Welcome to the Blogosphere

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Blogosphere Event Die
  3. Blogosphere Flux
  4. Equipment
  5. Final Thoughts
  6. Additional Reading

Introduction

Since I joined the Prismatic Waystation years ago (yes we're now in the plural wow), there have been many, many jokes on blog posts like "here's my post on how I fixed the thief class" or "OSR is narrative" or what have you. The list goes on. In fact, ktrey over at d4 Caltrops created a d100 table for new OSR bloggers. Having started my own blog this year, I've been keeping notes on such jokes and other side comments about the blogosphere in general.

Inspiration

What pushed me to create this setting was elmcat's visual representation of the Blogosphere in this amazing post on their blog, AMONG CATS AND BOOKS. While seeing the sheer size of the graph, I started to wonder how best to create a space around such a thing? Taking inspiration from Nick LS Whelan's Flux Space, I'll be creating the Flux Space of the Blogosphere in this post (series?) and adding some additional fun components of my own. If you're unfamiliar with the process for navigating a Flux Space, it's as follows:

Chart -> Deplete Resources -> Resolve Event Die -> Point of Interest -> Choose next action1

1. This is directly from the linked post on Flux Space.

Full disclosure, I've never played Errant, but I love the Flux Space concept for traveling along pointcrawls. It reads to me like a snapshot of something that can't ever be properly captured, and that sounds like blogging to me.

Blogosphere Event Die

The Event Die should remain the same as listed on the Flux Space post. I don't see any reason to deviate. Instead, I have an alternative real-life version of the Event Die for traversing Elmcat's graph.

Real Life Event Die

  1. Encounter
  2. Rest
  3. Deplete Resources
  4. Local Effect
  5. Encounter Sign
  6. NPC Chatter

Encounter: Find a blog you're unfamiliar with and read their latest post.

Rest: Write a post on your blog or take notes about an idea if you don't have a blog.2

Deplete Resources: Don't write anything. Go read a book or do something completely unrelated to what you blog about. Some of the best ideas come from these times.

Local Effect: Write a blog post about something you normally would never write about.

Encounter Sign: Write/take notes on a popular idea that's been percolating around the Blogosphere (flux spaces, pointcrawls, etc.).

NPC Chatter: Share/Review feedback on a blog post through social media (this includes forums)!

2. Or take this opportunity to start your own blog! Add it to the great machine that is the Blogosphere. Mwahaha...

Blogosphere Flux

Theme

The Blogosphere is a labyrinthine set of links, connecting points of interests through the wider net. The net is a void, and these links are all that tether people to this space. Links start as fragile ideas but become more stable the more often they are traveled. Even when they are stable, they are dangerous. Network hubs form on points, creating rich communities of people. In time, they develop their own identity.

Encounters

Nick suggests the encounter table should be a 2d4 given how rare it will be for a party to thoroughly explore a 2d6 encounter table. Yet, I had too many cool ideas, so I'm making the standard 2d6 encounter table. The rule is there are no rules. I did keep the first and last entries are always a dragon and a wizard, because that's just cool.

  1. Dragon
  2. Carouse, Carouse: A small traveling part of the wandering Campaign Caravan. Can provide directions. Demands you buy something. If you don't buy X value worth of things, 3 vendors will attack you, asking why you don't support the local arts.
  3. Slop Eaters: They love theory, no matter if it's good, bad, or ugly. Can cause the party to be confused and/or believe something untrue. Always in groups of 3 as it is a holy number to them. Operates in ternary logic and shows only ternary graphs.
  4. Deadlines: Broken links that have formed into ghosts. They can teleport and do magic damage. They seek to find connection. Can be laid to rest and will provide intel on the Blogosphere. Travel in packs of 4 or 6.
  5. Rascal, the Dog: A sweet pupper who only wants pets. Only bites if provoked.
  6. Solipsistic Singers: Tall sinewy creatures that sing only about their own blog posts and work without recognition or collaboration. They have no eyes as they can't see anything outside themselves. Often found alone. Will fight each other when in a group.
  7. Chain Links: Guards of the Links. Based on reaction roll will attack. Demands to know why you're traveling and will verify your data integrity.
  8. What is, What are, What will be (WWWs): Philosophers. What more needs said? Their first question to you will always be "What is OSR?" Whether the answer is right or wrong is up to the GM. No matter the answer, they fight you.
  9. Googly Eye: A remnant from Google+. Will recount the Google+ Wars when asked. Based on reaction will attack. Immediate attack if the party does not lament about the Google+ era with them.
  10. Link Hoppers: Edgerunners of the Blogosphere who navigate the Blogosphere with careless ease. As couriers, they will barter in information. Very difficult to track.
  11. Wizard

Local Effects

The Local Effects are supposed to express the Theme of the flux, and the four distint categories are Altered Circumstances, Minor Choice, Attrition, and Flavor/Hint. These are meant to be reusable in a flux so need to stay variable.

  1. The link traveled on blinks in and out, dropping the party on a new link in the Blogosphere. The party can spend twice as much Data Integrity to jump back to their original link.
  2. A Blogwagon is congesting the Links and making travel slow. A group of Chain Links is requiring extra pay to pass through.
  3. A Philosopher's Retreat is happening, and people are making pilgrimages to the secret location.

Points of Interest

Some of these spaces are made up, and others are anthropomorphized versions of bloggers I appreciate and interact with enough to feel comfortable gameifying them!

Shallow Rooms (d6)

1. Ruins

Blogs, by their nature, leave ruins in their wake. Partially tested games, unfinished campaigns, etc. create this space out of cold, dark rock. Some academics think a castle once stood here. Others say it was an advanced tight knit village. The stone rocks get moved so often by unseen hands that no one has been able to properly study it. Lingering here can make the party leave something behind. A group of surveyors live on the outskirts of the ruins and pay handsomely for anything found inside.

2. Sand Tide

An ocean desert of refuse and treasure that eats bloggers slowly over time. Inactive bloggers are often found here. Time is either much slower or faster here, depending on if the tide is high or low. An inactive blogger beckons out for connection. If the party helps, the blogger will share some wisdom of the Blogosphere. If the party attacks, 4 Deadlines are lying in wait to ambush them all.

3. Link Lots

A converging space of many links where it's easy to get lost. Lots of Link Hoppers gather here to party as the Chain Links are unable to guard and maintain the area. A hub of sorts for the unwanted and seedier parts of the Blogosphere. A bunch of teens are playing games and want to see if you're cool enough to play with them. If you don't play, they ban you from the lot. Exiting this space has a 50% chance of entering the DIY Funhouse.

4. Campaign Caravan

The largest traveling academy in the Blogosphere. Can sell anything on the Equipment list below. Bloggers from all over gather here to participate in Blogwagons, #DungeonYear, #RPGaDay, etc. in this space. The party is easily overwhelmed here and can be swept up in the whatever event is currently going on. Right now, it's Hexmas, so decorations are strewn about with jovial music being played in the background. A woman asks you to log your hex for the event. If unanswered or given an incorrect hex, she will give you directions to 5 Slop Eaters that she says have golden rings. If answered with an empty hex, she will reward you with good drink and safe place to rest.

5. Player's Playground

A large land of hex paper with mountains in the shape of dice come into view. A stream of playing cards and tarot swish next to the party, sounding like a millstone at work. A group of people sit on the hex grid, eyes closed. If spoken to, they will ask you for a safety tool. Each answer shifts the ground below from hex to dotted to line paper. Stepping into the stream will trigger a playtest.

6. Appendicitis

An island shaped like an appendix that shows each person their own Appendix N interests. In reality, the island prevents the person from escaping as they leech their life force. After 1d4 turns in the space, the player cannot be spoken to unless through Appendix N interests. Breaking free from the island requires a cost to Data Integrity and leaving behind 1d4 of your Appendix N interests.

Deep Rooms

1. Prismatic Waystation

Further inside the Campaign Caravan, a dazzling room in the shape of a prism holds a wealth of knowledge and a giant pink...bird? A group of Bloggers talk hurriedly about theory. Some are running games in a corner, while others take notes and pontificate. The group feels inviting, and they will do everything they can to distract you from the giant pink bird that whispers wisdom in your ear. The party must charm their way through to explore further.

2. Playtester's Lounge

If the party can appease the people in the Playground through a Playtest or by other means, they are granted access to the Playtester's Lounge , a room full of unpolished and mostly finished games. Reams of paper, a rarity here, sit stacked on top of each other. The air is dry here, and the party must navigate the maze without ruining a playtester's work. Beyond this space leads to another flux, Print Prayers.

3. Dungeon Imported Yahoo (DIY): Funhouse

A procedurally generated dungeon that's created from the links the party took to get into this room. Take a gameable room from each blogger connected to create a dungeon funhouse.

Special

Travel: Traversing the Blogosphere costs each party member Data Integrity.

Classes: 3 new special classes from this space are the Bleric, Slopper, and Chain Link.

  1. Bleric: The Blogging Cleric
  2. Slopper: While it may seem this person spouts drivel, it's actionable theory that could be put to use, but no one ever does. Different from the Solipsistic Singers in that they want engagement from other people. If engaged, may start a cult, akin to Slop Eaters. If ignored, slowly turns into a Solipsistic Singer.
  3. Chain Link: Guards on the Links but also has a vast understanding of the Network in general. High Wisdom and will always have a wordy and insightful blog at the ready for reference in any conversation. Compulsion to continue writing, no matter what.

Equipment

It's not safe to traverse the Blogosphere unprepared! Quick, roll a d20 and find something useful.

Roll Equipment Roll Equipment
1 Chain Link Patch 11 Spectacles
2 Clear Prism 12 K-Score
3 Critiquing Cricket 13 Elm-Counter
4 Useful Flowchart 14 Safety Tools
5 Session Scroll 15 Sloppy Slaw
6 Weighted Point 16 Data Pass
7 Reliable Signal Speaker 17 Comment-Recorder
8 A Single Hex 18 Blogroll
9 Dice 19 Lost Media
10 Link Board 20 Paper Notebook

Final Thoughts

My silly note taking over the past year comboed perfectly into this project, and I'm excited to be sharing the silliness of it all. It's not silly. It's very serious, mind you! I had a lot of fun putting this together, and it was a great test run of utilizing the Flux Space write-up. I am interested in creating a hex map of the Blogosphere that dives a bit more into some of the locations I mentioned. I had more in mind but wanted to keep to the Flux Space structure as much as possible.

Many thanks to Elmcat for the inspiration after visually seeing the Blogosphere in graph form as well as Nick LS Whelan for the Flux Space format!

Additional Reading

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