Theology Part I: The Arrival

Be it known to the Last Church, to the Brotherhood of the Night Sky, and to the representatives of all creeds that the author undertakes this writing without intent to blaspheme or besmirch any scripture or canon. Rather, the author, one Ryuiwo of Iurd, is but a humble scholar seeking to collect and comment upon the various verses, lays, and traditions concerning our Gods, the venerable Outsiders. He does so in the hope that any who seek to deepen their understanding of the ways in which their legacy has been interpreted throughout time and throughout the world might find, in this text, a valuable resource.

Magic in the World of Icosa

In Icosa, just as in our world, magic is incredibly rare and dangerous. The laws and mechanisms behind magic are not well understood, and the most meager breakthroughs in the field often come at the cost of the health, sanity, and lives of many priests and scholars. Due to the mystery surrounding magic, little can be definitively stated on the subject. The self-styled wizards, shamans, and soothsayers of Icosa can agree on one fact and one fact alone: magic was brought to Icosa by the Outsiders themselves, and their works are the ultimate source of all magic.

MEGAHERTZ

Today, I finally did something I’ve been dreaming of doing for a long time, which is launch a webcomic. There are three pages up right now, which you can read at https://megahertzcomic.tumblr.com/ , and I plan on updating it with a new page every Friday, Outsiders willing.

1d20 Far-Future, Post-Post-Apocalyptic “Magic” Swords

The sword.

A quintessential icon of fantasy. One of humanity’s oldest inventions. Sorcery’s other half.

The significance of the sword, in the history of fiction, RPGs, and the world itself, is difficult to overstate. Swords bear the weight of enough symbolism and cultural baggage to bend the blade of a lesser weapon, and yet they do not break! They still captivate us and appear time and time again at our tables to guide us through forest and field, through dungeons and dangers.

But eventually, you feel like you’ve seen it all. How many more flaming swords will we find jutting conveniently from a pile of gold? How many more times will we roll our eyes at the suggestive comments of swords containing the souls of salacious demons? Sometimes, you want something weirder. Something your players have never seen before. Sometimes, you want a far-future, post-post-apocalyptic “magic” sword.

The Launch of the Patreon!

Well, it’s happened. I’ve set up a Patreon, which you can visit by clicking here. If you enjoy the things you see and read here—about mutants, airplanes, dragons, and alien wizards—consider checking it out! With your support, I can devote more time to making art, telling stories, and writing crazy lists of whacked-out stuff for your RPG campaign! If you can’t pledge right now, consider sharing the Patreon to anyone you know who might be interested in this weird stuff. If you can’t share… I still love you.

I’m very much looking forward to the future of this project. It’s bound to be a lot of fun!

1d20 Far-Future, Post-Post-Apocalyptic Ruins to Explore

Has this ever happened to you?

Your players have just absolutely steamrolled the King of Swords, which was supposed to be the big boss of the story arc, but they killed him in three turns using that grenade launcher you gave them without thinking of the repercussions?

So then you tell them they notice a caged prawn-man in the back of the King’s throne room because you want to slowly spout some lore about kings and prawns to slow your players down because the whole session was supposed to be this epic fight but now it’s over and you’re not prepared, but the players aren’t interested in talking to prawn-men because you already had them get conned by a prawn-man-con-man two sessions ago but you forgot about that?!

So then they’re on their way to the next quest location and you don’t have a single map or NPC written out for when they get there, so you’re desperately looking for something, anything to put on the side of the road to distract them?!?

Greetings from Irth

Welcome, and may the Outsiders bless you.

You have found the official website of Studio Passerine, a one-man operation devoted to telling weird stories and not much else.

This project is motivated by dissatisfaction and obsession: obsession with the weird, genre-defying fusions of science-fiction, fantasy, horror, and psychadelica found in classic works like Heavy Metal, Gamma World, and Thundarr the Barbarian; dissatisfaction with the relative lack of contemporary projects in this vein.

Well, somebody’s gotta do it. While I may not be the perfect person for the job, I do enjoy it from time to time. So I’ll throw my hat in with the few mind-blowingly rad folks who are at the front lines, making the kind of content I can’t get enough of.

On this website, as well as on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, my hope is to supply my fair share of Weird Fiction to whoever wants some in the form of artwork, stories, and supplemental content for my oldest and most faithful companion: table-top role-playing games.

More to come.

“Thou hast traveled far, pilgrim. But a much longer road yet lies ahead. So rest at this wayside fire for a time, and pray that the Outsiders bless thy path.”

Mozo, Polyhedron Mage