Wednesday, June 16, 2021

TLB Podcast #7 Ian Yusem - The Drain/Picket line tango/Moonbase blues

 



Ian Yusem is the designer of the Mothership rpg adventures Moonbase blues, Picket Line Tango, The Drain. Ian has also a great blog called Uncanny Spheres in which he writes with a lot of honesty about his experience as an indie rpg designer. There, he posts detailed postmortems of his games where he addresses the financial reality of being an indie TTRPG designer and he writes a lot about community. What does that mean to belong to a community of creators ? How does one even find their own community ?

In this episode we talk about finding solace through RPGs, Dissident Whispers a charity collective RPG book in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, making a living out of TTRPG design, Kickstarter, a utopic future for the indie RPG scene and much more.

You can listen to the podcast here:



Or on youtube with English Subtitles.
https://youtu.be/xW6VR1Xiqfc

Or on the major podcast platforms:



Get in touch with Ian here https://twitter.com/IanYusem

Download his games here https://ian-yusem.itch.io/

And read is awesome blog Uncanny Sphereshere https://uncannyspheres.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, June 2, 2021

TLB Podcast #6 Anna Blackwell - Delve/Rise/Umbra
























Anna Blackwell is the designer of the solo RPG Delve, or rather the solo RPG series Delve, Rise and Umbra. 

Delve is a map-drawing game in which you run an underground dwarven hold. As you dig underground you encounter magic, treasures, evil forces. The game is played with dice and a standard card deck. It involves exploration, resource management, and drawing, and it's built to create a strong emergent narrative experience.

In this episode, we talk about the fear of the dark, caving, drawing, solo RPGs, emergent narrative and game design.

You can listen to the podcast here:


Or on youtube with English Subtitles. The subtitled episode will be ready by the end of the week. You can subscribe to the channel to get notified as soon as the episode is ready https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBcjgiUURodfLWy-cDqpK2Q

Or on the major podcast platforms:


And soon here:
Castbox
Overcast

For more info on caves, night, to read an Anna Blackwell Delve story, to watch a secret film for cool links get THE ZINE OF ZINES - ISSUE 1 it's free for you to download on itch


You can find Anna's games here:


or here:



Tuesday, May 25, 2021

THE ZINE OF ZINES - ISSUE 1 - ANNA BLACKWELL

THE ZINE OF ZINES is a one-sheet zine companion to The Lost Bay Podcast episodes. Each issue expands on the themes of the corresponding episode, with, texts, thoughts and cool links.

TLB Podcast #5 with guest Anna Blackwell, designer of the solo TTRPG Delve, caver, and more, will be live on Wednesday, June 2.

Until then you can get THE ZINE OF ZINES - ISSUE 1 for free on itchio down here (or consider buying it, to support the podcast). Four A5 pages about caves and night, with a lot of cool links and threads about Malls, and the Hollow Earth, and Dwarf Fortress, and non TTRPG zines + a SECRET FILM + an Anna Blackwell story, adventure sparks, and various TLB info.

And you can also subscribe to the podcast channel and get notified as soon as the episode is live (and listen to the awesome previous episodes) here: 





THE STORY OF BURNT RICHES

by Anna Blackwell
(a map, and a chronicle of a Delve game)
-------------------------------------------------

Our goal was simple; find a Void Crystal and give it to the Under-King for untold riches. No easy task but one that would guide our hold as we struck the earth on this new site. The remains of an extinct volcano known as Lava’s Death.


The ground on the surface was fertile and supported a thriving human village near the volcano’s caldera but we were more interested in its roots. We set up the essentials first, a forge for traps, a barracks for our new recruits that hadn’t the discipline to stand guard all day.

At first the hold was forgiving, soft stone gave way to jewels. We built a mushroom farm to better support ourselves as our initial supplies dwindled. We dug deeper and came to a tragic realisation. The volcano wasn’t as extinct as the Geographer’s Guild had claimed. A dozen miners wiped out by a volcanic river and our route blocked. We tried instead to go round and encountered poisonous gas.

With hope wearing thin, we vowed we’d make one more attempt at digging deep and by Oleyrn’s beard did it pay off. A magma shaft led straight into the bowels of the earth, we’d be able to construct an elevator and lower our brave miners down in record time. And the old saying “don’t give up at the first broken pick” proved true again and again as we discovered an underground forest and crystal cavern right atop one another. We would have the wood we needed in a manner of months while the crystals proved to be the incentive needed for clerics, mages, and our greater plans.

While the wood matured and dried, our scouting miners dug into the walls of the shaft, hoping to find more riches but instead we found darkness. 

A temple to a crowned spider god, nameless to those who cannot read their web like script. A cleric from the empire was called for in the hopes she would be able to determine if such a blasphemous idol was a threat. Thankfully it seems as if the temple was somewhat benign, merely temporarily infecting our builders with strange ideas. The library constructed so that our newly hired mage could research the temple had spider shaped chairs, the books were kept on a rope web, and we even found Tavia, our architect, trying to make silk wrapped training dummies to hang from the ceiling.

Our other scouting miners seemed to be having more luck on the other side of the shaft as they discovered what could only be described as a wishing well. A deep well surrounded by glittering lights and fairy doors. We can’t blame them for chucking a good few coins in with hopes of love or riches. However, the well was not as it seemed, or it was and someone made a very stupid wish. As the last coin hit the water deep below, it started to overflow like a blocked toilet. Foul swamp water, biting insects, and a great warty toad emerged from the well. The brackish water flowed out and into the depths of the shaft creating a constant foul waterfall upon which the occasional black toad could be seen falling. 

We have decided to leave it be for the time being.

Our mage has studied the writings on the statue and translated a spell found etched on one of the pillars so now we have cats. Lots of cats emerging from what they lovingly refer to as a “pawrtal”. 

Digging deeper we faced our first fight. A mad dwarf known as Fasi The Hermit, a sculptor who has kept himself alive by replacing his failing form with exquisitely carved marble. His marble skin was tough and while our mage and cleric fought well, holding him long enough for the cats to escape, the hermit made it past. Where his marble flesh was broken, organs made of jewels and stone could be seen underneath. Our soldiers met him in the forge but his skin turned aside every other strike and soon he had made it to the entrance where only our honoured guard remained. They fought to the last till only Raevis the Stout remained. 

He has taken Fasi’s face as a trophy, affixing the marble mask to his helmet.

Near defenceless, we retrofitted the mad hermit’s giant statue into a trap for any creature that tries to rise from his lair. We could not have expected what we found.

An ancient rage tahr, a cave goat that the hermit must have been nurturing for centuries. The giant creature was strong enough to break stone apart, it could throw its spikes through iron doors. The giant stone hand of our trap statue was little more than a pat on the head to a creature so powerful.

Raevis alone guarded the entrance as the rest of us fled. The sound of the great beast tearing its way through our hold will forever haunt me. As I chronicle this I remember hearing the rage tahr come to a halt on the other side of the great gates as Tavia instructed us to destroy the keystone and collapse the entryway. It recognised Fasi’s face and for a while Raevis cleverly held the beast at bay.

May all the gods have mercy on us for trapping him inside.

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

TLB Podcast #5 Vi Huntsman - Collabs without permission

 




















Vi Huntsman runs a Crazy youtube channel called Collabs without permission. They do great video reviews of TTRPG zines. In March they shared a review of the game Mothership filmed at Bonneville Salt Flats. It’s a super brilliant review of the game, and it looks amazing, like a short Sci-Fi film.

Vi has been collecting zines for years. We did the interview via a conferencing app. And as we were recording, I could see behind Vi shelves literally filled with zines.

In this episode, we talk about Vi’s collection of Zines, a romanesque encounter with Malaysian designer Zedeck Siew, a Dada clown army, Kickstarter, Mixam, risograph printing, and a possible future of RPG zines.

You can listen to the episode here:


On Youtube, with English Subtitles


Or on the major podcast platforms:


And soon here:
Castbox
Overcast

For more info on Riso, Sci-Fi Zines, cool Zines and more check the ZINE OF ZINES on itch. It's free for you to download, well it's Pay What You Want, if you enjoy the podcast, consider buying it!


Vi's amazing Youtube channel is here, be sure to check it:



Thursday, April 29, 2021

ADVENTURE SPARK TABLES - Broken Luck TROIKA! Zine WIP #4

A quick update on the Broken Luck Troika! zine.

OK, first, I'm not going to make it in time for the Troika!Fest Jam. I'm a bit sorry about that, but I am learning to accept that in order to make good stuff one might need some extra time. Trying to be ZEN about it.

Also, I've learned that to make good stuff one needs to ask for feedback from talented people, and that's what I did. perplexingruins, who by the way did the amazing art of the zine, pushed me to be more creative with the layout. I worked a lot and went from a very boring layout to something better.

example spread

Leo Hunt, author and artist behind Vaults of Vaarn, encouraged me to be more consistent and also more Troikish, and Ian Yusem, the man behind, well, a lot of stuff, had shown me the way to some more foolishness, helped me understand better some Troika! fundamentals, and also asked for more adventure tables in the mood of those that I've already put in the zine.

So I'll allow myself to indulge in table design for a couple of weeks and add more Adventure Tables describing the Gods, the Godly Palace, and its dwellers - Because the zine revolves around five backgrounds of unlucky souls banished or punished by childish and resentful gods.

The goal here is to deliver five backgrounds, a cursed Major Arcana Tarots system (all pluggable into any sphere setting), and suggest a Godly palace/setting. So far I have four D6 tables:

  • Which immortal did you piss off?
  • The Godly Palace is hidden
  • The PCs are in
  • And they are

And to those, I'll add:

  • To enter the Godly Palace you must (pass a test, fight an NPC, go through something odd)
  • Minion Generator
  • The Gods are (doing crazy stuff, of course)
  • And after a while, The Palace will (more crazy stuff happens, why not?)
  • God generator






Wednesday, April 21, 2021

TLB Podcast #4 Chris - McDowall - Electric Bastionland

Chris McDowall is the creator of the RPGS Into the Odd and Electric Bastionland. Both games share a fascinating weird industrial early XXth century setting and have been extremely influential to the indie RPG scene for the way they handle game mechanics. As a matter of fact, if you’ve listened to previous episodes of this podcast you might have heard other designers mention Chris’ games a few times.

In this episode we talk about Fear, a strange fascination with the London Underground Railway, a rural English county nobody knows about, one hundred failed careers, miniature wargames, and Intergalactic Bastionland.

You can listen to the episode here: 



On Youtube, with EN subs:

Or on the major podcast platforms:

And soon here:
Castbox
Overcast

Buy Electric Bastionland here:

Or find Chris at his youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQO6EwDBUxOYRR6jcAtv_0A


On his blog

https://www.bastionland.com/

Alec Sorensen's early sketches for Electric Bastionland

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

HOLY DESERTER Background - Broken Luck Zine WIP #3

The Broken Luck Troika! zine completion is getting closer (you can read about why/how I started working on the zine here, and about the KID GOD background here). ETA should be 20 April 2021.

The zine contains

5 backgrounds: Kid God, Holy Deserter, Sun Helmet, Fake Demigod, Roaming Fortune Teller

22 Arcana Major Tarot cards spells + Arcana Tarot combos spells

3 Broken luck tables:

  • Which immortal did you piss off?
  • Where the Godly Palace is hidden?
  • Using the backgrounds as NPCs

Quick Adventure Sparks (triple D6 Table)

Recap of the 13 custom Advanced Skills

AND 8 amazing perplexingruins illustrations. 

A soundtrack by spookyrusty.

As a preview here is the Holy Deserter background


HOLY DESERTER

You’re a Holy. A born killer. The most beloved creature of the Gods, breed to celebrate their rituals and defend their name. Long ago you left the Godly Palace to track a treacherous and impious being. You hunt them for years, across countless spheres, until you forgot what or who you were after. Ashamed of your failure you swore never to set foot back in the Palace. Anyways you totally forgot where it is. You’re a homesick deserter. Other Holies will attack you on sight.


Possessions


Owning is a sacrilege. You’re a deserter but you still have your dignity. You don’t even wear clothes. That would be a disgusting and shameful gesture.




Advanced skills


2 Oblivion spit - your acidic saliva induces short term memory loss


3 Maul - your crystal claws inflict Axe like damage


3 Colorshift - you can change your color and that of the objects or beings you touch


2 Spring - when you fall bounce with no damage





Special 

You can take your incandescent lava eyes out of their sockets.

Your blood made of inframicroscopic blue crystals is flammable.

You are fluent in Godly tongues.



[EDIT] Been trying some layouts. Nothing definitive yet.

[EDIT END] 




Saturday, April 10, 2021

KID GOD Background - Troika!Fest Jam - Broken Luck Zine WIP #2

Quick post. The work on the Broken Luck zine for the Troika!Fest Jam has continued. (it started here)

I've been rewriting some content originally drafted for The Lost Bay, which universe has a pantheon of annoying divinities, giving it a weirder, space fantasier feel. In the process, I've been very much inspired by perplexingruins older drawings.

There should be 4 to 6 six backgrounds, magical Tarots, associated spells, and a few tables to generate unluck. Hopefully, I'll post it to the Jam by the end of next week.


Here is a first background that sets the tone of the zine

[Edit!! and here is a layout page draft, sorry for the multi-updated messy post]



KID GOD

[Edited the 13 April 2021]


You’ve always loved mortals. They’re so funny with all that blood pumping through their veins. They make you laugh and cry, so much. The Holies never approved your illicit proximity with those frail beings. They stripped you of immortality and cast you out of the Godly Palace. Now you too can die, and experience the mortal coil.


Possessions

Cosmic Pajama, covered with perpetually exploding protostars (counts as Medium armor) - Plastic Sun Helmet (toy, looks cool) - Sound Sword (made of the purest of sounds, screams when wielded) - Golden Peaches (1D4 fruits, glow when danger approaches under 20 ft, then rot)


Advanced skills


3 Give life - to small dead beings or objects, they obey you


3 Empathy - what you touch feels what you wish


2 Sense death - in a 1 mile radius


1 Sound sword fight


Special

Your ultrafluid iridescent metallic blood is the most valuable substance in the creation, it heals instantly any wound (2D6 Stamina recovery). You might be hunted for that.
You are fluent in Godly tongues.




Wednesday, April 7, 2021

TLB Podcast #3 - Ben Milton - The Waking of Willowby Hall

Ben Milton is behind the popular YouTube channel QUESTING BEASTwhere he does reviews and flip throughs of RPGs and OSR books and zines. Watching his reviews, I've been struck by the constant attention he has for the layout or the design choices of the books, and how these choices might affect the playing experience.



Ben is the author of MAZE RATS and KNAVE, two rules-light RPGs, that had a great influence on the OSR scene. Ben recently published the WAKING OF WILLOWBY HALL, a fairy-tale med fan adventure in a Haunted Manor.

In the episode, we talk about mathematician Edward Tufte, teaching Game Mastering to kids, an angry cloud giant, Ben's obsession with rules, and how a childhood book can affect game design choices.

You can listen to the episode here: 




On Youtube, with subs:


Or on the major podcast platforms:


And soon here:

Breaker
Castbox
Overcast

Find Ben Milton's games here




Sam Mameli's early sketches for The Waking of Willowby Hall

Friday, April 2, 2021

A Troika! Detour - Broken Luck Zine WIP #1

> BTW there's been progress on the Troika! zine development, check here <

So I'm taking a short detour from The Lost Bay development.

I've been asking myself a lot of questions lately. Questions that can end into an unsolvable loop, like: D20 or D6? 3 stats or 1 stat? PC backgrounds or tables? I feel that I need to answer those before continuing to write the TLB zine.


As I decided to get to know better Troika!, for that research purpose, the Troika!Fest Game Jam 2021 was announced. So I took that opportunity to dive into the Troika! SRD, knowing that the limited time at my disposal would prevent me from getting stuck at the bottom of an unclimbable too big of a project. 


I am reworking some tables first drafted for TLB and designing a small supplement for the Game Jam. The theme is Tarots, not as playing helper tools, but as in-game magical objects. The supplement revolves around an unlucky character, The Roaming Fortune Seller, that can be alternatively a PC background or an NPC (yes, I like the unlucky ones)


There should be 7-8 tables, which is not too much, but enough to be challenging as I am trying:

  • to design all the tables in a consistent way
  • to imply some sort of micro setting
  • to avoid redundancy.


I guess this is my first closed project, as opposed to the open ongoing development of the GM Tools, which is more a work in progress prefiguration of The Lost Bay.


It has been super helpful to read again Crapland by HypatiasAngst, a Troika! super crazy setting, super inventive, super effective in delivering the fictional world. And the same can be said of A man on the road by Ian Yusem, a two-page supplement that delivers a kind of game agnostic great wicked NPC, that I've been studying with attention. 




The zine/supplement/whatever will be adorned by several illustrations made by Perplexingruins. And by the way, most of the super evocative drawings I'll use come from the Patreon benefits one gets when supporting him.


So without spoiling the zine, here is the Background description, and a drawing (check the crazy mesh work!). The Jam ends in 27 days, and I'll try to share the zine in a couple of weeks max.


ROAMING FORTUNE SELLER BACKGROUND


You used to chitchat and drink cocktails with the Gods. You told them their fortune with frightening precision. One day you became overconfident and pissed off an Immortal. They banished you from their palace and cursed your Tarot Deck: it’s broken, useless and soiled by weird magic. Now you wander restlessly and can barely predict what you will have for breakfast tomorrow.




The Lost Bay Podcast season 2 big update

Here's an update on Season 2 of The Lost Bay Podcast. Four episodes have already been released, and many more are on the way. Paolo Grec...