In this Fourth Wall Break, will talk about an upcoming meta-series [one of two left to add], the possibility of a wiki for me to sort my thoughts, and I'll revisit one of my old questions of the best way for to me to organize my play across multiple campaigns "at once."
A Fourth Wall Break, in This Economy?!
It has been a minute since I have done one of these mental check-ins. In fact, the last "proper" Fourth Wall Break - a long running in-"joke" being that several things that could be dubbed such are not - was last year, back on the Prologue.
My solo play continues to be in a bit of a [purposeful] lull as I focus on other things. Still, ideas and interests continue to percolate apace. It's the sort of hobby where I like to come back and do some stuff here or there. Will I ever hit the frantic "once per day" post cycle from a couple of years ago? No, at least not outside of special events like Advent(ure). Will I likely have weeks or even months where 2-3 play sessions are posted a week? Almost definitely.
Figured it would be good for me to sit down and type up a few of those percolations just to sort through my mental backlog.
Finally Adding Galdswyld to the Batch
Back when I was first getting into solo play and wanted a campaign to play, which is also back when I thought I might use Youtube to record this stuff, I had an idea for a Troika-adjacent setting that was nameless but involved large-to-even-larger, strange-to-even-stranger "islands" in a golden sea. Inspired by Troika itself, but also stuff like Saga Frontier and other "sphere hopping" stories1, the idea was basically a blank canvas with some built in details where I could play whatever story I wanted.
Each "island"/sphere was basically a self-contained system with its own rules and themes and genre and story, though several were connected to the sea and to other islands. A place where various wizards and people of power, The Gods, had created their own personal pocket dimensions.
One island was a continent sized city so large that it had its own ecosystems [Troika, itself]. One was home to a number of magic schools and guilds in constant political strife. One was a crystal desert with ancient structures to worship the Gods. One had the remnants of an advanced civilization and was all about mining these strange, weird dungeons. One was a wasteland apocalypse with a thing for gladiatorial combat. Another was a gothic, dark landscape full of folk horror and beasts. All of these were aware of the other islands and would traverse The Great Golden Ocean.
The problem with such a setting is that it could broadly take over any creative endeavor. Fighting cultists in 1920's Arkham? Just a sphere. Killer robots apocalypse? Another sphere. High fantasy involving dragon riders? You guessed it, spheres all the way down.
The only remnant of it currently in rotation is the Ick + Humb stories which technically take place on one of the "islands" ["island" is a very loose term, since there are at least half a dozen landmasses in I+H] which are shrunk down to a tiny size. This is the game board of a wizard who liked fantasy roleplaying games and so created a bunch of minis with self-awareness combining Advanced Fighting Fantasy with vibes from Ultima and Might & Magic. However, the strange nature of the many-realities of I+H means that Ick + Humb is also not part of GW. Like a chunk of zyhe Great Golden Ocean has leaked into other worlds.
Which, really, makes as much sense as most of my RNG-infused creations.
Since then, I have developed this original setting a bit into Galdswyld. Originally I was going to say "Godsweird" with the plot that various wizards, dreamers, mad scientists, and other Gods have stumbled upon The Great Golden Ocean, where they can shape reality relevant to their own mental fortitude. Then, centuries later, these creations have drifted beyond their original forms into their current state.
Godsweird became Gadswyrd became Gadswyld and now I'm going for Galdswyld. "The wilding of the Gods." But with God >> Gald to reference the golden sea.
The only reason I've slow rolled it besides having stacks of stuff I want to play getting in the way is because The Whole Damned Lunch is a deeply related concept that I have been debating playing. TWDL is an apocalyptic Earth after an entire alien fleet reshaped the physics of the planet (along with The GLOW, a divergent point for The Alabama Weird). The idea is that pretty much every genre of post-apocalyptic fiction has a place. Mega-structures in decay, deserts with mutants, zombie outbreaks, killer robots...all is there somewhere. Which means it also hits the "any story I want" vibe.
My general thought is it just to play them both. Galdswyld for those stories where I want weird sci-fantasy. The Whole Damned Lunch when I want stories more about survival with a gritty vibe. Maybe TWDL can be a gateway to The Great Golden Ocean.
Possibly Cooking Up a Wiki
One of the problem I run into is the complex nature of my games where even semi-straightforward campaigns like Bleak + Pearl have multiple eras of importance and will eventually start to feature places beyond the scope of the twin stories being told there. The GLOW has multiple eras with different technologies. Alabama Weird has a connected chronology from the 1920s - 2020s with references to stuff back into the 19th century.
Even relatively minor outings can involve me going through a stack of posts to remember who is alive or dead, or when something was invented.
For instance, The GLOW 1992 has very few to no ServiSynth tech. Instead it uses more "traditional" drone type things. By The GLOW 2024, ServiSynth 3s are a lot more complex and way more prominent. In The GLOW 1996 had what would like be the edge of ServiSynth 2s but a lot designs were based on single-purpose with a bit of downtime. Cell Phones gave way to Scrying Glasses gave way to All Seeing Eyes. Aethernet became Aetherwave. That sort of stuff.
Tracking how a character changes over 20-30 years of campaign would make a good external tool so I don't have to wing and guess quite so much.
In that light, I'm thinking of starting a wiki where I could track characters and relations between campaigns better. And could build up pre-campaign details. I'll give it a think.
Revisiting the Post Schedule Format
When the blog first started, there was just one campaign that got updated a couple of times a week. Then there were two campaigns. Eventually, I hit upon a three campaign max and would post once in each every week. Frustration over the extra downtime created between having to dig up all the files, notes, and such back and forth lead me to focusing on one campaign at a time for a bit.
I went back against that and was trying to blend 2-3 but once again I feel like mini-arc bursts are best served by single-focus with a 2-3x/week scheduling.
In that light, the plan is to do The GLOW 2024: Goblin vs the Christmas Miracle, then The GLOW 1992: Agent Johnny Blue vs The Kid, and then Dwarven Halls. After that, I don't know. In between chapters of Dwarven Halls, there might be side-stories. We'll see.
One day, Space Pilgrim, one day...we'll return to Bleak + Pearl.
- A major inspiration would be something like Jack Chalker's Well World books though there are a lot of "separate but connected dimension" world-building examples. ↩︎