Posts

Up next, I will be posting a very experimental piece of work, Ozzie Fitch.

Ozzie Fitch is a tale of hope, of struggle, of friendship through the trials of life, but mostly about pain. The pain we carry, the pain we share, and the pain that could cripple us if we are not careful.

Some hide their pain, turn from it in an attempt to maintain their veneer of adulthood. Some succumb to it, turning bitter and cynical as they see any joy or passion for life as a morbid lie. Some turn their pain into power. Some call it magic. And some feel their pain is the only thing that makes them worthwhile.

With that short batch of Cliffside Short-stories finished, I am now forced to look at what comes next for my Saturday postings. Of all the writing I’ve done, what fits best in a sidelong once-a-week format? I have more short stories, but not enough to outlast the weeks of books I have to upload. Do I write more short stories? Use Saturday to upload drafts and show my process? Only post personal bloggings about how I feel or what’s going on in the news today?

A whole new website design!

With my RPG treatise finally complete (or at least as complete as anything ever is, in my head…) it is time once more to return to the dark and twisted world of Edmund Moulde, and the second book of the Macabre Quadrilogy.

In many ways, this book was supposed to be the first book in Edmund’s story. I had imagined a very Rowlingesque (sans bigotry) opening of the odd little Moulde boy being tested after he used the chemicals from his sister’s makeup kit to revivify his dead pet rat. Then, off the odd little Moulde boy would go to learn about the mad sciences of penny-pulps and wrought-iron steampunk.

So ends the first story in the Edmund Moulde quadrilogy. With some time to spare before my treatise on the medium of RPGs is finished, I will spend the next few Saturdays uploading some short stories set in what I ended up calling The Cliffside Universe

After all, Brackenburg is only one of the major cities in the Britannian Empire, and a steadily decaying one, at that. There is room for stories across the globe as the world slowly changes from steam-punk to diesel-punk, and no one city is better suited to display the variety and complexity of that transition than Cliffside, hub of trade, adventure, and diverse stew of humanity.

Some non-fiction musings and thoughts about things.

• Now With Added Ko-Fi
• A Word on my Solo Style
• What We Deserve
• Behind the Scenes — Part 2
• Behind the Scenes
• Playing the Bad Guy
• Thoughts on Mx
• Thoughts on Gender Neutral Titles
• Fan Fiction
• A Brief Look at Grimdark: Part 2
• A Brief Look at Grimdark
• A Brief Look at Genre
• Two Paths Diverging
• A Kind of Slur

My work is, and shall always remain, free on this website. I don’t believe in gate-keeping my work from people who don’t have the money to spare on subsidizing my art.

That said, I do like food…

If you like what I’m doing, and want to make sure I don’t starve to death, please consider leaving me a small donation here, on my Ko-Fi account.

If you can’t spend a dollar, no worries. Instead consider spending a minute telling a friend about my work; what you liked, what you didn’t like, or even what you could have done better!

The Fall of the Empire of Ever and Always, Vol XI

Months before Game of Thrones was an HBO blockbuster, I came up with an idea that has become my personal White Whale for about a decade. Drawing inspiration from Dune, Fading Suns, and similar medieval/sci-fi, I created a setting where the universe was finally dying. The stars were exploding one by one, and a once great Galactic Empire crumbled to dust as petty warlords squabbled for food, priests called out to a god-emperor who had long since died, and scholars fell to despair as they learned of their inescapable fate.

With Kindness

With a knife

I have cut the cake into slices.

Little slices, big slices, some get the flowers.

Here is your slice, here is mine.

You cannot have my slice. It is for me. That one is yours.

Aren’t you grateful to me?

And my knife?

Original Post

• With Kindness

Cemetery of Swords

This poem was made using the solo RPG Cemetery of Swords, by Efarrisgames.

• The Poem
• The Game Moves

Gentleman Bandit

This poem was made using the solo RPG Gentleman Bandit, by Allison Arth. I used the Mode variant, and played three times, rolling on the Poker Play table after each.

Manifest RPG Design Blog

About

After reading so many RPGs, playing so many RPGs, and thinking about everything that is the medium of RPG, I decided I needed to put my money where my mouth is, and actually create an RPG. The following are the posts of me detailing my thought processes.

NOTE: All references to games and RPG systems are to be considered “as of writing.” New versions of games might render some of my comments inaccurate.