| Appendix J?

Appendix J?

2025-09-08

Written as a part of Marcia's and Prismatic Wasteland’s Appendicitis Blog Bandwagon.

Check out Elmcat's Post for a wonderful post and links to other peoples bandwagon posts!

Works that inspire me to create

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin

I still somewhat struggle with the body of this work and go back to it somewhat frequently but that Epilogue is clear as day. I am finding it difficult to describe the effect reading this had on me but I can say that the last line gives me direction.

Music without lyrics (or in another language)

There are songs with lyrics of course that do what I am about to describe but I first noticed this when I began listening to Jazz records while I would walk around campus. The main inspiration here is how they can manage to communicate a feeling without directly prescribing you one. The feeling they create leads to the second thing I really enjoy, how they can paint the current moment without obstructing the moment. You can sort of float in the environment the music creates and still manage to think about things.

Works that inspire what I create

This is probably the most difficult part of this post to write. I am not as well read as I would like to be and media consumption wise I tend to follow the recommendations of Critics as to what is generally considered good and I tend to enjoy it. I am unsure if I have a specific taste but I am sure it will reveal itself. Another asterisk on this is that I have no publicly available works to investigate and see what aspects of the following works are present. I will do my best to keep this angled towards TTRPG creation and focus on works that I engaged with when I was developing.

Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and Cirque Du Freak

These are the three series I remember the most from my youth. It sort of tracks since in my trad gaming days I almost always gravitated towards WOD games then when I got into PbtA games the one I actually ran was Urban Shadows. We can see the start of my Urban fantasy trend.

You should not give JK Rowling any money. She is a transphobe who uses her money to fund anti-trans groups.

Ben 10, Doctor Who, and House MD

Monsters! Procedurals! Investigation! Whats an illness if not a 1HP Dragon, ya know at least when its curable. I think my point with these is I like structuring my scenarios like an average episode of one of these shows. I like a weird alien that you have to figure out before defeating it. I enjoy an investigation and since we're applying this to tabletop we can excise the genius aspect of the characters.

The Walking Dead, Heavy Rain, and Until Dawn

The games I grew up watching rather than playing. Despite that these were the first games in which I saw a narrative players could affect! Groundbreaking for me at the time. I didn't realize it until now but I love throwing choices between two people at my players. Obviously not going to engineer a rocks fall you can only save one character moment but rather I love a 'NPC will remember that' moment.

Works so inspired that I will steal from them when I create

INTO THE ODD

I mean of course. What a perfect game and what a perfect starting point for creating dnd-esque games.

SEVEN PART PACT

I just read Jay Dragon's most recent post so these ideas are right in the front of my brain as I write this post. A must read. I for sure need more time playing the games mentioned to really be able to say I have some understanding of Expressionist gaming but still what a magnificent game and post. hmu if you need a wizard for a 7pp game...

WORLD WIZARD

It was such a dope experience playing this game! My first exposure to spark tables and then the ideas I generate mix with what everyone else at the table is coming up with. What a fantastic time. My next big fantasy sandbox game is for sure starting with five sessions of World Wizard.

BEYOND THE WALL

Another fantastic gaming experience. Similar to world wizard with a group world building phase but doing it as a part of character creation ties the characters to each other in a very special way. NPCs that are important to multiple characters gain so much weight. You bake in backstory and character reputations that actually stick in your mind.

Blogs

About

Blog Roll