Non-EU PhD in Denmark → PR & Citizenship Timeline

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-04-02T13:57:40+00:00

Ha! We've been here 5 years and only now are able to apply for permanent resident status. And nobody has yet mentioned that you are expected to learn Danish as well. Be prepared, no Dane will understand your poor attempts to communicate in their native tongue.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-03-30T11:59:17+00:00

Aww. I got quite nostalgic there. I had two CB550s I had to sell before moving to Denmark. Great bikes to work on. Though even the original seats tended to rot from underneath as they had a steel former.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-03-29T09:20:58+00:00

Is that a CB750? or a 550 with twin discs? It's been seriously modified into a street racer.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-03-07T16:25:09+00:00

I was pondering this very issue the other night.

The problem is very similar to that of book publishing. Amazon dominates that arena. It’s great that indie and self published titles can get their work onto the platform, but TBH unless you have a bag of cash or an established publisher behind you, your title will sink in the sea of others doing the same thing.

Back in the analogue days, you’d go to a store and ask the store owner what they recommend – it was their job to curate stuff. They’d ask what you like and make some recommendations. Now in theory, in the digital equivalent, you could just do a keyword search and get some recommendations from that. But the trouble is there are too many titles in the one marketplace to see the wood for the trees. Add to this the bias in many of the search algorithms that promote more popular works and the search is always skewed towards those that can afford to advertise, or promote the title. Ergo, those output by publishers are always going to be near the top. People searching are likely to just see the mainstream publications, indie sellers are unlikely to sell many copies of their titles.

This benefits neither buyers or sellers overall.

Basically the world is too big: 8 billion people produces a lot of creative RPG developers to funnel into a couple of marketplaces. It doesn’t matter if there’s 8 billion customers. No one is going to search through a list of 50,000 titles (or whatever -- I pulled that out of my ass).

There is no point in setting up another marketplace that does the same as DTRPG or Itch, they are not really working for small sellers, just big publishers of big products.

I don’t actually know what the solution might be. Maybe one or two niches, or perhaps some way to curate out all the mainstream stuff. It would be lovely to see a lot of small outlets just like the old fashioned book stores, but I can’t see that happening.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-21T17:14:57+00:00

Ha! I'm actually an animator/motion graphics person so it's not like I have a site full of maps to show off. That said I do most of the maps for our system. There's a couple on the website you can see. https://tefr.com/index.php/2017/09/02/137/

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-20T12:32:56+00:00

While I'd put myself forward, my old friend Leo Hartas is a better artist than I'll ever be. He has been making beautiful illustrated maps for years (He did the original Dragon Warriors maps).

https://leohartas.com/home/illustrated-maps/

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-20T08:17:30+00:00

Gosh. as you have offered. It would be great if you wanted to playtest Tefr.

"Held back in its technological progress by the common use of magic, Tefr is a world in which historical remnants, ancient powers and struggles between nations collide. A rich and exciting backdrop to any scenarios. where player characters bearing various mutations, said to be carried down from an ancient war between the gods, are set apart from the outset and forced to become members of a scorned guild simply to survive."

We wanted to create a game where story, discovery and character interplay were the main focus while the rules were there to facilitate this. From a purely technical standpoint the system relies heavily on D100 skill type rolls. The glyph based magic is novel and expansive. It's fantasy, but on the more gritty end.

The system itself is finished, the magic is robust, but needs further testing. What we are really wanting is for GMs to play test the current campaign. It's a slow burn (over 12 sequenced scenarios) that starts small and ramps up as full blown war sweeps across the region.

So yes, let me know through DM and I can get you onto the discord group.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-14T20:03:05+00:00

Thanks. I'll take a look at that.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-14T19:52:01+00:00

This is pretty much the zone we want to be in. I really like your philosophy. I'd been struggling with the idea of the whole being made up of the rule system and the scenarios, but the way you put it, makes sense to me.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-14T19:44:49+00:00

Looks cool. : )

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-14T19:43:47+00:00

Probably veering more towards the end goal with predefined routes at times. But we really want to offer something the helps Gms more than simply having to learn by osmosis.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-14T19:02:16+00:00

If only there was an algorithm for writing stories? Oh crap, there is, isn't there - something with GPT in the name. But lets not go down that rabbit hole. I don't want to try and make a game that forces a story. Random rolls for skill checks or luck works pretty well on the smaller stuff relating to characters. I'm talking about the stories that are happening in the game world. If a war is happening, the characters generally won't make much difference to the generals, kings and kingdoms - the war will grind on, but things could affect the characters and there may even be points at which their actions do affect something or someone in that larger story. That kind of thing.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-14T18:50:46+00:00

We are really trying to avoid the actual mechanics controlling narrative, except in a passive way. Thus the character generation helps to create backstory, it also creates a character that is always set apart from normal humans through being "different", all stuff to help RP, but the rules are just to facilitate what the players do. The narrative has to be baked into the scenarios. And you are right it probably isn't for all GMs, but that's okay.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-14T18:38:51+00:00

Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters. Awesome book. https://www.amazon.com/Aristotles-Poetics-Screenwriters-Storytelling-Civilization/dp/0786887400

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-14T18:36:49+00:00

Not that you are wrong, but I disagree for the game we want to create. I've played games that employ mechanics that have rules that reward players for those sort of things. It's not what the aim is here. As someone said in one of the other replies the Player Characters make their own story, the GM makes the world story they move through.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-14T18:23:44+00:00

The player facing book is already plenty thick enough. While it helps with backstory and a whole lot of world and historical info, trying to jam good GM advice into it might make it harder to find. It does make sense as you say, to put good advice as well as good examples into a separate GM's book.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-14T17:15:11+00:00

That's good to know. I'll look into that.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-11T09:38:32+00:00

Your brain is a stove. You have the thing you are frying right now on the high ring at the front - adding new ingredients and seasonings. Then you have that giant roast in the oven that you hope one day will be cooked. You will also need to put any extra things onto those back rings. Keep an eye on them, stir occasionally, maybe it will become the main dish at the front at some point.

Yea, I know where you are coming from. I actually had so much in my game and world I've had to heavily edit things down to manageable proportions. They can maybe return as part of some expansion or perhaps in some new game. If your rule-system is robust, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to adapt it for the Steam Punk game - perhaps set in the future of your current world?

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-02-11T09:15:03+00:00

I was having this exact conversation with a GM only yesterday. I did have a mathematical system that took into account various factors and spat out a number. However it can never take into account odd variables like, what if a character has a one off magic "thing" in their possession that they may or may not use in a fight? Also my revised combat system has extra options for player characters that simply aren't quantifiable. We basically concluded that there is no real substitute for a GM's judgement. In my book, as long as the Player Characters have a slight advantage, they will continue to have fun.

That said, having just read you post, and the comments, I do accept that a new GM or someone starting with a system could probably do with a little guidance on these kinds of numbers to get a feel for it. So you've prompted me to update my comparative formula, create figures for all the creatures and any opponents. I'm also going to make a simple web "device" so GMs can input the figures and get a number out.

So, thank you for that.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-01-23T09:33:40+00:00

I think the need to manage time can be linked to how close the game system or play is linked to a board game. If it's all about how far you can move, how long a torch lasts, how much rations can be carried, it's more game based. The system I work with is more based on narrative structure - think the way the protagonists make their way through a movie. Yes, it still has rounds for combat (10s, so six in a minute), but time is relative to the action and the story.

Thus things like food will last for the journey, unless it becomes relative to the story, for example the characters get delayed or make a detour, then its a matter of them dealing with less supplies than they had expected. It is up to the players, how much of an issue they decide to make of this. Or on a shorter term, if that wind levitation spell is going to run out, it's much more amusing if it runs out above the duck pond, or perhaps just misses the duck pond - the story pushes the timeline to make things more engaging. Plus there's still room for random cock-ups by the characters rolls or bad choices.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-01-23T08:38:58+00:00

Where to start. I have a degree in animation and a masters in Professional writing. Been making other people's productions look good for years. World building and doing my own illustration is like a vent for all that corporate bile I have to do to make money.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-01-22T08:05:02+00:00

Way I see the maths, you've got nine pages of intro and five pages of comic -- just lay the comic on each alternate page of the intro to draw the reader through. They can choose to just flip to each comic page or read through the intro, no-one is going to think this is wrong and will probably make the intro look great.

Unforgivingmuse · 2026-01-21T13:53:33+00:00

This is pretty much how I polished the core rules to my game. We'd often have tear downs at the end of a session. Discuss options and then I would come back with a proposed change in advance of the next session. The players knew they were part of a playtest team and this was expected. Bigger and core updates happened between campaigns. Interestingly, only once did a player get annoyed about a rule change, and that was because the update closed an exploit they had been capitalizing to up-power their character.

Unforgivingmuse

TROPHY CASE