"Descendant of Indraugnir" by sandara (original) is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
You may have noticed some images have changed around here. I've been replacing some splash images to liven things up and show more of the great fantasy art out there! During the process, I've been practicing writing alt text. For years, I didn't know what alt text should be or why it's so important. Then I learned why it's important but not what it should be like. Now, I'm trying to update these tags whenever I can grab some time to do so. It'll take some real time to get to everything since I have a lot of images on this site and I'm coming up with all the descriptions myself, but I want to help more people enjoy their time here, so it's all worth it.
Today, I completed a major update to my Thayan name generators: combining several into one that's available right on this site - no need to follow a link or download anything! I hope it serves you well, but in case you want to try the others, I've left them available for download.
This weekend, I updated the footer on this site so it's more organized and informative. I hope you like it!
I was only going to add a new image to my article about female characters in TTRPGs. That's it. Honest! But I ended up revising a lot of it, so here I am, sharing it. I'm a woman and a Lit major with a wide array of female characters, so this article has always mattered to me. I also have experience with men who have played female characters and vice versa. I hope that, whatever your persuasion, this new version makes you consider different things about your own stories and games.
Happy Friday, and happy gaming to you all!
Slowly but surely, I've been rewriting and hopefully improving my pages about sex and romance in gaming. Today, I finished redoing "Why Consent Matters for Mature Themes in TTRPGs" and "Rape as a Topic & Theme in Tabletop RPGs." I hadn't read them in a while and saw ways to improve them. I know many folks use systems like Lines and Veils to establish boundaries about sensitive issues, but I also know some don't. And I continue to bump into new horror stories about these matters. I thought I'd try to do better and offer food for thought to anyone who finds my guide.
I've finished some small improvements and revising my page on common pitfalls in gaming. Things are going off the rails here in the States so it hasn't been easy to concentrate, but working on even little things here brings me some peace, and I'm grateful for it.
During a week of high winds, power outages, and fires in my beloved Southland, I wasn't able to get much done - but I did finish working on a spoiler-free review of review of Pentiment by Obsidian! It doesn't feel like nearly enough, given how much I got out of the game, but it's the best I can offer right now and I want others to know about this incredible experience. It's time to share this and try to run a fun session, somehow, some way.
Happy 2025, folks, come what may!
The generator revamp continues! This time, I've revised and reorganized my Medieval Character Background Generator so the results are easier to read and record. I don't know if anyone will ever use it besides me, but I feel it's worth sharing!
Along with a number of small updates to help things run more smoothly, I've redone my NPC Group Generator and Romantic Relations Generator. Happy holidays to all who celebrate!
I've started working on the last Google Doc I need to update, and it's the longest and most involved one: Kismet's Guide Sex & Romance in Fantasy Gaming. I told myself that I was just going to update the format but I ended up revising the introduction, and I'm more pleased with it. I'll probably end up rewriting pages and updating them here on the site as I go, which means that it will take longer to complete but will hopefully be more readable. Gods help me, though - it started out as a 100 page document...
Since I've been improving the format of my Google Docs, I ran across an old article that was - well, embarrassingly outdated. Rather than leave it that way, I rewrote its content while maintaining its original focus and intention. If you've heard of Dungeons and Dragons but don't know much about tabletop roleplaying games, Kismet's Guide to Tabletop Roleplaying is for you! If you want to approach a friend who doesn't play and invite them to try it, I hope this will be of use to them, too.
As of today, it looks like only 2 of my current lineup of Google Docs need to be updated and reformatted. They're longer ones, so it might be a little bit before they're done.
Updates to Google Docs continue. During the process, I rewrote my intro to the character palette. I hope it's fast and easy to get through and makes you want to try the tool for yourself!
I've started the process of updating and (hopefully) improving the layout of the digital resources I offer on this site via Google Docs. So far I've updated my character palette (character development tool), homebrew classes (for Pathfinder 1e), stronghold rules, and what to expect when a player is suddenly smitten with an NPC (advice/guide). I've also gathered all of my classes into one Google Doc for ease of reference.
The goal is to improve the look, readability, and accessibility of these files. They're all in black and white, don't have a ton of images, and are now arranged in columns to provide more space around paragraphs. They're intended for digital reference, not print. There are something like 8 files left to go, and I'm hoping they won't take me long to update.
I'm still looking into options for creating professional-looking ebook versions that include color and maybe some art, and will look good in print. I've never created something like that before and advice is scattered across the internet, so it could take a while. In the meantime, I hope the Google Docs look and act better! As always, constructive feedback is welcome.
I've done some more tweaking to naviagation, some menu options, and some basic things that affect the look of the site. I've been drafting a new, system-agnostic guide to adding generational play to your games. Want your characters to come from a family line and contribute to their lineage? Enjoy the idea of having characters start clubs, cults, and businesses? Then my guide is for you! Check out the draft on my ko-fi and let me know what you think!
I've spent a few days this week improving navigation, fixing errors, and otherwise spiffing up this site. I hope everything looks and acts better now, but if you ever notice a mistake, please let me know and I'll fix it.
You may have noticed the purple "Donate" button around here, as well. It goes to my brand new ko-fi account. Any donations you send will go to keeping my sites free, improving them, and helping me offer the best I can for free. My online presence remains a one-woman show, from sites to socials. I enjoy writing and sharing on my time off and when I'm between jobs. Since I'm an adjunct in higher education and I live in the Los Angeles area, I do all I can to keep expenses low. But there are some things I'd like to spend more on, like producing and/or hiring help for more professional-looking PDFs. Your donations will help me do that.
And don't worry if you can't send money - I know times are tough for many. You can send me a few words of encouragement and share my links, and that will make me very happy indeed.
It's hard for me to believe that so many months have gone by since I last updated this site, but I'm back with a new article: What to Expect When A Player is Suddenly Smitten with an NPC! I offer advice to help GMs and players in this sort of scenario, whether romance is involved or not. I hope it helps make awkward situations much easier to navigate.
I hadn't planned on working on this site tonight, but then I saw a GM ask about a way to organize some notes. They had a player hand them a backstory that was pages long and they wanted a way to jot down key details for quick reference. I kind of felt honor-bound to try to help, since I've handed GMs long backstories before and left them to sort out the details. As payment of my old debt, I present the Character Backstory GM Note Template!
I was going to do a brief review of the Imperial Grace demo by Synstoria but then I started digging into everything and, well, you can find the full review here. It's so difficult for me to hold back when it comes to things I enjoy!
I've spent some time this weekend working on improving code around here. If you think you notice things that have changed since you last visited, this is probably why. Hopefully I didn't break anything in the process! If something isn't working or looking right, feel free to let me know.
After being asked to review products from Mystery Dice Goblin, I'm happy to report on the dice and pins theys ent me as well as my thoughts on their store website!
While visual novels I read are fantasy-oriented, some of them aren't. I found the extended demo for the Victorian queer romance, Of Sense and Soul, to be high-quality in every way. Since its still gathering funds via Backerkit, I've reviewed it in hopes of spreading the word a little further.
I've reviewed one of my favorite visual novel demos, Sigh of the Abyss: Shadow Bonds. Please read it, go try it, and wishlist the full visual novel on Steam.
I just completed my first review of an explicit erotic visual novel, Sanguine Rose. I haven't read many erotic VNs thus far, but this one was my first and the experience has stuck with me, so I'm adding my thoughts here. While my review isn't explicit, the novel is for adults only and won't be to everyone's taste, so reader discretion is advised.
I did a quick review for the demo of Dual Chroma, a hybrid RPG visual novel being crowdfunded on Kickstarter now.
The rain from Hurricane (now tropical storm) Hilary has begun in earnest in Los Angeles today, so I'm staying in and improving code here around the site. I've added a banner image that means a lot to me, since it's a campfire scene from Chrono Trigger. Once upon a time, as a teenager, I played the hell of of that game. For its time, it was a perfect RPG, featuring time travel, a unique cast of characters, and its own fun magic system in which characters could create different effects by working together. My imagination took the art and made it real; my mind translated the music into the stereo stratosphere. I have its soundtrack on my music player and will listen to it from time to time because it always makes me happy. Somewhere in my heart, the theme from Zeal is always playing and I am watching the world from that doomed floating kingdom's elegant spires. Wherever you are today, I hope you are safe and spending time with the people and things you love.
This evening, I finished my first round of quick demo reviews. I can't possibly give all the demos I try an extended treatment, but I can share my thoughts and bring attention to those I don't dig into in depth.
Today I finished reviewing the TOUCHSTARVED demo and added another micro VN review of "A Bit Tied Up". I wasn't sure about spending time reviewing demos, since they're works in progress and liable to change. It's also true that just because a demo exists, that doesn't mean the full visual novel will ever be completed. But I've seen how difficult it can be for creators to get the word out about the projects. I also know there's a ton of demos out there, and people might be reluctant to try them without knowing how others liked them. In the age of online shopping, reviews matter. So I'll be giving some demos more robust writeups and doing brief reviews for others, as a compromise with myself. Because I only have so much time and there's so much I want to do!
Today I added a page for quick reviews of micro visual novels (those that tend to take less than half an hour to complete), and reviews of several ones that I've tried recently.
This evening, I finished my visual novel fan profile so you can learn about what I'm after before you dive into one of my reviews. I also created a new section of the site just for reviews, and I'm hoping to do more of them.
Happy August, everyone! I added my first visual novel review today for Ballads at Midnight, a Gothic fantasy romance that I enjoyed playing. If you find my review useful, I hope you'll let me know. If there's something I forgot to cover, feel free to ask about it. I'm still working out the format I want to use for VN reviews, and I want them to be helpful.
Today, I added a few other versions of my template for session notes and worked on streamlining the sizes of images so the documents will remain small (37-69 kb) and easier to load.
Today, I made a template for session notes that you can use to record and share notes during play. It's a Google Doc meant for players to use, either one at a time or together. You can change anything you'd like about it, and you can use it to get ideas for how to set up your own. If you give it a go, please let me know how it worked for you!
Today, I fixed dead links across the site and added a number of links to my gaming-related links page.
I also finished rewriting and expanding my discussion of common pitfalls in tabletop gaming as a hobby.
After trying to get around to it for years, I finally revised and updated my page about Pregnancy & Childbirth in fantasy tabletop RPGs. That includes the general rules I have for fertility, conception, multiple offspring, and so on. I'm rather embarrassed by the mistakes I found and hope they are clearer and easier to follow.
Today, I rewrote my page about the common benefits of roleplaying games. It was an old entry that I tossed onto the site in a hurry. I'd fully intended to expand on it but kept forgetting to do so. Well, no longer! If there's something I missed, feel free to let me know.
I've added images to every page on this site except for 2: my discussion of problems outside the game and concerns that roleplaying games lead to violent behavior. After serious thought, I'm still not sure what to use. Finding something that's royalty-free is also a concern. So I'm leaving them alone for now.
Hello again! Coding improvements continue apace across the site. I've also been adding art to pages that haven't had pieces before (so if any images are borked, please let me know so I can fix them).
But for the first time in a while, I have a whole new article to share with you: Why You Should Read Visual Novels!
I think it's safe to say that visual novels have become my latest obsession, and I just know that a lot of other gamers out there will love them. VNs can also be great for folks who are burnt out on traditional reading. So I'd like to tell you why you should try them out. I'll also be adding reviews for the visual novels I've been reading in the near future, in case you're looking for recommendations!
Hi everybody! I've spent time over the last month improving this site, page by page. I worked on finding and fixing errors, streamlining coding, standardizing appearances and functions, and trying to cut down load time first. I'm proud to say that I'm mostly done, though I'm sure there are a few things I overlooked. If you find something that doesn't work right, do let me know.
Along the way, I updated some content:
I updated my page on the city of Eltabbar to reflect how it was when we last played.
I reorganized my Thayan name list.
I made my Thayan noble houses available for download.
I also made my timeline of Thay available for download.
I've also updated the look of my Google Sheets offerings so they're more readable. I hope you like them!
Lately, I've been adjusting code and options across this site. You may have noticed that the main menu has changed. Some pages now have table of contents buttons so you can navigate to different sections more easily (I have a long way to go before most of them have that option, but I'm working on it). Soon, any downloads will also be available via a button. I hope this makes things tidier and easier to use.
While doing all that, I decided to rewrite most of my article about creating romantic characters - and while doing that, I made improvements to my romantic relationship generator, which is explained on that page. I couldn't stop writing and thinking about it until it was done, which hasn't happened in a while and is always a great experience. I feel like that article now has a lot to offer gamers and writers, and I hope you enjoy it!
Recently, I've revised every generator I offer on this site and added two more - and now you can download and use them all! You can find a list of every generator I offer here.
Since almost all of them are system agnostic, you can use them for various fantasy games or writing projects. They're also free and can be altered to suit your needs. I'm also tinkering with code on this site for the first time in months, so you may see some changes to how things look and work. If something isn't working at all, though, please let me know!
Thanks, and happy gaming!
After further thought, I've removed any AI images I made from this site. I've also gone through and replaced most art that's here. I'm grateful for art I can share via Creative Commons and hope you enjoy it! Happy Valentine's Day!
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