Monthly Archives: August 2021

GPH Series: The Genie Palace Heists

Palace Map

Far, far from the low magic, investigative horror setting of “Beyond Thule“, six years ago, I game-mastered a short mid-to-high level, high magic fantasy campaign to put the then-new D&D 5e system (and my players) through the paces.

Set in the Broken Cosmology, a post-apocalyptic version of the Multiverse, the player characters are sent on missions to retrieve powerful artifacts to restore order to the cosmos.

These artifacts are held in four different genie palaces: the Alabaster Palace of the Dao, the Coral Palace of the Marid, the Marble Palace of the Djinni, and the Obsidian Palace of the Efreeti.

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The Order of Lead: Antithesis of Strixhaven

Another project I’ve been working on I’m calling The Order of Lead. So the concept in a nutshell is that society has become weak, soft, decadent, and corrupt because of its reliance on magic, and The Order of Lead aims to purge the world of this arcane blight. In other words, it is the antithesis of Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos.

How else are you going to go back to those halcyon days of low magic?

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Reading Gurdjieff: Enlarged Print Edition of Beelzebub’s Tales

Why a new edition of Beelzebub’s Tales?

Most editions of Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson have been long out of print. Others were mass-produced on non-acid-free paper and are aging poorly. Still another edition drastically altered the original text. And most are set in very small type.

The Solis Scriptorium Enlarged Print Edition of Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson is printed on-demand to ensure that Mr. Gurdjieff’s magnum opus remains in circulation. The books are printed on acid-free paper for longevity. The original text of the 1950 edition has been retained with the exception of widely accepted errata. And this edition is set in enlarged print.

Why enlarged print?

The enlarged print edition was designed to assist readers with visual impairment, and for easier reading in general.

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Reading Gurdjieff: On Verification

“If you have not by nature a critical mind, your staying here is useless.” – Study House aphorism

“I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself.” – Views from the Real World, p. 78

Verification is a foundational idea in Mr. Gurdjieff’s teaching: to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself. It is important to note that he does not say to disbelieve everything that you cannot verify, because disbelief is merely belief in a negative. That which we have not yet verified is neither believed nor disbelieved but should remain categorized as unverified.

Yet… we very often believe (or disbelieve) without verifying. Why?

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