[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":802},["ShallowReactive",2],{"navigation-blog-public":3,"section-availability":45,"blog-index":47},[4,37],{"label":5,"category":6,"to":7,"children":8},"Blog Posts","blog","\u002Fblog",[9,13,16,19,22,25,28,31,34],{"label":10,"to":11,"sort_order":12},"Style Upgrade","\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00009",0,{"label":14,"to":15,"sort_order":12},"Into the Dark","\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00001",{"label":17,"to":18,"sort_order":12},"Time Dilation","\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00002",{"label":20,"to":21,"sort_order":12},"Waypoint","\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00003",{"label":23,"to":24,"sort_order":12},"Loom","\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00004",{"label":26,"to":27,"sort_order":12},"The Pre-History of Praxis","\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00005",{"label":29,"to":30,"sort_order":12},"The Workshop","\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00006",{"label":32,"to":33,"sort_order":12},"ÆLDOS","\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00007",{"label":35,"to":36,"sort_order":12},"The First New Year","\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00008",{"label":38,"category":39,"to":40,"children":41},"Apps","apps-inline","\u002Fapps",[42],{"label":43,"href":44,"sort_order":12},"Manifest","\u002Fmanifest\u002F",{"novos":46,"aeldos":46,"somnos":46,"praxis":46,"blog":46,"reviews":46,"apps":46},true,[48,102,239,263,328,445,590,657,712],{"id":49,"title":10,"author":50,"body":51,"created":88,"date":89,"description":90,"extension":91,"gallery":88,"image":92,"last_reviewed":88,"meta":93,"navigation":46,"path":11,"seo":94,"status":95,"stem":97,"summary":88,"tags":98,"visibility":100,"__hash__":101},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00009.md","Elias Black",{"type":52,"value":53,"toc":83},"minimark",[54,59,63,77,80],[55,56,58],"h2",{"id":57},"adding-some-style","Adding some style...",[60,61,62],"p",{},"Changed the website. Added some stuff. Look around and I'm sure you'll notice some differences.",[60,64,65,66,71,72,76],{},"Check out ",[67,68,70],"a",{"href":69},"\u002Fsomnos\u002Fsetting\u002Fspecies\u002Ftheriae","Theriae",", ",[67,73,75],{"href":74},"\u002Fsomnos\u002Fsetting\u002Flocations\u002Fthe-city-of-nod\u002Fthe-territories","The Territories",", and the updated Manifest app.",[60,78,79],{},"More to come soon.",[81,82],"hr",{},{"title":84,"searchDepth":85,"depth":85,"links":86},"",2,[87],{"id":57,"depth":85,"text":58},null,"2026-04-14T00:00:00.000Z","Evolution in action","md","\u002Fimages\u002Floom-gallery\u002Fcarbon-planet-example.png",{},{"title":10,"description":90},[96],"published","blog\u002Fblog-post-00009",[99],"tools","public","VwfMx2-HzS6OJ6OHSpuiP1YDHOy_oKqAhI2DvMOdw6M",{"id":103,"title":14,"author":50,"body":104,"created":88,"date":88,"description":224,"extension":91,"gallery":225,"image":226,"last_reviewed":88,"meta":227,"navigation":46,"path":15,"seo":228,"status":96,"stem":229,"summary":88,"tags":230,"visibility":100,"__hash__":238},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00001.md",{"type":52,"value":105,"toc":217},[106,110,113,132,136,139,142,146,149,182,186,204,207,211,214],[55,107,109],{"id":108},"welcome-to-novos-codex","Welcome to Novos Codex",[60,111,112],{},"This is the first blog post for the Novos website, a project to create:",[114,115,116,120,123,126,129],"ul",{},[117,118,119],"li",{},"a new science fiction setting for fiction and gaming",[117,121,122],{},"a rule system for running TTRPG games within this setting",[117,124,125],{},"tools such as interactive maps, random generators, gear customizers, action trackers and more",[117,127,128],{},"the webapp that hosts all of the above",[117,130,131],{},"a personal website for hosting other things like personal tools I've built and software reviews for applications I've found useful in my creative endeavours",[55,133,135],{"id":134},"what-is-novos","What is Novos?",[60,137,138],{},"Novos is a science fiction setting, worldbuilding project (aka Constructed World) which describes a future where, although humanity has expanded throughout the stars and made incredible technological advancements, it still faces familiar problems; greed, corruption, authoritarianism, fundamentalism, and cruelty. The context is different but the problems aren't or, if you prefer: history rhymes.",[60,140,141],{},"To be clear, Novos isn't a hopeless, grimdark, crapsack world. It's not even a dystopia really (though some parts of it definitely qualify). Novos is meant to be a world composed of a spectrum, from hope to horror. This means a variety of factions, species, and technologies meant to provide a complex and immersive backdrop for storytelling and roleplaying. Relevant subgenre terms might include cyberpunk, solarpunk, and rubber science fiction (not hard but not soft either). Perhaps Stellarpunk? Someone else has probably already claimed that but think \"Hope with rough edges, kindness ready for a fight.\" It's a setting that asks the reader\u002Fplayer to embrace a messy future with eyes open and to be ready to get their hands dirty if they want to make it better.",[55,143,145],{"id":144},"what-youll-find-here","What You'll Find Here",[60,147,148],{},"The Novos Codex provides:",[114,150,151,158,164,170,176],{},[117,152,153,157],{},[154,155,156],"strong",{},"Setting Information",": Explore the universe, its factions, species, and history.",[117,159,160,163],{},[154,161,162],{},"Game Rules",": Learn the mechanics of the Praxis roleplaying game system.",[117,165,166,169],{},[154,167,168],{},"Stories",": Tales from the Novos universe.",[117,171,172,175],{},[154,173,174],{},"Tools",": Access special tools and resources.",[117,177,178,181],{},[154,179,180],{},"Blog Updates",": Latest additions and news.",[55,183,185],{"id":184},"getting-started","Getting Started",[60,187,188,189,193,194,198,199,203],{},"If you're new to Novos, I recommend starting with the ",[67,190,192],{"href":191},"Projects\u002FNovos\u002FPublished\u002Foverview","Setting Overview"," to get a feel for the universe. From there, you can explore the ",[67,195,197],{"href":196},"Projects\u002FNovos\u002FPublished\u002Fsetting\u002Fhistory\u002Ftimeline","Timeline",", factions, species, or dive into the ",[67,200,202],{"href":201},"Projects\u002FS-Praxis\u002FComplete\u002Foverview","Game System",".",[60,205,206],{},"For those looking to play, check out the rulebook to learn how to create your own character for adventures in the Novos universe. An interactive character builder is currently in development along with a lifepath game\u002Ftool so keep an eye out for that. Stay tuned for regular updates and new content!",[55,208,210],{"id":209},"who-made-all-this","Who made all this?",[60,212,213],{},"Elias Black is the sole human author of this project but both open and closed source LLM models (particularly Claude Sonnet) have been used to assist in project and information management, coding, brainstorming (\"rubber ducking\"), and playtesting.",[60,215,216],{},"The technical stack used to build this site includes:\nVue 3, Quasar, Markdown-It, Cytoscape, js-YAML and Pinia.",{"title":84,"searchDepth":85,"depth":85,"links":218},[219,220,221,222,223],{"id":108,"depth":85,"text":109},{"id":134,"depth":85,"text":135},{"id":144,"depth":85,"text":145},{"id":184,"depth":85,"text":185},{"id":209,"depth":85,"text":210},"A warm welcome to the Novos Codex, your comprehensive guide to the Novos science fiction universe and roleplaying game.","test-gallery","\u002Fimages\u002Fdefault.png",{},{"title":14,"description":224},"blog\u002Fblog-post-00001",[231,232,233,234,235,236,237],"announcement","welcome","introduction","genre","intent","overview","blog-post","QRgJhfr_3Utxxs1dnCLxPuUCqm9JnSzjpmOYA0swYI0",{"id":240,"title":17,"author":50,"body":241,"created":88,"date":88,"description":256,"extension":91,"gallery":88,"image":226,"last_reviewed":88,"meta":257,"navigation":46,"path":18,"seo":258,"status":96,"stem":259,"summary":88,"tags":260,"visibility":100,"__hash__":262},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00002.md",{"type":52,"value":242,"toc":253},[243,247,250],[55,244,246],{"id":245},"five-months","Five Months",[60,248,249],{},"That's about how long it took to actually deploy the thing. In my defense i did get an ADHD diagnoses in that period which seems relevant. I also implemented like a dozen enhancements and hundreds of bug fixes so there's that.\nI'm not sure how often I'll post blog entries. Probably less frequently than I update content, but I'm going to try and make sure I use the blog to communicate about added features, major changes to content, and software releases. I want to try and put something up at least once a week but... Well five months between v1 and release is probably a more accurate predictor of behavior than my stated intentions.",[60,251,252],{},"We'll see I guess.",{"title":84,"searchDepth":85,"depth":85,"links":254},[255],{"id":245,"depth":85,"text":246},"... And then I actually deployed the whole thing",{},{"title":17,"description":256},"blog\u002Fblog-post-00002",[261],"update","_agTLveY4HtM-GlwDiLtoWtiCxFx822HrSyM43tgpBY",{"id":264,"title":20,"author":50,"body":265,"created":88,"date":88,"description":318,"extension":91,"gallery":88,"image":319,"last_reviewed":88,"meta":320,"navigation":46,"path":21,"seo":321,"status":96,"stem":322,"summary":88,"tags":323,"visibility":100,"__hash__":327},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00003.md",{"type":52,"value":266,"toc":315},[267,271,274,284,291,299,302,309],[55,268,270],{"id":269},"too-many-things","Too Many Things",[60,272,273],{},"I recently found myself looking for a way to track my personal projects. I have too many ideas for stories, software, game systems, you name it. Some of them are even decent, I swear! The problem is, for as long as I can remember, I've struggled to finish any of them. I'll start them, make lots of progress, then either get distracted 50-70% of the way through by something else or realize there's some dependency for the current project that needs to be developed first and I'll move on to that, endlessly climbing down a chain of dependencies from which I cannot escape. And each time I move on to something new I forget  all the context of the previous project*.",[60,275,276,277,283],{},"For the longest time I've managed most of my  projects via ",[67,278,282],{"href":279,"rel":280},"https:\u002F\u002Fsyneti.ca\u002F#\u002Fspecial\u002Ftools\u002Fr-obsidian",[281],"nofollow","Obsidian"," and before that applications like Joplin, Notion, Legend Keeper, or just in text files or on paper. But, because I'm terrible at information management, this just ended up creating lots of messy notes and even more inertia whenever I felt the urge to return to a former project.",[60,285,286,287,290],{},"And when I went looking for project management applications I mostly found ",[154,288,289],{},"Project Management Applications"," in capital letters. Tools for professional PMs, people with MBAs, applications built for teams, with schedules, gantt and burndown charts, and monthly subscriptions. These were tools that were way more than I need and probably anti-productive for my purposes. These are GIS systems when what I needed was a Compass.",[60,292,293,294,298],{},"So I made ",[67,295,20],{"href":296,"rel":297},"https:\u002F\u002Fsyneti.ca\u002F#\u002Fspecial\u002Ftools\u002Fr-waypoint",[281],". It's a simple project management tool, local only, built for a single user to manage projects without actually getting into all the fussy details of management. Something you can have open in the background, with lots of little features built for how I work. And to be clear, I built it for me so your milage may vary significantly. You can find out more and download a copy on the release page. It's an amateur's tool, built for desktop only (no mobile), with pretty low level tech, but it's been working for me. It helped me get this whole website done as well as a few other tools and apps I'll likely post soon.",[60,300,301],{},"If you use it, let me know what you think. I go by grimmway on that discordant chat app... and now I'm thinking I need to come up with some sort of contact system for this site. Guess I'll add another item to the backlog.",[60,303,304],{},[67,305,308],{"href":306,"rel":307},"https:\u002F\u002Fsyneti.ca\u002F#\u002Fspecial\u002Fgalaxy-simulator",[281],"Oh, also I made this galaxy simulator toy thingy",[310,311,312],"blockquote",{},[60,313,314],{},"*Did I mention I have an ADHD diagnoses?",{"title":84,"searchDepth":85,"depth":85,"links":316},[317],{"id":269,"depth":85,"text":270},"A project manager for people who don't like managing projects","\u002Fimages\u002Fwaypoint-gallery\u002Fwaypoint-app-icon.png",{},{"title":20,"description":318},"blog\u002Fblog-post-00003",[324,325,326,237],"tool","software-release","project-management","tCLr5umYERkJGo5GSYQvYbSQT9HeK2uzGbiRMIjF91A",{"id":329,"title":23,"author":50,"body":330,"created":88,"date":88,"description":435,"extension":91,"gallery":88,"image":436,"last_reviewed":88,"meta":437,"navigation":46,"path":24,"seo":438,"status":96,"stem":439,"summary":88,"tags":440,"visibility":100,"__hash__":444},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00004.md",{"type":52,"value":331,"toc":427},[332,336,339,342,347,350,353,356,360,363,367,370,373,415,418,421],[55,333,335],{"id":334},"weaving-worlds","Weaving Worlds",[60,337,338],{},"I've been tinkering around with procedural generation for a while. I have always liked the idea of modelling worlds to create emergent content. It's a staple of a lot in video games, to create variety (or the illusion of variety). It's obviously a descendant of random tables in TTRPGs in a lot of ways but I don't often see good procedural gen in TTRPGs. I'm not sure if I've done it well mind you, but Loom is my attempt.",[60,340,341],{},"Loom is a suite of procedural content generators. \"Random generators\" but not random exactly, they follow defined rules. Right now Loom only generates names and planets (quite the spectrum) but I intend to expand generation to include alien species, settlements, space ships, characters, groups and more. The underlying rules and the resulting output is tuned to the Novos SciFi setting. I want this both for myself and to create a suite of tools for storytellers who want to make Novos content.",[343,344,346],"h3",{"id":345},"why","Why?",[60,348,349],{},"A few reasons. The biggest is because I often get hung up on key steps in the creative process. Naming is a good example because I want the names of my characters and locations to make sense in the context of the setting. Yeah, I could just randomly generate a name but names aren't random. The name of a character should reflect their culture, their species, their background. To contradict the bard, a rose by any other name is the wrong name. Rose comes with connotations as do all names.",[60,351,352],{},"And on the opposite end of the scale, when I need a planet for my SciFi setting, I cannot afford to spend days or weeks humming and hawing over the science of it. I slip down rabbit holes every time and, inevitably, lose all momentum. Being able to generate a planet within a set of complex but not overwhelming rules lets me stay on task and also lets me add more depth to my setting without losing weeks to the calculus of exoplanets.",[60,354,355],{},"The other reason to do it is because my brain tends to work in rules and structure and permutation so procedural generation let's me work at that level. It's somewhere between useful and a distraction from making actual content. Win some lose some.",[343,357,359],{"id":358},"why-not-just-use-something-existing","Why not just use something existing?",[60,361,362],{},"Yeah I could use random tables or excel or build in Perchance or other tools but creating my own seemed like an interesting challenge and I had a lot of ideas that didn't fit neatly into an existing tool. Creating my own lets me embed my logic deeper in the design. I know some people use LLMs for this sort of stuff but I have found that they are surprisingly terrible at being actually random. You can see this if you ever try to get a list of names or generate an NPC; the same names show up over and over along with tropes and other stale ideas. Even if I cared to devise a prompt to mitigate this and provide the substantial amount of context needed to convey the rules and traits of my setting to an LLM, I want something I have more control and insight into. I think LLMs might be useful later in the process but procedural generation is better expressed in traditional code.",[55,364,366],{"id":365},"what-does-it-do","What does it do?",[60,368,369],{},"Loom is a suite of tools for generating content that embeds a variety of setting-specific rules for managing output.",[60,371,372],{},"Procedural Generators:",[114,374,375,383,391,399,407],{},[117,376,377,382],{},[67,378,381],{"href":379,"rel":380},"https:\u002F\u002Fsyneti.ca\u002F#\u002Fspecial\u002Floom\u002Fplanet-generator",[281],"Planet",": This tool generates a detailed exoplanet profile using a complex 20 step process behind the scenes that takes into account stellar conditions, physical features, orbital characteristics, material composition, atmosphere, temperature, climate, moons\u002Frings, biosphere, resources, habitability,  features and more. There's about 10k lines of code between the configuration and validators and it's not done yet. The goal is to create plausible and interesting planets without trying to simulate planetary formation and evolution directly. Not every world will make sense but the goal is to make most of them at least scientifically plausible. Oh and it generates images too! Stylized assets for my galaxy map, or some future version of it. Also because it's neat! The visualization logic uses to use the traits of the planet to inform the visualization. It's not always right but I'm also working on giving users more direct control over visualizations as well. I might wait on that until I'm more satisfied with the render process.",[117,384,385,390],{},[67,386,389],{"href":387,"rel":388},"https:\u002F\u002Fsyneti.ca\u002F#\u002Fspecial\u002Floom\u002Fmoon-generator",[281],"Moon",": Like the planet generator but this one lets you set parent properties and takes into account moon-specific processes like distance from parent and the effect on tidal heating. It also automatically filters sizes. Work in progress so likely has issues.",[117,392,393,398],{},[67,394,397],{"href":395,"rel":396},"https:\u002F\u002Fsyneti.ca\u002F#\u002Fspecial\u002Floom\u002Fspecies-generator",[281],"Species",": This tool generates detailed fictional species. The intention is to give the user control but help them create full creature profiles that are based in some sort of inherent logic without constraining all creatures to terran norms. It has a slider for setting how 'alien' you want the output to be and I have significant plans for a more advanced mode that lets the user select what they want then have the tool 'fill in the blanks'. Also a Work in Progress.",[117,400,401,406],{},[67,402,405],{"href":403,"rel":404},"https:\u002F\u002Fsyneti.ca\u002F#\u002Fspecial\u002Floom\u002Fname-generator",[281],"Name",": Novos is a future setting with its own cultural composition and several novel species so a tool to generate names that make cultural and contextual sense seemed appropriate. Lets you select the species, subspecies, faction, subfaction,",[117,408,409,414],{},[67,410,413],{"href":411,"rel":412},"https:\u002F\u002Fsyneti.ca\u002F#\u002Fspecial\u002Floom\u002Fcharacter-generator",[281],"Character",": A tool for creating characters that fit the setting, using the Praxis TTRPG system as an underlying structure to inform context aware narrative descriptions. Covers everything from teh high level Aspects and Skills, down to Traits, Gear, and Narrative descriptions. Work in progress but in a pretty good state.",[60,416,417],{},"For each of these the tool provides the info in UI form but also as YAML, JSON, or in the case of visualizations .PNG. The output stage is the one I've put the least time into though so it likely has bugs. Currently Loom is embedded in Syneti.ca but I've built it so that I can spin it out into a downloadable desktop tool at some point as well, if there is any interest and once it's closer to complete.",[60,419,420],{},"I have lots of other plans for it as well. Colonies, space stations, ships, more visual elements, etc... the big one is a system generation mode which would generate a full Novos star system with planets, moons, stations, characters, but that sort of relies on everything else being built.",[60,422,423,424],{},"You can check it all out here: ",[67,425,23],{"href":403,"rel":426},[281],{"title":84,"searchDepth":85,"depth":85,"links":428},[429,434],{"id":334,"depth":85,"text":335,"children":430},[431,433],{"id":345,"depth":432,"text":346},3,{"id":358,"depth":432,"text":359},{"id":365,"depth":85,"text":366},"Procedural generation of Novos content","\u002Fimages\u002Floom-gallery\u002Floom.png",{},{"title":23,"description":435},"blog\u002Fblog-post-00004",[324,325,237,441,442,443],"procedural-generation","random-generation","worldbuilding","qyZneVyLYF241Oi6v6VJt19sIEuuYP1orOwLr4NtqXk",{"id":446,"title":26,"author":50,"body":447,"created":88,"date":88,"description":580,"extension":91,"gallery":88,"image":581,"last_reviewed":88,"meta":582,"navigation":46,"path":27,"seo":583,"status":96,"stem":584,"summary":88,"tags":585,"visibility":100,"__hash__":589},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00005.md",{"type":52,"value":448,"toc":570},[449,453,457,460,467,470,473,476,480,483,492,495,499,502,505,509,512,515,541,544,548,551,557,561,564,567],[55,450,452],{"id":451},"the-meta-arc","The Meta-arc",[343,454,456],{"id":455},"the-past","The Past",[60,458,459],{},"There are two hobbies I enjoy above all others; worldbuilding and roleplaying games. They're symbiotic activities for me. In the former I get to imagine new worlds, what events created them, the structures and boundaries and edges. In the latter I get to take on a role in these fictional worlds and feel what it's like to inhabit them, what sorts of creatures and characters would occupy them.",[60,461,462,463,203],{},"I took up tabletop roleplaying games in my teens. I don't generally remember my childhood, huge swaths of my past are blank space, but my gaming memories endure. I remember the social moments, the stories, the people, the epic moments hinging on the caprice of the dice... but I also remember the books. I remember the joy of opening a new sourcebook or adventure and exploring not just the fantastical, but the structure placed around it, the ways in which the author conveyed their mechanical aesthetic, the way they built challenges and threats out of text and tables, the way the rules as much as the setting demonstrated how they ",[464,465,466],"em",{},"played",[60,468,469],{},"As someone who has always struggled with social interactions TTRPGs offered a way to interact with others, but these books and the worlds and rules within them showed me  a way to build structure into those things without predetermining narratives or characters.",[60,471,472],{},"The broader game defining rules, the 'core rules', provided a sense of fairness and safety, a common language for strengths and limitations that a group could gather around. An architecture for social engagement. I needed this because I was a small, shy, and awkward kid with anxiety and emotional issues who didn't really know how to interact with people in the real world. Not everyone came to the game with that baggage but some people did and for me the core rules were like a treaty, an agreement that offered guidance and psychological safety. The core rules were the boilerplate for a group consensus or constitution. The DM\u002FGM\u002FReferee\u002FStoryteller might guide the events, interpret the rules, but the rules themselves gave some assurance about what was possible, reasonable, or appropriate and what wasn't. Each decision by the DM was setting precedent and each 'table rule' or homebrew system was a new treaty. These were moments when the group self-defined; the setting, the story, the aesthetic, and their relationships to each other.",[60,474,475],{},"Within the core rules and throughout the artefacts of the genre though, there was another kind of rule that always deeply appealed to me. A clever game or adventure designer could, in a single paragraph or table, express some feature of the setting and system that could produce a thousand interesting narrative moments. A table for rolling outcomes of using a magic item, a paragraph outlining possible actions and responses that might occur in an adventurers investigation of a room in a dungeon, or a list of things an NPC might believe or know. Functionally, these were if\u002Felse statements, logic hidden in tables and text, tools for the overburdened DM. Each one was like a gem to me. Each one let my imagination run wild with possibilities and each sourcebook or adventure could have dozens or hundreds of these and they scratched an itch I couldn't name or define at the time.",[343,477,479],{"id":478},"the-present","The Present",[60,481,482],{},"I don't know how much of this is me and how much of this is a common experience but as time passed the core rules became background. There weren't really arguments or discussions about them, we just came to know each others intentions and expectations. We knew what the DM would let us get away with, where we could push things, when to roll the dice and accept the outcome, and when to put the dice down and tell a story. The rules had established a pattern of practice that made them reference instead of law. But then I started to notice two overlapping things:",[484,485,486,489],"ol",{},[117,487,488],{},"The rules became extensions: When rules came up it was usually because some new system was needed either outside and beyond the core rules, or extended from them. Balance breaking higher level abilities, vehicles, followers, strongholds, etc. The rules came up when new elements entered the game because they fell outside the main game activities of \"explore\", \"talk\", \"fight\". They were ways to add variety and opportunity.",[117,490,491],{},"The rules became friction: When it wasn't about some new system, referring to the rules became an indication of a problem. A place where the party diverged in some way. The rules were referenced as authority, as a way to decide the path out of a real-life conflict of intent, aesthetic, or belief. The treaty always held but for some the rules chafed.",[60,493,494],{},"For my part I was somewhere between a peacemaker and a storyteller. I was always trying to find the answer or frame the decision in a way that would keep everyone happy and tell a good story. Because what was the point of this fun social activity if people weren't having fun and what was the point of telling a story if it was a bad one?",[343,496,498],{"id":497},"undeath","Undeath",[60,500,501],{},"I started with D&D 2nd Edition but its edges were too constrictive for the story for my DM wanted to tell so he made a custom system. It blended elements of D&D, Fallout,  White Wolf's World of Darkness and probably a hundred other influences I was too daft to understand. Character advancement was with points from a catalog, there were action points to define what could be done in a turn, the system supported non-human and non-demihuman characters. My DM had a binder with the rules, a source book for our table alone. It was great. Most of what I've made today wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't watched my DM carve out his own space for his own stories.",[60,503,504],{},"There was also something poetic about it all. It was in the context of a Ravenloft campaign where our characters had all died and come back as some form of undead. It was a story of death and rebirth as something different and more powerful and the system had done the same thing as the characters. You could see the bones of D&D in it, but it had developed new abilities by feeding on other systems. It was messier, had more sharp edges, but undeniably more interesting.",[343,506,508],{"id":507},"exploration","Exploration",[60,510,511],{},"Around that time I started to branch out into other game systems. The first one, and one which has stuck with me, was the World of Darkness. WoD exposed me to a much more narratively driven game system, one focused on tone over technicalities. Early on it was copies of the LARP handbook and I remember being enamoured with the flexibility, the tone, the drama. I wouldn't actually play the game with others until later, and only attended 2-3 sessions of a Vampire LARP, mostly in the dingy upstairs of a bar. You had to know someone to get in really. I could pretend I was above it all, but it felt really neat and I just couldn't hack it. I felt too awkward, too rural and I couldn't grasp the political intrigue of it. I wanted action and plot and excitement and I had a few moments of it, but my memory for faces and names is atrocious, and my sense of style doubly so. The ungenerous version: I was not made for a game that mostly amounted to hanging out with other horny teens and twenty somethings and doing improv exercises. I was just too stiff and awkward (rizzless?) and too in my own head to fake it. But I learned a lot and it sticks with me to today.",[60,513,514],{},"Other games came and went with varying durations. GURPS, Cyberpunk 2020, Scion, Firefly, and more. Each one was a learning experience. But the two other biggest games for me were ones I ran. New World of Darkness and D20 Modern. There were four different campaigns and I only remember the broad order, not which ones actually came first:",[114,516,517,523,529,535],{},[117,518,519,522],{},[154,520,521],{},"Bound Spark",": A near-future pre-apocalyptic cyberpunk style story run using a modified World of Darkness system. Badass characters, big fights, lots of big epic moments in a world that was in some ways weirdly prescient; isolationist USA, pandemics, megacorporations like 'McMicroBucksMart', rapidly emerging technology pushing the boundaries of identity. Not the first time I ran my own game, but definitely the first time I finished one.",[117,524,525,528],{},[154,526,527],{},"The City of Nod",": A modern urban fantasy story with people pulled from the real world into the crossroads pocket universe of the eponymous city. Again, using heavily modified new World of Darkness rules. More big moments, drama, focus on myth and legend over science but still informed by cyberpunk with corporations drafting monsters for use in their plans, dragons imprisoned and used as fuel, strange magics and creatures that referenced real world religion and myth seen through a skeptic's eyes. More religious fanatics than Bound Spark. No ending that I recall but lots of great moments.",[117,530,531,534],{},[154,532,533],{},"Green Earth",": The sequel to Bound Spark, taking place in a world changed by the choices the characters made at the end of that story. A world of arcology cities fighting against an ever expanding and intelligent 'Green', a nanotech plague. This one used a blend of Modern 20, World of Darkness, and Star Wars rules. This was more science fantasy than cyberpunk with 'Sentinels', individuals who could use the ambient nanotech of the setting to do incredible things (modelled on select Jedi abilities from Star Wars and nWoD abilities). Wild legions fighting the Green, chaotic outpost cities, strange monsters, urban intrigue.",[117,536,537,540],{},[154,538,539],{},"Pax Noctis",": My second kick at urban fantasy, this time in the fictional city of 'Midway'. This was a cross-species New World of Darkness story. PC's included a Promethean, a Changeling, a Mage, a Werewolf, a Kitsune, a Hunter... all working for the 'St. Germaine Foundation', a sort of pre-SCP SCP doing monster of the week style adventures. I took the nWoD creatures out of their predefined social structures and largely positioned them as a motely crew in conflict with said structures. Took some big shots and not all of them landed, but the effort to find some balance between the various types of character, to create a story about the power in differences, was well worth it.",[60,542,543],{},"Then came Aeldos, an original science fantasy setting and the associated unnamed system that would eventually become Praxis. Aeldos deserves its own post some time but it was basically my focus for me 30's. I ran four different campaigns in it and a couple one-shots but Aeldos was only possible because I learned from the previous stories and systems. And I haven't even mentioned the campaigns I played in, other than that first one. Lots of D&D, but also forays into stranger domains like a GURPS game where I played a monster, an original scifi setting called Event Horizon, a Scion game as a child of Anubis, a Firefly game as a dashing male courtesan. Nor have I touched on the \"interactive fiction\", the online games where the rules were thin and character and story was the focus...",[343,545,547],{"id":546},"praxis","Praxis",[60,549,550],{},"If you've read this far, and if you're familiar with the systems I've mentioned, then you can see the edges of Praxis. It's current iteration, informed by all of the above, actually started as a collaborative attempt between three DMs to brainstorm and build something that we could share, that aligned our sensibilities. Shared documents, in-person playtesting, integration into campaigns. It was a fun second project but we were all busy, valued different things, and thought in different directions. One of the DM's moved away, the other had a kid, and the energy to sustain it slipped. But that early work sparked something in me, a desire to carve out my own specific mechanical space for telling stories with my friends.",[60,552,553,554,556],{},"The current iteration of Praxis is the progeny of that system and all the cobbled together systems before it. It's a system that was built out through the construction of a half-dozen fictional worlds, thousands of hours of game time, and countless dice rolls and dramatic moments and this latest version is my attempt to create something that's distinctly mine. A system with a solid core, modularity, and the ability to cross genres, but moreover an attempt to not just build rules but also ",[464,555,99],{},". Tools for storytellers and players to build what they want, play how they want. Tools for roleplaying, worldbuilding, and collaborative storytelling online that aren't focused on replicating a tabletop experience. The kinds of tools that help me and hopefully the ones that help others. So that's what Praxis is.",[55,558,560],{"id":559},"conclusion","Conclusion",[60,562,563],{},"I've no illusion that Praxis will be of note in the annals of gaming. It's got too much DNA from other systems, obvious conclusions, too much simplicity or complexity in the wrong places. It's got enough of me in it to be awkward and stiff and I'm constantly getting lost in the meta, in building tools instead of running the games I should be running to vet and evolve them. Short of some radical shift in my circumstances I doubt I'll ever put the effort into marketing it and it might be years until I run another game.",[60,565,566],{},"But that's fine. While I want others to be able to enjoy it, I built it (and continue to build it) for myself more than anyone else. As an ST and as a person with social anxiety and OCD, I need the structure and as a person into their 40's it's the rough equivalent of puttering in the garage on a kit car or making tables and chairs or gardening. Whatever it is, I enjoy the effort, and I'm making a bit of progress every day. Right now the goal is to put it out there in a way that makes it useful, easy to read, to commit to a core, a structure and share it.",[60,568,569],{},"Maybe a day will come soon when I'll be done that step, when the rules and tools will be good enough and I'll get that urge to put the signboard back up looking for players.",{"title":84,"searchDepth":85,"depth":85,"links":571},[572,579],{"id":451,"depth":85,"text":452,"children":573},[574,575,576,577,578],{"id":455,"depth":432,"text":456},{"id":478,"depth":432,"text":479},{"id":497,"depth":432,"text":498},{"id":507,"depth":432,"text":508},{"id":546,"depth":432,"text":547},{"id":559,"depth":85,"text":560},"A history of games and stories and the ancestry of the Praxis system","\u002Fimages\u002Fspace-gallery\u002FSOL-HOOKS.png",{},{"title":26,"description":580},"blog\u002Fblog-post-00005",[546,586,587,588],"ttrpg","gaming","stories","dR2ZVXzXhQJIUV3nk8Q2aPlacv5xh7T7uYbvER5fg58",{"id":591,"title":29,"author":50,"body":592,"created":88,"date":88,"description":650,"extension":91,"gallery":88,"image":651,"last_reviewed":88,"meta":652,"navigation":46,"path":30,"seo":653,"status":96,"stem":654,"summary":88,"tags":655,"visibility":100,"__hash__":656},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00006.md",{"type":52,"value":593,"toc":647},[594,598,601,644],[55,595,597],{"id":596},"irons-in-fires","Irons in Fires",[60,599,600],{},"I feel some strange compulsion to make tools. So what are some of the tools I'm working on currently?",[114,602,603,609,615,621,626,632,638],{},[117,604,605,608],{},[154,606,607],{},"Emprise:",": A tool I'm working on to help me manage all the data about worlds, game systems, other stuff relevant to my hobbies. It's in alpha State right now. This one's been rebuilt a half dozen times now, first as 'data manager', then 'lattice', then 'lathe', 'cosmographer', 'cosm'... Each time I learn something new but I don't know if I'm making progress. The curse of making things is that by the time you've made the thing you've learned enough to want to try again.",[117,610,611,614],{},[154,612,613],{},"Dockyard",": A tool for kitbashing images of ships, frames (mechs), space stations and other modular creations for my setting. Only my second visual tool, most of what I create is about databases. Interesting challenge, but definitely harder than just dealing with data. Functional but I'm struggling with scaling image components and actually building the library of parts.",[117,616,617,620],{},[154,618,619],{},"Sarok",": A solo poker-like game with characters, AI, custom art. Based on my Aeldos setting and tied into the mythology of it. A fun challenge that's taught me about game loops and both app and game design.",[117,622,623,625],{},[154,624,43],{},": Interactive character sheet for Praxis TTRPG. Version 3 of this I think. Still very much in-progress but coming along well enough.",[117,627,628,631],{},[154,629,630],{},"Lifepath",": A choose-your-own-adventure style character creation tool and tool for creating choose-your-own-adventures.",[117,633,634,637],{},[154,635,636],{},"Spark",": Sort of a spinoff of Lifepath, but with full RPG mechanics. Open world text\u002Fvisual novel style RPG tool and tool for making worlds\u002Fcontent within this context.",[117,639,640,643],{},[154,641,642],{},"MemoryPalace",": A vague idea I have about creating nested, annotated image maps. Drill through\u002Fdown\u002Facross images to explore ideas.",[60,645,646],{},"As is the case for most, for each tool I make I learn something that makes me want to make or remake some other tool. And for each week I take off of the endeavour I feel like I've lost the plot entirely. It doesn't help that I feel a constant tension between the the stuff I want to keep in my head for my own creations and the stuff I have to keep in my head for my job.",{"title":84,"searchDepth":85,"depth":85,"links":648},[649],{"id":596,"depth":85,"text":597},"A short list of things I'm working on","\u002Fimages\u002Floom-gallery\u002Firon-planet-example.png",{},{"title":29,"description":650},"blog\u002Fblog-post-00006",[546,586,99],"_2X8ZVbdM0GkE1JOBL5kckuWzG-ClVE7RmKvwhVOHTg",{"id":658,"title":32,"author":50,"body":659,"created":88,"date":88,"description":704,"extension":91,"gallery":88,"image":705,"last_reviewed":88,"meta":706,"navigation":46,"path":33,"seo":707,"status":96,"stem":708,"summary":88,"tags":709,"visibility":100,"__hash__":711},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00007.md",{"type":52,"value":660,"toc":700},[661,665,668,671,674,677,680,683,686,688,691,694,697],[55,662,664],{"id":663},"the-world-prior","The World Prior",[60,666,667],{},"Novos, the setting outlined on this page is relatively new. Seeds of it were planted decades ago with earlier TTRPG campaigns like Bound Spark and Green Earth, but the current iteration is less than a few years old. Prior to that my attention was solely dedicated to the world of Ældos. Here's the intro from the quickstart guide I made for it:",[60,669,670],{},"Hardened mercenaries fight through horrors in the depths of an ancient ruin, hunting the corrupted machine that created them, seeking coin and glory. Intrepid explorers venture beyond the edge of mapped territory in search of a lost city of shapechangers, following hints in dusty tomes toward secrets and power. Cunning thieves move through the shadows of a sorcerer's manor, searching for the arcane words she uses to command fundamental forces.",[60,672,673],{},"Ældos is a world where survival demands cunning, steel, and charm. Heroes and opportunists carve out their place in the dangerous space between civilization and wilderness, between human and other.",[60,675,676],{},"The world spans extremes; perilous ruins crawling with predators, luminous eternal cities filled with technological wonders and political intrigue, frontier outposts pushing back against the wild, industrial cities built with blood, sweat, and iron. In a world dense with monsters and mysteries, there is much to be gained by the curious and the bold.",[60,678,679],{},"Ældos does not welcome the unprepared. Ældans contend with voracious fauna and noxious flora, with outlaws and wildfolk, with organic and mechanical remnants from previous eras. Most people survive within fortress cities, armed outposts, or well-guarded caravans. High walls, preserved knowledge, and skilled hands on weapons—these are the pillars of civilization across Ældos' human and quasihuman cultures.",[60,681,682],{},"It wasn't always this way. Humanity once ruled this world. The precursor culture known as the Urul Imperium tamed Ældos with machine and magic, but disaster ended their gilded reign. A hundred forgotten cataclysms fractured the Imperium, leaving fragments: ruins, vaults, dormant technology, lost arcane formulae hidden in distant places or buried deep beneath the risen world. A single fragment, discovered, deciphered, activated, can elevate or destroy an entire culture, and lift its discoverers from obscurity and into legend.",[60,684,685],{},"Your story starts in the age of such discoveries. A long age of darkness has ended and a new age of humanity dawns. Slowly, painfully, what was lost is being found, what was wild mapped, what is dangerous pushed back. Monsters catalogued, ancient machines revived, forgotten secrets recovered. There is much left to be done in the reclaiming of the world.",[55,687,346],{"id":345},[60,689,690],{},"Ældos was the result of both a desire for my own fantastical setting and growing aversion to fantasy tropes. I wanted a setting where I could explore myths, legends, magic, culture, adventure, heroism, outside the shadow of Tolkien. I love the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, they were my introduction to fantasy and I owe JRRT much, but after decades of Elves™, Dwarves™, Wizards™, Barbarians™... It feels like this sort of fantasy default has arisen, from D&D in particular. I understand it as comforting common entry point for most, a shorthand that lets people access the fantastic without feeling lost, but even the subversions seem predictable at this point. Don't get me wrong, I can see why it appeals, how it eases people into fantastic stories or gives them a sense of direction, makes the whole thing less intimidating or frustrating.",[60,692,693],{},"But for me, classic\u002Fhigh fantasy increasingly feels like stagnation, creative cowardice, or simply laziness.",[60,695,696],{},"With Aeldos I tried to make new things. New gods, new species, new structures and relationships between magic and technology. No elves, dwarves, orcs; no zeus or odin analogs; no heaven and hell. I started from a gnostic creation myth of an evil elder god and triads of new gods, the Ayr, and I built the world from there. Whenever I came up against a fantasy trope I tried to either reinterpret it or recreate it in the context. I pulled from sci-fi, from cosmic horror, from real world history, from lesser known myths. I tried to make something original and while I'm sure I failed as often as I succeeded, the result is a setting that is mine.",[60,698,699],{},"((ADD LINKS TO AELDOS CONTENT))",{"title":84,"searchDepth":85,"depth":85,"links":701},[702,703],{"id":663,"depth":85,"text":664},{"id":345,"depth":85,"text":346},"On my last big project, the world of Old Bones","\u002Fimages\u002Floom-gallery\u002Fice-planet-example.png",{},{"title":32,"description":704},"blog\u002Fblog-post-00007",[546,586,710],"aeldos","TbTWhf5F4KfAUPdEaZ752zTmPHGHGQ1fY6NjFH6uXUI",{"id":713,"title":35,"author":50,"body":714,"created":88,"date":88,"description":795,"extension":91,"gallery":88,"image":796,"last_reviewed":88,"meta":797,"navigation":46,"path":36,"seo":798,"status":96,"stem":799,"summary":88,"tags":800,"visibility":100,"__hash__":801},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fblog-post-00008.md",{"type":52,"value":715,"toc":791},[716,720,723,752,756,759,773,776,781],[55,717,719],{"id":718},"transits","Transits",[60,721,722],{},"Last year was a strange one.",[114,724,725,728,731,734,737,740,743,746,749],{},[117,726,727],{},"Some creative successes with a lot of progress on nearly a dozen different applications. Making lots of things even if I haven't worked up the will to share them. (This whole site though is my attempt at that)",[117,729,730],{},"Learned a lot about programming and development. I've been a dabbler for a long time but this year was the one where I started to learn the deeper stuff. I'm sure it's not at all related to being properly medicated for ADHD",[117,732,733],{},"Diagnoses and medication for ADHD. It's hard to express how much this has changed for me. I can't help but wonder how much of my life has been defined by my inability to focus and constant hunger for new stimuli. Getting things done, actually finishing them, has always been a struggle. Now it feels achievable. Not easy, but at least not impossible.",[117,735,736],{},"Built this site into something. I've always had some sort of website, but this is new. Coded from scratch, doing my own thing. That's part of how I've learned. It's still janky and probably not to anyone's taste but mine, but it is mine.",[117,738,739],{},"Started building out the world of Novos. More anyhow. There was already a lot. But the act of putting it online has forced me to be more judicious, to clear out the ideas and settle on things a bit. Lots of work to do, but a lot less than before.",[117,741,742],{},"Returned to a stable pattern at work, doing the things I'm actually good at. Probably related to the meds.",[117,744,745],{},"Gender fatigue*",[117,747,748],{},"Deep desire to make things paired with a paralyzing reluctance to share them.",[117,750,751],{},"Increased social isolation. Driven by both anxiety and a sense that I don't fit in anywhere. Trying to fix that. Work in progress.",[55,753,755],{"id":754},"future","Future",[60,757,758],{},"What do I hope for this year?",[114,760,761,764,767,770],{},[117,762,763],{},"Finished projects to share with others",[117,765,766],{},"A better understanding of my self",[117,768,769],{},"More financial stability (or at least not less)",[117,771,772],{},"Friends or friend shaped relationships",[60,774,775],{},"Modest hopes.",[777,778,780],"h4",{"id":779},"gender-fatigue","* Gender Fatigue",[60,782,783,784,787,788,790],{},"It's difficult to describe how exhausting and off-putting it has become to be \"masculine\". Male culture, recently driven so much by the worst sorts of conservative grifters and general assholes, have made masculinity a disgusting performance of vanity, casual cruelty, and proud ignorance. I want to say it wasn't always like this, but I also know it wasn't always that different? I've spent my whole life feeling at odds with my gender, feeling like my male friendships were tiring acts of a very specific type of performance. The past year I've joked with some people that I quit gender, but it's not really a joke. When I was younger I thought it was worth trying to defend or demonstrate some version of masculinity, an idealized version derived almost universally from fiction, but the more I hear about people who ",[464,785,786],{},"feel"," their gender, truly identify with it... I wonder what that feels like? I've been in this male-shaped-box for ages and so my contours fit the box and the box is easy to stay in. I certainly read as a male by appearance and I can't really escape that so it's been easy to just sort of accept and avoid thinking about it. But the older I get, the more I think about the things that I consider my identity, or that I identify with; they're not consistently masculine and most masculine coded behaviors and interests have zero or negative appeal to me. I empathize with transpeople who who ",[464,789,786],{}," a disconnect between assigned and felt gender, but I also don't fully get it either because I just feel the disconnect, I don't feel any pull in a specific direction. (Insert meme of gender = Cryptid)",{"title":84,"searchDepth":85,"depth":85,"links":792},[793,794],{"id":718,"depth":85,"text":719},{"id":754,"depth":85,"text":755},"On the past year and the coming one","\u002Fimages\u002Floom-gallery\u002Fcthonian-planet-example.png",{},{"title":35,"description":795},"blog\u002Fblog-post-00008",[546,586,99],"F74KvKpOecCB5HfN0F8J7EqOvWse8J1Rv4TG0tc81D0",1776259762691]