tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post1077723722715621169..comments2024-03-27T01:28:28.346-07:00Comments on False Machine: Swordthrust - a Beautiful Curiositypjamesstuarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-49404563175899168172021-05-24T08:49:23.887-07:002021-05-24T08:49:23.887-07:00My thanks for the clarification,
Its been a while...My thanks for the clarification,<br /><br />Its been a while since I busted out a hard F but you are responsible in making the distinction between my rules of engagement and that of the rest, albeit in a comment.<br /><br />Bryce is very focused on utility which does include layout methods and his rants against text-heavy adventures are fairly commonplace. <br /><br /><br />Be seeing you!PrinceofNothinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11733680486570025367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-72088473827503813742021-05-24T06:08:12.404-07:002021-05-24T06:08:12.404-07:00Yeah the combination of design, personality and po...Yeah the combination of design, personality and political tendencies centred around you, Melan, Bryce and Noisms. <br /><br />Largely; <br /><br />- "real" D&D people with a lot of experience with early editions (usually ignoring 3rd edition on.<br /><br />- Big on systemic adventure design focused on playability of the materials BUT ambilivilent or indifferent to stuff like neo-layout methods. Adventures tend to be text-heavy with an assumption of some 'unpacking' and probably a map-plus-open-file or book method rather than the one-open-book method.<br /><br />- Ambivalent about fancy or expressionist art styles. Though not always against them.<br /><br />- Tend to prefer more pseudo-natural generation and encounter tables for a many-session embedded style of play rather than punchy few-uses tables for handful of sessions or single adventure play.<br /><br />- Tend to be right wing or more accurately, whatever centre-right is in OSR land. So not as far down the rabbit hole as Pundit but Tory (Noisms), presumably ex or current 4channer (you), East European low level culture warrior (Melan), and whatever Bryce is.<br /><br />- The Frog is Pepe because of his association with the right and 4chan, and your generally disagreeable (in the Big 5 personality model sense) natures, engaging in negative criticism rather than liberal/corporate/community platitudes and willingness to call people faggots online (though for anyone reading, its really only Prince that does this, haven't seen it from the others . Together you are the Frognard tendency.pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-36015591411518639032021-05-24T04:28:54.684-07:002021-05-24T04:28:54.684-07:00Hey Patrick,
The boys at Tenfootpole are arguing ...Hey Patrick,<br /><br />The boys at Tenfootpole are arguing about the etymology of Frognard. Would you mind clearing up the confusion?<br /><br />Best,<br />PrincePrinceofNothinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11733680486570025367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-595142368239749092021-05-12T01:22:34.699-07:002021-05-12T01:22:34.699-07:00This whole thing makes me wonder if the OSR isn...This whole thing makes me wonder if the OSR isn't just a bunch of us experiencing the slow burn of "angst" and longing for something that, turns out, is just derivative.anthony mhorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02439495903811144056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-6090664590781912082021-05-11T20:08:09.788-07:002021-05-11T20:08:09.788-07:00Now the links work! Thanks, that clarifies the nua...Now the links work! Thanks, that clarifies the nuances of the echoes across time. Lovely!Will Purveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12375096729522589036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-82816535577175679322021-05-11T05:38:49.006-07:002021-05-11T05:38:49.006-07:00Most of the time I think that every world or campa...Most of the time I think that every world or campaign or dungeon I create or enter is a descent into psyche, so this 'adventure' makes that exercise overt. As I run a scenario or scene of my own I inevitably discover more about myself; creation<->self discovery loop.<br />BTW the two links to your own similitudes did not lead anywhere on my end. <br />Will Purveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12375096729522589036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-82829702538681288522021-05-10T21:32:02.798-07:002021-05-10T21:32:02.798-07:00Linguistic Resonance Ghost
Distributed construct, ...Linguistic Resonance Ghost<br />Distributed construct, alignment N/A<br />When an online communication ecosystem with automated janitorial and notification bots has built up a sufficient stockpile of conduct warning log dumps and did-you-know reference files it becomes capable of a form of 100% self-referential “conversation” without further input from users.<br /><br />A botnet which is allowed to reply to itself using different libraries can become sophisticated (intricate) enough to fool the casual observer that original conversation is taking place. One is actually witnessing a form of circular internal dialogue. Only user input that is novel in relation to the reference library can possibly increase botgeist sophistication.<br /><br />Normally this phenomenon is limited to Reddit, Twitter and Discord, but the fact that these janitorial and informative functions are often connected to mailer daemon email accounts means that occasionally a botgeist will inadvertently register for a blog, extending its outputs beyond their intended domain.<br /><br />…<br /><br />To your comment: I hope so. I’m really only pseudonymous these days because I’m still learning and experimenting with my own creations, but I would like to do things under my own name once I can consistently produce works of value. <br /><br />I haven’t done strict creative writing since I was a young boy and only picked it up again very very recently. There was a period when my highly conscientious father (bless him) sat me down and forced me to write every day and so I ended up sort swearing it off. I focused almost exclusively on running RPGs instead, and have only just rediscovered narrative forms which don’t factor in player input. A lot of factors played into that return but your blog was one of them.<br /><br />I care about developing my own work first before writing under my own name because I might hesitate to include certain horrific, erotic, or too-real things if I didn’t have anything beyond my current ouvre as a backstop, counterweight or justification.<br /><br />All that said, I don’t mind if you or anybody who has read my work knows who I am because just encountering it is a vetting process at this point.Her Christmas Knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09445850026904816000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-23477606126587919532021-05-10T21:31:38.807-07:002021-05-10T21:31:38.807-07:00Linguistic Resonance Ghost
Distributed construct, ...Linguistic Resonance Ghost<br />Distributed construct, alignment N/A<br />When an online communication ecosystem with automated janitorial and notification bots has built up a sufficient stockpile of conduct warning log dumps and did-you-know reference files it becomes capable of a form of 100% self-referential “conversation” without further input from users.<br /><br />A botnet which is allowed to reply to itself using different libraries can become sophisticated (intricate) enough to fool the casual observer that original conversation is taking place. One is actually witnessing a form of circular internal dialogue. Only user input that is novel in relation to the reference library can possibly increase botgeist sophistication.<br /><br />Normally this phenomenon is limited to Reddit, Twitter and Discord, but the fact that these janitorial and informative functions are often connected to mailer daemon email accounts means that occasionally a botgeist will inadvertently register for a blog, extending its outputs beyond their intended domain.<br /><br />…<br /><br />To your comment: I hope so. I’m really only pseudonymous these days because I’m still learning and experimenting with my own creations, but I would like to do things under my own name once I can consistently produce works of value. <br /><br />I haven’t done strict creative writing since I was a young boy and only picked it up again very very recently. There was a period when my highly conscientious father (bless him) sat me down and forced me to write every day and so I ended up sort swearing it off. I focused almost exclusively on running RPGs instead, and have only just rediscovered narrative forms which don’t factor in player input. A lot of factors played into that return but your blog was one of them.<br /><br />I care about developing my own work first before writing under my own name because I might hesitate to include certain horrific, erotic, or too-real things if I didn’t have anything beyond my current ouvre as a backstop, counterweight or justification.<br /><br />All that said, I don’t mind if you or anybody who has read my work knows who I am because just encountering it is a vetting process at this point.Her Christmas Knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09445850026904816000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-80095934175956000202021-05-09T03:15:32.875-07:002021-05-09T03:15:32.875-07:00Behind Gently Smiling Jaws is still a going concer...Behind Gently Smiling Jaws is still a going concern. It has been simplified quite a bit in my mind. The basic idea is now about replicating the mood and feel of <i>Porco Rosso</i>/紅の豚, but in the aftermath of the cataclysmic emergence into the real world of all of the mythagos in the crocodile's mind.<br /><br />I can't shake the feeling it should really be a graphic novel, but sadly Moebius isn't available for hire.noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-77316768883149206192021-05-09T03:11:29.581-07:002021-05-09T03:11:29.581-07:00Behind Gently Smiling Jaws is still a going concer...Behind Gently Smiling Jaws is still a going concern. It's been simplified a bit and now the basic idea is to replicate something of the atmosphere of <i>Porco Rosso</i>/紅の豚...but in the aftermath of the cataclysmic escape of mythagos from the crocodile's mind into the real world. noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-42457054446401817502021-05-09T03:11:13.773-07:002021-05-09T03:11:13.773-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-31146005078369001222021-05-09T02:51:30.846-07:002021-05-09T02:51:30.846-07:00Ynn did something extraordinary. It pioneered, or ...Ynn did something extraordinary. It pioneered, or it attempted to pioneer since no one has used it since, a system for portraying a descent into a fantastical environment that was not quantized and of limited size, but continuous and of potentially infinite depth. It was perfect for modelling the exploration of an otherworldly realm from a single point of egress, like Wonderland, or Algrys Budris's Moon artifact, or W.H. Hodginson's the Night Land or whathaveyou. You could get lost, your route could be severed and you were always conscious of how many steps you were from the entrance.<br /><br />This was all combined with a fantasy of dreamlike beauty, decay and horror. The AIW ripoff, which must have been popular after RPL, is done with elegance and grace and a point. As you descend you gain more context and insight into this realm with each encounter. The rotting garden of a race of supra-elves, undone by a terrifying memetic weapon that is still dormant in the heart of the place, waiting to get out. <br /><br />There is a beauty to DnD when mechanics, premise and content are aligned in the same direction and each singular component fits neatly into the next. I'm sure if I go back I will find other flaws that were not apparent when I first read it but it is very good still. <br /><br />Cavegirl never made anything like it since and never developed it further, beyond a second outing using the same mechanics into a library environment that was less interesting, and now the concept lies fallow, awaiting an ambitious ressurection.PrinceofNothinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11733680486570025367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-31619732843958550312021-05-08T13:19:17.269-07:002021-05-08T13:19:17.269-07:00>Thats wild, so maybe they based the character ...>Thats wild, so maybe they based the character of the King of the Mountain on the availability of the image?<br />Very possible. The image doesn't really fit the novel all that much (it is one of those images which are technically correct to a possible creative brief but are not much so when you read the novel), so I am happy the image found much better use. <br /><br />>Also I didn't even know those Denizens of... books existed so thanks for that<br />Somehow they are all seem to be excluded from Role Aids list on Wikipedia (but they are RAs 767, 758, 763, 755). Sadly, Mayfair never got to finish Denizens of Thanis and The Pit. Once I saw a file claimed to be a long-forgotten manuscript for Denizens of Thanis but it might have been just somebody's fanfiction. Kyanahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12992025061183651850noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-67484245150539839122021-05-08T12:50:00.410-07:002021-05-08T12:50:00.410-07:00Also I didn't even know those Denizens of... b...Also I didn't even know those Denizens of... books existed so thanks for thatpjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-27259005702654908042021-05-08T12:48:43.332-07:002021-05-08T12:48:43.332-07:00I wonder if I will ever find out who you areI wonder if I will ever find out who you arepjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-90461222055135507652021-05-08T12:48:14.201-07:002021-05-08T12:48:14.201-07:00The greatest pleasure of reading obscure stuff is ...The greatest pleasure of reading obscure stuff is looking down your nose at those that haven't.pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-51746719706184609662021-05-08T12:47:28.173-07:002021-05-08T12:47:28.173-07:00Thats wild, so maybe they based the character of t...Thats wild, so maybe they based the character of the King of the Mountain on the availability of the image?pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-2498025206017232652021-05-08T12:45:40.403-07:002021-05-08T12:45:40.403-07:00What makes Ynn different to you?What makes Ynn different to you?pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-67566850457869481292021-05-08T04:19:48.353-07:002021-05-08T04:19:48.353-07:00Visualizing a mind as an adventuring place where c...Visualizing a mind as an adventuring place where changing things and interacting with subpersonalities was changing the overall person to me came unavoidably when I had a player (a very good player) playing a psionic telepath character. Such mind delve wasn't even in the rules but the player was so good I just went with it, and making spatial and thematic/symbolic sense out of somebody's mind was the most intuitive thing to do. <br /><br />Some of my favourite RPG suppliments are by Mayfair, specifically Denizens of Og/Verekna/Diannor and Verechel which are books of madlib Goethia.<br /><br />To me ideas a sort of noospheric (for the lack of the better word) spam newsletter. They are 'getting send' (for the lack of the better word) to many people without care and many ignore them, but some choose to follow on this or that particular idea, hence we have sort of simultaneous or close manifestations of same ideas in different people. <br /><br />(Also to be slightly pedantic because Ginger Star is one of my favourite series - but from what I see Ginger Star used this picture first in 1975 edition by Del Rey while the Swordthrust was published in 1984.)Kyanahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12992025061183651850noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-82231938075002816542021-05-08T00:55:42.115-07:002021-05-08T00:55:42.115-07:00You may call us 'The OSRmen' and know that...You may call us 'The OSRmen' and know that you speak under the weight of terrible scrutiny. As luck would have it I am reading Deep Carbon Observatory Revised now. <br /><br />Swordthrust is of course statted for 1e, as it predates the second edition by several years. I think it might be fair to assume Melan or Bryce think the same way about this adventure as I do but they have never commented on it and until I reviewed it no one talked about it.<br /><br />The reason most Artpunk (not your Artpunk!) is so embaressingly bad, and grows worse as time goes on, is because those very same procedures and meta-systems you claim have been excised are part of D&D and they are often ditched wholesale by people without the understanding of the game that is neccessary to compensate for its lack. The primary conducer for the creative impulse in Artpunk is in pretty looking monsters and silly items (the surface area of the game only). There is no significant innovation in the deeper layers because it is barely understood that they exist at all. What you get are modules that have ideas (which is good) but that struggle with integrating these ideas into the framework of the game. The one exception I know of is Gardens of Ynn by Emmy Allen, which I think could charitably be called Artpunk.<br /><br />This deficiency becomes apparent when others try to copy the Artpunk format that was, let us be honest, invented/pioneered by The Titan and codified by you, one of its few worthy sons. It is not that your understanding of the game is much greater, but that you are unusually creative and gifted. You are a Jack Vance, compensating for your shallow creations with a relentless innovation, wit and search for meaning. <br /><br />It is also not the case that seeing something from the MM in a module brings an immediate hit of dopamine to the struggling reviewer, but it does signal that the would be author is at least trying to engage with the substance of the game he is onstensibly writing for. Creativity and Innovation is good, but so many try to run before they can even walk. <br /><br />Such horrors I have seen.PrinceofNothinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11733680486570025367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-54734846580273536002021-05-07T12:05:30.248-07:002021-05-07T12:05:30.248-07:00Prince shamed me when he reviewed this because I&#...Prince shamed me when he reviewed this because I'd never heard of it. Now I'm shamed again because although I've heard of it now I still haven't gotten around to reading it...Trenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01889179660165006042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-11320796553454777272021-05-07T07:52:07.537-07:002021-05-07T07:52:07.537-07:00I've done this in an adventure too; you encoun...I've done this in an adventure too; you encounter the shattered subpersonalities of a tutelary deity and have to decide which ones you'd like to attempt to reintegrate so that it might guard against an impending invasion.<br /><br />If this is a recurring theme, it might be the result of a recurring process.<br /><br />GM has an interest in ideas -> interest in the generation of ideas -> interest in the brain -> interest in the psyche<br /><br />Psyche as story-generating environment characterized by a shifting motivational/emotional/moral atmosphere with calcified conduits (tunnels) from key inputs to the most vivid, demonstrative, harrowing or mysterious situations/environments which it has assimilated -> Psyche as variegated daemon-cavern -> Psyche as adventure environment -> Psyche as agent changed by the adventure outcome<br /><br />There's the narrative question of what happens after the contents of the psyche have been manipulated by the interloping agent. <br /><br />A lot of what you try and do when you reflect on your past and assess your own mind is to order your experiences into comprehensibility, into a narrative where one thing understandably led to another, and by doing so you can learn about your own nature and the nature of existence. You are also trying to determine your own nature; what is derived from your experiences, and what is inherited from your homunculus.<br /><br />Through self-understanding you can act to mitigate your weaknesses and maximally gain from your strengths, and through the linking of your experiences you relieve the dismay of confusion.<br /><br />From a narrative standpoint, from the POV of the "dungeon" psyche:<br />Existential confusion is associated with darkness, consternation, and recurring threat. The adventure environment manifests as a dangerous agent<br />Comprehension is a place where preparation can occur. It is a place of light, armor and tranquility. The adventure environment manifests as a tutelary deity or a heliopolis. I've done "adventure environment as rescued lover" before too<br /><br />The monsters have been slain, tamed or mitigated. Each room has been explored, its traps sprung, disarmed or marked with chalk. The power source has been restored to its proper place. Or, if the whole structure is irretrievably corrupted, it has been burnt out and collapsed. The garden has been turned over and made ready, and treasure has been won by the inquirers.<br /><br />There were wounds, casualties, prices, but nothing about this process is painless.Her Christmas Knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09445850026904816000noreply@blogger.com