Monday Musings #144
Musings on journeys and broken worlds.
Good Monday, Gamer!
“We are our choices.” — Jean-Paul Sartre
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has been sitting in the back of my mind while I prep.
The premise is simple: the big heroic journey already happened. The demon king is dead. The party is gone or fading. And now you’re left with the long tail of what that all meant—because you’re an immortal elf.
I’m three episodes in and still intrigued—which, for me, is saying something. I’m terrible at sticking with most series. It’s fantasy, but reflective. Almost melancholic.
Revisiting places that used to matter.
Seeing how time changes everything—except the protagonist.
Quiet moments that recontextualize past choices.
It’s a cozy adventure, but with some emo weight—we’ll see how far I’m in.
Prepping: Broken Worlds TTRPG
My kid just discovered Broken Worlds and Kill Six Billion Demons… so you know—we’re gonna play it.
If you’re not familiar, Kill Six Billion Demons (KSBD) is a long-running webcomic by Abbadon. The premise: reality was fractured when the original god was divided, and what remains is a multiverse of 777,777 worlds ruled by demiurges
You’ve got:
angels as rigid, law-bound enforcers of a broken order
devils as masks wrapped around chaotic flame
god-kings hoarding power and reshaping reality to their will
and mortals caught in the middle, trying to survive or ascend
It’s mythic, violent, philosophical, and a little unhinged—in a good way.
Power is will. Authority is taken. Identity is something you carve out of the universe with effort and consequence. Broken Worlds takes that setting and builds a PbtA-adjacent game on top of it.
And I love the premise. The lore is strong. It’s evocative in all the right ways. First read through—I’m a bit cranky about the mechanics. Right now it feels very fight-forward. A lot of emphasis on combat stuff, exchanges, and structured violence. Which fits the setting, sure—but it doesn’t quite feel “PbtA savvy” yet.
I’m not looking for innovation for its own sake, but I do expect:
strong fictional triggers
moves that snowball
systems that reinforce the tone beyond just combat
That said, this is a first read. I’ll run it RAW and in good faith and see what actually happens at the table. Some games read one way and play entirely differently. And to be fair, Tenra Bansho Zero is also fight-heavy—and it absolutely rocks once it is on the table.
Maxwell has chosen the Hunter playbook—a practitioner of the Shadow Arts. NInja shyyyyyyyyt.
We’ll see where it goes.
Played: Old School Car Wars
This one’s just nostalgia, Car Wars. (3E)
I lucked into an old school highway brawl this week, some kind stranger let me get behind the wheel of a couple of vehicles.
Turning keys.
Speed control.
Piles of counters and D6s
Watching everything fall apart because you pushed just a little too hard.
It’s crunchy in a way modern games don’t really do anymore.
But what I remember is how tangible it all felt.
You could see the mistake happen.
Track it.
Measure it.
Own it.
Try and manage it.
Love that stuff.
ICYMI
The Indie Game Reading Club has a piece in Rascal about my favorite publisher, Free League Publishing:
The Abbey can wait! A nice AP from Judd Karlman’s Weekly Cairn sessions.
Open Hearth Community — May the 4th Minicon weekend gaming is coming. Good time to rebel up and join the community!