Fleets of Ossia (2016)

some sought to understand the cause of the Flood, but none could. the water must have come from somewhere, they reasoned, but where could you store enough water to drown the world? and so as time went by they lost interest in that quest, and in time most records of the Flood were lost. all that remained was the Sea.

razorborne, Ossia dossier

In 2016, my friend razorborne from the Magic: the Gathering fan site No Goblins Allowed created a fantasy setting called Fleets of Ossia. In this setting, various isles of fantasy creatures wage war for control of the Infinite Sea. I was fascinated by his setting and so helped him create some supplemental materials for it.

Continue reading “Fleets of Ossia (2016)” →

Hunter Killer (2016)

If there are no cards left in your draw pile, you are Suffocating.

Hunter Killer is a 1v1 competitive card game based on submarine combat. The design ethos is that information is both danger and opportunity, and the game is designed to simulate the suspense of a real underwater battle.

I designed the initial rules for Hunter Killer in 2016. Since then, it has undergone playtesting and several rules revisions. I don’t consider it finished, and plan to someday come back and polish it into a Kickstartable product.

The Guiding Light (2015)

The lamplight crept across warped geometries, was reflected in shards from grinding gears and curving tubes. It shone across a floor that swam with pinpricks of starlight — and fell away at the edge of the lamp’s glow, a singularity collapsing into itself end upon end. Through it all wound a titanic machine that was conspicuously unfinished, like a great steel serpent missing its heart.

The Guiding Light is a short story set in the world of Solphos. It tells the story of Lumina Revelaris, a prominent character in the setting. It is also the direct prequel to The Weight of a Soul.

Like all Solphos-related material, this story was originally written for the Magic: Expanded Multiverse fan fiction project.

Link to Google Docs

Firemaker (2014)

The sun had set on summer, but the sky was still aglow. Flames spilled from the dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore in white and green and gold; and the smoke stole the sparks from the Arno River, and flung them all across Florence.

Firemaker is a short story I wrote for Science Chronicles, a short story competition where the theme is “science and technology.”

Unfortunately, my story was rejected, as the science and technology of Renaissance Italy was not what the judges had in mind.

Link to Google Docs

Prospecting (2014)

A poem written for SingPoWriMo 2014:

Begin the procedure.
Hammers and calipers split land and sea,
Each raw gash torn open by callow claw
For blood. The needles pound,
Piston, drink ancient gallons
From veins unseen: in the black,
The humours echo dead vitae still.
Stainless arms jerk and couple,
Each motor screeching mating cries:
The blood that burns,
Transfused to voracious beasts
That whirr and turn.
Listen to the city’s heartbeat, where
The aorta is tar and pitch:
The dinosaurs’ screams still last.
To put today on life support
We burn the past.

Solphos (2012-)

Solphos is a fantasy setting inspired by cyberpunk, art deco, and classical European alchemy. It is the setting of my game The Weight of a Soul.

I created Solphos in 2012 as a fan fiction setting for the Magic: the Gathering card game. In Magic, each card set is tied to a particular fantasy setting. In keeping with this tradition, when I designed my homebrew card sets Solphos and Fool’s Gold, I created a fantasy setting for those cards to inhabit.

Solphos
Fool’s Gold

Later I wrote an extensive setting guide, which became the basis of several other sketches and writing projects, including The Weight of a Soul itself. I’ve listed these other works in the foreword of the setting guide.

A Planeswalker’s Guide to Solphos