🌈🚀 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. I put stalks of crown-pink in a jar on the table. If you can see them. Don't mind the smoke. The raccoons are in the back yard, getting their ship together. Tomorrow morning at 9 am Eastern, the Kickstarter for Raccoon Sky Pirates: Total Chaos Edition will finally launch. I made a hilarious video for it. I can't post it here, because it's too big. But you can see it on the Kickstarter page tomorrow morning. Yuri Lowenthal, the voice of Spider-Man, narrated...
Hi Reader, Whew! What a time it's been since we last got together. Unconscionably, I swiped a stalk of Lady's Gloves from a neighbor's hellstrip and put them in a milk bottle on the table. They look magical, but it's still theft. If you've been following along, you may think the Raccoon Sky Pirates Kickstarter should have launched by now. Yesterday, even. But a Kickstarter is always more work than I remember, and let's be fair, I was pushing too hard in not enough time. So now the Dumpster...
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. I had some flowers on the table, but this raccoon ate them. I call him Reggie. Careful, he bites. If you started coming to game night because you backed the original Raccoon Sky Pirates Kickstarter, then this game night is especially for you. Because Raccoon Sky Pirates is coming back. The legendary box set, all black and white, that came in a little mailer box, will be available in the upcoming, imminent Kickstarter. It looked like this: But that's not...