for swords against heaven, my mud-and-lotus fourthlike rpg about wanderers cultivating love and violence post-calamity, one of my "turn 4e on its head" design choices was to completely diegetize, in-fiction, squares

the design limit of having npcs be built in the same way as PCs (symmetrical design) necessitates that if i introduce new abilities, i make it accessible to the PCs somehow. the final boss of Sword Against Heaven's beginner module is a Magister (ffxii style). so there's a Magister cultivation now

link btw www.patreon.com/posts/update...

the design limit of having npcs be built in the same way as PCs (symmetrical design) necessitates that if i introduce new abilities, i make it accessible to the PCs somehow. the final boss of Sword Against Heaven's beginner module is a Magister (ffxii style). so there's a Magister cultivation now

swords against heaven playtesting. featuring Moeng Sahaju, the Black Mage and Ria Denzan, the Merciful Shield

my paper combining walter benjamin's divine violence, philippine maoism, and mahayana buddhist conceptions of violence is up now. creating a compassionate violence to destroy philippine bureaucrat capitalism www.scirp.org/journal/pape...

due to much playtesting for swords against heaven i've stumbled into the fact that 4e's healing surges are a very compelling system for running survival horror gaming

my paper combining walter benjamin's divine violence, philippine maoism, and mahayana buddhist conceptions of violence is up now. creating a compassionate violence to destroy philippine bureaucrat capitalism www.scirp.org/journal/pape...

The history of RPG design has a familiar right-hand path — what-if wargaming — and a more obscure left-hand path. Improv theater games, Surrealist and Situationist games, New Games, parlor games, storytelling games... back into the Renaissance and presumably further.

broke: das kapital as an economic work woke: das kapital as a sociopolitical treatise and the ultimate javelin against capitalism bespoke: das kapital as a dark fantasy magical realist gothic horror novel

ah yes disco elysium. otherwise known as "i can't believe my communism game is secretly hegelian!"

in whorl metaphysics, there is no first cause and there is no telos. there is "god" and there is "Nothing" Above God. this Nothing is Emptiness. some mystics say—god is nothing. scoured the 900 heavens and saw the thrones and they all had the same thing upon it—nothing

that is to say, God is nothing but an attempt to give symbol to the Ineffable and Inconcievable Emptiness. God still exists, the God of the Yenjanists and the Eolomites, but that God (the Father) is Deluded. Chained to the Whorl of the Six Paths of Woe all the same www.patreon.com/posts/whorl-...

in whorl metaphysics, there is no first cause and there is no telos. there is "god" and there is "Nothing" Above God. this Nothing is Emptiness. some mystics say—god is nothing. scoured the 900 heavens and saw the thrones and they all had the same thing upon it—nothing

I thought I was prepared for how long this would take. I was wrong. picrew.me/image_maker/...

"what the fuck is whorl" i'm glad you asked #patreon #worldbuilding #darkfantasy #gamedev #wuxia www.patreon.com/posts/whorl-...

whorlcore building = esoteric buddhism + folk catholicism + gnostic mysticism as dark fantasy wrapped in post-idyllic calamity

nerds love it when you give them a hard physics world and then introduce a mystic pseudoscientific concept to justify impossible to explain, magic-like phenomena

the temple of peregrination—a beginner module for swords against heaven a reverse delve. escape the pit of death|undeath. the alignments whirl. goblin ghosts. bodhisattva-seraphim. militant buddhas. mankind be violent. love waits for us yet. www.patreon.com/posts/temple...

GOD OBLITERATING VAJRA is a Buddhapunk Dark Fantasy Wuxia web serial set in the Utter Islands: the last island continent of the planet, built upon the body of a tortured god. Demons have escaped hell, ghosts refuse to be reincarnated, and demon chakravartins rule. www.royalroad.com/fiction/1044...

whorlcore building = esoteric buddhism + folk catholicism + gnostic mysticism as dark fantasy wrapped in post-idyllic calamity

naruto is so whorlcore

the demiurge? oh you mean Mara lord of the world? inner light? oh you mean buddha nature? oh the world is a big cage made by a demon god and the zodiac for us to suffer? yeah i know about samsara oh eve was a secret enlightened wisdom within adam? yeah i know about mahamudra

the holy trinity? oh you mean the buddha's trikaya

funny things happening over on the patreon discd

dangerous. deadly. but with an in-fiction reason for having as many new characters as you can make. expect to die. the forces of capitalism and communism and life and death and merit and karma... this is the heart of the world. where commoners shall dictate how the world will be reborn.

i have no expectations that i'll be able to scrounge up enough funding for it but i'm just imagining how banger it'd be if the swords against heaven laws manual only primarily had diorama illustrations

the temple of peregrination—a beginner module for swords against heaven a reverse delve. escape the pit of death|undeath. the alignments whirl. goblin ghosts. bodhisattva-seraphim. militant buddhas. mankind be violent. love waits for us yet. www.patreon.com/posts/temple...

not to be weirdo mystic about this but when i'd be writing stuff for whorl and gov and swords against heaven i always felt like something was behind me (to the point i set my chair against the wall). only went away once i started doing my ghost-subduing rituals. so i get this.

working on a beginner module, a reverse dungeon delve, for swords against heaven

still have to truck on. over on the #patreon. released the live document for SWORDS AGAINST HEAVEN fourth-edition inspired ruleset for esoteric dark fantasy wuxia gaming through OSR lens. written like poetry. diegetic classes, disco elysium-esque skill system www.patreon.com/posts/introd...

as a fourthlike, a warlord option was always necessary. in swords against heaven that's the scarlet revolutionary—an organizing art made by the firebrand kafeng masangwa herself. even has an internationale reference for one of its flower skills (daily powers)

as a fourthlike, a warlord option was always necessary. in swords against heaven that's the scarlet revolutionary—an organizing art made by the firebrand kafeng masangwa herself. even has an internationale reference for one of its flower skills (daily powers)

working on a beginner module, a reverse dungeon delve, for swords against heaven

GOD OBLITERATING VAJRA

DOOMSPIRALL www.kickstarter.com/projects/sou...

@dangjello.bsky.social sent me this photo of journaling game care packages he and his wife are sending to folks that include a copy of The Balsam Lake Unmurders 🌱. How cool is this!? A copy of a game, a journal and writing implement and a fun deck of cards, some... #journalGaming #self-care

I'm super excited to announce that DAWN is going to print, I'm working with LionWing Publishing to get the game released in early 2026, including a digital copy, an exclusive physical release, and a printed booklet of the first DAWN module! lionwingpublishing.com/products/lio...

playtest group a (parapati the white mage, jafeng the gun oracle, kongli the glare mage) and team-b (lilisang the adamant swordstress, tadjo the astral mage, and aman the metom hammer) go through peregrination, the forsaken temple of kanimadia! both teams had deaths unfortunately

every big gacha action game nowadays is just breath of the wild + dark souls + nier: automata dawg

experimenting with new imagery for the logo

playtest group a (parapati the white mage, jafeng the gun oracle, kongli the glare mage) and team-b (lilisang the adamant swordstress, tadjo the astral mage, and aman the metom hammer) go through peregrination, the forsaken temple of kanimadia! both teams had deaths unfortunately

messiahs = bodhisattvas = buddha (in vajrayana tradition) filipino folk theology emphasizes the liberatory power of christ's sacrifice—christ's bodhisattva vow. the masses seek messiahs within others but the masses emulate christ = messiahs = bodhisattvas = buddhas

experimenting with new imagery for the logo

look into one of the skills. i made the attribute + ability system from a mix of exalted and disco elysium. one of the abilities, the ability that deals with the ineffable and indescribable, is an homage to shivers. at its core, sah is an attempt to make disco elysium + fft as maoist wuxia

look into one of the skills. i made the attribute + ability system from a mix of exalted and disco elysium. one of the abilities, the ability that deals with the ineffable and indescribable, is an homage to shivers. at its core, sah is an attempt to make disco elysium + fft as maoist wuxia

maoist wuxia ttrpg with a disco elysium-style skill system, this rules!!

also im so happy my marx buddha shitpost is being used somewhere else

the buddhist youth group im part of in quezon city went to the prottests last 21! the group is mixed theravada/mahayana/vajrayana. our theravadin shared this in the gc

still have to truck on. over on the #patreon. released the live document for SWORDS AGAINST HEAVEN fourth-edition inspired ruleset for esoteric dark fantasy wuxia gaming through OSR lens. written like poetry. diegetic classes, disco elysium-esque skill system www.patreon.com/posts/introd...