nekoewen posts
Unpause Maybe?
The other day I talked to a psychiatrist (a new one because the previous one moved to Oregon), both to renew my Lexapro prescription (I’ve experienced the withdrawal symptoms once before, and I really don’t want to go through that again) and to discuss my more recent executive function/focus issues. He decided that...
Catgirl in Another World: Chapter 1
Since the comments on my last post were so encouraging about my isekai novel project, here's the current draft of the prologue and Chapter 1. I have a bunch of bits and pieces of later chapters in various stages of completion, but this part is more or less how I want it to be. For a while I was conceiving of it as ...
Pause ⏸️
I decided it’s time to put my Patreon on pause until I can get caught up on things. I’ve been having what I suspect are executive function issues, where it’s been really hard to motivate myself to do things. Right now no one’s mental health is in top shape, and I want to think of this as being responsible to my...
July Musings: Anime Dreams
There was a time when anime was new to us in the US, when it was opening up new vistas, showing us that animation could be all these other things that the likes of Disney would never dream of. We got giant robots, magical girls, martial artists with ki blasts and Jusenkyo curses, and a window into another culture. In h...
April Secret Bonus Table: Actual Tables Ewen Owns
I keep thinking "This must be the dumbest table I've ever done," and then proving myself wrong. Anyway, here's a table of physical tables that I own. Kind of a lot of them are from Ikea.
April Table Pack: Glyphs 2
As I obsess over 3D printing (now that I got a new and so far much less finnicky printer, a Monoprice Voxel) and try to overcome what I suspect are executive function issues, I'm sloooowly working on catching up on tables. This belated table pack is a follow-up to the previous "Glyphs" pack, and once again ...
June Musings: Games of Loving Grace
In case you’re not familiar, Adam Curtis is a British documentarian who’s done several films that explore the ideas that underpin the world we live in. The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom for example delves into the simplistic view of “freedom” we’ve arrived at, while The Century of the Self gets ...
March Secret Bonus Table: Aesthetics
Inspired by the weirdness of the Aesthetics Wiki (as featured on The F Plus), here's a table for generating your very own new microgenres!
May Musings: Simplicity is Complicated
Taking inspiration from my collaborator Julian K., I decided to try doing regular blog posts here. We’ll see if it actually turns into something!A while ago a had a serious case of l'esprit d'escalier (also known as afterwit, the thing where you think of the perfect thing to say after the fact) when in a job ...
March Table Pack: Conspiracy!
Still behind apparently, but I did at least get something done, namely a table pack based on conspiracy theory nonsense!
February Secret Bonus Table: SpaceForce!
The U.S. now has a Space Force as a new branch of the military, which means that people are having to get into the very serious business of putting together its uniforms, insignias, and so on. They also needed to decide what to call members, and for that purpose they took suggestions. They settled on "guardians,...
February Table Pack: Mechanical Keyboards
Anime oracles are really fun, but also really hard to write, so I guess I'm going to go back to doing table packs at least part of the time. This time around I'm being a little self-indulgent because I did a set of tables for generating mechanical keyboard stuff. Enjoy!
January Anime Oracle: Maids and Master
Doing one of these about maids was going to happen sooner or later, and after using Maid RPG for some inspiration I have a somewhat late new entry into the Anime Oracles, with Maids and Master!
Back to the Rifter!
It's finally done! Back to the Rifter is here, and as a patron you get the PDF for free!
Zero Breakers (First Draft)
Another first draft! Zero Breakers is an attempt at an RPG inspired by fighty shounen anime and manga (Mikagura School Suite was the major inspiration for the setting), and kind of a proof of concept for handling fights more as a shared narration thing rather than mechanically determining who wins. Enjoy!
January Secret Bonus Table: Weird Anime Names
Good morning! While watching SSSS.Gridman I had the idea to do a table of weird, mostly western-ish names from anime, so here you go!
December Secret Bonus Table: Wizard Names
More silliness, this time with names of wizards!
December Anime Oracle: Fighting Fighters
This time around I'm going back to my game design roots a bit, with an oracle based on fighting game and martial arts stuff.
Getting Back Up
I started trying to write about my thoughts and feelings, to bring you all up to speed with where I am, and both the world at large and my own mood have shifted considerably since then. There was an event that people have apparently settled into calling the “Capitol Riot,” and while the U.S.A. isn’t a failed stat...
Podcast From Another World (First Draft)
I've been in a bit of a funk for the past few weeks, and I'm now in the process of picking myself up and getting back on track. (Tables are coming, I assure you.) I got inspired to get back to working on Podcast From Another World, that improv RPG thing inspired by Hello From the Magic Tavern, and I now at leas...
November Secret Bonus Table: Malarkey
Another kind of dumb table, this time based on how Joe Biden comes up with some truly weird insults sometimes.
November Anime Oracle: In Another World
Doing one of these for isekai seems all but inevitable, but it was also pretty fun to write. Hope you enjoy it!
October Secret Bonus Table: Resolutions
This month's Secret Bonus Table is "Resolutions," inspired by the resolution cards in Itras By and Archipelago, providing outcomes to things with a bit more nuance than a binary pass/fail. It's a little short, but hopefully it'll be something useful for writing, collaborative storytelling, and so on...
October Anime Oracle: Zero Hour
We're on the cusp of November, so I should really get October's stuff out, huh? This month's anime oracle is "Zero Hour," named for the Persona-inspired RPG (and maybe novel) I want to do some day (with a few bits straight out of Twin Peaks), though you could also use it for e.g. Voidheart Symphony....
Back to the Rifter Preview 2
Here's another preview of what I'm tentatively calling "Back to the Rifter," the book where I read through the original 1990 Rifts core book. I'm getting close to finishing a first draft, though the gear section is a bit of a slog. This time around I'm showing off what I have so far of the class...
September Secret Bonus Table: Mystery Halloween Theater 2020
Are you ready for a Halloween that will most likely be indoors? Well, just in time for the spooky month, I have a table for movie titles that would be at home on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or RiffTrax). Enjoy!
September Anime Oracle: Dragon Magic
Since I've been getting a little burned out on doing tables, I decided to start something a little different that I've been thinking about for a while. "Oracles" are a thing from D. Vincent Baker's lesser-known sword and sorcery game In a Wicked Age that let you quickly generate evocative setting el...
August Secret Bonus Table: Artisanal Spells
This month's Secret Bonus Table is for generating names of D&D spells in the vein of Melf's Acid Arrow, Bigby's Grasping Hand, and others that came about because Gygax let wizard players make up new spells sometimes.
August Table Pack: Anime Boys
On time (barely), this month's table pack is a set of tables emphasizing names of male anime characters!
July Table Pack: American Christian Stuff
FINALLY finished the July table pack, and hopefully I won't make a habit of letting them run late. It's about American Christianity, and lets you generate various kinds of names related to that. This one was a bit more hassle just because I really wanted to do a table for names of televangelist TV shows, and fo...