🌈🚀 Reliable wonder engine. I make narrative role-playing games that imagine a weirder, queerer, more connected world.
looming darkness wonder's loom
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Hi Reader, Lovely to see you. Please, come in, sit down. On the table, I have a terracotta vase filled with chamomile flowers, sacred to Inanna, and Mesopotamian irises. The land of Gilgamesh has taken over the game table, as you can see. Because the Kickstarter for Defy the Gods launches on Tuesday! If you haven't yet signed up to follow the campaign, please do at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hecticelectron/defy-the-gods. Then come back. This book got a lot more personal than I expected. I look back to four years ago, at starry-eyed Chris resolving to make such an ambitious game. To three years ago, when my brother's passing moved me to make a game that drinks deep of life. One year ago, when I finally made queer resistance the game's core. And late last year, when, against my business interests, I started billing it as a "queer game." This book became a beacon for my trans journey. It rocked my whole sense of who I am. Now, thanks partly to this game, I'm changing my name. A little. I go by Chrys now. Among friends. Why do trans people always go for Y names? It's short for Chrysoprase, an apple-green stone straight out of a Lord Dunsany story. I love Dunsany's sense of abundance and uncharted possibility—his wild invention. I flooded Defy the Gods with that abundance. In 1916, in the middle of the Great War, Dunsany publishes The Last Book of Wonder. His preface acknowledges how dark the world seems. But he's still in love with wonder. In 2025, the world seems dark again. In an act of resistance or maybe just flight, I'm publishing a game full of wonder. Wonder, passion, glory, doom. A loom to weave infinite characters who drink deep of life. That's the earthbound dream, anyway. To make it take flight, I need a push! So, forward this email. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. It all starts on Tuesday. See you then! Your friend, P.S. That link to send your enemies to is https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hecticelectron/defy-the-gods. |
Everlasting, Neverending Game Night
🌈🚀 Reliable wonder engine. I make narrative role-playing games that imagine a weirder, queerer, more connected world.
Hi Reader, Welcome! It's good to see you again. Please, sit down. All the irises are in bloom, so I've put a few in a cut-glass vase. Spring is in its full glory. It's on a beautiful day like today that I had to cancel the original Defy the Gods Kickstarter. So close you can taste it It just wasn't going to hit its goal. Not the way I'd set it up. Valiant backers (like you) kept pledging, even as it became clear it wasn't going to clear the tree-line. I admit it, I got cocky. My raccoon...
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. Make yourself comfortable. On the table, I've put a pint glass with bugleweed and butterweed blooms. They'll take over your garden if you don't get them out—especially the butterweed. But they're cheery for all that. As the Defy the Gods Kickstarter continues, life here has returned to normal. Sort of. There's a rhythm. I'm posting to social media every day about Defy the Gods, which is its own kind of discipline/fun. I get to share details from the...
Hi Reader, It's good to see you again. Please, sit down—let me move these stacks of paper. And these. I'll put them—somewhere. On the sofa. As you can see, this place has been a hive of activity since the Kickstarter launched on Tuesday. I meant to get together with you before now, but there's just been so much to do. Oh hey, didn't I tell you? The Kickstarter is live! If you haven't already, please go check it out—including all the art I'm showing off there. Yesterday, Jay Dragon released a...