Doc Destructo

Mon/Fri: Methods Behind Magic

How the arcane sausage is made.

Today, I'm tipping my hand and sharing with you the method how I'm driving magic forward in River and Road, at its basic levels: the Subtle Methods.

Subtle Methods are meant to represent a magician's cantrips, tricks that they can just do, seemingly without outward effort. This is r...

Mon/Fri - RIDE THE MAGIC BICYCLE

YOU NEVER FORGET, THE LOGIC OF "THE BEYOND" WILL NEVER ALLOW YOU TO FORGET.

Writing magic is particularly difficult work. First, you gotta make something interesting, that is shooting to be more than just "a fireball." Then when you've achieved "not a fireball, but more interesting," you gotta try to figure out how to make it work...

Mon/Fri - Now We're Cooking

I feel good, let's do something with that.

Magic returns to this patreon as I return to The River and the Road this coming week. This past week? More writing of A Good Man, more setting writing that you'll see the fruits of soon. Momentum is up and running, and I feel good about it. Today? Day of rest. I'm going to play...

Section 99 - A Good Man, Chapter 2

They scraped Weller up and carried him off. Telin tried to flag them down a hack twice, and neither were interested in stopping for a grim-eyed guy with heavy hands, carrying a half-beat to death faux dandy over his shoulders whose vocabulary had devolved to ‘slurs for Rhidlings’ and ‘gurgled pleas for help.’ Van told her to...

Section 99 - A Good Man, Chapter 1

For those who have felt the choke of a collar, leash, or chain of dogtags, figurative or literal.

Van Parker was having an awful day, all things considered. His last joint was 12 hours into the past, he'd been sat pretending to read his tablet at the table of a donair place whose lunch offering was...

Mon/Fri - And Now, Interlude

Inspiration!

This week was slightly difficult, due to events that for once, weren't related to my own emotional turmoil. My cat Demeter is in need of chemo. She got her first treatment, and between that and her new meds, her strength and appetite is returning. So far, I'll take that.

I was hit by a wild hare this ...

Serotonin Shock, Productivity and Myself

What's Eating Doc Destructo??

So I had that thing happen where my brain exploded again, and that's my explanation for the interruption in updates. I'm healed, since I'm now back from a vacation I was juuuuuuust healthy enough to want to go through with, and going to live in forest on the water for a few days is a thing ...

Mon/Fri - Further Magical Thinking

Sorcery is an exercise in longform thought.

The Work continues, and I'm pleased with how things are going on it.  Magic has been a treat to work on in The River and the Road, it's just also really out of the box, and with a lot of ways of spinning things. I'm taking just a little extra time to toy with it into this...

The River and the Road: Skills (Part 2)

I told you magic was gonna get weird, but look at what's going on in Musketry- what could I be getting at there?

Hey, hi. Here's what I've got for the next bit of The River and the Road, which will finish off weapon Styles, and then give you a taste of Magic. Coming up: More Magic, which is again, really, really weird.<...

The River and the Road: Skills (Part 1)

The many things you pick up the way: how to pick a lock with a hairpin, how to throw a long jab, HOW TO IMMOLATE MATTER WITH YOUR MIND.

Today, we do a recap of how Skills work in The River and the Road, and now introduce the first half of the statted out Skills: this means the complete Disciplines section, and the first half of th...

Mon/Fri: Workin' On It!

Back on the treadmill, wheezing as I'm trying to run, but realizing it's important to keep going.

I SEEK TO INCREASE MY OUTPUT. Which means right now, on a rest day, I'm finishing a bit of The River and the Road to post. Stay tuned, I'm on my way back to something more prolific.

-G

The Joys of Being Agent 47

We could all use a murder vacation.

Your life is a series of unique experiences that occurred around a very specific task, experiences both bright and dark, wonderful and strange, and clad in every colour the human eye can detect. You are strong, almost comically capable and more secure in your own skin than some are in...

Stuff I Did This Week: Monday - Tuesday - Section 99

Heroes: The New Hot Trend in "Settings?"

This is me sweeping cobwebs out of my brain. I've wanted to update Section 99 for a while, figuring into the spirit of things I wanted to do with Armoured Collective. Apex Legends and a revisit of Titanfall 2 got me in a real Futuretech Tacti-Guns frame of mind, so it was only a ...

Mon/Fri: I Needed a Staycation

I just did.

Adrienne was away this week, which meant my home was a less complete place than it usually is, and I'm the sort of weirdo that needs to be in a good place to create. So instead of creating this week, I maintained and relaxed. Adrienne is back today, in fact right now as I type this we've just gotten in. So n...

Mon/Fri - Working Around Schedule Strangeness

PLANS SHOULD NOT BE FLUID, IT MAKES BUSINESS MATTERS MOIST

A lot of prep was spent this last week regarding getting Adrienne ready to go to a conference, so my time was a little fractured this week to have a full sheet of skills done for River and Road. That said, don't think I haven't been working. Because I have been ...

The River and the Road: Skills (Part 1)

An introduction to basic ideas, to be filled out with actual crunch soon.

Like I said in this week's Mon/Fri, I pored on how to handle this sort of thing within the setting of a game system I want to be more of a pamphlet than a full book, and wound up with a good framework and rubber duck-style pitch for how this is al...

Mon/Fri - Deep Thoughts on Fantasy Skills

Non-Accredited Degree Mill Magic Schools are damaging modern wizardry.

This was a week spent locked in combat with my own ideas- of having an idea, and knowing it's a good one, but not really knowing how to express them properly. I meant to have more concrete done in terms of Skills for the River and the Road, and inste...

The River and the Road: The Ways (Part 3)

How to Be a Useful Know-It-All

The Academic

People have a tendency to classify themselves as either a Doer or a Thinker. Many that live life on the River and the Road would see this as shortsighted, because in their experience, there’s not a lot of use in a person who acts without thought, or thinks without ha...

Mon/Fri: High Fantasy Brainiacs

HOW DID PEOPLE IN FANTASY TIMES RECEIVE DEGREES?

Hey woah, it's me, back again with more writing stuff. It occurred to me more and more this week that I want to be doing more and more. So here, have the end of The Ways section (for now) and a PDF of what all has been done so far. Expect more soon, because I'm gonna star...

The River and the Road: The Ways (Part 2)

Hey, look: shooty-thinky, and magical-thinky!

This week, we add in two ways that take advantage of a character's senses, be it their sense of the Worlds as they are, or their sense of what lies beneath the surface. Next week, we get to the last Way: the Academic, the one who has enough brains for everyone. For now: arro...

Mon/Fri: Magical Thinking

You know, the good kind.

This was a week where I don't know how well exactly I carried my creative momentum. I got stuff done! I also felt airheaded and sorta stymied by real world stuff. Whatever, it's done now, more coming next week, and stuff here now, instead of me talking about what's keeping me from actually doing...

The River and the Road: The Ways (Part 1)

Bashing and Slashing in the Converged worlds.

So here's where we start with The Ways of The River and the Road, an equivalent to a class system. These are two of the distinctly fightier ways, individuals who represent the smashing component, and also the rapid laceration component. What you're not going to find here are...

Mon/Fri: So, What Have We Learned?

Create, Destroy, Create Better

Never underestimate a blank page's ability to remain blank despite your best efforts. Sure, you can put words on it, but there's no guarantee that you're going to like those words on a second look. You don't want to treat the page like stone, and commit to something you don't feel right ab...

Mon/Fri - Hey, Look At This, River and Road Stuff

I can do the thing, in a sense!

This was a busy week in areas that happened to be me being a domestic partner, and less of me being a writer/gamedev. This is what happens when you're trying to replace a car. However! I refuse to leave you hanging when I actually have momentum on a project. So today, I will do the thing ...

The River and the Road: People and Cultures

Meet the Weirdos That Inhabit the Converged Worlds

At character creation, you will:

• Start at a level 1 in all 5 BASIC Attributes
• Pick a People and Culture, and add the associated Attribute levels up to your own BASIC. This is what we're covering today!
• You'll also pick your Way, which...
  2019-02-17 21:23:32 +0000 UTC View Post

Mon/Fri: There It Is

Hey look, a balance between life, work and art!

I said I would do the thing. I did the thing. Enjoy it, because I am.

-G

The River and the Road: BASICs

Hey look, let's see if I can keep this one actually going.

BASIC is a system that's all about keeping the party going, be it your in-game party of adventurers, or the physical party that's in your room while you're playing it. You won't need to consult a lot for clarification. Frankly, imma see how much of this informat...

Mon/Fri: I Told You I'd Be Back

Yesterday was for my partner. Today, a little for you.

I'm still not fully 100%, mainly due to my conservative tendencies of never wanting to take too much mistaking the dosage of my new (old) meds. This has been corrected. And also Meds Reminder. Enjoy the little bit of BASIC. I didn't have the other half of this done,...

Mon/Fri: No-Selling Intramuscular Shots of Ativan

Toughest Guy in the Entire Mental Health Ward

Hello! How are you today? I'm fine, despite Wellbutrin deciding that I'm either going to die of an exploded heart or spontaneous combustion due to critically heightened anxiety. I'm better now, somehow, and getting some proper help to make sure this doesn't happen again. May...

Mon/Fri - Shanked By Wellbutrin

You might say it did not work well.

Unimaginable anxiety over the past 3 days over literally nothing derailed me. I'm sorry for not being able to keep up my output. Minds are fragile things, and it's hard to get stuff done when your medication, which is supposed to make your thoughts clear, does the exact oppos...