Tales #1 The Pilot Issue
Blog & Newsletter Announcement
Hey there!
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my online presence. This Summer I’ve been using Substack LIKE a blog, and I’ve decided to separate that out. I now have an RSS blog on blogger and will use this publication as a kind of newsletter. What I’ve been perusing in the OSR scene, what inspires me, as well as updates on the highlights of the blog posts that I’m about to rapid-fire at the crumbling walls of The Internet.
This is still Hearthside, and now The Dripping Tap itself is on Blogger.
Add it to your feeds!
What’s On The Menu?
Here’s what I’ve been spinning up:
My three YADN posts are now over on The Dripping Tap blog. Check out The Death Knight TTRPG, Undead Resource Management and Songs of Misery.
Future undead ttrpg posts will be there as well. I’ve got lifepath character creation and reports from inside Death’s Kingdom in the works.
My Appendix N! Like what I write? I stand on the shoulders of giants, and these are my favorite books, ttrpgs and history sources that inspire me.
I re-released the covenant I made for the Errant RPG, over on Itch! Just this morning, I dove into the literary inspiration behind Tsathoggua and Clark Ashton Smith, and how I used eldritch horrors in a game about killing monsters.
Rumors At Large
Here’s my contribution to the tidbits of our scene:
Big Bad Con 23’ is coming up. Many folks are struggling to get there with bureaucratic fees endemic to international travel. Please go check out The Sunflower Support Bundle on Itch. This #RPGLATAM crowdfunding will be on for the next 16 days from the time of writing!
For $25 you can get almost $500 of indie ttrpg products from 70 creators (Sandy Pug Games and Odin’s Beard RPGs to name a few). Help get Sin (Diwata Ng Manila) and Pammu together in the same country, and get some awesome games!
Benjamin Laurence (author of Into Ultan’s Door) has started a podcast interviewing other ttrpg creators about the creation of megadungeons.
Into the Megadungeon #1 features James Maliszewski (of Grognardia and Dwimmermount fame) was a pleasure to listen to. As I go through Dungeon23 this will be an even greater resource for game design!
Gird your loins, ring the gong, Gubat Banwa is coming to kickstarter in September! Check their launch page here to be notified. If you’re not already in the know, GUBAT BANWA is one of the coolest ttrpgs in open-development online right now. It’s a melding of Southeast Asian mythology into a fantasy world of high stakes war-drama and tactical gameplay (think Lancer and 4E D&D). I am so, so stoked to see them crowdfunding. The game is so ingenious in its design, and it won an indie award for Best Setting earlier this month.
REACH HEAVEN THROUGH VIOLENCE! I am not flush with disposable income, but I might well drop some bands on this page. Makapatag and the whole team behind it are some of the best in the space right now.
RiseUpComus wrote a fantastic post on his blog riffing on the idea of character creation involving an overland journey, acquiring powers and features from your changes over time. Check it out here!
The kickstarter for Dolmenwood is doing gangbusters. It funded in 45 minutes, and recently passed $1 mil! I’m a simple fella, I see a ttrpg project with a patch in it, I back it. If you like faerie tales and the thin-line between cozy and horrifying, you need to get in on Dolmenwood. It’s an incredibly professional take on an already beloved OSR setting. Check it out here!
This month has seen a flourishing of western art for YEEHAWGUST 2023, an art challenge started on Tumblr. Folks on the bird app and Mastodon have also been Yee-posting, but it’s most popular over on Tumblr.
Roam the wide open spaces here!I’ve posted some plot-hooks for the challenge over on my Mastodon and Blue Sky, as Krist & I take the challenge to make our own Appalachian Hexcrawl take on Yeehawgust, likely using Frontier Scum. All the more reason to follow my blog and newsletter :^)
What are the bards up to?
Recent listens:
I’ve gotten really heavy into Dungeon Synth lately.
My new favorite is DESOLATION PLAINS. I picked up their patch on Ratti Incantatti and, when the download code for the linked album failed, Nick just sent me their entire discography as a gesture of kindness. Their tracks are going to feature heavily as I playtest my megadungeon Myr Regath :^)
Their bandcamp here (Pillars of Ruination is my current fav)
Yotzeret Sheydim are a Jewish artist that combines making synth audio along with crafting jewelry. The Suffering of the Sepulcher Slasher is a neat entry into dungeon synth, but their stuff like Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation) has some truly demonic vibes to summon and bind the otherworldly. Or, in my case, I might use as a soundtrack in the spaces between worlds, or Limbo…
Sheydim are spirits in Jewish mythology that are translated as equivalent to “demon” but are more in the neighborhood of Faeries or Djinn. I’ve fallen in love with this artist (another Pittsburgher too!) for crafting art like: a two hour cassette containing the birth of a Sheydim, then binding the casette tape in copper wire to bind the subsequent Sheydim. Goes hard as fuck and super interesting.
Of course, this Summer has been the summer of PETRADRAGONIC APOCALYPSE from King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. I’ve been blasting this nonstop, I truly believe KGLW have not even begun to peak in terms of musical ability.
This year has also been my year of Desert Blues. If you wanna hear the best guitar music coming out in the modern day, you have to listen to what’s coming out of The Sahara Desert. Mdou Moctar, Bombino and Les Filles de Illighadad have been heavy on my repeat.
Terminus
I hope the segue into a more newsletter-oriented form is a welcome change. I have complicated feelings about this platform, but they’re the same concerns I have for all these new platforms that don’t even bother to pretend to have acceptible content moderation (i.e. moderating hate speech). This is the space, however, so while I feel more comfortable “truly” going blogging elsewhere, you’ll still get Tales from the Dripping Tap in your inbox.
This comes hand in hand with diversifying my presence online. My link tree has all my relevant socials here, as I’ll be leaving the bird app more concretely, save to post the occasional self-promotion. Social media is such a powerful tool for self-promotion, research and community, but a more conscious and deliberate use is required. I feel my brain getting smoother the longer I remain.
I hope that desire is relatable, as is my desire to keep my head down and keep creating.
From myself and Cook McKenzie, keep being creative!