The Living Ultra-Cosmos

 

I wrote this on X the other day, and wanted to put it down here for posterity.

There's even a level above the Living Story and Living World... it's called the Living Ultra-Cosmos.  But so few GMs are ready for it we may as well not even chat about such things.

When asked what I was on about, I wanted to make sure that the one guy who asked me what the Living Ultra-Cosmos was felt he was ready to receive these unadulterated black pearls of wisdom.

He assured me he was ready.

When your gaming life strangely intermingles with your real life, that is the Living Ultra-Cosmos. 

If you're having troubles with the lady in your life, and you prepare an encounter involving a hyper-critical tavern wench, warping and twisting it to suit the established campaign setting. Then, something happens in a session and you do your best to introduce whatever that is into your own away-from-the-table reality, such as drawing pictures of monstrous things that exist in Cha'alt.

Eventually, you go farther, using in-game rituals and real life symbols, cults, and agendas to increase the power of immersion, as well as, your true will (heart's desire, if female) in both realities. If you're thinking this is a type of left-hand path, black arts, chaos magic, you're right. Occultism in TTRPGs is what all those Mothers against D&D tried to warn you about. 

Most guru / warlock / High Priests would charge you $9.95 for that kind of insight. All I ask is you give Cha'alt a go, and try some of the other books by Kort'thalis Publishing, maybe post a 5-star review.

Oh, and here's a follow-up post I made the next day... 

In that Living Ultra-Cosmos state, a Game Master can visualize his campaign setting as if he were there, witnessing the strange marvels that seemed to already exist before the GM arrived.

If anyone wants to discuss the Living Ultra-Cosmos, post a comment below... or somewhere on social media where I'll see it.

Enjoy,

VS

p.s. Want some hardcover Cha'alt?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  I'll do a big announcement when I have all the promotional images, but I'm excited to announce that VENGER CON VI: Belief is Reality will be happening next year (June 25th - 27th) in Madison, WI. 

The Mission

 

Holy crap-balls!  This is blog post one-thousand, hoss!!!  Thanks to everyone who's been reading, commenting, and supporting me over these last 13+ years.

I've got a lot of things going on right now... end of school for kids, my upcoming book is going through last minute revision, I'm running my face-to-face, 4-year long, every other week (with 6 weeks off around the holidays) Cha'alt campaign; a monthly Cha'alt PG-rated half-session that includes my one kid who still loves playing; and an even more truncated weekly Roll20 Cha'alt campaign that's only 90-minutes. Plus, you know, life.  

Oh yeah, and my TTRPG convention VENGER CON V: The Will To Power happening in Madison, WI this July.  Grab your weekend badge now, and JOIN US!!!!!

So yeah, lots of stuff.  However, I wanted to wrap-up the soul-searching and deep-dive social media discussions about what's become most important to me in the roleplaying game hobby.  That thing which I consider both foundational and transformative when it comes to my subjective understanding of what we do.  

What's my personal philosophy?  What is... the mission?

In a word: PSYCHOCOSM.

Without using fancy jargon and extensive argumentation, let me break it down.  We participate in RPGs because it allows us an immersive experience.  But now that you're immersed, what then?  

What comes next is PSYCHOCOSM.  You identify, you believe, you create, you search for meaning, self-actualization; you do things that make you happy, that make your character's life (played by you) worth living, memorable, larger than life, fascinating, epic, awesome, or special in some way.

As the players' experience heightens, the campaign deepens, widens... until the created world improves the Game Mastering, which then increases player satisfaction, leading to renewed immersion as the continuous improvement circle turns.

As a GM, one of the myriad ways I connect with the campaign setting is to not only pay attention to the Living World, but also the Living Story (if you're interested in reading more about this, I have an article about story emulation right over here).  It's not scripted, there's no predetermined ending, and the GM is not writing a novel.  

It is the decisions of the players' characters, living in that world, which allow narratives to unfold.  The story part of TTRPGs is not anathema to the game part.  Occasionally congruent, at other times opposed, these two concepts, story and game, are complimentary, and worth more together than separate.

One of the best things about TTRPGs is that they're both game and story, combined!  Story-creation is the game; the game is story-creation.  The point of playing is to create a story with moment-to-moment input from all participants, players and GM alike, and immerse ourselves in it.  Fiddling with numbers and rolling dice are merely procedures for adjudicating unknowns, managing risk vs reward, and testing the law of averages.  

So, the mission is PSYCHOCOSM.  And how we get there is by opening ourselves up to immersion and beyond... submerging ourselves in the characters, world and story; actively moving towards them, seizing opportunities, going after moments that transcend the make-believe, as we pretend to be wizards and fighters, clerics and rogues, skulking around in the darkness, slaying monsters and seeking treasure. 

My good friend and colleague, Roger, suggested that I include a link to my very first blog post.  He's right, of course.  That's where it all began, and while short, I think it points in the very direction I went.  Read with caution, hoss ... prophecies can be dangerous things. 

Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment below with whatever you want to say!

VS

p.s.  Yes, weekend badges are now available for July 2026's VENGER CON V: The Will To Power.  Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  

Living World, Living Story (the best of both worlds)

 

Almost 7 years ago, I blogged about this quote from Gary Gygax (image by Andrew McCormack)... a GM primarily rolls dice for the sound they make.  It struck a chord in me back then, even way before that, as it still does today.  

When you have a red-hot idea, regarding the narrative flow or what random table to roll upon from some long-forgotten zine stuck between the covers of a rarely consulted tome of ancient lore, you should never feel obligated to do what's written down, what's been planned out for you by a previous writer, or what procedural bureaucracy permits you to describe.  You're the fucking Game Master.  You decide.  Ultimately, it's up to you.

Last night was the climactic (albeit, truncated) debate that Pundit and I have been having for years.  Here is the Inappropriate Characters show where we start getting into it around the 40-minute mark.

I think I have this right, that RPG Pundit believes traditional RPGs are not story-games and have no business borrowing ideas (such as mechanics) or concepts (perspectives and paradigms) from the story-game design movement.

I'm of the opinion that, once you remove the poisonous Communism from what Forge-era story-games tried to inject into the hobby, there are valuable ideas and concepts that can be mined from story-gaming.

Pundit believes the focus should solely be on a "living world."  Contrarily, I believe that both a living world and "living story" make for ideal gaming experiences.  

Now, how do you define those terms?  In my own words, a living world is a coherent, functional campaign setting that has rules and procedures, along with civilizations, cultures, societies, and all the things that would make up a real world that could be described to those who lived there.

A living story includes some kind of point to the thing, either an overarching or granular moment-to-moment reason for why things happen the way they do.  Plot can be a loaded and divisive word, but Game Masters have to plan for their one-shots and campaigns.  And that's what plot is, essentially, planning.  Just as the world should feel alive, some kind of cohesive, functional narrative should also infuse it with purpose.

I've never been happy with appeals to "story by accident," where there's no narrative framework whatsoever, but sometimes a story can be cobbled together after the fact.  If design (being a designer myself) has taught me anything, it's that you don't design things to hopefully work out by accident.  Remember the 7 P's, hoss!

There's something we can all agree on, of course, no one likes a railroad.  If everything in a session is tightly scripted without the chance of veering off into unexpected territory, you're not playing an RPG but imprisoned in the GM's novel - yuck!

As I've maintained for awhile, the tension between player-characters doing whatever they want, whenever they want, based on what seems reasonable at the time, with accurate descriptions and responses provided by the GM (sandbox approach), alongside adventures where some kind of narrative structure is accounted for, presents optimal friction, juice, heat, energy, power, or divine spark, if you will.

Wanting to know what the world is like seems just as valid as asking what that world is about.  What's the meaning behind it?  Quoting a movie I haven't seen in decades, Planes, Trains and Automobiles (starring Steve Martin and John Candy) "Here's a good idea: Have a point!  It makes it so much more interesting for the listener!"  Or, indeed, those roleplaying their characters.

In conclusion, there be gold up in them hills... if you're willing to give it a try.  Your friendly neighborhood prospector, Venger Satanis, can show you the way.  So, grab a tentacle and go!

Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer is still a free PDF, as is Cha'alt X-Cards.  But Gilded Die of Satanis is gonna cost you a few bucks.  

Enjoy,

VS

p.s. Want to see gaming like that in action?  There's no better way to learn the ins and outs than playing with us at VENGER CON III: Revenge of the OSR - now with preliminary gaming schedule (just scroll down).  No extra costs or hidden fees.  Buy your weekend badge today!