John Wick

 

I usually don't care very much for the action genre. Heck, I mostly don't care for movies anymore. But there is one movie series that so far has done absolutely no wrong, and that's the John Wick series. Two and three took a really simple story and asked "How can we play out these consequences and make it interesting?", pushing the story into wilder and wilder places as John tries harder and harder to get out, only making it all worse and worse. But it all had to start somewhere, and for my money the first is still the best of a very good bunch.

Look, y'all probably all know the story by now: man's dog is killed and his car is stolen... and it turns out he's a former Russian assassin. He also recently lost his wife,  so he was emotionally devastated to begin with. Man then burns it all down in a fit of vengeance that rivals Homer. The simplicity is unparalleled. The beauty of the story isn't how simple it is, but that it only does that. We do not attempt to get into John's psyche. We know how he's feeling, and why, there is absolutely no need to get into it any more than they do. We don't ask where he is at the end of the story psychologically, because John Wick does not care. He did what he set out to do, you know how he's doing.

The action has a purity to it that you can't fake. You know that everyone who was in this movie trained and did their utmost to make as authentic a movie as possible, because you can see all the little things that they get right. Keanu's skills as an actor have been frequently laughed at, but his physicality is undeniable. He does what he does with a casualness that can only be arrived at from years of mastery. It's really sweet to see.

The acting itself is a lot better than it has any right to be. Everyone owns the parts, everyone's into it. Maybe that helps me with Keanu's performance as well? Dunno, but I feel like they wrote the movie around his personality. And that's probably what happened and all, but I feel like they gave Keanu a range that he knew he could do, he knew it, and didn't attempt to stray even a little bit out of it. And isn't that enough? The action's amazing, you don't really need fantastic acting, even if some of these actors are clearly class talent, all on their own.

This is a movie that is no muss, no fuss. It knows what it is, has no bones about only being what it is, and goes to great lengths to do what it should as perfectly as it can. The action is perfect, the acting gets the job done, the writing doesn't reach for anything its not, and it was all wrapped up with a pretty little bow. Every once in a while someone does a job so competently it's art. John Wick is one of those movies that, in the hands of lesser mortals, would just be another movie.

It's not.

There, a no fuss no muss review for a no fuss no muss movie!

The Lens: The Scandal of Not Discerning

 

Modern day Christians are a bad joke. Sorry, but we are. We're perceived as this hypocritical Pharisee jerks who hold to a series of rules that make no sense, with no fruit to show for it. By using our own human judgements of problems we make a mockery of the person who have come to us for help, always get it wrong, somehow, and then look like idiots when we insist that our esoteric learning has merit. It doesn't, but isn't it nice to pretend, even a moment? The ones this hurts the most are our own children who, growing up with aches and pains they do not understand, turn to us, the parents... who then stuff their head with nonsense that has no meaning aside from the Spirit of God. The children then grow up cold and leave, embittered against the Church, even while searching for Him, bitter towards their own parents.

If that made you mad go look in the mirror and stare awhile.

Here's the deal: the Christian is meant to receive the Wisdom of God. Right here, in Proverbs:

"1 Here, then, my son, is counsel for thee; take this bidding of mine to heart;

2 ever be thy ear attentive to wisdom, thy mind eager to attain discernment.

3 Wisdom if thou wilt call to thy side, and make discernment welcome,

4 as thou wouldst fain hoard riches, or bring hidden treasure to light,

5 then thou wilt learn what it is to fear God, make trial of what it is to know God.

6 Wisdom is the Lord’s gift; only by his word spoken comes true knowledge, true discernment.

7 So it is that he watches over the lives of the upright, bids the innocent walk unharmed;"

See that, right there? The bolded? That means wisdom doesn't come from your pastor/priest, from the Scriptures, from the Fathers, nothing is going to make sense without wisdom from God. No human can teach you what you need to know, and anyone who doesn't tell you that is selling you a bill of goods. I don't care who they are, or what they say, or how good the cookies at their church are, if the aim isn't in helping you receive God's gift of wisdom the rest is useless drivel. There are a lot of people I've met who have the wisdom of God and don't know it, there are very few I know of who got the wisdom of God by reading.

Actually I don't know of anyone who got the wisdom of God by reading, as if the words on the page themselves were the point.

The problem is that most Christians have culturally taught to ignore this fact, most definitely since the 18th century, something that was pointed out by Fr. LaGrange in Three Ages of the Spiritual Life.

"... ascetical theology (working on your flaws, blogger) treats of the exercises which lead to perfection according to the ordinary way, whereas mystical theology treats of the extraordinary way... Is this absolute distinction or separation between ascetical and mystical theology entirely traditional, or is it not rather an innovation made in the eighteenth century?"

It's a rhetorical question, folks.

Without direct grace from God to aid you in your struggles you will lose. Period. And the wisdom of God is the beginning of all these things. It allows you to see things from God's perspective, however little of it He shows you. Without God's view this life makes no sense.

Not that you'd normally hear most other Christians talk about it!!! "Read your Bible", some will say. "Go read the Fathers and be a good person! That'll fix it!" Or they'll tell you to do a bunch of different things. And none of this is wrong, but it's certainly not complete. Wait. On. God. He will show up when it is time. Is the only answer anyone should be saying. You sit with them while they wait, you grieve at the silence, you provide hope in that silence, but you wait.

Do you see what the problem is? Does it not scream at you? It screams at me! "Go do the following things" could be construed as waiting, sure. You could do what good you can while you await your answer. Sure. Some try to give answers that just don't answer your questions; frankly no one but God can.

This lack of trust in the saving power of the Spirit has damned many a poor unfortunate, both the people receiving bad advice and those giving it. And sometimes this lack of surety comes out as anger, as judgment, on the person who had the gall to ask the questions in the first place. Actually, it frequently does.

Now take this glaring weakness and spread it out over about three hundred years.

Hey Christians, see why we get such a bad rap? Masquerading as believers while actually teaching some weird form of stoicism isn't really a good look.

Okay, let's say you agree with me, at least enough to keep reading. How do we fix this problem? I don't say "You": I've definitely told people how to fix their worldview before, as if God's perspective didn't exist. It's really easy to do it, I know! And I know I've done a lot more harm than good. I said everyone was gonna get cut here, didn't I?

Well, the only thing I've found that seems to work, the only thing I've run into that's actually helped me, is as follows: generally, I'd find someone I knew could be trusted to keep my privacy and tell them what thing I was having trouble with, and how I couldn't figure it out. Yeah, sure, advice was given and whatnot, but we'd either pray together or go back to our own places to pray about it. I'd not ask for a particular outcome, other than to know what God's thoughts on the matter were, what His perspective was. I'd present the problem as I saw it, either journaling it or finding an icon/statue and using it as a focus in prayer, and just... talk.

And then I'd sit back, close my eyes, and wait. I'm always listening for the small still voice, for the small but powerful presence whose merest existence can cause cataclysms, at least in me. I have never gotten the whole picture, and I wouldn't even begin to tell you how to discern what the darn Voice is saying. It is a presence that your brain somehow decodes. Somehow. And, again somehow, listening to this voice, for whatever reason, always seems to work out. If I question it too hard it goes up like a puff of smoke. I'm not going to pretend that I've liked the answers I've gotten sometimes. But they are true. It does work. Somehow.

That voice? That's in your heart? That's the letter from the living God, as 2nd Corinthians 3:3 states. It is this letter that Saints Silouan and Sophrony call Holy Tradition. This is the real Tradition. And together, prayerfully, we find it together, using the Tradition of the Church, especially Scripture, to help us listen in more to that small still voice.

It is together, praying for each other and trying to help each other struggle through to find the letter in our hearts that is the core of the Christian life. Not throwing Church Father and Scripture quotes at each other like footballs, expecting the other to catch it and do something with it. Such a notion is atheistic, it it assumes that God is not present and loving you at each and every moment, ready to talk with you should you willing to listen to Him. I am not saying this process is easy. I am saying that, together, God will help us. As St. Cyril of Alexandria says: "For it is not the number of those gathered but the strength of their piety and their love for God that is effective."

What, you hear that and you think "But I don't have any faith!" Then say it, out loud: "God help me, I don't have any faith". There, you now have faith. No, seriously, it does work that. God reacts to that sort of thing, and always will.

God is with us. If we acted like that more often we wouldn't like so much of a joke, even if it just means sitting there and going "WHERE HAVE YOU GONE". Because that is a necessary part of the experience.

There lived a man in the world, a man of godly desires. His name was Simeon. He prayed long and his tears were unrestrained: "Have mercy upon me". But God did not hearken unto him.

Many months went by in this prayer, until his strength was exhausted. He despaired and cried out "Thou art implacable!" And when at these words something foundered in his soul grown weak from despair, suddenly for an instant he beheld the living Christ.

St. Silouan the Athonite, by St. Sophrony of Essex

There's another subsection of folks reading this blog who will go "But all this is for my priest, why go to a laymen?" This is a clericalism that needs to die, and the quicker it dies the better. I am not advocating for the elimination of the Sacrament of Confession, but rather its fulfillment. 

“Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2)

Notice it doesn't say a priest is supposed to do all the work? This is a general command. The command to show compassion (to bear another's evil) is the purview of all Christians. Like all Sacraments, Confession is the crown of your life, not a substitution for it. And that life is meant to be the taking care of the orphans and widows and all their burdens, with a life rooted in prayer and the care of those in pain. That is your existence, not some "let my priest handle it", which Protestants mock quite justly. Relegating the Sacrament of Confession to the priest is a concession to human weakness, not the full form. I am not advocating for casual stupidity, however. Go to those who you know will pray with you and offer your concerns to God, and go to your priest. Both, not one or the other!

God is with us. Always. We are God's body. Always.

I really wish we started acting liking it.

How I World Build: House Rules for Viestinta

So, once again: players respond to context. And some of the most important context is rules. After playing multiple systems for years I have a few ideas of my own as to how to run a game. So here's the stuff I'm porting into Realms of Peril and Hearts of Wulin.

Rules for Both

What Could Go Wrong?

Whenever a player has to roll he has to ask, out loud: "What could go wrong?" Whoever wants to answer does so.  The GM might grab from the ideas as he wishes.

I love this rule from Trophy. Once you get people really into it the table just erupts into silly banter and egging each other on to worse and worse ideas.

Devil’s Bargain

Whenever a player makes a roll, other players (the GM included) may pitch a bad thing that will happen, regardless of success or failure. If the rolling player accepts one of these deals his roll counts as skilled.

Part of the Realms of Peril's appeal is the skilled/unskilled system, which allows skills to have real weight. This keeps the table banter pointed and it keeps the idea of the players feeding into the game engine going, as opposed to finding out later whatever nasty things the GM may have had planned.

Flashbacks

If a player has the money for an item or could have conceivably made a plan off-screen, he may state his plan or purchase the equipment. If the plan is implausible to the GM or he  couldn't have gotten the item in question to where they are in the present the GM may veto.

I. HATE. Shopping. And logistics. In RPGs. It bores me to tears. Just start the adventure and if you need something just tell me you have it and get on with it!

New Races: The Drahskin and the Hserpa

For both games here are a series of talents/moves that the Drahskin and Hserpa characters can pick, in both games.Yes, some of the talents are stolen from the Realms of Peril races, which are otherwise not allowed. Some of these abilities show up very different mechanically in either of the games.

The Drahskin

Fire Breath: May breathe fire on a nearby foe (using Strength in Realms of Peril). The attack deals D12 damage in Realms of Peril, but confers the Winded condition.

Fearless: You are immune to supernatural fear.

Iron Gut: In Realms of Peril you are skilled when resisting poison and alcohol, in Hearts of Wulin you get a free reroll on resisting poison and alcohol.

Vengeance: When hurt while fighting you either deal +1 damage and +1 AR against the perpetrator (Realms of Peril). 

Whenever you lose a Duel against someone who is above your scale, you may become equal to them if you narrate a scene where you hurt those you respect and love in your Entanglements to get even (Hearts of Wulin).

Psych UP!!!!! If you spend a rest singing and reciting the chants of the drahskin everyone gets +1 HP to recovery rolls while resting and camp (Hearts of Wulin).

If you spend an appreciable amount of time singing and reciting the historic chants of the drahskin you use the Comfort and Support move, with a free reroll (Hearts of Wulin).

Greedy: You can smell gold and precious stones.

One Eye Open: You cannot be surprised because you're sleeping.

The Hserpa

Cold Features: You are always trained in deception checks (Realms of Peril). You get a free reroll when using Hearts and Minds if deception is involved (Hearts of Wulin).

Slippery Foe: You are trained in grappling and dagger attacks (Realms of Peril). Unless the situation obviously dictates otherwise you are +1 scale when using grappling and dagger styles.

Hypnotic Movement: You may make a roll to hypnotize all who can see and hear you while singing and dancing.

Parsel-Tongued: You understand all reptiles and can speak to them in their language.

Steel Trap: You cannot be mesmerized, hypnotized, or fooled by illusions.

For the Greater Good: You only need half the rations of a human.

Poison-Fanged: Your teeth now produce a venom that grants someone advantage/reroll on their next roll against the target. 

Realms of Peril 

You're Not Special

Everyone gets the same basic items: basic clothes, backpack, tinderbox, two days of rations, a blanket, two torches, and either a dagger or a staff.

I hate shopping. Here's your crap. You'll find better crap out in the world, I promise. Let's play!

HP as Resource

Spend 1 HP to increase your die result by one; pick up the die and change it to its new result. You may do this as many times as you desire. Yes, you can do this to get a nat 20.

There are very few things Dark Souls the RPG got right, but the one thing it stuck the best was expanding HP into a resource to control dice rolls. The dynamic is an inspired push and pull, where players have to figure out just how far they’re willing to go to get their victory. The issue is that the advancement system quickly neuters the genius, and temp Position is a bad idea, flat out.

Realms of Peril has a fantastic progression system, one which feeds a bit more control to the players as time goes on, alongside the best d20 resolution system I’ve run into. So when you take this system, which really emphasizes degrees of success and failure, and throw in being able to spend HP to affect rolls? You get something special.

Mighty Deeds of Arms

I hate "I roll, do I hit?" I hate it very much. Awhile back I wrote a thoroughly middling piece on replacing the attack roll with skill rolls. I don't think I was wrong to suggest such a thing, but Realms of Peril provides a framework that, tweaked just a bit, I can use to achieve those results. Enter the Mighty Deeds of Arms move!

Whenever you attack a creature and the GM says you may not kill it, ask why. The GM must give his list of considerations. Name how you will address one of those considerations, and roll:

16-20: You cancel one of the considerations the GM had and deal your weapon damage.

11-15: You cancel one of the considerations of the GM.

10-: The creature gets a free hit in, with the GM auto-hitting you on an attack.

Yes, if you reduce the monster to 0 HP it just dies, but now it's a lot harder to just batter it to death, and if you're not careful you could get killed yourself, which is how it should be. Keep in mind that players can spend HP to change their natural roll, so this isn't as harsh as it looks.

Deadly Strikes 

This is the normal kill shot move. It's still plenty dangerous, requiring you care in setting it up, but once you're able to just line up kill shots, you should be good! Keep in mind that players can spend HP to change their natural roll, so this isn't as harsh as it looks.

Whenever you attack a creature and the GM says you may kill it, outright, roll:

16-20: It's dead, and you heal 1d4 HP!

11-15: It's dead! Congrats!

10-: You both roll for damage.

Hearts of Wulin 

Screw Bell Curves!

All moves use 1d12 instead not 2d6.

If there is one thing I dislike about all PBTA, it's the insistence on using 2d6. It's a personal taste thing, and I get there's gonna be somebody going "But the bell curve is important!" Yeah, for putting me to sleep. Let's actually get some risk in, shall we?

A Wellspring of Emotion

Whenever a player fails a roll he may reroll his d12, provided he allows the GM to use a soft move. He may do this as many times as he wishes, with the GM getting a soft move every time.

Let the emotion flow!

How I World-Build: Viestinta's Conceptualization

So I decided to write how I world-build, and began the last week with a short post on the planet that started it all, Heranyt. As I wrote, I realized that the full notebook of stuff I have on Heranyt... well... I don't have any of how I got there, not anymore. Heranyt appeared in a fever dream of gameplay ideas and philosophy and mythology and religion and, well.... I didn't really write any of it down. So this time I'm writing the process down and hopefully others will find it mildly entertaining, at the very least.

So here's the deal: Viestinta is meant to house two different games: Realms of Peril and Hearts of Wulin, which is Chinese melodrama. Sound totally contradictory? It didn't to me, so I figured I'd try and figure out why that idea was so compelling to me.

Realms of Peril is an OSR/PBTA merge that's meant to be an open table game. I've been slowly coming around to the concept, after multiple years of trying to run things with a larger than three player crowd... only to find that the campaigns just can't seem to hold together. Schedules get way too weird. In fact I find non-open table games to be so hard to run that I specifically designed Crescendo to be a resilient against schedules as humanly possible, but that's principally by having the group be incredibly small. If I want to play with a larger group, I'm SOL. Welp, as it turns out Realms of Peril has been tinkered with to get everything not open table to go away. It's got a really good basic resolution system, and you can get a character to the table within minutes.

Hearts of Wulin is a PBTA about wuxia fiction. It's meant to be have proud and restrained badass warriors trying to not get their hearts broken and failing. The game, like most storygames, is meant to be played out in shorter spurts, short enough to where people can safely commit for two to four sessions and then move on. A lot of PBTAs try to solve the logistical issues by making sure there's less logistics, just period. I like wuxia enough to get over my usual aversion to PBTA, and found that the game is actually very good and I can't wait to get it back to the table.

On the one hand you have a drop-in, drop-out game and a short wuxia story generator. That doesn't explain it at all, does it? 

Nope, I don't think so either.

So I decided to write down "the story" of the setting, the thing that I'll base everything else on. Maybe there's an answer beyond "I just think it's neat" somewhere in there.

I know I wanted to keep yuan-ti and dragonborn, so I renamed them to hserpa and drahskin.

The clannish drahskin and devious hserpa, after wiping out all other civilizations except for humans (which they enslaved), turned their millenia old magical and martial prowess on each other. Given their strengths it surprised no one that the war was rather even, although the collateral damage could be truly awful at times.

And then one day the khen-zai artifacts were discovered.

Deep beneath the earth both sides found great store houses of the ancient race: medicines, weapons, and other technologies that could have advanced their respective civilizations hundreds of years in a matter of hours. The Emperor of Fire and the Emperor of Scales met in secret to discuss what they had found. It wasn't a long conversation: they sealed their discoveries away again, and had those who found and those who sealed the discoveries killed. They then agreed to assign guards over these sites, with strict orders that all who were to be found on these "sacred lands" would be publicly executed in the cruelest ways imaginable. They figured that the upheaveal would destroy both their peoples utterly.

And then one day the khen-zai returned.

The fabled elder race, the ones who had become totally ethereal beings, returned with their puppet bodies, to reclaim what had been theirs. Their living chitinous warships pounded the planet with an orbital bombardment that the peoples of Viestinta will never forget, nevermind the planet itself. All the people who had died to protect the planet's way of life... all was in vain.

But then the unthinkable happened: the drahskin Amgala, hserpa An, and the human Gi broke into one of the vaults and, using Gi to pilot, flew a mech into the heart of the mothership, and killed every single of the weak-bodied khen-zai. They returned, triumphant heroes. The planet had triumphed.

Nope.

The khen-zai had actually captured Amgala, An, and Gi, and tested a new technology on them: menticide, the art of brainwashing. They forced the three to believe they had won and sent them back. The khen-zai, while they were originally annoyed that their engineered toys had survived in their absence, they were intrigued by humanity able to use their tech. They had run into it before with other humans, but figured it was a "local" genetic anomaly. They were wrong. So they decided to spare the planet, and see what would happen with this unexpected turn of events. They retired to the ethereal plane to enjoy their debauched cruelties, and waited. They were in no hurry.

The Emperors' long-standing deceptions were quickly discovered and punished. Humanity was freed from slavery, and a world-wide republic was formed, with the technology discovered in the vaults being used to build quickly. Those who were on board were benefited. Those who were not were ignored, ostracized, or killed if the first two methods didn't work out. 

Those who weren't in the sprouting cities languished in small shanty towns, holding onto a way of life that, with the constant allure of the cities calling the young away, became insular, toxic, and more than a bit racist. But they see the error of abandoning the old ways. Or at least they think they do. The worst thing is not death or discomfort, but losing the meaning that comes only with death and discomfort. We'll see how long that lasts.

So that's a good place to stop. There's a lot of this that jumps out at me, and why two games are contained within it. On the one hand you have the newly formed Parliament, with all the hope of the good and the apathy of the evil intermingling, and it being hard to tell the difference at times. A new era has dawned! It is up to those in power to make sure that new dawn is worthwhile. There's all the idealism, honor, folly, and passion of such an enterprise, contrasted against the bloody and benighted past that may not be so past, but an ignored present situation that may kill everyone. And, to me, that speaks Hearts of Wulin.

On the other hand all you have to do is learn about real-world cases of mothers in the Appalachian Mountains giving their children Mountain Dew (which dissolves their teeth) instead of water, because there is no infrastructure to produce clean water there, to see the downsides of such a venture. A good drive through Steubenville, OH, a decade or so ago, would have shown a place dying because it wasn't a part of the global initiative.  And in these places one must survive however one can, whatever that looks like. Even if that means breaking into tombs and stealing tech and robbing the globalists at every opportunity to live... all the while espousing values that are not practical to hold anymore, because the world no longer works according to blood and sweat, but rationalization and passion. This desperation screams out Realms of Peril to me.

So the setting, unlike Heranyt or Rakkaus, now serves two functions: playing an open table sword and sorcery game, with people dropping in and dropping out, and short but intense personal stories that may or may not involve excessive mounts of idealism and doomed romance. Those things don't seem so separate to me anymore. And in fact, at least for me, it may not work out any other way.

Viestinta is a world in the midst of bifurcation. On the one hand you have the prosperous elites who no longer really know they're elites, having to deal with the consequences of globalization and the deadening effect that has one one's soul. On the other you have those left behind, who are trying to scratch out a mean existence in a world that has forgotten them.. and the horrors that live so close to them. It is a world of rapidly growing magitech and skyscrapes with squalor not even one hundred miles away... all watched over by the curious and otherwise-bored khen-zai.

That's a chilling set up.

We'll start focusing on importing real world stuff next time.!

Reforging All the Things Under Heaven and Earth

 So the original idea of All the Things Under Heaven and Earth was never truly hammered out. I just started writing, opened up a Facebook page, then a Patreon (go join it!) and just sorta trucked along, reviewing and meditating on things. I didn’t really know exactly what I was doing or why I was doing it, although to others it seemed obvious enough. Good for them! 

Afghanistan happened, and I got through the short-term fallout. But such things always have long-term consequences, both subtle and obscure. The immediate long-term was I dropped Burning Wheel, which I had been doing quite happily multiple times a week. The emotional energy I had used to such great effect dried up almost instantly. After two years I have begun to get my feet back under me, but it has been extremely difficult.

What, specifically, you may ask? The sudden realization that nobody, left or right, was ready to take the obvious path to saving Afghanistan: permanently colonizing it.

“Whoa, Nathan, imperialism is bad!”

If you’re reading this on the internet you need to shut up. Now. The microchips necessary to read this post around the world require a globalism only made possible by the might of the United States Navy. That’s it. No, don’t hide behind “I don’t approve!” By reading this post you gave money to the thing you profess to despise. Money speaks volumes louder than words. And your money approved.

The fact is that the US, despite profiting quite nicely from this arrangement of hiding its military power behind economic supremacy, refused to use its power responsibly and thus doomed many to death and slavery. 

This realization totally changed my relationship with the world, and thus with this blog. I shut down the Facebook group and Patreon. How do you relate to a country that won’t take responsibility for its actions? How do you take said country’s rapidly deteriorating popular culture on the terms of a Catholic or Orthodox Christian who wishes to hang onto faith?

No, I don’t mean the proto-virtue signal all conservative Christians mean when they say “the Faith”. I mean the actual faith: that live coal that burns in your chest, allowing you to tank crap that would drive others insane, that maddening ray of light that persists even when you wish it wouldn’t. I mean the light that its absence thereof reduces doctrine to totalitarianism or worse, wokeism.

And with that question what I have always done with this blog jumped into stark relief: how does a Christian geek maintain both, when both are so important to him? All the things are Christ’s, so you can be both, with a real live faith.

This blog is, and always has been, one example of a journey one Christian nerd, trying to figure out how to keep that flame going. It is a bit raw, esoteric, and ugly. But it is mine.

And this is what you can expect from it, from here on out:

- RPG play reports. Apparently I do a good job at these. They take some work, but they are satisfying to write.

- Board game reviews and musings. These will range from "Do I think it's worth your time to buy?" to esoteric and weird ramblings on how those mechanics make me feel.

- Sorta political posts on maneuvering through the culture war without actually becoming a conservative or a progressive. Like it says on the tin. Will be now be labled "How to Not Sell Out"

- Christian living, specifically on sacramental and helpful stuff like dealing with family members. We'll be calling these The Lens.

-Comic reviews. As the Big Two continue to collapse and the shills continue to scream about it, I'm going to be reviewing comics from indie sources and maybe cover a mainstream comic or two that epitomizes why the sales ain't going well.

And really anything else I"m wanting to write. It is a blog literally called "All the Things Under Heaven and Earth", after all! I may someday actually do those Taco Bell reviews I keep thinking about doing. God I love Taco Bell.

Anyways, that's what we can expect going forward! Let's do it! Thanks for being here, whoever reads!

How I World-Build: Heranyt

 

So the other day someone messaged me asking about The Wanderers' Psalms. I'm still sitting with that one, because, like, I don't really think about it much these days. Crescendo has consumed me for two years and it's going to for quite a bit of time more. So I was quite shocked and very pleased to talk to someone who actually reads this little shitling blog. After a few minutes I decided to ask this particular person what they thought of me actually talking about world-building and all that. I've put up some theory on here, and always felt very weird about. I don't really see myself as having any actually unique opinions on worldbuilding or really anything else like that. Well, this individual said I should take a shot at it.

You know who you are.

Thank you, I'll give it a try. That's really all I can do.

I begin with a game system in mind. In the case of Heranyt, the central planet of The Wanderers' Psalms, that was Burning Wheel originally, but now Crescendo is in the stable too. The point is the that the setting has to be capable of supporting the type of gameplay and stories that the game is supposed to tell. And what stories do these two games tell? Self-discovery, mysticism, and desperate struggle. So the foes of the setting need to be existential, a persistent and eternal threat that one can only evolve in response to.

I always begin with a story, something to focus the setting around. This little tale takes the basic actions I want the setting to continue encouraging. Players respond to context, not directives. So it's important to make that context as clear as possible. I usually set up five differing parties and try to have them all doing the types of actions that are important in the setting. In Heranyt's case the tale is a mythological struggle between the Outsider (a singular God) and his creations, the khen-zai Verzhoben and the demonic Eous, with the Eternal Flame and Telos to aid him.

Once upon a time Verzhoben decided that he did not wish to serve creation, but to master it. He corrupted himself and the ensivalo, along with all their slave races, extinguishing the First Flame. When they did so, the ensivalo realized they cared nothing for their own genetically engineered creations, and left them, to parts unknown. Without the First Flame the races fell to barbarism and undeath.

The Outsider intervened. He incarnated as each of the races -elves, orcs, minotaurs, dwarves, dusken, wolves, dryads, and humans - trying to get them to accept him… only to be killed by each of them, in turn. The humans didn’t even let The Outsider survive childhood. But as the last incarnation of the Outsider was killed, a pillar of blue flame leapt from the corpse and burrowed into the planet, straight down to the core… where the Eternal Flame now rests. The undead plague ended. The insanity ended. Some were nostalgic.

Led by Eous, some began to try to extinguish the Eternal Flame, to no avail: the Outsider’s will was behind The Eternal Flame. Telos, Eous’s right hand man, turned on Eous, founding a resistance group, Those That Sailed. Unable to extinguish the Eternal Flame Eous forced the flame within him, which he could not extinguish, to turn to his mind, to his goals. And thus the first Anti-Flame was born. Others followed suit, drawing power from Herna, the Abyss.

Telos and the Eternal Flame begged The Outsider to force the Anti-Flames to relent, traveling to the very heights of Seitseman to plead their case. No one knows what was said that day; Telos and the Eternal Flame will not speak of it. But Telos, along with Those Who Sailed, have spread throughout the world, working towards an end goal that none know of. Someday we may know of it.

I always take this story at face value. I do not subvert it, I do not challenge it, I do not in any way shape or form tinker with it, because once you do that the setting begins to fall apart. Your mileage may vary, but I don't really suggest it.

At any rate, I then look this story and start asking what sort of world would be centered on such a story. I close my eyes and just try and picture the place: Aztec pyramids, cold lands with iron trees, rings made of destroyed continents where the elves may yet fly in their ships... I just start writing down. Once I got some images written down I make a map and situate these images on it.

The next part is the hardest one to quantify, because it takes a long time and it's generally the one I don't remember all that well. With the images in mind I start researching real life cultures and religions that would fit... kinda. I read up to my heart's content, until something sparks off and I can just start creating on my own. It's been more than ten years since I did this with Heranyt, so I'll be more specific with the process in an upcoming series on worldbuilding, but basically at this point I'm not so much using the real-world inspirations strictly, just to push my subconscious just enough. 

And then I rinse and repeat. For years. With each thing, whether it be history, a piece of geography, a race, I ask myself: "Does this support the central mechanics of the game I want to build this setting for?" And if the answer is no I throw it out immediately. Focus. Focus. Focus. On the fact that you are not making a work of fiction, but a backdrop for a game, where the stories depend upon mechanics and the world those mechanics evoke together.

We'll get into the weeds more for the next post, as a I start to build Viestinta.