Epic Poems

In Akkadian Rhythms you play epic heroes. Literally! As the game progresses you write your epic poem.

It describes the biography of who you started as, and includes how you’ve grown along the way in your adventures. It’s works as your renown among. You can even use it to quickly tell other players about your character. It’s how characters know you.

Through the past campaigns, this player’s epic poem has been my favorite.

Simple, yet descriptive.

By the end of the campaign, the player spent their epic verses, the points you gain to progress, on an unusual heroic trait. Every living thing he killed exploded into blood and stained the area around it. Even things not made of blood.

The first time he colored all of the monsters in range a shade of red, they ran. That’s the kind of thing that breaks even the most hardened monster’s morale.

Greylanders are golem-like humanoids made of muck, that usually have no fear. Seeing one of their fellows bleed, when it shouldn’t be possible, changed the way the monsters acted. It lead to some of the most fun combat encounters.

That’s why Akkadian Rhythms sits comfortably in the middle between strong combat strategy, and player narrative control. Although strategy defines a character, it’s their use of narrative devices that makes the most difference.

Get started with the player handouts and monster guide, and keep a look out for expanding your world even further with the GM Guide, coming soon.

Tiktok sound – God Have Mercy On Us

It all started with a picture.

Actually it started with one of those crappy youtube compilation. Some account that posts nothing but compilations of his own tiktok videos has a clip of an infectious song. The video is of a large woman, with chinese words on the bottom, singing “yeaaah” and then it just cuts.

It looks like a game show. It evokes images of Susan Boyle. By the image alone it looks like a viral video of some hidden talent that is about to be unleashed from an unsuspecting singer.

…but the song sucks.

There has to be more to this story. What is it? That’s going to take some digging. Since I cannot let a meme rest until I understand it, that means we are going on a journey. One that starts with the first time I’ve ever seen “no results found” on TinEye.

I didn’t even think that was possible!

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Akkadian Rhythms GM Guide – Preview

The game of ancient adventure for epic heroes, Akkadian Rhythms, can be run entirely with the free Player Handouts and the Monster Guide. Now, if you really want to bring your campaign to life, the Game Master’s Guide will fill out how to run the setting, how to build new cultures, and how to expand the content beyond basics.

With new races, new weapons, and new tools for advancement, you can expand beyond the Akkadian lands and build adventures in more ancient cultures. Tell stories of where the humans have gone, why the Greylands have washed in, or how characters who take an artifact for themselves establish their kingdom.

Here is an excerpt about how to run Good and Bad Omens.

Omens
Overview

Whether by act of a Force or fate, good and evil are tangible concepts that affect the world. Omens are a symbol of that good or evil that works as a centered focus for influence on the world. People have learned to look for these symbols and use them to take guesses at their future. Good and evil forces may use these omens to show their influence on a chain of events.

Omens take the shape of things that symbolize good or bad fate, which can be esoteric twists of the natural world, or simple arrangements of natural things. Their form varies, but commonly they are unnatural formations of life, such as a single dark storm cloud in a blue sky raining over one dead tree, or a pile of dead birds in an open path, undisturbed by other animals. Unnatural beings, including monsters from the nether plane can themselves be an omen, the same as the appearance of celestial beings.

People have to be taught about omens, so not everyone can identify them immediately. Use a character’s skillsets to determine how good they are at identifying them. People with spiritual skills are better at spotting omens. High society may be more afraid of them, but people of low society would experience them often and be more familiar. Omens happen more often in nature, and characters with natural skills likely know to avoid them, even if they cannot identify them. Using skill rolls to identify them may be necessary, but it’s better to consider character traits to determine what they would know without requiring a roll.

…

So keep an eye out for the Akkadian Rhythms Game Master’s guide, coming soon!

First Time Game Masters, Fear Not!

Anyone considering running a tabletop RPG for the first time gets nervous. Do you understand the rules well enough? What if you screw up? Did I buy enough snacks? All of these questions can weigh on the new Game Master (GM). Don’t let them!

All you need is confidence. That’s what my new book, GMing Made Easy is all about. Covering the most fundamental concepts of any role playing game and including the practical advice that takes your from 0 to 6d… 6.

This ebook covers many topics, especially world building, engaging players, and even contains a glossary of terms to freshen up on all of the concepts. There’s many pitfalls to running RPGs, and GMing Made Easy covers them in easy to understand language.

So if you’ve got 30 minutes, give it a read before you run your first game. It just may kick start your life long love for gaming. This book hits online shelves on 6/27. Preorder now!

Get your copy of Imposter Syndrome

It’s a good day to find your value, and throw off those labels. We are not just experts at something, we have a unique set of problem solving skills. Other people see them in our work, it’s time we see them ourselves.

Imposter Syndrome is a self help book aimed at IT professionals to throw off the burden of labels and fear, and to get confidence back into what we bring to our teams. To help identify what kind of challenges ignite your brain. To see how others see you as a force to solve problems.

So grab a copy, and try the game in the last chapter. It is a wonderful group activity for work, church, or even at family gatherings. Be your strengths and stop being an imposter.

Imposter Syndrome is out today on Smash Words, Barnes & Noble, and on all major ebook retailers. Get your copy today.

New Book – Preorder Now

Releasing on May 27th is my new self help book, Imposter Syndrome. A guide to help navigate the feelings of not being good enough in the tech industry, and rejecting societal pressures to go through life being a diagnosis.

Through my time as a software engineer, the one thing I’ve held true is that helping others improve is the best use of my time. I grew that idea into learning about the “super powers” of my teammates, and encouraging them.

There’s this secret identity that people hide in their professional life that is driven by their passions. It comes out when the work gets close to one of their skills, and you can see them light up.

One way to get the best end result is to find a way to keep people lighting up around their interests. It’s a lot like project managers removing road blocks, and simply getting things out of their way. Maybe it’s better to think of it like lining up dominos for them.

Imposter Syndrome explores the mindset and pressures of tech workers, and how to move past the labels that hold us back, and provides an interesting activity to try as a team building tool to identify these things.

Preorder Imposter Syndrome today!

Chumbalaca

Must be time to help pull some skeletons out of the closet of North American phrases. What does “chumbalaca” mean? There’s no consistent explanation on the internet, so let’s help those search engines a little.

If you’re reading this english blog about a misspelled Mexican nonsense word, it’s probably because you heard it on a baby shark video. It makes it confusing for audiences completely unfamiliar with the song it’s from, which is a day of the dead children’s song. It’s about skeletons and clocks.

The real phrase is “chumba la cachumba.” This misspelling may be why it’s hard to find meaning in the phrase. Think of “ashes ashes we all fall down” which was originally “a tisha a tasha”. Without the real words, it’s just a funny noise.

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Monster Portraits

There’s a hearty helping of monsters in the Akkadian Rhythms monster guide. Many were newly added from the playtest group, and were really fun to play. They also needed a home in the monster guide. It’s still under construction but I hope to get it out soon.

These portraits are some of the larger creatures.

So without further introduction, besides this little part where I just delay things more for some reason, here are the new pictures.

Sandstone Warrior
Wretch
Zimzimmu Brute
Water Dragon

Encanto Even

Disney, and other animation studios, have been taking a world tour as of late. It has been a long term theme to stop basing Disney movies in renaissance Europe, but highlighting specific cultures has become more specific as time goes on. Which leads to the impossible to understand Encanto.

I’ll start all the way back with Moana, which was a smash together of Polynesian culture, and got criticism for changing young Maui into a stereotyped obese, adult islander. It created a positive start to the sub genre. Hearing the Rock sing was fun and novel and showed you that he has drive, he has power.

This continued, with another notable stop at Coco, which somehow shines despite being a diluted genre. Not the smallest achievement in the film is the artistic style of animating paper cutouts and creating a complex emotional finale for kids who actually morn the loss of the titular character.

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Superman meets Mad Magazine

Mad Magazine’s iconic mascot is Alfred E. Nueman. A mischievous looking face with great big ears and a toothy grin. He represents youth up to no good, and the voice of an uneducated everyman.

Most people recognize the character for Mad Magazine, which got its start from Entertainment Comics (EC), a part of what we know of now as DC Comics. What is virtually unknown is that he got his start in Action Comics.

Mad Magazine started using the character as a mascot in the 1950’s, but the Max Fleischer cartoons, a 1941 incarnation of superman, featured the face first.

Louis from the 1941 Superman Cartoons
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