Every year, I reread the LotR trilogy. This last year's reread amped me up and I started keying Middle-earth 12 miles at a time
Concurrently, without meaning to, I wrote a game to run the hexcrawl
I call it Lore - a Lord of the Rings Adventure Game retroclone
Here's what I think is fun about it🧵
100% this. I wrote about this in the context of TTRPGs here idlecartulary.com/2025/04/08/w...
Who knows where all this will go. All involved are hereditary toffs, anyway.
But I am fascinated by how feudal power gets constrained. Minang culture traditionally values decentralisation, so we've kept our elective system, while other Malay sultanates have become more absolute over time ...
7/7
Anyway: all background that has little to do (I think?) with the the current snafu, which sounds like an escalating spat between the electors and the monarch.
The Yamtuan tried to get one Undang removed,
So the Undangs are trying to fire the Yamtuan.
www.sinarharian.com.my/article/7764...
6/
Now our Yamtuans are local boys who all come from this one family, because Pagar Ruyung is no more, and its ancient royal line survives via their blood.
But, *technically*, whichever boy it is has to be chosen by the chiefs.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padri_W...
5/
Used to be that the prince "chosen" this way had to then marry a daughter from the previous Yamtuan.
Legitimacy and land are held by women, in Minang society. It is still the largest matrilineal culture in the world. (Though much eroded by modern patriarchies.)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minangk...
4/
Negeri Sembilan was a Minang colony; the Minang people's homelands are across the straits, in Sumatra.
It was tradition for local chiefs to petition the royal court at Pagar Ruyung for a spare prince to come over and be our ruler.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagaruy...
3/
The sultan-equivalent of Negeri Sembilan is called the Yamtuan Besar.
This dude is chosen by four hereditary electors, called Undangs, chiefs of the state's four core domains. The person they choose can never come from among themselves.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_di...
2/
My home state, Negeri Sembilan, is going through a kerfuffle: our monarch just got sacked!
Unlikely to stick; dude's got a lot of real power. But it is technically possible because we are an elective monarchy, by tradition- and tradition means something, still.
www.malaysiakini.com/news/773066
1/
We’re VERY close to unlocking this stretch goal in the Fomoria Kickstarter, and I really hope we reach it. Our freelance writers gave us their rates, and with this stretch goal, we won’t pay it, we’ll pay it tripled.
Fomoria.com
🚨TWO TASTES THAT GO GREAT TOGETHER ALERT🚨
Cover of Bastion Elysium. An Electric Bastionland adventure for 3–5 players. The cover shows an apartment building with several silhouettes and a burning corpse.
BASTION ELYSIUM
An Electric Bastionland apartment crawl adventure for 3–5 players. What if Disco Elysium were set entirely in an apartment building?
Coming soon!
Cover art by Citaaticat
#osr #ttrpg
I've updated my diceless resolution system to include combat, magic, and classes. I'll probably tweak it some more in the future.
For now it just needs a name. Any suggestions? I was thinking something along the lines of "Fate & Fingers" but less terrible.
newschoolrevolution.com/diceless-res...
"gostan", a now slightly dated I think, malaysian english term to mean reverse (usually a vehicle) comes from the nautical "go astern" during colonial times when the british were doing their thing all over southeast and south asia
WE ARE FUNDED!
Time to declutter your loot!
In the ttrpg MAGIC OF INVENTORYING, your adventurers already completed the dungeon.
Time for treasure!
But what to keep? What to throw?
Please pledge and share far and wide.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/rol... #TTRPG #MagicOfInventorying #Kickstarter
Cairn: Barebones Edition is now available at cost from Amazon.
a.co/d/041Sb9Rz
The cover of the zine The Booklet of Bounties shows a hooded figure examining a notice board covered in wanted posters.
I've got a box going out today, so unless something goes wrong, you'll be able to buy print copies of The Booklet of Bounties and my other zines from the @uktin.bsky.social stand at Dragonmeet: Call to Adventure on Saturday April 18th.
(Check out that cool cover by @toadlett.bsky.social!)
Some TUNNELS & TROLLS fan art (hat tip to Danforth)
T&T had similar design goals to BREAK!! reduce unnecessary complexity and don't take yourself too seriously.
They have a new edition on KS
www.kickstarter.com/projects/reb...
Holy fucking shit it's real lol
Olivia Reingold of the Free Press asks Abdul El-Sayed "does Israel have a right to exist as a Jewish state?"
AES: "What do you mean by a Jewish state?" [...] "If you can't define the question, I'm not gonna answer it.
this goes hard as fuck
Grain
Jamie is doing a 24 hour Mythic Bastionland marathon to raise money for the Edinburgh Food Project. If you can, please spare him a donation!
charcoal drawings for your books & games
posting on patreon & comradery today! free to use for anything you like!
#ttrpg #osr
<3
Hodag Logo But It's the Teans flag colors
"FIX YOUR HEARTS OR DIE."
My mentors, my heroes, my friends and my peers-
seen, heard and loved.
🚨FIRE FAIRY FOLK🚨
I think the reason I like blogs is cos they're very not part of the cult of the new. 6 figure flashes in the pan don't penetrate them. They're "mend and make do". Probs why they're commercially maligned, and still actually good.
I made a blogpost about this. Indonesian Tabletop RPG scene and The Quest for Generic "Authentic" Slop.
The Indonesian Tabletop RPG scene has a Gen AI problem!
afraidofencounters.bearblog.dev/afraid-of-co...
