I made a weird list

The seven faces of a murky world

A lot of ttrpg folks are writing ‘manifestos’ at the moment. They vary from approaches to game design to ways of playing ttrpgs. The following isn’t really a manifesto, that seems far to grand of a word for… whatever this is.

It’s a list. A list of things that inform my writing and painting, when you boil it down. Why seven entries with three branches each? That’s a witch’s secret.

Writing this list was interesting and informative. A similar exercise might be helpful for you too. Anyway here’s the list - in a weird typography collage (and plain text too).

1. People are broken vessels. They can:

   1. Keep filling themselves up to avoid running dry, leaving the land a desert.

   2. Patch themselves with the remains of the dead, or harvest others for parts.

   3. Crumble into dust.

2. Monsters are a lens. They might look like:

   1. You. So you can see that you are a monster too. Maybe worse.

   2. Nothing you’ve ever imagined. So you realise how little you know.

   3. Something you don’t want to be. So there is something worse than death.

3. The world is tired. It doesn’t care for:

   1. Its own survival. It isn’t trying to stay alive and you won’t convince it otherwise.

   2. Its inhabitants. We have failed it

   3. Mercy. That’s why everything is broken after all. Never again.

4. The forgotten is our downfall. History is:

   1. An omen. Those unheard saw what was coming.

   2. Alive and awakening. Torments of the past are delayed, never dead.

   3. Cognition altering. To know is to begin a descent.

5. Nature is without equal. She is:

   1. Beyond ‘Gods’. They are petulant children with inflated egos.

   2. Filled with rage. We have sundered her home and now we will pay.

   3. The last to die. She always wins. Always.

6. There is no great hope. In its place is:

   1. Silence and quiet. So we can hear the echo of our choices.

   2. Melancholy and pain. To remind us of what we have wrought.

   3. Darkness and vastness. So we must look hard for fruitless answers.

7. You carry on. Find a reason so powerful you don’t need hope.
   Then you will be free.

I’m not sure how useful this will be, but it feels nice to know my writer, designer, and painter self a little better. It was cool to come up with a visual presentation for it too, to give it some personality.

All of this is in the bones of Inkvein, my 250+ page megadungeon funding on BackerKit now. It’s in the words, the paintings, and the game design. If this list appeals to you, you should check out the project.