mickvalencia

[mickvalencia]

This hits so hard, this is it, this is my game, play for the fun and the love of the game, and once you see the lady of suspension of disbelief in front of you, buy her a nice dinner, get her a love letter, take her hand and tell her to never leave you. Suspension of disbelief it's one of the most beautiful skills we have in our world, don't let it go to waste.

[mickvalencia]

Our First Podcast Episode is Out!

[mickvalencia]

We go out tomorrow with our first episode, so happy about it! We've never done something like this before. I'll share more details with you as soon as we have it online! Big Hugs!

[mickvalencia]

I absolutely agree. In our system, we came up with the "prologue episode" which is our equivalent to a session 0 on most games. We decided the best way to teach the player how to play, was to make a 1-on-1 session with the new player, where they only arrive with their name, maybe a species and a place of origin, and then they live through an abridged version of their life until the moment before they integrate to the main adventure. I love this system because the player has a chance to screw up, ask for the rules, and the Game Director helps them with the stats, skills and traits system (we have a very convoluted one with a lot of those, so the Director helps the player picking the ones that they would like the most without having to go through the whole list). Another thing I like about it, is that the players experiences their backstory, and only them do it, so once they get to the main campaign, they have some bagagge, some secrets, maybe family, friends or a love interest and it's up to them what they share or don't share with the rest. Nothing better than a low-risk environment for the players to thrive, let loose, ask questions, and have their first little taste of the game inside a forgiving story that is tailored to them, like a tutorial/character creation suite.

Tabletop RPGs should have more tutorial scenarios where you get to learn the game mechanics in a low-risk environment so that while you're actually learning the game mechanics your character is not at the risk of immediate death (unless lethality is very much a part of the game, in which case go for it)

[mickvalencia]

Lately I've been jumping between these two songs for my writing process.

[mickvalencia]

I think it's a good time to post our shop, it only has two of our manuals because we adopted the model "trade perfect for done" and started going full-on active development on the public light. Get them if you can, they're at a minimum price of $0 (and they always will be). We also have stories of our world, devlogs, exciting and weird projects coming on, and the common thread between them is compassion, empathy, friendship... and kaiju-sized animals with cities on their back. I love kaiju-sized animals with cities on their back, that's why I punched my anxiety in the face and decided to share it with you. Big hugs!

[mickvalencia]

This is scarily accurate and I absolutely love it, I remember my first one, I even shed a few tears of joy when it happened. Thank you for bringing those memories back!

Sure sex is nice but have you ever had a moment of perfect clarity where you configure a glimmering set of individual plot hooks that will entice each player at your table and slowly intertwine them not only into each other’s goals and desires but also the main plot element of the campaign?

[mickvalencia]

A little advice for some rookie TTPRG devs that wanna make friends?

Hey There! My team and I are just starting to set up our love labor called DGS (Detrayan Gaming System) out to the public, and I'm gonna be real with you, I'm not very good with the whole community aspect of it. I try to learn every day a little bit more, I see a lot of you having this incredible ability to glide through tumblr and social media, communicating your thoughts and forming connections in such an awesome way, and I'd really like that for our project as well. Any way we can become friends? Acquaintances? That you can share some tips with me on how to improve in the community aspect of sharing our creation? I don't want by any means to be one of those promoters of their own stuff that only care about their success, our system is entirely free, and we want to share it with the world because it's our pride and joy. I don't know if I'm screaming into the void right now, but maybe one (or some) of you has some awesome knowledge to share, maybe your experience can help us improve, or maybe you're super chill, and we can work on knowing each other? God this is so weird, it's like trying to talk to strangers on the street, but hey, I'd rather try and not succeed than not trying at all, and I think that an honest question it's the way to go, this place and its people gives me that "be yourself and be real" vibe. If you'd like to share some wisdom, or if you wanna make some new friends who believe in inclusion, wholesomeness, virtue and friendship, that also happen to be doing their best to create their own flavor of TTRPG, please reach to us, either through this post or any other way. We'd be so happy to create meaningful connections, because we don't feel like doing the whole marketing stunt (and we're not good at it). We want to be real and get to know the people around us, get feedback, make friends, know about you and your favorite animals, your happy moments and big lessons of life. Just let me know if you feel like this is a thing that you'd like to do, I've seen a lot of meaningful posts about how people should interact with one another here in a closer way, and I'm doing my best, it's hard, I feel like the new kid in school, but it's worth trying. Big hugs for you, your family and pets, and I'll be waiting to hear from you if you feel like it.

[mickvalencia]

Finding the right balance for this kind of thing is hard, in my case I've designed a system that learns from TCGs in the way that each rule responds to a one-page rule (Which also look kinda like bigger trading cards) that are specific to different categories of elements, from new mechanics, loot, equipment, NPCs or enemies, so the player can decide how little or how much they can add. Want a crazy ass game with hundreds of rules? Sure, go ahead. Want a lighter experience? Literally take them out of the book. It also allows newer players to enter the game and start with fewer rules and add them as they go. I personally like a lot of rules, but I dislike number crunching, so I went the way of making these based on the world's logic and more verbal than mathematical, so they are easier to integrate between each other, without worrying of numeric balance and more about narrative construction.

I've seen several indie projects take aim at producing a tabletop RPG which adapts or is in some sense inspired by Minecraft, all of which have eventually either stalled out or concluded that the task is impossible, and I think the basic problem is that the greater part of the indie RPG developer community seems to take it as an article of faith that heavy, complex inventory and resource management mechanics in tabletop RPGs are a bad design pattern that nobody enjoys engaging with – some people have been fooled into thinking they do, but it's only their lack of exposure to alternatives that prevents them from realising they're not really having fun – and that's an attitude that's fundamentally at odds with recognising why people Minecraft.

[mickvalencia]

This is very useful info, just starting here so might as well give it a go

if you’re a new tumblr user from tiktok or IG or something and only like posts and dont reblog them yeah people will think you’re a bot and block you but you will also make this website actively worse. they want “algorithmic” users like you, served recommended posts through likes, not people who just follow each other and respond to the direct chronological feed. there is a reason this website is still better than the rest, even with all its problems, do not ruin this

[mickvalencia]

Devlog #001 - Summer is here and there's ice in the cooler

Hey Dear Reader! Here we are again, on our second week of the project being out in the open, and I must say that it has been absolutely delightful. The whole team has been hard at work on their own duties, writing, setting up things, discussing new and old ideas, editing, translating and mostly having a blast with this new working schedule we've developed so far. This whole policy of "Trade Perfect for Done" has done wonders for us, this week we've tackled some ideas we had in the backburner for a while, and I'll tell you what do we have in store for the next few days and weeks:

• DGS Podcast: Our Project Manager "elSolar" and I, just finished recording the raw audio for the first episode of what will be our bi-weekly (I'm not sure if it's the right term, maybe is bi-monthly, when you do it every other week, I get confused with those sometimes) official podcast, in which we'll talk about mechanics, lore and the development process of DGS, it should be out this week, and we'll release it as soon as it's done. It was a fun experience! We were a little bit nervous at first, but we got into it and let ourselves loose after a while, all in the spirit of doing things instead of overplanning. This episode we talk about the origins of DGS, we unveil some of the lore and have fun with some random questions, stay tuned for when it comes out! • Detrayan Prism Takes Off: We posted one of our main stories the other day, "The Myth of Creation", which will be part of our narrative series as a way to flesh out the lore and share with you some of the non-mechanical aspects of DGS. This week we're working on the translation of "Miracle - Losing Doesn't Halt the Bet", a beautiful story about empathy, forgiveness, and gambling, written by our Narrative Director, Mr. "R. Ursus". We hope that these stories not only help you understand more of the lore of our world, but also leave you with a message of hope and resilience. • DGS Annex: As you might have noticed, the manuals need some elements that are not available yet, like our continent map, the character sheet, a GD reference sheet and the script for the Prologue Episode. We're putting the final touches to these elements, and they'll be published very soon as well, which will takes us to a point where we can concentrate more on the lore, by having the mechanics already established in their basic sense, leaving us free to work on lore and subsystems! • Community Space Tidying Up: As you already know, social spaces are a difficult area for me, so our Subsystems Manager, "Kitt", is giving me a hand with the social and the construction of spaces to grow a community, play the game and discuss the lore and stories around it. We're aiming to have a presence on most socials, but we'll concentrate mostly on Discord (Which is where our sessions usually take place) and we've also made a Subreddit (r/Detrayan) as well.  • Green Book: We keep our progress on our third manual, we're taking it easy with this one a bit, so we can push the final parts of the playable stage, but it should be out pretty soon. This one will be a glimpse into the world in a general sense, we'll talk about the Planes, Ages, Species, Landmarks and Deities, among others.  Besides that, there are lots of other things we have planned for the upcoming weeks, like the Spanish versions of the manuals and stories, the construction of our own Discord Bot for DGS sessions, and the implementation of our Subsystems once the three main books of the "Detrayan Colors" series are finished (I want to get to the Yellow Book so much! Can't wait to talk about our moving cities and Behemoths!)

Anyway, I hope you're doing well, that your family, friends and pets are healthy and happy, that your today pales in comparison to your tomorrow, and that all your projects and ideas get to safe harbor. We want to thank everyone who has shown interest in the project and our ideas, we really appreciate your support, we hope you see us as friends you can reach out and talk to. Throw a message our way, let's have a friendly chat, talk about the project with your friends, clean up your cat's litter box and take your dog for a walk, call your mom and tell her that you love her, drink water, drive safely and enjoy life as much as you can. It seems I got sidetracked, anyway, have a most excellent day, and it would mean a lot to us if you can do the whole "like, share, subscribe, engage and comment" that everyone talks about, your support is the fuel that keeps this TTRPG vehicle going forward. As always, very big hugs from your friends at the Detrayan Team! Mick Lead of Detrayan Team

[mickvalencia]

Dear Reader, so kind of you to show up!​

​Being Sunday, I decided to share a special piece that will be featured in one of our more narrative parts of the worldbuilding in the future. ​

This text will be part of "Detrayan Prism", which is a collection of stories from the world of Detrayan that will be constantly expanding, so we can keep showing the world from different angles, perspectives, eras and planes, with a focus on short stories and curiosities that don't quite have a good place in "Detrayan Colors" (Our beautiful color-coded manuals that you can find in the store) This is the "Myth of Creation" of our world, the story that we learn since we're kids about how the universe came to be, it is told among different cultures with slight variations, but the idea is the same: to understand how nothing can become something when you put your mind, time, and effort to make it a reality. I hope you like it, and if you have any questions or comments about it, you can always reach out to me on ko-fi, tumblr or twitter (I've been trying very hard with the last one, yet I'm kinda out of touch with the idea of it, still very fun!) Follow us for more updates on the progress of the DGS project, your feedback and interest fuels our spirit to keep working on it day by day, and you'll be proud to see the progress and say you were here from the start, when we barely even knew how to twitter the tweets and kofi the ko-fis.

​Big hugs, and enjoy the reading! (Reading time: Approximately 4 minutes) THE MYTH OF CREATION

As there's no clear source regarding the origin of our universe, to explain this phenomenon, we must delve into the legend of "Archex, The First," eternal creator and builder of the tower...

​ Archex the First

In the nonexistence, in the absolute void of reality and consciousness, in the plane where the true origin of the universe cannot yet be defined, Archex awoke. 

The fundamental concepts of life and nonexistence were mere ideas that he kept in his memory. 

As the first one on this plane, he searched within himself for thousands of years for answers on how to implement them in this unreality, which seemed like nothing more than a vast emptiness, free from any kind of constraints, limits, or, to be honest, anything at all.

Archex was a thinker, so he dedicated much time to pondering how to bring the existence of the universe to this point of reality, because my friend, nonexistence is a reality in on itself.

His greatest motivation came from a blur of memories he carried, the only thing he had brought with him to this plane.

Messages of diverse kind distributed within his memories, hinted that he didn't originally belong to this universe. 

In a plane where nonexistence is the general rule, how is it possible for one to have memories? Does the mind have consciousness and desires when there is absolute nothingness in front of it?

Where do all these emotions come from? What are emotions? What can I do with them? — He thought to himself.

Archex had countless conversations about these emotions with himself, and perhaps due to his solitude in existence, he began to use this dialogue as a way to grow and learn, much like you and I converse about his teachings every day.

As Archex started to contemplate all the things he could do in the vast loneliness of his life in nonexistence, he realized that there were certain challenges that would never solve by themselves.

Archex was Omnipotent. However, he wasn't Omniscient, so he didn't have all the knowledge of what had happened, what is happening, and what will happen. This made things confusing for him, to the point of not even knowing that he was our creator.

While still shaping these ideas, he began to feel the sorrow, an emotion that had never existed in our universe. This was the first step for Archex to understand the reason for his existence, the purpose behind his appearance in this empty plane.

Without warning, Archex heard an ethereal voice that seemed to come out of nowhere...

—"Have you thought about doing something here? Something different?"

—"Who are you? And what do you mean?" —Archex asked, surprised to hear someone else than himself after eons in the void.

—"I am no one yet, but it's likely that your own loneliness has manifested something of its own... I know I live in your head. I know I am connected to you, and your call for companionship is what brought me to this plane. 

I am your first creation, undefined and dependent on what you are or are not at this very moment in time. 

For now, I am company, so you don't have to feel sorrow anymore."

This conversation is known as "The Great First Revelation of Archex", which proved that our creator, from nothing, had been able to build something new in existence, no matter how minimal, even if this creation lived in the ether.

—"Should I give you a name?" — Archex asked the mysterious voice.

—"It's not the time yet. You must conceive your own identity, find out who you are, and what your purpose is in this world, Archex."

Upon hearing his name, a torrent of emotions erupted in the creator's consciousness, who had never heard his own word.

 Just like the dormant soldiers of Ashen Bay, who awaken from their slumber upon the mention of their word, the sense of identity pushed him toward awareness, what we now call "The Existence of the Creator."

—"Archex... Archex... Archex... That's who I am... and I've come to this plane as the bearer of life and existence !" — Archex's memories became more powerful as he reasoned with them. Other voices materialized with a plethora of ideas.

It was at that moment when Archex found his identity. A chorus of ideas sang in unison to him, all with different epiphanies and flashes of genius, separate from his own, giving advice on the paths to follow through the fog of nothingness.

This event was exhausting.  Archex had to live with thoughts that were not his own, trying to help, protect, and stimulate him to fulfill his mission. 

As the millenniums passed, and his identity grew, something changed. 

Archex had three epiphanies.

—"You are Archex... You are The Creator... You must build..."

Before he could think about these revelations, Archex underwent a physical change larger than any other existence process before him. It was at that moment that everything cleared up for his identity.

For the first time in this plane of absolute nonexistence, Archex managed to create a material element, the first great foundational stone of our universe.

A humble wooden chair.

—"I'll call this a... chair. I have no idea how it manifested here, but at least, this is progress," Archex thought to himself.

—"And what will we do with it? We don't exist, and we don't even know what it's for!" —one of the voices said defiantly.

—"Don't you understand? The fact that there is an element in nonexistence was the great paradox we were trying to solve!

 Finally, we have achieved an element with its own identity, and after this, if we find its purpose, we might reach outside the ether!"

—"Correction, Archex, you have to find the methods. We only live in your memory, we do our best to keep you company, and while I understand your reasoning, I see that you're not grasping the main concept behind this."

This voice caught Archex's attention, he realized it was the same voice that had spoken to him the first time.

—"I hadn't heard from you for a long time, but I think you have something important to say, which I will listen to when you decide to tell me what your name will be."

—"That's my point. How can you give me a name if you still don't have a real sense of your own? 

​You need to manifest yourself.

You need to find your identity. 

​Seeds will never grow if they are not planted."

—"Archex... You must find your physicality in this world of nonexistence." — Declared the chorus in agreement.

​After that, my friend, that's when the fourth epiphany came:

Archex is, Archex shouldn't not be, Archex must be something, something must be someone.

​This was the epiphany that gave Archex his sense of identity and form, making him an actual existing being. It was the moment when all his thoughts came together and became one. 

Archex felt as the chorus in his head unified and at the same time multiplied by millions, and those millions called for home.

As he regained his identity and self, memories became strong and vivid, his physical form began to rise from nothing, absorbing the nonexistence and making him the prime being in this plane and all those that would come afterward.

The unification left Archex at a level of absolute exhaustion. 

Creation from absolute nothingness was an impossibility, yet he achieved it, but the exhaustion was unbearable, manifesting the idea of a well deserved rest.  In all this nonexistence of landscapes filled with nothing as far as the eye could not see, he found his modest chair, just like the ones we are sitting on right now. 

And for the first time in his long and deconstructed life, he had a thought of his own.

—"I need to sit in that chair and rest for a moment." — And at that second, Archex took his first break in over a billion years, the same second when Detrayan came into existence, the moment the ethereal voice received its name. Mick

[mickvalencia]

Devlog #000 - Welcome to the DGS Project!

Hello there!

I'm Mick, lead of the Detrayan team and this is my first devlog ever. Today, I'm here to tell you a little bit about myself, but mostly about my project, the Detrayan Gaming System. DGS is a project that has been hanging around in my mind, my notes and my thoughts for years at this point, although not in the same way that it can be seen today. You see, I used to think that I was a writer, a novelist, all that cool stuff, but in reality, my skills are closer to the ones of a worldbuilder, a systems designer and a scriptwriter than the aforementioned, and that's the main reason that this project hasn't been public until yesterday. I wanted to write a novel (a bunch of them, actually) I started designing the world of Detrayan on its most primitive form around 2019, and since then I had this desire to write an epic saga of novels that spanned through the ages and planes of my world, thinking about being the next Tolkien or Douglas Adams. You know, small, achievable goals. The thing is, me not knowing that I'm not a novelist, but a worldbuilder, extensively worked the details of the land, the creatures, characters planes and ages, and it was beautiful. The problem? I couldn't for the life of me to pick an angle to tell this story. I couldn't cover my favorite parts, heroes, villains, events and all the other things on a book, didn't knew where to start, where to finish, where to even put the first word to give it the meaning or weight that I wanted. The project became dormant, while I tended to other matters, until one day, a group of excellent friends (some of them members of the actual Detrayan team to this day) in between our daily talks and jokes, proposed the idea that we should play a TTRPG, and games are one of my biggest passions in life, besides animals and quality time with the ones you love. But, what to play? I love TTRPGs as a concept, but I never found one that really encompassed the aspects I liked about them, like the freedom and experimentation they offer, without using a bunch of number crunching or rules that were too loose to develop consistency with the world. So I went and decided to design something myself. The first beta was rough. I decided to skip the whole "IRL" setting, and go for a different approach closer to MUDs in a way, because we played through a Discord server via text, in this way avoiding some of the complications of most TTRPG sessions (people not getting enough into character out of embarrassment, scheduling conflicts, dice fudging, number crunching, and others) and with that, giving space to concentrate in the part I liked, that was the narrative and stories you can build around these games. The setting was not there the first time, we had a short adventure about a wizard who liked to torment a dwarf by stealing his potato chips and putting him in complicated situations against goblin junkies and orcs that came to his house. It wasn't great, but we had an idea, and we could make it work, the system was fun, intuitive and for a beta, I would even say "functional". And then it hit me. I had been building this world without an actual purpose to it except for a theoretical novel saga, but it was all there, years of work could be reused in a new idea, even if it was just for our personal fun.

Time passed, seasons came and went, and I kept improving on the systems with the help of my friends, we had to adjust many things, from combat, socializing, world logic, rolls, stats, all of it, but in the end we came up with our own flavor of TTRPG, that was enticing and fun because of the customization we gave to it, but also because we invested a lot of time in making it a unique experience. 

Once the world was fully integrated with the system, we played for about a year consistently, and had a lot of fun with it, getting to that impostor syndrome moment where you say

 "Hey! This is pretty good, it looks like someone way better than us made it!"

When I heard myself saying this phrase, I knew that something wasn't right, and I needed to do something to correct it, so then again, I got back to the drawing board (I actually have a drawing board now, they're very cool).

I started making a little trailer about the game as if it was an actual product, showcasing the book covers you can see in the gallery, and I got pretty hyped up about it. Why couldn't this be a thing? Why should I stop here? There was no actual reason for me to give a chance to this game I got to love while creating it and the world that has been with me for all this time, so I started creating actual rulesets and adapting mechanics to a "newcomer-friendly" mindset. This went great, and taught me a lot about system design and project management, but there was always something lurking in the back of my head, and that was that this project would only be an idea until I released it in one way or another to the public.

Couldn't stop thinking about it, I had to make that trade, and so I did. Being here holds me accountable on my progress, and while it's not perfect (nor done until it's actually done), just one day of leaving my fear of it not being "perfect" made me get to this point, where I can freely talk about it, receive feedback, and even deliver whatever is done to you, the "Dear Reader". What can I say besides, "This feels great"? I'm a little bit scared about what comes for the future of this project, but now that the journey has officially started, I can repeat the wonderful process that took me to this point, which was to share with others what at some point it was only an idea in my head, hear their opinions and questions, and build upon that what will be the next iteration of DGS and the deployment of Detrayan as a new fictional universe to enjoy. There's so much I'd like to talk to you about, from the game itself, the lore, the universe, my own journey to get to this point, but I also want to make a habit of this, talk to you often through this devlog, to receive your questions and comments on everything from the earthly to the divine, I want this creative process to be a constant dialogue, and I think this new work model where I keep adding up to what's already done, instead of waiting by myself for everything to be completely ready, is an excellent way to go forward.  Before I go, there are three things I'd like to say:

1. I'm open to hear your comments, ideas, messages and questions, just send me a message through ko-fi, tumblr, or if you're more old-fashioned, throw me an email at detrayanteam@gmail.com, think of me as that friend you haven't met yet, that everyone says it's super nerdy and chill, you can even find me on Twitter if that's your thing, I'm kinda bad at social media, but I'm learning as I go. 2. The project itself has already completed some of the milestones I had for it from the beginning, we've already released our "Red Book" for new players and our "Blue Book" for Game Directors, they both will give you a good idea of where are we going with our project. They are in our shop, and you can pick them up on a "Pay what you want" basis, being $0 the minimum, because I want you to have access to the game no matter what.

3. There's a lot more I'd like to share, but I'd rather not flood you with information, we have plenty of time ahead of ourselves to know each other, talk about many topics, related and non-related to DGS and Detrayan, and I want this to be a growing relationship between me and you, so please make sure to follow us, talk about the project with others, let us into your world and interests, so we can build this as something real and human, I'd like to know about you as much as I'd like to tell you about me and all of this.

Alright, I need to stop, or I'll end up writing a novel right here, and that's not the idea. I hope that you and the ones you love are safe, that you have an excellent day, and that we can get to know each other better over time. Big hugs! Mick Lead of Detrayan Team