Mogleth (art by Scrap Princess)

So now here is the official post for Mogleth, the second ordinal beasts which I have commissioned amazing art from Scrap Princess, and also the art I've used for the new background for the blog. I also have another piece of stream of consciousness prose and thinking man, I forgot where my head goes when I don't get a good night of sleep and really hope I'm not going to be embarrassed by this tomorrow.

(NOTE: temporarily removing prose, going to rewrite it at some point but I don't feel comfortable with what I wrote originally anymore)

Mun Jira REDUX (art by Scrap Princess)

This is a repost of Scrap Princess' amazing interpretation of Mun Jira, now accompanied with words.

5/31/19 Nearly a year later I am quietly attempting to re-do this writeup! It's definitely a WIP, I'll continue to work on it as time and inspiration allow.

6/11/19 Keep making false starts, will do this eventually...

LotFP: Decyphered (WIP)

This is an attempt to hack the OSR game Lamentations of the Flame Princess to utilize certain core mechanics from the Cypher System. Note that I have no LotFP/OSR experience (although I'm supposed to play my first LotFP game tonight!), but I love the Cypher system, and have been very interested in OSR for a while now and have read many OSR books and blogs and listened/watched many podcasts and actual plays. That being said, this is very much a WIP, given not only my lack of experience, and by extension that this has not been playtested, and also I whipped up this first version rather quickly. That being said, for as rough as it may be, I thought it might be more efficient to just put what I have out there and let people much better and more experienced than me at game design let me know what they think! As for why I'm doing this, I discuss in this post on r/rpgdesign why I love the Cypher System and how I think these mechanics can benefit other systems. Depending on how successful this is, how much effort it takes (pun intended), and how much I can playtest this or others are willing to playtest or contribute to this, I would like to do something similar for other systems such as FATE and some PbtA games. Without further ado:

Character Creation and Progression

Rather than the traditional D&D stats, there is Might, Speed, and Intellect. Roll 2d3 three times and either assign the sum of each paired roll to the three stat pools down the line, or assign by preference (GM discretion). An easy way to roll d3 is to roll a d6, where a 1 or 2 = 1, 3 or 4 = 2, and 5 or 6 = 3. For races/classes with starting HP > 4, assign 1 additional Pool point to either Might or Speed for every 2 starting HP > 4.

At character level 1, start with an Effort Level of 1, and increase Effort Level by 1 at every third level (4, 7, 10, etc.). Possibly cap Effort at character level 10 (max Effort = 4).

At character level 1, start with 1 point of Edge which can be applied to any stat, and add a new Edge point to any stat at every third level (4, 7, 10, etc.). Possibly cap Edge at character level 10 (max Edge across all stats = 4).

Do not roll for HP. Instead, at each level, roll 1d4+2 and add that many points split across the three stat pools in any way. Races/classes with HD > 1d6 receive 1 additional Pool point to either Might or Speed for each unit increase in HD die (e.g. +1 for 1d8, +2 1d10, etc.).


DESIGN NOTES: The choice of 2d3 for stat Pools was meant to provide starting characters with roughly comparable total Pool points to starting LotFP character HP, and roughly comparable variance in starting attributes by way of modifiers after random rolling. This was entirely determined by eyeballing/intuition and not something mathematically derived nor that I'm committed to. The 1d4+2 Pool progression rate was also meant to be comparable to HP progression. The bonus points for characters with higher HD in Might and Strength is meant to serve a similar balance purpose, but I'm definitely worried about balance with this. The rate of progression and proposed caps on Edge and Effort was meant to keep the characters from getting too powerful (and making balancing easier ;) ); this is still meant to be OSR-esque and players shouldn't be able to 100% buy their way to victory.

Combat

Attacking

Melee: Before rolling to hit, spend any number of Might Pool points up to Effort level and add Might Edge, split up any way either to Attack Bonus (AB) or as a modifier to the Damage roll. At GM discretion, certain melee weapons could use Speed Pool and Edge instead of Might, such as a rapier.

Ranged: Before rolling to hit, spend any number of Speed Pool points up to Effort level and add Speed Edge, split up in any way either to Attack Bonus (AB) or as a modifier to the Damage roll. At GM discretion, certain ranged weapons could use Might Pool and Edge instead Speed, such as a Gatling gun.

Defending

Before rolling to defend, spend any number of Speed Pool points up to Effort level and add Speed Edge to AC. On a failed defense, subtract Damage from Might Pool. If Might Pool is depleted, subtract remaining/subsequent Damage to Speed Pool, followed by Intellect Pool.

Initiative

Either roll for players vs. enemies, or for individual character initiative, prior to rolling for initiative, spend any number of Speed Pool points up to Effort level and add Speed Edge to initiative roll.

Spellcasting

For Damage-dealing spells, before rolling Damage, spend any number of Intellect Pool points up to Effort level and add Intellect Edge as a modifier to the Damage roll. Do likewise before rolling for success if the spell has a misfire or negative outcome possibility for a low roll, or before any other spell roll with a graded response (see below for magic saving throws).

Before rolling a saving throw for Magic or Magical Device, spend any number of Intellect Pool points up to Effort level and subtract Intellect Edge to decrease the saving throw.

In addition to prepared spells, spellcasters can cast a number of additional spells per day up to Effort level. The spell costs as many Intellect Pool points as the spell level minus Intellect Edge (minimum 0).

DESIGN NOTES: My understanding is that most spells in LotFP are not damage-dealing, but I wanted to hedge my bets. I wanted to avoid touching saving throws altogether, but it seemed unavoidable here, so then i figured I may as well do the rest of them.

Saving Throws

For Magic and Magical Device, see Spellcasting. For the other saving throws, at GM discretion, spend any number of relevant stat Pool points up to Effort level and subtract relevant stat Edge to decrease the saving throw.

Stat Pool Depletion

If a stat Pool reaches 0, Edge cannot be applied to actions which use that stat. Additionally, natural 20’s do not count as critical successes (although natural 1’s may still count as critical failures), and Pool points for actions using the other stats can only be applied up to half Effort level rounding down. If two stat pools reach 0, in addition to the above, Edge for actions using the remaining stat cannot be used, and Effort level is treated as 0. If all stat Pools reach 0, the character is either rendered unconscious, or dead (GM discretion).

ADDITIONAL DESIGN NOTES

1. Ideally I would like to apply this mechanic to skills as well, but can't think of a straightforward way to do so that doesn't require completely reworking skills. If it could be done in a way that used a relatively straightforward conversion rule, that would be ideal. In any case, especially for the Specialist this seems important to figure out. 
2. I have not considered what to do about retainers yet, but would probably fold charisma-esque stuff into intellect. 
3. I have not considered what to do about encumbrance yet, but would probably fold strength-esque stuff into might. 
4. There are plenty of other more specific rules for LotFP I have not thought about yet. 
5. I know that LotFP differentiates between various kinds of AC, but I don't know if this still makes sense given the level of abstraction of this three-stat system. That being said, I'd like to figure something out.

Locations in Nova Arkham

Locations (1d20)	Description	Notable People/NPCs	Additional Notes
1. The People's Market	An open market, most famous for its fruits and vegetables, but also carries other foods (more conventional than Clamy's or Sporie's), lower-end curios, and various other odds and ends. Conjunctiva's own fruit stand is most famous for its juicy, crystalline red fruit, delicious, nutritious, and unlike anything else.	The owner of the market, Conjunctiva, is a giant eyeball mutant hovering on a biojet optic nerve, and the bad-blood brother of Occulon. In addition to light-manipulation abilities, he is also a practiced necromancer. His eye is always bloodshot, and when he activates his bloodfont, his biojet becomes a necromantic hemojet.	Conjunctiva, a hardcore social anarchist, subsidizes much of the cost of the market out of pocket to make it more affordable for the people. He also encourages bartering over monetary exchange. Conjunctiva's famous red fruit is actually derived from his own necromantic blood magic.
2. Silky Satina's Clothing and Textiles	The shop is covered in a skin-like membrane, with no nervous system. The skin grows various kinds of hair, fur, cotton, silk, polyester, or whatever more exotic materials Satina needs.	The owner and designer of the shop, Satina, is a demonic-looking humanoid mutant with the tongue and camouflage abilities of a chameleon. She is a lovely person, and always wears amazing, trend-setting outfits.	Large, fleshy, spider-like creatures can be seen skittering and droning around the shop. They do not survive long outside the shop, but that hasn't stopped people from stealing them for various reasons.
3. Alistair Bank and Stock Exchange	A rectangular, pillared building of stone, marble, and precious metals. The bank exists across the paraverse- meaning outside of space, time, and causality as we understand it. The value of currencies and corporations is estimated from a model universe, encrypted across every instantiation of the bank in the paraverse, and adjusts mostly smoothly to changes in the paraverse.	The owner of the bank, Alistair, is a humanoid gecko-like mutant in a fancy, expensive suit. He is supernaturally charming, with a visible aura that inspires others. Despite his supposed business and financial acumen, secretly his fortune was built through the blind luck of finding one of Lutwidge's writs of debt, which he keeps on his person at all times.	Given any attempt to rob the bank, the paraverse will rewrite itself, making a robbery impossible to all but the most powerful paraterrestrial beings. The model is more stable than any resource-backed currency, and has never busted. It is theorized that the bank defies entropy, and at worst will eventually grow at such a polynomial rate that it will encompass the entire paraverse and then go supernova.
4. Sheriff's Office and Jail	An unassuming building of mostly wood, like the Wild West. It is inestimably larger on the inside, drab, gray, walled with cement, and labyrinthine. Except for the beautiful, mountainous desert courtyard, clearly not within the Capitol, the inmates receive no exposure to natural light, and are rarely taken to the wonderful courtyard. All other illumination is dull, shoddy fluorescence.	The Phantom Sheriff is a consortium of souls, each a murder victim. It is believed ze is a parraterestrial- blurring in and out of reality from the perception of mortals. Ze appears as a blur of the faces and bodies of the souls comprising zir, and has limited access to their various skills and abilities. Ze does not eat, does not sleep, and cannot be harmed by physical means.	Despite its extra-dimensional nature, the jail does not exist outside of time, although inmates quickly lose sense of chronology anyway. It is rumored that the jail is somehow connected to the Grand Stable. It is also rumored that the Phantom Sheriff is manifested from the jail itself.
5. Dr. Hyborea's Asylum	Dr. Hyborea wears astrium-glass lenses, which he uses to turn patients into living spaces. The asylum is an extra-dimensional, metaphysical embodiment of the patients' minds. It is generally not safe to traverse the asylum without the assistance of Dr. Hyborea or a powerful mystic, and only the Doctor or a mystic could make use of the lenses. He works from his mansion, in a peaceful and secluded area, just barely outside the meridian system, a few hours away from the capitol.	Dr. Hyborea is a large and muscular humanoid mutant with metallic blue skin and no head or neck, with two long eye stalks sprouting from where his head would be. His entire body is ganglionic- a distributed network of nerve clusters. Even if parts of himself are removed, he can encrypt and compress his knowledge until he can regenerate the necessary lost mass. His identity has been infected by the asylum. He is going mad and is prone to rages.	The asylum never looks the same, because its form is dependent both on the patients-as-spaces, and the visitors. The visitors either observe/manipulate the space through contact with the astrium lenses, or enter the asylum as an object-as-space. Nonetheless, Dr. Hyborea always knows his way around the asylum, and can dissociate features in the space from specific patients.
6. The Infererium	A small, round, planetarium-like temple, it's dome made from roth obsidian. Kaibermantic light shows are put on for small groups, and it attracts the masses.	The Oracle is a beta, a living dimension. Its presence can be sensed as a distortion, an axis along space, time, and metaphysical/platonic constructs.	While expensive, the fortunes provided by The Oracle have saved (or destroyed) businesses, relationships, and lives. The fortunes are intentionally vague, so as to avoid causal alteration of the paraverse (and by extension invalidating the fortune).
7. Helnwein's Tavern	In addition to booze, the tavern vents psychedelic ectoplasmic gases which induce a reminiscence of dead dreams- on the house. Glasses adhere to the hands of their owner and are too slick to be grasped by others (besides tavern staff).	The bartender, Helnwein, is a floating, partially out of phase, baby-like mutant with a deep, gravely voice.	Serves Clamy's "meats" and various foods (and select drinks) from Sporie's.
8. Grand Stable	A labyrinthine series of parking garage-like buildings, mostly subterranean, which can raise to varying levels above ground and rearrange floors across units. Any pack or mount animal, mode of personal transport, or livestock must be registered and stored when not in use.	While mostly automated, most access-points have a single, generally disinterested employee monitoring the operation. The entire Grand Stable is managed by Mr. Myce, a minotaur-like mutant, reminiscent of a bull-hippocampus, with blue fur and skin, great strength, and hydraulic magical abilities.	Stable-units are plentiful throughout the city, making it easy and carefree to traverse on foot or by mount. The grand stable is nigh-impenetrable, and even more difficult to escape than enter, meaning your animals will be in good hands. Of course, it also means the bureaucracies can always find you...
9. Clamy's "Meat" Butchery	Fresh "meat"! Get your chicken-spiders, your frog-bats, your fungi-shelled tortoises, and don't forget our delectable vulture-monkeys! And wait 'til you see what we have in the back...	In addition to zirs rare and exotic meats, the cactus-meets-venus fly trap-like mutant also grows various plant, fungal, or nondescript organisms which ze sells as "meat". Better not to question it...	The deli cutter aggressively sprays a delicious smelling, greasy purple and brownish liquid, regardless of what kind of meat (or "meat") is being cut. It makes sexual moaning noises as it does so.
10. Materia Masonry	A cave-head at the entrance of a simple-looking beige factory. The interior is always dark and dripping with a milky, acidic fluid.	No one has seen the mason except for his shadow, as he crawls along the surfaces of the cave-factory in the dark.	Every block has an ideal form. The acids identify and carve the ideal form out of any block of any kind of material. Effectively an arms and armory shop, but may have other uses...
11. Dr. Sphing's Apothecary and Medical Office	The apothecary portion is suitably dim and dusty. Many of the tinctures, herbs, and other products are stored in mosquito egg-like membranes. The actual medical office is pristine, except for always one blotch of blood, never in the same place.	A humanoid mosquito mutant. He can draw the sickness or ailment out of blood (regardless of the nature of the sickness or ailment) and regurgitate it into chemicals and tinctures for other medical purposes. He is also an excellent physician and herbalist in addition to his mutation.	Despite its off-putting appearance, Dr. Sphing's medical care is second only to what can be provided within the Fey Court itself.
12. Quickie-Cut Barbershop and Feldshery	A place to get a shave, a haircut, or undergo emergency invasive surgery. By manipulating the speed and direction of the swirling barber's pole, time can be sped up or slowed down within the shop, to facilitate quick shaves, or buy time for dangerous surgical operations.	The Feldsher (name unknown) is a vaguely serpentine-faced mutant covered in short, bristle-like feathers as sharp as razors, with a hump on its back. The hump opens up to expose leech-faced appendages which can be used for cutting, bloodletting, cleaning, infusing, or stanching.	Conveniently located next to Dr. Sphing's. Also offers dental hygiene services, but these services are generally not recommended...
13. Sporious Results (aka Sporie's)	A bakery, distillery, brewery, dairy, and maker of other things fermented and pickled.	The bakery is itself a giant yeast (or yeast-like) colony, collectively referred to as "Sporie's". It is not known if it is sapient, but it seems to get the job done...	Carries a wide variety of rare and exotic, and laboriously bred yeasts, fungi, or similar organisms. Their products come in all sorts of shapes, colors, textures, and flavors unlike anything else. Tasting even the non-psychoactive products is often a psychedelic experience.
14. Le Cirque	An open field of makeshift tents and stages made of shoglite. A dedicated grounds for theater, comedy, dance, oddities, and other entertainment. Located in the entertainment district.	The unofficial ringmaster is Feste, a porcelain clown-like harlequinade dressed in an outfit like a cross between a bal masque costume, an early 20th century circus ringmaster, and the Swiss Guard. More coherent than most harlequinade. Often speaks in rhyme and metaphor with frequent, ominous giggling.	The shoglite tents, stages, and much of the equipment of le cirque were provided by the Harlequinade, who frequently perform here. Most find their performances puzzling and unsettling, but they nonetheless continue to attract crowds out of sheer curiosity.
15. The Coliseum	A ring-shaped structure made of bone and ancient metals. The fighting grounds are pulled into the air, dissolving as they rise up only just remaining in view of the stands below. The grounds regenerate. Located in the entertainment district.	The reigning champion of the coliseum is an enormously large and impossibly fat (yet fast and agile) mutant with greenish, greasy acne-covered skin, a wide grin, rows of shark-like teeth, and long antelope-like horns. He is known for his brutality in the ring (despite being a decent guy irl), and goes by The Glutton, but his real name is Walter.	The coliseum is one of the few locations in Nova Arkham which predates its construction by the Fey King. Many believe it once served some other purpose.
16. The Forum	An hourglass-shaped, gigantic government complex. Gravity converges at the vestibule where the conical structures meet. The lower chamber is the public forum where anyone may discuss policy, and the upper chamber is for the courts and bureaucracies. Located in the entertainment district.	The demagogue Occulon is frequently present at the forum, among other elites of Nova Arkham such as Penn the Penguin.	In the lower chamber, to account for the inverted gravity, the interior is upside-down. Flowing throughout the vestibule are grains of sand-like micro eyes. Besides the courts, most of the offices in the upper chamber are relatively insignificant, or even outright shams. Workers are often not aware that their career is a lie, serving only to bamboozle the public.
17. Dengo Sensorium	A tall and narrow pagoda building capped with an onion dome, full of paradoxical gears (mostly for show). A spa and community center containing amenities such as: massage, baths, sex work, psychedelia, sensory deprivation chambers, hyper-sensory chambers, dream inducers, astral inversion...	Asimov Dengo is a handsome, middle-aged dogu garlic knight with salt-and-pepper hair and a goatee. His bestial form is spider-like. He's covered in scars, notably two iridescent scars running vertically across each eye. The owner of the sensorium, and also the leader of the dogu mafia, spending too much time away from home...	Sensoriums are common in the Dogu Kingdom. Nova Arkham has some smaller sensoriums to cater to its dogu inhabitants, but this one is by far the largest and most prominent (and is also a front for the dogu mafia...). Despite being a mafia front, the sensorium itself is a legal, safe, and wholesome business.
18. School of Hyperbolic Orange	A simple-looking martial science campus just off the meridian system outside the capitol. On a clear night, unknown constellations can be seen in the sky. The stone buildings contain noticeable quantities of anti-information, coating everything in a faint, holographic cyan light. The architecture of the buildings are beholden only to a-logical physics.	Flash Viper is the leader of the School of Hyperbolic Orange. A snake-like mutant with snake-appendages for arms. Boomer Cicada is a humanoid cicada-like mutant with the ability to move at supersonic speeds, and the greatest pupil of Flash Viper.	Home of the Enchiridion Chimerica: vol. i (aka sqrt(-1)), from which the martial scientists derive the SMASH style of combat.
19. Penn Tell's All Curio Shop	An extra-dimensional shop which crops up in various locations throughout the capitol. In addition to whatever is on display, hidden doors hide pocket dimensions containing more rare and dangerous items.	Winston Pennington the 3rd, aka Penn the Penguin, a penguin-like mutant with vibrantly mottled skin, from a family and community of seal-like mutants (and a chip on his shoulder about it). Wears a top hat, monocle, and three-piece suit. A self-made man with connections and hubris.	In addition to carrying a wide variety of ancient artifacts, modern wonders, and general curios, has also learned to create (or may have simply acquired a large stock of) automagica decks and automagica spell cards.
20. The Fey Court	An enormously tall, narrow, sleek, smooth white structure. Much of its length is composed of two fused, cylindrical structures, capped with a round structure, raised at the four corners and concave at the center. It towers over the rest of the already rather tall capitol of Nova Arkham, reaching into the skies.	Despite having built the meridian node upon which Nova Arkham was built, along with the Court itself, the Fey King is rarely present. Instead, the Court is primarily managed by the Grim General in Blue and his family and associates. Most of the length of the court is bureaucratic, with the cap being the Royal Chamber.	The bureaucratic offices of the court are mostly industrial, brutalist, and bland. The royal chamber is sleek, futuristic, alien, and bio-technical. It is full of vaguely organic pulsing and humming veins of bright energies, sleek surfaces, and smoothly moving parts.

Phantasmos: Key Concepts

While I've posted about the Big Picture and my personal Themes for the setting, this is my attempt to further clarify the Key Concepts in the setting, the things that make it unique from other Weird Post-Post-Apocalyptic Science Fantasy settings, as succinctly as possible. Without further ado, and in no particular order:


Ordinal Elements 

     Impossible Light, Absolute Solid, Liquid Starfire, and Anti-Information (see materials). If elements are supposed to be the smallest or most symbolically meaningful units in a world, then one cannot discuss Phantasmos without the Ordinal Elements.

     The name is a play on the Cardinal Symbols of Chinese Astrology, mapping to four (or five) mythic beasts, which are themselves mapped to the elements in Chinese mythology. Elements in mythology are generally things which occur in nature but are utilized by man, such as fire, water, air, and earth. The ordinal elements come from another universe, and represent more abstract concepts such as subjective perception, materialism/physicality, change/energy/mania, and a-logic; a fundamentally different set of universal principles; and are likewise mapped to mythic beings. 

     Elements are also often mapped to colors, usually primary colors derived from Red Green Blue (RGB) light additivity. Instead, I wanted the color theme of the ordinal elements to be the subtractive Cyan Magenta Yellow Key/Black (CMYK) colors. Going back to the Cardinal Symbols comparison, the "center" of the compass is mapped to mainland China and yellow/gold/brown. Instead, the fifth ordinal element is "void", the absence of object or space, and is colored black/purple/vantablack/null.

The Paraverse

     I put the ordinal elements first because they are easier to conceptualize, but I consider the paraverse to be the most important concept in Phantasmos. It starts with a myth:

     The gods created the paraverse and so exist as paraterrestrial beings, existing outside the paraverse and not constrained by its mechanics. Mortals cannot perceive reality like the gods, but the gods themselves created the paraverse as a model for their own understanding, and so it is that mortals can, through models, begin to understand reality like the gods. One must be wary of this knowledge as it often comes at a cost, even if only the cost of peace of mind, but certainly there must be value in emulating the gods...     

     We know some number of gods were driven to create the universe as we understand it, towards some end beyond our knowledge. They needed the nature of the universe to be consistent to meet this end, so they first created a deterministic universe. However, a deterministic universe suffers an observer problem- the gods, as paraversal beings, could not observe the system without altering it. The gods needed to be able to observe the universe, and also needed it to be robust to manipulation from other gods or mythic beings who did not share their intentions, so this would not do.

     The next universe was still deterministic, but rather than causality being the linear product of space and time as mortals still perceive it, this causality was an encryption algorithm. The encryption protected it from outside interference, and several toy model universes were created, from which model estimates of the true universe could be derived. In this universe, every bit of information served as its own symbol, with its own inherent value.

     The symbolic and deterministic universe would inevitably be compromised, and in any case, compared to the models, it was highly inefficient. Why give every bit of information meaning, when one can derive polynomially more states through conjunctions of bits, as was the case with the models. So, the gods created one more universe, which became the paraverse as we know it. The paraverse is a multi-dimensional space with at least three dimensions of space, at least two dimensions of time, and countless other dimensions which do not map natively to mortal perception and cognition. The paraverse is asymbolic, algorithmic, and probabilistic. To a paraversal being, the state of the paraverse can be inferred from a model of it. The models contain some number of dimensions like a multi-dimensional array, and the distributed weight and activation across the array can be used to infer from the true paraverse. The precision and simplicity of a symbolic, deterministic universe was traded for the flexibility of an asymbolic, probabilistic paraverse.

     In this way, rather than causality being the linear product of space and time, it can be more appropriately thought of as like a distributed representation in a connectionist neural network. Changes in activity at nodes "forward" in time(s), "adjacent" in time(s), or along separate dimensions entirely, can lead to updates throughout the whole network, towards the maintenance of some relative homeostasis. 

     While mortals are not consciously aware of this, and still perceive time and space linearly, in fact a paraversal moment can include activity in the paraverse not within the conscious perception of mortals that meaningfully affects the mortal's conscious perception nonetheless. In other words, the paraverse is not just a set of separate and linear planes like a multiverse, but an entire predictable (but not causal), flexible system. While incursions of paraversal beings or mortals being pulled (or removing themselves) from the paraverse have altered it, thus far it has remained robust to destabilization, given the ends for which the gods desire.

So I realize that "brief" entry has a lot going on, and I'm probably going to keep working on it (at the very least, I'd like to make the writing more flavorful), for now I think that is a decent introduction to the paraverse.

Finally, I will talk about the Astral Plane and the notion of Object-as-Space and Space-as-Object.

The Astral Plane

     Not a plane per se, but any hierarchical relationship between dimensions, relative to an object and a space. It is an inherently metaphysical concept- objects and spaces are arbitrary terms, and the mind and body of a sapient agent is even more so subjective and arbitrary. It exists solely through force of will- not just in sapient agents, but in any "thing" which affects other "things". A flow of water over a rock surface to form a river of millions of years has, in this sense, a will, and what is an object (the body of water, the rock surface) and what is a space (the river as a place), is relative to the other objects, agents, or spaces which could be operationalized. It is "psychic" in the truest sense, a "plane" rooted in the metaphysical concept of the psyche and of will, or perhaps the soul. It is a surreal "plane", a subjective gestalt. It is mind and matter and math. 

 

     Consider spatial dimensions: the vertices of a simple shape in a lower dimension are the edges of a comparable shape in a higher dimension. If one were to place vectors on the third dimension at the corners of a square, the two-dimensional square would become a three-dimensional cube. To go from three- to four-dimensional space, one could draw vectors along the vertices of the cube, creating a three-dimensional model of a tesseract/hypercube, like a cube within a cube. By "pulling" on the cube within the hypercube, the edges would stretch and change the angles of the tesseract. The metaphysical concepts of objects and spaces can be manipulated in a similar sense. 

     

     Objects are defined by what they are not. The distance or orientation between two objects, the continuity or barriers between them, define them. In other words, objects are defined by what they are not, and by their spatial relation to other objects. Further, this suggests an inverse relationship between the freedom of an object, and the parameters of the space. An object in a null-space is completely free, but lacks any context to differentiate that object from the space it inhabits or other objects, like dissociating blood cells in the body or molecules in pudding. By parameterizing the space, such as a single vector "floor", one creates a frame of reference to dissociate the object from the space, so that the object may act as an agent within that space, but the object is now defined by the space that it is not- its platonic form limits it. 

     The parameters of that space also affect the ability of sapient agents to interact with others, like a literal barrier of land or sea or air, or like skin or emotions. By extending one's consciousness to some higher dimension, one could manipulate their space from the outside, as if the space were an object and the object-agent were the space. It's a physical metaphor for a metaphysical concept. Within this plane, sapient beings are not separated as objects within a space. However, they can affect the spaces themselves, as objects, like interior decorating, to distinguish one agent from another.

That's all for now

     So anyway, please let me know if this makes no sense at all, or whether it makes sense or not, if you came out of this feeling like you better understand Phantasmos and what makes it unique. I've been trying to figure out how to relate what makes Phantasmos greater than the sum of its parts, and I'm hoping a bit closer to that now.

BONUS: Creatures of LotFP (with statblocks!)

For an upcoming one-shot I will be running in my Phantasmos campaign setting using the OSR book Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP), it was brought to my attention that the awesome Summon spell in LotFP could be used as a good template for creature stat blocks. I already have a table of creatures and plenty more besides, but I had so much fun using the Metamorphica to make a table of mutants that I figured I'd do a similar thing for LotFP monsters. I'm still new to OSR, so I'm not totally sure if these stat blocks are accurate/functional, but hopefully they're good enough. Even though we're playing with LotFP, I used the Sword & Wizardry's SRD Monster guide as a reference. I didn't include movement in the stat block unless it's anything especially good or bad, and I couldn't figure out what "ML" was supposed to be from LotFP, but I did include an approximate CL, based on Sword & Wizardry. In some cases I might add additional qualities that I didn't get from rolling- I'm just using these tools as a guidelines.

I've been finding this table to be just a little more cumbersome than I would have liked, and I don't think I'll need it in the future, but I think it's an awesome spell, and in some ways I think the fact that I don't want to use it in the future is a testament to how effective it was. Writing these up has helped me get a better sense of how to put together a stat block and how relatively dangerous a given creature is. Of course I won't know for sure until I put it to the test, but for now I'm pretty happy with this as an exercise. In the future I might just use the metamorphica to get ideas for special abilities and tweak the stats by intuition. I like in Cypher system how all enemies and NPCs have stats that can be generated from a single number, and then tweaked for effect. For the most part, I didn't touch the AC (armor class), AT (# of attacks), or DMG (damage) stats unless I rolled something which affected those stats, but in practice I might tweak them a bit.

As always, I'd love to hear what people think of the creatures, but even more than that, please let me know if you think the statblocks and abilities are reasonable or appropriate!

IMPORTANT: If you're going to be in the one-shot, DON'T READ THIS UNTIL AFTERWARDS! I may not even use any of these creatures (although I've grown attached to a few of them), but just to be safe...

Creatures (1d20)	Appearance	Thoughts/Behaviors	Statblock	Special Abilities / Additional Notes
1. Aquorum	An amorphous blob. A prokaryote-like impossible organism, unstable in physical space. Clones sprout on its surface which explode on impact.	A simplistic organism that operates on the most basic a-logical equivalent of stimulus-response.	HD 1, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 2.	HDd6 anti-information explosion on contact.
2. Impossible Impostor Crab	A hermit crab-like creature, wrapped in the discarded/dead absolute solid shell and claw/gauntlets of an impossible organism.	Behaves like an exaggerated hermit crab, full of jealousy and spite.	HD 1, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 3.	Immune to physical attacks. Double movement. Attack can induce anti-love or ennui. Not an impossible organism, but has somehow adapted to absolute solid.
3. Magi-SLIME	A jade-colored, frosty-cold SLIME with a meridian metal core.	Behaves animal-like. Will try to flee, only fights if cornered. Its body is dangerously cold.	HD 2, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 2.	Half movement. Its meridian core is worth 500sp. Occasionally also contains a spell (if so, it can use the spell too...)
4. DNEa	A double-helix shaped creature which writhes like a snake.	Will attempt to constrict its prey and inject a virus.	HD 2, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 5.	Can constrict its enemies. Its bite releases a virus (treat as poison) which won't heal naturally. If an infected creature dies, it will immediately turn into another DNEa.
5. Cognetic of the Unknown	A creature levitating from its own electromagnetic field. Looks like neural tissue, but not in the shape of any known or plausible brain.	Aggressive creatures which roam in packs known as "fields", given their combined electromagnetism.	HD 3, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 4.	Immune to electricity.
6. Shit-Shroom	An unassuming patch of bioluminescent fungi, which is actually an impossible organism feeding off a pile of excrement of another impossible organism.	Emits a strong, enticing, savory aroma. As prey approach, it releases gases which explode, spraying fecal matter. Can uproot and flee if necessary, but will generally not move unless it must.	HD 3, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 5.	On successful hit, the gas and fecal matter induce confusion.
7. Creepy-Crawler	A creepy-crawly creature camouflaged as a large bundle of seaweed.	Waits for prey to step on it, then attempts to grapple them. Covered in sticky slime.	HD 4, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 5.	Its slime can slow a target (10 rounds to generate more slime).
8. Void Elemental	A vantablack void orb with thorny tendrils. It is not clear if this is an organism, construct, or the platonic concept of null.	Suction cups on the trendrils create mini-black hole vacuums.	HD 4, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 6.	Immune to physical attack. Can cast Darkness (at will).
9. Pseudo-Zapatotian	A thick vine with tentacle-like branches. Generally grows on trees and large fungi.	The vine reflexively dangles its resin-covered tentacle-branches over climbers.	HD 5, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 6.	Target of successful attack takes DMG-die -1 damage each turn until the DMG-die reaches < d4, from resin on the tentacle-branches.
10. Kirboid	A transparent balloon-like creature with rudder-like fin-hands.	Will meander over to slow-moving or unaware creatures and swallow them whole. Can replace its normal attack with an attack / special ability of a digested creature (1d4 turns to digest).	HD 5, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 8.	Can swallow creatures whole (on nat 20 or hitting by >= 10). If punctured, summons a random creature or induces a temporary (or sometimes permanent) mutation on swallowed creature.
11. Djinn	A dogu-like being of pure energy, softly humming.	Mysterious and inexplicable in its behavior. When it attacks, its tail punctures and injects painful, pure energy.	HD 6, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d8, CL 11.	Immune to normal attacks and wood. Can cast prismatic sphere (at will).
12. Camelbug	An insectoid impossible organism covered in rubbery lumps.	The lumps carry reserves of liquid starfire. Prior to release it behaves manically and aggressively. After popping the lumps and releasing aerosolized liquid starfire, is more docile.	HD 6, AC 14, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 8.	Can cast incendiary cloud (at will).
13. Spreading Shadow	An ethereal mass in the shadows, spreading shadow-pseudopods. Claws reach out to prey from the shadow.	The shadow is actually a pocket dimension. From within, it hums. The walls feel like fur or moss-covered chitin. The fur-like cilia push and pull at the objects within.	HD 7, AC 14, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 9.	Blurred (first defense always successful)
14. Wild Blood Golem	A finned, quadrupedal marine-humanoid composed of necromantic blood. It is blue like the photo-negative of red. Blood-mist pours from its teeth.	Its negative color provides it some camouflage in water. It can walk on land but is better suited to swimming, or sliding in its blood-mist drool.	HD 7, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 10.	Immune to normal attacks. Haste (on self).
15. Rebirther Bug	Insectoid machine, drips psycho-caustic fluids from its great, fanged maw.	Its fluids impregnate micromachines into its prey, converting the creature into a clone of itself.	HD 8, AC 14, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 13.	Impregnates (poison save). Chaos (at will, one at a time).
16. Harbinger of the Anti-Mutants.	A baroque, marble and metallic, neon, psychedelic super-platonic polyhedron so dense as to be nearly indistinguishable from a sphere. Has four sets of wings made of a similar material as its body. Occasionally displays a holographic projection of a stretched humanoid face on its surface.	Its wings operate on a-logical, impossigenic mechanics, to "lift" through the paraverse. It will not attempt to injure a foe unless provoked, but will try to wipe its memory. The process seems to facilitate anti-mutation.	HD 8, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 12.	Memory wipe on successful hit (no damage). Possibility of inducing anti-mutation 1d4 days after memory wipe. Supernatural intelligence. Immune to physical attacks.
17. Shit-Shroom Shambler	A shit-shroom which has grown over centuries or even millennia. A rot-covered, slimy, fungal shambler, covered in malformed lumps filled with liquid starfire, sores, and a hard, glowing, fungal shell.	A critical-mass of shit-shroom growth. Spews spores not just for reproduction, but as a dispersed neural network, allowing it to coordinate with other shit-shrooms. Its lumps can explode in a wall of liquid starfire to trap prey. All shamblers are part of one distributed network from another universe.	HD 9, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 12.	Causes disease on hit. Wall of (liquid star-)Fire (at will, one at a time).
18. Acid Ant Swarm	Ant-like creatures with psychedelic swirling patterns on their back, dripping hallucinogenic fluids from their antennae over their entire body.	The acid ants swarm together, surfing along currents of their own psychedelic fluids. The swarm can reach the size of a tsunami. Their screams aerosolize the fluids.	HD 9, AC 14, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 11.	Psionic Scream (autohit 30', 1d6 DMG, magic save or slowed)
19. The Give-and-Taking Tree	A giant coral- or tree-like creature with flowing colors and reflective flower-like appendages.	The flowing colors attract prey, and the reflective flowers create hostile duplicates of the observer.	HD 10, AC 12, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 13.	Phantasmal Force (at will, 1d6 at a time).
20. Katamarinu	An elephantine, wolf-like creature with a narwhal-like horn, covered in bony thorn armour.	Its horn and thorny bone armour is covered in an adhesive fluid. Its pores release more fluid as more objects stick to, exponentiating its all-encompassing destructive capability. It drains the life and nutrients from the objects stuck to it.	HD 10, AC 16, AT 1, DMG 1d6, CL 13.	Move 180', drain CON 1d4 on successful hit

Phantasmos: Themes

An Introduction

Usually when I pitch a setting for tabletop gaming, I break it down into three points: Description, Theme, Suggested Systems. The latter is more so about the game than the world obviously, and the former is a straightforward account of the setting; scifi/fantasy, species or monsters, environments, special powers, etc. My Big Picture post is more so a description.

Themes are the ideas that the world, the characters, or the plot are intended to explore. I think tabletop is in a unique position to explore themes, in that the consumer of the art is also a participant in it, and in that game mechanics can be utilized to evoke specific themes. There are certainly some RPGs where theme, world, and game are inextricably linked. This is not the case with Phantasmos.

While there are a few specific themes that have been intentionally written into the world, I have tried to make Phantasmos broad and open enough that potentially any themes could be explored. Adventure Time was a big inspiration to Phantasmos, both for its post-post-apocalyptic weird science fantasy trappings, but also for how it explores themes. The themes of Adventure Time include the appreciation of genuine child-like wonder, overcoming fears, maturing, dealing with loss, moral ambiguity / complexity, relationships, nostalgia, and so much more. Some of these themes are incidental to the setting, but I do think that the Land of Ooo is leveraged to uniquely address at least some of these themes. 

I remember so badly wanting to learn all of the secrets that had been hinted at within Ooo, only to realize after so many of them were exposed, that I could never look at Ooo the same way again. No longer can I see the Candy Kingdom with child-like wonder, all I can think of is its dark history.

Phantasmos: Themes

Weird and Wonderful are obviously themes of Phantasmos, but also Wisdom, Weariness, Whimsy, and Wistfulness. I love worldbuilding and always have, but it can be difficult to determine how much of a world to reveal, and how much should be left open to imagination. In designing Phantasmos and dealing with that frustrating balance, I wanted to embed that idea into the world. I want the players to want to learn more about the world, but I also want them to regret that knowledge, although not necessarily in some Lovecraftian, Cosmic/Existential Horror sense (although that is a viable option). It should feel like growing up and learning that not everyone loves you like your parents do, or realizing you don't dream anymore. Gaining that Wisdom should come with a loss of Wonder and Whimsy and a burden of Weariness. 

Another theme that has been heavily written into the setting is anxiety. I don't want to reveal all of the intentional symbolism within the setting, but there are certain recurring aesthetics or concepts which are allusions to feelings of anxiety, or the kind of depression that is co-morbid with it. I do think this theme can also tie into the former- the Weariness of Wisdom and the feeling of loss of Wonder and Whimsy which goes along with it.

As a counterpoint, there is also a theme of novelty-seeking (Weird), thrill-seeking, and the addictiveness of these things. It probably goes without saying that I'm an anxious person, and I'm definitely not a thrill-seeker, but I am definitely a novelty-seeker. This theme is less developed, mainly because it's one that I don't understand in the world or in myself as well, but that's exactly why I thought it was important to include, and serves as a counterpoint to the theme of anxiety. At what point does novelty-seeking become unhealthy, in its own right?

If there's one final theme, I guess it's about subverting expectation and not being limited by conventions. As much as I love Tolkien and traditional fantasy, there are already so many books, movies, TV shows, tabletop RPGs, videogames, etc., that have explored the genre to death. I think, at this point, traditional fantasy has lost most of its fantastical-ness. Despite the number of sci-fi like ideas in the setting, I consider Phantasmos to be Fantasy, because its about discovery, the unknown, and the feeling that anything could be possible. As the sum of its parts, Phantasmos should not fit comfortably into the players' prior expectations of fantasy. In an ideal world, they should come out of the game feeling like they did when they read Lord of the Rings or saw Star Wars for the first time. Tall order, but that's the hope, anyway.

So there you have it. Themes! Let me know what themes you like to explore in your games or write into your worlds!