Games
From Distant Shores: we're published!
Strange invaders land on the shores of a peninsula known for its independence; rumors about their true purpose are numerous and varied. Two old friends reunite after more than a decade, brought together by a young man looking to advance himself in the world.
Our book is a consolidated collection of Actual Play fiction for a Burning Wheel campaign that ran for more than sixty sessions over the course of two years.
Eloy Cintron was GM. Neil Goodrich (Alistair), Jose Lozada (Aedan), and I (Gyles) were players. Along the way, Neil Goodrich wrote actual play reports as stylized fiction, and the rest of the players contributed some content, as well.
Now, Neil has bound that content together as a beautiful book. Totaling 608 pages, it’s even larger than Burning Wheel itself. ![mp-photo-alt[]=mp-photo-alt[]=mp-photo-alt[]=mp-photo-alt[]=](https://blog.grotenhuis.info/uploads/2019/dee4bd526f.jpg)
Inside, you’ll find a map of the Braemar Penninsula (courtesy of John Love) 
Also, a commissioned picture of the cast (from Marcin S),
It even includes stylized starting and ending character descriptions & sheets.
As we start to go back through the fiction, it’s amazing to see how much foreshadowing there is about how the situation and the characters will turn out.
Because it was my character, I’ve included pictures of how Gyles started out. How he ended was an entirely different picture…. 
I am really excited about this book. Ask me anything!
RPG talk: one Burning Wheel character suffered a Mortal Wound due to a bandit arrow. Faithful character used double-Deeds roll to successfully pray for a Miracle and save the dying one. Epic! 🔥☸️
On regression in game design
The impact of a mechanically bad rule is usually that refs have to house rule around it, which they love doing. The impact of a socially, culturally bad rule is the propagation of bullshit that we as a culture have been trying to work past and through.
Re: the OSR scene
This was my response to Martin Ralya’s concerns about the OSR scene:
Aaron’s comments kind of hit it for me: being defined by “old-school” brings this “remember the good old days?” vibe, which attracts not just people who think fondly of the “good old days” of games, but also folks who think fondly of not having their privilege challenged. This makes it (whether intentional or not) a fundamentally political statement, but also the kind of political statement that carries these “don’t be political” demands which seek to defend any remaining unequal power which they feel is being threatened. I think we’re seeing this play out more and more. To save this community, I think it would need to focus more on the tangibles of the games themselves (what system, design, or theme issues matter to the community?) and less on the nostalgic “member berries”. And it would need a new name that represents those things.
From one of my first game designs. My brother and I made a custom, longer Monopoly board and new cards.
Awesome Gift List: Resistance Board Games
We played modified two-player EPYC (telephone pictionary) tonight. Here are some of the gems.
