5E Kamigawa NEO by /u/letterephesus is incredible

In thinking about the little project I'm working(?) on over at PermaDeath.Net, one of the commercial game settings I'm undoubtedly drawing on as I imagine the Asciiverse is the world presented in last year's MTG set Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.  I have very fond memories of the original Kamigawa Block; it came at one of the highest points of my involvement in organized MTG, and in some ways it shows the early stages of the designers' approach to worldbuilding in which they take a theme and work out what an MTG world - that is, somewhat fantasy based with a nod to the color pie that defines MTG's ethics and magic - based upon that theme would look like.

In this case, the focus was Japanese mythology, history, and religion, and I really dug the flavor.  I've no doubt there are some Orientalist overtones...or at least undertones...but it was still a series of three sets (an old MTG block) with a setting that I enjoyed and hoped to go back to.  When the return to the plane was announced, and I realized that it was getting a cyberpunk update, I knew we were probably in for something pretty cool.

Now that I'm pondering a setting that shares some of the same thematic DNA, I'm even more drawn to some of the imagery from the set that hints at its fantasy + cyberpunk roots.  So, I figured I'd take a quick look and see what's out there as far as 5E interpretations of Kamigawa in the NEO era.

And...well, holy cow, I don't know that I need to look any farther than the first one that popped up for me.  Gabe Rodriguez, aka /u/letterephesus on Reddit, has shared his take on Neon Dynasty, and it's awesome.  The book he put together could be used to run a spectacular campaign in this techno-fantasy realm and is a lot of fun to just jump around and read through.

The direct GMBinder link is HERE, and I hope that if you follow it, you also take a moment to look at some of Gabe's other work either via the Reddit thread where this book was shared or his Patreon.  (And if anyone thinks I shouldn't link directly from here, please just let me know and I'll correct it.)  Turns out he's covered a number of MTG settings that haven't (yet?) gotten the official treatment from WotC with his patron supported effort Planeshifted...from what I can see, there could be hours of entertainment just browsing through the work he's done.

Journey with me into the Asciiverse!

 

When you have one oft-neglected geek blog, what's the best way to build up momentum?  Why, start working on a completely different blog, of course!

With quite a bit of outside help, I'm finally taking some time to detail the "retrocyberdungeonpunk" setting I wrote a little about way back when.  There's just a tiny "team" plugging away at it, but the first few posts have gone up quickly, and it's been a lot of fun to think about and work on.

The high concept/cliché is a world Inside a Computer System, obviously influenced by TRON, but also taking cues from classic ASCII-based roguelike games and fantasy gaming in general (e.g., of course, D&D).  I know the premise isn't too far from the old Fantasy Flight d20 game Virtual, but I hope there's enough ground to cover that the repeated elements can simply be seen as a tribute to that game (which is very cool and which I recommend checking out, btw).

At any rate, please head over to PermaDeath.Net if you'd like to see what's being built.  Hope to keep adding more on the regular...!