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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Investigative Horror RPG Homebrew, Part 4: The Hollowing Curse

Standard diseases in most roleplaying games are often quickly detected and easily cured with low-level spells. Pathfinder Unchained disease rules as well as the Horror Adventures disease rules can be useful for making more dangerous diseases. The following is an example of a disease that is more challenging and is especially suitable for investigative horror roleplaying games.

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Gurdjieff and Games, Part 3: Where Games Can Go Wrong

To understand, according to Mr. Gurdjieff, where games can go wrong, besides the previously mentioned depriving of children of time to play games or depriving oneself of work-rest balance, one must understand where humans can go wrong (and have gone wrong).

The same problems experienced in life are the same problems experienced in games, only on a smaller scale. This difference in scale can be used to one’s advantage—one can use games to learn about oneself and others to understand the basic problems of humanity in a limited and relatively safe environment. Some of these problems are detailed here in brief.

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Reading Gurdjieff: A Sense of Proportion

It is important when approaching Beelzebub’s Tales to adopt certain exegetical principles. For the sake of productive interpretation, it is useful to assume: 1) that Mr. Gurdjieff’s writings were composed from a higher reason than our own, and therefore, 2) every detail in the text has meaning; and so 3) because of its near-infinite meaning, we cannot know everything about the text, but 4) we can still draw practical teaching from it despite the limits of our own understanding; and 5) that the author can satisfactorily explain himself from his own writings.

In addition to these recommended exegetical principles, having a sense of proportion of the many ideas of the text in relation to each other and to the whole is also important—in other words, not distorting significant ideas into insignificant ones, and vice versa.

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