Dear heroes,
It's been ... it's been a heck of a month getting everything ready for the launch, nailing down the production and scope, preparing the assets, and more. But here we are, last 24 hours. We're making the OGA and the Guidebook physical.
~~> Our Golden Age on Backerkit. <~~
First, and very important to me (and possi...
2024-07-30 14:45:33 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear Heroes!
I can't believe it's only been three weeks since the last post. It honestly feels like six. I'm going to dive right into the news. If you just want the weird rpg goodies, scroll right to the attachments.
First, the UVG 2nd Edition is nominated for an Ennie award for best interior art. That completely blind-sided me. This is the equivalent of the oscars for tableto...
2024-07-20 06:35:37 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear heroes ... and visitors,
This is a shorter OGA teaser than usual - just six pages. We open with a recolored big hero image for the Yellowlands (the great glowing phylake and a flying builder bolide in the foreground), then proceed to an overview of this land, travel options, weather, events (formerly named misfortunes) and encounters, and an overview of local shopping options (items, accommodations, food).
The next section will be a town and culture generator to account for t...
2024-06-28 08:36:28 +0000 UTC View Post
In the reign of the seventeen good interns the cartography department of the fabled Grove School (college rhizome) sent a golem with a perfect memory so high up the Ladder of Heaven that it was able to capture a nearly perfect map of the territory. The mapping project greatly improved trade and travel in the civilized Garden, but the increased interaction inevitably led to greater disputations and--as such things go--culminated in the Silent Night Episode, when the knowledge systems of the hu...
2024-06-19 04:45:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear heroes!
Just about a year ago I teased the barbarian and bourgeois character paths as some of the first parts of the Our Golden Age book. WELL.
Now all twenty paths are ready-enough, so here they are - all together in one delicate 40-page PDF.
The conceit behind them is to provide a resource for both players (lore! names! traits! items!) and referees (lore! NPCs! traits! items!), and I think they more or less meet that target.
Right now is also the time I would lo...
2024-06-03 06:49:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear heroes,
Here is an unusual little post.
I've dabbled with designing typefaces for ages, but never actually made a proper font because all the software seemed incredibly arcane and complex. Well, in a fit of baby-haze, unable to write, I drew most of this font in Illustrator and decided to try and turn it into a font again. First I tried the "recommended free font software" - Font Forge - and bounced hard. It was truly not the kind of environment I like to work in. But then I ...
2024-05-27 08:38:21 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear Heroes,
I'd been planning to release this procedural adventure for a while, but ... it kept needing a bit more work. It's designed to generate characters for Our Golden Age and hurl them at a first location in search of a mutual acquaintance who has asked for their help.
It's a very vanilla opening, but it's somewhat necessary with a setting book like this, which presents a baroque, complicated, and alien world of strange technology and machinery. It also leaves some things ...
2024-05-19 04:27:59 +0000 UTC View PostDear Heroes,
As promised last week, a poll!
...
>>>For the poll, jump to the end! It's about how often and what you would like me to post!<<<
...
Those who've known me a while will know that I have (and still do, I guess) struggled with perfectionism and insecurity, which has often kept me from sharing things — drafts, concepts, even finished pieces.
Recently, my struggles have been much less, and I'm very happy with how...
2024-05-03 06:18:53 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear heroes,
Welcome to the edge of civilization! This one, well, it's been demanding as writing goes. As I work through the lands, I'm stitching them together, so characters and factions have something to say about one another. It's interesting, but takes a while ..
Still! It's Friday now and even this first part is nice and 10 pages long. And, as a small bonus, a short story about a fixer clan in the Purple uplands, the treat.
Patreon's AI flagged that story as potentially...
2024-04-26 07:33:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear heroes,
First, a very happy easter to everyone. I hope you're feeling good resurrection (or at least reanimation) vibes.
It's a bit of an art and creative process post today instead of the Purple Lands because ... well, the Golden Age is taking me on a bit of a detour in the way it wants to be written and I suspect you might find the detour interesting.
By now, if you've seen some of the previous regions (Orange, Red, Blue), you'll hav...
2024-04-01 03:09:25 +0000 UTC View Post
... of 20.
Hello, Good Heroes!
/four hour intermezzo/
Again, hello! The baby is less cranky now. Wow, that was a sudden detour. Heh.
I think I had a whole long explainer, but, basically ... I have to confess. I betrayed myself of two weeks ago. This update is not "almost certainly going to be the finished Codex 2 and the first teasers of the Purple Land, sometime in mid March." ... nope, it's twelve finished and illustrated character paths from around the Circle Sea. (...
2024-03-16 12:18:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear heroes!
"I hope you've all been well. I wanted to write earlier, but — here's a generic excuse — baby and family. For the first time, some relatives are flying over from Europe to see where I live in Korea, and these few weeks are a bit of a ferment, as you can imagine. Well, baby and house are washed and appointed and ready to receive guests, so that's a thing. Ran out of time to make myself presentable, but I'm sure they'll understand," he muttered blear-eyed whilst rubbing h...
2024-02-28 23:18:04 +0000 UTC View PostDear heroes,
Welcome to February everybody. To those who've been here long, I hope you're doing well and enjoying your visit to the Golden Age of the Circle Sea. To those who are new, be welcome kindly and consider dropping by the stratometaship discord (link: discord link unborked)for a cup of cat coffee and void veanuts. They're like peanuts, but with more voltage.
2024-02-07 03:26:51 +0000 UTC
View Post
Dear Heroes,
Welcome to the second half of the first month of the 24th year since the Millennium Bug destroyed all our computer systems!
It is my great, great pleasure to welcome you now to the Orange Land. Between this and the Blue Land, we have the entire action movie genre poster spectrum covered. The other colors are mere details. Chaff to play with.
I've taken the structure of the Blue Land and it worked wonderfully for the Orange.
Warning: some of the Orange ...
2024-01-19 07:50:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear Heroes,
First, a happy, healthy, holesome [sic] new year to all of you! Welcome to the month of Janus. Let us together bow and scrape before the Blue Dragon whose year we have entered.
I think we had a pretty jolly year together, let's make this one even better ... and what better way to start than by revealing the finished enough version of the UVG Guide Book. That whole fork in the road, from SEACAT, to Uranium Butterflies, back to UVG 2E and here we are: the character ...
2024-01-08 10:20:50 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear heroes,
Behold! An electric greeting card sent through the magic of the noösphere to wish you good cheer in this holiday spirit season.
It's been a lovely year, everyone, and I can't thank you enough for being here. We got UVG 2E out, Eternal Return Key, Magitecnica, big chunks of Our Golden Age and a goodly part of the Guide Book. Probably a few other little things too ...
Oh...
2023-12-24 07:21:53 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear heroes,
Welcome readers,
Gentle humanoidës,
Et al,
Today is the first day of snow here in the City South of the Fortress, and the first day of snow calls for a celebration. Now, it may not be the first day of snow where you are, but Christmas is surely nearly upon you, or perhaps some other suitable holiday of the Undefeated Sun.
I sometimes try to tempt casual players and gamers into the elusive mysteries of roleplaying games during the holidays, and what ...
2023-12-16 06:38:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear Heroes,
Welcome to the Ruins Azure, where civilization returns once again to the spore-ravaged land, to the ruined land where a false god was uprooted.
Yet, do not weep, for each creative destruction bears the seed of creation, and now there are few places where a well-intentioned (and well-resourced!) traveler could expect such a return on their investment of time, adventuring, and capital.
Do not fret, you are not a slum tourist or a charitinfluencer, no no. You are a...
2023-12-07 06:14:12 +0000 UTC View PostDear heroes,
Welcome to November's end! This year I didn't manage to perform any kind of grey Thursday or black Friday sale. Somehow, between the child and the writing and the dog and the drawing, that just escaped me entirely.
An ongoing project of mine, growing in the background these last three months, is the revised Guide Book. At once, a player guide for t...
2023-11-29 06:21:35 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear heroes,
With mild delay (for the dairy to ripen), I give you the Blue Land and two newly completed character paths: the bourgeois and the golem.
This is the first regional overview with the revised layout (with a little bigger font and a lot bigger pictures). It took a bit longer to assemble than I planned because, well, baby haha and bigger pictures.
I'm really pleased with ho...
2023-11-07 09:54:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear heroes,
Yes, the Bluelands are coming, soon, yes, even in the lifetime of this month of Fireleaf.
But meanwhile, opportunity and necessity have conspired to encourage the creation of this first SDM magic codex.
As I've mentioned, I'm assembling a guide book for the UVG (and SDM) that is just the rules (and examples), leaving Our Golden Age to focus on just setting and weirdness. Well, I've also been talking with the Exalted Funerals, and was nudged that it's about time ...
2023-10-17 04:05:23 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear heroes, be well greeted!
It's been three weeks of the child at home and I am still trying to quite figure out a rhythm between the child's night hungers, the hound's day walkings, the wife's necessary social freedoms, and my own creative priorities.
Everyone is well, but let's say it's been interesting.
My hunt for a functional routine has forced me to focus on what I am doing that would be better left undone. As we're adapting to the child's ...
2023-09-25 08:15:21 +0000 UTC View Post
My daughter Léa Rejec Lee (이래아) and my wife 이유진 came home today.
After a scary delivery and hospital stay, things settled down at the postnatal center. My wife is recovering from preeclampsia, while my daughter has been feeding and growing well.
Thank you all for your kind wishes and understanding over the last few weeks. It is my sincere pleasure to be able to share this first portrait of my daughter with. My apologies for the lighting, I know it makes it a bit hard ...
2023-09-04 09:10:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear heroes,
Welcome to mid August! Over here we swung from monsoon to heatwave to typhoon. I watched the news fill up with the jamboree and then empty out of the mudflat event once again. At home we had a bit of a health scare, but everything turned out alright for now, and the baby's birthday now looms. Could be any day.
However, it is not today (or yesterday) so I've taken the opportunity to wrap, illustrate, and share another teaser (though I should just call it chapter) from ...
2023-08-15 22:56:52 +0000 UTC View Post
A living supplement for the UVG and Synthetic Dream Machine. 60 pages of lore and worldbuilding. Available for free on itch.io and to every member of the stratometaship. I tried to make it free here, as well, but the platform Mind would not hear of it. ~ "A book of lies. Foul, wretched gossip. Untruths. This work of corruption would seduce the young. Oppress the old. Crush the faithful. No true follower of the Cogflower, no proper Civilized Human, no registered original Rainbowlander should e...
2023-08-01 11:13:55 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear Heroes!
A joyous July's jend ... end ... uh, yeah, end. I hope the heat where you live is bearable. A heatwave's hit us here now that the monsoon's over and we bake by day and broil by night.
This week, I've got a fun little Rainbowlands update from the property section of the book (that's where the PCs weapons and armor and vehicles and services and real estate opportunities are gonna hang out).
This is kind of a complement to the ...
2023-07-31 11:02:26 +0000 UTC View Post
PULSE CONFIRMED. ENTITY ENERGIZED. REMEMBER: KEEP YOUR OMNIBATTERIES CHARGED AND YOUR HAZEMETER AT THE READY. Revel in the return of the anticipated UVG 2E, now dazzling with fresh cover art that teases countless otherworldly adventures. This epic journey has expanded - from the previous 200 pages to a robust 250, infused with larger and more evocative art to enliven your psychedelic metal quests. "Fair hero, the end, the end alone awaits all travelers and at the end...was the journey all in v...
2023-07-26 08:34:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear Heroes,
Here, something new and different: There, A Red Door.
16 things for your psychedelic roleplaying adventure roadtrip. It is exactly what it says on the tin. 16 locations, spells, and items compatible with UVG and SDM. Each with an art and, usually, some fiction to go with it. Some of them are all fiction.
Fair warning, some of the fiction is a little distu...
2023-07-17 08:54:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello, dear heroes!
And also, hello the rest of humanity!
A public update this week, for the visibility and reach.
Synthetic Dream Machine
I have it on good authority that the chromademon, full color rules zine is printed and in the warehouses, ready for shipping soon: https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/products/sdm-eternal-return-key-chro...
2023-07-08 01:15:39 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear heroes,
Welcome to another exciting installment of news from the writing chair. Over here, the monsoon season has arrived in Seoul and with it rain and warm nights and moist air. Truly lovely.
I spent a week visiting friends and family back in Slovenia, then a few days recuperating. Gotta say, traveling about 24 hours door-to-door twice in a week is pretty rough on my system. Now, I've recovered just about enough that it's time to share a few new teasers from OGA.
(I ho...
2023-06-29 02:22:54 +0000 UTC View Post