Getting words out

21 Jul, 2026

WRITING IN FLOW

For almost two months, I have now done more than forty posts here on Writing my Odd Game.

That came naturally through the first thirty days; the parts that were crystalline were effortless to put into blog, and also into paper afterwards.

After what I considered the beta version of cramOS to be mostly done, it was time to let it simmer, see how it played, research some more games and books.

In the meantime, I also found a partner in crime to make some art for the book! Give Ryan Dear a check, he has been incredible (and on bsky as well).

I also had a sweet vacation, which gave me many days to reflect with pen and paper, cooking ideas outside of typing.

After that, I spent a handful of days layouting the many ideas I had for my Appendix N Jam: The Alchemist's Hollow Bride.

It's free, it's - humbly - a tight and wellwritten adventure, but it's indie and not that well polished like some incredible submissions (such as Cemetery of the Silent Monks; look at this product, jeez).

That was a very fun process, albeit too time consuming - I spent too many days obsessing over how to fit everything into it. And to say an indie guy trying his best like me has any chance is farfetched. These people have teams, consolidated artists, and many releases. My name is out there, though, and I am sure people will have a good time playing if they do, so there's that.

And those days - coupled with some excellent feedback from amazing proofreaders - led me to conclusions that I shared here these last few days.

So, now it is time to continue cramOS, and that the natural flow of words and ideas is mostly done; the magical monthlong stream of posts is no more. What to do?

WRITING IN FOCUS

I suppose digging up gems, to use an analogy by Murkdice on a discord recently, is the easy part.

You just have to find the shiny bits and bring it up, but now you have a box of weirdly shaped stones that are still not precious gems one would go to the store for.

It's time to polish. Fix. Change. Rethink. This blog was born from a particular need to distill ideas, to think aloud, and to motivate; let's put it to use.

CHANGING SCOPE

As mentioned in the linked post above, cramOS can't be simply a dungeon crawler TTRPG.

That is because of three main reasons.

1. I am not a huge dungeon crawler DM.

So how can I expect to write an amazing game focused on it? Play to my strengths, get back to basics.

2. There are amazing dungeon crawlers out there.

Fitting cramOS into a saturated market with stellar products is throwing it into the void.

3. The pointcrawl system is much more polished, and is now holding the most interesting parts of the Weirdness and the Lore.

Reading over the version I printed for myself - and also pointed out by others - the world of Crimson Rock was as many parts incredible in its flavor, its religions, settlements and tables, as well as barren. And surely, that was by design, but if traveling around is where the fun and uniqueness is, that's where the development is taking the project.

Compared to burrows, it was a much more robust system already. It's crispier, and also better written, if I may self evaluate.

The challenge, then, was to make the pointcrawl more robust than just two different thing.

I have to do more Points of Interest.

ANOMALIES AND STUFF

Which leaves us here, on yesterday's post on Anomalies.

Anomalies will be rare, 1 in each 4/5 Points of a Region; so no more than two per Region will be more than enough.

But they are, for the lack of better word, very abstract. These have been challenging to translate not only into text, but into a functional idea for others to built into.

I could do Glimmers and Paradoxes for a game, but how the hell am I supposed to inform and help a GM on how to make an Escher-esque dungeon that breaks the laws of physics?

DIFFERENT REWARDS FOR DIFFERENT POINTS

Alternatively, I did find their rewards great; the idea to have varied Points was born together with the concept of creating different rewards besides Scraps and Parts. Simply, if the gameplay is balancing these resources, Players must have other means to adquire them besides Scrap to heal and fix.

So now aParty may attempt to face a Glimmer in order to heal an attribute back to full, which not only is worth many scraps, but leaves that stat with Advantage until damaged again - which they can fight for their lives to preserve.

Similarly, Paradoxes as free fixing (which is usually less valuable than full heal) can also be tempting and a different dynamic - if I can ever codify that in a reasonable text during writing.

Besides those two, I have some other ideas to try and grasp into the shape of a gem. Challenges in a matrix? Natural wonders?

The gist of it is: healing is a resource, so it should be rewarded by exploring as much as scraps or Parts. So if Burrows are the deadly places to go for raw material, pausing at a Paradox to try and solve it to heal a badly broken Part may be better than simply moving ahead to the next Point. It's a break from the Settlements-and-Burrows duality. A place the Party can go for a change of pace.

So, how different of a gameplay should they be?

GAMEPLAY VARIETY

If Burrows are dungeon crawls, and settlements are areas of respite, social engagement with NPCs, and finding new objectives, what kind of gameplay must Anomalies bring?

Like a Final Fantasy game, they should be "minigames".

Consider for example the Monuments in Mythic Bastionland.

Well, anomalies are almost it, aren't they? But maybe they shouldn't get their SPIRIT full for free. It shouldn't be as intense as dungeoncrawls on burrows, but they should offer secondary, alternative challenges.

Can a TTRPG code different gameplays into its loop?

I imagine Glimmers to all be Heists, for example.

Every Glimmer is a nightmarish plot to steal its generating power as soon as possible, at the same time turning it off and giving the Reward.

So every Glimmer must not be a crawl, but a race.¹

So what can Paradoxes be? Just a huge single room puzzle? Is this something cramOS really need to make a rule for?

Maybe the Matrix one could be a PVP arena; couple that with the game pushing for the previously mentioned individuality², and you have a way to make PVP go hard and yet not deadly. Challengers could be waiting outside, or hold their titles in each arena.

Glimmers as Heists, Paradoxes as Puzzle boxes, Matrixbox as a fighting arena that doesn't spend resources and Players can go ham in a game with Combat as Failstate.

I think we are getting somewhere.