Author Archive

The Great Twitter Experiment

Alright, so I don’t have an iPhone or anything like that and my Internet connection can be as unstable as a wild mage. Nevertheless, I’m going to try using Twitter to complement this website. Stuff like what’s currently happening at the Project Donut twitter and the sort of thing Gnome Stew and Critical Hits do on theirs. That’s the plan, anyway. We’ll see how it goes. I’m also planning to give Echo Bazaar a go. It looks pretty cool.

You’ll also notice that there’s a brand new Twitter icon up at the top of our site. You can click that to check out my tweets and tweet back at me. I’m also trialling having the twitter feed right here on the site, too. I’ll try to keep Vam away from it, but I think that move is destined to fail. I’ll at least make sure his tweets are tagged with #fromvam so you can indulge in or avoid his madness at your leisure.

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Always Have a Backup Game

Sometimes your regular game falls through. When this happens, it pays to have a backup game ready to play at a moment’s notice. In this article I’ll discuss different types of one-shots and how to make it easy on yourself so that whenever you need a backup, it’s ready.

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Rhoga Jezeda – Goddess of the Eleventh Hour

From a young age children are taught to fear Rhoga Jezeda, lest she come in the night and eat them. But as the children grow into adults their fear does not fade. It is said that Rhoga Jezeda knows the time and circumstances of the death of every living thing. She is also called the Goddess of the Eleventh Hour, as it is believed that she can hold back and divert death or bring it swiftly down upon her victims before their proper time.

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Fantasy Playing Cards for Your Game

In fantasy games, taverns are often full of patrons drinking and playing cards. It strains our suspension of disbelief when we hear them draw the King of Hearts or play a game of Spades or Blackjack.

While it would be nice to have a fully developed deck quite different than our standard 52-card deck, it would not be compatible with most of the games we know, so we would also have to come up with new games. Some have the time (or money) for that, but most of us don’t.

Instead, a simple re-skinning let us draw the Empress of Arrows or play a game of Shields or Black Knight, adding a little bit of fantasy flair while still keeping the real-world cards and allowing us to play the games we know.

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Istrilonius – God of the Long Game

Istrilonius is the patient far-seeing god of planning and strategy. He is slow to anger and slow to act. He takes stock of the situation at hand and considers all possible outcomes and futures before putting the first stages of a detailed plan into action. Istrilonius’ followers pride themselves on always being a few steps ahead of the game, and always having one or more contingency plans.

It is difficult to catch one of the Great Strategist’s followers off-guard. While they are not adept at reacting quickly to unexpected situations, the number of these they encounter are few, as they learn to expect the unexpected. They may be seen to react quickly, but in truth, this is simply the enacting of a plan they have prepared earlier.

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Gahn’s Calendar

Crenmar uses the same calendar as many other nations of Gahn. It consists of 13 months of 28 days each, with weeks being 7 days long. Read on to find out more and download a copy of the calendar.

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Writing Ryou’s Journal

Part of a series of posts of Actual Play of the Hikikomori RPG. Click here for more info and an index.

Yay! Ryou survived and even made a difference to the world! Woo!

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this post and/or the rules for the Hikikomori RPG. Once you’re up to date, read on for a brief overview of the rules and decisions that resulted in the story told in Ryou’s Journal.

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Ryou’s Journal – Day 7

Part of a series of posts of Actual Play of the Hikikomori RPG. Click here for more info and an index.

I haven’t slept since yesterday. There’s been almost a thousand downloads now and people have donated about twenty dollars to Child’s Play because of my song! It’s not much, but it’s something, and I’ve been working on this new track and I think it’s actually a lot better than the one I uploaded. My eyes are sore and my ears are red from the headphones, but this new song is really catchy and I did some new stuff that I haven’t heard anywhere else before in quite the same way. I’m on a roll and I’m almost done.

…

Ok. Finished. I uploaded it and people can get it for free or whatever they want to pay, but any money goes to Child’s Play. I said if the song gets enough money donated to the charity, I’ll make a full album. I doubt that’ll happen.

…

I can’t believe it! So many downloads already! I think it’s gone viral! Not everyone is paying for it, but enough people are that the donations are racking up. I can’t believe it… something I made is helping people. I’m not saving the world, but… it’s something. It’s good. It’s quite around here, too. Max isn’t saying much today.

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Ryou’s Journal – Day 6

Part of a series of posts of Actual Play of the Hikikomori RPG. Click here for more info and an index.

I don’t really have time to write much today. I woke up at my desk this morning and got to work straight away. Max was still grinding and shouting threats at me, but my headphones kept me safe and I was pretty sure I was on to something good here. I’m just going to spend a bit longer on this track today.

…

It’s after midnight now and I’m still awake. Something has happened… people like my track. I got an email and checked the page again. It’s had a couple of hundred downloads already and there are a few comments asking who the artist was and if there were more by the same person.

…

Some comments were abusive, but I’m not going to let trolls get me down. People like my work! Some even say I should charge for it. I don’t know about that, but that gave me an idea. I saw a poster at the trade-in shop for, I don’t know, some gamer donation website. I’ll have to search for it online.

…

Ok, I found it. Child’s Play. Charity for giving games and stuff to sick kids. Maybe I could ask people to donate to that if they like my song. I’ll comment on the upload site and see what people think. It’s really scary, but exciting too.

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Ryou’s Journal – Day 5

Part of a series of posts of Actual Play of the Hikikomori RPG. Click here for more info and an index.

Today I woke up to the sound of a good 8-bit song. It took me a second to realise that it was one of mine, my new one. I think I must have been dreaming about it too because I had some ideas about how to tweak it. I spent most of the day doing that. It took me a while, but I think I fixed up what I didn’t like about the track. I think it might be finished. I took a break after that and with my headphones off NES and Max started discouraging me again.

NES was sparking and swearing at me. I told her to stop and when I went to pull her cord out of the wall she zapped me! I screamed and grabbed her, ripping her away from the wall. She screamed murder at me but the cord came flying out of the socket. The cord whipped at my legs and I fell over, dropping the machine. I got up and shoved NES into my backpack, threw the pack on and ran down the street.

It was dark by then but I made it to the trade-in shop just before it closed. I put NES down on the counter and told the guy I needed to trade her in. He looked at me strangely but he inspected the machine, plugged it in and tested it. I could hear her furious static in my ears, but he said it worked so he gave me some money. I didn’t count it. I just ran back home.

Back in my room I bared my teeth at Max and waved the handful of money at him, telling him NES was gone and not coming back. I listened to my track again and I don’t know why, but I uploaded it to the net. Nobody’s going to listen to it, but whatever. Now I can mark it as done, which is good because on my way home from the shop I had an idea for another track. I didn’t think I would do anything with it, but it was still in my head hours later, so I started working on it and kept going late into the night, falling asleep at my desk.

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WHAT YOU'VE GOTTEN YOURSELF INTO

Pyres of Vam is a website about roleplaying, stories, world building and game mastering. I'm your host, Mockingbard. I'm also host to my alter ego(maniac), Vam, who doesn't quite "get" the world, but wants to rule it anyway. He's quite obsessed with monsters, magic, humanity and modern life. Forecast is cloudy with a chance of brainstorms. Welcome to the madness.

HAS IT BEEN A WHILE SINCE THE LAST POST?

If you ever notice a long delay between posts, it is likely the Curse of the Intermittent Internet. I apologise if this happens and I'll try my best to keep the content coming.