Ly0nnesse: Journeys of the Imagination and Such

First off, I’m getting reports you guys are getting your PHYSICAL copies of Agents of Oblivion and are reading through them and getting ready to set up your campaigns (if you haven’t already begun them). I’d recommend you checking out the HUGE number of missives our diligent director, Ed Wetterman, has been putting together and he’s ALWAYS ready to hear from you. Or post on our forums. Talk to us!!!

Now, I’m going to let you know I’m mulling over the whole META article I promised you guys a few weeks back. It’s coming together (in bits and pieces as things often do for me). Lately, I’d say over the last week or so, I’ve been mulling over something altogether different. Something that I’ve been turning around in my mind like a puzzle box while I work on layout or do the more mechanical aspects of my work. [1. In this case, I mean mechanical in the automatic sense and NOT the more creative territory of game mechanisms.]

What am I fixated on? Well, it’s fiddling with situational-based scenario generation rather than plot driven scenario design (which I’ve successfully tackled and you’ve seen in the form of our adventure generators). I’ve tweaked and refined them based on experience and feedback over the years, but they are essential variations and permutations on what was developed a number of years ago at this point (as first revealed in Realms of Cthulhu). They aren’t going away any time soon. As any creative, I like to challenge myself and have been exposed to a number of games, such as Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, Fiasco, and Technoir which have caused me to challenge some of my conceptions of design. And I’d be remiss in leaving out the various iterations of FATE I’ve consumed over the years. What I’m trying to say is perhaps I’m exploring Ly0nnesse a bit, a mythical land lying beyond the fields we know where part of the excitement and beauty is the fact the grass is not necessarily greener, but a different shade of green from what we’ve grown accustomed to, and the arrangement of the stars is slightly skewed. What sent me on this quest into the Dreamlands is some design work for Agents of Oblivion, we’ll see if I return with the Golden Fleece or if I am fleeced myself.

Until next time, I bid you, dear reader, adieu!