Check out this page purporting to be a list of Words That Don’t Exist in the English Language. It’s been making the rounds for awhile, so you may have seen it. And at least portions of it have possibly been debunked. But here are a couple of examples:

Waldeinsamkeit (German): The feeling of being alone in the woods.

Forelsket (Norwegian): The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love.

Gheegle (Filipino): The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute.

What concepts would be so unique to a fantasy world that they might give rise to words which are, more-or-less, untranslatable to English?

Here’s a few thoughts:

The feeling of slight nausea and dizziness that happens when you teleport somewhere.

A color that can only be created by magic.

The soul-searing, howling noise created by adamantine when it’s shattered.

The sick giddiness left in the wake of a charm or domination effect.

What would be some good words for that? What other concepts would be evocative?

The Legends & Labyrinths 8-Bit Funding project has come to an end! And it’s been a huge success! To celebrate, my primary gaming group baked me a cake:

What happens next?

Sometime in the next 24-48 hours, I should be receiving a spreadsheet from 8-Bit Funding. Once I have that in hand, I’ll be able to organize it and start contacting funders to make the arrangements necessary for their perks. So, at some point in the next week, everyone should be receiving their copies of the Black Book Beta (ideally sooner rather than later).

If you’re a funder, keep an eye on the Updates page at 8-Bit Funding. That’s where I’ll be posting any kind of “house management” stuff regarding perk fulfillment (rather than cluttering up the Alexandrian).

Once that’s done, I’ll be able to continue the process of commissioning art, proofreading, and continued playtesting that will eventually culminate in the release of the final rulebook. My goal is for this to happen as quickly as possible, with the time table being largely dictated by when the artists can complete their work.

Here at the Alexandrian I’ll be continuing to post Black Book Beta Responses. Now that people have copies of the rulebooks in their hands, I’ll probably also be rolling out some Home Testing Kits. (Let me know in the comments if little test scenarios and endurance testing sounds interesting to you.) There will also, of course, be non-L&L content coming down the pike.

The adventure is just beginning!

THANK YOU!

P.S. We didn’t hit $4,000. But I’ve decided to go ahead and unlock the $4,000 landmark bonuses anyway. You guys have been great!

There’s less than an hour left for the Legends & Labyrinths 8-Bit Funding project. As I write this, we’re sitting at $3,796. That may be where we end up, but with us getting so close to the $4,000 landmark I thought I’d make one final push (with a cheesy music video) to put us over the top.

Here’s what gets unlocked at the $4,000 landmark:

Beta Warriors ($12+) will receive Mini-Adventure 1: Complex of Zombies.

Labyrinth Prowlers ($30+) will receive both mini-adventures.

Labyrinth Exemplars ($50+) will receive both mini-adventures and a City Supplement of their choice.

Lords of the Labyrinth ($150+) will receive both mini-adventures and all three City Supplements (Dweredell, Aerie, and Anyoc).

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!

Less than 24 hours remain!

Once this 8-Bit Funding project comes to a close, I currently have no way of offering the Black Book Beta for sale again. (If I can figure something out, of course, we’ll go for it.) So this may be your last chance to gain access to Legends & Labyrinths for several months: Don’t miss out!

It may also be your last chance to lock in these prices for the final PDF and print versions of the game.

And this is absolutely your last chance for many of the perks being offered here! (And to gain access to the exclusive Tomb of the Crypt Spiders adventure!) If you want artwork featuring your characters or a game session run by the designer or an exclusive, fancy-lookin’ t-shirt or your character’s name in the rulebook… This is it!

We’re also very close to our $3500 landmark, which will unlock extra bonus perks for contributors. So spread the word!

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!

You may have heard that if you cut an earthworm in half, both halves will grow back into a full worm. That’s an urban legend. (They have amazing regenerative powers, but a severed back end will never be able to grow a new head.) But if you’re wondering how you could bring this into an RPG session, the answer is self-evident: Toss in a couple trolls.

More intriguing is the case of the bulldog ant:

“But the bulldog-ant of Australia affords us the most extraordinary example of its kind; for if it is cut in two, a battle begins between the head and the tail. The head seizes the tail in its teeth, and the tail defends itself bravely by stinging the head: The battle may last for half an hour, until they die or are dragged away by other ants. This contest takes place every time the experiment is tried.” (Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation)

I think the behavior after severing would be easy enough to model as a confusion effect on both halves of the creature. But the real question would be determining when and how the creature would get severed in the first place. A few thoughts:

(1) Some sort of modification on the mechanic used for severing a hydra’s head. The question, however, is how you can motivate a PC to actually make the sunder attempt. (This problem also exists with hydras.)

(2) Treat all weapons as effectively vorpal against the creature. When somebody confirms a crit off of a natural 20, the creature is effectively severed.

(3) Treat it as an effect of bloodying the creature (reducing it to half hit points).

(4) Treat it as an effect of killing the base creature (which is effectively transformed into two new creatures). Maybe there’s only a percentage chance that this happens.

(5) Set a “Break Threshold” for creature: If somebody deals more damage than the break threshold in a single attack, the creature is severed.