The Memorialists - Dead City Memories Vol 1. (Patreon)

Dear Heroes,

Old and new, those that have been here a while, and those who are newer.

I can't believe I'm writing about something other than the big seacat book for a change! Whew! I thought it'd take much less time to make, but ... well ... it didn't.

Some of you remember a time right after I finished writing and publishing instalments of the UVG over here back in autumn 2018, and then I started publishing Red Sky Dead City. I've re-upped the 4th update of that from way bac in December 2019.

I lost the thread on that one back then for a number of reasons. Take your pick--I change my opinion with my mood.

• After finishing the big UVG book I had no energy for another long book.
• The premise wasn't working well.
• I thought the core motivation for the heroes wasn't good enough.
• I had a hard time making the satire work well.
• I got to experience burn out in early 2020.
• After my Dad's funeral, writing a massive setting premised on necromancy wasn't really what I wanted to do.
• I was lazy.
• I was distracted.
• There was a comet, which was an ill omen, thus ...

I then experimented with different takes, which turned the Dead City into Red Sky Dead City ... but something still didn't fit. Then, with Russia's invasion earlier this year, wow. Well, that sank the initial premise completely.

But I still have this whole city in the middle of a conflict, all written up, and it'd be a shame if it didn't see the world. So ... earlier this summer, I got the idea of presenting it, along with different seacat character archetypes for the players, and I liked it.

I'll confess, figuring out a fun way to do isometric maps also helped.

So, here it is. Volume 1. The Memorialists.

Take on the role of a post-human agent of the Memorium, salvaging the treasures of humanities before they destroy them. What a munificent divine mind is the glorious Memorium, deploying its mastery of space and time to maintain a record of the glorious of the fallen.

This first volume also (re)introduces the conceit of a play loop that uses quarters /  / areas / zones to explore city locations in an abstract way. This is probably not the final form of this system, but it's good enough for now!

In the next DCM zines I'm planning to add other hero archetypes (gods, I need a better word than archetypes) ... a remix of the skeleton and weapon and tourist from that long long ago Breve Seacat, as well as some new ones (timelost interloper, golem, doghead, flesh-sculptor, integrated legionnaire, etc.). The idea is that each zine will add a few more regions, each with some quarters and special local effects. Eventually, there should be a whole big puzzle-map of the different regions.

This won't be my main project, just a way to ... prep and get the Dead City of Ebét out there at last. I hope y'all don't mind!

...

Well, while we're on that topic: do you have any preferences regarding which part of Ebét to tackle next? Here's the list of regions I've got written up:

I'll put the top-commented ones up to a vote.

Oh, and there are 4 bonus locations not listed there. Those ... I'll tackle those at the end, if I get there!

...

Right! That's it for now. Thank you again for your patience and support, dear heroes! Wishing you a great Tuesday.

Peace and glory,

—Luka

P.S. - if you want to share a PWYW link to The Memorialists, here it is: https://wizardthieffighter.itch.io/dead-city-memories-vol-1-the-memorialists

(dtrpg coming soon, next edit)

P.P.S. - Edit: Added a long background to the post of how DCM got made: https://www.wizardthieffighter.com/2022/creative-permutations-dead-city/