Topics

226

General Chatter - The Boozer / Cyril & Methodius Day 2022!

« on: February 14, 2022, 01:55:11 PM »

It's Cyril & Methodius Day 2022! Here's a thread to tell you what this festival of languages, learning, and international friendship is about, and how to celebrate it if you want to! Use this thread to wish everyone a happy C&M day and all such similar chatter

If you want to donate to charity today, Room to Read's direct donation link here. Please donate to them, they're a very good cost efficient charity for supporting literacy in developing countries.

Media
Here's a video I made way back in 2015 which explains some of the details:

FAQs

What is Cyril and Methodius Day?
As celebrated by Exilians and many others, Cyril and Methodius Day is a festival of literature, learning, languages, and linguistics. It's an alternative or additional celebration to the feast day of Saint Valentine - not as an "anti-Valentine's" project, but providing people another choice of celebration for the day.

How do I celebrate it?

• Read a book.
• Hug a friendly linguist, and tell them how much you appreciate alphabets.
• Tell other people it's Cyril and Methodius day. Spread the word!
• Recommend good books to a friend. Make ALL the reading happen!
• Celebrate and discover more about European, and particularly eastern European, culture, writing, food, arts, and more.
• Do some work on learning a language.
• Talk to your international friends from Europe (and beyond).
• Do conlanging/make a new alphabet!
• Donate to a reading-related charity

So, uh, why do this?

• It's fun! It's that extra bit of excuse and motivation to get on and do the language learning you wanted, or finish that book chapter.
• The world needs people learning about, and reaching out to, each other more than ever. Now is absolutely the time to do that.
• For people who are alienated by the commercialisation of Feb 14, or otherwise don't want to or can't celebrate it, finding something else positive to do and celebrate is SO much better than just sitting around being glum.
• It's inclusive: not everyone has or wants romantic partners for Feb 14, but just about everyone can communicate and learn.
• It helps people. Raising money for charity has been a part of how we celebrate Cyril & Methodius day for some years now, and that's raised worthwhile sums to help spread education to those who need it most.
• It shines a light on two really interesting historical characters who, whilst little known in many countries, had an impact that especially in the form of the Cyrillic alphabet, named after Cyril, is noticeable to this day.
• Books really are just plain excellent.

Is religion important here?
We've claimed Cyril and Methodius' Day in an entirely non-denominational fashion, as has happened to many other Saints' Days, so there is no religious prerequisite for celebrating it. Cyril and Methodius were of course Christians, as were almost all people in their cultural place and context, but their work included many fields combined with or outside purely religious functions including diplomacy, law, and languages. We of course respect that these saints do have a particular religious context and function for people in some traditions, but we think it's possible to celebrate some of the ethos of the things for which they are patrons without being disrespectful to those contexts.

You've got the date wrong!
Cyril and Methodius' Day is celebrated on Feb 14 in the Catholic and Anglican traditions - the Orthodox church and others celebrate their feast at other times of year.

Why can't you just celebrate Valentine's Day?
Not everyone wants to, for all sorts of reasons. Valentine's Day tends to involve heavy commercial promotion of a certain type of romantic relationship that just doesn't suit everyone - some people are happy being single, or indeed are aromantic, or asexual, have other reasons for not wanting to celebrate, or just don't want to define their relationships and celebrate them in the way that Valentine's Day now has a tradition of promoting. Other people may just decide that Europe, reading, and languages are something they value and want to celebrate more than - or alongside - the alternatives. There's no problem mixing the festivals either - languages and love can always be intertwined! Cyril and Methodius day offers a choice of festival that embraces this and can give people a fun and interesting rationale for something different to do on Feb 14.

Who were Cyril and Methodius?
Cyril and Methodius, apostles to the Slavs, were Greek saints in the ninth century AD. They're primarily known for the creation of the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet designed specifically for slavic-family languages, and the ancestor of the modern Cyrillic (which is named after Cyril). They accomplished numerous missions on behalf of the Byzantines, including to the north of the Black Sea, though most famously to Moravia (modern Slovakia). There they worked to create and spread a uniquely Slavic Christian tradition, drawing on both the Latin and Greek traditions of learning but with many unique elements. Despite Moravia moving into the Latin sphere after their deaths, their followers moved to other Slavic nations, especially Bulgaria, from which their work influenced many eastern Europeans to this day. They are patron saints of Europe in the Catholic church.

227

Game Reviews / Alien Defense Review

« on: February 03, 2022, 12:24:24 AM »

Alien Defense - a review by Jubal

Game Type: Indie/Commercial
Genre: Tower Defence / RTS

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1868840/Alien_Defense/

Graphics rating:
Gameplay rating:
Immersion rating:
Overall rating:

I spent a couple of hours playing this game, got up to the 11th wave before being defeated: I don't think what I saw hugely merits a re-play, but it might do if more updates come later, and I've definitely found worse uses of two quid in my time. This is essentially a tower defence style RTS: you build up a base, and troops, and steadily larger waves of enemies come at you until you're defeated. The theme is (with exceptions) sci-fi, and the enemies are very much grub/swarm style aliens though your own forces include a lot of alien/demihuman/robot creatures (and an utterly bizarre array of 'heroes'). Between waves you can upgrade units, and also you should take forces out to "hunt" the docile versions of the swarm enemies, which cover the rest of the map. This, and minerals, are your two important resources: you get additional troops randomly dropped at the end of each wave, but can make some droids of your own as well.

The good parts of the game are mostly in the technical competency. The game handles its RTS-style build very smoothly, few major movement complaints (once or twice a unit got left behind when I moved a group), and the balance and buildup felt reasonable. The graphics were likewise smooth, and mechanically it was fine. So the basic structure was well executed. There were elements of the look that could be improved – the fonts are at times very boring, and the button to buy a hero is not in English (not sure what language the script actually is).

I think there were two or three big areas that could have pushed this from "this is fine" to "I'm actually invested in this game" for me, and they're connected by the theme of worldbuilding. Firstly, physically, the map is a featureless grey plain with your base in the bottom corner, and the developers clearly have the necessary skills to find some assets on the unity store, possibly add some elevations or impassable areas, and just make it something other than a flat grey square to wander around, and things might feel a lot more interesting. Given that you have to micromanage the hunting parties between waves, making it a bit more interesting is pretty important.

Second, and also not technically complex: the single biggest failure of the game is in the narrative design, which is to say that there isn’t any narrative design. And it looks like it has the capacity for one, too – you’ve got various humans and demihumans dropping on a space colony that’s manned by robots and being attacked by bugs, but why? What for? Is this planet strategically important, are there citizens you need to protect? Are you as the player representing the military, or a company, or the galactic government? Do we know anything about these aliens that we can apparently extract resources from but also are swarming to kill us? It would take very little effort to add a few descriptions that get across the feeling that the scenario is interesting and quirky rather than arbitrary. This is doubled down on with the heroes. What’s up with the heroes (other than that they’re probably all pre-purchased assets bundled into this on that basis)? Why am I in a sci-fi game but can hire a knight or a vampires or a pirate? Who ARE these people? I don’t say this to say it’s bad that there is this bizarre array of heroes, but if they’re going to be there then they should be individually named and get some little biographies or something which would again turn it from “this is bizarre” to “this is a fun mash-up setting”. I do get that English might not be the devs’ first language, but honestly this would make a world of difference.

Third, and finally, as a bigger set of thoughts: this game is built like an RTS, and I can't help feeling that to really improve it should have the courage of its convictions and become something more like one. If the game set a win condition for the game so players have something to build towards, and utilise a more detailed map by making resource gathering more interesting (wider array of enemy huntable monsters, limited gatherers per mine and not having them all at base), then it could be quite a fun RTS. Most of the technical groundwork needed to do this is already in the game, and it could go from feeling just about worth two quid to something easily worth double that with a bit of depth added even with very few mechanical changes.

Anyhow: if you want a competently built but narratively kind of a void RTS-tower-defence to spend an hour or three on and do a couple of runs of, this will provide you with about that amount of entertainment. It does have the technical execution level of something rather better, and I hope the devs look at improving or building on it.

228

Game Reviews / Jurassic Fantasy Review

« on: February 01, 2022, 05:23:25 PM »

Jurassic Fantasy - a review by Jubal

Game Type: Indie/Commercial
Genre: Maze/Adventure/RPG

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1342220/Jurassic_Fantasy/

Graphics rating:
Gameplay rating:
Immersion rating:
Overall rating:

I paid 39 pence for this indie game, and I felt I got at least sixty pence worth of enjoyment out of it, so I'd say reasonable value was obtained considering that. The basic pitch is 8-bit Jurassic Park with wizards, you wander around a map fighting dinosaurs to make money and then finding occasional shops and magic stones - finding all five stones completes the game. I took 60 mins playing through the game without major issues, but then looked up how to find the final stone (the top left one out of the five) from someone else's speedrun video because I'd searched around the map including circumnavigating the island on my raft and was getting a bit bored.

In general it's fine, mostly it's more of a maze game than anything else, the combat is just "run away and shoot magic balls at stuff", and there are a few shops and special places scattered around with some more powerful items and enemies available in other parts of the map. Graphics are limited but that's very much part of the idea. The range of enemies is fun (including a couple of small things I was unsure about, triceratops, parasauralophus, velociraptors, plesiosaurs, ambient pteranodons overhead, and a you-can-probably-guess-what for the final boss fight). As the combat mechanics are quite limited there's a limited differentiation between the creatures in the game, though generally the smaller, faster enemies are more dangerous: the combat is not especially challenging as long as you keep upgrading your stats. Because of this, the main interest is in exploring the map and seeing new areas as you go.

In terms of what can be improved, there are a number of quality-of-life additions that would really help. Tagging showing help to the H key would have made it quicker to find it at the start. I did not initially realise that the raft was a raft, as opposed to a crate, so I think tagging the items in the shops with the name of the item would also be helpful. I think it would've been cool if the minimap had filled in with some of the rough idea of the terrain as you "discovered" it, too: the maze element is sort of nice but clashes a bit with the RPG side overall.

In terms of expansions or future games, I'd have liked to see a bit more world building and some more NPCs to interact with: it seems like it might be quite fun to have some more ambient people and houses you just walked up to and had them give you something very minimal and maybe complained about all the dinosaurs or something. I liked the "end boss" section a lot, that was a nice touch, but yes, generally a bit more leaning into the RPG elements would have been good from my perspective. Also, the lack of ankylosaurus was very sad and it would be nice to see those in future.

229

General Gaming - The Arcade / Fallen London

« on: January 30, 2022, 12:35:07 PM »

Anyone else play? I know Spritelady does.

For those who don't know, Fallen London is a browser-based game which is at https://www.fallenlondon.com/ - you can play for free, there will be various options and storylines locked with Fate, a purchasable currency, but it's fun enough and there's tons of content without that. Essentially, it's set in Gothic-silly-fantasy London and you play through a lot of written storylines selecting and clicking options. There are a ton of different items, including lots of non-physical items like "a memory of distant shores" or "a whispered hint" or "a touching love story" all of which can be bought, sold, and traded just like anything else. Devils, fungi, men with the faces of squid, they're all there: it's mostly just enjoyably silly, though the action economy sometimes makes the game a bit slow.

You can also add other players as acquaintances via your lodgings: I am JubalBarca as in most places, should anyone wish to do so.

230

General Chatter - The Boozer / Wordles

« on: January 27, 2022, 11:48:42 PM »

Anyone else been doing these? I've not been spamming them across Twitter, but I think they're enjoyable enough little puzzles - I've not failed one yet, and I think it's a bit random how "well" one does, but I do quite like things that make me think through my own vocabulary a bit.

In case anyone hasn't come across it, it's a word guessing game based at:
https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/

They post one puzzle a day, you guess a word, it gives green (right letter and place), yellow (right letter wrong place), and black (wrong letter) designations, you get up to six guesses. I think I once had to use all six, mostly I'm getting them in about four.

Today's I managed in three due mainly to luck (it gives you a little readout to show your guess pattern, but not what your words were so as not to give the game away):

Wordle 223 3/6 🟩⬛🟩🟨⬛ 🟩🟩🟩⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

231

Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza / UK Politics 2022

« on: January 19, 2022, 12:29:03 PM »

New year, time for a change of thread!

And we have a bit of political excitement for the New Year, too: Boris Johnson is finally severely tanking in the polls, and everyone (everyone who's an enormous nerd anyway) is watching avidly to see when enough letters to the Conservative 1922 committee get sent in expressing no confidence in him, such that there's an actual confidence vote among Conservative MPs. There will also be one fewer of those MPs, as the member for Bury South today crossed the floor and joined the Labour benches about ten minutes before Prime Minister's Questions.

Johnson may yet see off a confidence vote if his potential replacements - including my MP Liz "Pork Markets" Truss, Matt "I've got an app" Hancock, Jeremy "don't mispronounce the surname" Hunt, and chancellor and probable front-runner Rishi Sunak - don't feel ready to jump into a contest. But he's looking more and more damaged by the day, honestly.

232

General Chatter - The Boozer / Jan Pub - Friday 28th?

« on: January 16, 2022, 12:30:13 PM »

Would the above date work for people?

233

The World of Kavis / Palictara and Tullactara

« on: January 12, 2022, 08:05:05 PM »

These are two regions eastward of the Heirophancy.

Palictara consists of some sizeable floodplain valleys and forested areas, down to their relevant coastline. Tullactara effectively loops around Palictara, consisting of the mountains to Palictara's north and east, and also continuing into the island chain to its southeast and south. The peoples of each region have closely related but separate languages and share a religious pantheon, and are respectively simply referred to as Pals and Tuls.

The major political powers in the region are the inland Palictaran city of Sante, the Palictaran coastal realm of the Murtec dynasty, and the theocratic Tullactaran isle of Mestapesh.

Politics
Sante maintains its position as much on the strength of unequal alliances as anything: its inland plains produce grain, but its real strength has come in creating a trading hub for Tullactaran goods from smaller settlements to move down onto the plains, a position it guards jealously.

The Murtec Kingdom is run by its titular house, a dwarf family whose rule is notoriously extravagant. "With all the turtles of a Murtec noble" is a Palictaran byword for wealth (turtles being a delicacy along the Murtec coastlines, especially served at royal tables in vast numbers). The Murtec house (through some different branches and at least one fifty year split-and-reunification cycle) have ruled for around 250 years. Their most popular early ruler having been Chalrashecte "Glass-hand", famed for his generosity - the epithet refers to his penchant for handing coloured glass beads to ordinary subjects.

Religious Practice

Pal and Tul religion is pantheistic. One of the largest curiosities of it is that they believe that mankind was invested with certain authority with regard to heaven as well as vice versa. This particularly emerges in civic religion and ceremonies to select deities to perform certain functions in the pantheon beyond their core aspects - the most major such decisions being selecting the ruler of the gods, though in rarer cases leaders may move to make or annul marriages or add or revoke the functions of certain deities. Selecting the ruler of the pantheon may be done at any time there is widespread agreement among a realm's leaders that it is needed or prophesied, especially at times of war. Often certain Oracles will encourage all the region's rulers to have their say at once or give some indications which lead to a bit of alignment, but it is still not uncommon for there to end up being competing claims as to who is the legitimate current ruler of the gods - which, if a war wasn't already happening, would probably provoke one.

The system is made significantly more complex by the very different ruling systems across the region's major and minor polities. Sante's people are fiercely protective of their right to elect their leaders, and likewise their gods, whilst the Murtecs contend that their dynasty is descended from Milnashecte (which is often acknowledged even by other regional powers) and thus uniquely divinely inspired (which is not). For the Mestapheshis, all the priests of the island gather and may choose any deity other than their own: when there is a change of supreme deity there is also a change of leadership as that deity's priesthood is accorded the supreme executive functions of the state.

Priests and priestesses across the region must be ordained twice, the birthing and binding: first they are ceremenially "born to their deity", and then bound to their temple (and thus flock). All deities have priests and priestesses alike. Being bound to their temple is a ritual that requires the participation of every household in a settlement: it is thus easy to veto a priest's binding and this happens not infrequently. Potential priests who are born to their deity but rejected by their chosen community, or who cannot find a temple, have a number of options: large temples may take subordinate priests either by having pseudo-temples that nominally serve a single household, making the binding ritual easier to manage socially. Alternatively, some create their own household-temple and bind themselves to it, becoming a sort of hermit or monk: such a hermitage is not treated as a "true" settlement, but the most important of them attract other people in similar positions and may become oracular sites: visions created by various means are an important religious practice.

Finally, some may choose to become Tephe, literally "reachings" of their deity. This is also done by a ritual process that must be agreed to by several other priests of the deity: it is a difficult road, for among other things Tephe may carry no name, only that they are a Tephe and of whom. They are granted charity and supplies but they may not take more than three days' hospitality under the same roof. They are wanderers who are accorded a revered status, and generally carry out functions particular to their deity - some Tephe become fearsome warriors, others become law-givers, or healers, or spend their days calling for alms to go to the poor: some may even be brutal avengers of sin.


Gods and Myths

Milnashecte is a demi-god figure, usually presented as a male dwarf though this is debated. He is attributed a range of heroic acts, including having created the written script of the Pal language, thrown mountains into the sea to create both the plains of Palictara and the Tullactaran isles. He is usually not given a role in the pantheon formally, though this has happened once or twice in the past (and a good deal of theologians' ink has been spilled on the topic of whether this was a good idea).

The Roles of Deities vary: at the least in any given year, the Court of the Gods has a ruler, a general, a steward, a judge, and a petitioner, the latter of whom guards the voices and prayers of mortals. Other common roles for gods to be named to include those of admiral, mason, poet, smith, treasurer, perfumer, and counsellor.

Habombagi is a deity with trickster attributes, given roles in the pantheon seen as undergoing or indeed needing uncertainty and change. Those in power often strive to prevent Habombagi being named King of the Gods, due to the presumed danger to their own positions, though it has happened on occasion.

Fuur Ina is a deity with attributes around change, movement, and sorcery. Unlike the fickle changeability of Habombagi or the new growth of Gur Las Eshte, she represents mystical and permanent change, a striving for power or travel or wealth. She is often named Treasurer of the Gods and favoured by merchants, though she has been named Queen of the Gods at various points.

Gur Las Eshte is a deity with youth attributes, seen as the idealised figure of renewal and new life. He brings fertility to fishermen or farmers, rebirth to kingdoms,

Gur Lok Duul is the brother of Gur Las Eshte, and seen as a god representing strength and raw power. He brings storms as a sea-god, labour as a farm-god, brutal simplicity as a smith, and crushing power as a god of war.

Astaka the Chronicler is a deity with attributes related to time and remembrance, often given roles in the pantheon after a major or catastrophic event, or to commemorate one. She is looked for when a volcano's ash has settled, a bloody war stilled, a catastrophic drought lifted. She is rarely given the head of the pantheon, though it is not unheard of: the Murtecs successfully pressed for her to get the role to mark two centuries after the death of Chalrashecte.

Medrasan is a deity of wisdom, stability, and age. He is relatively often named King of the Gods, but also may be called upon to be the god of whatever needs calming: a war-god to bring a time of peace, a sea-god to quell storms, a treasurer for cautious trading.

Verigasala is a two headed deity, whose heads argue wisdom with each other: she is a goddess of balance, one of the most neutral but also most just deities, often taking roles of judge, treasurer, queen, or counsellor of the gods.

Taemma is the zither-playing deity. She and Astaka are the most common court poets of the gods, though she can be named to any role where creativity and the unexpected are welcome: she could be the builder of the gods when great designs are needed, a warrior-goddess of ingenious strategems, a fleet-goddess for exploring new lands.

234

Pangolin Games / Fenlander - A Parser RPG

« on: January 09, 2022, 11:38:12 AM »

Fenlander is a small RPG/Adventure game, built with a text parser engine. It was made for the Historically Accurate Game Jame 5. I've been wanting to make a game for a jam for a long while and thought this was the time to get round to it.

In Fenlander, you play as an ordinary resident of the fenlands of East Anglia in the medieval period, trying to smoke enough eels to pay your rent. Life seems simple: there's reeds to be cut, peat to be dug and eels to be fished for. But getting the right balance between those activities can be a matter of life and death, as can learning from and interacting with your fellow villages and the beautiful, dangerous, ever-shifting landscape around you. The fens are ancient, with reeds that seem to whisper of things we have long forgotten - but for all that, they never stop changing.

The aim of the game is to store enough smoked eels to pay your rent (which, yes, is literally paid in eels). You have three main tools - your glaive, spade, and scythe - to gather materials from the fen that you can use for producing food and for selling to other villagers. There are four fellow villagers - Lennerie, Moll, Hob, and Dickon - who you will probably need to interact with to win: they can buy and sell important items and give you key bits of information. You also have four whimsically named skills: Harnsering for hunting/meat and eel cooking, Hickathrifting for strength and resilience challenges, Surefooting for careful, balanced challenges, and Skeining for social challenges. These can be improved by keeping an eye on the landscape around you or by getting help from friends in the village.

The game is text-based, with an original soundtrack and location art. Please do play it and let me know what you think!

Download on Itch

235

Exilian Articles / A Bad Pun RPG Idea Calendar

« on: January 02, 2022, 12:25:32 AM »

2022: A Bad Pun RPG Idea Calendar

By Jubal

So, recently on Twitter I foolishly said that I would post a pun-based RPG plotline idea for every like on a tweet. I am nothing if not true-ish to my word, and as the likes piled up I ended up producing over fifty of the things as the month of December 2021 wore on... and having produced that many, I decided there was nothing for it but to reproduce them in article form. And how better to do it than a 2022 calendar?

As such, here it is, with one awful pun-based idea for a sidequest or subplot per week for the entire year of 2022! Check out your birthday or other significant dates through the year for maybe-or-maybe-not appropriate puns galore, or just browse to find interesting ideas for your upcoming creative projects and campaigns. Or because you just want a lot of groan-inducing humour in your life, that's fine too. And thus - the calendar!

JANUARY Jan 03 - Jan 09 Jan 10 - Jan 16 Jan 17 - Jan 23 Jan 24 - Jan 30 Jan 31 - Feb 06	.	FEBRUARY Feb 07 - Feb 13 Feb 14 - Feb 20 Feb 21 - Feb 27 Feb 28 - Mar 06	.	MARCH Mar 07 - Mar 13 Mar 14 - Mar 20 Mar 21 - Mar 27 Mar 28 - Apr 03
APRIL Apr 04 - Apr 10 Apr 11 - Apr 17 Apr 18 - Apr 24 Apr 25 - May 01	.	MAY May 02 - May 08 May 09 - May 15 May 16 - May 22 May 23 - May 29 May 30 - Jun 05	.	JUNE Jun 06 - Jun 12 Jun 13 - Jun 19 Jun 20 - Jun 26 Jun 27 - Jul 03
JULY Jul 04 - Jul 10 Jul 11 - Jul 17 Jul 18 - Jul 24 Jul 25 - Jul 31	.	AUGUST Aug 01 - Aug 07 Aug 08 - Aug 14 Aug 15 - Aug 21 Aug 22 - Aug 28 Aug 29 - Sep 04	.	SEPTEMBER Sep 05 - Sep 04 Sep 12 - Sep 18 Sep 19 - Sep 25 Sep 26 - Oct 02
OCTOBER Oct 03 - Oct 09 Oct 10 - Oct 16 Oct 17 - Oct 23 Oct 24 - Oct 30 Oct 31 - Nov 06	.	NOVEMBER Nov 07 - Nov 13 Nov 14 - Nov 20 Nov 21 - Nov 27 Nov 28 - Dec 04	.	DECEMBER Dec 05 - Dec 11 Dec 12 - Dec 18 Dec 19 - Dec 25 Dec 26 - Jan 01

THE PUNS

Jan 03 - Jan 09
Evil wizard Butho Cai will try to create the Thousand Coloured Robe of Fate amid the the Ancient Looms of the Hill of Fading Time.

Will you stop him, or all perish? Fight cloth demons, unravel traps and find out in this adventure because it's a WYRD HILL TO DYE ON.

Jan 10 - Jan 16
Dragon-hunters use hawks to track their mighty prey - and you've just found one in a snare. Will you return it, losing time and maybe the huge bounty? Or keep pushing on and leave the bird to its fate? Your choice will have consequences in THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WYRM.

Jan 17 - Jan 23
The Ship of Dreams carries the Elder Kin from world to world and plane to plane, powered by the dreams of a mortal who broke a fated duty. But now it's crashed in the mortal world: its pilot has escaped, and the Elder Kin raid to find him, desperate to leave, in OUT OF GEAS.

Jan 24 - Jan 30
A herbalist has grown the world's first hardy all-weather mandrake, but is under pressure from the King to hand over the secret and makes no secret of his distaste for the monarch's plans. Can you save him from the royal guard in A MANDRAKE FOR ALL SEASONS?

Jan 31 - Feb 06
You awake. Sheogorath is there. You see a bubble of abstract madness. Fifteen glowing atronachs pop in and out of existence. You wander in the nest of a moth. You sleep. You awake. Sheogorath is there. You see a bubble... welcome to GROUNDHOG DAEDRA.

Feb 07 - Feb 13
You know you did nothing that would merit this - but you've awoken in a demon's lair anyway. Are you being framed for consorting with demons? Who is responsible? And... might it not be somewhat fun even if you are? Face death and lust alike in THROWN UNDER THE SUCCUBUS!

Feb 14 - Feb 20
Sir Everhorn is a legend among knights: appearing and disappearing like the wind, saving the lives of folks who he will never see again. But can the heroes get him to commit to protecting the people for a longer term? Why does he roam eternal? Find out in ONE KNIGHT'S STAND.

Feb 21 - Feb 27
A young lady had a romantic tryst with a Selkie three summers past. Now the Selkie has left her for another, but she's still magically, inexorably drawn to the sea. Can you break the curse? Or might she still find true love in the water? This and more in SEALED WITH A KISS.

Feb 28 - Mar 06
Dwarves are notoriously secretive, their protections against Watch snooping absolute. When Elder Bastrom fears corruption in the Diggers' Guild, then, she needs you to join the guild & investigate. Can you thwart the plot? Only if you've successfully MINED YOUR OWN BUSINESS.

Mar 07 - Mar 13
A document has surfaced proving that a mere farm-hand must be the heir of the famed Beowulf. Now he's come to you: he's been exalted as a potential hero, but he doubts the document is real and has no idea how to fight a dragon. Will you help him manage GEAT EXPECTATIONS?

Mar 14 - Mar 20
Rumours of the Lost Dwarf Forge prompt streams of would-be heroes to investigate. But are the young warriors being lured out for other reasons? Why don't they return? Are the best weapons the ones you had with you all along? You'll learn more in A HALBERD IN THE HAND...

Mar 21 - Mar 27
The Host of the West comes. All forces of darkness quail... and you are one of Morgoth's lieutenants. You must devise & enact an escape plan to allow your master to flee to hiding and waylay his mighty siblings, in DISCRETION IS THE BETTER PART OF VALAR.

Mar 28 - Apr 03
In 972, you were sent to the Howling Jail of the Elfin Lords for a fairy crime you didn't commit. You escaped: still hunted, you survive as tricksters of fortune.  Now someone has a problem and no one else can help: and they've found you. Maybe they can hire... THE FAE TEAM.

Apr 04 - Apr 10
Two murders: a jilted love affair, an ensuing blood feud. Such happens in the blood-dark of a cold marshland winter. But these ghosts are unquiet: the locals think the souls refuse to leave, but you know powerful ritual magic binds them here, in TWO WRONGS DON'T MAKE A RITE.

Apr 11 - Apr 17
Lightning rolls. Two shepherds drunkenly stumble off the moor: each blames the other for the howling banshee that has been unleashed from the Auld Stones. Who is right - or is their enmity hiding the real tale? You must face the truth this time in KNOWING MEAD, KNOWING EWES!

Apr 18 - Apr 24
Preachers roam the streets chanting about the Great Floods and urging you to drive back the evil water spirits. Doom seems nigh indeed: outlying villages have been washed away. But are the water spirits solely to blame? It's time to wade into the problem in THE END IS NAIAD!

Apr 25 - May 01
A musician is forced to leave her home city of Dassalora permanently after inadvertently causing a riot. She turns to you for help clearing her name: the Council may be willing, but they have other problems to solve. In BARD FOR LIFE, see if you can help her return to fame!

May 02 - May 08
A noble believes his harvest will be the realm's finest, and has invited the king to stay. But, some say as punishment for hubris, a cockatrice now ravages his lands. You are called in: can you find the cockatrice's vulnerability and save the visit in COUNT, YOUR CHICKENS?

May 09 - May 15
The rules of troll fights are intricate and hard for humans - and then there's their strength. But now a huge young lady from from the hill clans demands your village beat her fairly on the village green or give her a husband. Will you play fair when BRAWLING A MAIDEN OGRE?

May 16 - May 22
The great bird has come to your mountain realm. It carries off the great markhors and elephants, and threatens all the herds of the kingdom. You must find a way to save the region's wildlife by travelling to the barren, rocky mountaintops in BETWEEN A ROC AND A HARD PLACE.

May 23 - May 29
You'd expected Devils to be hellish, enforcers of rules. You hadn't expected them to be so parochial. A carnival of demonic evil would be one thing: standing in perfect, recorded line to play hoop-la for your soul is somehow worse. Can you survive A FETE WORSE THAN DEATH?

May 30 - Jun 05
The Monster tears - again - a rift between Daevic and Mortal realms, unleashing curses into both. As you investigate, you find the source of its pain and realise why it it cannot rest. Can you find a way for it to exist at peace? Test your heart in THE BEAST OF BOTH WORLDS.

Jun 06 - Jun 12
The trail is cold: Geralt's investigation of a curse in scrolls and notes is fruitless. But the first witcher who took the contract is missing & could have seen more: perhaps finding him is Geralt's only hope in A WITCHER IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.

Jun 13 - Jun 19
At the Grand Archery Tournament, a stray arrow that missed the target has shot Prince Muskwort, who is critically ill. The archer uses his own distinctive arrows... but he and the crowd swear he was facing the other way. What's the truth? Find out in HIT OR MYSTERY.

Jun 20 - Jun 26
A fae message comes from Orion, King of the Hunt. Against Forest Law, he refused to kill a magic talking stag he loved but was fated to slay: it lives wounded and hidden. The breach of law would tear the fae court apart. You, an outsider, must decide who is left HARTBROKEN.

Jun 27 - Jul 03
Rebellion and civil war loom. One last social event, the Dance of Summer Moths, will bring partisan lords together: the Great Temple wants YOU to host it & avert all-out war.

Expect intrigue, romance, murder: how you react is crucial, because THE BALL IS IN YOUR COURT.

Jul 04 - Jul 10
A fad for demon possession? You can't believe your ears, but the archmage nods. Locked in their tower, mages hunger for anything that gives strong feelings: and demonic anger is truly strong. What can men do against such reckless hate? It's ALL THE RAGE right now, after all.

Jul 11 - Jul 17
The story of Icarus' death and the wax on his wings is well known, but is that all there was to it? Having discovered Daedalus' notes you realise Icarus was never meant to land safely - and that you must journey to the sky yourself to find the truth in LIKE FATHER, LIKE SUN.

Jul 18 - Jul 24
You are in Saruman's retinue in Isengard. You've been told to oversee work in Fangorn.

A promotion? ...or is someone getting you out of the way? You might very well think that, but the events of I COULDN'T POSSIBLY CALM ENTS will determine your survival.

Jul 25 - Jul 31
A team of Dwarven thugs are operating in broad daylight in your outpost town: worse, they have a signed order from King Bhelen's governor giving them wholly free rein for whatever they wish to do. Stop their plans and expose corruption in CARTA BLANCHE!

Aug 01 - Aug 07
You dreamt of being Chosen by a god as a scarred urchin on the streets. Now it's happened! But... rather than the great war or death gods you've been Chosen by Aheria, Goddess of Beauty. Where fashion sense is sacred, tread a path from sacking to silks in BLESSED TO IMPRESS.

Aug 08 - Aug 14
Cave lions as a rule don't come into the cities, but folk in Krahlek keep hearing them. When you investigate, it turns out this isn't just a wildlife problem and that the merchant guild is involved - and that it may not be clear who to side with, in DOING A ROARING TRADE.

Aug 15 - Aug 21
A silvered blade: it strikes fear, and also a lot of sharp metal, into the heart of monsters. But the anvil that made them is lost. There's one upside: that gives YOU a shot at real glory. Venture to the clouded isles and find the forge where EVERY SWORD HAS A SILVER LINING!

Aug 22 - Aug 28
The city-states of the Autumn Isles are a political tinderbox. A priest relays to you a divine command: to help two lovers from rival cities to elope. But far from calming things, this may ignite the flame of war... defy the gods or risk slaughter in A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN.

Aug 29 - Sep 04
The people of Lyrendorf are terrified of the Myrken Woods, where dryads wander and folk hear chanting under the moon. But now the Woods are sick - and the same illness threatens the harvest. To save either side, you must get both to work together in ALL BARK AND NO BLIGHT.

Sep 05 - Sep 11
You're fey creatures, and a human has wandered through a portal to your realm. He looks exhausted and sad, avoids talking & refuses aid. The Fairy Queen Siannura gives YOU the task of helping him learn to hope again and become a hero. It won't be easy to TEACH A MAN TO WISH.

Sep 12 - Sep 18
During the mage rebellion, a hunter comes across a wrecked shrine and the aftermath of a summoning gone wrong: he flees with the dead wizard's valuable supplies. An old templar and a desperate apostate are on his tail, though, in NO CHANTRY FOR OLD MEN.

Sep 19 - Sep 25
Dragons navigate by scent: when the king orders you to catch the Green Wyrm of the Hills, mixing a dragon-breath like gas lure is your best bet. But keeping the alchemical mix stable will be hard & while you stake it out you'll be vulnerable, in A WAIT WITH BAITED BREATH.

Sep 26 - Oct 02
The dead are rarely called on as heroes. But Sir Hordavan cannot be buried until he completes his list of side-quests: he is clearly no longer able. His will names you as champions in the event of his death... descend into the Deep Caves & finish his work in SIX FEATS UNDER!

Oct 03 - Oct 09
What dark deeds linger with those who one fought the Darkspawn? Are you willing to tear memories from the dead to find out? Few Wardens get marked graves... so you, and a troubling mage companion, venture to the Deep Roads to find the SHADES OF GREY.

Oct 10 - Oct 16
A flesh golem, brought to life by great lighting rods, is being hailed as a miracle of a new scientific age and the bringer of perfect truth. But you suspect the creature is being manipulated into parroting messages from a secret cult: can you change its tune in VOLT FACE?

Oct 17 - Oct 23
The town's household spirits are disappearing, sneaking off to standing stones, up old trees and down crumbling wells. What draws them there? What links these locations? An adventurer like you will be needed to examine THE BROWNIE POINTS and find out... before it's too late.

Oct 24 - Oct 30
Due to a problematic legal technicality and an army from its own eukaryotic kingdom, the Grand Overfungus now rules the Kingdom of Soko. You can't risk all-out war: you must persuade the Overfungus to leave before Soko is awash with mushrooms in WHEN IT REIGNS, IT SPORES.

Oct 31 - Nov 06
They believed it useless. A revenant too big to lurk in the dark, too slow to evade the witch-hunter's torch. Abandoned by its undead kin, it lay born of undeath's hubris.

But now the WIGHT ELEPHANT is back. It trumpets vengeance on the deathless: but the living fear too...

Nov 07 - Nov 13
Phoenix feathers are rumoured to have a thousand magical uses: but none in this age has ever stored a full feather and survived the bird's rage long enough to study it. Can your team be the first to return one to the alchemy guild? Burn your way to glory in in TAILBLAZER!

Nov 14 - Nov 20
The siege of Taraness drags on after years, due to a curious problem: the city keeps magically moving around the attackers! In the siege camp, you've towers and weapons but little hope: can you come up with a plan & capture the city? Have you tried TURNING IT OFT, AN ONAGER?

Nov 21 - Nov 27
Cantankerous Sir Kay was never friendly with young Sir Gareth - but tricking the former kitchen servant turned knight into being indebted to him seems a bit harsh. Can you help Gareth out and solve the intergenerational dramas of Camelot in OWE KAY, BEAUMAINS?

Nov 28 - Dec 04
Food delivery, a Viziman noble's new fad: but now a Witcher is called. A man is dead: insectoid monster eggs, ready to hatch, were snuck into the food parcels! Team up with a sorceress in training to get cake delivered safely in KIKIMORES DELIVERY SERVICE!

Dec 05 - Dec 11
A wealthy noble has had some items stolen - he won't say what, but still wants you to find them. You find they have been fed to mimics - but why and what secrets do they hold? Discover the answer in GET IT OFF YOUR CHEST.

Dec 12 - Dec 18
The ferocious Snowbound Order of Nuns lets no initiate leave their ice-monastery: but an old friend was, while habitually drunk, tricked into the magical joining ritual, and is desperate to flee. She sneaks a message to you: can you help her escape, so she can KICK THE HABIT?

Dec 19 - Dec 25
Midwinter brings a mysterious stranger with a set of musical instruments to the castle door. She hails from a land of burning sand, and wishes to find her way home, granting you three wishes for doing so. Can you find the true spirit of generosity in THE DJINN GIRL'S BELLS?

Dec 26 - Jan 01
A carpet merchant hires you to track down goblinoids who stole his stock - but they've fled into the Caves of Frost Eternal. You must fight not only the beasts but the cold too as you build a camp in the frosty tunnels! Can you be...
AS SNUG THERE AS A BUGBEAR IN A RUG LAIR?
 

Back to Top

 

And that's your lot! Happy New Year, dear reader, and I hope this bout of silliness has added some joy to a world that always needs more of it. Take care, let me know in the comments what quest you'll be doing on your birthday, and have a wonderful 2022!

236

Announcements! The Town Crier! / Updates from the Forge 44: New Year 2022

« on: January 01, 2022, 07:04:29 PM »

Issue 44: Winter 2021-22

EDITORIAL

Happy midwinter, one and all! Your regular editor Leafly is currently having a break, so you're back to yours truly, Jubal, and the imaginary editorial llama, to bring you this issue of Updates from the Forge.

We've had so many major bits of news demanding their own posts in the meantime that it's hard to know what's left for the newsletter in some ways - in particular, we can congratulate our very own Tusky on the successful release of Tourney: The Medieval Tournament Simulator, a game that allows you to create your own medieval tourney grounds with a wide array of different objectives and a fun little storyline. We've also announced our second Coding Medieval Worlds workshop after the success of the first last February, and had some new content out including an autumnal riddles article.

In other site news, we've got a new policy on Non-Fungible Tokens, which you can find details of here. In short, Exilian's voting members have decided that we will not be supporting NFT-based projects for the foreseeable future, as a result of the environmental and cultural negative impacts of the technology.

Finally, make sure you remember to enter our winter creative competition, this year on the theme Winter Sunset and judged by friends of Exilian, conservator and podcaster Jenny Mathiasson and author & game writer Victoria Corva! We're looking forward to releasing the showcase of everyone's works in a month or so.

And without further ado, onto the Updates themselves...

CONTENTS:

• Editorial
  
• Game Development
  
  • Halloween Mode in Son of a Witch
  • Infinitas Zero Hour: Shein's Revenge and Tulathrone
  • Wonderdraft: Making Fantasy Maps
• Arts & Writing
  
  • Missives from a Fallen City: Audio Drama by Jubal
  • Tales from Infinitas
• Miscellany
  
  • What've you been playing?

GAME DEV

Halloween Mode in Son of a Witch

Bigosaur's four player beat 'em up roguelike, Son of a Witch, now has a special Halloween mode! Available to replace the main game, the mode is automatically activated during Hallowe'en each year, and at other times of year can be accessed via the /hwon and/hwoff console codes in the character select screen. Son of Witch's Hallowe'en includes a number of changes - more skeletons, ghostly skins for regular enemies, and a significantly more direct route to hell than in the standard game. This seasonal mode, besides being a fun tweak for the time of year, will also thus be great for achievement hunters seeking those all too difficult wins against the bosses of hell. Check it out!

Bigosaur's Devlog

Get Son of a Witch on Steam

Infinitas Zero Hour: Shein's Revenge and Tulathrone

BagaturKhan's Command and Conquer: Zero Hour modding and maps, created by him and DarkkozDarka, present his massive World of Infinitas project in game format. These especially challenging maps for veteran players are designed to present the challenges and dangers of the Infinitas setting in a fully interactive way, and there are two new recently released maps for CnC: Zero Hour fans to have a go at.

The first of these is Revenge of Shein, in which you as President Zanzibhar Shein must take on the pro-Acheronian forces of the rebellious General Shului to avert a catastrophic civil war in the Nargon Republic. Meanwhile, in Death of Tulothrone, a rogue AI a million years old has awakened and seeks to complete its mission to subvert technological systems and destroy all organic life in its path. Only you can stop it in its tracks and save yourself and the folk on which Tulothrone seeks to wreak bloody havoc.

Try these and more via BagaturKhan's Exilian thread for the Infinitas Zero Hour project!

Check out the Maps

Wonderdraft: Making Fantasy Maps

Spritelady has recently been sharing her experiences and tips on using the fantasy mapping software Wonderdraft, which she's found useful in creating a range of maps for TTRPG campaigns. Its features like being able to cycle through a range of preset symbols when painting, generation tools for landmasses, and easy area-paints make it ideal for creating certain map types, and Spritelady's thread takes us through the details of how some of the magic is done.

Do head over and join the discussion: do you use this, or other software for map generation? Do you have hints and tips to share or questions to ask? A cartographic world - or possibly quite a few of them - await...

Find Out More

ARTS AND WRITING

Missives from a Fallen City: Drama by Jubal

In the world of Failbetter Games' Fallen London, men with the faces of squid roam the streets, the waves of the Unterzee lap upon London's darkened shores, and factions from the Ministry of Public Decency to the Rooftop Urchins and even Hell itself vie for advantage in the fallen city. From that world comes Jubal's Missives From A Fallen City - a fifteen minute audiodrama of torrid romance, arson, ambulatory fungi, and cake! When Maisourias Sponderwick, Esq., gentleman of negotiable action, calls upon the heiress Astrabella C. Willoughby, all seems to be set for a tale of possibly-forbidden lust and excessive asjustment of moustaches. This is Fallen London, though, and here, everybody has secrets...

Through thirteen letters of Astrabella, Maisourias, and their acquaintances, uncover their tale, have a listen and give some feedback!

Listen on YouTube

Discuss it on Exilian

Tales from Infinitas

BagaturKhan's Infinitas universe is having increasing numbers of tales available to read on Exilian with the release of the Tale about the Doge Bertolino and his wonderful house-pet and the continuing process of translating the immense story Revenge Of Tyrants - Darkness Is Coming from its original Russian. These stories, with wide arrays of nations and characters, deal with politics, love, and war across a universe of stories epic in scale. From the fate of the huge stellar Empire of Hyborea to the majesty of giant battle salamanders and the question of whether a kettle can have a soul, there's a great deal to be found in the Infinitas tales - good reading for a dark winter's evening, perhaps?

Revenge Of Tyrants - Darkness Is Coming

Tale about the Doge Bertolino and his wonderful house-pet

MISCELLANY

What've you been playing?

It's rare to find someone who makes games without appreciating playing them too, and a good place to see what fellow Exilians have been playing and join in with discussions and inspiration is the Exilian Arcade, our forum area for general gaming discussion. Threads on Wildermyth, the Witcher series, Dragon Age, and other popular games are hubs to share ideas, tips, and thoughts about those games and gain new perspectives on them. Learning more and sharing thoughts can be really important for sparking fresh creativity - and is also just a fun way to get to know folk and find new ideas about your favourite games.

Meanwhile, feel free to post about what you've been playing or ask for recommendations - there may well be an Exilian member out there who has the perfect idea for what games you'll love to play in future.

Enter the Arcade

2021 wasn't an easy year around the world, and 2022 will doubtless have its own uncertainties. There is always hope to come, though, and even the passage of sunsets are promises of dawns not yet broken. Through all these issues we'll be here on Exilian, running virtual meetups and competitions, providing space to chat and listen, and hopefully building the space for creativity and geekery that's often so needed and hard to find in difficult times. We look forward to having you with us on another year of that journey - happy new year, dear reader, with sincere hope that 2022 is kind to you.

237

General Chatter - The Boozer / Happy Solstice

« on: December 21, 2021, 10:25:12 PM »

A day to remember that the sun returns, always. Happy solstice, friends

238

Announcements! The Town Crier! / 2021-22 Creative Competition: Winter Sunset!

« on: December 20, 2021, 04:57:47 PM »

Creative Competition: Winter Sunset
 

Dreamy Pixel, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

It's time for one of our ongoing series of creative competitions, where we challenge members and friends to come up with the best creative response to a particular theme! This winter, the theme is WINTER SUNSET - it may be a time of great beauty, or a moment of encroaching darkness, a chance to rest by the fire or to light a blaze to guard against the cold. It is a time of turning, and we're looking forward to seeing how you approach it!


The rules are as follows:
1. Produce your entry. It can be a game,artwork, story, poem, recipe,  rules supplement, sculpture, dance piece, music, whatever - any sort of creative response to the theme.
2. PM your entry (or a link thereto) to Jubal, and post in this thread to say you've put your entry in. Entries that don't have both the post and PM in will not be considered, and you must not post your entry publicly during the contest (so as to ensure judging is name-blind).
3. Each person is allowed up to two entries.
4. Entries must be in by 23:59, January 31, 2022.
5. The judges will score each work out of ten on two grounds: how good a response to the prompt it was, and how well executed the result was.
6. Winners will be announced by or before February 15. All entries will then be posted in a public showcase.

PRIZES

Main Prize:
1x copy of TOURNEY, the Medieval Tournament Simulator by Tusky Games
1x copy of SON OF A WITCH, the beat 'em up fantasy roguelike by Bigosaur
1x original song on a topic of your choice to be written by Jubal

If you'd like to donate a prize and thereby sponsor the competition, please get in touch

THE JUDGES

Jenny Mathiasson is a conservator, creative, heritage enthusiast, artist, podcaster, and freelancer. Originally from Sweden, she has worked as a museum conservator across the UK and is currently based in Wales. Armed with a love of archaeology and a no. 15 scalpel blade she hosts conservators' podcast The C Word, as well as being an artist and crafter as the need and inspiration arises. You can find more links about her and her work here.

Victoria Corva, alias the Crow Witch, is an audiobook narrator, author, twitch streamer and game writer. Producing, as their website puts it, "writing with warmth and weirdness", their stories include the small town libraries-and-necromancy fantasy Books and Bone and the queer portal-fantasy Non-Player Character. They put their narration skills to delightful public use regularly when streaming narrative RPGs regularly on twitch, and their game outputs include the interactive fiction game Wyrden and the Tabletop RPG Kin. You can find more about all of their work on their website.

239

General Chatter - The Boozer / Christmas Pub?

« on: December 14, 2021, 11:53:37 AM »

Would anyone be interested in a virtual pub on, say, the 29th? Probably a bit shorter than usual, like an hour or two, but it could be nice to see people. We may well not have the numbers this time, though, I guess.

240

General Chatter - The Boozer / Playing with an AI fantasy art app

« on: December 05, 2021, 10:27:32 PM »

So, I saw people on Twitter playing with the web app Wombo which attempts to produce AI-made art in various styles, so I had a go at some fantasy stuff. Some thoughts:

• Like a lot of AI, it really can't do people, because whilst it can see pictures with people in or has some in its data banks, it can't link them to a concept or understand what the necessary features of one are.
• It does landscape far better, presumably because that can be a bit choppier without issue
• When I did the "Fens of Serraty" from my own setting, I got something much more akin to modern East Anglian fenland: I blame the disappointing under-use of fens in fantasy settings (it's probably safter than simply blaming the Dutch, for one thing...).
• It must be trained or possibly actively train itself on e.g. a google search dataset or similar. Like, the Solas picture might not be a picture of Solas from Dragon Age, but it's one that makes it very clear that some picture or pictures of him were fed into it
• It's quite good at "vibe" even if not much else: Sparta is blue skied and square in buildings, the elf city has hints of towers etc
• Having checked, the same prompt creates different images every time, not repeats.
• I was amused that the spoof name Gilbert of the Riviera came out better than Geralt of Rivia for pictures of Witchers I asked it to do.

Anyway, feel free to share your own amusments