Latest from the Labyrinth #11

Happy New Year

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!

Well… that was 2023!

Going to resist doing an annual round-up on this occasion, given how invisible I’ve been for much of it. Instead, here’s what’s happened since last month’s edition.

Atop the Wailing Dunes

The big news: all physical copies of Atop the Wailing Dunes and Spirits of the Here & Now have been seen to backers: most backers in Ireland and the UK seem to have had their rewards delivered already, so here’s hoping the rest of the world is going to get something from Atelier Hwei fairly soon!

For those of you who missed the chance to back it, the sandbox adventure for PARAH Atop the Wailing Dunes can be obtained from the following link on DTRPG:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/458091/Atop-the-Wailing-Dunes

The zine-length bestiary, Spirits of the Here & Now is also available from the same webstore:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/463621/Spirits-of-the-Here--Now

Weekly Sandbox

City of Ghosts cover image by Jef Cox

AS mentioned in last month’s latest, I was inspired by the

Ben Laurence

interview of Luke Gearing on Into the Megadungeon to take the plunge and decided to start a regular drop-in game with a very short time frame. The game features my own take on the megadungeon, an abandoned Neolithic proto-city .

Three sessions in, finding out feet but having lots of fun and great way back in to regular gaming after a long hiatus. I’ve made notes regarding my experiences and ambitions in the following posts:

Sandbox goals and what’s being playtested:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-city-of-ghosts-sandbox-playtest.html

Session report 1:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-one-hour-pariah-sandbox-city-of.html

Session report 2:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-one-hour-pariah-sandbox-city-of_26.html

New one-click character generator:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2023/12/new-pariah-generator-city-of-ghosts.html

The Alone in the Labyrinth Blog

As implied by the volume of posts above, I’ve had the privilege of devoting a little more time to writing and thinking about games. This has materialised in the form of the following posts:

Weapons proficiency and enchantment:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2023/12/weapons-proficiency.html

Slush-pile post for The RPG Blog Carnival:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2023/12/anthropology-and-archaeology-rpg-blog.html

Reaction rolls as a general resolution mechanic:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2023/12/ultimate-animist-mechanic-everything-is.html

Pokemon sandbox for a five-year-old kid:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2023/12/pokemon-analogue-sandbox-for-5-year-old.html

My New Year’s resolution is to more podcasts… but I may have said that last year…

Paid subscribers

Last month I mentioned giving something back to paid subscribers and, those who provided a mailing address received this selection of postcards through the post:

…can’t tell I lie, I have quite a few of these knocking around, so next month’s mailout will use these a base! I’m talking a dungeon map, NPD, monster or something as sticker slapped on the reverse. Who knows, if you’re really lucky it’ll be a poem.

How to receive your surprise gift:

1. Subscribe (paid option)

2. Send me an accessible mailing address

Elsewhere in the World of RPGs

I am going to do * something * for these game design jams:
https://itch.io/jam/ttrpgjamuary

https://itch.io/jam/24wordrpgjam

If you’re looking for a bigger challenge, Chris McDowall has suggested Galaxy 24:
https://twitter.com/bastionland/status/1741765768008564904

Winner of last years Bloggies, Zedeck Siew, is now hosting this year’s bloggies… and is making actual awards!
https://zedecksiew.tumblr.com/post/737683825981800448/the-bloggies-2023-nominations-open

My nomination is here:
https://majesticflywhisk.blogspot.com/2023/12/being-problem-playable-orcs-at-limits.html

Semiurge of Archons March On has had a very productive December, these were my personal highlights:

1. 1d20 things that can go wrong if you have too many hirelings…
   https://archonsmarchon.blogspot.com/2023/12/d20-things-that-might-go-wrong-if-you.html

2. This poetry post:
   https://archonsmarchon.blogspot.com/2023/12/poetry-post.html
   One of my favourite OSR writers accuses another one of my favourite OSR writers of plagiarising one of my favourite OSR writers. Not as fun as it sounds:
   https://traversefantasy.blogspot.com/2023/12/plagiarism-in-unconquered-2022.html

A buspost to make degrees of success/failure more interesting:
https://wasitlikely.blogspot.com/2023/12/hast-thou-considered-your-failures.html

There’s been a whole series of FKR essays on Roll to Doubt but this saving throws as social skills post caught my eye, not least because i was sort of doing the reverse at the same time:
https://rolltodoubt.wordpress.com/2023/12/27/social-skills-attributes-as-saving-throws/

This post led me to Ava Islam’s Errant, which I’ve not finished yet but is full of interesting game components and elides neatly with my forthcoming Bricolage Manifesto:
https://www.killjester.com/errant

A novel campaign frame from Max Cantor: playing as both successor and ancestor in a game of circular time…
https://weirdwonderfulworlds.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-world-in-two-times.html

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past two months listening to interviews on Weird Games and Weirder People, hosted by

Diogo Nogueira

. I can heartily recommend it!

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wgnwp

Hope the New Year brings you all that you deserve.

Joe/Sofinho