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Author: Sharrukin

The Final Burst of “Architect of Worlds” Research

The Final Burst of “Architect of Worlds” Research

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I’m currently in the process of a final editorial and layout pass on Architect of Worlds before the book gets released. For an idea of how that’s going, I’m up to page 62 out of 188, and as long as I can wrangle an hour or two in a given evening, that usually gets pushed another 10-12 pages forward.

I hadn’t planned on doing extensive rewrites of any of the existing text as part of this final pass – just polishing typos and stylistic inconsistencies, and preparing the layout for both e-book and print releases. However, I’ve recently come across some research that really asks for some revisions of the current model. (Thanks to patron Thanasias Kinias for putting me on this particular trail.)

The subject is what Architect calls Class 2 or “Dulcinea-type” worlds. These are super-Earths that have thick atmospheres dominated by primordial hydrogen and helium, and in the Architect model they almost invariably have lots of water as well. In astronomical circles, these are starting to be called hycean worlds (“hycean” coming from “HYdrogen” and “oCEAN”). It’s been one of my secret pleasures that the models used in Architect allowed for such worlds before they became a common hypothesis in real-world astronomy.

Some of my recent reading, though, tells me that Architect is probably dead wrong about some of the surface conditions of such worlds.

For one thing, astronomers modeling such worlds have suggested that they need more than just plenty of mass to hold onto that primordial hydrogen and helium. The issue isn’t simple Jeans or thermal escape (which Architect does model), but the fact that a world too close to its primary star will likely have that primordial envelope blasted away by its ultraviolet and X-ray output and stellar wind. Once the primordial atmosphere is gone, it’s not likely to be replaced by vulcanism and outgassing, so the eventual atmosphere will more closely resemble the nitrogen-carbon dioxide mix typical of a smaller world.

On the other hand, I’ve assumed all along that the primordial hydrogen and helium in the dense atmosphere of such a world wouldn’t generate any greenhouse effect. Molecular hydrogen and helium aren’t polar, so by themselves they don’t tend to be opaque to infrared light the way (e.g.) carbon dioxide or water vapor can be. Unfortunately, there is a way that a dense hydrogen atmosphere can generate a pretty significant greenhouse effect – I don’t entirely understand the physics of it yet, but in the papers I’ve been reading the effect is described as pretty pronounced.

Normally I wouldn’t be too worried about any of this, but both Architect and real-world astronomy suggest there there are a lot of super-Earths out there. Any plausibly realistic interstellar setting is going to have to contend with them. So I think I need to make some adjustments to the final release version of the text. I think the relevant steps in the design sequence are Twenty-Six, possibly Twenty-Eight, and Thirty.

One interesting thing about this change: not only should it model these hycean (Dulcinea-type) worlds more accurately, it may open the window to a wider variety of Earth-like planets. At the moment, Architect says that a world doesn’t have to be very much bigger than Earth before it starts retaining (at least) primordial helium. If I make the conditions for that a bit more restrictive, we may end up seeing more “just-a-little-bit-super-Earths” that have a fully Earthlike atmosphere. At least you’ll be able to land and walk around on them without sounding like Alvin and the Chipmunks.

So yeah, this is probably the last set of changes to the Architect design sequence before release. Which implies you’re all going to have to wait for said release to see the results, but at least that event is getting closer by the day.

Some links to useful references:

Innes, H. et al. (2023). “The runaway greenhouse effect on hycean worlds.” The Astrophysical Journal, 953:2.

Pierrehumbert, P. and E. Gaidos (2011). “Hydrogen greenhouse planets beyond the habitable zone.” The Astrophysical Letters, 734:L13.

Rethinking the Human Destiny

Rethinking the Human Destiny

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A big part of my creative process involves all the work that happens entirely in my head, usually while the “active” work is happening on a completely different project. Some of that has been happening over the past couple of months, while the bulk of my time was devoted to Architect of Worlds. The target has been my Human Destiny universe.

The Human Destiny is an extended meditation on what our future might look like in a universe that is very much not designed for human pre-eminence. Humans reach the stars, but only as clients of a far older, far larger, and far more powerful extraterrestrial society. Stories written so far in this setting seem to fall into two categories:

  • Stories set right around “the Conquest,” the time (currently set about twenty years from now) when the aliens arrive and very quickly reduce Earth to a client state. Published stories in this set include “Guanahani” and “Roanoke.”
  • Stories set about two hundred years after the Conquest, at a time when human beings are first being permitted to explore and settle worlds outside our own planetary system. Most of these center around the character of Aminata Ndoye, a young woman from what we now know as Senegal, who is one of the first humans to earn an officer’s position in the alien “interstellar service.” If and when I write a Human Destiny game sourcebook, it will probably be set in this era. Published stories in this set include “Pilgrimage” and In the House of War.

So far, the Human Destiny setting has been best described as “Star Trek meets David Brin’s Uplift novels.” The “Hegemony” that conquers Earth is non-human and rather paternalistic, but it’s also generally benign. Kind of like a Trek Federation that means well to its citizens but decidedly does not have a non-interference directive.

What I’ve been wrestling with is the technological assumptions of the setting.

To put the problem shortly: I think the technologies I’ve assumed so far have turned out to be at odds with the core themes of the setting, and I’m moving toward the decision to re-think that technological base from scratch. Which may mean rewriting a lot of the existing fiction, but may also give me good hooks for new stories in the future, so on that basis it may be a wash.

The executive summary is that I’ve been assuming a very Star Trek-like technological base. Magical normal-space and FTL drives, technical control of gravitational forces, the sort of tech that allows for cheap and easy space travel. Yet the themes I want to build into the setting are that the universe is vast, that intelligent beings on the human scale can easily get lost in it, that thriving on that stage requires a mindset that thinks into the distance in both space and time. Star Trek, for all its virtues, rarely offered that kind of perspective. It’s the Age of Sail in space, with exotic but fundamentally human cultures in every port. Jim Kirk needed to be cosmopolitan, but he rarely had to think far above the human level to succeed.

One oeuvre that I really appreciate, that I think hits some of the same themes I’m looking for, can be found in the late works of Poul Anderson. I’m thinking here of some of the novels he wrote in the last decade of his life, starting with The Boat of a Million Years, moving through his Harvest of Stars tetralogy, and ending with the magnificent Starfarers.

All these novels lean toward “hard” SF, mostly sticking to space travel that’s still tied to the rocket equation even if the engines are really advanced, avoiding FTL travel entirely. The stars are hard to reach in these stories, and it’s never clear that human beings are at all suited for life on that stage. Some humans decide not to try, huddling at home on Earth and rarely looking up. Others worry that humans are going to be eclipsed by other forms of life – mechanical or alien – that can thrive on the cosmic scale. Yet in these stories, some humans do manage to keep themselves relevant, finding ways to seek out free and worthwhile lives even out among the stars.

Yeah. I don’t know if it’s the undeniable influence that Anderson has had on my creative work all along, but those are very nearly the same themes I want to build into the Human Destiny. So the worldbuilding needs to match.

So I’ve been thinking about turning the “hard SF” dial up quite a bit, and working out what the implications might be for the setting as a whole. In particular, what will the vast, old, alien Hegemony look like if they don’t fly Star Trek-style starships? What will their conquest of Earth look like? How will Aminata Ndoye’s career be different, if she can’t fly a few hundred parsecs and back and still find her family and her home town more or less as she left them?

Lots to think about here, and I don’t pretend to have everything worked out yet, but once Architect of Worlds is out the door this may be where I’ll be spending some worldbuilding time.

Planning for November 2023

Planning for November 2023

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A little different format this time. Now that the initial layout for Architect of Worlds is complete, I’m in the final push to finish the book for actual release. There are still a number of tasks that need to be done before we get to that point, though. That’s the list that’s going to take center stage for November – and probably for December as well.

The objective is to have Architect of Worlds ready for release by the end of the calendar year. At this moment, it’s looking as if the actual release will not be via self-publication, as I had originally considered. Instead, as I’ve mentioned, there’s a good chance I’ll be working an established small-press publisher to release the book through their own imprint. We haven’t agreed to a deal just yet, and until that happens I’m not going to say who it is. Watch this space for further news – it probably won’t be long before I know what’s going to happen.

Either way, I suspect I/we will be setting the release date at no later than March 2024. I had originally hoped for earlier, but given all the life disasters I’ve been dealing with since July, I’m actually pleased the book won’t be further delayed. Fingers crossed, knock on wood, prayers to whatever deity or luck-granting spirit you subscribe to . . .

So here’s the current list of outstanding tasks:

Editorial Work:

  • Make final alterations to the design sequence or other rules for this edition, based on recent patron and reader feedback.
  • Perform a final editorial pass through the complete text, correcting typos, style inconsistencies, errors in tables or mathematical formulae, and “page XX” references.
  • Generate and lay out the copyright & acknowledgements page.
  • Generate and lay out the Table of Contents.

Art Direction:

  • Create separate “print on demand” (almost entirely greyscale) and “e-book” (full color) layers in the InDesign layout, supporting the production of two release PDFs.
  • Correct all cases where space for filler art was allocated by changing the size of the page’s main text frame, as opposed to placing an explicit object frame.
  • Create greyscale versions of (some) existing full-color images and place those in the layout on the appropriate layer.
  • Generate additional filler art throughout the book, placing both full-color and greyscale versions on the appropriate layers.
  • Create (or receive from publisher) new front and back cover images, and integrate these into the release PDFs.

I’m probably going to work on all of these concurrently, aside from those last-minute changes to the text at the top of the list (that’s the only item that might significantly change the layout). So a clean progress bar is probably not going to work – I’ll just leave the occasional Status Report post here to let everyone know how it’s going.

It should be clear that the window is just about closed for any recommendations for altered “rules” mechanics. If you have anything you’d like to suggest, I suspect that has to be in my hands before, say, 10 November. After that, the major structure of the text is going to be set in stone for this edition. Speak up, or it will have to wait for after-publication articles, or the second edition in a few years.

In the meantime, to the extent I have any unclaimed time (or I need another task for variety) I think I’m going to get back to writing some fiction. Most likely this will be more chapters of Twice-Crowned. If I make enough progress with that between now and the end of the calendar year, I’ll publish a new partial draft as a charged release for my patrons. No predictions – a lot depends on how Architect and some other tasks are doing in the meantime.

We’re on the home stretch!

A Choice of Game Mechanics

A Choice of Game Mechanics

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As of today, the initial layout of Architect of Worlds is finished – all of the final-draft text has been dropped into InDesign and laid out on the pages. In fact, given that there are a couple more days before the end of October, I’ve gone ahead and dropped the “Fine-Tuning World Climate” material into the book as well. I’m going to try to get that laid out before I produce an end-of-month PDF for my patrons.

This is a really big milestone. My planning message for November will detail the work that remains to be done, but the bulk of the final editorial work is finished. From here to the release version is a short distance, relatively speaking.

So today, I’m taking a break from Architect to consider some of the projects I might take up afterward. In particular, the possibility of producing one or more RPG sourcebooks tied to my personal literary settings. These include:

  • The Human Destiny: Interstellar science fiction, positioned somewhere between moderately hard SF and conservative space opera, essentially a pastiche of Star Trek in a universe where human beings are decidedly not the dominant culture.
  • Fourth Millennium: Alternate-historical fantasy set in and around the ancient Mediterranean, a world in which Hellenistic civilization is dominant and (at least some of) the gods are real and active in human affairs.
  • The Great Lands: Iron-Age fantasy reminiscent of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, in which heroic demigods struggle for glory and the survival of their people.

Of the three, I suspect The Human Destiny and Fourth Millennium are most likely to come to fruition. I do want to do more with The Great Lands, but that setting has been getting a lot less interest from the potential audience, so I’m a bit less motivated to push it forward.

One question that keeps coming up is how these settings might best be translated into tabletop RPG material – in particular, what game system might be the best choice for me to work with and publish under?

My first choice, of course, would be GURPS. I’ve got plenty of experience writing for various editions of GURPS – no fewer than 17 full-length books for which I was sole author, co-author, contributor, or editor would argue for that. To this day I’m fond of the system, and I’m quite convinced that any of my personal settings would translate well into it. Not least because I suspect a lot of GURPS idioms have embedded themselves into my personal world-building style.

The problem is that GURPS doesn’t have any form of open license. It’s certainly possible to write and sell third-party GURPS material. Douglas Cole of Gaming Ballistic, for example, has managed a small but successful product line tied to Dungeon Fantasy. As someone with a long track record of both freelance and on-the-payroll work for SJG, I could probably do the same. The barrier to entry would be steep, though, and probably not something at which a one-man development shop working around the constraints of a day job could succeed.

A few years back, I briefly considered writing my own RPG system. You can probably find a few references to the Eidolon system in old posts here. I eventually set that idea aside, because frankly the market is already absolutely glutted with RPG game systems. Anything I publish along these lines is going to be very marginal to begin with; tying it to an idiosyncratic game system would reduce the audience size from “few” to “none.”

I considered the new Cortex Prime system, and even wrote up a bunch of Human Destiny material for it. I still like that system, but the promised creator-friendly licensing scheme never materialized, so I had to set that aside too.

I thought about publishing Human Destiny under the OGL, possibly by way of Cepheus Engine, but the blowup over the OGL at the beginning of this calendar year kind of scotched that notion. I have absolutely no interest in building a dependency into any of my work that Wizards of the Coast could yank out from under me at any time. There was some talk of placing Cepheus Engine on a different licensing basis, possibly with cooperation from Mongoose Publishing, but I’m not sure how that shook out. I’m still kind of leery. Besides, I’m not entirely convinced that the Traveller-like mechanics of Cepheus Engine would quite fit the Human Destiny setting.

More recently I’ve been looking at Monte Cook’s Cypher, and Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying (BRP), both of which are available under very creator-friendly licensing terms.

Cypher is perhaps a little more streamlined than I like in a tabletop system, but it seems to have a bigger and growing audience. Monte Cook Games has been pushing it hard this year, especially after the OGL debacle. Cypher is available under its own open license, and the System Reference Document (SRD) is pretty extensive.

On the other hand, Basic Role Playing is an established and very solid system, more GURPS-like than most of the others. It’s been applied to a variety of settings over the years, and I think some of its mechanics would fit my settings very nicely. It’s not clear how much of an audience it has outside the very popular Pendragon, Runequest and Call of Cthulhu games. BRP used to be under a fairly restrictive open license – the SRD included almost nothing but the core task-resolution mechanic – but the most recent release of the engine includes more mechanics, and is apparently going to be placed under the much broader ORC license.

None of this is urgent yet; it’s going to be a while yet before Architect is finally out the door and I can turn to the next big project. Still, that seems to be the current state of play. I need a tabletop game system that will be a good fit for the settings I want to write, which has at least some established audience, and which exists under a licensing scheme for which I won’t have to be a full-time developer and marketer to succeed. It’s encouraging that the intersection of those three sets doesn’t appear to be quite empty . . .

Status Report (25 October 2023)

Status Report (25 October 2023)

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Some good progress to report for the month of October, along with some potential news about the marketing of Architect of Worlds once it’s finished.

Mind you, my run of bad luck has been continuing strong through this month. Let’s see: basement flooded in June, just about all my worldly possessions moved to storage, major repair work to the house’s foundation in July, worldly possessions moved back in, water heater replaced in July, furnace and air-conditioner replaced in August, the discovery of a mouse infestation in September, a really nasty bout of medical issues in late September through early October, dishwasher replaced in October, and yet another incident of flooding which damaged the house’s upper floors in October. Add to all that a really big project at the day job since the beginning of September, and the fact that I’m starting to take some distance-learning classes in pursuit of a new degree. This has been quite the year . . .

Still, as of today I am only eight pages away from completing the initial layout of Architect of Worlds, and I have every expectation that task will be finished by the end of this month as planned. Which doesn’t mean the book will be completely ready for release, but it does mean the biggest part of the work will be done. My goal remains to have everything ready for release by the end of the calendar year. More about that in my planning message for November, most likely.

There’s also a very good chance I won’t be marketing Architect entirely on my own once it’s ready. I’m in talks with an established small-press publisher to release the book, through their own imprint and by way of DriveThruRPG. That would mean royalties for me, in exchange for not having to do all the work of being an indie publisher, along with access to my partners’ marketing network and almost certainly much better sales. I suspect I’ll come out well ahead. This won’t make any difference to my patrons – all of them at the appropriate level will be getting a free e-copy of the finished book regardless, probably in advance of the public release. More on that if and when we work through the details and come to an agreement.

Planning for October 2023

Planning for October 2023

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It never rains but it pours. I had hoped for September to be a really productive month, and I did get some good work done, but it was one thing after the other getting in the way. Our HVAC system went out in mid-month, which left us sweltering for a few days until we had everything replaced.

Then, no sooner did that get resolved, than I had a nasty flare-up of kidney stone that’s still not cleared up. Kind of hard to concentrate on any work – for your day job or your side hustle – when you’re subject at any moment to feeling like there’s a knife buried in your back.

Still, I managed to get another big chunk of Architect of Worlds laid out, and I did most of the work to write a new section of material about modeling local surface temperatures. I think I’m within striking distance of having the entire layout finished in rough draft, so that’s the primary objective for the month of October.

So here’s the plan for this month:

  • Top Priority:
    • Architect of Worlds: Finish writing new material to streamline the estimation of variations in local climate (originally Step Thirty-Two in the design sequence).
    • Architect of Worlds: Complete the initial layout of the book.
  • Second Priority:
    • Danassos: Continue work on the new draft of Twice-Crowned.
    • Danassos: Continue work to rebuild the alternate-historical timeline.
    • Fan Fiction: Continue to write a Runequest-based story of at least novella length.

As far as releases for my patrons are concerned: I expect a free update of the growing Architect release draft – in fact, this is likely to be the final free update for that project before the book is released. If I produce enough new prose for Twice-Crowned or the Runequest story, I may offer partial drafts of those as a reward too (charged for Twice-Crowned, free for the Runequest story).

Review: Majority, by Abby Goldsmith

Review: Majority, by Abby Goldsmith

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Majority by Abby Goldsmith

Overall Rating: ***** (5 stars)

Majority is the first in a planned six-book space-opera series, chronicling the struggle of a few humans and their alien allies against one of the most viciously malign galactic empires ever created in fiction. The book is marketed as a “progression fantasy,” but the tropes of that sub-genre aren’t overly distracting – the story here works very well on its own.

Thomas Hill is an enormously talented teenage boy. He suffers from crippling physical handicaps, and he has grown up in an indifferent foster-care system, but his intelligence is so vast as to be unmeasurable. Even more, he is a telepath, a mind-reader who can absorb knowledge from others at lightning speed. At the age of thirteen, he is already a world-class scientific genius. The one mystery he has never been able to solve is that of his origins – he knows nothing about his biological parents or any family he might have. His only allies are two of his foster sisters, Cherise and Violet, who do their best to protect and support him.

Thomas soon learns that his origins are stranger than he could have imagined. Strictly speaking, he isn’t even fully human. His mother, at least, was a citizen of the Torth Empire. The Torth closely resemble humans, in fact humanity may be an offshoot of their species. The major difference is that all Torth, like Thomas, are telepaths.

The Torth dominate the entire galaxy. In theory, their Empire is a perfect democracy. Every Torth is considered the equal of every other. Every law, every policy, is decided by the “Majority” of Torth minds, linked in a galaxy-wide network. Talented Torth can acquire millions or even billions of “orbiters,” lesser minds who watch their every moment and leap to their aid, like the followers of Earthly “influencers.” On the other hand, the Majority is an absolute tyranny, insisting on perfect conformity at all times. Non-Torth are kept as slaves, subject to torture and death the instant they step out of line. Even high-ranking or popular Torth are always being watched, and might likewise be killed if they show signs of deviance or unwanted emotion.

Incidentally, the Torth Empire works quite well as a satire of the worst elements of modern Internet culture. I suspect that was quite deliberate!

Early in the story, the Torth arrive and capture Thomas. Thomas learns that his mother was Torth, and because of his talents he is offered the chance to join the Empire himself. For a time he is tempted . . . but the Empire has also taken his human friends, reducing them to slavery. The story that follows pits Thomas against himself, against the friends who no longer trust him, and against the constant surveillance and vicious cruelty of the Torth. Thomas and his friends must fight to survive, much less regain their freedom.

Ms. Goldsmith’s prose style is very clean, with no obvious copy- or line-editing problems to pull the reader out of the story. Viewpoint discipline is fairly good; although the viewpoint does shift around among several characters, it’s always clear who has the narrative at any given moment. The plot is tense, suspenseful, and fast-moving. I found the story quite compelling, and I ended the novel very much wanting to know what would happen next.

About the only difficulty I had with Majority was with characterization and character development. These felt just a touch clumsy; there’s a lot of telling, not showing, when it comes to how major characters think and feel about themselves or each other. Changes in characterization sometimes seem abrupt and inorganic. This may or may not be a result of the “progression fantasy” sub-genre; I suspect the emphasis on a character’s skills and abilities may sometimes distract from subtle and compelling characterization. In the end, I was able to stay engaged with the characters here, but it was occasionally an uphill struggle.

Even so, this is a very promising opening to what looks like it will be a top-notch space-opera series. I’m very interested to see what Ms. Goldsmith comes up with next. Very highly recommended.

Planning for September 2023

Planning for September 2023

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This will be the first more-or-less-normal planning message since June, given the last three months were massively disrupted by the basement-flooding incident we had late in that month. We’re still working to recover. In particular, my personal and work space is still kind of tucked in around a lot of unpacked boxes and furniture that hasn’t been returned to its usual place. On the other hand, I can get to my bed, my bookshelves, and my workstation, and there’s a good chance I’ll be able to set up at least one of my two game-and-other-project tables this weekend. One step at a time.

Meanwhile, as of late August I had actually finished editing and laying out Architect of Worlds through the end of the main design sequence. That’s a huge milestone, leaving me with only about 50-60 pages yet to polish up and lay out, and the remaining sections aren’t likely to need as much finicky attention. Much easier to do layout when you’re not working around tables and mathematical formulae on every page!

Meanwhile, I’ve been slowly writing new material for Twice-Crowned. My muse has also provoked me into an active side project to write . . . something fan-fiction-like, set in the fictional world of Glorantha that appears in the Runequest roleplaying game. So I’m producing a little bit of new prose fiction as I go, even while I try to remain focused on getting Architect ready for its formal release later this year.

So here’s the plan for September:

  • Top Priority:
    • Architect of Worlds: Write new material to streamline the estimation of variations in local climate (originally Step Thirty-Two in the design sequence).
    • Architect of Worlds: Continue work to design and lay out the finished book. Plan to finish through page 152 (out of approximately 180), or the end of the Special Cases in World-Building section. May continue past that point if time remains in the month.
  • Second Priority:
    • Danassos: Continue work on the new draft of Twice-Crowned.
    • Danassos: Continue work to rebuild the alternate-historical timeline.
    • Fan Fiction: Continue to write a Runequest-based story of at least novella length.

As far as releases for my patrons are concerned: I expect a free update of the growing Architect release draft. If I produce enough new prose for the Runequest story, I may offer a partial draft of that as a free reward too. There won’t be a charged release this month, and probably won’t be any until fairly late this year, while I concentrate on getting Architect of Worlds ready for release.

Review: King of Sartar, by Greg Stafford

Review: King of Sartar, by Greg Stafford

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King of Sartar by Greg Stafford

Overall Rating: ***** (5 stars)

King of Sartar is a compendium of myths, legends, and faux-historical documents, centered around the mythical hero Argrath, set in the fictional world of Glorantha.

(Note: This review is for the “Revised and Annotated” edition of King of Sartar, published in 2016.)

The most important thing to know about King of Sartar is that it is not a novel. Some reviewers have labeled it as an “epistolary novel,” but even that is too suggestive of a single narrative with a unified plot. There’s none of that in King of Sartar. Instead, it’s a collection of many stories, sometimes multiple versions of the same story, all set in the same fantastic world. It’s a tour de force in world-building, and it’s well worth reading on that basis. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a single coherent narrative, with a more conventional plot, characterization, and dramatic tension, then this book is not going to work for you.

The central conceit in King of Sartar is that centuries ago, a hero named Argrath (the name means something like “savior” or even “messiah”) unified the tribes of the kingdom of Sartar, and led them against the oppressive Lunar Empire which had occupied the kingdom for a generation. The result was a period of conflict and cosmic upheaval known as the “Hero Wars.” The gods and forms of magic that had held sway for eons were cast aside. Even literacy itself vanished, as for generations people simply forgot how to read and write. Only in recent times have literate civilizations begun to reappear. King of Sartar is a collection of fictional letters, scholarly papers, and mythical accounts, all written as if academics are trying to piece together the truth about Argrath long after his death.

There are some brilliant intellectual jokes buried in this odd book, familiar to anyone who’s made a serious study of real-world ancient history or mythology. The Hero Wars and the dark age that followed are immediately reminiscent of the Greek heroic age, and the “Bronze Age Collapse” that brought the Mycenaean civilization crashing down. The book’s fictional authors constantly engage in euhemeristic speculation, trying to cut through to the mundane truth they assume must stand behind the magical stories they’re studying. There are debates over whether Argrath was a single historical individual, or whether several different hero-tales were merged into one. There’s even a dispute over whether a “long” or a “short” chronology is more appropriate, with a positively Velikovskian speculation about whether a few centuries of the accepted account simply never happened in the first place.

Meanwhile, the stories themselves are a treasure-trove of lore about the world of Glorantha, famous through decades of tabletop wargames, roleplaying games, and computer games. Fans of any of these, from Runequest to King of Dragon Pass and its sequels, will find lots of clues to that fictional world here.

King of Sartar defies classification – there just aren’t many books like it in the fantasy genre. The closest thing I can compare it to is parts of J. R. R. Tolkien’s legendarium. King of Sartar occasionally reminds the reader of the Silmarillion, or better yet the volumes of unfinished material later collected by Christopher Tolkien to document the evolution of his father’s creation.

All in all, this is less a novel to be read than it is an intellectual experience to be savored. Very highly recommended if you’re a student of ancient history or myth, if you’re a fan of the world of Glorantha, or if you’re simply interested in how fantasy world-building can be done. Keep your distance, though, if you’re looking for a more conventional narrative.

Status Report (14 August 2023)

Status Report (14 August 2023)

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Well, the good news is that I’ve just about finished unpacking my library, getting my writing work-center back into fully operational condition. I still have a big pile of boxes and miscellaneous items in the middle of my basement apartment, so I can’t set up my gaming tables yet, and that part of my creative enterprise is still off-line. Maybe in another couple of weeks, if my wife and I can work our way though more of the unpacking and re-homing.

The even better news is that as of this past weekend, I’ve gotten back to work on Architect of Worlds in a major way.

I started by doing a review of the portions of the book I had already laid out, making minor editorial and layout adjustments, adding a few pieces of new text. I also finished the task of correcting all the extended examples in the design sequence – those should be more or less consistent now. As of Sunday evening, I finished that review and moved on to actually laying out new material. If you look at the progress bar in the sidebar on this site, you’ll notice movement there for the first time since late June.

I fully expect to be done laying out the main design sequence by the end of August. The one possible hold-up is that I want to rewrite Step Thirty-Two of the design sequence almost from scratch. The current version of that material is really ugly and hard to apply, and I think I see ways to simplify it and make it a lot more user-friendly. I’ll have to see how long that rewrite takes, but I can’t imagine it will require more than an evening or two.

At the moment, I would estimate a 85% probability that I’ll have a free update for patrons and readers by the end of August, including the entire edited design sequence.

That still leaves a few tasks:

  • Laying out the last two sections of the book
  • Going through the entire draft for a final editing pass, to resolve all the “p. XX” references and correct any last-minute errors
  • Generating or collecting and placing in-line art assets
  • Producing a back cover
  • Building a credits-and-acknowledgements page and a Table of Contents
  • Preparing the book for publication through DriveThruRPG (and possibly through another outlet as well – that conversation is in very early stages, so we’ll see)

I had originally planned to have the book out the door by late this summer, but obviously that’s not going to happen. I still think, barring any further setbacks, that it will be on the market before the end of this calendar year.