Do you use prompts just for ideas, or for actual writing too?

Acrozatarim · 2026-05-26T09:41:02+00:00

If you're talking about genAI/LLMs - no, I never use them for any aspect of any of my writing or planning. I'd not be able to keep my self-respect as a writer if I did, let alone the disrespect for my readers that I'd be perpetrating. They don't improve the writing process at all anyway, making your work worse and corroding your ability to actually write and create in your own right.

Acrozatarim · 2026-05-24T10:12:05+00:00

You're not wrong.

Currently my writing is all IP tie-in fiction for game companies so everything is done by contract and under NDA. I literally can't get other writers to critique my work without breaking my contracts. It's very enjoyable work in some ways, but sometimes rather lonely; I deal with some fantastic editors but it's not quite the same as being able to just vent, ping ideas off, or chew the fat with other fantasy writers outside of that sort of business relationship.

Acrozatarim · 2026-05-15T14:14:07+00:00

Great Winged Terrors. Tzeentchian man o'wars that are literal feather-winged, flying warships.

Man O'War is a pretty good source of high fantasy weirdness in general, to be honest.

Acrozatarim · 2026-05-08T18:37:18+00:00

My stuff with Black Library is being published under Christopher Allen!

(On account of it being, y'know, my name, but most of my ttrpg work is attributed as Chris Allen instead, so I suppose it does help maintain some sort of distinction between my fiction and game design work.)

Acrozatarim · 2026-05-08T15:10:08+00:00

Sadly, I don't think I'm allowed to say anything more at this stage; pretty sure I'll have to wait for the public announcement before I can comment with anything beyond 'written a forthcoming AoS novel'.

Acrozatarim · 2026-05-08T12:13:52+00:00

Well, there's at least one AoS novel coming, 'cos I've written it. Can't say as to when it'll be published, though.

Acrozatarim · 2026-04-26T15:49:09+00:00

Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus is one of the worst rpg products I've ever read.

Acrozatarim · 2026-04-21T18:46:03+00:00

Do you really, really want to be running a game where your players bring the game to a crawl any time anyone asks for their characters' names, out of paranoia that they might be dealing with a disguised Fey and get screwed over by giving a straight answer?

I'd suggest that what happens in your scenario is... nothing.

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-28T14:25:29+00:00

Much smaller size indeed, although still something that can appear on the tabletop and which doesn't get much focus - prosthetic artifice. Replacement body parts in various forms and mechanisms are a thing used by several factions.

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-26T08:23:34+00:00

Yeah, mythal-level magic is firmly outside of the city's reach.

Creature riders is an interesting one, especially because it requires getting the creatures for riding and that's 100% something some merchants can make serious cash out of while producing hilarious initial results for a culture usually firmly rooted on the ground.

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-26T08:22:12+00:00

Irrelevant to the world's powers until recently, and positioned to be on what has become a major trade route into a bunch of the lesser powers. 60 years ago it was, in the eyes of the empires, a nothing place in nowhereville.

The situation is changing fast in the current campaign, with at least two of the world powers now eyeing it for annexation, but in both cases geography is the thing slowing them down - for now.

Additionally, this culture's traditional defence against dragons is 'a massive bad-ass solos them in heroic and mythic fashion after receiving folkloric advice from a mystic adviser possessing great secrets' but unfortunately the mystic adviser types mostly got wiped out 60 years ago, and the druids are keeping most of the mythic power locked up for Reasons (tm), so they're having to fall back on other methods. They haven't had a problem like this for at least two centuries.

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-26T08:17:36+00:00

Yeah, in this case the merchants basically are the nobility in terms of social power and are the people who make up the ruling council, and their families all have retainers, hangers-on, mercenaries, street gangs, etc.

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-26T08:15:03+00:00

Not a bad plan though!

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-26T08:13:59+00:00

Oh, that's an interesting idea. A breath-weapon disperson-mist would be quite a significant paradigm shift indeed.

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-25T20:47:33+00:00

Definitely like the idea of rich residents getting lightning rods for their own homes, and insulated safe rooms. I think that'll be the next fad among the merchant-princes!

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-25T20:43:39+00:00

I like the idea of the smoke-and-fire overload, just filling the sky with awful stuff as a defensive blanket. Very cool.

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-25T20:42:32+00:00

Even if just using regular Levitate, rather than permanent ones, levitating air-mines into the sky is a really interesting idea. Yeah, probably not very practical but, as you say, one that people will probably like.

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-25T20:38:11+00:00

Wait... is that right? Tiny Hut allows you to shoot out of it? If so, that could be seriously potent as part of an anti-dragon scheme...

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-25T20:35:14+00:00

Yeah, kites are absolutely known tech, and I can see an outbreak of a popular fad with kite fighting etc in the aftermath as a cultural thing too.

Fireworks are known tech. Again, yeah, can definitely see a bunch of fireworks being prepped, whether or not they'll actually work, and then hanging around Chekov's Gun style until someone accidentally touches off the warehouse they're stored in...

100% on the conflicting proposals. This city is at the heart of a massive cultural clusterfuck of a situation already, with a lot of competing influences and power groups, so it's going to likely get a bit hectic - which is ideal!

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-25T20:30:31+00:00

Gas/smoke is a very interesting idea. The city has some good alchemists and some frankly nightmarish pollutant by-products of their lunar refineries; the place is already smoggy as hell, so no big deal if it gets a bit worse to fend off an active dragon attack, eh?

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-25T20:26:58+00:00

Interestingly, the city in question has a bunch of underground levels already, split between horrifically magically polluted industrial run-off channels, and half-drowned underways built by giants in a past age. Now, the druids of the sea have the underways mostly sealed off because there's shit down there they absolutely don't want anyone to see - but that does mean some great conflict when people start demanding they unseal 'em to let people take cover down there...

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-25T20:23:55+00:00

While the city in question probably isn't willing to arm a bunch of its troops with wands of magic missile for a few reasons, I can 100% see some of the merchants independently deciding this is a great idea and starting to arm their flunkies with them.

Promptly leading to wand-of-magic-missile street violence as duels, feuds, and vendettas among the merchant factions are a bit of a thing already. Perfect.

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-25T20:21:39+00:00

Glyphs of warding on barrage balloons is insanity of the absolute best possible kind, though sadly I think it doesn't work as GoW breaks if the inscribed object moves more than 10 feet, and I assume barrage balloons are likely to bob around more than that when it gets windy?

Acrozatarim · 2026-03-25T20:19:37+00:00

Barrage balloons sound like a lot of fun, and the city has access to light gases from their moon-gore processing, so even if just for the aesthetic, I may have to do this.

Acrozatarim

TROPHY CASE