Interrogation Minigame

Recently I encountered a minor problem. Since most TTRPGs are about combat, their fail state is death. However, an absolute death with no way back is an anticlimactic way to end a character, especially when they have unfinished business. Which is why I assume resurrection magic was introduced. And that creates a slew of worldbuilding issues I'm not even going to go into.

My game won't be about combat. Death could occur, but it's not the only fail state in the game, nor is it the most frequent one. See, the players in my game are to be members of a secretive organization that works against the megacorporations that own the cities. Capturing them alive is a lot better than killing them off because they might provide information. It could just take some... convincing. This is an ideal fail state for my game, seeing how this allows the other players to run a rescue mission, saving their friend.

But that got me thinking... what would the character be going through in the meantime? I mean, players will likely prioritize the rescue mission, but what if they don't? What if they leave the one player waiting for too long? What will the player do in the meantime (besides likely playing some weaker character substitute)?

My initial thought was "Oh no, I can't cover this with any of the stats in the game, do I have to add a Willpower stat into my game?" After some thinking, though, it turns out I don't need to. I can just reuse an old idea of mine: dice towers. No, I don't mean the kind that you'd use to roll the dice.

The dice are stacked, by Michael Summers

On every day of the interrogation, the GM asks a question and rolls 3d6, dropping the lowest roll. The player needs to put this many d6's on top of one another to keep the information away from the interrogators. If the stack of dice collapses, the information is revealed. The player can choose to reveal the information at any moment, or they can spend their Energy to lower the number of dice required for the stack. Additionally, the GM can decide after the die roll that the interrogators are going extra hard on the character. The player character takes a Wound when they have stacked a number of dice equal to the higher of the rolls, and when the stacked dice collapse. A character doesn't replenish its resources while captured this way and is stripped of its ways of using special abilities (in 5e terms, spellcasting foci and weapons would be perfect examples).

I started to write this back in December, believe it or not, but I didn't get to finish it until 2024. I'm honestly not sure if this will make it into the final game, but I'll have to test that in playtesting. This might be difficult because the first hurdle to overcome is the fact that I'll likely be doing my playtesting online. I want to make a minigame for this that would keep things interesting for the player characters who are out of the game. I want the minigame to have at least one choice for the player to make, otherwise it's more or less a waste of time.

At the end of the day, I might just replace it with a less physical minigame, but this was a neat idea that I figured I'll share here. See you soon!

Review of my 2023

Another year has come and gone. It was an eventful year at that.

2020 | 2021 | 2022

How was 2023?

In one word, this year could be summed up as eventful. With 11.6K views of the blog, it surpassed the last year, but not 2021. I feel like that's partially because of the fact that I stopped making D&D homebrews 3 months in, for good. Part of the reason for that is the distance that grew between me and D&D since then (see my review of 2022), but another part of this is an elephant in the room. Starting in early January, Wizards of the Coast have seen controversy after controversy. OGL, Pinkertons, AI art, misprinted cards, and so much more. The two things they have succeeded at are the D&D movie, which was good, but came to the cinemas with bad timing, … and Baldur's Gate 3. At the same time, One D&D has been renamed to D&D 5e 2024, and it's... not looking all that much different from what's currently 5e.

All this in combination with my dislike of D&D in general is why my publishing has slowed down this year. On April 1st, I released Null, my only serious published full class for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. This was also meant to be my final 5e homebrew, so I made sure it was an interesting one, breaking the conventions of the game to open up the readers' perspectives. I haven't stopped following D&D for some reason, though I did redirect my attention elsewhere.

Here's some good news, though! I managed to surpass my personal record of articles written in a year once again. My former record was in 2021 at 27 articles. When I found out that I was very close to this number in December, I figured I'd go just a bit further, pushing it up to 28. Maybe that's why there were more blog views than last year. The biggest contributing factor to this would have to be the fact that I gave myself a new monthly challenge of making a 200-word game every month. What I find funny, looking back at it, is the fact that my busiest months were April, October, and December. I can somewhat understand April - April Fools is something I always try to do, and the monthly 200-word game added another article there. October was around the time when I finished The Asterist, published a design article for another horror game of mine, and made a 200-word game, then I had some extra ideas. As for December, well... like I already said, I went a bit further than expected to break my personal record. I wonder if I will be active in these months next year too.

That being said, let's address my resolutions from the last year.

Resolutions from 2023

I find it funny that I said I wanted fewer technical successes, that's pretty much most of the stuff I accomplished this year.

• Runehack: The Asterist is finally released! While I can't say I'm 100% satisfied with it, at least it's out for people to see and play.
• As for more Runehack Cities, I wrote... one. It's not much, but hey at least it's a technical success, right?
• Streaming was hardly present during the year, I think the Twitch recap told me I've streamed five times? Well, that changed a bit in December when I started to stream Lethal Company more. I'm not sure if I should count that though. I also started a Youtube channel like I hoped I would! But... it also has just one video for now, and even that's just an introduction.
• Dungeon23 was a big failure, with most of the wind being taken out of my sails due to the OGL controversy. Over time, I didn't feel like returning to it because I realized... I don't enjoy dungeons. I don't enjoy combat as much as I used to. My tastes have changed. However, during January I felt like releasing a 200-word game, and I also made one in February. This made me reconsider this goal, and instead of making a daily room for a megadungeon I'd never use anyway, I made a 200-word game every single month, most of which I will probably never play.

Some of my successes were not resolutions for me last year (or at least they should have been mentioned in my last yearly review). I managed to republish the Slasher Oneshot System with a new name Final: Sole Survivor. I started gathering information regarding my worldbuilding and even personal notes into an Obsidian vault, which I find to be highly useful now. I also traveled ten thousand kilometers to meet Arell, which was a fantastic experience, even if it was rather scary since I had to do it on my own.

Hopes and Goals for 2024

I'll still keep it light because I don't know how much I can afford to aim for. I only have two resolutions this year, the first of which is finishing and publishing the Runehack RPG, with regular updates on this blog, YouTube, or Twitch (based on whatever I'll go with this year). It will be a mixture of many things I wish to get out of playing TTRPGs, including most of the design from Runehack: Fairy Heist and Runehack: The Asterist. Both of these projects served as testing grounds for the concepts that would go into the Runehack RPG, and I can make it work within the next year. My goal is to cover at least the hacking and freerunning pillars of experience along with the core rules. I already started writing the first blog post regarding the system, though I wonder if I should be more active on YouTube. Not many people read my blog, it might be more interesting as a video. Besides, you can listen to a video while you do other things, such as chores.

My other resolution was actually something I came up with after New Year's Eve. I consume a rather small amount of media. There are recommendations I received for good things, and I was never too concerned with not spoiling myself on them, so I already know a fair bit about them. As some dude once said, the secret to creativity is in well-hidden sources. It needs food for thought, so my idea is to play 12 good games this year. If they are video games, I need to play them until I believe I've finished them to a sufficient degree. If they are tabletop RPGs, I need to play just one session. Those of you who have read my previous New Year resolutions might be wondering why I worded it the way I did - why not make it another "once a month" deal? Why not play one good game every month? Well, to put it bluntly, Witcher 3 is the primary reason. This game supposedly has 100+ hours of playtime. If I were to play it every single day in a month, I'd need to play for over 3 hours daily. There's no way I could afford to do that. But at the same time... I want to finish it finally. I don't know if I'll ever have enough time to finish it otherwise.

I can't guarantee I'll keep making more 200-word games, seeing how each one is more of a proof of concept rather than an actual game, but I can't say I'll completely stop either. The rest of my goals are either too personal to list here, or something I can't 100% guarantee I can do. Game jams, NaNoWriMo, and other kinds of challenges might have to go to the side since I want to focus on Runehack and gaming a lot more.

Thank you for reading my blog. I would like to wish you a Happy New Year 2024. Have a great one, I'll see you soon!

Facing Rules

Izzy asked about opinions on the facing rules in a discord server I frequent. That made me realize... I've never read the variant rule for facing in Dungeon Master's Guide. I figured I'll give it a shot before I have a chance of reading the rule. What I came up with is something I'd consider interesting enough. Hope you'll enjoy!

Fun fact: Hoods would actually hinder your peripheral sight. That is, unless you have a set of supernaturally enhanced senses.
I didn't want to have my hastily drawn diagram be the thumbnail of this article, so I figured I'd go with something prettier.
Stealth, by Andis Reinbergs

Cones of Sight

Make a point in the middle of your character token. Draw a line perpendicular to the direction in which they're looking. Then draw two more lines, splitting the area around the character into 6 equal cones. The section in the direction the character faces is labeled C. The two neighboring them L1 and R1, the two neighboring those L2 and R2, and the final sector should be labeled X. Don't worry, these labels are here just in case I'll be too lazy to add an image later, it's actually intuitive.

Woohoo, I made it afterall!

This rule of mine distinguishes three types of sight: clear sight, peripheral sight, and no sight. Things that you can see clearly are things that you can describe well enough for someone to imagine clearly. Peripheral sight lets you know vague shapes, lighting, colors, and motion, severely lacking in detail. It's good enough to let you know you need to dodge an attacked, but not good enough to read a book. No sight is self-explanatory, you don't see there. When a section of your sight isn't mentioned in the next paragraph, it stands for no sight under that condition.

When you look ahead of yourself, you see the section C clearly, and the sections L1 and R1 peripherally. When you turn your head left, you see the section L1 clearly, and the sections L2 and C peripherally (same goes for right direction, but swap L for R). You could even use this to simulate looking to the side, in which case one of the peripheral cones (depending on the direction) becomes a clear sight, and the central cone grants a peripheral sight instead. For example, looking to the left without turning your head makes the section L1 a clear sight, and the section C a peripheral sight. All of this of course assumes that the body doesn't move at all below the neck. Extra note, looking directly to the right or left would be rounded into R1 and L1 respectively.

Is this useful? Hardly. It's way too But it's a neat start. I still haven't read their execution of the rules, chances are it's simpler. But this thought experiment has led me to thinking and pondering... this might be very useful for my sprinters RPG, as well as for Fairy Heist. Not sure when I'll get to updating the latter, but the former game is a goal of mine for 2024 (more on that in about a week).

A Soup Stone game

I wrote most of this article a month ago apparently. As some of you can tell, I'm a fan of minimalistic TTRPGs. Sometimes, this can go too far, even beyond my personal preferences. The most extreme example of that would be We Are But Worms, a 1-word TTRPG. How many words are too little? How many does one need to give actual value? These are the thoughts I considered when I was challenged to write a 10-word TTRPG. Below is my output.

007+

Be secret agent. Roll 7+ on 1d8 to defeat baddies.

It has some substance, evoking James Bond with his iconic label of 007 and being described as a secret agent. But rolling 7+ on a 1d8 to defeat the baddies is too vague. Aside from the fact this would mean that only one in four of your attempts succeed,... what exactly does this mean? Is this only about attacks, or about other activities too? Does it have to hinder a baddie directly? What if you're not trying to hinder anyone, or to fulfill your mission overall with your current action? I'm not even going to comment on the fact that this means you succeed 25% of time.

The Soup Stone

In one of the English lessons back when I was at school, the first fairy tale I learned that wasn't told to me in my native language before was the tale of The Soup Stone. I'm gonna retell it off the top of my head how I remember it for those who don't know it.

A tramp convinces an old selfish woman to make soup for him by convincing her that his stone is magical. When she wants to see how it works, he asks her to cooperate with him because the stone's magic is quite mysterious and complicated. She sets up a pot of boiling water that the soup stone goes into, gets some vegetables, depending on the telling of the story some meat, a dash of salt, and viola - they've got a soup that they can now share.

So... this might be a little bit awkward, but while searching for the story online, I came to learn it's called Stone Soup, not Soup Stone like I thought. That being said, I'm keeping the phrase "Soup Stone game" as is - the game has the same role as the stone in the fairy tale.
Stone Soup, by magmatixi

This story has stuck with me since then, it's a story of convincing someone that something is amazing if they put a lot of work into it. It's also the reason why I like to call games like We Are But Worms, 007, and plenty of other games "A Soup Stone game": it's only as good as you make it.

I hope I didn't come off as negative. A soup stone game isn't necessarily a bad thing, I know several people who say that's all they need to have a fun time. And they are right, why bother with all these complicated mechanic and rule interactions, when you could just let the GM make up a ruling for it on the spot, roll some dice, and keep things moving? Well, the downside with this sort of system is that it tends to be a blank canvas: the less material one has to work with, the more work is required by the GM and the party to make use of it. Take for example 007+. If you are familiar with what 007 stands for, you know you're playing a James Bond-type secret agent who's just that good.

What I've learned this year

I'm pretty sure that if you follow my activity or my blog, you've noticed the challenge I've been going through this year. The 200-word games are simple to make, but ultimately they tend to feel rather... barebones. A couple more words could make them into proper, more replayable games. Why is this?

Well, as I worked on more and more of these, I came to a conclusion why. It will sound obvious, but you can only do so much with a certain word count. These limits might be different for others, but to me personally, it goes something like this:

• Give me a couple of pages, and I can make a game that will last a couple of months.
• Give me a single page, and I'll make something for 5 or fewer sessions. It will be a game alright, but it might be a oneshot deal or something suited for a short campaign.
• Give me 200 words, and I'll make a proof of concept for one or more mechanics. It will look like a game, but it'll likely be missing something, if not a lot of things.
• Give me less than 200 words, and I can make you a Soup Stone game. There will be some flavor to it, maybe even some simple mechanics, but it won't be fun on its own, likely.

And this concludes my 27th article this year. With 11 days to spare, I hope to write at least one more. We'll see how that goes. Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

A Chandelier Encounter

I've made it clear that I no longer feel like running combat encounters in a game like D&D. But recently I had an idea that's too cool not to share. And really, I'm a couple articles away from breaking my personal record of a number of articles in a year, so why not pitch in with something quick and neat?

A Chandelier Encounter

This battle takes place ideally in a spacious interior with a high ceiling and at least one extra floor that overlooks an empty space in the middle. In the middle of the room is a huge chandelier. Sometime during the start of the encounter, a powerful/heavy enemy runs up to it and grabs onto it mid-leap, causing the chandelier to begin swinging. The chandelier moves at the end of every turn (yes, even if your ruleset says that a round lasts 6 seconds, it'd be boring to wait for the chandelier to get anywhere). I'd personally give the chandelier three positions: one at its lowest point, and two at its highest points. It might be a good idea to also telegraph to the players where the chandelier could be on any given turn.

A character can grab the chandelier if they are close enough to it during their turn, and they can let go of it after the chandelier moves, even outside of their own turn. They need both hands to be free, or one hand if they are powerful enough. Use it as a mode of transportation, use it as a mobile environment, watch the players work out the timing of it, and encourage the characters to prepare their actions. Maybe even consider what material is the rope that holds the chandelier made out of. Is it easy to burn? Hard to cut? Impossible to cut so that you don't lose on this cool chandelier idea? And how does this chandelier swing? Is it just a straight line, or does it slowly revolve around the room?

"Great job, guys. I guess that's it for our chandelier encounter."
 I've considered saying that the chandelier hangs on an adamantium rope, but that's not a thing in every game. I figured I should try to make this a bit setting-agnostic. And I really hope that your players' first instinct won't be to cut the chandelier off.
Le Grand Hotel, by Alexiuss

If you want precision, start by determining the length of the rope the chandelier is hanging from (include the chandelier to keep it simple for yourself), and the maximum angle of a swing. At its peak, the chandelier is at a height equal to the rope's length multiplied by the cosine of the angle. For example, for a rope that's 30 ft. long, its peak is about 21 ft. off the ceiling when the angle is 45°. As for the distance from the middle, you just need to replace the cosine with a sine, which in this specific case also results in a distance of 21 ft. This means that for an optimal interesting fight with a chandelier 30ft off the ceiling, you'd ideally have two balconies 10 ft. above wherever the chandelier's lowest point is, and have them about 40 ft. apart.

Precision isn't necessary of course. You could just say that the chandelier swings from one balcony to another, with the lowest point at the bottom, and keep the exact measurement of the rope and chandelier's height abstract.

Summary:

• The chandelier has at least 3 distinct positions: the one in the middle is the lowest, and the two on the edges are the highest. Add more positions at your own discretion. Give some consideration to the chandelier revolving around the room.
• At the end of each turn, the chandelier moves to its next position: low to high, and vice versa, alternating between the highs.
• It takes an action to grab on, and free hands (one if you're strong enough). If you're a kind GM, you could consider this to be a replacement for one of the attacks, if the system has something like this.
• It takes no action to let go of the chandelier, but you can let go of it only immediately after it has moved.
• In case you need it, work out an appropriate amount of damage it could deal to someone when struck by it, or how difficult is it to destroy its rope.

Math summary, for those who care:

• r is the length from the ceiling to the bottom of the chandelier,
• x is the maximum angle the chandelier swings up to,
• r*cos(x) is the distance from the ceiling to the peak of the chandelier's swing, therefore at its peak the chandelier is at a height of r*(1-cos(x)),
• r*sin(x) is the horizontal distance from the lowest to the highest point of the chandelier's swing.

That's all, have a great time and a great day!

Hear me out! ... but what if there were more chandeliers?
The Hall Of The Golden Hand, by azadraw1

Lethal Companions

Lately, I've been playing a game called Lethal Company. It's about going on abandoned moons to collect scrap that's sold to an ominous company afterward. I couldn't resist joining the trend, and it really is the funniest horror game I've ever played. Spooky monsters, sudden deaths, and perfect proximity voice chat make for an awesome experience. This was my mindset when I started pondering what I should make for my December game. I took some extra time with it because I agreed to a collab with a streamer King Starman. I was a guest on his stream to help him and guide him through the process of writing a 200-word TTRPG of his own. I believed in his capability to do it ever since the summer, and today his moment finally came. With minor assistance from me and his chat, he wrote a game named Lighthouse Keeper. Going by his description, it's a game of Among Us, except it's about a ship that's steered by the captain based on the directions given to him by his crew. He thought less of it, but I'd say it's better than my first 200-word TTRPG ever. I was happy to hear just how proud he felt about actually finishing the very first game that he could call his own. After the stream, we agreed on more collaborations in the future, which is awesome. One possibility is... playing Lethal Company together.

That's not the only reason why I brought up the game, though. The main reason for that would be that it is the major source of inspiration for my game. And it all started by flipping the premise on its head: what if the players were the monsters?

Thank you for reading this ahead of time, and I wish you a wonderful day!

The rules I present in this article are given in the form in which I wrote them during the stream. I had to do the formatting after, figured I should give that a go.

Lethal Companions

Your created monsters protect their home from the burglars. Distribute d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20 into:

Hide	Kill	Resist
Sway	Track	Steal

You succeed on a roll if you roll 4+. Die on failing Resist thrice.

Generate the facility starting from the entrance by rolling a 1d6 or 1d4 for every room. Add a corridor of choice if only dead ends are left. All rooms are squares, connected if at least one has a corridor aimed at the other.

1. Dead end
2. Corridor (roll for Direction)
3. Two routes (roll for missing Direction) 
4. Crossroads
5. Staircase (d6: 1-3 up, 4-6 down) + 1d4
6. Entrance + 1d4

Direction d6: 1-2 left, 3-4 straight, 5-6 right

For each room, roll for the loot and describe it.

1—3	Nothing
4	Small
5	Expensive
6	Two-handed (holder can't act)

The game begins when 1+1d6 humans enter. Each has 1d6 Morale, reduced when they:

• See a monster
• See a dead body
• Have an item stolen

A human with 0 Morale runs away. When all humans leave, every living monster chooses one stat to increase by 1 step.

Look back, look back!
     Lethal Company (Coil Head), by Cuautzin

The biggest reason why I said before the game that I present it in the form in which I finished it during the stream is because it has some shortcomings. But let's start with the strengths.

I wouldn't have guessed that I would be able to fit an interior generator into a 200-word game. I surprised myself here, I think it's pretty well done. If one wishes to do a flat map, they just keep rolling d4 and decide wherever the entrances are, or they roll d6 but keep rerolling a 5 (or just ignore the stairs part). The loot generator isn't that in-depth, I mean it barely says that a two-handed item prevents you from acting.

The stats were fun to come up with, but eventually, I realized I should get a sixth one. During the stream, I settled on Sway because I figured some of the monsters were so threatening/cute/passive that one wouldn't want to kill them. But honestly, ... if I were to edit the game, I'd replace it with the Speed. It would be pretty cool for enemies like coil heads. The stat system and the conflict resolution are otherwise picked up completely from the Savage Worlds.

The action economy of this game isn't quite clear either, so let me clarify: the intent is to both move and either pick up an item in the room or do something that requires a roll in a turn. This applies to humans too, with the fact that their attack actually causes the attacked monster to make a Resist roll. A couple more and a little more time would have resolved this, but I'll just fix that if I want to rework the game into something bigger.

Of course, I couldn't fit into it special abilities or "monster types" that I hoped I would include at the start, but... I hope at least the stats will provide some variety, along with the players' descriptions. For what it is, I'd say the game is kind of neat.

This is the final 200-word TTRPG that I've made for this year's challenge of mine. I will list all twelve of them during my 2023 retrospective, and I can confidently say that I am proud I finished this challenge I set for myself. Whether I'll keep making more 200-word games or not is a question I can't answer. What I can say though is that I will make these tiny games when I'll have a concept that I want to test out quickly. I don't have plans as of yet to keep up the challenge in 2024, so my blog activity might go down a bit. I do have some of my resolutions figured out, though. It's hard to tell whether I'll make a post around Christmas time, so just in case I won't: Happy Holidays and Happier New Year!

P.S. Almost forgot to link my Twitch channel, where I'll likely play more Lethal Company and make more funny clips.

Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

Rolling with It

You know what's kind of silly? I keep making these short TTRPGs monthly, and yet I haven't made one that would take place in one of my previously made worlds. It's always something already present in media (such as the zombie apocalypse represented by Double the Zombies), a setting made by someone else (such as the city of Revachol from my first game of 2023, (Almost) Everyone is Harry), or setting agnostic (like most of those games). The time to change that is now, and I'm making a game that takes place in my world of orb-based magical technology, which will be named "Geniorum" for now. I've actually worked out a couple more details behind the scenes and wanted to make an article that would update the orbtech concept for several months but never got around to it. Well, now I have to because the clock is ticking and my November game needs to be published soon.

Have a great time and a greater day!

I've spent too much time learning blender basics just to make this. Can't say I'm truly satisfied with it, but it is good enough.

Rolling with It

Requires 1 GM and 1+ players.

Orbs are magical quartz spheres fueled by alcohol. One can program it by falling asleep while touching it, entering its dreamscape. You were murdered while pondering your orb, transporting your mind into it permanently. Discover your murderer and their motive. If you ever run out of alcohol, you die.

You can:

• see and hear your surroundings,
• roll like a sphere for 4 hours*,
• change your surface's temperature between -50 and 50°C*,
• change your appearance,
• produce sounds heard by anyone touching you,
• absorb alcohol through your surface magically,
• control your dreamscape completely (10x slower time inside),
• send/receive digital funds to/from other orbs through touch,
• create flammable sturdy matter up to double your volume after spending 8 hours away from any starlight*.

* Costs 1 unit of alcohol. Max units equal die size.

Choose your orb's size. Here are sphere size comparisons from our world:

d4	marble
d6	golf
d8	pool
d10	shot put
d12	bowling
d20	boulder

When you need to, roll your die. Example difficulties listed below.

Difficulty	Strength (≥ difficulty)	Speed (≤ difficulty)
4	bottle of water	fraction of a second
10	human weight	seconds
16	a large car	tens of seconds

He who ponders the orbs becomes pondered.
Can't trace the author of this edit, and can't be bothered to spend too much time on this search. Instead, I'll credit the original M. C. Escher's Hand with Reflecting Sphere.

I wanted to say that it's a short game, but then I realized it's exactly 200 words long. Why does it feel so short then? Well, the answer is simple: there are very few mechanics in it. Most of the game just talks about how orbs operate, since they are very different from humans. Not everyone's a fan of details like this, so I don't expect too many to enjoy this game. Then again, I don't expect that of any of my 200-word games, these are prototypes.

Ever since I've heard about Savage Worlds' stats being dice and the difficulty being always 4, I wanted to do something with that. I figured this was a good chance, seeing how differently-sized orbs would be capable of differently-sized things. Well, actually, all of them are capable of movement. But not all of them are capable of pushing around a car-sized thing. Sure I couldn't fit into it stuff like "if you're a boulder, you probably can't enter buildings", but that's something players will hopefully be able to think of on their own.

Here's another tiny detail: all of your actions should in theory cost alcohol. But keeping track of all alcohol spent on such minute actions as making a red dot on your orb's "north pole" would just get too tedious. I opted for restricting the alcohol expenditure only to the actions I figured would be influential and left it there. But if a player does minor actions way too much, the GM has the right to tell them they've spent a unit of alcohol.

With such a word limit, it's quite difficult to fit a pre-established setting into it. Even if Geniorum can hardly be considered a setting yet, it's got a multitude of rules related to the orbs. I feel like it deserves more of my attention in order to be developed, but honestly... I like Runehack a lot more. When I was picking a world to cover with my 200-word game treatment, I had several options. The divtech's world is... well, a starless rogue planet populated only by robots. I have yet to even work out its materials completely before I start doing anything with it. Then there's leytech, which would have been perfect for a TTRPG about warriors but is also quite complicated with all the different kinds of rings that influence the water passing through. I have one more magitech world that I've wanted to write about on this blog for about a year now, but I've been pushing it off the same as an update on Geniorum.

Of course, there are more details I couldn't fit into the ruleset. For example, an inworld name for folks who got trapped in the orbs is "genie". And the creation of matter is due to lumpowder, a substance that manifests in alcohol hidden from all forms of sunlight, including reflected. Then there's the fact that multiple people could get trapped inside the same orb, but only the first one retains complete control over it. Usually, they'd have their minor genies manifest as parts of their body, which is what I nickname "medusa". I could keep going, but the truth is that Geniorum is still vastly underdeveloped. That doesn't change the fact that this was fun to come up with.

Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

Languages in Runehack, and Mental Load in Worldbuilding

This article is not written just because the articles made under the tag myRPGs have almost overtaken Runehack. It is part of the reason for this, but I'm writing this because it's a thing I've pondered for a while.

On one occasion in the past, I've talked about the mental load of a media consumer. Sure this is something I spoke about only regarding a D&D homebrew, but it extends beyond this. People love detailed worldbuilding, but detailed worldbuilding isn't for everyone. This is why I feel so many writers talk about the worldbuilding icebergs, an illusion of detailed worldbuilding by merely alluding to some matters in the world, or developing the fictional cultures only in a couple of areas that interest the author the most. And there's some truth to it all. In an ideal scenario, an author who wishes to make a highly realistic world would have a worldbuilding project on their hands that would take them a lifetime to finish. It would take others a lifetime to absorb because such a project would be just as complex as our reality.

One area that fascinates me and intrigues me a lot is the culture around languages. The way we speak influences the way we label things, think, and act. Its influences leak into the way we speak in other languages - our accents, our interactions, the way we express ourselves in other languages, and so much more. Tolkien has put a lot of effort into his Elvish languages. And honestly, I struggle with that. No matter how I put the letters together, they rarely sound good, and I can only imagine writing a dictionary 100 words long for this purpose. There are tools for this online; one person even made a game out of conlang development. No matter what, though, the made-up words feel off to me most of the time. Then again, this is the same thing I've said about my attempts to compose music, and I overcame that hurdle earlier this year, so I'll be able to overcome this mental block in a couple of years too.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that in an ideal scenario, I'd create a world with a myriad of in-depth languages that influenced each other, and use them to at least label everything in the world. However, not only would I see such an endeavor as time-consuming, but due to the mental load it would require I see it as fruitless. Some would enjoy such details, but seeing just how much time it's taking me, I figured I'd take an easy way out. I began worldbuilding for Runehack and writing my novel that takes place in it by coming up with placeholder names, and I feel like they're sticking to me. The city names are mostly English words that express something about the place. People's names, meanwhile, are just jumbled-up English names, regardless of their real-world origin. So what if Samwell originates from Samuel, which is Hebrew in origin. I could reverse-engineer a meaning for the names if it was that important, for now, I'll just let it slide.

That being said, there are some fun linguistic things I came up with for Runehack. I doubt I'll develop them into full languages, they're just neat tidbits of information I wanted to share for a while.

Yes, at one point I thought I'd make the explanation for a shared language something like a 2001: Space Odyssey-style obelisk of knowledge. But that would raise more questions than solve problems.
Daily speedpaint 027 - Ancient language, by DaiSanVisART

Franqa

Let's begin with the most important idea that took me the longest to develop. See, Runehack is a world in which sharing the culture would be difficult. The bubbles of civilization are separated by the wilderness full of dangerous shapeshifters. Therefore, all the cultures would be developing to be radically different. And language, too, is a thing that changes and shifts over time. Due to this separation, they would drift to the point where they'd have a hard time understanding each other. But what if it wasn't this way?

Franqa is a plant that grows special tea leaves. According to the latest Mindlore research of Runehack's scientists, its effects are psychedelic in nature, kind of like being high. Several minutes after drinking it, one can speak, read, write, and understand spoken language called the same as this plant - Franqa. Nobody can tell what the exact origin of this language is, but it's consistent. The effects of Franqa tea last for roughly 4 hours.

The plant was native to the south-eastern regions of the New World, not too far from Moorwell. Its use was discovered even before the Era of Monsters, and it has spread all over the world thanks to its usefulness. It started off as a tool for use by travelers, diplomats, and translators, but it made its way into other areas of life too. Once its use became widespread, some people started to learn Franqa even when not under its influence. The tea leaves of Franqa are viewed as a symbol of community and cooperation. The plant even made its way into the everyday language. When someone wants to be honest and straightforward without trying to deceive the listener, they say they'll be "frank".

This is how all the cities of my world can talk to each other without issues, by using their lingua franqa.

The Unnamed Languages

The last two languages are why I haven't posted this article earlier - both are raw, underdeveloped ideas. The first is a language developed by some elves living in a humid jungle. This language is based on the premise of uninterrupted flow, which is why it contains no stopping sounds. Its vowels would be the typical a, e, i, o, and u sounds, and its consonants would be as follows: f, h, l, r, s, v, z, ʃ (labeled š), ʒ (labeled ž), and θ (labeled đ). The kh sound could in theory fit in too, but I found it too harsh to be used by the elves. As for going beyond that, other than phonotactics I don't have much worked out. I tried making a dictionary several times, but it always sounded bizarre, so I never did it completely. Fun fact, though, one of the earliest iterations of this language is the origin of Avurai University's name. Avurai was meant to mean "flying island" in this language.

The second language I wanted to make, and the newest one among all these, is a goblin code that has evolved into an artform. It's actually quite the opposite of the elvish language, inspired by the Hush language of the Limberwisk Isle. Both of these languages lack vowels. The phonotactics and phonetic dictionary of this goblin code is simple: every "syllable" (if it can be even considered that since it lacks a vowel) is made up of a consonant p, t, or k, followed by an optional letter r, s, ʃ, x, or f. There are no forbidden combinations, and the words can be quite long. The result might sound a bit like beatboxing, which is why this code became an artform of its own.

Tip Tap

Tip tap is a code known by some of the dwarves of Runehack. It utilizes their sensitive touch perception, which lets them sense the micro-vibrations of anything they touch with bare skin. Since most dwarves walk to most places barefoot, some have developed a secret minimal language for communicating with each other that utilizes lifting up the tips of their feet rhythmically to communicate.

Those who communicate using this code are referred to as tappers. It is one of the few ways of communicating that doesn't require the communicators to see or hear each other.

Tip Tap was developed originally by the dwarves who worked in the mines and forges, to inform each other of important things in their surroundings. Eventually, this language became widespread and generalized to be used in other loud work environments, such as forges and factories. It was and is also sometimes used in works or places where staying silent is crucial, such as animal hunting, prison inmate contact, special military forces, burglary, and spying.

Tip Tap is a simple oligosynthetic language with 45 morphemes, primarily focused on the domain of working. The word order in a sentence is Subject-Verb-Object. Adjectives follow after the Nouns they describe, e.g. "document (that is) old".

Due to its simple nature, the language lacks tenses other than present, and a large variety of terms that are not present in it. For example, since there is no term for water, most would refer to it as "Drink", even when it's not clean water or a large pool of water.

Since this is a written medium, we will utilize the Taixuanjing to codify this language. Each symbol represents the sequence, in which the tips of dwarves' feet (called "toes" from now) are touching the ground. Disruptions in the lines are the moments when the left (upper line) or right (bottom line) toes do not touch the ground. Please, assume the toes are touching the ground between the symbols.

⚍ ⚌ ⚎

𝌁 𝌅 𝌂

𝌃 ⚏ 𝌄 

The only restriction for tap sequences is that none of the ideas communicated can begin nor end with ⚌, seeing how that's the natural state for feet to be at.

Important messages can be communicated with both tips of feet and heels, by lifting an entire foot and softly stomping it against the ground or the floor. In this notation, the top two lines stand for a left foot, and the right foot is represented by the bottom two lines. While the line is doubled, it could in theory let the writer represent the heels and tips of the feet separately. However, this isn't utilized in Tip Tap for reasons forgotten by history.

𝌪 𝌊

𝍎 𝌎

The 𝌆 symbol isn't used, since its meaning is identical to ⚌. Symbols 𝌮 and 𝍖 are not listed, because these would require the tapper to jump in the air if standing.

These messages could in theory be tapped using the hands and fingers too. If a wall isn't part of the same material and surface as the ground, the tapper will have to bring the hand to the ground. Tapping the message using two fingers can be enough to convey the message to others.

Quick Messages

Since these are messages of vital importance, they are all symmetric – they can be communicated in an identical manner with either the left or the right foot. Furthermore, they are the only messages that require you to lift a heel. Chances are, if a tapper needs to communicate this message, they aren't concerned with being heard, so it's usually done by stomping the same foot twice or thrice.

Taps	Meaning
𝌪⚌𝌪 or 𝌊⚌𝌊	"Go away!" "Save yourself!" "Leave!" The message implies immediate danger to anyone who's receiving the message.
𝍎⚌𝌪 or 𝌎⚌𝌊	"Come here!" "Help me!" "I'm in danger!" The message implies immediate danger to the tapper, and a request for help or assistance.

Negation

Most messages are made so that they do not require the user to negate things. But in case it's necessary, 𝌃 and 𝌄 tend to be used. These taps are reserved for negation because they were too complex when used along with other terms.

People

Messages that involve people usually begin with the ⚏ taps.

Taps	Meaning
⚏⚏	I
⚏⚍	Guard, protector, security
⚏⚎	Civilian (someone not related to the work)
⚏𝌅	My colleague
⚏𝌁	My boss
⚏𝌂	My subordinate
⚏ followed by a Place	Someone in the Place (used only when it's clear from the context)

 

Items

Taps	Meaning
⚍⚏	Valuable
⚍⚍	Lock
⚍⚎	Junk
⚍𝌅	Consumable
⚍𝌅⚎	Food
⚍𝌅𝌂	Drink
⚍𝌁	Document
⚍𝌂	Tool

Places

Taps	Meaning
⚎⚏	In front of me
⚎⚍	To my left
⚎⚎	To my right
⚎𝌅	Behind me
⚎𝌁	Safety / Relaxing Place
⚎𝌂	Workplace
⚎⚏⚎	Home

Adjectives

Depending on the context, these can stand for a color, or another attribute of an item.

Taps	Meaning
𝌁⚏	Bright (color), New, Young
𝌁⚍	Yellow, Sticky, Sharp
𝌁⚎	Red, Hot, Burning
𝌁𝌅	Dark (color), Old
𝌁𝌁	Green, Slippery, Flat
𝌁𝌂	Cold, Wet

Actions

Taps	Meaning
𝌂⚏	Take, Keep, Want
𝌂⚍	Store, Drop, Don't Want
𝌂⚎	Throw (if followed by something that can be thrown) Go (if followed by place)
𝌂𝌅⚎	Eat
𝌂𝌅𝌂	Drink
𝌂𝌁	Relax
𝌂𝌂	Work

Numbers

The numeric system that dwarves use somewhat resembles the Roman numerals. One communicates a number by starting with a 0 and then listing all the numbers that add up to the desired number. For example, the number 11 would be communicated as 𝌅𝌂⚎⚍. Tip Tap uses Many for the numbers greater than 15, and Few for fractions, as well as negative numbers, since it never really needed these.

Taps	Meaning
𝌅	0
⚍	1
⚎	2
𝌁	4
𝌂	8
𝌅⚏	Few*
𝌅𝌅	Many*

* When the criminals use Tip Tap to discuss money, Many (followed by a number without a 0) stands for 10.000× the number of credits, and Few stands for 1× the number of credits. If neither Many nor Few are mentioned, the value equals 100× the number of credits.

Sorry that languages other than Tip Tap aren't as developed. I just wanted to share these ideas instead of having them lying around in my archives, waiting to do something cool with them. At least I'm happy that Tip Tap is quite defined.

But that's about it for now. Thank you for reading, and have a great day!