It doesn't really seem possible that he's gone. We hadn't spoken in a while, and I can't believe we'll never get to again.
I don't even know how to really process this...
Those traits are a big reason why I'm a better designer and writer now than when I started.
It's hard to put into words how much Steve meant to me, at different points of my life, my career, my everything.
...but he was always _adamant_ that I shouldn't hero-worship, that I was on the same level as him, that we were peers. His words, and even the arguments we had, went a long way to me losing my imposter syndrome, and learning to stand up for myself in dev spaces.
...working alongside him on Relics, and working with Andy Law — another of my heroes-turned-friends — and the cartographer who turned Steve's doodle into the actual map of Praag.
Steve and I butted heads a few times, a prospect and situation I never expected to come about...
He ended up giving me his pencil and pen sketch for the map of Praag, a city he designed for WFRP, and which was the focus of a lot of my games many years ago.
Steve introduced me to his friends, and through him I ended up getting several jobs in TTRPGs...
I just found out an old friend of mine passed away suddenly. Steve Dee was at first a hero of mine — one of my favourite TTRPG writers, especially for his work on WFRP2e — until I reached out to him and we became friends.
Yeah, I'm not thrilled about this, ngl.
ok, y’all.
I’M LOOKING FOR WRITERS: who understand 1) global politics, 2) colonialism and 3) liberation struggles across the African/Black Diaspora
tag yourselves or others, or DM me
If you're Australian, could you sign please?
My End of Year video is on the "Golden Age of Indie RPGs," from roughly 2010 to 2025. I start with Apocalypse World's release, work through the Google+ Era, and follow design lineages and historical events that have impacted the hobby up through 2025.
I once did thr napkin math on what I'd have made if I was paid at low royalty or commission rates based on a handful of gigs I've done in TTRPGs and video game dev, and...
I strongly discourage doing it. It's extremely depressing to see how much better off you'd be financially.
Havin' one of those moments, where every project feels pointless, every hobby feels empty, and every connection feels superficial and flaky at best. 10/10.
Repost with Alt Text.
...bc yeah, THIS.
Ah yes: Gay, Black, and queer. All things which would individually make one "unique," as opposed to the Default.
I've long wished to meet the gay person.
a lot of writing advice is shit. magical results if you follow this 1-sentence promise. show! write every day! character driven! they're flat because either they're 1) focused on being glib instead of being 2) actionable, like, wtf does character-driven even mean 3) unrealistic. every day?
Sadly it doesn't fit into my Virtue of Focus this year to start up a new, massive project... But I can't stop thinking about a 40K-esque Imperial Senate LARP, and it's _killing me_.
E.g. I've had references to unusuably good wines from the Martikovs, wine exports slowing, raided wagons, raised prices, arguments in taverns, etc., for literally 22 sessions in my Curse of Strahd game. They only just heard word of an attack on the Winery, though.
This allows you to a) set up lots of colourful vibes, b) fill in "background fluff", c) establish verisimilitude both in terms of said "fluff" AND when it's revealed that this stuff isn't exactly normal, and d) send your PCs on a mad dash to try to remember where they saw all the breadcrumbs
Trickle it out through vague background references, mostly showing its symptoms rather than anything remotely close to its cause, and then 20 sessions later have an NPC just blurt out how "Everything is fucked" and how weird the random things have been.
Game Industry
A collection of fantasy game light sources, including a oil lamp in the form of a stylized scorpion.
AI vs Concept Art.
I think there are a couple of things folks on the outside, don't understand about the concept art process and why AI is a hindrance, not a help.
Example 1 : Scorpion oil Lamp, information and understanding.
(Sorry to break the meme chain, but) Yes... But also, _yikes._
There are many polyamorous people out there. I am one of them! But there are far fewer than those who claim it... Too many people use it as a cover for just being kinda shit? Actually? Which just makes it harder for everyone!
The sole reason this man hasn't fucked his calculator is because it sends back error messages when he puts in equations wrong, instead of lying to him and telling him he's excellent at mathematics.
if I wanted to "ask an NPC anything" I would simply play a TTRPG. where I can torment my beloved friends by doing exactly that. you just can't get the same kind of panicked improv creativity from a fraud machine
Every time you reference a real piece of armor you learn and don't have to blindly search for reference again. You know what to look for next time. You are better now.
Over time you become an expert and carry knowledge forward into time. You are connecting to, and sharing, your history and culture.
Again I say: how fucking interesting that remote work technology is bad and not worth adopting despite all research pointing to productivity gains, but genAI which offers NOTHING is so important to adopt and force on people who have no use for it despite all the horrible things genAI does
Larian's horrible hirring process is an open secret in the industry – insane amounts of unpaid work in "writing tests", excessive numbers of interviews, months and months of back and forth, etc. Everyone in games narrative circles has heard the stories at this point, probably from multiple people.
I may be able to help?
I find this kind of worldbuilding _so_ freeing. It allows me to justify what I'm laying down, whilst generating an almost unending string of questions and consequences. This kind of design DEMANDS follow-up. It demands _follow-on_. You simply _can't_ create things in a vacuum this way. I love it.
