I promised an update in January... and I'm sliding it in at the last moment.
I had written some updates much earlier in the month but I suppose the honest reality is that I really don't want to write these. The continuation of Myriad is pretty much directly tied to my mental health, so coming back with an update is just reflecting on how that's still not going great and what my failures are. I aimed to simplify my routine and just focus on streaming for a while, which I was q...
2024-01-31 23:24:46 +0000 UTC
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The patreon is paused. No payments can be charged and new members cannot join. This will be the case until I have more concrete Myriad plans. Every plan I currently have is drastic and I need some time to really think things over. I may not have an answer until January, but this would always have been the case as I do not wish to run any campaigns during Nov-Dec holiday season.
With the info I shared some time ago on twitter about being bipolar (2023-11-09 20:43:33 +0000 UTC
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A lot has changed in the Myriad system. So, for a long time I've known that I do not trust the item generation system to make something sensible. On the spot, if I had to make a random equipment for players to find, there was a sizeable chance it would be outdated or completely broken. I finally dug in for 2-3 days and did all the boring tweaking required to start a bit more fresh with some new philosophies I've learned along the way. Its not a good feeling to know your primary way of rewardi...
2023-07-13 18:48:14 +0000 UTC
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First of all, I apologize for the long break between Myriad content. I paused the Patreon in the last month so that members would not be charged while not much work was being done. Truthfully, I am heavily conflicted about the future of Myriad and how strongly I can actually follow through. This is amongst mental health issues I wish I could elaborate on to give a better picture, but I wouldn't want to do so without fully clear details and answers I don't yet have myself. Dealing with t...
2023-06-28 19:02:30 +0000 UTC
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Here is a list of 'patch notes' I've currently documented with some reasoning behind them. The primary goals are to reduce prep time for campaigns, sessions, and to simplify existing mechanics into their best parts.
Some of this is still being worked through while I await the release of the next Maptool update, which will resolve the issues of players not being able to load maps or the campaign without closing their program multiple times.
There is current...
2023-04-26 22:19:25 +0000 UTC
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The campaign dubbed 'Aegis Recruits' successfully destroyed all traces of the Aegis Order on Highsword during their first mission for them (Ep9, Aegis Recruits). Here is some insight on the intent as a DM.
This isn't the campaign I planned for them from the beginning, but it became clear to me this would be the best way to move forward for a lot of reasons. When something this big happens there can be a lot of opinions about how things progressed, so I wanted to give some of my...
2023-02-09 21:29:28 +0000 UTC
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Hey! For you patreon enjoyers I thought I'd write a nerdy explanation of how one simple programming change can make a huge impact.
Its 5 days before Aegis Recruits is scheduled to start again and I just realized something I previously thought was impossible isn't that complicated at all. And its good that I realized it now, because it requires modifying a lot of different types of tokens and macros to update to the very slightly new format.
I've been trying to move everythin...
2023-01-08 20:25:52 +0000 UTC
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One of the most important things in a ttrpg is the rewards you get for completing your quests. I spent some time overhauling how items work and settled onto some stuff I'm pretty excited about.
My philosophy with consumable items is that... well I usually hate them. I've played some campaigns where the players are all holding 20 healing potions and fighters with enough Fly scrolls to cast higher level spells more often than wizards. The natural solution is to just not giv...
2023-01-05 22:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! Today I want to talk about finding some consistency for character art, enemies, and world elements and some plans that have been put in place to efficiently create them moving forward.
Ashle always wanted all the NPC and creature art to match wherever possible and is pretty passionate about that goal. Naturally with her willing to do that artwork, I agreed and didn't give it much thought. But, just because I'm not doing the art doesn't mean I won't have to spend a l...
2022-12-20 17:54:49 +0000 UTC
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I needed an extra week to push some changes into the Myriad system, and the players finally reaching their goal of the Aegis Order castle seemed like a good time for a pause while I modified their skills. Due to the horrors of holiday time scheduling, there may be even more time. I'll be using the time from any missed sessions in the near future to prepare for other games or to make preparing games less time consuming in general.
I used 'Fate of Sideways' as sort of a beta test to make ...
2022-11-01 21:35:20 +0000 UTC
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Apparently not. Here's the update.
The Myriad will return in early September. I am confident in this because if I absolutely had to I could start a character creation session for the players now. Unless something happens with the players or there is an unforeseeable doomsday, this is the plan. There is no exact date because I haven't talked to players yet.
Until September, I will be adding more maps and refining the world building of th...
2022-08-05 15:50:42 +0000 UTC
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After visiting Surefour and being coerced into committing to a date when he can play again, I reluctantly told him one month from now the next Myriad campaign will be ready. That would be July 21st as a date for character creation for the returning original group. A month sounds like not a lot of time to me right now, but it is entirely realistic to have enough done by that point. It is important that I set the scope of what I can accomplish in that time and continue to grow ...
2022-06-25 18:38:47 +0000 UTC
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The Fate of Sideways campaign has come to its conclusion! Here's an overview of the immediate work being done before the next campaign starts.
#1: What games are next? When?
I expect to run a short (3 session max) campaign with Jerma (no other players confirmed at this time) as soon as it is ready. Unfortunately, there is a lot to get ready because I'm trying to make sure all of this preparation carries forward into other future games, particul...
2022-04-04 19:42:52 +0000 UTC
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The Myriad is 2 episodes in and I've already learned a bunch. It has been very exciting watching new players interact with the system and reflecting on myself as a DM and what I'm best at. I've been realizing how I need to tailor things moving forward to work best for me. The collection of all of these insights have led to to one major epiphany shortly after session 2 had ended.... I'm going to remake character creation again.
WAIT HOLD ON OKAY LISTEN!!
2022-01-30 08:39:47 +0000 UTC
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The Myriad session 0 will be this Saturday, January 8th at 3pm CST!
I've got a week to get as much done as possible, so not much else to say here!
After session 0, which is used for creating characters, introducing players to the world, and making sure they have properly installed things, it should be about another 2 weeks before it officially begins so that Ashle can draw their characters and I finish any work required for the stream or converting the new campaign to ...
2022-01-03 17:37:29 +0000 UTC
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Nearing completion of the Myriad framework I naturally had to stop and review all of the current systems and see if I'm happy with how everything is. I don't think anyone would be surprised if I said I wasn't happy.
The truth is that I designed a tabletop system about a year before I started talking about 'The Myriad' that I was quite happy with. I went back and looked through the old files for it and realized I still like it more than what I currently have. The problem was knowing ...
2021-12-08 21:11:42 +0000 UTC
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There is a Myriad Wiki fandom page that has been created. I've loaded it with a lot of preliminary basic information, primarily descriptions of the different cosmic entities (Aspects) which each have a longer explanation when clicked through. There is still a lot more that can be added!
You may have heard me mention...
2021-11-25 18:46:40 +0000 UTC
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Hey! Not that long ago we had some test streams to make sure the combat was stable and functional so that I could finally bring a group in to play a real campaign. Lots of bugs were found, fixed, and I feel confident that the system is stable enough for a group. However, testing help me feel confident that some things needed to be changed. These are not time consuming changes, but they have taken some time to really tackle exactly how I want to move forward on them with confidence.
...
2021-11-09 20:54:00 +0000 UTC
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Here is a finalized concept for The Capitol city! (Art by: Pedro Cardoso) This is a massive metropolis that no other settlement even comes close to in size. It is home to the most fierce advocates for the prosperity of Humanity and stands proudly as a shining example of what can be accomplished when mankind binds together in singular vision. The buildings and skyscrapers are all patched together with transmutati...
2021-09-21 21:27:11 +0000 UTC
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I've been spending so long on character creation and itemization that I haven't worked on what players will actually be fighting in a while. Now that I've made a full circle back here and have had a lot to consider, it's pretty awesome for me to see how it has all tied together within the pre-established mechanics, resources I already have available in the code, and new things I've learned how to do.
If you are unfamiliar with how Declarations work: Players and En...
2021-09-12 17:19:50 +0000 UTC
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This past week I've been working on some final revisions on the cosmic chart, which basically acts as the pantheon of Myriad. So - we can talk a bit about that work process instead of game mechanics for a change!
This is the last opportunity I have to make significant changes on how this chart is portrayed. The image above is still a work in progress as a few things get shuffled arou...
2021-07-30 20:28:18 +0000 UTC
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One of the most important goals for this working phase of The Myriad has been the implementation of a 'Social Skills' section of character progression. This will explore how rolling a skill check works now and how I came to deciding to do it this way. All that and more...
Goals & Past
Originally, there really weren't skill checks outside of combat. Players would loosely be able to click one of four buttons for either STR, DEX, INT, or MAD and based on the players ...
2021-07-17 23:56:41 +0000 UTC
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Hey patrons! Want to help contribute a little something to The Myriad?
You can respond to this post with a comment of a specific type of random item description to be put in the game! Temporarily I will also be adding a channel to the discord where you may post descriptions or links to pastebins if you go crazy.
Let me explain how it works:
First you will select a category of item or specific description type. Make it clear which one your description is for! Eac...
2021-07-08 20:11:45 +0000 UTC
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Some significant progress has been made on random item generation! I thought I'd go through one weapon and point out everything that went into this image from top to bottom:
Battle Claymore of the Turtle: Items now have a much more robust naming system built in to every step of the process. Every modifier that generates has about 5 prefix names and 5 suffix names. 'Of the Turtl...
2021-07-03 17:13:53 +0000 UTC
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I fully committed to giving characters 2 actions in order to answer a question as old as time itself: How does dual wielding work?
Seriously.
I've thought a lot about that and never have had a great answer. On one hand, dual wielding somehow always ends up being a bad option in tabletop games that force you to take feats to cover up the strict penalties for doing it. On the other hand, if all of that wasn't there it would be extremely powerful to the point it ...
2021-06-30 17:48:21 +0000 UTC
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Hey! Quick update on the progress being made. I would have liked to do a post sooner, but honestly, this part of development really is just a significant amount of quantity being made to populate systems I've already described. You can always have more skills and more items.
Skill Progress: Everything has been going smoothly, creating more mechanical options for players and fleshing out how character creation will work. A lot of passive abilities created ended up being ...
2021-06-13 14:22:15 +0000 UTC
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I threw together a video to demonstrate how character creation works and the progress that has been made on laying a nice framework so that modifying character skills is as easy as possible.
2021-06-02 21:22:40 +0000 UTC
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I don't have as much done with Myriad as I thought I would have by now, but that's because I severely underestimated how complicated some simple changes would be. I've bounced around between a few different areas of focus, but this one thing has taken the large majority of my time and is essential to do well before moving forward with anything else. It's the framework for generating weapons and abilities.
When a random weapon is rolled it is necessary to create the macro on the players ...
2021-05-12 01:58:22 +0000 UTC
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I'm not really sure how long it's been since the last post, because I've been in a self induced Path of Exile coma. Due to your ability to completely turn your brain off and think of other things while you endlessly grind in PoE, I wouldn't say it was entirely unproductive. People often ask about inspiration from other sources, so I'll spend this post describing the one major thing I feel I've taken away from this play time.
Before that, I want to preface this with a general note ...
2021-04-29 18:03:59 +0000 UTC
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Character creation is very important to me. Building a cool character can be as fun as playing the game. It is also the perfect time to introduce players to the world and I have always wanted the system to fully represent that. This is a huge step in that direction.
Note that this is all work in progress and heavily subject to change.
2021-04-08 23:22:26 +0000 UTC
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