Snakebite

Hi everyone! So, Snakebite is my main project, but it's actually not the first time I've written a world; far from it. I've been DMing since I was 11 and have created a lot of worlds and DnD derivatives. This one is my favorite; I call it Night. I figured I might as well share it with you!  This is the introduction I gave to my players, explaining what the world was in brief and how it was different from conventional D&D. I'll follow up with more on the world and rules and even the campaign later, just so you can get a sense for my writing.  Looking back you can see how I was already chafing against D&D and moving towards wanting a different system. My house rules, at the bottom, forbid like half of the PHB.  As always, thanks for reading!  Night No one alive has seen a sunrise.  Once, the world was bright. In the stories, and in the crumbled statues of the ancient temples, one can see a world of blazing sunlight and high desert. By the size of the old ...

Hey sorry this has nothing to do with my RPG or my RPG reading. I won't do a lot of serious posts like this. I know, this is like the actual opposite of my usual vibe! Sorry. This could be the only one, for all I know. But I thought...I don't know what I thought. I'm putting it here and maybe sometime I'll take it down.    I ate an egg for dinner tonight. Fried, badly. It's a little rubbery, but I'm doing my best with it. I tried mixed in some microwaved ramen, which is pretty flavorless but salty.  Bite bite chew. Chew a little more. Swallow. It works. *

I'm enough of a nerd to know this is Waterhouse, one of my favorite painters This will probably always be one of the most important books to me. That doesn't mean it's always my favorite; it's not the most fun to read, or the most psychologically-insightful, or even the most entertaining. It's written in a somewhat odd voice that feels strangely out of place; it feels older than it really is. But to me, this is the most important fantasy book I own. If you haven't read it, I can't recommend it enough. Elfland is apparently a "prose poem," a term I've seen used but admit I don't really get. I think what it means, however, is that the writing doesn't flow the way you might expect. Most fantasy novels fly off the page; you read for plot, for characters, for romance and adventure and energy. Elfland is nothing of the sort: it's slow, meditative, beautiful. If you read for plot, you'll get through it quickly (it...

Why the damsel-in-distress art? Some kinda 50 Shades thing going on here? Not really. I just like it, always have. It's not a porn thing. It's just kinda fun. If it bothers people I'll lay off it!

Who are these people, and why? This is the second entry in Snakebite Lore, my articles about the setting of my Snakebite RPG and stories. In it, I explain my racial system: I don't have one. Players are all human, but they can come from one of several cultures!  *  Fantasy creatures are more or less the same as cartoon mice: they represent people, but people helpfully shaped into a distinct configuration for the aid of the audience. When a dwarf appears, the reader knows this character will be gruff, industrious, no-nonsense. An orc will be greedy, cruel, selfish, violent. An elf will be graceful, mysterious, and otherwordly. These conventions are so established they’ve become trite, and now most writers attempt to subvert these images. As a writer, I respect the effort to do something new. But as a storyteller, I ask: Why bother? Why bother with an elf, if you’re going to make it cruel and ugly? Why bring in dwarves only to make them feral, magical, and bloodless? It’s not wr...

Hi everyone, If you're here, it's probably because you're checking in on my game. Mighty kind of you! The TTRPG community is alarmingly kind and helpful.  So: Snakebite!  I'm constantly playing with mechanics, because mechanics are how a game is played, and I want the game to be fun! But more: I want the right tools to really explore the world of Snakebite. This world, its ruins and villains and monsters and heroes, exist at the service of the  themes , the  feel  of the setting.  So in this post, I want to talk about the world! I'll get to mechanics eventually, but the world is what matters: I want you to know how this world feels, how it tastes in the mind. Only then will any of it make sense. A few years ago, I was hospitalized. I spent several days connected to tubes, in a dreamy haze. All I had was a stack of books my dad brought me; I asked for his childhood favorites and he delivered (because I'm dramatic and thought I was going to die. If you ever m...