The Melsonian Arts Council Thread

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Voros

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The Melsonian Arts Council folks have a new KS here:

Very Pretty Paleozoic Pals: Permian Nations.

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  • It is an adorable setting drawing inspiration from the Permian Period of our own simple sphere.
  • It expands on what was started in TROIKA! and continued in Fronds of Benevolence.
  • It will be a beautiful high quality book. No print on demand here.
  • It provides a concrete starting point for a TROIKA! campaign.
  • 18 new Backgrounds of playable prehistoric critters.
  • A terse-but-evocative overview for all notable cultures and locales of the Wide River Valley, as well as its surroundings.
  • Lots of Quick Charts to help you create new villages and non-player characters on the fly as PCs explore this strange, cute land.
  • Two introductory adventures! One suitable for Permian Nations and “normal” Troika Characters visiting the sphere. The other written with native characters in mind.
  • Dozens of NPCs.
  • Fantastic and antagonistic beasts ripped from the paleontological record.
  • A positive glut of decadently whimsical illustrations.
  • A terrible timeline of the planned conquest of the valley, by the pitiless human Count Joehaund Lizardbane.
  • Smyth-sewn binding, ensuring it will lay flat and stand up to years of use.
  • Written by Evey Lockhart.
  • Illustrated by Sam Mameli and Evey Lockhart.
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Seems as good an opportunity as any to create a thread about the Arts Council, Troika and the other games and designers working with Daniel Sell.

Troika is essentially Fighting Fantasy with a few tweaks set in a New Weird fantasy setting but the Arts Council puts out all kinds of OSR and OSR-adjacent games. As with most of the better stuff coming out of the OSR they are far from purist with a typically Brit gamer sense of humour and absurdity.

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Tempted. But then I'd have to buy a hardcover of Troika! and I already ordered Warlock! which is also a kind of take on Fighting Fantasy. I dunno, lemme see.
 
Tempted. But then I'd have to buy a hardcover of Troika! and I already ordered Warlock! which is also a kind of take on Fighting Fantasy. I dunno, lemme see.
Ah I had forgotten Warlock! Gotta get it, sounded like an interesting little game. Particular the WFRP 1E factor.
 
Ah I had forgotten Warlock! Gotta get it, sounded like an interesting little game. Particular the WFRP 1E factor.

The hardcover is available again, that's what I was waiting for. And yeah, I dig the WFRP elements for sure.
 
I have Troika! coming in the mail, but I'm deeply intimidated by it. I feel like my brain doesn't work in that British weird fantasy vein, even if I can appreciate its genius.
 
I have skimmed Troika! in PDF, might be time for a deeper look. Is there decent adventure support for it?
 
Whoops, forgot to mention that this is out.

 
Troika is probably at the very top of my list of games that I haven't gotten to play that really want to try.
 
Troika is probably at the very top of my list of games that I haven't gotten to play that really want to try.
If nothing else, Troika books are great idea mines as well.
 
If nothing else, Troika books are great idea mines as well.
Yup, for sure, I also just picked an interesting 3rd party book that uses Troika! to do Spelljammer emulation. Many uses!
 
I hate the fact that people stopped writing actual plays and started streaming them instead. I have a copy of Troika! and I love the rules, but I have no idea what to do with it. I thought I might watch an actual play on youtube to see what someone else is doing with it. After watching them talk for 20 minutes about how they were about to start, I remembered why I never do that and turned it off.
 
He fixed it since I made the post. Voros Voros is always trying to make look like a fool!

One day he will pay...

And it isn't available again. Evlyn takes periodic breaks from Twitter to focus on projects and due to online harrassment by trolls so that may be what's happened.

Anyway, since the Tweet is unavailable: Evlyn Moreau is working on a asteroid-based sf-fantasy pointcrawl for Troika.

Here are some samples of her map making in Black Pudding and elsewhere.







 
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Gonna run Troika! for the first time tonight. I figure I'll just go with the adventure in the back of the book. The adventure is: get to your room on the 6th floor of the Blancmange & Thistle Hotel. The Feast of the Chiliarch is happening, and though it's not really detailed, I have a feeling my players will try to attend. That seems like something they's do, and really, it seems like something most players would do. So, if it happens, I'll adapt this pamphlet adventure, and season it with things from the book:

 
So I just received my pre-order of Chalcedony & Slate, an adventure for Troika! Like all of the Melsonian Arts Council products, it's gorgeous and well-made. I've only gotten Troika! to the table once, but I really want to collect all of these books. They're just a joy to read. From the writing to the art to the physical presentation of the books.
 
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