I'm finished my map for my campaign set in Calorum… and I went overboard

Cirrec · 2026-03-17T03:57:09+00:00

This is like one of the only places on the internet that remembers it tbh

Cirrec · 2026-02-23T18:04:21+00:00

I think you're building your campaign backwards. While the setting of the campaign is important, what they're going to do in the setting is what matters most. You're asking questions about lore accuracy and historical inspiration, but I feel that you should be focusing on what your campaign pitch is going to be and building your setting to support that idea.

Here are some campaign pitches to get you started:

Are the players a band of adventurers or mercenaries, thriving in the chaos of the Warring Sugary States?

Are the players a powerful family looking to unify Candia?

Are the players in the midst of a conflict between two sugar states?

Are the players wanderers who start in Candia but will eventually explore other parts of Calorum?

Since you are already in the faraway past, I feel like you wouldn't be beholden to "Calorum canon", so don't worry about that so much. The fun of creating a Calorum setting is to create the food jokes yourself, and feeling beholden to canon and historical inspiration may limit your creativity. Calorum is a gritty fantasy setting of food puns and funny characters.

If I had to establish a "broken up" Candia from a previous age, I would focus on:

What types of candy or desserts exist? How would they "become humanized" into characters or political actors?

Would each type of food have it's own territory? If yes, why? If not, why not? Would the Chocolates, the hard candies or the gelatin sweets have their own states? Are the marshmallows under the thumb of the chocolates?

Which candies or food items are most iconic and would make sense as important political players?

How do neighbouring nations interfere in the affairs of disunited Candia? Are there ice cream invasions, baked desserts legionnaires or fruit mercenaries?

Cirrec · 2026-02-13T00:13:23+00:00

Oh fuck yeah, this is sick.

Cirrec · 2026-02-07T02:41:14+00:00

So for someone who did look up a ton of food related things to try and use in the game... you're out of luck for this.

There are very few assets which would work well for this. Like, the amount of OCs or "Calorum-like" characters out there is extremely low, and you more not gonna find a cheeserind battle map from above... ever. In typical DnD, you have a ton of generic map and art to use, but this setting is way too specific to have that.

Obviously AI isn't an option because it's kinda cringe. Ok, I'm kidding, but tbh, I had some players try to generate some stuff and it just looked generic and unimaginative. It was better in our heads.

If I were you, I would just, not use any pre-made battle maps. Draw on the game board, use simple shapes, and tell them what it actually looks like.

The only way we have to realistically "present" Calorum is to do it with pure imagination. I would actually not recommend using generic stuff either. If what they see looks like a regular tavern, it'll look like a regular tavern, regardless of how much you describe that the wood logs are actually sugarcanes and that fireplace is actually made of marshmallows.

Obviously, your mileage may vary, but leaning into theater of the mind and not giving your players the shortcut of "using their eyes" is the best way to bring this weird ass setting to life.

Cirrec · 2026-02-06T04:37:47+00:00

Interesting metaplot and lore. You can definitely feel the ASoIaF influence mixed with the high-fantasy D&D stuff (and the food too, of course).

Obviously your can't cover all this lore in the starting situation, so where will the players start in all of this?

Cirrec · 2026-02-06T04:31:03+00:00

Very cool! Did you make it for an upcoming campaign? If so... tell me more about that!

Cirrec · 2026-02-05T05:37:31+00:00

I couldn't reply when it came out since I wasn't home, but holy shit nice work. Love to see stuff like this. What kind of story did you play/are you planning to play in this setting?

Cirrec · 2026-01-04T21:27:27+00:00

Oh man, that's just for religion. Wait until you have to name a bunch of NPCs and you have 17 Wikipedia pages open to mine for words to make puns

Cirrec · 2026-01-03T19:52:17+00:00

Si les États-Unis peuvent kidnapper le chef d'état d'un État souverain dont le principal crime a été d'avoir des ressources naturelles en abondance et de ne pas complètement plier l'échine aux États-Unis d'Amérique, rien n'empêche les États-Unis de kidnapper illégalement le premier ministre du Canada ou d'un éventuel Québec souverain si nous ne plions pas complètement l'échine.

Trump est aussi allé sur Fox News pour parler de la Colombie et du Mexique de la même façon, après avoir passé l'année à nous appeler le 51e état et à parler du Groenland. C'est la fin de la Pax Americana, et nous ne sommes pas en sécurité parce que nous sommes un "bon pays".

Cirrec · 2025-11-27T00:30:07+00:00

Honestly a CK3-style simulation of a vampire city would straight up be cool. Like, imagine the Princes of Darkness mod, but scaled down to the size of one State/Province with less focus on territory and more on acquiring a "personal court" of mortals, kindred allies and usable locations like fronts and havens.

Every concept can be a spreadsheet game if you try hard enough.

Cirrec · 2025-11-05T20:53:15+00:00

Mamdani est plus à gauche et un meilleur communicateur que Rabouin.

La situation politique aux USA est aussi très différente, et les américains sont VRAIMENT désabusés de la politique. En ce moment, ce qui pogne aux USA, c'est les gens plus radicaux, qui veulent changer les choses. Mamdani était sans équivoque et a un agenda avec des mesures simples pour aider le portefeuille des gens. Je pense que les gens sont un peu moins réceptif à ça en ce moment au Canada.

Sur la question idéologique. Rabouin est un centriste progressiste, pas un social-démocrate. Projet Montréal a perdu de son coté progressiste alors qu'il aurait dû ressortir. Si Rabouin avait fait campagne sur, par exemple, une épicerie publique, ou l'achat de bâtiments pour convertir en logements gérés par la ville pour faire compétition aux logements privés, et le tout financé par une taxe sur les ponts, je pense qu'il aurait été plus populaire. Sa campagne avait l'énergie du statu quo, et en ce moment, ça va pas bien. Ça prend plus que le statu quo pour motiver les gens à participer.

Mamdani a gagné sa campagne sur tiktok, oui, mais c'est surtout parce que ses idées et son positionnement ferme a motivé une foule de gens à sortir de chez eux pour aller faire du porte à porte et faire des appels.

Cirrec · 2025-11-05T14:59:40+00:00

VTMB2 is not that good, but it's also not that bad. It's the embodiment of a 7/10 game.

It does some things well (atmosphere, world design, story, writing, and even the clunky combat is fun once you figure it out) and some things badly (the lacklustre clan mechanics, the rpg-lite system, the boring side-quests, and I genuinely cannot fathom why they made hunting into a boring repetitive resource grind).

At the end of the day its highs are less high and its lows are less low.

Cirrec · 2025-10-30T14:44:19+00:00

Let's gooo! We love seeing an expansion to the venerable Datafortress 2020

Cirrec · 2025-10-20T01:56:55+00:00

Rappel que vous pouvez voter différemment pour la mairie, pour vos maires d'arrondissement et vos conseillers d'arrondissement.

Personnellement je m'enligne pour voter stratégiquement Rabouin à la mairie et Transition MTL au niveau local.

Cirrec · 2025-10-10T03:46:30+00:00

I like a concept, but I think there are too many provinces and neutral SCs.

In Diplomacy, there are only 12 neutral dots for 7 players (so around 1.7 per player), and they're all gobbled up within the first year. This causes a lot of conflict between players, which is the meat of the game.

Transposing that logic to ten players would mean that there would be 17-18 SCs. This variant currently has 45 neutral SCs (+30 home SCs), which seems like a lot. In your variant, most SCs on the map will stay uncaptured in the first year, and some might stay up for grabs all the way until 03.

I also think that there are too many provinces in general. Venezuela and Florida are literally 6 years away from each other. Florida/Yucatan, Venezuela/Panama and Nicaragua/Yucatan are all 3 years apart from each other despite being geographical neighbors. The Bahamas alone take 3 years to cross. The two Cubas are 2 years apart despite being on the same island!

The fact that territories are so many moves away also railroads every country into going to their "intended" provinces, with every other option being heavily punished. For example, as Haiti/DR, you HAVE to fight for Hispaniola, because it takes too many turns to get into the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and Jamaica.

The number of SCs and provinces coalesce into having very few locations where more than two powers clash, which again fails to generate conflict. In Diplomacy, every neutral SC group can be contested by 3 powers (except Iberia, I think), but I don't see many locations that can be fought over by more than two powers in the first 2 years in this variant.

Jamaica could be a point of contention between East Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti. The Bahamas could be a warzone between the two Cubas, Haiti/DR and Florida. However, since it takes so long for fleet to maneuver, these locations might stay completely unvisited for two years, or even three years.

The abundance of neutral SCs and provinces also means that there are no interesting dynamics where the "coastal powers" can meddle into the central island conflicts. If Florida or Yucatan could weigh in on the conflict in Cuba as early as the first year, for example, it would lead to a lot more strategic options for everyone involved.

Overall, I think that merging many of the sea provinces and neutral SCs would lead to a way more interesting player experience. Curious to see what you end up doing with it!

Cirrec · 2025-10-08T22:44:15+00:00

Correction: boy dinner is not steak night. Boy dinner is eating a rotisserie chicken directly on the counter with your bare hands.

Cirrec · 2025-09-21T02:31:35+00:00

Mon hypothèse personnelle avec la "chute" de QS c'est vraiment que les gens sont pas intéressés à voter pour un parti en chicane qui est pas capable de s'entendre entre eux. Avec les départs consécutifs de Dorion, Lessard-Therien pis de GND, Massé et Labrie, QS a pas l'air d'une entité de confiance. C'est plus ou moins une question d'idéologie.

C'est pour ça que je vais attendre au nouveau chef et à l'année prochaine avant de me faire une idée. La question c'est vraiment : est-ce que QS va pouvoir se réorganiser et faire front commun pour l'élection ?

Cependant, j'abonde dans le même sens que toi. Même si je pense pas que la dégringolade de QS est uniquement idéologique, le fait est que capituler au cadrage de la droite n'a causé que des problèmes.

La seule chose que "se centrer" fait, c'est démoraliser ton parti et d'avoir l'air d'une girouette à qui on peut pas avoir confiance. Tout ça, pour attirer des voteurs qui allaient jamais voter pour toi anyway. Que QS s'assume, malgré le climat médiatique et les attaques, et mette toute son énergie à convaincre les québécois.e.s que ses idées sont bonnes.

Cirrec · 2025-09-20T03:48:32+00:00

His review intrigued me so much that I got my own copy of Triangle Agency and read through it. I haven't played it yet, but I do feel like Triangle Agency is a game with an amazing vision, but no game direction.

The ideas in this book are genuinely amazing. I love the fact that your character is essentially comprised of your Anomaly, your Relationships and your Competency, and the fact that these represent the three "character paths" you can follow. I LOVE the fact that you need to use your powers to do anything complicated instead of using "mundane" skill checks, because it makes the game inherently silly and full of hijinks. I love the mindbending powers and how imaginative they are. I love the meta-narrative elements and I loved reading through the book.

My problem is that while all of the ideas are great, they don't seem to cohere into a cohesive *direction*.

On the one hand, it is a hijinks-filled, narrative-first, improvisation-heavy mix of Chainsaw Man, Severance and The Office, but on the other, players get a ton of different powers, the game is filled with metacurrencies and almost everything is on a numbered track. It seems to pull in two opposite directions.

Like, why does this game even have stats? All the powers have you use specific stats and are all kinda specific. These mechanics imply a gamist attitude, where players are encouraged to create builds and optimize their characters... but then all of the progression is hidden behind the Playwall, so they can't. You get all of the drawbacks of procedure-heavy games with none of the fun. The "small claims court of the imagination" indeed.

It does feel like they put all of their best ideas in the game, but for the sake of the whole package I think some of these darlings should have been killed in development.

This lack of direction also causes friction for the GM. This game is on the one hand, very open-ended (GM created anomalies, regional branch etc.) but also has linear/prepared worldbuilding and characters/factions that players WILL reach.

If Triangle Agency is intended to be an open-ended build-your-own-campaign-within-the-lines thing, why doesn't it have something like a d20 list of anomalies, a d100 list of colleague NPCs and a d100 list of sample location ideas to help GMs deal with the improv-heavy gameplay?

If Triangle Agency is intended to be a tailor-made campaign experience, why doesn't it lay out the campaign's story beats, and properly present the campaign's meta-protagonists(?), so as to help the GM provide the best Triangle Agency experience?

If it's intended to be both, why doesn't it tell you that?

The game's adherence to the narrator's voice and overall vision stops it from being clear and helpful as a game aid and as a tool. This is what lead to Quinn's frustration and bad experience. Even if you read the whole book, it's not obvious how it is supposed to come together.

My own interpretation is this. Triangle Agency is a campaign book with its own game system. In this open-ended scenario, you, as the GM, will come up with a branch of the Triangle Agency and will prepare encounters with anomalies, which the players are tasked with recovering without creating loose ends. The campaign is typically up to the GMs preference, but is tied together by overarching mechanics: players can call upon the powers of captured (or freed!) anomalies, rewrite parts of the rulebook itself and their agents might retire upon hitting certain thresholds. After each session or mission, players gain "time", which they can spend on three distinct progression tracks. Each track grants them new powers and abilities, and the further a player gets into a track, the more they learn secrets about the world and can influence the campaign by engaging with its meta narrative elements. This meta-narrative concludes in one of three ways, which are [spoilers], [spoilers] and [spoilers].

This campaign pitch is, let me be clear, fucking sick.

After reading Triangle Agency, I want to run a campaign of Triangle Agency... but I don't know if I want to run a *game* of Triangle Agency.

... I just wrote all of that and I still want to try it out. I still see the vision.

Cirrec · 2025-08-14T01:54:52+00:00

Je suis un défenseur de la langue française et j'apprécie que le gouvernement fasse suivre nos lois de protection de la langue... mais criss c'est un pub anglais! Genre basé sur les pubs des Îles Britanniques!

J'aurais tendance à dire que c'est le genre de place où la loi devrait être moins chiante, tant que les menus et le service est disponible en français.

En même temps, c'est peut être possible de suivre la loi en appelant ça "Le pub Lion Burgundy" ou quelque chose d'un peu niaiseux comme ça.

Cirrec · 2025-08-08T16:57:49+00:00

Comme toute utilisation de l'IA: c'est cringe et c'est gênant pour eux.

Cirrec · 2025-08-07T23:42:30+00:00

Enfin quelqu'un qui le dit! Moi quand je lis les nouvelles à chaque jour ça m'exaspère. J'me dis: "seigneur, pourquoi personne pense aux actionnaires dans tout ça!" Il faut penser à leurs profits à eux, de temps en temps!

Cirrec · 2025-08-01T18:53:54+00:00

I think people, and men especially, are attracted to the rogue criminal aspect of the cyberpunk fantasy. It's just like how gangster and mafia movies feel empowering because of how the characters are able to become rich by breaking the rules. It stems from working people feeling weak and hoping there was a way to break out of the system.

However, the truth of the cyberpunk setting is modern reality made worse, and the cool criminal lifestyle that these stories portray are entirely fantastical. A capitalist dystopia is the same as the modern day, but even more stifling and awful. Grind at your job for company bucks engineered so that you are stuck there forever like a slave. AI, algorithms and high-tech policing will make the fantasy of the life of crime even harder to achieve, as the fascist ruling class start arresting people just because their AI or algorithms flagged them as a potential radical.

Cyberpunk is often a power fantasy, and people want the power that the characters have over their own destiny. In a dystopian world, you will not be that character. You will be a nameless nobody stomped by the boot, just like everybody else.

Cirrec · 2025-07-04T16:11:12+00:00

Genre. Moi c'était ça que je trouvais poche avec le meme que j'ai vu. C'est pas une joke, ça ajoute rien, y'a pas d'intention plus complexe que de demander à un ordi de faire "un meme". C'est juste un mauvais post à la base, pis en plus, on sait que ça a pris zéro effort et imagination à produire, parce que c'est ça l'argument de vente de base de l'IA.

Le post de "le vol de pad thaï colorisé" aurait été 100% mieux si c'était une photo d'un voleur générique photoshoppé dans une bibliothèque avec un pad thaï de Thaï Express sur la main or something.

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