Monthly Archives: June 2019

Vocabulary of the Orion Arm: The B’s

Try to think of the Covenant’s Trade language as an alien version of English. It Hoovers up words and phrases from everything that it encounters, no matter how much that contradicts what it already has. Like English, it can be frustrating to learn, but worth it.

Covenant Game Design: The Gutenberg Zine Option

Tabletop roleplaying games have a potential unmatched by any other art form (and yes, I said that TRPGs are art). First, they’re cheap entertainment. All you need are pencils, paper, dice, friends, and some rules. Furthermore, since everyone can afford them, everyone can play them. And finally, since they’re little more than guided improv theatre, …

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Covenant Game Design: We Live in a Society

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System was released in North America in 1991. When one of us (Sazzy) bought theirs, it came with two controllers and Super Mario World, a game that two people could play. You could take it out of the box, plug it in, and be playing a game with your friend without …

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Covenant Game Design: Checking My Privilege

Before we go any further, I think that there’s something that you need to know about one of us (Sean): I live at home with my parents I have a full time job that provides me with a health insurance, a regular paycheck, and a way to pay my bills. I’m telling you this because …

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Game Design on the Cheap with Anna Anthropy

This is a video by game designer Anna Anthropy that influenced the design of Covenant a great deal. It’s less than 10 minutes, so it won’t take up much of your time. Give it a look. The idea of cheap or even free game equipment isn’t new to me. I was first exposed to it …

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Vocabulary of the Orion Arm: The A’s

The lingua franca of the Orion Arm is Trade. The Covenant originally developed it as a stripped-down trading language. However, over tens of millennia, Trade has accreted words and slang from the many sapient species and cultures both within and without the Covenant. Trade is a living, growing language. It is spoken on a thousand …

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