Character Build Index

This is an index of the character build posts I've made for the blog, sorted by game and such. 

In general I've tried to keep these write-ups to the core book, with supplemental material to a minimum for the sake of folks trying to follow along. I've also eschewed optional/house rules, and if I do deviate from the text or take some sort of liberty I'll point it out. 

If anyone has any requests or suggestions for characters, feel free to ask, and as long as it's a game for which I have a core book (my library is considerable, though not infinite), I'll consider it.

(I'm aware this is pretty bare bones, I'll probably spruce it up with some descriptions at some point, I just wanted to have it set up sooner rather than later.)

Exalted

Exalted Essence:

• Babic Branek, Winter Caste Getimian tech guru
• Ferem Jago, Fire Aspect Dragon-Blooded family champion

Trinity Continuum

• TC Core: Martin "MarTay" Taylor, indie game developer turned activist hacker
• TC Æon: Adrian Taylor, Proteus Division telepath
• TC Aberrant: Jerry Taylor, Æon Society nova troubleshooter
• TC Adventure!: William Taylor, Æon Society bodyguard
• TC Assassins: Makayla Merlin, Cop turned vigilante assassin for the Daughters of the Jacobin
• TC Anima: Erin Taylor, Youth counselor at a Project Neptune homeless shelter
• Erin's Terra Surge characters, Noddol the Veer Boundless and Sigil the Sentient Muse

Other Characters

This section will be for games that aren't part of a larger series and are one-off posts. If I ever go back and do more with these, then sure, I'll rearrange all this. But until then...

• Cyberpunk RED: Abasi "Bas" Kasto Hossam, Netrunner learning his craft on the streets

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: The Captain of the Ashen Umbra (Exalted)

Oh dang. After... well, almost a hundred sessions and nineteen 'episodes,' The Tales of the Moonlight Maiden has hit what I think of as the end of the season. This isn't the end of the story, or these characters, but it's a point to pause and work out where we're going from here and gaze upon new journeys to come.

Also, sorry this took so long, but the fight took a couple of sessions, and then I wanted to write an epilogue as well (which I shared with my players separately but is part of this post).

As I type this we're still hammering out details on what comes next, as my group and I are discussing possibly switching over to using Exalted Essence and playing some different characters for a bit to change it up. Naturally, unless something happens, we will be circling back to these characters (converted over, of course) in time.

Also, quick note, as I've done with big dramatic battles in the past, I may make slight tweaks to the presentation of the order of attacks for the purposes of flow, and leave out little stuff that doesn't directly contribute to the fight like NPCs trying and failing to attack, characters who've been knocked down getting back up, etc. I probably go into way too much detail on these fights as it is, but the draw of the cinematic description is too strong for me. As always, feel free to comment on whether I need to dial it back.

With that, I can't think of anything else to add to this at the moment, so let's get into it...

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: The Ashen Fleet (Exalted)

Hey, sorry if this seems a little late, but we had a battle that lasted three sessions, and I don't want to break up those post-wise.

That said, before I move on, just a reminder that the Abyssals Indiegogo campaign still has a few days left on it. I do wish the timing had been a little better to use more of that material in this story, but them's the breaks sometimes.

So let's get into it. As this is kind of a huge battle, I may skimp on details (like, for instance, armies clashing in the background very round) and slightly tweak the order of events if it helps things fit cinematically but doesn't affect the outcome of the battle. For instance, if Character A hits Character B, then Character C does something unrelated, then B hits A back, I might describe C's action taking place after A and B's exchange. Also, a while back, my group switched to a 'popcorn initiative' system, and I'm not going to go out of my way to delineate rounds, so if it seems like there isn't a clear order to when characters are acting, that's by design.

And finally, before I go into it, I put this post up explaining some of the systems I used. You shouldn't need it to follow what's going on, but just getting it out there. (There'll be another link at the end of the post.)

Exalted Mini-update with a little something to tide you over

I know it's been quiet here on the Exalted front, but that's because the Battle for Salt-Founded Glory took a few sessions and I wanted to write all that up as a single post. We've finished that battle and I still need to finish the post, but it's getting there.

In the meantime, just wanted to remind everyone that the Indiegogo campaign for Abyssals: Sworn to the Grave is still going, though in the home stretch.

And for the heck of it, I thought I'd share some behind the scenes planning and some mechanical things I came up with. I mean, yes, it's to show off just a little bit but I feel like unless it's stepping on published or yet-to-be-published material, it's always good to share these things (including what worked and what didn't) in the hopes that someone else might get something out of it. Note that this does assume some familiarity with Exalted's system.

BTW, I'm not necessarily going to directly refer back to this post when I put together the actual battle write-up, so feel free to come back and read it afterwards. But if you wanna see and comment on my ideas for running this whole thing, here it is. If you've got any questions about details or anything like that, just ask.

Building a Character: Trinity Continuum: Assassins

Okay, so after spending all of five minutes thinking it over while bored, I've decided to do a Trinity Continuum: Assassins character after all as sort of a mental palate cleanser so I don't spend all of my time thinking about Exalted. I'm going to hold off on TC: Anima until the PDF's been errata'd, which should be soon, and I think that's going to be my standard for doing these in the future barring any special requests or suggestions.

TC: Assassins is sort of (but not quite) an alternate setting for the Trinity Continuum core's 'modern day' setting. It's the same world, with a lot of connections back to the core material, but like the core book it's very broad enough to customize or tweak to your needs. And while you could do a stories like these perfectly well out of the core, TC: Assassins is intended/geared specifically for stuff like John Wick, Hitman, Kill Bill, Assassins Creed, Metal Gear Solid, and so forth. In particular, this game draws on a lot of inspiration from the underworld subculture seen in the John Wick series, with Hotels Asylia as neutral spaces where Assassins can safely take care of business, and the Service which preserves the peace and balance between the Societies by enforcing a strict Code these flux-empowered killers must follow.

And yes, flux is still a factor. While the game doesn't explicitly describe them as such, I think it'd be a reasonable shorthand to describe Assassins as something like an alternate form of Talent, exceptional people who can draw upon flux. But where a Talent might 'simply' be a legendary athlete or the best hacker in the world -- impressive but not shaking anyone's grip on reality -- Assassins' abilities border on the blatantly superhuman but are heavily specialized, and anyone whose worldview might be threatened by seeing them are almost always nudged away by flux for both their own and the Assassins' safeties.

There's some other relevant setting stuff to get into for context on the character I'm going to make, but I think I'll save it for below the jump cut this time, for readability's sake.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Preparation (Exalted)

Welp, here we are again. This is going to be a relatively short one, as it's mostly prep work for the impending attack.

Cleverness escapes me at the moment, and I don't really have much else to add, so first I'll remind folks that the Indiegogo campaign for Abyssals: Sworn to the Grave is still going for the moment, and the book is still being previewed piece by piece. And, as near as I can tell, because of how Indiegogo works, the manuscript previews are available for free (just be warned that IGG has been putting an automatic but removable tip on pledges).

And now, we'll get into it!

Building a Character: Trinity Continuum: Adventure!

Here we are again, building a character that'll finish out the 1e Trinity timelines. I plan to do more after this, just marking the milestone.

Much like how Aberrant took place about a century before Æon, Adventure! turns the clock back another century-ish to delve into the 'pulp action' genre. The first edition book's 'day zero' was in 1924, a couple of years after Dr. Sir Calvin Hammersmith arranged for a scientific demonstration in which he was to activate his new 'telluric engine' for the first time, ushering in a new era powered by the theoretically limitless power it could harness. At least, in theory.

It exploded spectacularly, vaporizing Hammersmith (as far as anyone knows), and unleashing a wave of strange energies into the world. The people in the building (and beyond) were Inspired, infused with telluric energy, and given amazing abilities that could change the world. Premier among them were multi-millionaire philanthropist Maxwell Anderson Mercer, a brilliant young physicist by the name of Michael Donighal, and Hammersmith's lab assistant Sara Kaur, who got the most direct exposure to the energy (aside from the late Hammersmith) and were granted abilities far beyond their contemporaries. In time, Mercer, Donighal and others founded the Æon Society, to study and catalogue (and occasionally save the world from) Inspired people and phenomena that had been empowered by the energies thrown out into the world by the Hammersmith Incident.

The first edition of Adventure! is noteworthy in part because at the time it was being written and produced, the folks at White Wolf knew that it would be the only book in this era they'd get to release, and possibly the last Trinity Universe book entirely. And it was in fact the last that actually saw print until the d20 versions in 2004, though the time between included White Wolf's earliest dabblings in ebooks in the form of Terra Verde for Æon and Aberrant: Underworld for, um, Aberrant.

Anyhow, they wrote Adventure! with the intention that it function entirely standalone, making it as complete as possible (so in other words, no mechanics or setting info held back for supplements) with refinements to the system that came from lessons learned on Æon and Aberrant, and in the process created what is considered one of the best (if not the best) pulp RPGs ever printed. It's known to have been a big inspiration on Spirit of the Century, which lead to the full-blown Fate system, so that's quite the indirect legacy there. (Also, some of Fate's mechanics inspired elements of the Storypath system used for the Trinity Continuum games, bringing things full-circle.)

The Trinity Continuum edition of Adventure!, like the other two 'updated' eras, tweaks the timeline a bit. But unlike TC: Æon and TC: Aberrant, which reworked events and adjusted some of the dates, TC: Adventure! almost entirely adds to the earlier edition. Its 'day zero' is in 1934, and barring a couple of specific elements (notably the presence of Sara Kaur) all it does is advance the timeline. Events and characters described in the first edition still happened in TC: Adventure!'s history and the earlier book serves perfectly well as an 'early days of the Æon Society' sourcebook.

And with that little overview out of the way, let's get into making a Trinity Continuum: Adventure! character. As with my other TC posts, this one assumes you've at least skimmed my Trinity Continuum core character post for the basic structure. And as always, if there are any questions, comments, suggestions, so on and so forth, you know the drill.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Choices (Exalted)

Hey there again, folks. It's me, back with another Exalted session write-up after having to skip a session last week due to RL interference.

But first, the crowdfunding campaign for the next Exalted expansion, Abyssals: Sworn to the Grave, is live on IndieGoGo! I didn't work on it or anything, but as I like to promote stuff related to the game line I wanted to share the campaign link here. If you'd like to hear more, The Story Told has an interview with the book's developer Chazz Kellner (storyteller for the Fall of Jiara AP, one of the hosts of Systematic Understanding of Everything, and generally a cool dude). You can hear that here.

Also, on a note unrelated to Exalted but possibly of interest to anyone reading the blog, between the last session and this one I did another one of my 'build a character' posts, this time for Trinity Continuum: Aberrant. I've got another one in the works for Trinity Continuum: Adventure!, and after that I'll probably switch gears and do something else for a post or two since any other TC games are either still in crowdfunding manuscript format, or pre-errata backer PDFs. I might do a Trinity Continuum: Assassins character, but we'll see. Either way, if you have any suggestions or requests (including a request to do Anima, Aether, or Aegis characters even though the full books aren't out), let me know.

And now, we get into the Exalted session. This is one of my 'talkier' ones, so usual disclaimers apply about me possibly misremembering details of dialgoue. I mean, I can tell you now that any of my NPC-on-NPC dialogue was made up on the spot at the time and I didn't stop to write down everything I said as I said it so I'm just winging it in the recounting. At some point I'll ask my group about possibly recording sessions so I can better get this stuff down for my own notes, but this feels like an awkward time to learn how to do that, mostly because we're coming up on a major showdown and potentially a story break.

So for those of you who haven't fallen asleep or wandered off...

Uncluttering My Thoughts

So this is gonna be a little different than my other blog posts, because it's just gonna be me digging through the cluttered attic that is my brain and trying to arrange the boxes with 'Writing shit' crookedly written on the side. I've had some version of this post in the works for a while, and just finally decided to just get it down and put it out there. (And then I spent another couple of days rewriting it in chunks, which I assure you has neither improved nor degraded its coherence.)

This is part of me trying to get to a better place with my writing, and on that journey I'm three or four off-ramps past the point of caring how much junk I toss out the car window. So this post is longer than it needs to be, probably more honest than it needs to be, and there's going to be a lot of whining and venting. It's not intended to be a call-out post, and if you think I'm referring to you, please try not to take it personally -- by and large, I'm trying to focus on my feelings about situations I don't have a lot of control over, I'm trying not to be hurtful about it, and if you see yourself in a broad-strokes comment I make consider that I'm trying to address a larger problem that's not about you specifically. I'm not vagueposting about particular people -- when I mean specific individuals, I say so even if I don't call them out by name.

Anyhow, now that I've probably made sure nobody will ever read this...

Building a Character: Trinity Continuum: Aberrant

Hey there, welcome back to the third in... well, I think calling it a 'series' implies that it's planned out, when I'm just kinda doing these when I happen to have the time and energy. Regardless, this is my third Trinity Continuum character, this time for \Trinity Continuum: Aberrant. As with my Æon character, this isn't going to linger as much on the character creation process as my core character post (aside from the Aberrant-specific stuff, of course).

Now comes the part where I describe the game itself in more detail than is needed for context, so if you want to skip ahead to the character I'm gonna build, feel free to scroll down to the jump cut.

Aberrant was the second game in the original Trinity series, and thus came second in the post-core 'tentpole' Trinity Continuum eras in the current edition. Æon was about humanity in the early 22nd century dealing with, among other challenges, delayed repercussions of the Aberrant War. But how did we get to the Aberrant War? We start with novas in the early 21st century.

While the 'core' Trinity Continuum book presents a world very much like our own as filtered through action-adventure media, Aberrant is kind of an alternate timeline because in Aberrant's version of 2018 (1998, in first edition) saw the tragic explosion of the space station Galatea, bathing the world in then-unknown, difficult-to-quantify energies that cause people around the world to manifest superhuman powers based on manipulating fundamental quantum forces. 

The book's 'day zero' picks up a decade later, in 2028 (2008 in 1e), after a decade in which these superhumans, commonly called novas (from Homo sapiens novus), have already begun changing the world. Over the course of that decade, the Æon Society set up an organization called Project Utopia to study novas (not just their powers but physical transformations that often accompany said power) and find ways to use their powers for the good of mankind. This has led to drastic reversals of climate change, cures for diseases, and massive technological advancements. A group of novas called the Daedalus League now lead efforts to explore beyond the Solar System with their powers and super-science.

But it's not all Arc Reactors and unstable molecules -- for some people, great power means great opportunity. Naturally, some novas use their powers for personal profit, leading to a class of independent superhuman freelancers called Elites -- the most prominent example being superhuman mercenaries who are drastically reshaping visions of warfare. And then there are those who argue humanity's acceptance of novas is based on a faulty premise -- the Teragen, who believe that novas should not be considered human but a separate sovereign species on their own journey to transcendence and should not be bound by human laws or morality. But keeping track of the various factions, regardless of their feelings about or allegiance to humanity at large, is the Directive: a secretive agency empowered by the UN to oversee nova activities and (in theory) protect humanity from nova-related threats.

Some decades after this point, as recorded in the history of TC: Æon, the novas were gradually corrupted by their powers, grew apart from humanity, and eventually a war broke out between the billions of humans and several thousand people with godlike powers. As more and more crises related to the Aberrant War stacked up and humanity's future was at its bleakest, China revealed it's trump card: A network of satellites capable of orbital bombardment, powerful enough to potentially wipe the planet's surface clean. With these satellites they presented an ultimatum insisting the Aberrants (as they were now regarded) leave or everyone goes down together. The novas/Aberrants backed down, and the mightiest of them -- Divis Mal -- immolated the UN Secretary-General, proclaimed "Your legacy is our future," and led the Aberrants to the stars. 

(This sounds bleak, I know, but bear with me.)

All of these elements appear in the old and new editions, with one major difference -- the tone. The original Aberrant, like 1e Æon before it, is very 90's White Wolf. It's not a superhero game as such (Exhibit A: the intro for the Aberrant Player's Guide, infamously titled "This Is Not The Super-Friends") but a deconstruction in the style of Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, or The Authority. I haven't read it or seen the series, but I'm told The Boys (which Aberrant pre-dates) is a pretty perfect match for its tone. At its best, the deconstruction is nigh-brilliant (though lots of it haven't aged well), but every now and again it's like a pizza cutter -- all edge, no point. 

It's a game about power and its corruption, heavily steeped in dark conspiracies that mean very few people can be counted among the 'good guys.' Said good guys are the titular Aberrants: a small resistance group trying to uncover and reveal the corruption and darkness within Project Utopia. The pre-eminent 'superhero'-type of the setting, Caestus Pax, is arguably the 'light beer' version of Homelander, the Teragen could be described as 'What if you combined the Brotherhood of Mutants with the Sabbat from Vampire: The Masquerade,' and the Aberrant War is all but inevitable.

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant, by contrast, actually is a superhero game. Again, it's not all quantum rainbows and quantum daisies, and there are guidelines for fine-tuning a given chronicle's sensibilities regarding the genre, but by default it's much more reminiscent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are people with powers across all political and moral spectra, but by and large there are more people doing good than not regardless of their motivations. 

It's still a game about power and consequences, but it's a setting where the good guys can win. Project Utopia, while not perfect, is a force for good and Cestus Pax (spelling change between editions, not a typo), the leader of Team Tomorrow, is a moral man with power beyond his reckoning still getting used to leadership. The Teragen's core beliefs are largely the same, but they are much more about exploring transhumanism than trying to speedrun their ascendance to quantum-powered godhood -- though in this edition the titular Aberrants are a militaristic extremist faction of the Teragen, arguably outliers in the opposite direction from their 1e counterparts. And while it's possible to see the rumblings of the Aberrant War on the horizon, this edition emphasizes that the War (and Æon beyond it) are possible (perhaps likely) outcomes, but it encourages you more to avert that future in your own games -- part of Trinity being a continuum, and explicitly a multiverse.

Incidentally, one thing both editions have in common is good LGBT+ rep (with a 'good for its time' qualifier for 1e, to be fair) -- there are several prominent novas in the quiltbag, mostly taken beyond simple stereotypes. When the first edition Teragen book came out and revealed that their leader Divis Mal is openly gay and in a relationship with another man in the setting, someone on the White Wolf forums flipped their shit with a post titled "Divis Mal is GAY?!? WTF!!!!" This was responded to, famously, with a thread entitled "Divis Mal has ARMS?!? WTF!!!!" that created a meme that persists to this day. As someone who was there for (and posted in) the Arms thread, it gave me the warm and fuzzies when Onyx Path announced early on that they were rebooting the Trinity games and literally one of the first things that came up was official reassurance that Divis Mal 'would still have arms.'

I played and ran a lot of 1e Aberrant with my friends back in late high school and early college, and it's a game pretty close to my heart. I still have all of those old books, some of which are worn to the point I need to be careful handling them, including the two copies of the Aberrant Player's Guide I wound up with because enough time passed between the book's announcement and its release I accidentally pre-ordered it twice from two different stores. (Technically I don't have my original hardcover core book any more, having loaned it to someone who vanished with it about the time the game line was cancelled, but a few years ago I found another copy at Half-Price Books, probably in slightly better shape than mine had been when I lost it.)

I could probably go on, but I've already gone on far beyond what's necessary or even interesting to read. So whether you're still with me or just jumped ahead to the actual character write-up, thanks. And of course, if you have any questions, comments, requests, etc., let me know either here in the comments or any of the social media outlets in my profile.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Welp, Time To Go (Exalted)

Greetings, programs!

It's been a little quiet on the Exalted front, I'm aware, but there've been meatspace issues that meant we wound up having to skip a week. Though during that gap, I did throw together an interlude mini-fic that takes place alongside/during the montage at the beginning of the last session.

On a mostly-unrelated note, recently I've also been building characters on the blog, if you haven't noticed. I've got a couple of Exalted: Essence characters (a Getimian and a Dragon-Blood), and I've also got a couple of Trinity Continuum characters in the mix: a Talent from the core book, and a psion from Æon. And I definitely plan to do more, in time.

But anyhow, with that bit of business out of the way, let's get on to the show as we wrap up one story and begin the next. There's gonna be a lot of footnotes and links to other posts in this one, because we're coming into the first part of what I envision as a two-part season finale and a lot of stuff that's been set up is starting to pay off.

Building a Character: Trinity Continuum: Æon

Welp, nobody told me to stop after the last one, so I'm back with another Trinity Continuum character. This time for Trinity Continuum: Æon!

This shouldn't be as long as my Trinity core post, though like the Trinity Continuum game line as a whole it does assume some familiarity with the process as presented in that post. Not that I'm gonna skip important stuff, but I'm not going to explain as much.

As I mentioned in that prior post, Trinity Continuum: Æon (which I'm gonna abbreviate as either TC: Æon or just Æon depending on how the mood takes me) is a sci-fi setting that encompasses many genres. The book picks up in the year 2123, and Earth is staring down multiple threats from the stars. First there are the Aberrants, quantum-powered metahumans who first ushered in a golden age and then turned on humanity over the course of a few decades. (This is extremely reductive, but I'm trying to keep the elevator pitch short here.) They were driven away but have since returned with a vengeance, menacing Earth and a few of Earth's colonies elsewhere in space. Next are the Chromatics, an alien species that came out of nowhere with light-bending powers and declared war on humanity. And then there's the Coalition, extraterrestrial conquerors coming for Earth with dark designs.

But fortunately humanity has psions, humans whose natural psychic potential has been activated by tanks of biotech goo called the Prometheus Chambers, and with the help of the Psi Orders and organizations such as the Æon Trinity are the first line of defense against all of these threats.

But I mentioned before a broad range of genres, and that's because different corners of the setting lend themselves to different styles of science-fiction. You can take to the stars in the Leviathan jumpships for Star Trek-style exploration and diplomacy, you can do cyberpunk dystopia in the Federated States of America or Nippon. You can do military sci-fi in the style of Starship Troopers fighting Aberrants or the Chromatics, or even get into some kinda-sorta post-apocalyptic wasteland stuff dealing with the damage the Aberrants' return has done to central Europe. Or you can delve into the more secretive threats and mysteries of the setting a little more in the style of Babylon 5. There's others but you get the point.

The first edition leaned a lot more on the mysteries and conspiracies stuff. As good as the game was, it's easy enough to look back and see just how very... 90's White Wolf it was. While a much more positive setting than, say, the World of Darkness, it was laden with a lot of morally-gray conspiracy material typical of the era. Pretty much every faction had (or was implied to have) a sinister 'doing evil for the greater good' element to it. The closest thing to an exception was ISRA, the Clairsentient Order, who were led by someone whose plans were so circuitous and inscrutable (due to a complicated relationship with linear time) that it was difficult to trust them.

The modern edition, TC: Æon, does a 180º on this element, making it clear that even the sneakier good guys are still good guys. I mean, it's not all space rainbows and cyber-daisies, but by default a player character from the main allegiances isn't going to suddenly discover that they're the baddies.

Also, before I get into it, I've got a bit of a personal history with Æon. The original edition was the first non-D&D RPG I got into back in high school (yeah, that's right, I was familiar with Trinity years before I'd ever heard of the World of Darkness), and the first RPG I played where the group actually got past the character creation session and played a story. Not only do I still have my original core book, I still have the free quickstart I picked up at Waldenbooks that led me to it. Which made it all the more meaningful when I was fortunate enough to get to work on several TC: Æon books, including the core. In fact, that story we played back in high school was a major inspiration for the opening fiction I wrote for Prometheus Unbound.

And with that, I think I'll get into it. Again, if you have any questions, comments, so on and so forth, feel free to comment here or anyplace else I'm active online. (For example I wouldn't be averse to writing up a different type of character for TC: Æon, like a Talent, psiad, alien, etc., if there's any interest.) As with my previous character, I'm probably going to stick with material from just the TC core and Æon core, but we'll see.

Building a Character: Trinity Continuum

So as much as I enjoy running and writing about my Exalted game, I've been wanting to do more broad gaming content. I've got ideas I might blog about, but there's a lot of "I'm not sure I've got anything worth saying or anyone interested in hearing it" going on in my head, and while I sort that out I'm gonna toss out a couple more character building posts when I've got the time/inclination. In theory there's other stuff I could/should be working on, but these posts are easy enough to pick up and put back down as I work on them in chunks, and in the absence of any feedback or suggestions, I'm just gonna do whatever.

So with that in mind, I think I'm gonna write up some Trinity Continuum characters. Just one now, I mean, but there'll be more in the future.

Some quick-ish background: Trinity started with a game called ÆON in 1997, from original recipe White Wolf. It was put together at record speed after Mark Rein-dot-Hagen started work on a sci-fi RPG, and somewhere between the announcement and intended release he left White Wolf and took the game with him. So now White Wolf had a gap in their publishing schedule that was intended for some sort of sci-fi RPG and by some miracle produced a complete game, from conception to printed books, in about 10 months. To be clear, the miracle isn't that the game happened at all but in the fact that it was actually really good even before accounting for the production timeline. It used a version of the Storyteller system and kicked off a series of games known as the Trinity Universe. 

ÆON is a kind of a kitchen sink setting that allows for a lot of different sci-fi subgenres, from Star Trek-style space opera to Starship Troopers-style military science fiction to dystopian cyberpunk and more. Somehow, Viacom decided this infringed on Æon Flux and pitched a fit, but only after the books had been physically printed. Which is why, if you've seen a limited edition copy of ÆON, the infamous spiral-bound one with the plastic binder cover, it likely had a sticker on the cover renaming it 'Trinity.' (I know mine sure did) I'll get a little more into ÆON/Trinity when I write up a character for the modern edition, Trinity Continuum: Æon. 

(Yes, I plan on doing all of the Trinity Continuum games eventually, or at least all of the ones that are properly available. I'm waffling over whether to do posts for games where we only have the crowdfunding preview versions. Also, I haven't decided if I'm going to do Trinity Continuum: Assassins, but if I do I'll probably save it for after I've knocked out the games we have full books for. Any thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.)

But, moving on, ÆON/Trinity led to Aberrant (taking place about a century earlier and being about superheroes of a sort) and Adventure! (taking place about a century before that, and was a pulp adventure setting), and then some d20 versions, and all of this was called the Trinity Universe. Then, a little over a decade ago, Onyx Path Publishing acquired the Trinity IP from White Wolf (CCP edition), and they asked Ian A.A. Watson to blow the dust off an old pitch for a Trinity reboot. Spoiler alert, the game line was rebooted as the Trinity Continuum and has been taken farther than the original Trinity Universe ever got to go.

(By the way, there's some debate as to whether the d20 versions constitute an 'edition' in their own right, and by extension whether the Trinity Continuum should be considered the second or third edition. I personally count the d20 games as an edition, but I just refer to Trinity Continuum as the 'modern' edition for simplicity's sake.)

And that meandering road I've drawn leads us back to here, where I'm going to make a character for the Trinity Continuum core book. Trinity Continuum has a kinda-vague default setting (that I'm gonna call 'Trinity Core' or 'TC Core' for simplicity's sake) that takes place in a version of our world that runs on what I call 'narrative physics.' (I apologize if I'm subconsciously/unintentionally ripping off someone else's term, but doing a quick search on the phrase doesn't turn up any obvious sources I could have gotten it from.) In other words, the setting plays by the rules of action-adventure media where physics seem to conveniently ensure main/major characters can be back in fighting action in time for next week's episode. Think Leverage, The A-Team, Ocean's Eleven, Global Frequency, and the Fast and the Furious films. If it could be described as 'modern day pulp,' it falls under Trinity Core's umbrella.

But the Trinity Continuum as a whole does this in kind of a sci-fi way, and while the dial on that is set pretty low for Trinity Core it means that you'll get scientific breakthroughs and high-energy physics accidents and the like creating the sort of weirdness seen in media like Fringe, Agents of SHIELD, Atomic Robo, Eureka, or even Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. I'll get more into the source of this sci-fi weirdness as we go, but as I've rambled more than enough on the basics without even a single character stat mentioned, let's get into it!

(And of course, if it needs to be said, if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them here or wherever you got the link to this post.)

An Interlude (Exalted Fiction)

Greetings, everyone. This is a little something I threw together sort of on a whim, depicting some events that happened off-camera while the characters were tracking down that puzzle box. It sort of takes place between the last two sessions, technically after the events of the first but largely during the montage at the beginning of the second. It will probably make little sense unless you've been following the current story (at least, you should read the linked post if you haven't already), but it's something I felt like getting down somewhere.

Enjoy!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Retrieval (Exalted)

Hey there, folks, back again with some more Exalted.

If I come up with anything interesting to add here, I'll do so. Until and unless I do that, let's get into it!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Time Passes (Exalted)

Something something Exalted post.

No, that's not a placeholder I came up with and then decided not to clear out, just the best thing I could think of as I start this post. (Though I guess technically anything's a placeholder until I post it. Anyhow.)

Before we kick off our next story, a quick reminder that a while back I posted the final chapter of my furry cyberpunk novel over on my FurAffinity page, where you can read the whole thing for free. Hop on over here, where I link to it and go over one or two little things I don't feel like repeating here.

On a related note, I've also recently made some of my published works freely available on my FurAffinity page, all of them in the aforementioned furry cyberpunk setting, and you can find those here.

And finally, segueing us back into Exalted, I've also done a couple of posts where I build Exalted: Essence characters for the heck of it. One's a Getimian, and the other's a Dragon-Blood. Note that the first one goes into a lot more detail on the character creation process than the second, if that's an issue for you.

And now, segue complete...

Building a Character: Exalted Essence (again)

Welp, here we are again, with me getting ready to write up another Exalted: Essence (aka ExEss) character, something a little more straightforward this time. I've got a vague idea for a Dragon-Blood that'll slightly back to Branek, the Getimian I wrote up last time. I'll try to write this such that you don't need to have read the other post before this one, but I am going to go into less detail on character creation's fiddly bits this time around.

And, again, if you find these interesting, let me know! I'd be up for doing characters for other games I own (which is many), and I'm more than willing to take requests. Just leave a comment here or on whatever social media post led you to my blog.

Anyhow, with no further babbling-on...

Building a Character: Exalted Essence

This is something I've been considering doing for a while, thought it'd be easy to throw together, and now it's way too long. Ah well. Anyhow, I think this sort of thing is more common on streams or YouTube nowadays, so I'm only slightly behind the times, but some gamers/writers/game writers write up characters for different games, walk through the character creation process with this sample character, talk about the game in the process, that sort of thing. I don't do podcasts or streams (streaming is more my roommate's bailiwick), but I've thought about writing up an Exalted: Essence character for the heck of it and figured I may as well do it for the blog.

For a quick primer on Exalted, pop over here for this post I threw together as an intro (and have tweaked a couple of times since) for my regular weekly game's write-ups.

And before I forget to say so, if you like this post and want to see more like it, leave a comment either here or one of my various social media accounts. I think I wanna do another Exalted character, but beyond that I'm up for suggestions on games to cover.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: The Puppet Show (Exalted)

Happy Exalted Posting Day, for those of you who celebrate!

Before I get into it, a quick note/reminder that over at my FurAffinity page I recently posted some of my furry cyberpunk fiction, including the final chapter of the novel I've been working on for a decade, and a couple of stories that got published a few years back.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Late Showing at the Theater (Exalted)

Welp, here we are again. More you, more me, more Exalted.

Before I take us into it, earlier this week I dusted off and posted a short story that got published some years ago called "Bite the Apple." It's in my Conversion setting (though it stands alone well enough) and originally appeared in ROAR Volume 8. You can read it for free here on my FurAffinity page, and if you go to my published fiction index linked over on the side of this page you can get a print or ebook copy of the anthology.

On a related note, here's a reminder that a couple of weeks back I posted the final chapter of "Conversion," the novel that started the eponymous setting. The whole thing is available for free, also on my FurAffinity page, and you can find it here.

And now, with that out of the way, time for another thrilling adventure of the Tales of the Moonlight Maiden!

Bite the Apple

I've been talking about doing this for a while, but I've just posted the first of my three published Conversion stories to my FurAffinity page. It's called, if you couldn't guess, "Bite the Apple" and it originally appeared in ROAR Vol. 8. It's General-rated so you shouldn't need an account to read it, and you can find it here. There are links to purchase the anthology in which it appears in the description beneath the story text, or over on my published fiction index. 

(I'll get to the other stories soon-ish, but I wanted to stagger the uploads a bit.)

Also, as a reminder, I recently posted the final chapter of my never-intended-to-be-a-novel-but-things-happen "Conversion," which kicked off the setting to begin with. It's about 80,800 words, and you can read the whole thing here for free. (Note that Chapter 11 is marked Mature for violence and by default requires a FurAffinity account, but there's a workaround in the Chapter 10 description.)

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: My Dinner With Exalts (Exalted)

Welp, here we are again, welcome back and such!

First off, if you found your way here you probably know me well enough elsewhere to know this already, but I've recently gotten a Blue Sky account. I'm not leaving either Twitter (which I insist on calling that as long as the URL redirects) or Mastodon for now, but it's always good to have options.

In other news, in case you missed it, I recently completed the novel I've been writing for the past decade, Conversion. I used to post chapters here but it was kind of a hassle and I don't think anyone was reading here anyways, but regardless it's done and the whole thing is available for free on my FurAffinity page. I invite anyone who reads it to let me know what they think.

And now we get into it. This is another talky session, so I remind you of my inconsistently-applied disclaimer that I don't record my sessions and my notes are sometimes spotty, so I might misquote characters or miss little bits. If you play in the game and I get something wrong, feel free to correct me.

Social media updates

I have trouble imagining someone getting to this blog without first finding me elsewhere, but I'm just being thorough.

Thanks to a friend generously providing me with a Bluesky invite code, I've got a page on there now. So the places you can casually find me are, in no particular order:

• The Site I Still Insist On Calling Twitter As Long As the URL Redirects, where I'm still @mythicfox
• Mastodon, at mythicfox@furries.club
• The aforementioned Bluesky
• My Furaffinity page

There's other places where you can find me, but I legitimately have trouble imagining the list above being inadequate.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Talking It Out (Exalted)

Hey there, welcome back to Creation!

So before I get into it, a quick personal announcement. I kinda stopped posting about it on the blog for the most part because nobody noticed, but I recently got around to finishing Conversion, a furry cyberpunk story I started a decade ago and slowly became a full-blown kinda-serialized novel. It's available for free over at my FurAffinity page, and you can find more info here.

And now...

...let's move from 'cyberpunk with animal-people' to 'fantasy with animal-people.'

(I'd have just linked the gif but there were technical difficulties, so sue me.)

Finally finished

After over a decade of poking at it amidst various ups and downs, I've finally completed my furry cyberpunk novel Conversion. If you've been waiting until the whole thing is finished before reading it, well, have at it. If anyone's got any questions, ask them and I'll get to them when I can. I can't think of much else to add that I haven't already said elsewhere.

The whole thing's available for free and you can find the first chapter here, though I offer a small disclaimer that as mentioned above I've worked on this for over a decade, and I've mostly resisted the urge to constantly tinker and revise the older chapters for the sake of being able to move forward. So the earlier stuff is going to seem a little rough, and almost certainly won't match my current writing style.

This link takes you to the whole folder where you can find each part of the story, for those of you who've read part of it and just want to pick up where you left off.

As a quick note, Chapter 11 is marked 'Mature' for violence. You need a FurAffinity account to view it as a result, but if you don't have one I've got kind of a cludgy workaround in the description for Chapter 10.

Thank you for your time, and -- if you've been following me a while -- your patience. I hope you enjoy it.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Cards on the Table (Exalted)

Hey, guess what. More Exalted. Can't think of anything extra to add, but if I come up with something, well, I'll replace this with that.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Reunion (Exalted)

Well, here we are again. Another visit with the crew of the Moonlight Maiden. I can't think of anything clever to add to this; no real announcements or anything.

I will say that it may be worthwhile to go back and check the mini-fic I posted a good long while ago, or the flash of memory fragments Hǎifēng experienced a couple of sessions back. I mean, I think it'd be worthwhile, but I wrote all that so I'm clearly biased. Up to you whether it would add to your enjoyment.

Anyhow, let's get into it.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Record-Scratching Noise (Exalted)

Hey there, folks. Guess what.

Yup, more Exalted. Speaking of which, for those of you interested in the game line, this Wednesday Crucible of Legends comes out as an advance PDF. Some folks like to joke that it's the infamously-missing Storytelling chapter from the 3rd Edition core, and maybe they're not wrong. To quote this week's Onyx Path blog, it's got "useful story hooks, alternate rules, and guidance for running games in Creation," as well as "a preview for Alchemicals." So keep an eye out.

Also, in case you've missed it, Trinity Continuum: Aegis is crowdfunding on Backerkit. It's about adventuring in Greece's Dark Age, straddling the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age where heroes have been blessed by ambrosia to become Champions, Oracles, and Olympians. It's a game about epic deeds and equally-epic drama, and if that sounds like a good time to you, go check out the Backerkit link!

And now, let's get on with the show.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Return to the Mainland (Exalted)

Welp, here we are again. This post encompasses the second half of the week-before-last's session, plus last week's session. The prior session (which was more of an epilogue) would have otherwise wrapped up early, and if I have time, I like to set things up for the next story. When done right, it feels like the earliest Doctor Who episodes where it was more serialized and even the last episode of one story would give you a glimpse at the next before the credits roll. I'm reasonably certain I've done this before over the course of who knows how many weekly session posts I've done, but I just feel the need to touch on it now.

Anyhow, before we get into it, here's a reminder about the Trinity Continuum: Aegis Backerkit campaign. An age of heroes set in the Ancient World, with some interesting implications for the rest of the setting in a way that I won't detail here. (Spoilers)

But anyhow, from one age of heroes to another...

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Tide Goes Out (Exalted)

Hey there, folks. Back again with another Exalted write-up. This most recent session wrapped up "Embers," the 'return to Smolder' story. We had some time to start the next one, but I think for the sake of coherence and pacing I'm gonna bump that stuff into the next post and start fresh with the next story. Just so you know.

Unrelated to Exalted, just pointing out that later today, the Backerkit crowdfunding campaign for Trinity Continuum: Aegis starts. It's a game set in, as the name suggests, the Trinity Continuum but in the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age, focusing on Ancient Greece (though not exclusively so). It's swords and sandals, heroes and monsters and the blurry line between them. I didn't work on this book, but when working on the time travel material for the Trinity Continuum Player's Guide I got to read the outline for Aegis as a reference and let's just say I Know Things and am looking forward to seeing what people think about the Things I Know.

Anyhow, with that out of the way, let's get into it!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: They Come at Night (Exalted)

Hey there, folks. So summer's underway and, um... okay, I don't have any big updates and can't think of any particular commentary to add here. So let's get into another Exalted write-up.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Hard Decisions (Exalted)

Hey there, folks. I know it's been a couple of weeks, but there've been delays on sessions and on this write-up. Good news, though, I'm back now, in case you didn't notice!

No real personal announcements to share, but in case you missed it, Exalted Essence is now available! It's an alternate core book for Exalted with a streamlined system and enough setting information to run Exalted games (even in the 'setting' of earlier editions, if that's your fancy). Most notably, the book includes rules for portraying ten different types of Exalts -- not only ones we have rules for already (Solars, Dragon-Blooded, Lunars, as well as Exigents and Sidereals if you count Kickstarter preview text), but also for types that haven't been covered yet. Which means you've got rules for Abyssals, Infernals, Getimians, Liminals, and Alchemicals, without having to wait for their own splat books to come out.

If you've thought about getting into Exalted, I highly recommend Exalted Essence -- it's simple enough to be a solid entry point for a newcomer, but fleshed out enough to run a game without needing any other books.

(I've gushed enough that I feel the need to make it clear that I didn't work on this book or anything, and I don't get anything out of it unless you count the affiliate link above. I just believe in the wonderful work done on it and what that can bring to the table, pun intended.)

Also, unrelated to Exalted, the Backerkit campaign for Trinity Continuum: Aegis is coming up later this month! Again, not a book I worked on, but I got a peek under the hood when I was working on my section of the Trinity Continuum Player's Guide and it's gonna be something spectacular. Follow this finely-crafted linkto sign up to be notified of when it starts!

And with that, let's get on with it!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: The Calm Before the... (Exalted)

Hey there!

...

Seriously, I'd like to see you come up with good ways to introduce these after writing over seventy of them.

No personal announcements before we get into it, but just so you know, Exalted Essence is out! Again, as I've mentioned, not a book I worked on, no dog in the fight, etc. It's not even a system we're using (at this time). But it's a really good gateway into the world of Exalted, both as a setting and as a gaming system. I highly recommend it.

And now, what you probably came here for.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: What You Know, Who You Know (Exalted)

Hey there, folks! Back with Exalted, such and such. No personal news, but for those of you interested in Exalted, Exalted Essence is going to come out on DriveThruRPG this week! I didn't work on it or anything, just a really big fan.

And now, on with the show!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Rekindling (Exalted)

Greetings, folks. Welcome back for... well, I've done, like, 70 of these by now. If this is your first one, you should go back and do some reading anyway.

But we're back with another Exalted write-up. And, um... I can't think of anything clever to add. It occurs to me that I should have said in the last post (and will likely go back to edit in) that if you haven't read through the archives recently, it may behoove you to check out the Port in a Storm story arc, as this follows up on that.

Sorry it's been so quiet over here -- we didn't play last week at all, and I wanted to get this out then but I've had some difficulties juggling things on my end and fell a little behind. (In fact, I still need to get caught up on things, like updating the AP index.)

(CW: Discussion of widespread disease, some gross rotting things.)

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Gathering (Exalted)

Hoi again, folks. I know it's been quiet, but circumstances led to us having to take last week off, so I took the time to get some progress on some personal projects. I don't think I have anything new to report, and I don't want to get too redundant by repeating all the recent stuff, so if you need to refresh yourself on what I've got available, I've got my game writing and fiction indexes to peruse. (Though as a special mention, I will point that my fiction index has links to my recent story reading on Spotify.)

And with that, the crew of the Moonlight Maiden begins a new year and a new adventure!

(This is a 'talky' one, so the usual disclaimer applies. Also, this story follows up on Port in a Storm, so it might be worth going back and reading/rereading that one if you haven't yet.)

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Final Round - Fight! (Exalted)

Hey there, y'all. So this is, again, behind. It's partially intentional, as there are two sessions typed up here and the first one is mostly a dramatic boss fight and follow-up confrontation and the other is denouement. So I let the blog post for the first one slide because depending on where the 'episode' cutoff for the second was, I might've divided that up between a couple of different posts -- one to cap off the tournament, one to kick off the next story.

And just as a reminder before we get into it, the PoD version of Realms of Magic & Mystery is available. Also, my two-part reading of "The Kit Gloves Are Off" from Samhain Secrets: World Premiere is available on Spotify: Part 1, and Part 2.

And I haven't offered up this disclaimer in a while, but there are some talky bits and I didn't get every word down so I'm probably mangling quotes, misattributing lines, and I know there's stuff I had my NPCs say that was good in the moment but didn't write it down and didn't recall later.

Tales of the Moonight Maiden: Shenan-again (Exalted)

Hey, folks, sorry this is so late. Stuff got away from me, and in trying to get things back in order other stuff slipped, and... yeah. I still have one more post to do after this and then I'll be all caught-up, but this has taken long enough I didn't want to try and add a third one on and make it take even longer.

Also, I apologize for the groaner of a title. I came up with it early on because this write-up features some out-of-tournament shenanigans again, and I simply could not think of anything better even with the extra time I had.

Anyhow, in terms of personal announcements, just a reminder that the Print-on-Demand edition of Realms of Magic & Mystery is available. Also, in the last couple of weeks, I've read both halves of "The Kit Gloves Are Off" from Samhain Secrets: World Premiere on Blackwarren Books' podcast, Allora Public Radio. You can find the first half here, and the second half is available here.

And let's get to it!

Reminders about books and other things

Okay, what order to do these in...

Let's start with the time-sensitive thing. Reminding folks that this Friday, April 14th, at 8pm Eastern time, I'll be reading the second half of "The Kit Gloves Are Off" over at the Blackwarren Books Discord. As a reminder, you can pick up the anthology in which it appeared, Samhain Secrets: World Premiere, at this finely-crafted link. (It's always best to buy direct from the publisher, but if you must go through alternate storefronts, you may find links to those over on my index of published fiction.)

Now, the more recent thing. Realms of Magic and Mystery, a Scion Second edition supplement I worked on, is now available in print on demand. If you bought the advance PDF and you're getting Onyx Path updates via DriveThru, you should have a link to a coupon for a discount on the POD as if you'd bought the PDF-POD bundle (as well as a notification of an updated PDF).

Last, and most certainly not least, the Trinity Continuum Player's Guide crowdfunding campaign is going into its final week. "Falling Into Place," a piece of fiction I wrote, was posted as a preview here, and as of this post the backer-only manuscript previews have included most of the material I wrote for the book, with some mechanical bits still yet to arrive this coming Tuesday, the 18th.

And I think that's it. Enjoy and take care!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Group Effort (Exalted)

Greetings again, folks. Sorry I got a little behind on last week's post. Sun willing, I'll be able to get myself together to get a little better about that in the future. 

Before I get into it, if you haven't seen/heard elsewhere, this past Friday (the 7th) I did a reading of the first half of my short story "The Kit Gloves Are Off" from Samhain Secrets: World Premiere. I'll be doing the second half this Friday (April 14th). It'll be over at the Blackwarren Books Discord at 8PM Eastern time. It should be noted I'm not simply doing some character voices, but narrating as well.

And on a less personal note, just another reminder that the Trinity Continuum Players Guide crowdfunding campaign is live over on Backerkit. They've already publicly previewed the fiction I wrote (for the record, you don't have to know the game or the setting for the fiction to make sense), and this Tuesday backers should get the actual game content I wrote as well. Which has me quaking in both anticipation and dread.

Anyhow, considering that is sending me down a mental rabbit hole when I should be getting us into this week's Exalted session!

Fiction available: Falling Into Place

Quick update, while the book isn't out yet, the fiction I wrote for the Trinity Continuum Player's Guide has been previewed as part of the crowdfunding campaign! Go check it out!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Moving Forward (Exalted)

Greetings, my... okay, I don't wanna say 'peeps,' that sounds stupid.

...

Yeah, nothing's coming to me. Anyhow. Hey, folks. Sorry this is a little late, sleep schedule's been screwed up for reasons best not gotten into here, and while I was able to get this written up in time, I didn't have the time or energy to get it posted before the following session.

So, announcements and updates before I get into it:

This Friday and the next (April 7th and 14th) at 8pm Eastern US time, I'm going to be doing a two-part reading of my story "The Kit Gloves Are Off" from Samhain Secrets: World Premiere. It's going to be over on the Blackwarren Books Discord.

Also, the Trinity Continuum Player's Guide crowdfunding campaign is still going strong. I've already talked about the book elsewhere on the blog, but at this point if you don't know about it you may as well go to the campaign link. You can pledge and get a preview of the 95%-complete manuscript, being released in stages (and no, in case you're wondering, my material hasn't come up yet). As of this posting, the first half has been previewed and the entire manuscript will be available for preview by the time the campaign is over. Also, the Onyx Pathcast has devoted a pair of episodes to the book so far, with the first serving as an overview and the second focusing on creating characters with material in the book.

And now, with that out of the way, let's roll that beautiful bean footage.

Announcements, reminders, and such

Barring incident, this Friday and next (4/7 and 4/14) at 8pm Eastern US time (UTC-4), I'm going to be doing a two-part reading of my story "The Kit Gloves Are Off" from Samhain Secrets: World Premiere. This is going to be on the Blackwarren Books Discord (lemme know if that link doesn't work right), and I'll post a link to the event listing when it's available.

Also, as a reminder, the Trinity Continuum Player's Guide crowdfunding campaign is live! The Trinity Continuum Player's Guide is a supplement for the Trinity Continuum core book (though much of the material is applicable for other games in the line like Æon, Aberrant, etc.), with a lot of extra rules and setting material for the core game's modern pulp/sci-fi aesthetic.

And this last bit isn't exactly fresh news, but one more reminder that Realms of Magic & Mystery, a book I worked on for Scion, is recently out in PDF! It's a supplement about strange and magical places tucked away within the World, as well as assorted other pocket dimensions and planes of existence. As the term 'supplement' implies, it does require the Scion: Origin book to be able to use it, but if you're already into the game or have been planning to get into it, check it out!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Dinner, Drinks, and a Show (Exalted)

Hey there, folks. Sorry these have been so last-minute, I've been trying to get a better jump on them but life has just interfered.

But let's not dwell on that, let's share some Exalted shenanigans!

First, however, just a reminder that today at 2pm Eastern Time, the Backerkit crowdfunding campaign for the Trinity Continuum Player's Guide begins! I talk a little more about the book here, but in short this is one I contributed to and my writing in this is probably tied for the work I'm the most proud of. (I'm proud of all of it -- well, the final drafts, at least -- but this book was a special challenge and I think I rose to meet it). I'm assuming this link will take you to the crowdfunding page itself after the appointed time, but if not I'll fix it later.

And now that we're past that, let's get on with Exalted!

Announcement! (and a reminder)

Okay, so first there's the announcement. If you missed it in my last Exalted update, a book I was working on, "Brave New Worlds," is being combined with the "Talent Player's Guide" to make the Trinity Continuum Player's Guide! It's going to be a supplement for the Trinity Continuum core rulebook with expanded rules for different types of the modern pulp action the core line is centered around, new Gifts for Talents (some of them revised and updated from other books to better fit the core), expansions on the core book's minor Allegiances, and a lot of material on traveling through time and space!

I mean, I think that description covers the basics, but if you need more, the Onyx Pathcast has recently put up an episode devoted to discussing it. But if you like what you've heard so far, you can head over to Backerkit and sign up to be notified when the crowdfunding campaign goes live on March 28th!

And now the reminder -- Realms of Magic and Mystery, a Scion Second Edition supplement I worked on, is available at DriveThruRPG!

And as just sort of a general reminder but while I'm here, I recently put together an index of my published fiction to complement the one for my game writing.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: The Impossible Dream (Exalted)

Hello again, greetings, etc. and so forth! Here with another Exalted write-up. However, some business before pleasure.

First, as a reminder, a book I worked on, a Scion book I worked on, Realms of Magic and Mystery, is available in advance PDF! It's a book about otherworldly realms for Scion Second Edition, and I go into a larger pitch here.

Second, another book I worked on is about to go to crowdfunding, sort of. It was originally a Trinity Continuum supplement for the 'Core' line called "Brave New Worlds," but the 'sort of' is that it's been combined with the "Talent Player's Guide" into the Trinity Continuum Player's Guide! It's being crowdfunded through Backerkit, and goes live on March 28th at 2pm Eastern US time. Sign up to be notified here! I'll likely have a separate post going into more detail on that (to the extent of my ability to do so) at some point. I'd have more but it's a pretty recent announcement.

And with that, let's get into it.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Revelation (Exalted)

Oh, hey, we're back with another Exalted write-up with the crew of the Moonlight Maiden, though now it occurs to me I only go out of my way to call them that when they've actually been separated from the eponymous boat for more than a few sessions. Hm. Or maybe it's occurred to me before and I've forgotten and I'm too lazy to check. I dunno, it was a 'weird energy' day when I started writing this.

Oh, and before I get into it, just as a reminder, a Scion supplement I worked on is out! Rather than do a whole spiel here, allow me to just link you back to the post where I announced it.

And, unless I come up with something else that should go here 'above the fold,' as it were, let's get on with the adventure!

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Consequences (Exalted)

Welp, here we are again. And with some good/personal news this week!

Long story short, another book I worked on is out! It's called Realms of Magic and Mystery, and it's a supplement for Scion Second Edition. It's a book about unearthly places and Terra Incognita. It covers places as small as a neighborhood coffee shop that can only be found by people who need to find it, or as big as the Overworlds where the gods dwell and the Underworlds that gather and collect the souls of the dead. I've got a post up that goes into more detail.

And now that we're past the commercial break, let's get on with the show!

(Content warning before we continue: A character vaguely describes a failed suicide attempt.)

New book available!

Long story short, an RPG book I worked on is available! The book is Realms of Magic and Mystery for Scion Second Edition, and it's a book about otherworldly places within the setting, including particularly magical locations, pocket realms and alternate dimensions, as well as Overworlds and Underworlds.

I wrote the opening fiction, "Inside Out," as well as the sections on Under the Bridge (under 'The Realms Next Door'), the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom (under 'Midrealms'), and Yomi (under 'Over and Under').

(As this is a supplement, it will require the use of Scion: Origin. And while it doesn't require Scion: Hero, to the best of my knowledge, you might get more out of it if you have both books.)

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: The Meaning of Family (Exalted)

I'm not gonna deny, multiple different titles for this post came to me, most of them either too-appropriate or inappropriate or both (depending on one's individual sensibilities). And while I try not to make them too jokey, I just couldn't think of a fully-serious title. Just be glad I'm not doing a 'Fast and the Furious' joke.

So let's get to it, with my usual caveat that the talky bits might not be exactly verbatim.

Tales of the Moonlight Maiden: Tea and Sympathy (Exalted)

Hey there, folks, I'm back with another Exalted write-up featuring the crew of the Moonlight Maiden. For the record, this is merely a last-minute post, not an extremely late one; we just didn't play the week of the 14th, which is why I got around to getting this to a presentable state. I've been poking at it on and off for a while, and just kinda held off because I wasn't (and to be fair, I'm still not) convinced there's enough to put there for it to be worth the effort, but had to get it out of the way eventually. 

And other than that, I don't think I've got any big personal updates. So let's get into it.

Just a heads-up, the write-up does begin with description of NPC-on-NPC fights. While there are elements and in-character commentary in the fights that will be relevant in the larger story, if you want to skip ahead to when the focus returns to the plot and the PCs, just do a text search for "As the woman falls".

My Published Fiction

As you may have noticed, I've got a page where I keep track of gaming stuff I've written, that I update on occasion. I've been meaning to do so for my fiction work as well, and here we are. (Current as of 5/9/2023)

First, to get it out of the way, there's some stuff I have posted online, freely available. I have a bunch of furry fiction posted over at my FurAffinity page. (Note that while adult material is locked behind signing up for an account, the site may still trip some work filters.) Also, elsewhere on this blog, is a bunch of Chronicles of Darkness fanfic. There's also the 'writing' tag, but honestly I think the two pages linked already linked should cover pretty much anything listed there and more. This page isn't for highlighting those, but thoroughness demands I mention them while I'm here.

The intent with this page is serving as a central link to published fiction I've written. Some of it will be gaming-related (especially as of the initial writing of this), some will not, though for completeness' sake I am including links to gaming books where I wrote the opening fiction. (Free book previews on DriveThruRPG may extend far enough into the book that you can read the opening fictions for free.) I'm also mentioning stuff that's not out yet, but I'm not detailing those until they're available.

I'm going to loosely group these by genre, so let's get to it.

(As a reminder, some links may be affiliate links and I may benefit from their use.)

Urban Fantasy/Horror

Samhain Secrets: World Premiere, from Blackwarren Books, set in the Argent City. I wrote "The Kit Gloves Are Off," about a handful of Kitsune investigating an old mystery to prevent war between the City's Tricksters. Book blurb and alternate purchase links follow: 

In the Argent City, where supernatural creatures like dragons, fae, and tricksters live alongside blissfully unaware humanity, Halloween Night remains the craziest night of the year. A dragon who would be king struggles to establish his identity and find his passion in hosting a popular radio show, while the wily Kitsune seek to unmask a conspiracy against the feuding Tricksters of the City, where anyone could be the culprit. Across the City, a pair of Fae entrepreneurs stake their future on cleansing a murder site for the police, but a nosy Brownie can't accept the given cause of death and suspects murder. And finally, a hopeful actress takes a chance at scoring the lead in the reboot of a much-beloved vampire action series, only to find the audition process far more bizarre, and deadly, than even the most committed actor would expect.

Featuring contributions from Chris Shaffer, David DeMar, Vaughn R. Demont, and special guest Sierra Dean, the Argent City is explored through the eyes of the different denizens that call it home, and the one night a year where the brave and curious can discover the secrets lying just beyond the human eye.

Direct from publisher (as a reminder, the publisher and authors benefit more from buying direct)

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

Apple Books

Smashwords

In addition, if you would like to listen to me read the story as part of Blackwarren's 'Allora Public Radio' podcast, it's in two hour-long parts: Part 1, Part 2

Gaming-related

The Idigam Chronicle Anthology, from Onyx Path Publishing, set in the Chronicles of Darkness. I wrote the fiction "Legacy," about a werewolf with personal baggage about leadership finding himself in charge of his first Sacred Hunt. Book blurb follows.

On the hunt, your blood races. When something hunts you, it runs cold. Your blood carries the future of Uratha and the burning fire of kuruth. It’s powerful, but ultimately transient.

You know things in your bones. They change with your forms but stay strong. The power of your teeth and claws comes from your bone. It runs deeper than blood, a slow power that doesn’t fade.

So you hunt. It’s what you do, a key part of your psyche. You hunt people and spirits, hosts and other werewolves. But those things hunt you in turn. Werewolves are always one bad choice away from being the prey.

The Idigam Chronicle Anthology contains 11 short stories (7 original to this collection) of bestial violence and supernatural terror, in celebration of the second edition of Werewolf: The Forsaken.

Realms of Magic and Mystery, a sourcebook for Scion Second Edition from Onyx Path Publishing. I wrote the opening fiction, "Inside Out," about an investigator finding the unseen side of an apartment building and a secret hidden within.

Sci-Fi

Gaming-related

Prometheus Unbound, a sourcebook for Trinity Continuum: Aeon from Onyx Path Publishing. I wrote the opening fiction, "Interlocking Pieces," wherein a group of psions from the different Psi Orders come together to stop a monstrous threat.

Trinity Continuum Player's Guide, a yet-to-be-released sourcebook for Trinity Continuum from Onyx Path Publishing, combining what was originally known as Brave New Worlds, which I initially worked on, and another book called the Talent Player's Guide. I wrote "Falling Into Place," originally intended to be the opening fiction for Brave New Worlds, which has been previewed as part of the crowdfunding campaign.

Anthro fiction

ROAR Volume 8, an anthology from Bad Dog Books with the theme of 'Paradise.' I wrote "Bite the Apple," about a journalist trying to uncover the secrets of a hotel that's too good to be true. Book blurb follows. (ebook link)

Paradise can be the stark natural beauty of our own world; it can be the connections we have with the people we love; it can be a moment in time. Paradise can be a place we're seeking or a place that we didn't realize we already had until it started to slip away. It can have a dark side. Even shining science-fiction utopias can come with a price.

Read this book and take a journey through eighteen different visions of paradise—beginning with the personal and natural, traveling through the societal and technological, and all the way out to the supernal and divine. A great book can heal you when you're hurting, give you an escape that you desperately need, or even rekindle a lost spark of hope.

Let this book be a small piece of paradise for you.

FANG Volume 8, a M/M adult anthology from Bad Dog Books, also with the theme of 'Paradise.' I wrote "Too Good," about someone discovering a hidden truth of what feels like the perfect resort. Book blurb follows. (ebook link)

Paradise: An ideal or idyllic place or state

 

Well that would be boring to read about. Join the authors of Fang 8 as they tease your senses, tug on your hearts, and in some cases stab you right in the gut. Paradise can be lost, paradise can be gained, paradise can be found, and in some cases paradise can even be made. Be it an underpaid college graduate finally finding his own way, a lover taking the ultimate risk to keep their perfect lives, diving into the darkest parts of the unconscious to build a future, or the crushing sorrow of realizing it was all a fantasy.

FANG Volume 9, a M/M adult anthology from Bad Dog Books with the theme of 'Bad Romance.' I wrote "Swipe Right, Now What," about an incognito celebrity trying to date like a normal person with hilarious results. Winner of a 2019 Leo Literary Award. Book blurb follows. (ebook link)

All your lovers revenge…

 

Fucking crazy can be crazy fucking hot. Bad Romances - we’ve all had them. Sometimes the sex is so good we can overlook the flaws in our relationship, sometimes a romance is bad because there isn’t enough time, and still others because we want to try and stop the train wreck we know is coming. Join the authors of Fang 9 as we explore doomed relationships and the hot times that keep them going. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll swear, and hopefully get turned on.