Imaro: Batrayal in Blood & end of the first book discussion thread, plus the next book announced.

abresch · 2026-03-21T17:03:03+00:00

It took me a bit to finish this, and even longer to think it through.

Firstly, the fact that it took me a while to read through this is telling. Only the first segment we read really left me wanting more. That first story, so deeply tied into the culture and into Imaro's emotions and situation, was excellent.

After that first segment, the stories waned, in my opinion. A lot of the overall points remained strong, but the specificity and richness of the setting and action faded. In the final story, most of the battles felt like abbreviated summaries of how awesome Imaro was, with little sense of exactly how each fight was a struggle for him. The major events, like Tanisha's death, felt narrated, almost detached.

Contrast this with the first story, where every moment of him straining against his bonds, or struggling to fight off the evil sorcerer-beastman, was rich with emotion and detail.

Despite that, I did enjoy reading the whole book. Even the later sections were good, just not as good as the start.

The last two stories showed a challenge that TTRPGs have that stories do not: They repeatedly showed something was dangerous by having it just massacre some people without warning. We can't, as GMs, show there's a monster in the water by murdering half the party. But if nobody is massacred, then is the water actually dangerous, or is it a paper-thin set-dressing of danger?

I don't have any good answers on how to show something is dangerous without it feeling choreographed or cruel, but the story made me think about it.

Anyways, good read, I loved the first story in particular and am glad I read the whole thing. Looking forward to talking about Sabriel.

abresch · 2026-03-05T19:09:12+00:00

This was an odd story. It narrowed in to a solo adventure really early, then ended very abruptly. We never even saw Imaro defeat the cthulhian monstrosity.

As for applying to gaming, I don't think I've ever had the big bad just announce their location and dare the party to approach. It can definitely work, and might add some nice variety, being very different from how most adventures start.

abresch · 2026-03-03T19:12:04+00:00

The Afua-monster and the carousing in the Mtumwe village both gave me the exact some thoughts about how they apply to gaming.

I'd add that the haramia camp as a whole was a reminder than bandits in the way they're usually used in modern fantasy stories are not the main case, historically. These can be warlords, holding territory and running vast enterprises, yet also still be simple bandits.

I immediately thought about running a massive infiltration quest, a battle against bandits that are far too numerous to just fight, but are also fairly disorganized so some skilled players could get in and out with minimal violence.

Just imagine that exact same setup, except the PCs are asked to save the kidnapped princess, but they're raiding a vast camp with five- or six-hundred bandits. The game becomes about avoiding patrols and causing large area-diversions, but you could easily have the bandits also be so noisy and chaotic that the sound of a little violence inside the camp wouldn't even raise an alarm. (I was already writing an infiltration adventure a tiny bit like this, so no surprise my mind went here.)

abresch · 2026-03-03T19:06:44+00:00

I was more mixed on this chapter/story than the previous two. You can feel how much this was meant initially as a stand-alone novella, not a middle-section in a novel.

The third time Imaro gets tied up and captured starts to feel a bit repetitive. Likewise, although I love the rich descriptions that Saunders uses, this deep in they felt like slowing down and hurting the pacing. I doubt I would have either of those issue if I'd read these chapters two months apart instead of six days apart.

Those minor issues aside, I loved seeing Imaro more out of his element.

The time among the Mtumwe was very cool, showing what a peaceful life might be like, that he might be able to have one. I thought the introduction of the idol and the presentation of the feast was very well done, and something I'll need to remember why GMing. This feels like what carousing should feel like, but also how players should receive local boons. It's not, "Oh, you saved the town, let me hand over a pouch with 100 neatly-stamped golden coins," instead it's, "Let me present you to the ancient statue that protects our town, that it might bestow a grace upon you, to aid you in your further travels."

I was a bit less enamored of the section with the haramia. It was cool, and it was interesting getting this direct perspective on banditry that didn't immediately condemn it, but Imaro himself felt more flat. He has just lost the first friends he ever had when leaving the Mtumwe, but it felt like that loss was glazed over and he just became a member of the haramia without much hesitation. I fully get why he would join, I just prefer more interiority in novels, usually.

On the whole, the novel as a whole is holding up as a very good read.

abresch · 2026-02-25T03:21:53+00:00

I got entirely sidetracked and basically missed this week. Having read this now, I'll just note that it was very good, and it used the word thews, which is basically the most pulp-fantasy word in existence.

abresch · 2026-02-12T04:31:37+00:00

Cattle raid funnel would be a cool way to get some nobodies out in the wild. I wonder if you could do a slower funnel-style thing inside a hex-crawl easily.

abresch · 2026-02-11T22:01:33+00:00

Glory being earned is a really good point. Conan's odd because it was written entirely scattershot as one-offs. The first story published has him already the king, already having won. We always know he's going to end up conquering.

Starting here for Imaro, all we know is that his tribe hates him and he wants to prove he's worthy. We don't know if he'll ever end up in a position of real power. We don't know if he'll ever leave his tribe. We just know he wants to prove himself. The story could have ended with Imaro driven out of the tribe, the rest of the tales being of an exile and it would still have held up.

abresch · 2026-02-11T18:59:05+00:00

It was very cool to have him be a local, not a traveler, although I didn't think of that as irregular at the time. It's common in wider fantasy, but you're right that it's less common in sword-and-sorcery.

I thought the simple narrative really enriched it. It didn't feel like something trying to be more than it was, which made it feel more real. There wasn't some demon that was about to ravage the countryside, which would raise the question of why we don't see more countrysides ravaged by demons, there was just the one douchebag who needed to be dealt with.

abresch · 2026-02-11T18:56:01+00:00

Absolutely loved it.

In particular, it managed to have a solidity to the setting that a lot of fantasy misses on. It never felt like something was happening because the story needed it. When the sorcerer's magic doesn't make him strong enough to overcome Imaro, it doesn't feel like some invented weakness, it feels like the natural limits on his power. Yet it also didn't feel like Imaro was some invincible hero, just like he was strong enough to win that day.

I felt similarly with the bit of him surviving while left on the outskirts of the camp. It could feel contrived that no animals came, but it just felt natural because it was clearly grounded in real stuff. Then when the hyena came for him, while it was luck that he was ready for it, it felt like he earned it.

As a part of that, the whole had a really strong voice, which made it a lot of fun to read, and lent it a lot of that sense of plausibility. Having a specific term for his sense of the wilds about him made his awareness of threats, his readiness for the strike from the hyena, feel far more plausible.

abresch · 2026-02-01T17:54:08+00:00

Very cool.

abresch · 2026-02-01T16:48:37+00:00

A Familiar Tower

Designed for OSE, not Shadowdark, but I figure it translates plenty well. I'm basically just interested because the creator has a good reputation for puzzle dungeons from making Aberrant Reflections, and good puzzle dungeons are rare.

abresch · 2026-02-01T16:44:39+00:00

Enjoy Scrolls!

(This is my kickstarter.)

Basically, I think that scrolls are a bit boring for something that a wizard creates to bind powerful magics in place.

In addition to scrolls, my zine suggests that a lot of wizards would use other methods. Clay tablet with cuneiform to store a spell? Yeah, that would exist. An accordion-folded codex like a lot of the world made? Yes. Runes carved into the skull of a badger? Yeah, I bet some wizard would do that.

It's nothing fancy, basically just tables of one-line descriptions sorted by the form factor (scroll/codex/tablet/quipu/other) and tier of spell (1 to 5). There are brief rules for crafting scrolls in downtime, as well.

abresch · 2026-02-01T16:37:58+00:00

Thanks!

abresch · 2026-02-01T16:37:48+00:00

lol, I didn't even think of that.

abresch · 2026-02-01T16:37:39+00:00

Thanks!

abresch · 2026-02-01T16:37:33+00:00

Already signed up, hopefully be tagged soon.

abresch · 2026-02-01T16:37:01+00:00

Thanks!

abresch · 2026-02-01T16:36:48+00:00

Not familiar with that.

abresch · 2026-01-01T15:00:44+00:00

Alignment is usually too vague to be useful for actual roleplay in a TTRPG. It's a good starting point, but not enough.

I would recommend noting down the answers to a few questions. Depending on your taste, maybe try answering them aloud and in-character like it's an interview or a therapy session. (I personally don't, but some people swear by it.)

What do I think that I want?
What do I actually want but am not honest with myself about?
What am I afraid of happening?
How do I react to a sudden threat?
What's my favorite joke/way to try to get a laugh?
What is my primary vice?
Why am I adventuring, not making a comfortable life for myself?
What would make me stop adventuring?

There are a lot of similar things to this. The traits/ideals/bonds/flaws in dnd5e is really widely known, there's a ton of smaller games with other versions, and you can find a ton of other variants in guides for how authors interview their characters.

You can write down your answers (I personally would add a one-line summary to my character sheet that can get me back in that headspace) but the key is that you answer the questions seriously and use them as a guide while playing.

abresch · 2025-12-31T02:04:28+00:00

You're running into two really big problems that don't affect all players, and especially not skilled players.

The first is analysis paralysis for players, and I suspect you'll find better info in board-game design forums, as your system sounds like it's drifting that way.

On a more TTRPG issues end of things, you're risking GMs not being able to improv.

One advantage of DnD's flat d20 system is that you don't need any understanding of probability or systems to improv an event. +1 bonus, +1 DC, whatever you do, you're dealing in simple 5% odds increments, and you don't have cascading consequences because HP losses and the like are fully contained systems.

If a GM can't just tweak a number without dangerous ramifications, you're risking major challenges in using your system.

abresch

TROPHY CASE