perfume

On grandmother's nightstand. Stout vial of a pleasant yet overpowering fragrance. Those caught in its spritz are suspended in nostalgia, abandoning immediate concerns for a spell to reminisce over fond memories.

18. Quixotic Tea Set

In the pantry. Painted with frolicking critters. Tea parties are perfect for introductions; when in new company, sharing black tea emboldens the spirit, and green tea the mind. You don't really like tea, and can only stand one cup a day.

19. Meerschaum Pipe

Displayed in the smoking room. Your words become captivating while it is in your mouth. Plumes of smoke swirl into phantasmal shapes, whether anything burns within or not. Carved as a whale.

20. Saccharine Locket

Under your pillow. A parting gift, replete with mementos: flower petals, stamps, and scraps of letters. When you would disappear, one of them does instead. Decreasing chance of replenishment each month the truth is not found.

Scrap Heap the First

Time to use this thing for what it was made for: a funnel for brain leakage.
In this scrap heap:

• my recent activity
• a video I saw
• a movie I saw
• a post I like
• a world I seek
• and a way I go.

BEGIN

What's going on with you lately man

Europa. My days lately are spent attempting to enter "the zone" in hopes of willing some more Europa War Tabletop Module stuff into existence. It's not going BAD, I just wish it was easier to get the mojo flowing, let alone make time for it. Worse, I have that problem where it's hard to bear down on a project if anything is coming up on the schedule soon. The closer it is, the more paralyzing. If I can learn to deal with frequent interruptions and the notion of "doing a thing while another thing approaches," I'll be unstoppable.

I'd like to get this into a playable, readable, usable state by the end of May. (I have no basis for if that's realistic or not, as I've never done anything "real" like this.) But I think we got it. The prospect of adding a "BIG WAR!!!" sidecar to the FIST motorcycle seems more possible the longer I think about it. It doesn't have to be simulationist; FIST is a narrative-centric game. Creative problem solving and driving action are king. We should strive for engaging procedures over numerical perfection.

At minimum, we'd like to include FIST-appropriate, Occam's Razor, clean and simple procedures for...

• Forming and ordering around squads of many dudes
• Capturing, defending, and improving bases of operation
• Navigating the ongoing all-encompassing war

Stuff besides that, such as enemies, factions, Deepest Lore, items, places, NPCs... those are all things. There's gonna be plenty of those, and we're really excited to flesh them out, but not untill the procedures they operate within are better defined. Those 3 bullet points are the bones from which all meat will sprout. (?) 

Oh, and this isn't the big formal announcement, but we plan to eventually run a small crowdfunder for this project. We'd like to have good art and a professional touch so that this thing can become its best self. But we're just some normal guys, so we will ask for a little help from anyone who feels like helping. The reward will be the completed zine, of course, and likely at an early bird price. (On that note, I think a free preview version is in order.) I'm ballparking it at like 2,500 bucks, no stretch goals, fulfilled by DriveThruRPG. I'd like it to be as no frills, no risk, and get-'er-done as possible. But keep this on the down-low, we're not there yet.

Check out this weird guy

I recently saw this video.

It's 3 minutes of cryptic "tough love," with some really good advice packed inside... but this AI shit is dumb, man. The fake old man voice, the hammy metaphors ("ChatGPT, write me a 3 minute speech of darkly poetic self help talk!"), the oooh so uncanny weird art, the "erm what the scallop, this sleep paralysis demon is actually wholesome?!" deal... Still, it got me to click, and some things it said also clicked with me. "Begin afraid" is a good takeaway.

I did not actually watch the others for as long as the little red bar claims

But come on, change it up a little, I poked around some others and they all say the same stuff. That one is half an hour!
Fuck outta here, man! But thank you for the push.

I watched Minority Report

Logging on

Tom Cruise can run so fast and so much it's unreal.

The technology is so awesome. Self-driving magnetized car-tubes that go up sheer walls, eye-dentification scanners everywhere, the full-room-hologram computers with glass slate data storage... Yet the police jetpacks are comically unwieldy and janky, bumbling and smacking into the windows of smooth, glossy Mac computer skyscrapers.

Drunk driving here

I love Tom's little unit of precrime dudes (I almost called him Ethan because I talk about Mission Impossible a lot). Neal McDonough's character (2nd from the left below) likes to hang around with his muscles out and say things like "pure metaphysics." We don't see the team do a whole lot regarding normal crimes, since the movie is about Tom being framed, but I love to imagine the dynamic of these guys. Nerd-jock detectives with complete faith in a psychic web binding us all.

Mr. Cruise's character, while viewing the future murder visions and scanning for clues on where it will happen, seems to show an encyclopedic knowledge of local architecture and the history of different districts. He uses the design of buildings glimpsed in the visions to narrow down where in the city the murder will be. I dig the idea of a detective who has to study a lot of really obscure and seemingly innocuous things to catch would-be killers; urban planning, townhouse room layouts, where the sun is visible from at particular times... Knowing the signature on that old ass blueprint could be the difference between someone living and dying.

Man, a Minority Report TTRPG campaign would be good fun. You could run it in probably anything, and it seems well suited to one shots. We've only got 3 hours till this guy does this murder; figure out where on this city map it's gonna happen, get there fast enough, and successfully prevent the death. You could probably include crimes that are predicted far in advance as long term objectives too. Precogs gave us a vision, 3 weeks out- we have that long to figure out which John Smith from this list is gonna be a murderer.

In the movie, the precrime division isn't a nationwide thing; it's in a localized trial period to see if it works. It does! Murder is down to basically nothing in the city. They've got the backing of some big money, a headquarters, VTOL transport, sophisticated computers, the works. In a campaign, maybe it would be a bit scrappier- maybe a private precog firm, or vigilantes, or an underfunded experiment? So instead of getting airdropped as close as possible, you need to acquire transport or carpool. Instead of jetpacks, you've got 2 guys who can do parkour, and the rest of you have to take the stairs until you earn enough for rappelling tools.

Allow me to re-introduce myself

There's a blog I love called Garamondia, check it out if you're in the RPG sphere. He recently put out this post detailing a real-time longterm play-by-post system where you captain enormous vehicles and enlist your friends as your lieutenants. Just nuts. I wanna play it so bad. 

But there's another post of his that I really admire: his first. It starts off with this humble little self-intro. I like how perfectly it describes the works of the gloggy blog space that I observe: laconic, visceral, abstract. The whole passage is very succinct, respectful, humble, and passionate. The fascinations and motivations discussed here resonated strongly with me.

I cite it here because I admire the approach used to kick off his blog: he points out why the gloggy part of the TTRPG blogging world is so compelling and cool, declares he'd like to start sharing his thoughts in the spirit of it, and then does. 

I too would like to post more in the spirit of that space. I want my ideas to say more with less, evoke strong sensations, and use cool archaic words in a natural-sounding way. Looking back, I kinda wish I just started, instead of wanting a foundation (an introduction post with some background, a rundown of current projects...).

I figured I'd get to pure ideas posting once "housekeeping" was out of the way. But then Europa hit, so of course that needed a post... SO NOW, 2 months into it, my ideas blog has 3 big wordy posts (4 now), none of which are pure ideas! Ridiculous. But I'm just complaining. It's all coming together.

To summarize, I must get more gloggy with it.

Gloggy, why do you keep saying that, what does that word mean

The GLOG, or the Goblin Laws of Gaming, is a tabletop RPG rule system, or perhaps more accurately, a philosophy. It was devised by the blog Goblin Punch, and can be found in this post.

The PDF starts off with the GLOG mindset distilled to its essence.

GLOG freed my mind. Even in a sea of creative indies, the heights that people take this thing to are unimaginable. (Especially if 5e is your main experience.) You don't need much. There's just 4 levels, called templates, to a class. Words like "always" and "never" often appear in traits. It prioritizes orthogonal progress over incremental upticks and bonuses. 

In another post like 7 years later, he hits a million more home runs: 

God damn! Perfection.

Of course, the community around the system is just as cool. The GLOG blogosphere, or "GLOGosphere", is a treasure trove of wisdom; everyone's got a unique take on the system skeleton, with their own things swapped in or bolted on, and everyone's got a strange and beautiful world that they build on with each new class or enemy or place. 

They pass around themes for things to post about in great waves; just a short while ago I think the general idea of "assassins" made the rounds, and so many unexpectedly unique takes on the premise were put out in a very short time. This happens constantly.

Here's a good post breaking down some key points of the GLOGosphere, with an awesome list of blogs to boot. They're extremely active, with crazy levels of originality and variety, plus a lot of interaction and cross-referencing. Not to mention how, in my experience, it is completely free of the stupid fucking buzz of the larger RPG sphere, that even reaches into the OSR sphere. 

There is one youtube video about the glog. (And it's just a stream archive of an RPG guy, Hexed Press, reading about it.)
That's how tucked away this is.

It's paradise.

That's why I'm only bringing it up in the latter half of a "general thoughts" post. I do not want to be the guy that ruins this fishing spot for everyone. But I can't not talk about my favorite thing... SO! Be responsible with this knowledge. If I see a drama video, a reddit meme, a reel, a short, a tik or a tok, or any sort of virality bait regarding the GLOG, I'll do it for real.

To erudition

In conversation, the word I keep using to describe this mindset and this community is erudite. It's a cool and somewhat older word for "smart through study." It brings to mind classical scholars huddled in little sanctuaries of knowledge. Alchemists and occultists.

Check out homie in the bottom left

It's my catch-all word for the learned, worldly, clever, aged, strange feeling that this creative space gives me.

It's somewhere in between the old-world language, the severe but interesting consequences baked into the designs, the settings that don't fit neatly into boxes, the embracing of simple but powerful abilities, the ruthless trimming of excess, the beautiful union of mechanics and narrative, the power and space given to the imagination of both player and game master, the sensibilities of the old school woven with the startling ingenuity of the new... It's just erudite.

I wish to be erudite.

I don't think I'm smart enough yet. Sure, I study. I've been aggressively absorbing theory for years now. But I need to get some more experience in the field- the actual game mastering- as I'm way out of practice. I should also read more. Blogs and books. I should also get to the ideas posting soon, and go where the wind takes me; I don't imagine my favorite creators got where they are by crafting the One Single Good Idea for ten years.

Enough thinking about thinking. Consider this a formal proclamation: I shall seek erudition!

To put a bow on this, I tried to find a cheesy quote about how you never really stop learning, or the importance of stepping out of your comfort zone or something, and found a really funny guy stepping in a hole. 

As many holes as it takes. To erudition!

MEANWHILE, ON THE WAR-TORN ICE MOON EUROPA...

Hey there!!! In this post I'll...

• talk more about what led up to Europa War Posting
• complain about (but humbly accept) my brainchild breaking containment
• share some of my favorite Europa stuff (both pre-breach and post)
• discuss details about the zine project!

I'm posting this Context: Deluxe Edition post a few days after Europa posting has cooled down (lol), partially because I'm busy, partially because I've had my fill of buzz for a bit, and partially because I'd rather fully explore my thoughts than put out something I don't mean. Enough preamble. What happened?

Good Lord What Is Happening In There

I'll cover the broad strokes:

• I've been chipping away at a tabletop setting booklet for a few months now.
• It revolves around a massive endless war on Jupiter's moon Europa.
• Over time, I've posted funny little snippets from that world, including chat logs and ridiculous war stories.
• My awesome perfect mutuals joked along, or "riffed" as real ones call it, and that went on for a while.
• A few of my awesome perfect mutuals have quite the large following.
• Thus, anecdotes from Europa "broke containment" and hit the big time, and thousands joined in the fun. 
• Even the NASA Europa Clipper account chimed in. Crazy shit.

Link

It was so nuts being at like, KBBQ or board game night or something, and getting a DM that Europa had escalated further. Once every few hours, it was Hey bro, check out this artist that got inspired, check out this big account that's throwing their hat in the ring, check out this streamer who noticed it, check out this video essay about it, check out that the NASA mission sending a probe there alluded to it. I owe it all to my epic mutuals.

And How Does That Make You Feel? 

A lot. This year, I'm putting out more of my creative work, so I've been trying to get some eyes on me. Then BOOM, it just happened. I've gained over 5,000 followers in 4 days. Now, let's keep it on the level, that's not a mind-blowing or life-changing amount. A situation-changing amount for sure. 

Check this shit out; "europa war" over the last 30 days

Sure, some of my posts has gotten big on twitter or tumblr, but nothing of mine has become a trend. Speaking of "mine," I'm fully aware of how these things work, and that the trend at large is basically out of my hands. There is an original body of work, but through telephone, it quickly snowballed (lol) into something more collaborative and spontaneous. 

In my post where I give some context about the whole thing, I used firm language to describe it ("fanfic" may have sounded harsh... I meant it scientifically), but looking at it, it really is blurry. It's not like my own thing had an Official Announcement anywhere, only scattered mentions that it's happening. Plus, statistically, the "original" stuff by me and my pals is now a small fraction of the Europan body of literature. So, at the end of the day, I don't think anyone would be totally incorrect looking at all this and seeing something like the Backrooms.

I don't take issue with that, just thinking out loud here. What I do take issue with is the way a few specific people seem to be grossly mishandling it. Here's the thing, though: are they "mishandling it" when "it" is something totally different to them? Basically, I'll be doing my own thing, so it (probably) has no effect on me what other people decide to do with the idea of war on Europa.

Even the fucking memecoin and the guy who seems to want to AI generate a movie about it.

To sum up, I'd like if people knew it was from the mind of lolt64, I acknowledge that's sort of unrealistic, I believe that there now exists "my thing" and the "public thing," and I shouldn't worry about who messes with the public thing, since it's so far removed. I've seen (and been sent) some really impressive Europa-based writing- I encourage anyone with ideas to develop them!

Okay, enough context, commentary, examination and reflection. The future is now.

Actually one last thing. Can I get weird and picky for a second here? I am so, so sad that so few public Europa works touch on the silliness of the original stuff. I'm grateful that many truly amazing artists have created so many beautiful and badass works- ones that really nail the fervor of the soldiers, the weight of this crazy situation. Still, I feel like it's all so serious, when all the original stuff was really zany. Make no mistake, I love the cool pictures of cool soldiers getting off of cool dropships in cool armor- all I'm saying is that if they were getting off the cool dropship directly into a nuke minefield while under fire by yeti guerillas, I'd be freaking out.

Do I sound entitled enough yet? No time for that; the future is now.

The Future! What Happens Now? 

Glad you asked- I buckle the fuck down and get this project made! Or rather, we buckle- I'm writing this with my IRL buddy (in the midst of setting up his own blog!), and we'll be commissioning the spectacular Finn of Sharp_Sticks for more of those perfectly chaotic illustrations. 

God just look at this. Link

We're aiming for a nice 40 to 60 page setting book (when do things ever go to plan?) that may be compatible with Mothership or F.I.S.T.; both are calling to us for different reasons. Plenty of setting zines are system-agnostic, but the way we see it right now, committing to one gives us a solid frame for a bunch of fun new toys. My top priority is fully exploring this crazy setting in a "gameable" way- all interactive, all experiencable, all fun. Here's a dangerous idea: we're eyeballing the big red "completely new system" button. Nothing crazy, but one must always beware the scale creep...

Here's some of what's definitely gonna be in there:

• A variety of locales and landmarks to explore, capture, or blow sky high
• History of the war, with tables of rumors for things the troops like to speculate about 
• Characters to meet, including some whose exploits you may be familiar with
• Factions, from massive and moon-owning to just a few crazies with a dream
• Knacks to acquire from experiences; think "crevasse climber" or "friend to yetis"
• Items, gear, and other classic nouns to find in the frozen wastes

It'll be out as soon as it's ready. It's the main thing I'm doing right now, but it'll still be a while.

To close us out, here's some of my personal fav Europa posts. Thank you sincerely for reading. See you on the ice!

Link

Link

Link

Link

Link

Link

Some of My Brainkids

Here are 3 of my brainkids. I'm raising them, but some may be locked in the attic while guests are over, or when I can't think of what to do with them.

"Jets Game"

My design buddy and I have been hitting our heads against this on and off since NYE 2023. As soon as I learned about the rpg system framework LUMEN by Gila RPGs, we agreed that it could possibly work for something related to playing as high-flying fighter jet pilots. Zippy pace, arcadey combat, standout archetypes, stunts, drama that shifts how your team works together... We had a good skeleton for everything. Unlike some of these other pet projects, Jets actually has a lot of legwork done! 

Oh by the way: Happy 4th birthday, LUMEN !!!!

Pilots accumulate Nerve from death-defying stunts, like near misses and evasions and high-g maneuvers. You can use it up lending aid to teammates, red-lining your machine's components without dying, and rerolling certain checks. You don't want to have NO Nerve, and you definitely don't want to max out; bumping against your min or max limit would cause your pilot to make the wrong call, whether from being on a hair trigger or from freezing up. The key is to be in the Zone; if the max is 10, you'd want to keep your Nerve value between, say, 4 and 6, or other ranges depending on your archetype. Doing so grants you enhanced or extra capabilities; e.x. the Hotshot's odds-defying evasion boost, the Human Calculator's predictive targeting skills, and the Sensitive's strange missle-kinesis.

We moved from abstracted range zones to a hexagon grid, a la APOCALYPSE FRAME, to inject some tactical decisions and maneuvering. Why be in the plane at all if flying it isn't a focus, right? Yet, movement is sticky and exact on a grid (obviously), even with 6 directions to go. Worse, you'll need an enormous grid to be able to feel anything like a plane. The fantasy of flight is hard to reconcile with all this. Plenty of games and wargames get along just fine this way, but looking for a fresh approach for so long took the steam out of us. And our unfed brainchilds were calling.

And so, the winds of change and the march of time have pushed this beloved project onto the backburner- FOR NOW. I spend a lot of time racking my brain on how to inject the fun, and on whether my hangup is even that big a deal. I feel like there's an elegant solution, just outside my current knowledge base. I'm excited to refocus on Jets when I'm 100x smarter. It's sort of our white whale, or one that got away, or whatever you like. 

The Brutal Lands

This is a setting I've had in my head since 2018. I wanted to move my D&D 5e campaign of the time to a sandboxy situation for some classic questing, and dreamed up "a place where everyone is fighting all the time." It's a raised mesa (plateau?) far from civilization, that entices warriors with a magic whisper promising them any one wish if they prove themselves worthy. Players would galavant around, dealing out steel, spilling blood, waging full-blown war, and perhaps allying with anyone sane enough to resist the "combat madness" that steeps your mind the more you kill.

World map from MHW, featuring all the classics: forest, desert, city sized pile of rotting flesh and bone, national park sized coral reef, mountain solely inhabited by the most powerful beasts alive

Monster Hunter: World came out in 2018, and I really liked its region setup. Big themed zones, with an ecosystem of relations to each other. It was also around this time that I learned what a hexcrawl is, so things started to fall into place. Soon I had pages of unique regions with special foes, hazards, events, mysteries, allies, and of course, loot.

TBL is perfectly suited for nonstop violence, and every warrior finds their niche hunting grounds. Ninjas and rogues sneak around the dark forests assassinating each other, foul sorcerers harness the mountaintop mana crags to supercharge their spells, barbaric warlords paint the desert red smashing their legions together, and those with true potential are able to enter the forbidden keep to duel among the elite. But if you want a shot at that wish, figuring out what "worthy" means is going to take some digging. Is it pure kill count, or maybe like a prowess or honor thing? Who's running this joint, anyway? Better get galavanting for answers.

Now that I'm older and wiser(?), I've got plenty of other systems I'd prefer to run this in. It tracks as MORK BORG appropriate, since life is cheap and all you need is kill, but I also need to check out some things with a little more combat meat.

Rebellion Story Cards Game

Are you familiar with mapmaking rpgs? Instead of being single characters doing things in a GM-provided scenario, the players are collaborating on coming up with a place, piecing together a layout and a history. A really good one is "Beak, Feather, & Bone." 

You pick some factions of townspeople, like fishmongers, pickpockets, merchants, aristocrats, farmers, craftsmen, so on, and take turns drawing cards. The card's suit tells you a building's purpose, and the value is how influential it is, from 1-10. Face cards are worth 0; locations currently inhibited by a rival from another faction. Using all that, you then come up with the details of this place: broadly speaking, what people say about it, what it looks like, and what's inside. By the end, you've got a place full of interesting landmarks and little conflicts.

I love that game, but one of my personal gripes is that it creates a snapshot of a still world. It's sort of like a picture coming into focus: not changing per se, just becoming clearer. Not really a problem, but what if changing or shifting was baked in? It also self describes as lightly competitive; the winning faction claims the "seat of power" building and is considered to be most influential at the moment. But the winner is determined by highest influence, which is solely up to who drew higher numbers. Maybe realistic, but not competitive, right?

That made me start wondering what a lightly competitve location-making game would look like. So, the main idea is still to invent an interesting fiction together, but there's decisions and a winner? To me, that sounds like the place is in a time of change, and the players control agents of that change. And lately, stories about rebellions or insurgency are on my mind, probably due to Andor. So I let those clouds swirl around for a while, and now I've got the early stages of something.

A "map evolution" game (pretentious enough?) where players flesh out a cool location in the midst of a societal upheaval; galactic empire, small village, cyber city, what have you. Players pick a faction or type of citizen, such as partisans, firebrand protestors, the downtrodden working class, whistleblowers, foreign agents, anyone who might want to overthrow the current powers that be.

Here's how it might work: Cards represent steps your faction is taking to progress the revolution. The suits represent the kind of action, and the value is how effective it is at shaking things up. On their turn, players draw 3 cards and choose one to put into play. (There'll be some reason to not just play the biggest card every time, eventually...) I'm thinking a given society might have abstracted areas to "target"- Cultural, commercial, and civil? The common people and public opinion, the industries and/or the affluent, and the workings of the governing body itself.

How it might look

Next, you flesh out how your chosen action went. Maybe by writing about the target, the plan, and the outcome? I was thinking ♥️Hearts are actions against/involving a person, and ♦️Diamonds involve a place or thing. ♠️Spades and♣️Clubs are the same, respectively, but represent violent actions. In this revolt narrative, drawing a little blood will drive home that you're not messing around. But that comes at the risk of much more severe consequences. 

Maybe it's a gamble on whether the masses will take to it, or it might provoke an immediate "reaction turn" from the city (more on that in a minute). Ooh, maybe before writing the outcome, you roll a d10 against the card value to see if things spiraled out of control. And of course, certain factions can have a preference or aversion towards violence, such as partisans being extra effective with it, or a reformist being able to convert a violent action into several smaller nonviolent ones. 

On faction specialties in general, some might have the ability to pocket a card of a certain type, for deploying in combination with another card later. One could reactively add a suit to someone else's play, representing a collaboration or interference from their faction. I think all these little side-actions and decisions will be how players scrape together influence or move it around. 

Some examples for the suits: Let's say I played my card in the "civil" pile. Our rebel cell is targeting a cog in the machine. The 3 of ♥️Hearts might be slipping someone a bribe, the 7 of ♠️Spades might be slipping someone a bomb. Meanwhile, the 1 of ♣️Clubs could be smashing some regime cameras, and the 10 of ♦️Diamonds could be shutting down the regime camera factory with a historically huge occupation. 

I think the 2 cards you don't play could get given to the Powers That Be for a "reaction turn" of sorts, where a card is selected (random, or highest value?) that prompts you to come up with how the current order is striking back. Arrests, disappearings, spies and moles, and of course, cracking down on the populace at large. You'll probably lose some points with the average citizen if they're being subjected to "instant kill" curfews because of your BS. 

Oh, and I guess face cards could be really important people, like icons of the revolution? Or, if played by the city, they're the big-name denouncers, enforcers, public faces calling for "moderation"... any of the white blood cells released in response to the infection of dissent.

In "In Too Deep", you play secret agents trying to foil a crime syndicate's Evil Plan by cyber-jacking into the minds of criminals and influencing their actions in ways that allow you to gather evidence. The entire game is moving these bad guys around and choosing how they act, so why not just BE them? There's a whole page in the rulebook saying "remember, you're not the criminals, you're just nudging them in specific directions towards crimes they would have committed anyway!" Hello? What is this? Let me be that guy?

Early into this idea, I was really set on including a rondel somehow, due to this Skeleton Code Machine piece lighting up my mind. I thought the segments could be the districts of a dystopan city, like In Too Deep (pictured above). It's probably not literally a donut shaped city, like, the rondel movement could represent the steps your agents need to take to move around covertly, or something, don't worry about it. Sadly, districts didn't really scan as easy to prompt writing for, at least not as easy (and setting-neutral!) as abstracted aspects like cultural and civil.

So, the rondel is probably out, but I liked the idea of a pile of tokens or chips in the middle of it, roughly gauging the overall stability of the society. Through your actions, you'd bring that pile lower and lower to incite the populace to wake up and do something. But! Reduce it to nothing, and the society properly collapses. Game over. (At least for your factions; for players, a prompt to write a catastrophic conclusion!)

So, the loop, as of now: Players draw and choose an action prompt, write it out, and after everyone goes, the city deploys a retaliation prompt. Repeat until win or lose. If you lost, write the failure out and the fate of your factions. If you won, determine who came out on top and thus gets to drive the city for a while.

Ok Woah Easy There Tiger

Damn, should the rebellion story game have been its own post? Nah, it's good that sharing it caused me to develop it more. That was the point of the blog! Nice!

I'll get the other brainchilds out of their cages soon, there's plenty to go. After or parallel to that, there's all kinds of other crazy stuff I wanna post about. Thank you very much for reading.