#ttrpg stuff

For context in case someone missed it: this past week has had an explosion of fiction and art being posted to Twitter and to a lesser extent a few other social media sites, accounts and memoirs of a brutal eternal conflict on Jupiter's icy moon Europa.

At first people thought this was a spontaneous fic situation like Goncharov, but it turns out to have been viral marketing for an (upcoming?) tabletop roleplaying game zine that got wildly out of hand (up to and including some indirect acknowledgment from a NASA social media account).

So it's less unreality and more, fanfic I guess.

How, depending on the moments, a game can match more than others and change system, keeping the characters. Not just a world building with Microscope before a campaign but going from game to game in a coherent story.

Mixing Prequel and Back from the broken land without playing the final boss fight. The adventurers that sacrificed themselves to give a chance to the next group. The final group going back home with their scars.

Rolling into town, looking immaculate. Checking into the Inn. Not an inn, or the coaching house, or the traveler's hostel. The Inn. The one that takes my ridiculous oversized coin and says that my room is ready, and will I need to visit the Smith today? Perhaps a meeting with the Vintner? Shall I send up the Gourmand?

"Good afternoon, Master Whicke," the Smith says, putting aside the barrel scraper he's been working on to flip a switch beside the forge. Racks of tenpenny nails and trowels and hammers fold back to reveal the glittering points and edges of a score of swords and axes and spearpoints lit with the flicker of finely-tuned enchantments. "Shall we tour what's new?"

"What sort of occasion are we hosting, Master Whicke?" The Vintner asks, pocketing the coin with a sigh. "A funeral," you say.

"Ah, well perhaps something light to start, then," she says selecting a straight-walled flask that glitters with contained starlight, proof against the touch of the undead. " And something for remembrance," she plucks a small crock of something evil-smelling and phosphorescent. "And then something to really bring down the house." She gingerly selects a double ampoule of energetic looking jellies.

The Gourmand carefully runs his knife through the salted flank of a cockatrice with a pursing of the lips. "So many neglect trail rations, Master Whicke, and it is their shame. Paired with goldenwheat pancakes and carrion honey, a mouthful of cockatrice--properly seasoned of course--will keep the mummy rot at bay, even post-exposure. I have been given to indicate by the Management that your current escapade may make such information useful to you. I will of course wrap your purchases exceedingly carefully. Rot will be your constant companion in the Black Pyramid."

but also very much

We used Miles End and World Ending Game for our dnd campaign epilogue, two very neat systems - highly recommend!

Happy Silksong day!

🐛 Guess whose TTRPG anthropomorphic bug adventure is DIY Crowdfunding right now?!

🪳 Shrink to insectoid size and adventure into the uncanny world that exists inside a sapient pear tree in this weird fantasy pointcrawl.

🐜 52 page full-colour, fully illustrated adventure for TROIKA! written and illustrated by me, Josh Blincow. This book owes much inspiration to HOLLOW KNIGHT | BUG FABLES | THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: THE MINISH CAP | HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS | A BUGS LIFE.

🕷️ That's right, I've been the reason Silksong was delayed all these years because this book has been in development literally as long as Silksong has and I wanted to be sure I didn't steal its thunder!

🪲 Unlike Team Cherry, we're a tiny indie team who would rather not keep up with the ruckus of kickstarter, so Melsonia are running a DIY crowfund/preorder through their Shopify store!

🪱 We are going to print the book either way (the benefit of the DIY crowdfunding experiment is you can drop all the kayfabe) but if we hit the funding goal I wanted to pay back to the community that helped me be able to do this at all:

🐌 We'll commission some drop-in NPC cards for everyone who supported in those first 30 days (picture on one side, description on the other) from some of the wonderful folks from TTRPG Tumblr that we know & love who have inspired and supported me on my journey!

🦋 Please go buy a copy, I wrote & illustrated the entire thing (there are 36 colour illustrations) and layout is being done by Shuyi Zhang, who is the reason that everything Melsonia publishes reads like magic.

🪰 It has been a labour of love and I put so much care and attention into prioritising both reference use at the table and playful reading (as well as making it really easy to pick up and run with your game of preference) and I guarantee you'll know it was worth it when you feel the quality of the paper in your hands.

P.S. If somebody gets this project to pop off on the Silksong reddit I'll owe you a life debt & post you a copy with a custom bug drawing! Dead serious.