Eow Links 25
2021-06-19

Eow Links 25

"Eow" for End Of Week. Links I gathered during the week. This is iteration 25.

For more weekly links, head to The Seed of Worlds Shiny TTRPG link collection or Alex's Blogosphere posts.

Most of the links below are found via the RPG Planet that Alex Schroeder built and maintains. If you have a RPG blog, please consider joining the conversation.

← last week links

My commentaries below the extracts are thinning. I feel that if I want to highlight others' posts, I should simply point at them and let you go there and play the music from their score.


Sharing sirih, “Drawings Part Two”, Mun Kao

The Whine

These zines weren’t written to speak to you.

They are for us. Mun Kao and I are centering ourselves, tending to our own garden. Tending to the needs of our selves, our land. The zines are seed bombs we are throwing against the Malay-warrior monoculture in our minds. Seed bombs to rehabilitate our own imaginations.

But – here. You can have a seed bomb. The nice thing about a seed is that, with your care, it could sprout in your own garden. If you want. Let it flower in your mind.

Zedeck Siew gave the closing note to the Freeplay Independent Games Festival. He and Mun Kao are the authors of Thousand Thousand Islands.

Thanks for the seed bomb!


Traveller and Warhammer 40k

I recall hearing tell that Warhammer 40k's setting had its origins in Traveller's universe, but filtered through a British black comedy 2300 AD / Judge Dredd lens. And the more I think about it the more right it seems.

I remember purchasing the first edition of Warhammer 40K. It was a beautiful spring day, and everything inside of this book was dark.


Right Name, Wrong Game

In studying this game, I have come to the conclusion that it might have been a stand alone game used by the author for a science fiction setting. Some sort of super campaign.

One of the hints at this possibility is the combat system. It is really designed well for ship to ship combat where smuggling and piracy are critical.

2d6 space ship combats.


Thoughts on Combat Momentum

If you read a story about sports (or even combat) the side doing well is said to have the momentum. This is mostly confidence for those that have momentum combined with lack of confidence for those that do not have momentum. That is where the momentum die comes in.

A nice little reflection and a momentum system awaiting testing.


The Antisocial Network

Totoro is a religious, conservative movie. That sounds weird because the surface aesthetics are so different from what would make something a conservative religious movie in America. It's fluffy and full of childlike whimsy! It's not preaching anything! But Shinto, the least-organized and least doctrine-focused of all surviving religions, has space in it for the whimsical, and very little in the way of preaching.

The magic goes on.


Kobold Biennale - Evlyn Moreau

To stride the skies - Kobold high culture post

The big hook for kobold high culture is the house of cards. They are the worst aspects of hyper-growth nonsense with a brick on the accelerator. Every angle has been leveraged so they can keep going, they are the epitome of 'succeed or die trying'.

Xaoseed makes us love Kobolds.


The System Surpasses 13,000 Downloads!!!

I originally wrote/designed this in late 1985/early 1986 (when I was about 16 years old) before other universal role playing systems were available on the market. As I was getting ready to playtest it with my friends, a guy in our gaming group brought in a copy of the (then) newly-released GURPS, and I shelved my system in the disappointment that comes with having someone beat you to the punch

The author of D30 Sandbox Companion published his teenager role playing rules and downloads happened.


Powered by the Apocalypse, Part 7: Q&A Lightning Round!

Reminder: the goal is to create a playable outline

. Game design means iteration;
. The first step is to create something you can try;
. Is PbtA your final goal? Could be, could be not.