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Ep @ TAX East @Epidiah
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#AprilTTRPGMaker

"5. Favorite game you've worked on"

Obviously, I should pick #SwordsWithoutMaster⚔️. It's what I'm known for & it is destined to be the game that finally usurps #DnD.

But pound for pound, Vast & Starlit is the most important game I've ever made. So it wins. The Vast & Starlit Library, four covers featuring Hubble Space Telescope images of nebulas and a complex orbital drawing.
Vast & Starlit was unleashed upon the world 5 years ago last month. Originally, it was only available in print—tiny little game books the size of 2 business cards bound together.

To get it, you had a play a game: Either find me & hand me $1/book I'd hand you from my own wallet…
…or you mailed me the rough equivalent of a dollar in your local currency along with a drawing you made for each book. The subject of the drawing depended on the book. The core rules needed a spacecraft, Bodies in the Dark needed two aliens either fighting or making out…
…Stellar Atlas need an alien sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, or any other view of the sky from an alien planet; and Renegade’s Technical Manual required a drawing of some alien piece of technology.

Folks, I had the most wondrous mail! Fan art for Vast & Starlit. Paintings on tiny stretched canvas. A ringed planet rising in the night sky. A spaceship. 2 aliens. A raygun.
You can experience many of these fine works for yourself on the Vast & Starlit Tumblr, which I have not updated in half a decade: vast-starlit.tumblr.com

I love every last one of them.
Eventually, all this mailing to & fro became a bit burdensome. Even if the entire collection fit in a standard envelope. As my supply of "books" dwindled, I eventually got around to releasing the whole library as a PDF under a pay-what-you-want model: epidiah.itch.io/vast-starlit
The process of creating, releasing and playing Vast & Starlit dragged me out of a deep, dark design funk. At the time I was very much having a "What the fuck are we even doing" moment with TTRPGs in general.
I mean, it's been a while now, so I can't really recall the extent of my frustration at the time, and I'm not particularly keen about digging it all back up, but it is safe to say that Vast & Starlit was written in anger and edited with joy.
Quick aside: Vast & Starlit is totally Powered by the Apocalypse. If I had the forethought and acreage, I would have said so right on the book. Specifically, it's a hack of Read a Sitch.
Anyway, Vast & Starlit pulled me from my funk, dusted me off, and very specifically and succinctly answered the question "What the fuck are we even doing anyway?" for me.

It set me on a course that made publishing What is a Roleplaying Game?, Wolfspell, Swords Without Master…
…Sorceress Bloody Sorceress & The Dread Geas of Duke Vulku, among others, possible.

It rendered my personal tome mode obsolete. I stopped thinking about games as objects & started thinking about them as moments–opportunities to jump in, say what needs saying & get the hell out.
But wait, none of this is even important! What truly makes Vast & Starlit my favorite are all the games it has inspired, either directly or through its own a growing, gnarled limb of the RPG design family tree.

I'm testing the very limits of presumption & my false bravado here.
See, cause when you don't need more than 500 words (or even more than 200 words) to design a game, you transform yourself into a published game designer in the course of a single morning. You can say what you have to say about the state of the art in a timely game.
While I'm on a total stream of consciousness here, here's a new model for buying this game—a reverse kickstarter. Take the PDF for free. Download it from epidiah.itch.io/vast-starlit without naming a price, or grab the full preview from payhip.com/b/zx7y. DO NOT PAY FOR IT YET.
Now go play it.

Become space fugitives on the run in your very own rogue vessel!

Then, if you & the rest of your stellar criminal crew enjoyed yourselves, hit me up at ko-fi.com/epidiah & buy me a drink.
Feel free to invent stretch goals. Maybe Eppy deserves a coffee when you first use the rules from the Renegade's Technical Manual. Maybe he deserves a gin & tonic the first time someone is called out for making it Hot per the rules from Bodies in the Dark.
And if interstellar criminals floating in space is not your jam, I've got your run-of-the-mill style criminals floating in space, too: dig1000holes.wordpress.com/what-is-a-role…
Also, #SwordsWithoutMaster⚔️ fans, fret not, to experience the Vast & Starlit universe you need only turn your eye #StarWard: plus.google.com/+EpidiahRavach…
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#AprilTTRPGMaker #SwordsWithoutMaster #DnD #StarWard

More from @Epidiah see all

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I'm going to chat a bit more about #LincolnGreen🏹 this morning, even if it isn't #Greenwoodensday.

I want to talk about the Oaths, advancement, design goals & something I'm going to awkwardly describe as player in-roads into GM territory in a traditionally GMed game. 😐
So #LincolnGreen🏹 is "traditionally GMed" in that there's a player, called the Game Warden, in a GM role that 30 years ago Eppy would recognize. Well, 32 years ago—before the Bullwinkle & Rocky Role-Playing Party Game. Or 1 BBRRPPG as we in the industry like to measure time.
BBRRPPG I understood GMs to be benevolent, but darkly mischievous, near omnipotent totalitarians. Give or take a little on each of those dials, of course.

The Warden is a similar role. The Warden knows the world and represents it to the other players.
Read 56 tweets
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Fuck yeah, calculator & PAIN points. I'm in.
You have no idea how much I want this to be true!
It does not disappoint!
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WARNING: Extensive Self-Promotion Ahead

Folks, due to some large expenses on the horizon—that are altogether exciting & voluntary and not of the GoFundMe variety—I'm shifting my hustle into overdrive for the next few months.

Gird thy loins.

payhip.com/epidiah
So if you were thinking, "I wonder when would be a good time for me to pick up those back issues of Worlds Without Master I've always wanted," the answer is "Now."

worldswithoutmaster.com/bazaar/
PSA: Whoever is telling you Dread is out of print is lying to you.

tiltingatwindmills.net/buy-stuff/
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#DnD #rpg #coya
Result:
"There was some enchantment magic" you reply blinking experimentally, your eyes adjust to your usual vision, you can see properly again.
Though the sight of the guests here do give you cause to check again
"That's not as helpful as you may think" says Wolf
"A lot of the guests are carrying enchanted items or wearing some on themselves"
"Your bath oils were a kind of enchantment" says Mrs S, you appear to have been downgraded from deliberately offensive mortal to idiot child in her eyes.
Hopefully that will save you from a beating
after the feast.
"Still it's a minor nuisance at the moment so it can wait, this course should have been cleared by now!" Mrs S claps her hands and the servants including Wolf clear the table.
Mrs S leaps back to her side of he table with a single movement of surprising grace
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#DnD #COYA
Result:
The Lords are dressed in identical elegant robes of Green and blue with rather prominent weapons on display. The ladies are dressed in similarly coloured dresses though the winter lady's is very sharp and angular wile the spring lady's all gentle curves.
You
also notice that where the spring royalty favour muscle mass the winter are lean and wiry The winters facial expressions imply they would happily kill everyone at the feast because they could, the Springs are more amicable, they might kill you for fun. You note that both sides
seem to move at exactly the same time, you also note that both lords are watching the guests intensely. Maybe they feel something is off too?
Finally they are served, the Lady's simultaneously lift their spoons, take a sip and smile.
The other guests tuck in straight away!
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#DnD #cpya
You look at the creature known as Mrs S, you really have never seen anything quite like her, as tall as you but wider,in a dress two sizes too small for her, her features, similar to a goblins but floppier, are caked in some sort of face paint Beside her are creatures
in a snake mask to her left and a hawk to her right. It makes sense giving she won the seat from the wolf.
Speaking of hawks she is watching the servants distributing the food like one, she may be at the table but she is apparently not neglecting her own duties.
Behind her is a
smaller version of her wearing a dress two sizes to big, apparently waiting to relay missives from Mrs S. Your soup and wine arrive, served by one of the now childlike mists.
You murmur a thank you. They say nothing at all and continue serving up the table.
Mrs S is being served
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#DnD #coya
You head down the stairs, a much shorter journey this time. The mists run to the servant making the introductions. After a brief series of whispers they return to you.
"You'll be announced last, have a seat this will take a while"
"I'd best attend to my duties" says
wolf and he departs with a little bow.
You sit on the bottom stairs watching with interest as the servant introduces the guests to apparently empty thrones.
Thankfully he introduces most of them as groups,
Lords and ladies of the forest, spirits of the winds and so forth but it
still takes a while. Some are clearly higher nobles and are introduced with titles in languages you've never even heard of.
The other druid isn't introduced just brought to a small table off in an alcove, obviously being excluded.
It eventually comes to your turn, you step up
Read 6 tweets
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#AprilTTRPGMaker 8) Routine: M-F Up @ 630, get kids up by 7, make sure lunches are made and out the door by 8. MWF drop off at school, then off to day job until 1730-1800. TTh off to day job then leave for pickup at school at 1700. Dinner, kid bedtime by 2030. (1/?)
Most Tuesdays now I have a game @ 2030. Some Thursdays as well with the occasional Friday or Saturday. Otherwise, writing or TV with the husband. Weekends are a whirlwind of kid chauffeuring punctuated by adulting (grocery shopping, laundry, etc.) (2/?)
So when do I write? Sunday mornings mostly. Kids sleep in a bit or watch TV and rarely have something scheduled so I can steal a couple of hours.
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We're a bit late to this #AprilTTRPGMaker thing, but we do want to participate, so let's catch up!

1. Who are you?
The primary user of this account is Ross Leiser, the Founder and Director here at Outlandish Adventure Productions, but there's more! (cont.
1. (cont.)
We also have an awesome graphic designer: @freeners, as well as a good friend of mine named Ted Bowman, who doesn't have a Twitter for me to link, but just joined the OAP design team.

We're just a group of nerds with weird senses of humor and a love of odd mechanics.
2. Where ya at?
When OAP was founded, we were located in Wilmington, Delaware, US. But, as of January, we've moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Read 31 tweets

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