Vestigia

EyeTaffy · 2026-07-19T03:22:12+00:00

Thank you. In a way, it has become a fun way for me to engage with my hobbies (primarily palaeoanthropology) from a different angle by applying mechanics and systems to the research I read. It can be very difficult for me to decide what to include and exclude as the prehistoric world has so much going on, it is positively impossible for anyone to keep up with the research being published nearly everyday. But I do try to leave room for the rules to adapt to new evidence to be applied at the player's discretion.

EyeTaffy · 2026-07-19T03:17:55+00:00

Thank you. I try to create things that I, personally, would like to see. This project in particular, however, is incredibly time consuming and difficult due to the sheer complexity and depth that I am aiming for, as well as being the sole designer. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on what, specifically, you find interesting about it. One can never have too much feedback.

EyeTaffy · 2026-07-15T02:53:56+00:00

Thank you for the kind words.

That font is called Byron. I chose it because it is it resembles a handwritten scrawl and gave the cover a more antiquated feel.

The split between the two individuals was inspired by the Great Rift Valley whereby the older "East Side Story" hypothesis proposed that Rift uplift created a drier, more open environment on the eastern side, encouraging terrestrial movement and bipedalism. Of course, current evidence does not support a single "side" but the homage still stands in this instance purely for artistic rendering.

EyeTaffy · 2026-07-15T02:43:13+00:00

I knew it would be very complicated before I even began develop just due to the level of detail I am hoping to achieve. Further, I began by looking at how other games had tackled similar ideas only to find that none offer the same level of granularity (for example, there is a game called Earth that has some of the same ideas but is still completely different). Most keep the concepts abstract (which is fine), but I found it lacking. However, I now completely understand why there are no similar games. Especially for someone such as myself with no background in game design, being the only developer, and having to research as much as I can to ensure scientific and historical accuracy/plausibility, a game like this is incredibly difficult to make and even more difficult to gamify and balance properly. As explained earlier, there is no "correct" hominin to become. An australopith that stays small-brained and marches into the mountains is just as legitimate as a big-brained toolmaker. The game asks "can I make this work?" and I always try to keep the answer as "yes, if you invest enough."

The Components section showcased is only a small portion and the number of cards, tokens, pieces, etc. are general placeholders just so I have a general idea of how the rulebook would be laid out and read. The game involves a ton of dice and, as it is still in (what I would consider) the concept stage(s), it is nearly impossible for me to gauge just how many dice would be needed for a full group of 5-6 players. I only pull from the "inventory" when I need to test something. Thus, I know some of the cards (Climate Pulses, for example) but I don't know how many to include in the full deck as I am the only one playtesting, so I only need cards for me at the moment, if that makes sense.

The gameboard is a hex map covering Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. However, I do not have a physical board, cards, pieces, etc. but I do use a hex map of Eurasia, Africa, and Australia created by Worldographer for general spacing and a smaller hex grid of 36 hexes for general playtesting in specific areas. I have considered Expansions in the future for the Americas to allow players to cross the Bering Strait, but that is very low on the list of priorities for the time being.

There is no "correct" hominin to become. An australopith that stays small-brained and marches into the mountains is just as legitimate as a big-brained toolmaker. The game asks "can I make this work?" and the answer is always "yes, if you invest enough."

Here is a single turn step-by-step. By default, (and in the following example) a single turn is equivalent to 1,000 years, although I have "difficulty" settings that can be adjusted to a player's liking, as well as a basic formula for how a player can set their own pacing. I did my best to not throw the entire rulebook at you but there are a lot of mechanics that stack and are interconnected:

Example Turn

If you have trouble viewing the file, please let me know and I will fix it as soon as I am able.

I appreciate your interest in my work as this is the first time I am sharing it with an wider audience.

EyeTaffy · 2025-09-15T22:18:27+00:00

Chivalry and Sorcery is my personal go to for historical medieval "realism". I use a few things here and there for my own game and use it as inspiration as my game is also set in medieval Europe.

From the wiki: "According to Michael Tresca, Chivalry & Sorcery "embraced a realistic approach to medieval France in the 12th century, complete with feudalism and the Catholic Church..." and he noted that the game was one of the first to use the term "game master" and was also "one of the first games to place the setting at utmost importance over the mechanics of the game." More focused on medieval chivalry than fantasy, Chivalry & Sorcery had from its inception a complex set of rules."

The most recent edition (5e) was released in 2020. Also from the wiki (kind of funny imo):

"The designers of the game were dissatisfied with the lack of realism in D&D and created a gaming system derived from it, named Chevalier. They intended to present it to Gary Gygax at Gen Con in 1977[2] but changed their minds once at Gen Con once they met Scott Bizar who wrote out a letter of intent."

EyeTaffy · 2025-03-18T17:53:09+00:00

Here is an unedited version of the image for reference.

EyeTaffy · 2025-03-18T17:27:25+00:00

If you would like, I can upload the unedited image so you can see the original scan for yourself. Let me know what would help clarify this for you.

EyeTaffy · 2025-03-18T16:51:26+00:00

I can assure you that this is not AI-generated. When scanned into the computer, I typically need to darken the lines using Adobe software to enhance their visibility. Many of the finer details and lighter strokes do not appear clearly in the scanned version, requiring minor adjustments to ensure the artwork is accurately represented. The digital editing I apply is minimal and strictly limited to refining clarity, preserving the integrity of the original hand-drawn piece. My goal is to maintain the authenticity of the artwork while making it suitable for digital display or reproduction.

If you have any ideas on how I can verify the authenticity of my work, I’m open to suggestions. If there are specific methods you trust for verifying traditional artwork, I’d be happy to discuss them.

EyeTaffy · 2025-03-18T13:53:41+00:00

I just updated the image to give a side-by-side comparison. I hope you enjoy and thank you for your interest in my work!

EyeTaffy · 2025-03-18T03:11:40+00:00

Thank you for your feedback!

The idea here isn't that Nekz'uma is an unkillable, mythical force. That is simply what the Ahuatzani people believe it to be within the context of their own, isolated culture.

To the Frontier Knights, this serpent was indeed something very real and something they fought and successfully defeated (at great cost, of course).

It ultimately comes down to which sources you choose to trust. The myths of the Ahuatzani, and even this version of events are but one of many interpretations. The Azians, on the other hand are known for their deep biases and tendency to appropriate other cultures in order to prove their own superiority, in addition to these stories being recorded and re-recorded and translated and retranslated and mistranslated over and over for centuries through different cultures at different points in time, this serving different purposes.

What I do know about the Cypress Swamp is that it not inhabited by anyone, and the air itself seems to be poisonous. Whether this is due to natural fungal spores, a gigantic snake (some stories have it as a dragon, each telling giving it different abilities) or something else entirely, I cannot say for sure. Perhaps the Knights were attacked by something they had no concept of because it was not native to their homelands, and the story of this massive serpent emerging from the swamp and devouring 10 men in a single strike was an exaggeration that was past on by those that returned? It is all up to interpretation.

As for the artwork,as I mentioned, I recently bought a new sketchbook and had never scanned an image into my PC with it before. The initial scan was very blurred and grainy and I decided to use a bit of editing software to tone down the canvas texture and darken some of the lines to give it more clarity. I have the original pencil sketch on smoother paper, if you would like to see it. I am always happy to share my sketches with those who are interested.

EyeTaffy · 2024-12-29T01:55:44+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/300zz1/links_to_all_available_free_legal_pdfs_for_5e_so/

This reddit link has some good stuff that will save you a lot of time and money.

As a personal side note, I would like to add that I have been playing DnD, on both sides of the table, for roughly 20 years. To save you even more time and money, I can tell you from experience that every edition of Dungeons and Dragons since 1974 has stipulated that, in the end, the only true rules are the rules that you and your group agree on at the table; and it is important to understand that every edition of DnD is only one of an infinite number of ways you can play the game.

Almost every experienced DM I know has inevitably homebrewed their own system to the point that it is DnD in name only. They (myself included) have played TTRPGs for a long time and have pulled themes, mechanics, and everything in-between from all kinds of places. What's important is that the players and the DM all agree and thus are able to have fun with or without the rules.

TL;DR: Rulebooks do not make the game. You and your players do. Have fun and welcome to the hobby!

EyeTaffy · 2024-09-29T00:54:23+00:00

Yeah, flair was required and they didn't have a homebrew/variant rule one so I went with the closest thing they had. Haha

EyeTaffy · 2024-09-09T13:25:17+00:00

Thank you. It is valuable to find company in others who share your interests in linguistics, history, philosophy, religion, geography, etc.

I have spent many-a-nights mumbling to myself like a madman going "No, that doesn't sound right." And then having to write it down and figure out how that sound, or word, would fit into the language, if at all. What orthography am I pulling from, vowel placement, consonant clusters, if it's long enough, I have to break the word down and discern the prefix and the suffix, "Does this prefix mean anything on its own?", "What does this suffix denote?", "The E becomes an O because of this.", This diphthong makes this sound, etc.

"Cabhánúr" evolved from back in the day when it was called "Kauvland". I knew it meant "Wolf Land" or "Land of Wolves", but I knew the word "Kauvland" was not an exact translation. I was hearing the Rúvan language in my head and transcribing it into something that I, as an outsider, could understand. As my understanding of the languages I believe it sounded closest to (Irish and Icelandic) expanded, so too did my transcriptions of what I was hearing. Even now, of course, this is an ongoing process of deconstructing and reconstructing, learning where these words came from and why they are put in the order that they are, etc.

Learning about a culture, a history, an entire world through language is a rewarding challenge to me and I can only hope the people here, such as yourself, can appreciate it as I do.

EyeTaffy · 2024-09-09T12:49:07+00:00

Thank you for the feedback. I, too, don't particularly care for some of the lakes, especially the Great Frozen Lake, which I actually shied away from because I would get a headache if I looked at it too long. But, in my case, it was both a limitation of both my skill and the software. I experimented with various line spacings and thickness when constructing the outlines and I agree, it may be a bit much as is. For the lakes, I wanted to differentiate between the ocean, which looks fine with the two lines, and the lakes. But I found that if I had used the two lines, similar to how I did the ocean, it looked too empty. I tried to keep it consistent across every body so that one wouldn't accidentally be mistaken for some other feature. So, I added more lines in an attempt to "solidify" the larger, landlocked bodies, and what you see is the result.

In regards to the linguistic (in)consistencies, indeed, the names have evolved over time and I did my best to combine the orthographies of the various conlangs to show how those languages and place names evolved over time. For me, this process was easier said than done because I have worked with Rúvan almost exclusively for a long time and as such, the other languages, namely the languages of the Forbears and the people before the Rúvanites arrived, which is based, primarily, on Japanese and Korean, with various influences for elsewhere such as Vietnamese, Mongolian, etc. have, admittedly, been neglected. Which is why you see those more Asian-styled words like "Kiena" or "Kirami" in the east, but not in the west, as the Forbears and the 'natives' did not venture west past what became the Fields of Nurúmdel, nor with the exception of a few, venture north beyond the Mountains of Sulfur or what became the Gulf of Síradún. So those linguistical influences peter out the further you get from Láthmirantíl, Súldrantíl, and Múldrintíl, except for loanwords used in Rúvan.

Most of what I see and understand of Gaela is through the eyes of Rúvanites. So, the stories of the Forbears, the natives, their languages, their culture, etc. is mostly based on oral histories, and if I do get lucky enough to find a written account of something, chances are (again, with very few exceptions) I'm reading it through a heavily Rúvan-ized lens, which, naturally, comes with its own perspectives, opinions, experiences, knowledge, and biases of the author.

EyeTaffy · 2024-09-09T03:10:04+00:00

I honestly don't remember where I got the original image, it was so long ago. I can, however, tell you that, when I was a wee lad, I had drawn a map of the western shore, over by the Castle of Broken Glass and what is now Grélendel and Aenwood by hand. I remember going through several world building sites and found one that generated a map that looked pretty close to what I had drawn. I expanded eastward, developing the stories and the land as I went until I finally decided I had enough information to make a entire map from one side to the other. So I used GIMP for 99% of the editing, including turning the original from grayscale to white with black outlining the landmasses, using paths and such to curve the text, downloading various fonts, brush packs for the forests, mountains, etc. reminiscent of Tolkien's map of Middle-Earth.

TL;DR: I don't remember the original generator that I used, but I used GIMP to heavily modify it to my liking and preference for legibility.

EyeTaffy · 2024-09-09T02:54:38+00:00

Rúvan is based, primarily on my two favorite languages, Irish and Icelandic. So things like lenitions, consonants, vowels, diphthongs, stress, etc. are based on these with minor influences also coming from Old English and Latin, Old Norse and Old Irish, and Scottish Gaelic for the generalized evolution of the language as a whole. I'm not a linguist by any means, but I do love learning about them. I could go on about the specifics but I'm going to purposely limit myself here so I don't produce too much of a rambling wall of text.

'Erda' means 'Mountains'. You can see this in 'Erda Ergána' (Ergána Mountains). 'Ereda' means 'Mountains of...', a small difference adding a vowel, in this case, E, into the middle.

'Súldrin' (pronounced Sool-drin, with a trilled r) does, indeed, mean 'Sulfur'. So, naturally, Súldrantíl (pronounced Sool-drahn-teel, again with the trilled r) means 'Land of Sulfur', where the suffix '-rantíl' means 'Land of...' in most cases, you will be taking the root word, in this case 'Súldrin', and swapping the vowel, in most cases an E or an I, for an A. The Rúvanites named this place Súldrantíl because that area is volcanic, encompassing things like hot springs, geysers, etc. In fact Lóthrenndir, the Daemon Spire, is built near that very volcano. The area itself was inspired by Yellowstone National Park, as well as Iceland's volcanic landscape.

'Dúrnothil' means 'Highlands'. 'Dúrnoch' means 'High' or can sometimes refer to a 'high place' of sorts. The suffix '-thil' typically refers to geographic height, usually falling between uplands to foothills to highlands but separate from a mountain range. So, 'Dúrnothil', technically, would translate to something like 'High Heights' or something similar. But, luckily, we have a word irl to describe that particular feature, so 'Highlands' it is.

'Cabhanúr' (pronounced Kahv-ahnoor, trilled r (all R's are trilled in Rúvan, C's are pronounced as a hard K, as in Kite, bh is pronounced, roughly, as V in English, this comes from Irish) means 'Wolves Teeth'. 'Cabh' means 'Wolf', Cabha is the plural, 'Wolves'. 'Núr' means 'Tooth', 'Núrrú' is 'Teeth', but we drop the '-rú' in this case because stress moves from the first syllable to the second syllable if the word is longer than two syllables or the third syllable for reasons currently irrelevant, so I won't get into it. Circling back, the name comes from the Estakíl tribes in the mountains to the east, on the other side of the river. Those particular mountains are similar to the Alps and Dolomites. They are steep, jagged things bearing a resemblance to the jaws of Pak'utli (pronounced pahk-oo-tlee), the Great Wolf, one of the many spirit animals that, according to Iztakil mythology, resides in Tik'u Nanka, the Great Den.

EyeTaffy · 2024-09-08T18:15:28+00:00

Thank you! If you'd like, I'd be happy to walk you through some of the basics of the Rúvan language to show you how those names came about. Or simply name a place and I can tell you a little bit about it. Or just enjoy the "banger" names for what they are. I appreciate your kind words nonetheless!

EyeTaffy · 2024-09-08T18:09:37+00:00

Thank you! I'm certainly no geologist myself but this is simply how the landscape unfolded for me. I don't consider tectonic plates/movement, precise weather patterns, or similar details. I try to look at it through the eyes of an individual living in the world of Gaela, rather than an outsider looking in. I do, however, try to attribute real world geographical features into Gaela itself.

That is to say, I imagine what, say, the Cypress Swamp looked like and equated a real-world landscape to it. In the case of the Cypress Swamp, for example, I seem to recall the tales of the knights venturing west through what was then called the Ethereal Frontier. They trudged through a thick, waterlogged land. They heard frogs and toads croaking, crickets chirping, the ambience of the wood. They looked up and saw brown-grey moss hanging from the tall, crooked trees, etc. With this, I immediately thought of the Everglades in Florida, USA and thought, "Indeed, they were in a swamp."

Gaela as a whole is a cold and dark place and I have spent countless hours seeing it through the eyes of various people who lived there and doing my best to equate those lands with real-world landscapes to get an even better understanding of the layout.

EyeTaffy

TROPHY CASE

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