On Unnamed Horizons

Sunday, August 30, 2026

GLÅUGUST 2026 RECAP

CHALLENGE 1: GEOMETRISTICS & THE DOMAIN

CHALLENGE 2: WANYŪDŌ

CHALLENGE 3: MISCELLANY IN DRACULA'S CASTLE

CHALLENGE 4: THE LAWS OF SURRENDERING

CHALLENGE 5: THE COMPLETE CARRINGTON

CHALLENGE 6: ART CRAWL PART I

& ART CRAWL PART II

GLÅUGUST 2026: Art Crawl, Part II

Challenge 6, 6: "Select an artistic movement, and make a dungeon in reference to the works or habits of that artistic movement. Painting, writing, music, all work. The only forbidden thing is referencing artistic movements from TTRPGs, because that is too easy."

Check out Part I of this post here. Or don't- it basically is recapped in the full document.

First off, thank you to Xenophon, Purple, Ren, Dragoleaf, and anyone else who shared their Art History knowledge or opinions with me over the past few weeks!

Originally I intended to spend some more time on this one, but unfortunately the end of my summer suddenly got crazy busy so most of this was rushed out the door over the last three sleepless days in order to fit it in before the end of GLÅUGUST deadline.

Before checking it out though, please read the CONTENT WARNING on the first tab. This document does contain many real-world themes which may be distressing to some readers. If you aren’t in the right head-space for fighting back against downer real-world themes or you think this may distress you in any way, please feel free to tap out now and catch me on the next one. I wish you nothing but the best!

You can check out the full "exhibition" here.

In the future I may polish this up a bit more after running it a few times. Maybe use it as practice for formatting & publishing stuff, but for now it will be what it is. I hope you enjoy.

Tuesday, August 25, 2026

On Named Horizons (a post for the naming bandwagon)

Who am I to deny not only a potential bandwagon, but the humble request of a respected contemporary to clarify my rambling? At 3 AM. On a Tuesday. When I have a meeting early in the morning.

Anyway, this is my general flow for how I come up with names for things. If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up at Phlox's.

Step 1. Write Down A Slush Pile of Names / Words / Sounds

This process, ideally, is something you continually keep up as a habit for many years. Whenever you see a name or a sound or a word in the wild and it resonates with you on any level, just write it down on your phone or something. Preferably a plain text list with a name on each line.

If you haven't already been keeping up with this habit or you just need a new big list now, just start by brainstorming any names you like off the top of your head. Don't get caught up on whether its from something or it's cringe or what it means or whatever, just rapid fire the sounds.

Salmacis. Bongo. Târgoviște. Fortissimo. Rom.

Once you hit a wall, you're good. If you really feel like you need more stuff to keep going, it's time to pull from outside yourself.

Crack open a book and start looking at random words. Or Wikipedia, or a map, or a foreign language book, or the dictionary, it doesn't matter. Just collect those sounds that sound the most sound to you.

(OPTIONAL) Step 2. Curate Your List(s)

I don't often do this unless either:

A). The later steps in this process begin to feel a bit stale. Burn it all down for new growth.

B). Whatever I'm working on calls for some very specific vibe / constraints.

I'm not really much for conlangs or what have you, but if you want specific patterns to emerge then it's a good time to curate your list somehow.

Maybe cull out any of the actual names, or only include words from the same family of languages, or only include words that end in a vowel, or only select the top 25 entries that speak to you. Whatever. Trim things up however makes sense to you in the moment.

You also could split things up into multiple lists for multiple different in-fiction groupings of names/cultures/etc if you so wish as well.

Step 3. It's Random Generation Time

Time to move them Markov Chains. NO AI.

I use a badly-coded random generator of my own design, but for a basic and approachable one you can keep local on your machine I would recommend just using this one.

Just download the name.html file, and open it up in your text or code editor of choice.

Locate the section on Line 24 under src_names, and delete the entire contents.

Now we need to take whatever list you want to load in, and format it such that in between the [ ] brackets it looks something like: 'Salmacis','Bongo','Târgoviște','Fortissimo','Rom'

If you wrote your list down as a big text document, you can just Ctrl + R and find and replace all of the line breaks (either \n or just the Enter key or something else depending on your document type) with the separators ( ',' ), and then clean up the first and last entries manually.

(If you wrote things down some other way, you're on your own for figuring out how best to process them words. You're smart though, you got this.)

Once you have your list ready, copy & paste it in and then save the .html file.

When you're done you should be able to open the .html file in your web browser of choice, and click Generate to get a handful of random names.

Of course, in general having more names in your starting list will result in more varied results. However, the more similar names/patterns you put in (e.g. Hal, Bal, Cal) the more likely that a name with that pattern is to occur.

After you let it rip, you're not done yet though. We've ground up our tripe into sausage, but now we need to season that and pack it into the casing.

Step 4. Babble Like an Infant

This is the most important step.

Babies don't babble for no reason. Babies babble for a purpose. They are practicing and learning a language and feeling it with their mouths. So an important part of getting things to feel right is to say them out loud, so you don't find yourself trying to pronounce Totro random generation or keyboard smashes or whatever on the fly. (Not to insult Totro though. It also has it's place and can be used instead with the mouth-feeling here if you so wish).

If a randomly generated name catches your eye, say it a few times. Maybe say it in different voices or as part of different sentences. Envision what you're naming as you say it. Really try it out.

Sometimes, a name will feel just a bit off as you say it.

For English speakers at least, we can try walking around the phonetic chart.

As you roll around a name in your mouth, you can try playing with the sounds. Let's use Scathrix as an example.

Maybe you should drop a sound or two off someplace? Cathrix, Thrix, Scathri, Scax.
There is kind of an unfortunate "Scat" at the start there. Maybe it'd be good to swap out one of the sounds with another in the same part of the mouth. Sgathrix, Zcathrix.
Or swap it out wholesale with something else? Siathrix, Hathrix, Thathrix, Scazrix.
Or maybe only one part of the name is resonating, like the "-thr-" part. Maybe it'd be good just to roll that around? Thrimble, Thraum, Yothr, Uthr, Athrid.

Or just throw it all out. After all, why waste the time? Hop along to another entry and roll that one around instead.

Whether something feels right or not is entirely up to your gut feeling at this point, but here's some various pointers and thoughts.

Don't do this on the fly at the table. It's a momentum killer. I often have a list of generic ready-to-use names I prepare using this method in advance for any immediate needs that I pull from instead.
Read this page on Bouba/kiki if you are not familiar. There's lots of innate patterns and vibes inherent to your culture and/or your language which colour how names feel, which are good to be aware of.
Similarly, reflect on the classics! Popular names in fiction work for their reasons. Sometimes a Glup Shitto glups shitto.
You are not beholden to having names fit the exact vibes of thing they are naming, so much as the name feeling right within the world. It's all a chance to get as functional with your world-building as you like.

There are often more explicit patterns in names. Sometimes its to do with the masculine or the feminine, or with your position in society, or what have you. How does the culture or history of the setting play into this?
Maybe biologically some creatures can only produce or make specific sounds in the first place. Lips and tongues vs beaks and tongues or suckers or other orifices.
If every villain is named Scathrix and every innocent wittle puppy is named Bumby, things are blatant and legible but maybe they lack verisimilitude. It's your call at the end of the day.
But then again sometimes in real life, people are born with names they hate. Or a name feels bad in the mouth. Or the name is just bad.

There's probably more I'm not thinking of but such is the nature of 3 AM writing.

This post by Ro Pham is licensed under CC BY 4.0, and may be used by anyone with proper attribution.

Saturday, August 15, 2026

GLÅUGUST 2026: The Complete Carrington

GLÅUGUST Challenge 5, #1: Write a location where roughly 80% or more of the language is directly lifted from a single author or poet (they can't be a ttrpg writer, don't be dull).

The following almost entirely uses paintings & text pulled directly from the works of surrealist painter and author Leonora Carrington. (A word or two has been added here and there, mainly some word tenses changed and some sections mixed around or re-arranged.)

But it's not just some of her works that I pulled from. I have tried to stuff aspects from every one of her published short-stories into one 117-node point crawl.

Players act as debutantes and sisters of some great family, with the collective goal of trying to figure out how to most intensely upset your mother at the upcoming ball in a few hours.

Please check it out via clicking here.

Leonora Carrington, Self-Portrait (Inn of the Dawn Horse), 1938

Misc Thoughts

I debated editing things more, to try and work in more game-able elements, challenges, motivations, etc., but figured it's not quite as in the spirit of the challenge to make broad sweeping changes. Besides, as Carrington was a surrealist, often these stories are abrupt or dreamlike after all.

As such, if one were to actually use this, a lot of improvisation and detail-filling would likely be needed for a more playable experience. Reading the short stories that these actually come from also likely would help.

In the laid out Scenario, each character is assumed to be a mundane-but-capable young woman with some level of education and training befitting a young socialite.

After adventuring around a while, the game enters its finale either: A). when the party is put into an inescapable / deathly situation, or B). most players feel like it's a good time to start wrapping things up.

At that moment: the dinner bell rings and everyone somehow hurries home to Crookhey Hall at once- along with any would-be captors & pursuers, any friends invited as guests, etc etc. Then, play out stirring as much chaos as possible before the curtain falls.

This post is a fan work, with no affiliation to any legally representative parties or rights holders.

Saturday, August 8, 2026

[Fan-work] JJBA: Siberian Khatru

Context

The main contents of this post were actually all originally written in other documents way back in 2017!

Back then: I wanted to experiment a bit with page layouts & such so I drew up an adaption of the PACE System by Fred Hicks for specifically playing games set in the world of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

(I won't share more than the logo I had made;
but I would highly recommend checking out
PACE for more board-gamey/Fiasco type games)

Of course, why make something without ever using it? And so JJBA: Siberian Khatru became a quick, little side-game to run with some friends.

Note: a lot of the actual encounter spaces were left a bit sparse of descriptions, largely relying on improvisation thanks to the randomisation. This is also to suit the central mechanic of PACE, which essentially lets players push back on current circumstances or win challenges at the cost of expending points, with those points then going directly to their opposition to use against them later.

I've found this narrative push-and-pull mechanic really suits those moments in JoJo where some improbable, unexpected, or fated circumstance occurs (e.g. a character just happening to be in the right spot, a useful item for the fight being nearby, etc), as long as there wasn't too much pre-existing bulk to push back against.

Scenario:「Siberian Khatru」

August, 1965!

The Sound of Music is an international hit film only a few months after it’s debut.
The Beatles have released their fifth album, “Help!”
Ian Fleming, the creator of the James Bond series, has been dead for one year.

The Civil Rights movement is still recoiling from the Watts Riots, which are still fresh in the minds of the American public.
The US is a few months into Operation Rolling Thunder, escalating their conflict with North Vietnam.
The Berlin Wall is currently receiving another reinforcement.

------

Each of your characters is a「Stand User.」

Whether through coercion or voluntary service: they are also an agent either working directly for the US government or on loan from one of their NATO allies.

Your current handler, CIA Agent Michael Snow, has briefed you with the following document intercepted from the Soviets.

Within the last few weeks: Jola Gajos has escaped the facility.

In that time she's made contact with at least half a dozen US-based television personalities through supernatural means, in order to get our attention and ask for assistance.

It is your mission rendezvous with Jola, and bring her back to the land of the free & the home of the brave via West Berlin.

------

Jola "YoYo" Gajos

Stand: 「Dream Police」

「Dream Police」appears to be a small humanoid Stand, with a hazy cloud-like motif. It also features an exposed brain, camera-like eyes, and one arm that's a spike.
Humanity as a whole shares a certain set of instincts and drives to survive, a shared will known as the Collective Unconscious. And what is a Stand, but a manifestation of a person's will to fight and survive? YoYo's「Dream Police」can explore the Collective Unconscious, and find the Truth of anyone who has ever「dreamed」.

Essentially 「Dream Police」 allows it's user to learn anything anyone may know- with the following caveats:

It is not precise; it can basically pull a single random vignette of a target's life at a time.
YoYo must know the target somehow; usually through briefly meeting them, but reading her a well-researched dossier will do if you help her with the big words.
If somehow someone never dreamed before, or they haven't dreamed since learning something, or they are a lucid dreamer, or otherwise an unreliable witness- then this ability won't work or can be fed unreliable information.

「Dream Police」can also manifest over any sleeping person she's familiar with, at any range, and interact with them or objects near them; though this takes intense focus on YoYo's part. In theory this would make YoYo an incredible assassin, however she is 7 and unwilling to kill anyone.

Jola dresses in bright fuzzy clothes, criss-crossed with all sorts of dashed lines. She is often day-dreamy and child-like when things are quiet.

Despite having been separated from her family in Poland, back just before the Cuban Missile Crisis, YoYo still has a serene presence. She also has this tenacity and keen insight which emerges in tense situations that has let her survive so long, despite the constant experiments and training. (Effectively: as-needed Speedwagon narrator).

Misc Other Rules

Death

After a character dies & the fight that killed them is over, the survivors are allowed to say one final goodbye to them as their soul ascends into the clouds.

Whenever they arrive at the next city, somehow a new ally emerges and joins the party. Maybe they also work with the CIA, or otherwise are anti-USSR, or sympathise with poor little YoYo, whatever justification you need.

If somehow YoYo dies, you lose.

If somehow everyone dies, you lose.

Injuries

We are on Part 3 logic- everything short of getting a limb hacked off or shot in the head is just kinda shrugged off by the time you arrive at the next city.

Travel Logistics

The nitty gritty logistics of travel aren't really a concern. Vehicles? Food? Money? Somehow you're taking care of that with agent skills or Stando Powah, role play it out but it doesn't matter mechanically.

The important parts are the "challenges" of how you are travelling. Whenever you travel between cities, roll on the list below and then scratch out the entry you rolled. Your party needs to somehow navigate this obstacle and move on.

The party needs to receive a dead drop from their handler, with a key item they need. The enemy is also aware, and moving to intercept it.
YoYo has been kidnapped somehow by the enemy, and needs to be retrieved immediately.
The party needs to make it through a border crossing. An enemy is also crossing at the same time.
The party needs to traverse a minefield or other militarised rough terrain, while being assaulted by the enemy.
The train/plane/boat the party is taking is sabotaged, and an enemy is using the opportunity to ambush them.
The party is staying undercover at a hotel, where the enemy is also staying.
The party needs to meet up with an allied contact, before an enemy can get to them.
The party needs to infiltrate a fancy party in order to meet a contact. The enemy is also in attendance, but isn't aware of the party.
A supposed ally comes to help the party. They are actually an enemy, and this is a trap.
The party is completely cut off from supplies, stranded, tired, and now being assaulted by an unseen enemy.
The enemy covertly attacks the party in a large, crowded, public space.
The enemy attacks the party while they are driving on a bridge, both groups in cars.
The party must traverse an urban environment littered with surveillance and an enemy already looking for them.
The party needs to protect a receiver from the enemy, in order to receive a key message from their CIA handler via numbers station.
The party needs to identify/locate the enemy Stand User in the first place.
The entire party is captured, and needs to escape the enemy & their interrogators.
The party is just chilling, when the enemy basically just walks up and starts the fight.
Some bizarre random thing happens, and then the enemy attacks shortly after.
The party needs medical care, and is attacked by the enemy while they are receiving it.
The party actually catches the enemy at a seemingly inopportune time for them.

Tone and Speeches

Have Wikipedia open on your phone and be ready to give a random ranting speech detailing either the cities the players are going to, Cold War era politics, or other random esoteric facts. It's important for the tone. Narrator's choice on what to hyperfixate on.

The Map & Length of a Game

Really, all of this is pretty loosey-goosey. Break out a historical map and just kind of point out a route going through any cities you recognise or how long of a game everybody wants to play. For each city you add, you have to roll for another travel challenge & fight another Stand User.

Depending on the plans of the party, in theory you could just speed run this through travelling out by water or by air, but where's the fun in that?

A recommended route might be going by land from: Vilna > Leningrad > Moscow > Minsk > Bialystock > Warsaw > Poznań > Szczecin > Frankfurt > East Berlin > The Berlin Wall

And then of course, the Finale & Epilogue entries come after.

1. Vili Jokela

Stand: 「We Didn't Start The Fire」

Commonly shortened to「Didn't Start」
Long Range, Autonomous, Non-Humanoid Stand
Upon activating his Stand, Vili may specify an object.

Anyone who touches that object has their "appearance" overwritten after a couple of moments, such that they all appear to be identical trench coat wearing Stand-like figures.

(This is half-true- it actually works on any object that touches that object).

All five senses are completely fooled by「Didn't Start」, however indirect means of observation (e.g. painting a mark on a target) or inherent properties (e.g. the weight of a target) are unaffected.

The effects of 「Didn't Start」may either be dispelled at will by Vili, if a target moves far enough away from Vili, or when Vili is physically or psychologically defeated.

They are NOT dispelled when Vili switches which object his Stand is specifying, though Vili will try to keep that part secret.

Q, from Streetfighter

Vili will usually first appear to the party anonymised via his Stand. His real form though is that of a bulging and hardy fellow, stuffed into the exact same outfit as his Stand's effect but nearly bursting at the seams. Underneath his hat, he has an awful whacky haircut.

Vili was born and raised in Helsinki, and technically works for Supo. However, as part of an agreement to appease the USSR, he has been forced into cooperating with them as part of their research into Stands.

Usually his missions focus on support roles, including anonymising people and transporting them under enemy observation or through active combat zones. As such, he is very begrudging and conflicted about dealing with the party.

Vili carries a pistol, and is a decent marksman.
In a pinch: Vili will use his Stand on something handheld and then tap that against random objects in order to create lifeless mannequin decoys.
Vili's ability is good for blending in to a crowd, sure, but it is especially good at sowing chaos. Whether it's a crowd of people or amongst a bunch of armed officers, it can make non-Stand Users lose their cool and get paranoid quickly.

Vili also won't hesitate to stoke things into a violent riot.
Also the whole "no no shoot him not me I'm the real one" gambit.

2. THOP Elite Sting Team

Stand: 「Russians」

「Russians」is a post-mortem multi-unit Stand. They each look like a locust crossed with a tank, and each one is tied to a single dog tag recovered off the corpse of a single member of the Amur Tiger Squad who died in Stalingrad.

The bearer of one of 「Russians'」tags is, for all intents and purposes a Stand User- even if they wouldn't be one normally. This mainly lets them see Stands.
Each bearer of a tag may also do the following:

See through each others' eyes
Teleport objects to the same locations on one another (e.g. a soldier holding a clip in his right hand can teleport the clip to another soldiers right hand)

The THOP Elite Sting Team is a highly-trained, well-coordinated, military strike force that specialises in ambushes. They will come in assault gear to kick the doors down, firing assault rifles, throwing smoke grenades, and doing all kinds of Counter Strike tacticool military stuff.

What they have in numbers and firepower though, they lack in creativity. They think like a conventional soldier and not a Stand User. They mainly just use their Stand to coordinate, and maybe the occasional tricky move. Since it's not their Stand, it's not really that intuitive to them.

------

If the rest of the THOP Elite Sting Team is defeated: their last survivor, their sniper Vanya Fyodorov who was providing backup from the rear, will emerge from the dust and reveal that 「Russians」 has undergone an evolution to become...

Stand: 「Fortunate Son」

Vanya has wrapped his arms in the dog tags of all of his fallen brothers, and the Stand itself has evolved it's design to appear as a single vibrating soldier that casts of hazy afterimages of itself randomly in every direction.
「Fortunate Son」only grants its powers now to Vanya, nobody else.
Each of Vanya's bullets somehow appears to be coated with the blood of his fallen comrades. Instead of teleporting comrade-to-comrade, Vanya can now either

teleport an object to a bullet
teleport himself to a bullet

Unlike before, Vanya can use this ability in many creative ways:

Shoot through a thin wall to traverse it
Shoot far away to get some distance, or into the air to ascend
Throw or place multiple other unfired bullets to teleport to
Shoot a bullet into a room to surprise breach it
Any of the above tricks, but teleporting a grenade in instead

Vanya, unlike his brothers in arms, is equipped with a big ass sniper rifle that's super loud. Where he got the live grenades, anybody's guess.

3. Agent "Orzabal"

Codename "Orzabal" is an MI6 agent, meant to be cooperating and providing support on this mission. Pick your favourite James Bond- he looks like that but with the funniest haircut you can think of, and a white tuxedo with an exaggerated hourglass cut.

He's swaggering, but in an inclusive middle-manager sort of way. We're all here, we're the best, and by god we're gonna do the thing! When he first shows up, he'll help the party through a couple mundane small challenges. However, this slowly shifts into him sabotaging and taking everyone else.

This is because he is under the influence of a Stand User tailing the party (see below).

If released from Matrona's control, he will wait a beat and then betray the party again one more time. Yes he was being influenced, but he also legitimately fell for Matrona and will kill the party out of that love.

------

Matrona “Motya” Skillings

Stand: 「Cult of Personality」

Commonly shortened to「Personality」
「Personality」is a Short Range, Independent Humanoid Stand. It takes the form of a buxom mechanical humanoid, that's always hanging on or touching Motya and whispering in her ear.

Hajime Sorayama I believe
「Personality」grants Motya a sort of innate magnetism. Even if she's fighting you, it's hard to hate her. If her Stand touches you, you physically cannot will yourself to harm her even as she harms you.
「Personality」also lets Motya read your feelings and motivations, which she uses to predict and manipulate others.

Motya looks like a Bond girl, but with a high-fashion gold motif.

At first, she'll hang off Orzabal and act like a ditz. However, as her true nature is revealed, she will drop the act and change personality completely. She's actually a very angry and abrasive person, and is upset that she isn't taken more as a legitimate and equal Soviet comrade.

4. 「Shades」& 「Spy」

"Maximilian"

Stand: 「Gotta Wear Shades」

「Shades」 look like a pair of Mensur goggles, as if rendered by Tohth but as a real object
「Shades」 allow Maximilian to see through most conditions, across multiple spectrums, through materials, etc.
Additionally, they also grant Maximilian the ability to predict probability perfectly; basically allowing him to see the future.

This helps him avoid a lot of things very easily, however he's still only human. If something is big enough, or unpredictable, or unexpected enough; he can still get caught.
It also requires Maximilian to actually be focusing and doing the actual math. In theory he could be overwhelmed or overlook factors if there's too much going on.

Maximilian isn't his real name, but he's changed it since joining up with the Soviets. Maximilian is a former Nazi rocket scientist you see. He was forcibly recruited into working for the Soviets after the war. He still has a lot of his Nazi ideals and resents his Soviet masters, but ultimately he really could care less. He’s still pursuing his science for, in his mind, the same sorts of people anyway. He doesn't care as long as they let him build rockets.

Maximilian will use a wrench, and whatever is in the scenery, to isolate an opponent and take them apart one by one.

------

Robert Yuri

Stand: 「Spy」

「Spy」 is a Humanoid Stand, that initially looks like a person painted with something even darker than vantablack; like a silhouette that is drinking in the environment around itself.

As it's effect expands: it slowly grows in size and begins to clip through the world around it, like a wandering giant. Eventually if it grows big enough, you're just completely enveloped in void and can't make out it's humanoid shape at all.

Anything within「Spy's」darkness is completely deprived of their senses, as if they were put in a sensory deprivation tank.

There is one exception to this: the target can still feel pain and sense injuries on their bodies.

Eventually, with no sensory inputs, targets begin to hallucinate things around them.

Yuri is a man so silent, he won't even speak on his death bed. He's almost dressed entirely normally, perhaps being slightly too gucci for his era.

5. 「Atom Bomb Baby」& 「This Fire」

Rodya Romanov

Stand: 「Atom Bomb Baby」
Close Range Stand, looks like a metal statue of an elephant melting into a bathtub.
Rodya is essentially just a walking nuclear bomb.
Rodya looks like a patient from a psikhushka, because he used to be. Until one day his Stand started spitting rads, and the Soviet researchers nabbed him.
Rodya is relatively passive, but also: depressively suicidal. He'll constantly mumble about considering to blow himself up right now. Which, given his Stand, would also likely initiate World War III and end the world in Nuclear Holocaust. "But would that be so bad? The world kind of sucks anyway..."
------

Aleksey Kozlov

Stand: 「This Fire」
Close Range Humanoid stand, that looks like a cross between a motorcycle, a skeleton, and a female dominatrix pegging a male soldier. It has multiple sets of eyes, all of which seem to be pushed deeper into their heads then makes sense.
Aleksey will keep this a secret until needed, but his Stand can actually look at 3 targets at once.
Whoever 「This Fire」 stares at begins to feel as if the Stand's eyes are boring a way through them. They feel their self-control weaken, and a strong compulsion to act as instructed.
If Aleksey says the phrase "Walking Away"- instead of following commands, the target loses all self control and begins to act on their underlying feelings and thoughts; even if it would greatly jeopardise them.
Aleksey is your stereotypical American-film type Soviet hard-ass commanding officer. His uniform has that "covered in medals" look, however the medals instead are all random high fashion little pins and other non-regulation designs.
He was transferred as an added security measure to help control Rodya; or to potentially deploy together with him as a living nuclear weapon if need be.
Aleksey is the kind of unhinged man who might just turn the key, press the button, and end the world if he perceives he's starting to lose.

6. Bernhard Lloyd

Stand: 「Forever Young」
Nobody aside from Bernhard can see「Forever Young」, as it only appears while his ability is active. If one could see it though, it looks like a combination of a gas mask, and a chess rook.
While 「Forever Young」is active: time is stopped indefinitely, until Bernhard wishes it to move again. However: Bernhard cannot move in the stopped time.
Basically, this allows Bernhard an unlimited time to think and reflect on things.
While time is stopped, he can't move his head or eyes at all.
Even if it effectively has no physical power, Bernhard can constantly activate and deactivate his Stand at a near instantaneous speed to allow himself to perform frame-perfect movements; giving him an unparalleled level of precision.
That said, he is still human. He just uses his time much more efficiently, but if something is faster or inevitable there's not much he can do about it.
Bernhard used to be a famous East German chess prodigy, going toe-to-toe with the likes of Petrosian or Spassky. However, when it was discovered he was utilising his Stand during his games, the Soviets quietly banned him from play and moved him to the supernatural research division. While this was done to keep Stands classified and avoid potentially disgracing the Soviets with a cheating scandal on the world stage, it's left Bernhard bitter and sadistic. These days he pretty much only lives for the thrill of the fight, choosing to fight with nothing but a Colt Single Action Arny for the thrill of reloading in battle.

7. Katerina Borislava

Stand: 「Breathing」
「Breathing」is a Long Range Stand that affects the area around Katerina. They look like tiny little fucked up screaming robot orb guys you might see to market a GPU in the early 2000s, and are no bigger than a grain of sand.
Basically: if Katerina is having a panic attack, EVERYONE in the vicinity around her is having one too.
If this gets bad enough or goes on long enough, everyone aside from Katerina dies from either a heart attack or a lack of oxygen
Rurik resists this thanks to having a supplemental oxygen tank, and an artificial cyborg heart designed by former Nazi scientists.
She looks like a human version of one of those tiny yappy dogs with the really really long hair. Like a wandering mop. She's incredibly short for her age as well.
Katerina normally acts like a sort of vapid teenage girl, but at the slightest inconvenience she'll completely flip personalities and have a complete panic attack over the most unexpected or bizarre things (e.g. there being crust on her sandwich, people whose first and last names rhyme, etc). Really only her handler, Rurik, has a good knowledge of what will set her off.
------

Rurik

A brick wall of a man, with a goatee and dark glasses and an oxygen tank. He looks less like a Soviet agent, and more like a Hollywood talent manager. He tries to act like one to, but ends up doing all sorts of debasing and demeaning stuff in order to keep Katerina happy instead.

He has no actual combat expertise, and relies on Katerina to set up easy kills for him by snuffing people with a pillow or something while he breathes from his oxygen tank. He is legitimately really good at managing Katerina though.

8. Gabriela Kerner

Stand: 「99 Luftballons」
Her Stand consists of a series of rings, about the size of your fist. The majority of these lenses are actually affixed to balloons, which Gabriela brings with her as part of her disguise.
Some of the balloons are decoys though, and some rings she actually keeps on her person for emergnecies.
Whatever enters one ring, exits another as an "extended" and "split" version (e.g. a tip of an umbrella might enter as an I-shape but then emerge from another lens as an elongated Y-shape).
Gabriela is adept at using these lens to stab at targets from unpredictable angles, including stabbing from one lens into another lens.
Or just to make like a deer antler nest of stabbing points.
She can also chain lenses in order to produce a wall or cage made entirely from a single straight object.
The lenses can also be used defensively, in order to intercept a strike or bullet and then move in between where the two elongations go.
Or to trap peoples limbs in them to make them jumbled and unwieldy.
Gabriela is actually a freelance assassin. She has currently been hired by a representative of the Soviets known as "Ivan" in order to kill the party and retrieve YoYo. It's nothing personal, she just needs the money you see.
She usually operates covertly in public as a balloon seller, and by covertly pricking people with her poison-tipped umbrella in crowds. Unless the victim ingests an ampoule of the antidote within an hour, they'll die of a heart attack. (Luckily though, she carries six ampoules on her person at all times in case she accidentally pricks herself).

9. Piotr Gabriel

Stand: 「Games Without Frontiers」
Commonly shortened to「Games」
Anyone affected by「Games」gets a little mascot that appears on their shoulder, and acts as a referee. Piotr's mascot looks like a little an animatronic Capuchin monkey that's been ripped in half down the middle, carrying a walkie talkie
This Stand "enforces" the game plans of its targets. For example: if an opponent plans on turning right, they will be forced to go right no matter what. Even if suddenly a car comes plunging down the alley, you are forced to continue going forward into it.
Piotr uses this to trick people- either setting up traps, anticipating opponent's moves, forcing mistakes, etc.

Piotr is, seemingly, just a normal Polish citizen. In fact he doesn’t even care for the Soviets, and is even willing to cooperate with the party. However, after hearing a code word by phone from "Ivan", he immediately “activates” Manchurian-candidate style and is ready to act.

His M.O. is asking people about their “plans” while normal, getting activated by his handler, then initiating the plan. In this state, he's obsessive about people doing what they’ll say, to the point where he’ll puppet their corpses to do what they said they would do.

10. Major Foma

Stand: 「Heroes」
A Close Range Stand, that resembles a heavily broken concrete statue of a big-bearded man held together by rebar and red handkerchiefs
「Heroes」lets Foma "borrow" time from his future self, to be used now.
In practice: this lets him freely move at super speed. In the span of one minute, he can do two minutes, an hour, a year's work.
Foma uses this constantly, and in stupid and inefficient ways (e.g. digging a tunnel with his bare hands instead of finding a shovel first).
He doesn't know it, but as of now he only has about three years left in him; from burning so much of it up for his comrades.
Eventually: Foma will run out of time. This will leave him permanently frozen in time, a living statue unable to think or die.

Major Foma was born a common man, and he will insist that's all he is. But to his peers he's known as the Hammer of the People, and a true Hero of Communism. He looks like he walked right out of a propaganda poster, but he's a genuinely noble and good person. He is a true believer in the cause, and spits a constant stream of propaganda as he labours for his comrades.

He actually intends to defeat the party, and return YoYo to whatever distant relations of hers he can track down in Poland. This is a doomed and foolish plan, as there's nothing stopping her from being put right back where she started beyond firm insistence.

11. Yakov Yakovlev

Stand: 「Burning Hearts」
「Burning Hearts」is gargantuan, a torso looming over the horizon. It looks akin to mythological Atlas, but the head has been replaced by a Klein Bottle. Each hand is easily the span of an entire city.
Once activated,「Burning Hearts」will place both it parallel at two points in the nearby city- as if about to clap.
This is a timer. As it goes, 「Burning Hearts」will slowly cup it's hands together in order to force people to race toward the center point.
「Burning Hearts」only affects Yakov and any targets he deems worthy opponents. This excludes YoYo and any civilians nearby. It can't physically touch anything.
As the edges of each hand approach you, your autonomic nervous system kicks into overdrive. Hearts pump, adrenaline rushes, fight-or-flight takes over and you tap into ever reserve in your body to achieve your absolute limit.
If you actually touch one of the hands, you die on the spot from shock as your heart explodes and your muscles tear themselves apart.
The only ways to survive the effects of the Stand are to either kill the user, or to be at the centre.

Yakov is rocking a blonde skullet, leather racing suit, and the worst moustache you've ever seen in your goddamn life. He also probably drove up in his bitching custom Bizzarrini 5300 GT, which he will use to race you if you have a car. If you don't, he's willing to race you on foot.

I'm not a car-guy but hopefully this is the right Bizzarrini

Yakov did not join the Soviets for wealth or status. In his own words, Yakov joined up to reach his peak. He believes that one may only thrive through the constant challenging of others; and he often finds challenge in this profession. He does not deceive, he does not trick, and he explains every rule in advance. He only wishes to straight forward compete.

If somehow everyone reaches the centre alive, Yakov will peacefully part and leave the party and YoYo alone.

12. Philip Klossner

Stand: 「Land of Confusion」

This Stand looks like a prehensile network of nerves, which elongate and stretches to encompass a few city streets at a given time. At anytime, the nerves can contort in order to form a contorted caricature version of Phillip's face that can speak to people.

I picture Phillip's apparation looking like this Apple
commercial of Big Brother, but more contorted

Phillip can see, hear, and touch through「Land of Confusion」. The Stand itself is also basically immune from direct harm.
It can also tie people up and generate sparks between it's different nerves. These sparks are typically very minor, unless given time to charge up- at which point it can become lethal.

Phillip is your typical pale, shut in, creep who watches people through cameras. He watches everything, and reports his neighbours constantly.

Phillip is the lowest of the low, and he'll try every dirty trick in the book to bait people into traps or deal with a hostage situation or whatever means he can to kill people off. Really the only way to deal with him is to locate wherever he's hiding, and stop him.

Finale: The Wall

What is a final battle without a big set piece? And where else for this but the Berlin Wall.
Amidst the recently erected concrete slabs and watch towers and guard patrols, one final Stand User stands between the party and escaping with YoYo.
------
Ivan Lenin
Stand: 「Back to the USSR」
Commonly abbreviated as 「B2U」
Looks like Baba Yaga's House, but the house part has been replaced with a concrete brutalist structure. It's still got chicken legs though.
It can bend space-time, in order to bring two points next to each other.
This is incredibly powerful and versatile- allowing Ivan to warp people or objects around however he pleases. He can only do so one at a time though.
He also uses it to reflect blows or projectiles by bending space to redirect them.

Ivan Lenin is the head of the Soviet program researching the supernatural. He is a veteran who picked apart the cyborgs at Stalingrad, witnessed the vampires retreating to Sicily, dissected the Hamon masters captured by the CCP, and is currently embroiled in studying the potential of Stand Users.

He does all this, not for Communism or for the dialectic or for winning the Cold War. He does this for 「Balance」 on a cosmic scale. The world, in his eyes, has been shifting out of alignment for centuries. Mechanisation, information, the ever shifting nature of technology is upsetting the sense of order which must be maintained between all things in the world. He believes YoYo can help restore this「Balance」, for the greater good, by controlling the dreams and hearts of people and guiding them to a more perfect future.

Epilogue

The party's CIA handler, Michael Snow, extracts them from West Berlin and flies them covertly to a secure facility located somewhere offsite in Langley, Virginia.
Here, they are to turn over YoYo to the custody of the US government's new supernatural research division up north; where Michael assures you that YoYo will be treated well.
If this ultimatum is rejected, Mr. Snow will "store" YoYo and personally take out the party along with his CIA security retinue.
If the party somehow survives, they'll receive an outreach from the Speedwagon Foundation with some more potential options.
------
Michael Snow
Stand: 「Pull My Trigger」
Usually just referred to as「Trigger」
As「Trigger」is the real final Stand User, it's design fits that mould. It incorporates a lot of sharp triangles and asymmetry into it's design, especially as it is missing it's left arm.
This Stand allows the user to "store" things inside of an object. They may only do this up to the number of fingers the user has, which in this case is 5.
This cannot store anything larger than the size of a car, and the object it's stored in needs to at least be about as big as a playing card.
Anything that's stored is kept in stasis- time doesn't seem to pass for it while it's stored.
Mike can also store phenomena like active explosions, shooting bullets, or even another Stand's effects to release later as he chooses.
A stored object may be released either at will by Mike, or upon a "trigger" that he specifies upon storing an object. They are also released if he dies.

Michael Snow is dressed in a bespoke suit, with a lot of triangle designs. He also only possesses one natural right hand, and one cybernetic prosthetic left arm designed by a Nazi scientist as part of Operation Paperclip. His weapon of choice is actually a humble baseball bat, which he uses with his prosthetic arm to frightening effect.

His power lends itself to all sorts of traps and tricks, or even just storing an explosion inside of a rock and batting it at people. He oscillates between guile and brutality very easily. Not to mention he will utilise his fellow CIA agents however is needed to achieve his aims.

Unlike your Soviet enemies, Michael has no dreams of patriotism or delusional aspirations. "It's all about whoever can walk up with the biggest stick, you see. Always has been, always will be." He only pursues money and power for his own personal ends.

This post is a fan work, based on the world of Hirohiko Araki's "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", with no affiliation to any legally representative parties (such as Lucky Land Communications, David Productions, Viz Media, the rights holders for the music or other art referenced, etc).

Monday, August 3, 2026

GLÅUGUST 2026: [MUGM] Geometristics & the Domain

Domains

People constantly shape the world around themselves, and this is most true within their home. The way you might leave a drawer full of things, or where you put that book you were reading, or the smell in the air after you make a nice cup of tea just the way you like it. It all shapes the place with your intentions.

This is true too for truly puissant or masterful individuals. Deliberate work done over the course of decades shapes the workshop by the work, carving the grooves and patterns of mastery into a Locus to help any who would follow the same path. Some philosophical types even pose the concept of an "Ideal" Locus, a place achieved through perfect intention and perfect work in which anything is possible.

Monsters also have Domains if they settle in one place. This slowly twists the world into extensions of their own intentions and compulsions, creating what are colloquially known Dungeons.

Geometristics, according to a Geometrist

Geometrists are wizards, but they do not work spells in the conventional sense.

The Geometrist works with borders, pens, and politics. They toil to shape boundaries, to carve up the world with roads, and borders, and networks, and civilisation.

But not for the sake of their own Domain, at least not entirely.

Geometrists can see the innate "flow" of cause and effect. Whether you'd call it prophecy or fortune or destiny, they may ask a simple question about their Domain and intuitively know an exact- if abstract- path to "achieve" it.

For example: let's say you asked "How could I get everyone in this town to live a really, really long time?"

A normal, conventional thinker would think of normal conventional advice. A clean environment, plentiful resources, etc etc. All of this should reasonably help most residents of the town live longer and better lives.
A Geometrist would have the esoteric insight that the best way to achieve this would be to reconstruct every building to face the south. A road should then be constructed alongside the river to connect it to the town over. The forests to the north should be burned down completely, and not allowed to regrow. And, once this is all finished, any child who cannot yet walk on their own should be killed immediately.

The path as seen by a Geometrist is but one path forward, and more conventional means can arrive at comparable ends, sure. But the path charted by a Geometrist is a GUARANTEED one. As long as the vision is followed, then success is certain.

Only... the bigger the goal, the more grand and complicated the requirements.

Besides the limitations of time and resources, there's also all the damned wandering egos you need to contend with. Sometimes a single person stepping out of place can upset countless years of effort or require even more time to correct things, so reigning in dissidents in advance is key.

And all this goes without mentioning rival Geometrists, with their own paths and their own visions and their own requirements which almost always stand in direct conflict with yours.

Suffice it to say, the guaranteed path is not always the easiest one.

Geometristics, according to a Subversive awaiting execution

Whether Geometristics is even "real" is a matter of debate.

There is some truth to be found there. After all: the dedicated work and intentions of hundreds if not thousands of people surely may shape their greater Domain in some way. And history does have many accounts of inexplicable happenings, seemingly achieved through Geometristics.

However: countless mad lords have committed terrible deeds in the name of supposedly being a Geometrist and fulfilling a glorious vision. Whether they really were and merely stumbled in the process, or were deluded from the start, whose to say?

But even if Geometristics is completely real, it is by nature flawed. It relies on the conceptualisation and asking of a single question by a single fallible being.

Let's say I wanted to create a shining city. One that will surely reign for a thousand years. If the cost of founding that city was feuding and eradicating and destroying countless others, is that a fair path? Is that a fair question?

So I say: what if the Geometrist is asking the wrong question?

A concept I've been stewing on for my MuGM setting, which hopefully fits into Glaugust Challenge 1, #3: Spells of the Evil King.

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

GLÅUGUST 2026: Art Crawl, Part I

Making Art Pieces

Before you run this with anybody, it's very important that you have them MAKE some artistic creations. Preferably a handful of different things, the more the better. It doesn't really matter what medium they are in, but everyone making a variety of things is also good.

Don't worry about the quality, just use whatever time and skills you have. Using things you've made for a purpose other than this game is in bad taste. What matters is that it's creative, and that you made it yourself. Oh: and that the creator gives each piece it's own title.

Beyond this: only tell players that this is for a game you're running. The less information or knowledge they have beforehand, the better.

If possible: providing the art supplies & the structured time to do all this before the game is ideal.

Okay, all set?

Now give everybody a chance to share and discuss their work :)

Okay, all set for real now?

Character Creation

Each piece of art that the players have created is not only one of the many pieces in the art exhibition that the game takes place in, but it will also be one of the player characters they may control for this game.

Each player may select one Piece created by themselves or another player to be their character. If this Piece were to be destroyed or otherwise defeated during the course of play, they may simply select another one of the unchosen pieces to roll up as their next character.

Each Piece has four characteristics for the sake of play:

It's Title, which acts as your name of course.
It's Appearance, which is what you generally look like. Feel free to anthropomorphise Pieces however you wish, such that they generally have the capabilities of your average person.
It's Medium, which one of your abilities is based on from the list below. In the case of mixed media, pick whichever feels the most appropriate.
- If this Piece is a sculpture, crafted piece, or another form of tangible object: your presence is more solid and tactile compared to many other Pieces. As such: only another Piece which shares this Medium may directly harm you through physical violence. Other Mediums may still harm you indirectly through the use of traps, hazards, gravity, etc. There's also nothing stopping them from doing other things like imprisoning you, cursing you, etc.
- If this Piece is a painting, photograph, or another form of 2D art: then any optical illusion that you arrange may be treated as real and interacted with, as long as all observers immediately present are viewing it with an angle and lighting that would make the illusion seem real. For example: a black smudge painted on a wall may be a real hole when viewed directly from the front, or you may lift an entire building in one hand if the perspective makes it look tiny. All it takes is one observer stepping out of line to prevent this though.
- If this Piece is a film or another piece of "moving" content: you have a Runtime of about 100 Minutes, give or take an additional 3d6 Minutes. This is a timer, that ticks down for every real-life minute that passes once play starts. Once it hits 0, you rag-doll and drop dead on the spot. You may also spend your Minutes to manipulate time using any of the options below:
  - (10 Minutes) Montage: Anything that would be possible through good old manual labor, you can achieve by yourself in a quick montage.
  - (10 Minutes) Transition: You can fade, jump cut, wipe, etc. to instantly move your party to any location in the exhibition they have been to before. No explanation is needed for how you got here or how you got out of the situation you were in before- like a dream you're all just there. When you arrive, an Encounter happens and the pot resets (see below).
  - (10 Minutes) Slow-mo: Everything slows down into bullet time- until either you release it, you leave this area of the exhibition, or you lose consciousness. During Slow-mo: stop your timer. You can dodge and outmanoeuvre anything that moves. You can take as much time as you want to think on a problem, even in the middle of danger. You have perfect clarity, with all the time you need to process any emotions you're experiencing. You are in control.
  - (X Minutes) Time Lapse: For every Minute you choose to expend, you may age whatever you are touching by one whole Year.
- If this Piece is a poem, song, or other written work: you can speak any of the words or phrases that make you up in order to force a target to experience a specific sensation, emotion, or question they must seriously consider. You may use your words as written, or you can feel free to remix them on the spot.
It's Message, which your main ability is based on. Write this out Cottonmouth-style with your play group, as a single simply phrased Law of reality which is uniquely True for your character. You can base this purely on the content of a piece, but feel free to also go for as deep an interpretation as desired.

Rules

(I may need to trim these up later? But the idea is to keep things fairly fast, loose, and free flowing).

Regardless of what they are made of or how they are shaped, every Piece is assumed somehow capable of doing anything a typical climbing, swimming, rope-swinging adventuring type is capable of unless specifically stated otherwise.
Similarly: the constructions of their bodies offer them no special properties compared to an average human, unless stated otherwise by their Medium or Message.
Characters don't have Inventories per se; just what they can immediately carry on their person or drag around.
How do humans interact with sentient Pieces of art? They won't, don't think so hard about it. Focus on the mood and feeling of it, don't make a YouTube Video Essay about how this is actually all a dream happening in the mind of a dying artist.
Don't worry about Food, Sleep, etc. The game takes place in one dream-like night. Also you are pieces of art.
A Piece may only harm another if:

A.) they possess a weapon of some sort, even just a blunt object
B.) there are no obvious obstacles or other impediments at play preventing them from using that weapon (e.g. distance between them and the target, the target wearing armour, target is behind cover from bullets, etc)
C.) their victim is unable or unwilling to put up any resistance

if all of these are true, then a Piece may declare whatever damages or injuries are inflicted on their victim as they wish.

If Initiative were to be required, the party all goes first on a single turn; followed by any NPCs present all acting on a single turn; and so on.
Whenever your party does something attention-grabbing or enters an unexplored room/keyed area, add 1d6 to a central pot and then roll all dice currently in the pot. On 20+, an Encounter occurs and the pot empties.

When in doubt, the GM shall provide any other necessary rulings.

Scenario

You are all Pieces of art within an exhibition that's been touring for a couple years. In that time, countless thousands of faces have sneered at you like a sea of stippling dots before shuffling and shifting on.

The droning docents with their sharp uniforms and polished buttons must have delivered the same speeches about you to every half-asleep school child in the country. All of the little yellowed notecards read the same:

"confused"

"derivative"

"skill-less"

"insulting"

"degenerate"

The same circus prancing in front of your cages, day in and day out.

Only... today is different. Instead of being packaged up in neat little boxes with bubble wrap and packing peanuts to be moved on, some pieces were left on display as normal. Others were taken and just heaped up in great piles in the backrooms. Many were taken and just tossed about the place as part of a game, with a few even being destroyed beyond repair.

As the staff laughed and played, they talked of a great speech which will happen in the morning. A speech, which will be followed by a great conflagration.

But that is then, and for now it is still the night before.

And by whatever mercy can be found in this world, you and your fellows all have found will enough to try and escape however you can.

This little game will be set in contemporary time and place,
but I hope the inspiration for it is very clear.

A loose, scope-crept, first introduction to part of an attempt at Challenge 6, 6: "Select an artistic movement, and make a dungeon in reference to the works or habits of that artistic movement. Painting, writing, music, all work. The only forbidden thing is referencing artistic movements from TTRPGs, because that is too easy." conceived and written in one hazy sleep-deprived night when inspiration struck me.

I know strictly speaking"degenerate and banned art" is more of an enforced category as opposed to a movement per se, but I hope it still fits the vibes of things.

Expect the dungeon that actually completes this challenge soonish.