Review: We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Mild spoilers for the book...

This novel wasn't the most impactful, artful, or memorable book I've ever encountered. But it was charming enough that I burned through it in about two days and didn't want to put it down. 

This novel explored several common sci-fi themes through the narrative vehicle of a man (Bob) who finds his consciousness preserved in a digitized form after being cryogenically frozen. Bob is from our modern day, and finds himself a digital "replicant" in a distant and hugely altered future Earth. Bob's ultimate purpose is to be uploaded to a "Von Neumann probe," a theoretical space exploration platform with the capability to self-replicate.

Perhaps the most interesting theme of the book, which I hope is developed further in the rest of the series (yes, this is my first read-through) is the relationships and divergence of aspects of the original human Bob's personality in the many copies that are created as the probes spread. The plot threads also great more difficult to follow as the number of these multiplied, even with each adopting their own distinct name. 

Multiple interesting plot-threads emerge, including the original Bob replicant exploring and taking an active role in aiding a primitive non-human species (touching on themes related to “The Prime Directive” that are perhaps better treated in other works). Another group of Bobs seeks to save the remnants of humanity from a dying world, while others continue to fight the remaining probes of other human factions. It begins to get a bit complicated to keep track of who is who, especially since they’re actually all Bob…

Other all, I enjoyed the book. I wouldn’t categorize it as art in the same sense of other influential sci-fi novels, but it provides a really interesting scenario to explore the various sci-fi tropes that occur.

I think my major reservations with this work come down to the authorial tone throughout. There’s almost a certain requirement to have watched some original Star Trek and other cultural topics that both can't be assumed, and the sneakiness and often unfunny jokes undermine any gravitas in the language. On that point, the reason I was able to essentially "binge read" this novel was that the vocabulary generally stuck to about a high school reading level. My other critique is that at times the narrative, particularly in the space battles or techno-babble, indeed skated over some description that made it more difficult to follow. It’s fine if Bob is an unreliable narrator, but he’s also a computer computing orbital intercepts in combat. More technical readouts aren’t wholly inappropriate.

Overall, as the extended internal monologue of the experience of a computerized being, it also lacked more evocative or descriptive language throughout the novel that an omniscient narrator would have afforded. On the flip side, generally it was apparently that a distinct personality flavor or strain developed in each Bob copy, with slightly different voice—this was not always consistent though, which also placed impetus on the reader to be sure to track the chapter headers indicating the date and which ”Bob” was speaking.

Style: 2

Substance: 3.5

Overall, a fun, quick read. Not one that will force you to think a lot, but that touches on many classic tropes in an interesting way. It’d probably be a pretty good reoccurring television series. 

Broken Weave Review

Broken Weave by Cubicle7, who also produced Uncharted Journeys and A Life Well Lived, is a post-apocalyptic setting where magic has unwoven after a great cataclysm. Its themes are the balance between tragedy and decay against hope and life. It's a compelling setting promising both the dark fantasy and a dive into the genre of apocalyptic fiction, while showing that life continues. It's also bold in the TTRPG space by almost being a self-contained system alongside it's setting. Although built on the framework of 5e D&D, Broken Weave introduced the lineage and lifepath systems that Cubicle7 later packaged into A Life Well Lived and includes its own classes that replace core 5e ones and a separate feat system (called talents and explored below). With so much new standalone content you essentially only need the SRD to provide the core rules for combat. It seems that everything else needed is provided. The systems are also built upon Cubicle7’s own work for Adventures in Middle-Earth.

So while this runs on 5e, Broken Weave feels very similar to me as I feel when looking at 2e AD&D and the various settings with vastly distinct rules that seem to a detached observer like me to have created very unique gameplay experiences. This is the most comprehensive review and discussion of the material to be had on the internet by my research, so if any of this interests you, read on. Also be warned; spoilers regarding the setting and some secrets of Broken Weave follow...

Welcome to the Broken World

Essentially the introduction to the work, this portion provides nine major truths about the setting the GM is advised to read to their players prior to beginning a campaign. These emphasize the themes of the setting, the challenges that the players will face, and the bleakness yet hope that still remains living in a broken fantasy world that is antithetical to life. 

Haven Creation

Community is emphasized as a major theme in the introduction above, protecting characters from physical and mental decay. Creating a Haven is part of a campaign probably best suited to a session zero, perhaps even before character creation to help set the ideas that will influence all of the characters. This is a really cool and innovative idea that I think can be ported over to other 5e campaigns and settings striving for a similar feel, but that don’t quite hit the mark. Cubicle7 did a really good job with Havens, along with the associated mechanics without making the bookkeeping a nightmare that requires spreadsheets to track.

I tried out the Haven creation system myself to see how it worked:

Founder's Legacy: 

Our founders wanted to find a refuge where the monsters could not follow.

Location:

Biome: Tundra
Abundance: Meat
Scarcity: Vegetation
Landmark: A crater containing a massive moonstone meteor; additional abundance: moonstone fragments

Culture: 

Values: Knowledge, curiosity, education
Clothing and Appearance: Everyone should have a good travel cloak.
Traditions and Superstitions: The youngest and eldest members of the group eat first, they need it most. It’s bad luck and disrespectful to throw away any part of a hunted animal, we’ll find a use for it.
Leadership: Every few years, prospective rulers leave the Haven and search for relics. Those who return with the most useful relic gain a seat on the council.

Crisis:

Past Crisis:
Internal Conflict: The Haven cannot safely expand any further. Some must be exiled so that the rest can live.
Internal Conflict: Some paranoid Haven members believe that Monsters walk among the Haven and have begun impromptu witch hunts.

On-going Crisis:
External Conflict: A group of raiders have begun to harass the Haven, robbing travellers and stealing from
the Haven’s stores in the night.
Internal Conflict: The Haven has accepted a sudden influx of refugees, putting strain on both the community’s resources and creating tension amongst the populace.

Hope: 11 (assuming four players at 1d4 per player)
Decay: 2 (added an uncovered artifact—Chrysalid Sarcophagus—for +1 decay)
Resources: 10 (same assumption as above)
Population: 120

Name: Moonstone’s Rest

This system seems pretty interesting, and the inclusion of all details in rollable tables makes it much more usable, allowing a roll to be made if players can’t decide on a detail they like. It also advises the GM that they can roll to create other Havens for their adventure, a detail that seems reminiscent of system generation in Traveller. I think you certainly could create an entire campaign by generating multiple communities like this and populating at least a loose map for yourself (because according to the book decay makes distances and time while traveling away from the Haven fungible).

It also provides the added benefit of creating a unique place that players can hold onto for the campaign. A home base and a motivation for their adventuring and survival. It also gives the GM plenty of built in hooks and potential conflicts as you can see above.

Survivor Creation

This is essentially character creation using the new lineage and life path systems and classes created for the setting. It is largely the same as in A Life Well Lived with some differences entirely based upon the setting and the fact that some details available in a generic fantasy setting simply don’t exist as options in a post-apocalyptic one. As a sidenote, I did find it a bit off putting that art was reused from this book (which was produced earlier) for A Life Well Lived. 

Lineages

The core lineages of D&D (humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings) are included, along with the Forgotten—a catch all option for other fantasy lineages that you would like to include. Each lineage provides two traits (most of your traits, skills, and abilities are derived from the life path system), and a trait regarding how your lineage deals with the decay caused by the broken magical weave. This is a really cool mechanic to provide narrative choice and risk to players as the adventure. Each lineage gains power as the decay increases, but higher decay increases the likelihood of incurring more. At 10 decay, each lineage is destroyed or transformed into a monster, providing some interesting narrative opportunities for the GM. 

This cyclical play style also reinforces the potential to make this a long running game with multiple generations, as your characters can form families, have children in downtime, and then their children can become new characters as play progresses. This idea is unique for 5e, although it’s existed for decades in games like Pendragon.

Classes

There are six new classes here designed to be thematically appropriate for the Broken Weave setting. It’s also interesting that although a new subsystem of abilities called Talents are included, normal 5e feats are not included by default (they merit a sidebar in the later talents section explaining that they can be take in place of personal improvements—which are similar to ASI—at various levels).

These classes also start out with significantly more hit points and abilities than a normal 5e characters, making beginning at level one a more interesting option than in a typical campaign.

Another interesting thing to note about the setting is that there are no spellcasting classes in the conventional sense. Magic is truly broken here, and instead abilities are tied to the forces of Decay that exist in the world. 

• Harrowed: This class makes significant use of the Decay mechanic, using it to stave off the effects of decay and fuel their own abilities. Some can even purge decay from other locations or characters, potentially saving their comrades or their Haven. There’s some great roleplay opportunities here, however, decay ultimately is irreversible, and this type of character will inevitably succumb to its effects.
• Makers: Makers are crafters, gaining more skills over time than an artificer could dream of. What I perhaps most appreciate about the high level ability (level 17) of the maker is that it incorporates a follower by giving them an apprentice who can undertake downtime activities while the character adventures. This reinforces again the idea of generational play, focused on the haven as a unit of society. It also means that the maker offers the chance to make your mark through creation and improving others, rather than ending in decay and corruption like the harrowed. The additional systems from Cubicle 7 in Hammer & Anvil and Mortar & Pestle are logical aids for enhancing the maker further (minus magic crafting, as all the maker’s work is explicitly through alchemy and engineering).
• Sages: These characters are about using and passing on knowledge. They possess a tome of lore that enables them to make checks to search out information. Additionally, their level features focus on improving and benefiting others, including their haven. The healing focused subclass also offers a unique way to decrease Decay. The capstone ability for the class allows the character to pass on from life having provided a last lesson that benefits their haven. I also love how they don’t get a spell-like effect until level 11 and it can give the character Decay. No willy-nilly casting of a corrupted version of magic missile or shield.
• Seekers: The Seeker class focuses on enhancing journey abilities and navigating the broken world. Its features can also help others travel and help make the shifting world more permanent, fixing locations in their places rather than allowing them to continue to drift in magical entropy. These features actually shape the world and drive the narrative, imposing certain effects that the GM must incorporate into the game world. 
• Speakers: This class includes some elements similar to the bard, including buff and debuff capabilities. It also has interesting narrative abilities impacting your haven and the future. 
• Wardens: While all of these classes are essentially martials, the warden is the true fighter of the bunch, and built to be a strong front line defender for the party. These warriors are made to be hit hard and deal out damage too. They get buffs to their weapons or armor as ancestral arms. Interestingly, unlike some other classes with abilities bordering on the magical, wardens don’t have as many opportunities to trade buffs for Decay. 

Mechanically, it’s interesting that all of these classes have the same advancement structure (they receive core features at the same levels and have similar levels of customization generally). They also all get two actions at fifth level, similar to regular 5e martial classes with two attacks. Finally, during my read through I didn’t see any features using a bonus action. Instead the action economy relies on the two actions and reactions.

I love the deliberate theming of these new classes. I also appreciate how balanced and less gamebreaking the high level abilities were crafted to be. A high level game which continues to enjoy story progression and dramatic events remains viable using these classes, and none of the cheese of typical high level 5e is included. It reinforces the core themes of mortality and decay encapsulated in the setting. Individually, these characters are all doomed to death or Decay. But collectively, they could work over time to give their haven a better way of life, and perhaps cleanse it of the corruption of the setting. It’s a clear vision and strikes chords of hope that set this setting apart from the typical post-apocalyptic or grimdark fantasy setting.

Talents

There are sixty three total talents listed, providing lots of ways to further customize your survivor throughout gameplay. Talents are very similar to feats, however some are focused on rounding out their abilities in a roleplay sense, providing some more of the personal character growth through leveling that is actually missing from core 5e gameplay. Others include elements of the core 5e classes so that you can flavor your character in this setting differently (for instance, Backstab gives you essentially a sneak attack similar to a rogue with no scaling damage. It requires proficiency in stealth as a prerequisite). The text notes that you can also include feats at the designated automatic skill increases (called personal improvements in Broken Weave). Of course you’ll only want to include thematically appropriate ones, as those that include magic won’t work in the setting.

Equipment

This world has no need for currency, so the designers have created a way to provide gear and equipment that slowly drains the resources of your haven and weakens it in a crisis. This should put the breaks on those characters that just want free and cheap stuff by imposing costs on their home. A simple system of barter is provided to, so a GM can adjudicate trading and obtaining items when players visit other havens. The equipment items are themed to the post-apocalyptic environment, and the text notes that you can "reskin" the items based upon what is available as a resource at your Haven.

There are also ways to accrue additional resources. These include waiting or adventuring, as your Haven will generate resources based on its size every four weeks. You can also return items and gear to the resource pool, basics cashing them in. Additionally, there are downtime activities which can generate resources. Finally, you can harvest more resources from creatures. There are also unique components, or unique resources, that can be used for crafting. 

You can actually generate pretty substantial amounts of resources from creatures if you succeed on your tool checks when harvesting, but this is nicely balanced with Decay, requiring a saving through if the monster has a certain amount of Decay. There is also a time element added, and the GM is directed to roll for random encounters, increasing their likelihood the longer the party is harvesting.

One minor complaint is the stub section on vehicles, which essentially leaves the work to the GM to develop the statistics and requirements to get vehicles. For a game fairly focused on inventory management and survival which could have some interesting trade in emergent sandbox play this feels like an omission.

New Rules

This section is where we see the meat of the rules interacting with the new elements identified above. A number of new mechanics are introduced, several of which were previously mentioned and are elaborated on here. Some include a modified skill list, extended and group tests (essentially skill challenges based on checks against a DC, which must the add up to or exceed a target number). Others are new actions which allow for some new tactical situations, especially since the game now has no magical abilities. "Shove" and "Seize the Initiative" are the most interesting to me, allowing you to move a creature and shift your place in initiative respectively. 

The another major area of change is a lack of magical healing. To mitigate some of the more harsh 5e rules important changes include that you no longer fall unconscious at 0 HP. Instead you are critically injured and begin Death Saves, but can either move or take an action.  Stabilizing and Death Saves function largely the same, but the "Last Stand" provides a new dramatic option if a character is about to die. This feature buffs the survivor, giving their attacks extra damage and allowing them extra movement, at the cost of simply dying at the end of the turn.

Healing then is modified, with HP returning after a long rest, but failed Death Saves only clearing one per long rest. Hit dice only recover at a rate of half your level. To incentivize downtime and campcraft activities, there are additional buffs to be gained from these. 

The last few sections really get into the mechanics of Decay, Hope, and their impacts on Havens, which are intended to truly drive play. Decay is fairly simple, as much of the impacts of increased Decay are tracked by the player rather than the GM. Hopeis also then set up as a positive resource to the negative pool of Decay. Hope is accrued as a Haven and can be spent for mechanical benefits, normally of utility in combat. Some of these are pretty powerful, like getting to take an extra action. Hope is gained by taking actions that benefit the community or display compassion to other creatures. A large amount of Hope is also generated when a survivor makes a Last Stand, incentivizing this roleplaying behavior. Havens in Crisis provides rules for reflecting damage done to a Haven as first resources and then the population is depleted. Damage is done to a Haven at the end of each week of narrative time. This creates the tension between using resources for equipment or keeping them to protect your Haven.

Travel and Hazards

This section rehashs the system outlined in another Cubicle7 product, Uncharted Journeys. While I love their journey system and use it regularly in my ongoing Empire of the Ghouls campaign, I am disappointed at the cursory example encounters here. A sidebar instead refers users to Uncharted Journeys wild magic lands sections for encounters, while the types of encounters actually differ from those of the other book, complicating using them together. I personally it annoying that you need to have another supplement to use this system as intended—even if I have and love both of them. The fact that some things differ significantly makes it more difficult.

The hazards setting is better, providing unique mechanical elements flavored to the world that can be added to encounters, locations, dungeons. Wherever. These are a great practical tool.

The Passage of Time

This is one of my favorite sections of the book—and perhaps the best implemented approach to time and creating a long term campaign that I’ve seen in 5e. This chapter outlines a system providing mechanics for Campcraft, Downtime, and Seasonal activities survivors can undertake. While slightly modified, much of this material exists in Cubicle7’s A Life Well Lived. In this book, I think the implementation is better. Instead of lumping all of these activities into the Campcraft and Downtime buckets with less defined times to do them, this approach is more specific and structured.

In this case, the times for each are clearly delineated. Campcraft occurs when survivors are resting during an adventure—and only occurs on journeys when an encounter allows a long rest (this nuance is no-where to be found in the aforementioned setting agnostic products that are ostensibly compatible). The Campcraft activities all encourage roleplaying and provide pretty substantial buffs—although they seem more balanced in a setting where no magical healing exists.

Downtime is next well defined as a period between Crisis of less than a year. These activities mostly focus on preparing for your next adventure and posturing the Haven for future Crisis. 

Seasonal activities are conducted in periods that last between a year and a decade. The book also notes that a GM can run multiple seasons in a row—which I love as a mechanical way to drive the story forward and make the passage of time more meaningful. There is player incentive to have these seasons pass beyond their own benefits as the Haven grows in population and available resources increase. The activities similar advance the survivors’ stories and tie them to the Haven. This section also includes retiring so players can swap out who they are playing, or establishing a New Haven, which similar has a survivor become an NPC.

All of these combine to allow players to actually play through the life of a community, not just an individual survivor. You see this type of play in computer games like Crusader Kings and others, but it's cool to see it in a TTRPG. With the right group, this is the type of emergent, storytelling setting and mechanics that could play out over years-long campaigns.

The Broken World

This section of the book is actually more general than I expected in the first few pages, and retreads material already outlined earlier. Where it really shines is in providing some specific names locations and Havens to drop into a Broken Weave campaign. The sidebars provide some great actionable adventure hooks and there are some really interesting sites. Because of the amorphous nature of the Broken World, these aren't tied to a particular geography either, so you could lay out your own pointcrawl structure with these locations and employ the journey rules for travel and exploration between them, or just employ the table of notional distances in the book.

Storytelling

This chapter provides see solid advice on how to incorporate the themes of the setting and approaching the pillars of play of 5e. Tables that would actually be quite helpful on the GM screen (but are not on the official one) offer assistance generating content on the fly and describing the Broken World. Finally there is also a collection of cool arcane items that also cause Decay for characters who use them. These are very cool items, but certainly hold the seeds of destruction for characters who stumble on them.

The Broken Ecosystem

Another interesting section focused on providing the GM tools to create their own content for the Broken World. Among my favorite features are a generic NPC stat block for survivors, and directions of adapting any 5e monster into a creature for this setting. This in particular is great for turning the many other 5e bestiaries that you might have collected into relevant materials to draw upon. In general, it's a really good example of how to build a step-by-step process for adapting monsters to match a more niche setting. One of the beauties of 5e is its modular nature and ability to repurpose elements between various sources quite easily. It would be great to see other efforts like this to lean into those unique traits of the system.

Additional bespoke monsters for the setting are provided (seventeen stat blocks in all, including the Survivor PC and a bespoke NPC). These also provide so.e inspiration that can be drawn upon for aesthetics and abilities when converting or creating new monsters for the setting. It certainly seems that the impetus to create additional monsters is on the GM, whish is positive and negative. The robust tools to aid this provided help make it less of an issue.

Trail Glyph Appendix

This is short, but I thought it worth highlighting that a whole art piece provides a full key of glyphs that can be used to signal various landmarks or locations in journey portions of the game. Glyphs might also be cool clues for new locations in the Broken World, perhaps found in a location to pass along information.

Final Thoughts

I wrote this review over a long period of time, so I had the opportunity to examine other 5e products from Cubicle7, including Adventures in Middle Earth, and their later Vault 5e line. This book owes a great deal to the early design work of Adventures in Middle Earth and later books seem to build off of design ideas created for Broken Weave. This includes thibg concepts like passing through significant periods of time for characters and having narrative continuity, something which occurs in products like the thirty year Mirkwood Campaign through various "Fellowship Phases" (basically extended downtime), along with journeys and adventures. This approach brings good and bad elements as some design debt is carried over, or elements do not fully mesh together in the modular design form of 5e, as noted above. I do really like this product overall though, and I think it's worth checking out to experience a unique setting and playstyle. It should be more okay to retire a character, or put down roots in a location. And the idea of providing a legacy to enhance future characters provides direct mechanical benefits to this behavior for players.

One thing that I do find confusing is the active relics of abandoned or poorly planned Cubicle7 products that sometimes appear in their works, and Broken Weave is no exception. For instance, on PG 251, in the section I otherwise quite enjoy on making your own decayed monsters there is a sidebar teaser of another product that seems never to have come to fruition for the Broken Weave line, called Broken Weave: Seekers Guide. This is much like the promised C7d20, 5e-variant system announced by the company that has since failed to materialize or be acknowledged, except in this product. But it remains obvious that Broken Weave truly still needs the chassis of whichever variant of 5e you prefer. It means sometimes the text makes promises it doesn't keep in this book and then fails to keep altogether.

When I run my own Broken Weave campaign I think I will implement my own rule that everyone will advance a level every session. It also seems viable to have new survivors start at level one and progress through the levels as the power curve is less dramatic than in other 5e variants. This is also the fastest way to start seeing the effects of the generational play mechanics and persistent haven that the setting is focused around. Perhaps after a generation or two of characters then something truly remarkable and hopeful can occur as the characters make the world better and cleanse the areas near them of decay.

While Broken Weave has an awesome concept and ideas for stories the, it’s true to value me is seeing the full realization of the various bits of auxiliary systems Cubicle7 is producing for 5e in one cohesive hole. While each of their individual offerings is great, there are definitely blind spots and bits that don’t fit at first glance. Attempting to reconcile them is a bit like the parable of m blind people attempting to identify an animal by touch; each one clearly described the portion they could reach. But all the pieces needed to come together to identify the creature as an elephant. The same with these systems. They are amazing, but taken together we can truly see how they fit—and how we can better adapt them to our own 5e settings, whether in Broken Weave or our own worlds.

Playing in the Beautiful Mess

A few months ago, I listened to Mike Shea’s recording of a panel including him and other 5e designers at Gamehole Con 2025, discussing the platform that is 5e. I was particularly struck the following week when I prepped for my Ptolus campaign at the time. Working through my prep structure in my notebook, I found myself consulting a few books. One was Monte Cook Games Banewarrens, which I want to turn into a climactic element of that campaign. Since my party was currently making their way into a fortress in Hell, I consulted the Book of Fiends from Green Ronin. In addition to that, I jotted down page numbers for some devils from Flee Mortals and Kingdoms & Warfare, by MCDM. Then I decided to use the Monstrous Menagerie by EN Publishing for my more normal fiends. Finally, I used the Vault of Magic from Kobold Press to stock a treasure hoard within the citadel.

You’ll note I didn’t consult a single source from Wizards of the Coast—which was not deliberate. Instead, these resources were ones that jumped to mind, and seemed to have everything I needed. This variety is another symptom of the “Beautiful Mess of 5e.” The nature of the game, with so many non-integrated systems, as mentioned by Mike Mearls in the recording, facilitates the easy plug and play of a wider variety of sources. 

While editions may march on, with the release of so many available 5e variants with broad compatibility across them, seems to assure that this game will continue to be played for many years. It may not be perfect. It may get stale at times, but I think we’ll still be playing it, or a game much like it in a few decades.

Analysis: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Potential spoiler warning for a fifty plus year-old novella...

Recently I finished my first read-through of the classic sci-fi novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick. It is best known for being the inspiration for the Blade Runner films. In a funny coincidence, a good friend recommended the book about six months ago to me, and that same week I ran The Big Hoodoo in Trail of Cthulhu as a one-shot, which features Phil Dick and other famous sci-fi authors in the adventure (unfortunately I enjoyed that adventure less than this book). There will be mild spoilers for the novel.

A few thoughts struck me about the book:

• Dick’s prose is beautiful, particularly in the description of transcendence and the emotional landscapes he paints, such as chapter two’s description of the empathy box collective experience.
• The mood dialer devices are an analogue for the measures we take to drown out our emotions. 
• The fear of the silence from Isidore. We are surrounded by a cacophony of voices and an unending onslaught of events. Even in our private moments we seek to escape the silence by escaping through a screen, or an endless Spotify track.
• A focus on the emotional and empathetic responses of humans, and perhaps the core argument that apathy and inability to empathize is a symptom of psychological problems. Perhaps even more, acts of violence are, like in our normal social relationship, considered highly taboo. Yet our media, stories, and games often have a significant focus on violence in one form or another.

The novel remains important due to its core question: What does it truly mean to be human? In the age of AI, even with its still limited large language model applications, these questions are still relevant. Dick’s work remains resonant across the years, as it grapples with the same void of meaning that we feel in the modern world. The blurring between the real and the false in our society and discourse. The search for empathy, and the desire to connect to other living beings—the hollow promises of technology that we can attain such a level of meaning. And the truth that perhaps the essence of being human is both the abject void of loneliness juxtaposed by the brief ecstasies of complete connection with others across that void.

Latest EN5ider Release: Check Out My Two Articles!

I almost missed last week’s EN World post announcing the release of EN5ider Magazine Issue 11, which features not just one but two articles I penned. This issue was themed around “small folk,” often overlooked, but looming large in our literary tradition of fantasy from Tolkien on down.

Within amongst the other great contributions you’ll find my profile of Bella’s Bruisers and the mini-adventure Reaper of the Depths. I hope you take the time to check them out and the rest of the fantastic material you can pick up through EN Publishing’s EN5ider magazine’s ten year back catalogue!

Conan Reflection: The Scarlet Citadel

There will be spoilers for the short story in the article below…

When I first saw the title of this particular story, I thought of the eponymous adventure book by Kobold Press. As I read further, the influence at a broad level by this particular Howard story on the latter work became even more apparent. The tropes of a dungeon created by an evil wizard and populated with otherworldly monsters, the results of arcane experiments or communion with still greater evils. 

This direction is a bit unexpected, setting in the era of Conan as King of Aquilonia, rather than the thief, rogue, or sea wolf. It is out of the frying pan and into the fire as his army is betrayed and destroyed. The major focus of the story is on the descent to the underworld, in which the hero confronts the nightmarish horrors of the dark dungeon Tsotha, the wizard said to do demonic deals. Conan’s duel with the great serpent in the depths and rescue of a mage rival of Tsotha’s. The higher level politics are also fun details—one whole section details the activities of Conan’s loyal supporters in his kingdom’s capital and the efforts of a treacherous ally to seize the throne. 

All the elements described in the milieu of early roleplaying here are present—the ascendancy of the fighter, Conan, to political leadership. The adventure that brought the hero once more into the depths of a dungeon. These elements shine through in the early editions of the hobby and many of the aspirations of our modern games. The battles to be war gamed out, the adventures of the hero in the world shaped by these battles. Another intriguing touchstone in the mosaic of the tabletop roleplaying game hobby and its larger influence on society.

Advanced FASERIP/Superhero RPG Setting: New York, New York 2009

Photo is used under a CC0 license

In reading Advanced FASERIP, I began thinking about the type of setting that I would set such a game in. The game notes that many superhero settings focus on the present day—and we see that in both comics and now in modern superhero films. There’s also the fun idea of playing in a given period, like the story we see in the Captain America: The First Avenger film. So I thought a bit about a time and place that would be interesting, more recent than the 1940s or 1970s, which are both eras I think of when I think of comic book heroes. I don’t feel like playing in the modern day—maybe I’ll feel different in ten years when it’s just a memory.

I landed on an alternative history version of 2009. Why that year? It’s one I remember. The 2000s were an interesting time, and the wake of the Recession a time of transition, even if we didn’t know it at the time. The forces of globalization and the resulting economic shifts still play an important role in our real world timeline. It’s also an interesting era for technology, where the iPhone and smartphone technologies, along with social media and the global internet were still emerging. Plenty of people were just getting their first cell phone, the flip phone was getting slimmer and sleeker—the US president had a BlackBerry he refused to get rid of upon entering office. Phone cameras were still developing, with images of low enough quality that in this timeline you could still perhaps not believe evidence of superheroes. 

Why New York? Because it’s an easy, clique place to set a pulpy story about superheroes. There were a reported 19 million inhabitants that year. Lots of people and places to explore. Iconic backdrops to choose from. And of course, it’s easy to go on the road if you need to, whether across the US, or across the world.

The Thrill of Creation

There is a nerve-wracking, nail-biting, anxiety-fueled moment when you hit send on a pitch for an RPG product. Because then you wait for a few days—a week? To see if your ideas made the cut. If someone thought they were worth investing time and money into developing, creating some real visual art, and printing on the page. 

There’s also nothing so thrilling as seeing one of your articles commissioned. Sometimes which ones made it baffles you. Like that one that was written feverishly in ten minutes at five in the morning on the due date before going to work so the noon deadline doesn’t creep up on you—yeah, somehow that throwaway is now in print, while the others I spent weeks thinking about didn’t make the cut. 

It doesn’t need to make sense. Creativity means giving other people control once you’ve made something. They get to form their own opinions, cut it apart, critique it…or maybe enjoy it, be inspired. They get to decide. And you just get to be happy you got to make something.

Doctrine of Ghul - The Frozen Cyst Reimagined

Awhile back, I posted my thoughts regarding the adventure Doctrine of Ghul. That particular adventure uses an isometric map for the location of the Frozen Cyst. Since I was playing on a VTT with this particular group, I decided to redraw the map in a two-dimensional style for easier use and tactical positioning for us. It follows the descriptions provided in that adventure. Here is the result:

Goldentongue's Tomb

See below a simple map I created for my home Ptolus game, outlining a simple tomb. I created an original quest arc based on a story seed in the Ptolus sourcebook. The party needed to prevent religious inquisitors from dispelling the ghost of a kindly minstrel (the titular character of the Ghostly Minstrel tavern and inn, an iconic and central location in a Ptolus campaign).

They discovered that this particular tomb was the resting place of the spector's wife, who with her husband was tragically killed by fiend-worshiping cultists many years prior. The adventurers found evidence here of this story, which they used to successful defend the ghost in a religious court. Then they returned, following a group of cultists who kidnapped a friendly acolyte and planned to sacrifice him in a terrible ritual to summon Lord Karcius, the patron of the same group of cultists.

Reflections on Adventure Writing

Image courtesy of Pixabay

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to write my first published adventure. It was a rewarding experience and one that I learned a great deal from. Here are some reflections and thoughts that this process prompted.

Deadlines

When I pitched my idea, I did not expect to be picked for the theme of apocalyptic fantasy. I felt my concept was relatively undeveloped, and when the editor mentioned that for that particular adventure slot and another issue that nineteen pitches had been submitted, I was even more sure that mine would not be picked.

How wrong was I...

I was flattered to have mine picked, but slightly alarmed that I had one month to write and submit the text. I had other adventure pitches that went unselected that felt more developed to me and which I thought I could write faster. But this particular theme?

Setting some goals, along with a convenient trip that gave me some more personal time to write managed to make up for that, and I somehow completed the work on time.

Feedback and Collaboration

Immediately upon being selected, I reached out to the editor to look for feedback or thoughts regarding the pitch concept. As I suspected, major portions would need to be altered, and the desire was tight integration with the other authors of the articles appearing within. 

As this collaboration developed, active brainstorming and discussion within the designer Discord provided me the revised antagonists for my adventure, along with major details of the plot. And the suggestion that it would be great if a complimentary article of monsters was integrated into the adventure too! 

Pulling all these disparate bits together was a challenge. Initially it felt like I'd lost a degree of creative control, but I did my best to embrace the challenge, and enjoy the constraints. That is how we grow, yes? Through the experience I realized how much constraints can actually enhance your creativity, as you are forced to ask "how can I realistically get all these pieces to pastiche into something unique that works?" It also requires an author to set aside their personal thoughts and accept other perspectives and ideas, even if they are not exactly what you had initially envisioned. This seems to be a crucial still for collaborative development projects.

Growth

Some authors might find these constraints limiting or frustrating. I empathize with that, particularly as they piled up and I had to organize myself to make sure I hit all of the boxes. But exactly that experience was extremely valuable. Because the process of collaboration with editorial feedback and interacting with other creators helped me grow. Although this was a short project, I felt like it was training me to be able to navigate requirements in future larger collaborative projects. I had to let go of some of my own desires for independence and work to make something better than I would have on my own.

So next time you examine a sourcebook with highly integrated lore, or cross references to other material, consider the massive effort than a group of writers and editor(s) had to put in to ensure that their ideas were complimentary and met the requirements for that product. Communication is hard in most industries. Communicating creative vision is even harder, because our opinions are strong and do matter. I truly appreciated the collaborative environment, and openness to discussion that our editor fostered with that group on that project. 

This was an amazing experience overall—and even better, if you would like to check out the adventure I wrote, go subscribe to the En5ider Patreon campaign. To be upfront, I don’t get anything for promoting their page, but I true appreciate their efforts and willingness to allow untested and untrained RPG designers and writers who are just starting out to write for them. Any support you can give them will enable that to continue!

Adapting to New Settings & Systems: Adventures as Inspiration

Perhaps I'm unique, but I always find trying out a new setting or even RPG system intimidating. I've noticed that a major aid for me in approaching these is to use an adventure for that setting or system.

For example, I had a hard time feeling comfortable in my Ptolus campaign until I finished the Doctrine of Ghul as a mini arc. While I have my critiques of the adventure, it provided strong inspiration and examples to emulate for future games in the city setting that matched the flavor and scope that I'm trying to capture.

Perhaps that strikes at the heart of the issue. I try new settings and systems because I want to feel the things that the creator intended. I don't want my Midgard campaign to feel like the Forgotten Realms. But the nuance can be hard to create in our own adventures until we have seen something to influence their design. Empire of the Ghouls helped give me a good starting point and things to draw upon when my campaign went off it's rails in the Blood Kingdom with the regional fight against Lady Illmalad.

These thoughts were spurred by reading through the lovely Broken Weave sourcebook recently. It represents some major departures from the fundamental assumptions of 5e play. Ones that create tonal and narrative differences I want to lean into. The short adventure, the Titan's March, enabled me to get in the right headspace to do this, providing a framework to get started and things that I can copy and completely mix up in future games in the setting. I think in the case of single sourcebooks like this, such an example is even more critical as the entire burden of learning, teaching, and then creating an original adventure otherwise falls squarely on the GM.

This is one reason I think open licenses are so important for RPG systems. It enhances the ability of GMs to obtain adventures to learn and emulate, and means that publishers creating a system don't need to invest as many resources into creating a large adventure product or many smaller products if they choose not too. A dynamic TTRPG community enables us to experiment and combine elements from different products and systems to enhance our own games.