Tag: writing
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My First Published Book, One Year Later
If you\’ve arrived here from one of the many links I attached to my social media posts, you already know that my YA contemporary fantasy novel Renna\’s Crossing is one year old today! It seems like an occasion worth observing, if not celebrating. The timeline feels a bit skewed for me– The story is one year old…
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Hold The World Hostage – The Mechanics of Stakes
Shit, Meet Fan Overall, Stars Fall Up is a rather low-stakes game. Death isn’t really possible or ever a potential consequence of any action, even when things get crazy. SFU’s pitfalls are meant to reflect those you likely face in real life, ones that can be emotionally prickly and discouraging, but hopefully nothing life-threatening. The…
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Does Working Together Really Make Things Better?
The Mechanics of Collaboration SFU is a collaborative, GM-less ttrpg. Which is interesting, given how, if I had to voice my honest opinion, I’m not a huge fan of such games. I can’t recall if the initial design inspiration had included the game being collaboratively run, but I don’t think it would be the right…
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Sewing Theme and Mechanics Together
The Goal Behind Goals I’m ambivalent when it comes to character goals. They feel like a natural thing to include in a ttrpg, and they’re easy to sell to players and GMs who are looking for a deeper roleplay experience. But more often than not I feel like they end up left by the wayside…
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I Used to be With It, But Then They Changed What It Was
Now What I\’m With Isn\’t It Re-writing Stars Fall Up in 2021 from its 2016 original version was a more interesting experience than I was expecting. The most prominent change was the game’s subtitle, originally “a mini-RPG for Us Damn Millennials”. When I first wrote the game, I was drawing directly from the life experiences…
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Drawing Meaning from the Metanarrative
Who Do I Have to Thank for This? I would have to say the most prominent influences for Stars Fall Up were Scott Pilgrim and Bee and Puppycat. I was really big into Scott Pilgrim back when it was coming out, since I was also right around the age group it focused on. I loved…
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Why Did I Make a TTRPG in a Format No One Recognizes?
What the Hell is a Zine? That\’s always the question you enjoy answering from people, isn\’t it. It\’s not the main thing I wanted to talk about, so if you genuinely don\’t know, here\’s a much better answer than I could give you. When I first conceptualized Stars Fall Up as a tabletop roleplaying game,…
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why do all my players cancel on me?
why do my players cancel at the last minute? why don\’t they care about my world? I\’m seeing these woes from a lot of newer ttrpg gms lately. In my 15 years of experience, it comes down to expectations, on both ends. But let’s focus on the end you can control. I know well the…
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Renna’s Crossing is Officially Published!
At the time you\’re reading this, my first full-length novel, Renna\’s Crossing, has finally reached its official publishing date of October 29th, 2020. I had mixed feelings about the date when it was first decided way back in March of this year. I\’m happy that the book came out in October, a wonderfully autumnal month…
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Season 1 of Disney’s The Owl House: Wasted Potential?
I’ve been looking forward to the Owl House since it was announced back in early 2018. Everything about the show seemed right up my alley: a girl isekai’d into a horror-themed fantasy world where she becomes an apprentice in magic to a sassy mentor “owl witch”. Now that season one is finished, I feel like…