Homecomings and Other News (Patreon)

My daughter Léa Rejec Lee (이래아) and my wife 이유진 came home today.

After a scary delivery and hospital stay, things settled down at the postnatal center. My wife is recovering from preeclampsia, while my daughter has been feeding and growing well.

Thank you all for your kind wishes and understanding over the last few weeks. It is my sincere pleasure to be able to share this first portrait of my daughter with. My apologies for the lighting, I know it makes it a bit hard to make out her features.

(a closeup)

As you can imagine, my schedule going forward is going to be a little bit unpredictable, what with figuring out how to properly take care of the baby. I can only thank you all in advance for your understanding.

If some of my writing in future updates looks particularly delirious, it is probably due to a lack of sleep.

You are warned!

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Next in OGA: The Blue Lands

I ran a poll to decide which rainbow land by the circle sea to cover next for Our Golden Age. The vote is in ... it will be the Blue Lands, where the cheese grows ripe and the Dead God does not slumber.

I don't know yet exactly what will happen. The process as I write these lands is that usually some idea or fancy captures my mind, like a butterfly in its net, and then runs with it to some strange extreme.

Well, that's one of the benefits of a [•]quel to the UVG. It's exact reality-temporal connection is up to the individual table.

I'm excited to see what the Blue Lands finally look like.

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The Old is New: UVG Guide Book

If SDM: Eternal Return Key is a delirious timelost trip through the rules for the UVG (and OGA), I think it is time to confess that I am also assembling a concise player book for the setting and game. In layout it matches the Lexicon of the Vastlands (A5, single column), in theme it recaptures the free introduction to the UVG (free), and in style it brings something new ... a player-friendly step-by-step guide with examples. Yep. Unbelievable. Zero experimentation. Just a classic rulebook.

Later, chapter titles will get more styling and art, but for now, it's just a readable, cleanly structured rulebook.

A left page ...

... and a right page.

Every rules section gets an example featuring four characters (Cat, Noë, Onion, and Safir), which gives a vivid illustration of how the rules work in practice and what the players and the referees can do with them. At the same time, the examples are always in italics, making it easy to skip them when looking for references.

Later, I may make the example text a little paler, to help the rules content stand out more, but for now my focus is just on making the layout as simple, clear, and fast as possible. No fancy tables, floating art, two-or-three column layouts.

All of these rules already exist (in SDM:ERK and UVG 2E, and some still in Uranium Butterflies) - the new work here are the examples. Working on finally compiling and cleaning up these rules has been a welcome distraction over the last few weeks, waiting for my wife and daughter to come hope. I trust you will find them useful!

The first section, the character creation, should be ready in a few days, with the rules & mechanics coming soon after, then the magic system. If you want to see the early versions and offer feedback, you're welcome to visit the discord server - I'll keep up best there, between diapers and bath times.

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Silver Ship Wizard

The Heist module is still on my mind. I've assembled all the locations, but with the whole dramatic events of the last 20 days, I haven't started turning the bullet points into proper paragraphs and art. Compared to a gazzetteer (like the Blue Lands) or a rule book (like the above), I need to consider both art and text together for the module, so I'll return to it as soon as I have the baby routine nailed down a bit.

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Of Heroes and AI

Ten days ago I also wrote a post about generative AI. I think it's been out and about long enough, that I can clarify my position on AI in my products:

I think ai generative tools can be excellent tools when used correctly. They can boost productivity and creativity both, from help with editing to use a sounding board for testing ideas. I also think ai generators can be great fun as simple play, with no end goal in mind. They’re quite excellent on the fly when you’re running a roleplaying game on discord and need a quick face to pin to a character.

However, I take immense pride in the craft and personal creativity I put into my published work and I wouldn’t put my name to words that I had not personally typed nor to art that I had not personally drawn. The layout I might outsource to a better graphic designer at some point.

I’ve never, nor do I intend to, sell works created by other entities – whether human or machine – under my own name.

You make it possible for me to create art and games and stories under my name, hard as it is to pronounce in English. I appreciate your support more than words can properly convey.

You've made it possible for me to turn the phantasmal worlds of my imagination into something real, something I can share and give you to play with and transform with your players and your games.

You've also made it possible to provide not just for myself, but also for my daughter.

Truly, you are the heroes. The best of heroes.

/bow

—Luka
Seoul, a Monday, Sep 4