Pretty thrilled with having potentially solved a long-standing design issue with regards to the city-crawl; and funnily enough insight came from the destruction of that important document I was howling about a week or so back. Puzzling through it is quite a delight, as are the contingencies to it.

Hey, we just hit the first stretch goal which is me making some lite html generation tools to handle creating bespoke Asura, Rakshasa, and Market offerings throughout thrice-fallen Tripura. Anyone who has followed my process on making said tools in the past knows they make my brain very happy.

Additionally for Demon Month, I'm doing the art, some tables and editing on a project with Danielle Osterman which is going to be a nice little digital only with the sort of utilities you expect of me. Has some fun things upcycled from works I never published over the years, edited to form for use.

So happy this just funded. This adventure is precious: Desi/Indian inspired (rare!), looks amazing and has influences of Amar Chitra Katha comics (my entry point to Mahabharata, lol). Check it out, the next stretch goal is a market/demon generator (commerce and spirituality defines this region).

I've been informed that we have funded. Huzzah! Now to go enjoy the worldly pleasures of life; and probably put on some of the 70s-80s films that used to play in the grocery store my mom would go to when I was growing up. There's a lot of nostalgia in this product, but that's post-game talk.

I could go on an extended tangent about my specific attachment to the entities within this work; but it'd spoil my pursuit of the Lynchian "the film is the talking" kind of circumstance. I feel for that which suffers for the want of small joys others take for granted, and how it coaxes malevolence.

Day job shenanigans are present, but I'll save my crass language for when I don't have to be marketable. Needless to say though, I've not been kind - though I have been polite. That combo is devastating when used with proper weaponization.

Another day of marketing; but we're nearly there. I'm happy to talk about anything going on within it to the best of my ability in-between meetings today. ...Sizable chance I might write an essay about it at some point. Luckily there are design riddles in here to balance out the personal aspects.

Well. Spectrum outage. Glad I got to speak before that happened. NYC bay-bay.

Always enjoy skullboy's stuff: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

Our project has launched. It is something I think you all shall enjoy quite a lot, and I will be speaking of it later today on the Exalted Funeral YouTube Channel. Thank you for your patronage and your attention, it means the world to me.

Y'all, day job wanted to know why I wasn't working today. When I explained, again, the company doesn't exist anymore. Again. They told me to expect a new contract for this week. I guess they expected me to be brought in before the masses. I have only ever been brought in with the masses.

Some further working on the map for Indulgence Scorned. Been working myself dead lately. After this week, I get to take a small breather before pouring myself back into everything. Shockingly taking a day for myself actually helped my brain out a good bit.

Perhaps I'd be more successful working for myself is so many projects did not require deep meditations on existentialist circumstances or the profound weight of history. And perhaps I'd eat less hair if my hair were not so long. Perhaps some things simply cannot be avoided if I care about a thing.

Kind words from Charlie, an exceptional talent and wonderful designer.

...the Nuln Gunnery Campaign calls to my brain again, but I think this comes from how I am taking today to rest and how my Rakehell project for the year got stalled out a bit (and also deviated from that campaign concept a great deal.) Mayhaps also in my head because I'm building tools again.

This sort of immersively abstract situation is something I don't often see with regards to VTTs. Sure, there are plenty of UI or backend whatnots - but the metacontext here is very charming. I am also a sucker for calling various props and the like "doodads." What a lovely thing to see.

I find myself once more at the moral event horizon of artisan utilitarianism with regards to cultural presentation - because I've heard the arguments on both sides and the considerable factors of specificity vs page count weigh heavily upon making something that risks being obtuse to the audience.

Well, bought my ticket to fly out to California for my brother's wedding - as it doesn't seem like the train I had intended to take is planning on running on the necessary days to ensure my journey. ...For ten thousand reasons, I hope things improve in air travel by then.

I think I forgot to talk about the process working on Temperamental Upgrades, but it was a good experience especially with regards to hammering out a philosophy about compounding vs expanding in 3rd party products. About how one stretches the axis of a setting and where that fits in the market.

Been so locked in that I'm just learning that Fuckin' Toddy is going to be in TWH3. ...haven't touched that in a year or so.

...I forgot I did work on one of the periodicals I just had to look at. God.

Planning to launch on Itch next week if all goes well with setup. Still time to submit games until then. DM me if you’re interested.

Today was pretty productive. Working draft is getting there; almost done with I'd say about 40% - a lot of everything else is framed out and just needs rigor passing. Finding the balance. Cadence edit is gonna be a whole goddamn thing; but I think it'll be doable and fine. I'm just exhausted.

The audacity of the Boss hitting me with a "Might need ya next week though." Do you though? Do you truly? What's the product Martin? If you just want to pay me to tell you that money can be exchanged for goods and service - sure. But. What Is. The. Product?

Me: "This is all too much to explain conceptually to an audience that doesn't care in a very tight page count." Also me: "What if I heavily imply the antagonist would chill the fuck out if he heard about Din-i Ilahi?"

The funniest thing is that I just got an email saying my job is dead and gone again. Hilarity. 5-Outta-5 Comedy. I'm sure I'll hear from them in a week.

I'm not gonna keep it as this in the final product, but I'm taking joy in calling a section "All You Need Not Know, or Brown People Stuff" where I explain the very specific religious tradition of: "Stop trying to figure out the nature of reality, let the gods do that; go be a good mortal."

Other thing I'm on for #DemonMonth; doing art, editing, and ample tables.

I'm working with @brianyaksha.bsky.social to make an OSE adventure! It'll be crowdfunding over the month of May. Check it out: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti... #OSE #ttrpg #OSR #IndulgenceScorned

Day job meeting is billable, and that is the only tolerable circumstance to said meeting.

Day Job Boss: "Hey Brian, can you build this?" Me: "I built this for you last year." DJB: "Okay but can you use AI to make it again--" Me: "No. Plus, I already made it." DJB: "Are we allowed to use that though?" Me: "It wasn't proprietary." DJB: "It wasn't?" Me: "Not in my contract, nope."

Six pages of writing, finished a cover, did a logo design, finishing a map; getting caught up on overdue work and also on current big projects. Feels like I'm finding my way back into the zone. Really don't love I fell out of it though. This year started off really strong on my end.

My nephew has associated me with a person he needs to call when he speaks to my other siblings over the phone, so I got to have a cute conversation (for all of two minutes) in which a four year old told me he can count to 100, was in a place with 49 stairs, and is gonna go see the new Mario movie.

General reposting. Painting a room and then getting back to work on a bunch of other stuff.

Session 2 of Mothership/The Outer Worlds went well. Party is kind of trying to sort through the morality of space corporatism, as they deal with the Rizzo-aligned hijackers, perform horrid science atrocities on Captain Brad (due to marketing needing him for the B.R.A.D.) and also hostage-taking.

Psst. If you are a marketing friend/acquaintance of mine, and I have /amused/ you in the past - or if you've reposted something that got me a lot of attention outta nowhere; reposting my advertisement is welcome here. It'll also help me avoid being poor and posting about nothing but my despair.

Exciting to work with @brianyaksha.bsky.social, @danielharila.bsky.social, @daishugars.bsky.social and @liberludorum.com on this for @mudknightmedia.bsky.social. Coming to Backerkit in just 11 days! Follow the project there: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti... #osr #ose #dnd #ttrpg #zine #tabletop

For #DemonMonth I've been cooking on a city-crawl a la Fever-Dreaming Marlinko; in this case, the thrice-fallen fortresses of Tripura now located in the underworld. Mayasura, the Architect of Earthly Illusions, has rebuilt his grand works - and worse yet; he has found love. That never ends well.

Building things today. Meetings today. Finishing things tomorrow. Game on Saturday. More building throughout. Astonishing how fulfilling it operates when I am not stymied. Going to have stuff to talk about soon. Big stuff. I guess technically tomorrow is one of those days I'll talk about stuff.

Veridian Dynamics voice: "Here at the Aspis Consortium - we know what snakes look like. They don't look like elves. We'd never confuse a serpentmen for elves - even if they tried really hard to make us. Because at the Aspis Consortium, we care. About people. And snakes. And elves."

Yeah, so I lost the super in-depth weather table for Beyond the Pines, as well as the listed gimmick frame-out for all the other hollers beyond the first four, and also the blackout drunk fast travel table. Genuinely upsetting. I found some screengrabs I've done of a few bits. So I can rebuild.

...I could go on at length about this exact topic, but it makes me sound like an Aspis Consortium apologist.

this is one of the awesomest deals you can snag right now in ttrpgs! @gnarledmonster.bsky.social is brilliant and makes brilliant things, and they're now all in a low-cost bundle Huzzah itch.io/s/184832/wic...

Fuck, I may have actually lost a very important document - what the actual fuck. Gonna... have to find that. That had so much work done in it. I absolutely would not have trashed it. What the fuck.

Huh, I appear to have somehow lost a large templated document in my google drive. I know I cleared out my drive a few months ago - but I don't think I would've deleted this. It was notably a bit important. Luckily I have things related to it still and can rebuild the scaffolds. But also: fuck.

Well - didn't find the essay I was looking for but I did find this one which is... pretty much done. I get why I didn't publish it - for it to work as an essay I do need to pretty much post the entirety of my RUMORMONGER! tables for that project. ... I should also really finish that project.

See, that kinda shit is why I scorn the luminaries and the self-exalted authority of the manifesto-makers. Gonna see me a bodhisatva born in contempt of such authorities. May all that is supreme spare that flickering wick of ego in me. Glory demands insight and the incuriosity is killing me.

Today is a day of logistical challenges. About four in quick succession that build upon one another to achieve the necessary flow. These will determine the success and flow of tomorrow. ...and I, fool that I am, have therapy in person rather than over the computer; which is the throttle of it all.

Finally got the introduction for a thing worded properly - and I think it will lean well into the purpose of things. Very "behold, the saddest man" but really nobody in this is capable of really speaking honestly about why this won't work out - and that kinda gets to the cynical theme of things.