#1: Amor Tali

So it begins

Down the Rabbit Hole
Title
Expectations
What’s New
Recommendations
Bye

Down the Rabbit Hole

First of all, hello. You’re probably wondering what this oddly-named corner of the internet is all about (more on the name soon). I’m an aspiring game developer, (particularly in the Tabletop Role-Playing Game area, though Board Games & Video Games interest me as well) and this is Amor Tali, my newsletter/blog/mailing list/whatever you want to call it. I’ll be using this space to post lots of (hopefully interesting) ramblings about TTRPGs, other games, and nerd content in general. So stick around, and in the immortal words of Morpheus: “I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

Title

I said I’d tell you about the name, so here’s the explanation: In university, I minored in Philosophy, and I loved it (side note - is it just me or is the philosophy student → TTRPG player/designer pipeline very real?). One of the most impactful courses I took was called “Existentialism and Idealism,” and in that course we discussed, amongst many other things, Nietzche’s concept of Amor Fati, a Latin phrase loosely meaning “the love of one’s fate.” Amor Fati has to do with embracing everything that happens in your life, including suffering or struggle, as good or necessary. It is a useful redirection of negativity to an understanding that our ability to endure suffering is something that ultimately shapes us and gives our lives that much more meaning and depth. Loving one’s own fate means not dwelling in regrets or wishing things could have been different, but appreciating the past and present for what it is, and forging into the unknown darkness ahead bravely and resolutely. This is a concept that has resonated with me strongly, and with my love of Philosophy and Linguistics, I wanted to include it. Now, for the second part of the title, Tali is Latin for dice/knucklebones. Hence, Amor Tali is “love of dice” on the surface, with a little philosophical etymology thrown in the mix for my own enjoyment.

Expectations

With that out of the way, I also wanted to detail what readers can actually expect from these articles that I publish. Full disclosure: as this publication evolves and grows, these expectations may change, based on what readers are interested in, or on what I am able to supply as a creator. My plan is currently to start out with monthly articles, seeing as I’m new to this, so a weekly/biweekly schedule doesn’t yet seem sustainable to me. I’ll plan on publishing each article on the 20th of the month. We’ll see what happens, & I’ll provide updates if the pacing needs to change.

The main purpose of each article will be to provide some kind of food-for-thought about TTRPGs, whether that comes in the form of me rambling about mechanics/narratives, providing a review of a system/module, or making interesting random tables for use in your games. I’ll always want to give you something interesting to read (both in style and content), and if I think I don’t have anything interesting to say at the time, I’ll refrain from writing anything at all, I don’t want to waste your time with filler text (no lorem ipsum here).

The secondary function of the articles will be for me to use it to promote a variety of content. I’ll talk about media and games I’ve been consuming lately, and why I like (or dislike) them, and I’ll also be promoting my own content that I publish. Full disclosure 2: Electric Boogaloo: I am publishing games on the side as a way to earn some extra cash. I love working on games, but I also love eating, and money is great for that, Q.E.D. or whatever. I will try to make a lot of my publications on itch.io Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW), but some of it may be paid-only content. I may also create a Patreon or Ko-Fi to ask for extra donations at some point. Just saying this now, so there’s no unpleasant surprises if/when I do all that - I don’t love surprises, personally.

What’s New

I’ve got 2 big things on the horizon right now. First up is Twelfth Rib. That’s the title of my first standalone RPG publication. I’ve been teaching myself Affinity Publisher this last summer, and doodling a bunch on Procreate. Some of my ideas have started to take shape nicely, and should be ready for publication on my itch.io page soon. Twelfth Rib is a sort of classic D&D-esque dungeon crawler fantasy mixed with thematic inspiration from Scooby-Doo and lot of mechanical inspiration from Hollows (Rowan, Rook, and Decard) as well as CAIN (Tom Bloom). It’ll be 5-10 pages worth of content and sold as PWYW with a suggested price of $4. Feel free to grab a free copy, please do come back & float a few dollars my way if you end up loving it, I’ll appreciate it quite a lot.

Secondly, the Agon Harvest Jam is coming up! Agon is a game developed by John Harper & Sean Nittner through Evil Hat Productions. It’s about ancient Greek heroes slaying monsters and defying gods as they sail to their home through the mists. Occasional game jams have been hosted by fan community members as a way of promoting creativity and content generation. This time around, the plan is to host the jam between October 15 and November 15. You can create and submit anything relating to Agon or the Paragon system, whether that’s new islands to play, or a hack (essentially reskinning the game to a new theme, see Deathmatch Island), or something entirely new. The only request is that whatever you submit should be PWYW so all participants get to enjoy each other’s work for free. Evil Hat Productions has also provided 2 $25 coupons for their PDF products as prizes, to be given by a lottery of jam submissions. I’ll be focusing on Agon/Paragon in next month’s article, so stick around for that if you need some mid-jam inspiration.

You can find more information about Agon and the Paragon SRD here. There is also a subreddit and a discord for Agon.

Recommendations

First and foremost, I recently read the first issue of a comic called “The Power Fantasy” written by Kieron Gillen & illustrated by Caspar Wijngaard. This is my first time encountering Caspar’s art, and it’s got a really nice flair to it, you can see how deliberate and thoughtful his use of color and shape is in every panel. While I haven’t seen Caspar’s work before, I have read Kieron’s DIE and The Wicked & The Divine, both of which are masterfully written. As with Kieron’s other independent works (I haven’t read his Marvel/X-Men stuff), this comic is something special. It focuses on 6 “superheroes” with powers equivalent to that of the nuclear arsenal of a major country, resulting in a cold-war complex developing between all of them. The first issue focuses mostly on the confrontation between the perpetually stoned gravity controller, “Heavy,” and the telepath on steroids, Etienne Lux, though we get a sneak peek of all 6 of the Superpowers. It’s weird and wonderful and I read it multiple times online before going to my local comic store to get a physical copy (something I have never done before) and read it again.

I’ve also been playing a bit of the early release of Hades 2, a sequel to the extremely popular roguelite Hades, which is quite fun. You play as the daughter of Hades, Melinoe, venturing into the depths of the underworld to save your father from his imprisonment by the titan Chronos. A lot of the mechanics are hitting a fairly polished state now, and there is effectively twice as much game content as its precursor, with two paths to choose for gameplay loops, one leading down into the Underworld & House of Hades, and one leading up to Mt. Olympus. I particularly find the cast mechanic in this game to be far easier to utilize than the original was, and I’m very much looking forward to the next update where they release some Mt. Olympus content. The game is in early access ‘til 2025, but I’d say it’s worth checking out now. Also, shout-out to Greg Soper’s WIP Hades playset for AGON, STYX. It’s not out yet, but the art looks awesome so far, and I’m looking forward to trying it when it’s available.

Bye

That’s all for now. If you liked this, please consider subscribing or sharing with people who might find it interesting. See you next time.

Godspeed,
Amor Tali