Dynamic Reality Gaming

Dynamicland and Dynamic Reality Overview

As someone who is interested in the intersection of STEM and the arts, I'm a big fan of Nicky Case's blog, and in their most recent post (as of writing) they reference Dynamicland (I would also recommend checking out their youtube).

Tl;dr it's an approach of humanistic computing, taking compute off of a screen and out into the world.

They do this through a tech stack that seemingly involves lighting and cameras, and mapping physical objects to code, it's not open source but that's how I understand it, but anyway it's less about the tech and more about the approach.

The creators seem like brilliant people and they make some profound insights about computation and this notion of dynamic reality (as compared to virtual reality, augmented reality, or of course physical reality).

So Dynamicland inspired this post, but this is about TTRPGs now. If you want to learn more about Dynamicland I'd encourage you to watch their youtube videos.

The TTRPG Stuff

Presumably this is what you came here for. Basically, what are some presumptions about game design that use mathematical or linguistic abstraction, that might be better represented visually or kinesthetically?

Character and Inventory Management

You ever lose track of your abilities and items? Not anymore you don't.

Meet Orcus Johnson. He has a laser axe (A1), shoulder mounted blaster (B2), and the Johnson Crown (C3). More details can be found mapped to those keys.

It would probably be both easier and more in the spirit of DR to use a hand drawn figure, or like some combination of a drawing, paper cutouts, tokens, minis, etc., but I'm still a very digitally oriented person. Also, if you can draw, you can do something besides a stick figure.

It would be especially fun to do this for Mecha.

Wounds

We were talking about this on my discord server so that's part of what came to mind. The idea of having targeted attacks, like being able to wound arms, legs, etc., with various status effects like burning, bleeding, acid, always sounds like fun, but it can be a huge pain to keep track of. Until now.

We can see clearly that Orcus Johnson has lost his leg and is bleeding profusely. Additionally, Thor Goldberg struck him with lightning and he is now electrocuted and stunned.

The point here is not to get rid of the mechanics or math or whatever, this figure corresponds to bleed effects, lightning effects, etc.; it's not less crunchy, it's just more immediately identifiable what is happening. Rather than a bunch of abstract numbers or words and having to dig through it all, you can see very clearly what's going on, and then trace it back to its references.

I'm not really into crunchy games anyway, but if I were to try to reincorporate some crunch into my gaming, I'd probably try things like this.

Weird & Wonderful Wavelengths (Variety Show s1e5)

Fire! Fire! Psycho Soldier!

Reruns

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

It's Halloween season!

...but I've got nothing seasonal on the mind. I have been watching movies though. Check out the Soska Sisters. They are criminally underrated. We're in the Golden Age of Tubi. Murdoch owns them but they're free so get in while the getting's good, let's bleed that old fucking vampire dry before he figures out how to monetize it.

I am a Cronenberg fan but the Soskas' Rabid is better.

Oh ya I had this one-liner, don't think I've shared this in a post before:

King in Giallo: A Giallo-inspired setting except with Hastur.

The Nuclear Man

Through means unknown, a nuclear missile explodes backwards through time. Probability crackles as atoms and the bounds of spacetime smash against each other, procreative energy seeding life in all it's magic, and madness.

A retrofuturistic examination of the effects of nuclear power on culture through a modern lens. The promise of what nuclear energy can be, against the dangers it poses.

A being born as a side effect of the orgodynamic nuclear time explosion referenced above.

An extremely powerful but unstable being, one with near unlimited potential, equally for better or worse.

One with a chip on its shoulders, with a streak of both exceptionalism and rebellion.

When too many ideas collide

A world in which some weird entities like bugs or autonomous machines or whatever are constantly building, and so most of the world is tight, labyrinthine corridors, and cities and wealth and property is symbolized by the ability to create and maintain large open spaces.

The universe actually is a simulation, where the first universe fucks things up so badly that they create a simulation as a way to preserve themselves through recreation, but each time it keeps getting fucked up and they keep trying to salvage it.

Each level of the simulation, the underlying algorithm is slightly different either for creative reasons or due to the constraints of the universe in which it was constructed, so each one is a little different.

And even though each universe is constructed as a consequence of the actions in the preceding universe, the algorithms are (mostly) deterministic, so "time travel" is just a calculation.

So there are people or factions that can propagate to "lower" or even "higher" levels of simulation, so it's like a Doctor Who-ian level of timey-whimeyness except in a universe more like that of cyclical mythologies with their ages and cycles, and the interactions between the simulations can become like a teleology.

And so that world where bugs or automatons are constantly building such that indoors are like outdoors and outdoors are like indoors would be one level of simulation in this setting.

Festival of the Living Dead. Soska Sisters. On Tubi. The last good zombie movie (probably).

A few more ideas while you wait for your train because they're trying to force us back into offices despite the comprehensive natural experiment known as covid demonstrating statistically that it is not necessary, it is solely a means for them to control us and our time and our bodies...

• A bard with a magic box. They wave their fingers over the box and it makes magical vibrations and music.
  
  
• A cyborg with a tachyonic hand. Solves mysteries of time by transmitting information between the cyborg's past, present, and future. The hand can only exist in one time and must find the cyborg whenever it transmits to a different time.
  
  
• A cohort of cetaceans reached superhuman intelligence. Selling out the seas to humans for profit and power, they have systematically kept the rest of the cetacean population in an intellectually impoverished state. With their intelligence and extraordinary wealth, this small cohort, <1% of the cetacean population, live lavish lives in a secret underwater "city" far more advanced than anything humans have accomplished.
  
  
• A mathematically advanced species whose language and cognition operates like music.
  
  
• "Natural Farces", a magical/science phenomena like the opposite of Natural Forces.

Soviet Animation and Soviet Science Fiction is really something special.

How many episodes, over how many years, before I can start calling this season 2?

Heaven is here (and it has a waitlist) [Micro-Setting][Campaign Setup]

The PCs are breaking into Heaven because they couldn't make the waitlist, or are otherwise morally compromised, and now they want revenge for the eternity of bliss they didn't earn or never stood a chance of earning. Along the way they fight Biblically accurate Angels, Indulgent Elites, and worst of all the Anointed at the end of Space and Time.

High Concepts

• Techno-Boschian Heaven
• Statement on the culmination of Late-Stage Capitalism, Christian Nationalism, and Techno-Narcissism (the Triple Threat)
• The unwillingness of Americans to sit with discomfort
• The Ennui and dysfunction of Suburbia

Concerns

Balance between representing the ugliness and banality of The Triple Threat, but also making it fun and interesting to play in.

System & Setting

Resources

Everything in Heaven is mediated by two resources.

Plasma: The raw energy of consumption, for the Human Spirits and their Machines (including PC's Vehicles). Sourced from e.g. Monsters, The Aether. The rate at which Plasma is being industrially farmed is depleting the ecosystem of Monsters and literally shrinking The Aether of Heaven.

Points: Gained by sacrificing Plasma to The Infineract. Can be traded or spent on Miracles from The Infineract, but their greatest value comes from being accrued. Also, they earn interest. Systems of Point Value are largely defined by The Infineract, through the collective Human Spirit.

Geography

Strictly-zoned Suburbs, Strip Malls, and Office Parks, connected by serpentine Highways. Getting anyway requires a Vehicle.

Vehicles

The PCs have at least one Vehicle, probably a car that they all ride in together. It's ok for the Vehicles to be cool and fun and for Players / PCs to feel personally connected with them.

Use Concept Crafting or your preferred Mecha / Vehicle system.

Getting anywhere in the Vehicle costs Plasma.

• Vehicles with Controlled Deformation will crumple more easily, but shock absorb Damage for the PCs.
• Larger Vehicles may be stronger, but cost more Plasma to use.
• Rare or expensive Vehicles project greater Social Dominance, but also may attract bad actors such as thieves or cops, or other kinds of unwanted attention.

Vehicles are inherently unsafe and destroy the environment, but have fun ;)!

The Infineract

A "Black Box", an infinite-dimensional object reminiscent of the Monoliths in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Infineract is a Singleton object that can be accessed by anything with a GetInfineract access method (such as Human Spirits). However, most simply use The Infineract instance in the center of their living rooms.

Human Spirits

Those VIPs who made it into Heaven. As such they cannot die, or experience anything like true Pain. However, they have a very low tolerance for Discomfort, and this pathological fear drives all of Heavenly society. Human Spirits Need Not, but Want All.

PCs, being infiltrators and not truly Human Spirits, can die and feel Pain. It would be in their best interest to keep that information from getting out.

Non-Exhaustive Bibliography in no particular order

• The Geography of Nowhere
• Techgnosis
• Hieronymus Bosch
• Roadside Picnic / Stalker
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Games: Agency as Art
• VALIS Trilogy
• Harmony (Project Itoh novel)

Like many of my recent posts, I know there is more there there, but I was in a very particular state of mind when I wrote this, and I often struggle to get back into those states afterwards, so rather than waiting several months, barely adding anything, and then still sharing it in an incomplete state, I figured I'd just do it now. Hopefully I'll follow up on it more in the future.

Superheroes pt.2: The Fly

The Fly

Biotech scientist and social activist vigilante with a fly mask and a classic noir costume over superhero spandex. A small wiry man with a pet fly that sometimes talks to him and grants him extraordinary abilities.

The Fly can see in three dimensions of time, allowing them to respond to things before they happen. They also have superhuman agility and low-level superstrength.

Occasionally the pet fly grants them greater and more mysterious abilities, although usually they operate subtly, like luck or force of will.

Fly Vision in three dimensions of time is a compound kaleidoscope of scenes that appear spatially low resolution and muddy like old film.

Navy Bullfrog

Archnemesis of The Fly. A navy veteran turned entrepreneur who now runs most of corporate agriculture on the west coast, and a major financial supporter of the GOP.

An attractive brawny man in a navy suit. They produce a low frequency croaking vocalization that manipulates people subliminally. They wear a slimy blue helmet that amplifies their abilities to the point that they seem to influence consensus reality directly.

While Navy Bullfrog served in the armed forces, they were involved in a mission to wipe out an invasive species outbreak accidentally spread by the military overseas. This mission and all pertinent details have been covered up or classified.

Publication History

Unlike most superheroes, The Fly was introduced in medias res with no superhero origin story. In the years since, several creators have filled in some of the gaps, although these origins often contained major continuity errors, which later creative teams attempted to explain away as the effects of Navy Bullfrog's consensus reality-altering abilities or The Fly's Fly Vision.

From the beginning The Fly tackled social issues in the sciences, including critiquing the medical model of disability, tackling misinformation and disinformation around topics such as vaccines and genetically modified organisms, and WEIRD biases in research (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic). However, very early in the first volume, The Fly also subtly explored the intersections of scientific and spiritual thought, which later became a core theme of the character.

The villain Navy Bullfrog originally appeared as a one-off antagonist in Panic Attack! Vol. 1, sans his iconic helmet or any reference to his superpowers or strange past. The character was largely reinvented for The Fly, although later volumes of Panic Attack! would retcon the scope of Navy Bullfrog's influence in those early adventures.

The original creative team had intended for the pet fly to be an incarnation of a demonic entity and have The Fly interact with the Church of Satan, although this plotline was abandoned early in the run for unknown reasons [citation needed]. In Vol. 2 it was implied that the pet fly might be a Saturim agent working on behalf of Bright Mujo, although this was never confirmed.

During the XXX regime of 20XX, Vol. 3 of The Fly was censured mid-run. This led to a Streisand Effect in which the character became a symbol of resistance, and many underground "American Doujinshi" stories of The Fly would influence the official series when it was brought back into publication. This was controversial and led to backlash against the publisher for appropriating these stories while simultaneously attempting to reassert their IP control. Although they ultimately failed, the competition among publishers for this now public domain character led to an overall improved quality in storytelling compared to Volume 3, which had been losing buzz anyway prior to being censured.

I did not sleep well last night, and unfortunately nowadays that seems to be the best way to get my creative juices flowing. I should probably polish this off more but I dunno it feels right and I don't want to add too many details and muddle it, so I'm putting a pin in it and maybe I'll expand on it later.

Weird Pets

Their origins may have been functional (hunting, protection, pest control), but that's mostly not why people have pets anymore. We have pets because they are adorable and floofy and loving, or pretty to look at, or give our lives a sense of purpose through giving. These pets may have some other utility, but that's not what this is about. These pets are about serving other kinds of emotional needs.

#5, #6, and #7 Courtesy of Mike from Sheep and Sorcery.

1. Charred-black tentacular nudibranchs that come in various neon patterns. They evoke a feeling like horror movie catharsis, but are not otherwise capable of causing much harm.
   
   
2. These slow and dimwitted creatures look like a cross between a lizard and a sloth but are most closely related to lemurs. They evoke a sense of social repugnance and schadenfreude. Quietly, they have become a trendy pet.
   
   
3. Their bowling pin shape and blubbery blowup doll bodies make these Killer Klown-looking creatures immune to blunt damage and indifferent to being used as punching bags. In fact, they seem to like it (or at least that's what scientists think the giggling is about). Even most vegans approve of using these weirdos to let out a little steam.
   
   
4. Colloquially referred to as "Ant Bonobos", this unclassified thing that might be a slime mold extrudes itself into units that look like bonobos with ant parts. The colony behaves like a variation of the Game of Life algorithm, appearing remarkably like a simulation of human civilization. Despite whatever violence appears to ensue, it's all one colony and there's no reason to suspect it has self awareness or general intelligence as we think of it. Many find watching the colony slowly develop, sometimes destroy itself, and then start over, to be meditative or provide a feeling of existential contentment.
   
   
5. Pet Men: Prisoners memetically and mentally altered with futuristic technology. All other humans naturally treat them more like dogs than human beings, including being willing to euthanize them rather than giving life-saving medical care. They are fully sentient internally, but unable to act in any way outside of the norms for an obedient hound.
   
   
6. Rock Pet: While observed, this creature is nothing more than an inanimate rock. No amount of observation or scans reveal them as anything more than just rocks. However, the moment they are unobserved, they can move at astonishing speeds. They are totally harmless, eat normal food, and can even have little Rock Pet babies that just kind of magically appear next to them to make sure humans don't mistake them for ordinary pebbles. Basically a weeping angel pet rock but utterly harmless.
   
   
7. Jeff: Jeff is a professional pet. It's not a sex thing. Really it's not. He drives no erotic pleasure from it at all. The guy just doesn't mind being treated like a household pet and enjoys the benefits of free housing and food. He is very low maintenance seeing as he will use your toilet and can feed himself just fine if left to it. Actually his scallop risotto is delightful.

"Weird Genders"

I can't resist a provocative title. These aren't really "genders", but alternative dimensions upon which a species might be organized biologically, socially, or sexually. Galmoxians courtesy of Semiurge.

1. This species has three genders. Titans serve as their habitats like mobile forests. Foresters care for Titans, relieving them of pests and parasites and cultivating a healthy ecosystem. A healthy Titan releases pheromones that allow Foresters to reproduce parthenogenically. Rakes are physically indistinguishable from Foresters, but are predisposed to hyperactivity, curiosity, individualism, and adventurousness. They traverse Titans to romance fresh Foresters. In a successful courtship, they release a pheromone that temporarily transitions a Forester into a Berserker-state, nearly doubling in size and muscle mass and developing reproductive organs to impregnate the Rake, bringing genetic diversity to the Titan's ecosystem.

2. This species has two genders, one like Hominids, and the other like a variety of Trees. Most relationships are either polyanarchic or serially monogamous, and nearly always full of tenderness. Trees navigate the world through spatial reorientation, where the self is a continual growth process operating at a frequency below the Hominids' temporo-perceptual threshold. Their radical differences in how they perceive and operate in the world, and their limited ability to communicate and understand each other, makes their love both tragic and beautiful. Hominids pollinate the Trees and spread the seeds of their fruit, germinated by the enzymes in their saliva.

3. This species are always hatched in pairs. In nature, parents are only able to provide for one sibling, and so they brutally compete for survival. When one sibling inevitably, through luck or circumstance, outcompetes the other to such an advantage that they gain total dominance, the parents will neglect, disown, or even murder the Forgotten sibling in favor of the Chosen sibling. For much of civilization, this practice has been outlawed or frowned upon, and yet the systemic inequality between Forgotten and Chosen is interwoven through the history and persists into modernity.

4. This species has two genders, Lover and Spirit. While one is alive they are Lover, and in death they become Spirit. The vitality of a Lover provides inspiration for Spirit, imparting a portion of their essence inside the Lover so they may reproduce. The unlifespan of a Spirit may be as much as three times that of a Lover, but after each time they impart their essence they undergo significant aging, and each time more so, and it is rare for Spirits to be capable of reproducing more than three times before expiring.

5. This species has the genders of Chess Pieces. They operate like a hierarchical hivemind. Kings are the mind and soul of the hive, and without a King the hive will flounder for lack of thought or inspiration. They are physically limited and must be protected. Queens are powerful like demigods, and often just as petty and needy and prone to in-fighting. Rooks are workers and artisans, Knights are soldiers and first responders, and Bishops are artists and counsel, and all three are asexual. Pawns are weak yet plentiful, and can develop into the other genders as needed, although most Pawns never make it that far in life, or choose not to develop.

6. Galmoxians - Those sultry seducers of the spaceways - do not technically have genders. Or sex. Like all the unusually-intelligent life on their homeworld, they shape new individuals of their species from the primordial and protean slime which pools in its cracks and crevices, through both physical sculpting and bio-electric-chemical interface facilitated through layers of symbiotic micro-organisms.

However there are somewhat analogous societal roles related to a galmoxian's relationship to this sculpting process. Though by no means universal, the most common are typically translated as "fullshapers", who individually create a new galmoxian through the whole process, "raw-workers" who gather the slime, move it to a work-space, and handle the bulkier details, "detailers" who specialize in shaping certain parts of the galmoxian body, and depending on their skill can garner significant fees for this, "students" who oversee and study the creation process without directly participating, and "wreckers" who harass work-spaces, critiquing the creation process and destroying new galmoxians underway in they can breach the perimeter. Stereotypes, expectations, and so on for each role can differ greatly between cultures and classes within those cultures, even while the roles themselves are fairly 

Game Design Pattern: Concept Crafting

As part of WORDS!: The July 2024 Blog Carnival hosted by Beneath Foreign Planets, I thought I'd revisit one of my favorite game mechanics of all time: 

Concept Crafting

Credit to Saker Tarsos, his Crafting with Concepts post from 2020 was the last TTRPG mechanic that truly inspired me. I'm sure there's other really innovative things I haven't given sufficient consideration or am not aware of, let me know in the comments, but this one was a game changer.

I have been under-inspired lately so I'm not going to re-hash too much. 

The core mechanic is as follows:

WORD1 + WORD2 = WORD3

e.g.:

FIRE + BALL = FIREBALL

Go read his original post or any of the following.

In my original Mecha Gear post I describe a system for building Mecha with Concept Crafting, but this could easily also apply to Power Armor or Battleships or other mechanical things.

I created three spark table posts for creating various kinds of weird mecha:

• Superorganism Mecha
• Embodied Cognition Mecha
• Nihilistic Mecha

I also wrote Pre-Gens for a Super Robot Wars (videogame series)-style crossover Post Apocalyptic Mecha setting including the Ichinana from Mazinger Z, Jet Alone from Evangelion, and Hyakku Shiki from Mobile Suit Gundam.

The final play report of my Maximum Recursion Depth Volume 2 Campaign has a writeup of an awesome Concept Crafting-based Mecha boss fight, with an index to all the other PRs. The penultimate play report also had a really cool sandbox survival module that leveraged Concept Crafting for a variety of things like salvaging resources and constructing a base.

I also proposed a "monster" collecting mechanic using Concept Crafting (e.g. Pokemon, Dragon Quest Monsters, Shaman King) in the form of Anima Crafting for Maximum Recursion Depth Volume 3.

I've talked to people who were not aware of Saker Tarsos' post but had independently come up with a similar idea for things like a magic system (Maze Rats' magic system may have worked similarly, I don't remember anymore), or for something like Zelda Breath of the Wild / Tears of the Kingdom.

I hope this blog carnival brings more awareness to Concept Crafting and that more people begin to design around this mechanic. I imagine there's a whole lot more that could be done with it if people put their minds to it.