Foolish Endeavor | David Perry

Let's practice!

Astaroth brain: "Zero interaction yet on this morning's post, the first in months, even on Bluesky. Any engagement or audience really is just beyond your reach, and you'll never-"

Me: "Oooooh, nice try, motherfucker. Not Today."

NOT TODAY, ASTAROTH Negative thought patterns, expectations, comparisons, self-doubt & self-criticism… You will overcome them eventually, so any time or energy ...

Negative thought patterns, expectations, comparisons, self-doubt & self-criticism…

You will overcome them eventually, so any time or energy spent on them is wasted.

So when you catch yourself having unhelpful thoughts, say "Not Today, Astaroth" and move on with enjoying life.

Showing my age here, but just randomly unearthed this... who else played this demo a hundred times?

For the #osr #nsr #ttrpg fans in the back

🙇

And many others, have each in your own way have inspired and contributed to feeling welcomed back into the fold, despite the doubt within, and turmoil without.

@riseupcomus.bsky.social
@icastlight.bsky.social
@diyanddragons.bsky.social
@silent0siris.bsky.social
@weirdwonder.bsky.social
@themerrymushmen.bsky.social
@bradkerr.bsky.social
@3d6downtheline.com

@evlynmoreau.bsky.social
@jst.bsky.social
@technicalgrimoire.bsky.social
@save.vs.totalpartykill.ca
@bastionland.bsky.social
@prismaticwasteland.com
@linkskywalker.bsky.social
@benlaurence.bsky.social

And I have to acknowledge the Real Ones who have kept my flame for this hobby burning through the dark times (why no, this is certainly not a shameless attempt to play by the rules of The Game, to claw my way back up out of the algorithmic oubliette...), in no particular order...

I Quit My Job To Make Games Or, I Finally Beat Inspiral  By Nerfing Workdays TLDR:  Foolish Endeavor  is how I will polish & publish Game Things in a personally sustai...

More words about the who, what, and why of Foolish Endeavor.

Much to my elation.

Other modern games in my notebook:

Tunic
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
Lunacid
Animal Well
Isles of Sea & Sky
Reliquia Park
Can of Wormholes

UFO50 is very much designed to evoke that style, like playing those games without a manual for reference, so you need to experiment.

Most of them seem designed to not necessitate manual note taking though, which is the assumption I brought to Valbrace. But it is very much a Notebook Game.

I enjoyed Valbrace (one of the games in UFO50) at first, but it got so much better after I whipped out my notebook, got methodical about it, and mapped some dang dungeons.

David Lynch in sunglasses saying "i hope you all are having a lot of fun working on your favorite projects"

Honor his memory by doing something strange, unraveling a riddle within yourself, and working on your favorite projects.

A nice surprise this morning - thanks to @sibkin.bsky.social, Principia Apocrypha is now available in a 日本語 translation!

どうもありがとうございます 🙇

lithyscaphe.blogspot.com/p/principia-... #osr #TRPG

And so, I started this thread still not knowing what to do.

I'm not going to follow your suggestion. Probably. I'm also likely not going to actually carry on discussion much here.

But words of understanding are appreciated, at least. And maybe... some creative problem solving😄

I've long been silent about this, (and well, about many other things), and I've drafted various versions of this thread before, but now that Foolish Endeavor is "real" - largely thanks to lowering my expectations for myself -I've found speaking about these things easier.

Being a Person Out Loud.

I'm trying to satisfy everyone's hopes. Most critical of all, myself.

So it's fair to say Principia Apocrypha has become a Sword of Damocles for me.

I see PA as a "funnel" for folks newly hearing the term OSR into that understanding.

I can't do it without using the term.

I can't use the term without addressing the problems with the OSR-at-large.

I can't be too negative in that address without risking repelling people immediately.

I want Principia Apocrypha to, foremost, elucidate the style of play associated with the term #OSR.

But I also want it to embody and reinforce the fact that the playstyle exists unto itself that cannot be somehow tainted the OSR-at-large being a shitshow.

Not to mention how to address the fact that a third of it comes from a name that leaves a bad taste in an increasing number of mouths, and repulses some folks I respect and whose comfort I value.

But the hobbyscape has changed since 2018, and every time I consider getting editing for the 2E completed, or writing a new introduction, or even just a blurb for the itch page, I can never settle on language that feels like I'm doing the situation justice.

I had planned to "re-launch" PA, leveraging its reach to get more eyes on Foolish Endeavor, by re-homing it on itch, restarting work on a (mildly edited) second edition, making a decent default at-cost POD option, and starting to look into a Fancy Print Edition.

Time for a heart-dump.

For reasons, at least one of which should be obvious at this point in time, I've been unsure how (or whether) to touch Principia Apocrypha, for years now.

And I was only able to hit my goal of launching Foolish Endeavor by the end of 2024 by... not touching it.

Socmed makes it easy to forget people are People. Hearing them talk to each other helps with that.

Thanks, that means a lot 😊

Shares are extremely appreciated as I try to get this thing off the ground and begin a beautiful Positive Encouragement Feedback Loop to drag myself out of the bottom of the algorithm 😓

Foolish Endeavor

Check out my recent threads, but TLDR: I'm going to Actually Release Games, and adventures. The first few are up now at foolishendgames.itch.io

You can see more at foolishendeavor.games

And join a mailing list at dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/985115...

I'm David Perry - if you know me, it's from Principia Apocrypha. Or at least the fine print, because I definitely should have made my name as big as the other folks whose text I composed alongside my own.😅

For years, I've been a bit of a hermit. But this year, my card is The Fool.

#ttrpg #osr #nsr

Then this is my year 😅