So, over the next few weeks, I am planning to release a series of Mere Anarchy supplements. Initially, these won't be rule supplements but more like mini games connected to the mechanics of Mere Anarchy. The first installment is the little monster builder book that I have provided the link for here. You can also download it on the downloads page here on the blog. Here's a quick sampling...
So, yesterday I released a rules lite tabletop role-playing
game. The game is a total of 1 page. I worked on it for the last year and that
work included writing about 100 pages and doing about 50 pieces of art
(actually more that never made it into the game) and laying the whole thing out
and playtesting and all that stuff that goes into making a game. And all of
that was reduced down to one page, something someone can read in about 10
minutes.
I never thought about it while I was working on it but
looking back, I basically had to create 100 pages to get 1 page of what I
wanted. I had to burn away all of the extra (99%) to get to core. I know that
is part of my process in writing. The Way Things End, a novel I published in 2019,
has hundreds of pages and stories and drafts that never made it into the book. I
write like a sculptor I guess - where I start with this big block of whatever
and add and takeaway until what remains is what has to exist – the tangible
parallel to my previous intangible vision.
I know this may seem like a huge waste of time for many
people, to enter into a process like a game or a piece of writing and spend a
year writing a single page. I often question it too, what am I doing? Why am I
doing it? What’s the point? It’s easy to get cynical and part of all of this is
the up and down with the creative process. But now that the project is mostly
done, I find it really beautiful, that I spent a year writing a single page. It
feels so complete and meaningful, like the superfluous gave way to elegance. For
me, I have no other way to achieve that elegance.
There is something incredibly beautiful to me at this point
in my life, to engage in a single endeavor and see it through, regardless of
what anyone thinks about it or how much money it makes or how much prestige it
brings. This is ikigai. This is also a way for me to see the Aleph, not all places
in the universe but all places in that process and experience. The burning away
of the extra leaving the core and allowing me to see each of those layers
through new eyes. I guess it’s sort of a faux Aleph but it has monumental meaning
(to me) nonetheless.
I wanted to put this out there in case other people are in a similar space. Create what you want. You will find people who understand because those people know the process, the struggle that is involved in making. You will find people to consume the thing you birth.
I think we should talk
about this more often.
Dirk
Greetings!
I have uploaded a mobile friendly version of the Mere Anarchy Core Rules. It's a bookmarked pdf and looks good on phones and tablets. A bit easier to navigate than the one page print version. I have also uploaded character sheets. You can find all of this on the Mere Anarchy Downloads page
Next up will be the monster builder rules that allows for randomly generating monsters for the game. I've already got a bunch done on this. Its just a series of tables to randomly create monster description, attacks and abilities. I played with it last night and made a couple of creatures.
Flaux
AC 6, Class bonus 0, Item bonus 0, HP 1, Actions 2
Small, quadruped, feathers, can swim, talons, stubby tail like a corkscrew, horns, dominant sense is smell, purple and red in color, poisonous saliva (does 1 damage per hour for 1d3 hours), bite, fear of fire
Mind Worm
AC 8, CB +1, IB +1, HP 4, A 2
Massive, 12 legs, slimy, can burrow, mandibles, dominant sense is heat sensory, blue and yellow, mental attack, psionic, night sight
The generators allow GMs and players to quickly flesh out the monster. I'm keeping it lite and not going into connected tables and loads of details (everything for Mere Anarchy will be about a page in length). So, for some of the details above, like a corkscrew tail, that is just expanding on what the generators delivered. Also, the Mind Worm (sigh...) has an undefined mental and psionic ability (which would need to be defined). Again these are markers to get GMs to a place where they add their own flavor. Super quick, simple, easy.
I'm not interested in doing a monster book right now. I don't think its needed. I do think what is needed is a set of conversion rules for OSR and 5e. Shouldn't be too hard... (from the guy that took an entire year to write on page).
Dirk
So, Mere Anarchy (at least that is the working title) seems like a tiny thing but it took a year to get here. The game started off as a d20 system (Easy 20 - bleah) and then changed over to the 2d6 system in the current version.
Mere Anarchy is a rules-lite rpg designed with the intention to create elegant systems for combat, magic, monsters, and treasure but still give players enough room to move about. I also wanted the game to feel modular so folks can take pieces and use them how they want.
A couple standout features...
