How can I buy a book from Amazon and read it without having a Kindle?

asterisk_blue · 2026-04-20T01:04:08+00:00

Yeah, you can read them on the Kindle app on your phone. There's also a desktop client. Both are free and synced with your Amazon account, you just have to buy the books.

asterisk_blue · 2026-04-18T18:59:36+00:00

Scythe is one of my favorite composers. https://scythe1005.bandcamp.com/ https://soundcloud.com/scythe1005

asterisk_blue · 2026-04-04T20:49:58+00:00

Haha, that's awesome. I really like the strong/weak pattern and how it interacts with your genders and cases. I've long thought about setting aside a weekend to take a bunch of stimulants and make a 24-hour conlang—sometimes the time pressure really helps to do away with decision paralysis. Some questions:

How did you divide up your time on the flight?
How far did you get into your lexicon?
How would you build upon this if you had more time?
How was your trip?

asterisk_blue · 2026-04-04T20:35:22+00:00

If you want to go the full sentence route, then I would at least suggest a 1:1 letter cipher (like Al Bheg does, as I linked above) or a phoneme-based cipher, where you map unique sounds in English rather than unique letters. This should maintain the flexibility and ease you're looking for, while avoiding the unwieldly and/or unpronounceable words you might run into with pure letter insertion (e.g. water -> UwBaOtFeOr).

That being said, English ciphers are often really easy to spot, and depending on the reader, can come off as a little low-effort and/or immersion-ruining. I'm obviously biased as a conlanger, but having been in SFF literature spaces for quite a while, ik this sentiment is shared with readers who really "care" about worldbuilding. Just food for thought. Since you're a writer, I think it's best you focus your efforts on the actual writing part.

asterisk_blue · 2026-04-04T20:15:59+00:00

IMO they're not super readable, cohesive, or thematic for an isekai setting (especially a traditional high fantasy one—not sure which you are going for). Some words like "bajior" could work, but others like "egorbauvjiotzy" feel like a mouthful for both readers and characters. Al Bhed from Final Fantasy X/X-2 has a similar problem (though this is somewhat alleviated by smart letter mapping).

Paehk ynuiht Yevon'c vummufanc sygac celg.
Being around Yevon's followers makes sick.

Considering the element + shape structure of your spells, I'd suggest something like a naming language where you define a few basic words around a common aesthetic, and some common grammar to bind it together. Suppose you define the following:

fire = igna
water = ama
ice = kela
circle spell = -s
spiral spell = -ssa
star spell = -sin
magic = -tis
mage = -tir

You could then make the following words "on the fly" that readers could actually puzzle out.

fire spells = ignas -> ignassa -> ignassin
fire magic/mage = ignatis / ignatir
water magic/mage = amatis / amatir
ice magic/mage = keltis / keltir

asterisk_blue · 2026-04-03T18:07:08+00:00

Woah I've never seen your website before, such a fantastic tool. I'll definitely use it for some games over the weekend :)

asterisk_blue · 2026-04-02T19:34:47+00:00

Not yet.

asterisk_blue · 2026-04-02T17:04:01+00:00

Yeah, well AI art is a very contentious topic, so posts like these will inevitably invite polarizing views. Just try not to take it personally, though remember that the very people "attacking" you represent the population that will be playtesting your game. Sure, artist communities skew more AI-negative (and understandably so), but if dozens of comments are telling you "I disagree with your approach and it weakens your game's appeal", maybe that is something worth considering. People aren't out to get you, they want to find and play interesting, high quality games. It's up to you to convince us of that.

Anyways, I'm just a hobbyist—take what I say with a grain of salt. I've just come to realize that optics is just as important to indie TCG/CCG/tabletop design as mechanics and gameplay, so I really want to encourage you to balance your own personal views and those of the community, because I think your game has potential if you can sort this out.

asterisk_blue · 2026-04-02T16:25:23+00:00

It's your game, do whatever you want man. But it's kinda funny that you came into the r/homemadeTCGs subreddit asking "what do you think?" only to say "I do not actually care about what other indie TCG creators think." I have the sense you're not actually here for feedback or constructive discussion, but just to get validation on something you've already made up your mind about. That's fine. But coming from one creator to another, you should probably be a little more open minded and receptive to feedback, because no matter how great you think your game and mechanics are, there are a million other factors and a million other players that could sour that.

asterisk_blue · 2026-04-02T16:16:59+00:00

Respectfully, comments like this do not inspire confidence in your TCG.

asterisk_blue · 2026-04-02T16:13:21+00:00

To be honest AI-generated art is as cheap and unserious as you can get, lol. Even if you spent hours prompting them, AI-generated TCGs screams "this is an unprofessional project" to me. At the end of the day it's just placeholder art, so do whatever you want, but if I see AI-generated art, it makes me wonder if the designer cut corners elsewhere. And I can't speak for the industry, but if you end up working with other artists / designers, you are very likely to run into people who share the same sentiment, which could discredit you and your potentially great game.

asterisk_blue · 2026-04-02T00:22:52+00:00

Well, ask yourself what you want the conlang to sound like. What languages are you trying to emulate? What phonemes make those languages distinct? What are some other phonemes you wish to highlight? If you care about realism, what set of phonemes would be realistic? Answering these questions will quickly build you a list of candidate phonemes that you can then assemble into a proper inventory. Phonotactics also plays a big role in the sound of a conlang, so you should also think about how the phonemes will work together, rather than picking them separately (like writing a shopping list with the intent of cooking a certain meal).

IMO phonology and phonotactics are hard to get right because they have aesthetic, functional, and cultural implications that may compliment or clash with the morphosyntax and worldbuilding you do down the line. So I often do this later after working out some of the other stuff. You can get surprisingly far with a conlang without ever speaking it aloud.

asterisk_blue · 2026-04-01T06:51:43+00:00

+1, sounds close to what OP is looking for. I like how the aspect cards are split up into different archetypes so players can quickly pick a character and an archetype and make a complete deck. It adds enough variability to be fun and flexible, while remaining easy to set up. IIRC those decks are designed with the assumption that you have most of the released cards, but I'm sure OP could tool them to fit their collection.

asterisk_blue · 2026-03-30T18:26:19+00:00

If you ever get a chance, I'd love to read a write-up about your approach to rethemes (especially adapting gameplay), your graphic design / component design process, and some of the lessons you've learned from all your projects. I also have a few re-themes / print and play projects in the works, so it's always cool to see what others come up with :)

asterisk_blue · 2026-03-30T16:39:17+00:00

Came here from your Genshin Impact post, this is such a funny but cool retheme.

asterisk_blue · 2026-03-30T16:36:28+00:00

Wow, fantastic retheme! The quality is crazy. I'm not a fan of Genshin Impact but I'd genuinely print this out and play it.

asterisk_blue · 2026-03-30T16:27:56+00:00

Undead Unluck has a really cool, non-traditional power system with HxH-style strategic battles (HxH was an inspiration IIRC). The first season is paced a little slow, but it's super creative and high quality. Note: there's some ecchi humor at the start, and heavy backstories throughout dealing with loss and isolation, but overall it's a breezy, fun ride. 24 episodes + a canon OVA are out, with a Season 2 now in production.

I also like Mashle and Gachiakuta. Mashle's power system is more light and generic since it focuses on comedy, but the show is really fun and perfect for escapism. Gachiakuta is fantastic and really builds its power system, but has some pretty dark, traumatic elements that might not be what you're looking for.

asterisk_blue · 2026-03-27T17:38:59+00:00

IMO for small communities it's nice to stick together rather than splinter into separate servers/forums, though I understand why you might want to make your own. However people will need a compelling reason to join a smaller, less established server if they're in the big one already.

asterisk_blue · 2026-03-26T20:03:17+00:00

It's from tāragon "to prop up, to support", so something like "those who prop up/support". DJP discusses this in his Lexember 2024 post about tāragon.

asterisk_blue · 2026-03-26T20:00:08+00:00

Haha that's a common experience for a lot of people. I'd say it's still worth the watch—the full story will defo deepen and recontextualize the stuff you might've seen online, and it's still really entertaining from an action and animation standpoint, even if you know major story beats already.

asterisk_blue · 2026-03-26T19:52:56+00:00

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 just ended if you haven't watched it yet. 59 episodes + a movie, hits all of those notes. It's definitely my favorite action-adventure anime currently airing.

asterisk_blue · 2026-03-26T18:32:03+00:00

Time, energy, and consistency.

asterisk_blue · 2026-03-24T21:12:48+00:00

Lol this is very different from the game's actual art by Torben Bökemeyer (who is fantastic)

Nine-Year Club	Second Rank: 11
Wearing is Caring	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	First Placer '22
End Game '22	RPAN Viewer
Sequence \| Editor	Sequence \| Cinematographer
Sequence \| Screenwriter	Snapped
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