I’ve set Twitter aside and decamped to Mastodon (specifically, the dice.camp instance), where you can find me as @martinralya. Returning to Twitter during the pandemic made me realize three things: I miss the social connections and serendipitous path-crossings and discoveries that social media can be good at facilitating. I miss Google+ a great deal. As […]
Mastodon is the new Google Plus (I hope) Read More »
When someone in Godsbarrow dies at sea, the Headless Child lays claim to them. If they died in sight of their own god, or gods, or if their faith was strong enough, the Child cannot take them. But if not, they join the Endless Fleet,[1] serving its unspeakably cruel captain for eternity. And the Endless
The Headless Child, Captain of the Endless Fleet Read More »
While I was on vacation, away from my Godsbarrow map and the text file where 99% of my notes live, I kept my worldbuilding streak going by emailing myself Godsbarrow ideas. Once I’d done two small gods, rounding things out with a third felt right. I haven’t explored small gods much yet, focusing instead on
Three small gods: a ship, an inn, and a family of swords Read More »
Today marks a year since I started working on Godsbarrow. It’s been a consistently fun process, and even when I’ve banked my creative fires I’ve still done something to make forward progress every single day. Updated on December 3, 2025, to add: I’ve also revised and expanded much of that first year of work into
A year of Godsbarrow worldbuilding Read More »
Work on my first proper multi-region map for Godsbarrow continues apace. All of the settlements and roads are in place, I’ve tweaked a bunch of coastlines and island shapes and whatnot, and the center third has its mountains, fields, and most of its forests done. I also dialed the white back by 90% in the
WIP Godsbarrow poster map, 13th anniversary of this site Read More »
While I’m creating Godsbarrow region by region, in “tiles” which are more or less square, I’ve also been stitching those tiles together into a larger map. As you can see on that map, it’s full of small and medium problems as a result of this rough-and-ready approach: almost nothing along the tile boundaries lines up
WIP: Turning five maps into one Read More »
After roughing in the map and concept for my fifth Godsbarrow region, Middenglum, I tucked into doing proper write-ups Name the region. Middenglum is the colloquial name for a region which encompasses the lawless, sparsely populated western hinterlands of Ahlsheyan and Myedgrith, which in turn bleed into territory claimed by no nation — Middenglum proper,
Middenglum, part 1: overview, geography, nations, and gods Read More »
Back in 2016, after 5 years of backing Kickstarter projects, I wrote one of my favorite Yore posts — a personal sniff test for what I back and why (or why not). I missed the golden opportunity to do a 10-year version of that post, but today I’m writing the 11-year version instead. Kickstarter has
11 years, 175 projects: Kickstarter noodling Read More »
After wrapping up my fourth region, the Ice Courts, I wasn’t sure what to work on next. I slept on it and decided to fill in the blank tile on my poster-size map. Growing up on TSR box sets, with their gorgeous rectangular poster maps, I couldn’t resist the urge to finish out a map
Roughing in Middenglum, my fifth Godsbarrow region Read More »
The final region-level step in Worlds Without Number [paid link] is to define the relationships between nations and one thing each of them wants from each of the others. Because of the sheer number of things I have to create, this step usually takes me longer than the others. If you want to read the rest
The Ice Courts, part 4: national relationships and wants Read More »
