🌈🚀 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! Please, come in. Let me take your raincoat. And your umbrella, and oh the galoshes. The horrors really are pouring down out there, huh? On the table, I put some sunny daffodils in a clay pitcher. I couldn’t cut the crocuses, spring’s tiny cheerleaders. But these daffs were fair game. My partner, M, is away this weekend, so I've been walking Udo in the mornings, and this morning, it was raining. Water streamed down the streets and gutters, but it wasn’t cold. It felt nice...
Hi Reader, How are you? Please, come in. Have a seat. I'll take your raincoat. The weather's been all over the place lately. These innocuous-looking white flowers on the table are bloodroot. Don't break the stems—the sap is poisonous. What a sword & sorcery flower. Last week, I went to GAMA Expo as a Horizons Fellow. "GAMA" is the Game Manufacturers' Association, and "GAMA Expo" is a professional conference of retailers, publishers, and distributors. The Horizons Fellowship is part of GAMA's...
Hi Reader, Welcome back to game night. I'm briefly out of the smithy—Udo has to bury all the bronze swords in the backyard for that weathered look, so the ball's in his court. Still, I've been busy. I'm working on enamel pin designs. What do you think? Can you tell what B is? I've also been publicizing the game. I contracted with a consulting company called LaunchBoom to help me, because I don't know from marketing. Little did I know it would drop me into the crossfire of tabletop games...