Dragons of Tirenia

Our reaction to the changes to the OGL

Hey all, so there’s a lot going on over the RPG fan interwebs right now about Hasbro/WOTC’s changes to the OGL. There’s a lot of misinformation, a lot of people without legal training making comment, but like… this is a sign of things to come, no matter where you fall on this issue.

Here’s the message I posted today on itch.io to everyone who has ever bought our Dragons of Tirenia guidebook, published in 2021. I think it pretty much sums everything up nicely, which is why I think it’s important to share:

Given the recent changes to the Open Gaming Licence by Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast, we are choosing to remove all Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition references from Tirenia. This is something we have always wanted to do, as we originally only chose D&D as our mechanics base due to its popularity – or even ubiquity, you might say. But D&D was never the ideal mechanics base for this game.

So what does this mean for you, owners of this e-zine guidebook? Until we have a new version of this zine, we are leaving the original one up for all of you who have purchased it. No new people may purchase it or even look at its page. As soon as we have a new version, we will take the old one down permanently and you will only have access to the new one.

Comments are open on this, but I would ask that you refrain from trying to dissuade us from taking this action. It’s not going to happen. Tirenia is a setting we have spent almost a decade planning and playing in, and there is another project we have in mind for it that the new OGL will prevent us from doing. So instead we are packing up our toys and moving them to a new toy box. I encourage you to support other creatives you see doing this, or talking about doing this.

Happy New Year all, and thanks for supporting indie creators.

But seriously… right? F*** that. I’ve made mention of a possible new project for Tirenia. I won’t say more on that right now, but it’s in the works. This is just messy, right? Much bigger players than us are worried about the implications of this massive change to an industry standard. But anyway, leave it to the actual lawyers to decide, I reckon. For James and me, the writing is on the wall. D&D was never the ideal mechanic base for us. This greedy, over-reaching, bullying move from them is the catalyst for us to GTFO before things get any worse. We’ll still play when we wanna play, and we’re not trying to dissuade anyone from playing it, certainly not. But no way in hell are we going to chain our creative power to a corporate machine that has now openly stated its intent to swallow us and many other creatives whole.

Bundle for Ukraine is up on Itch.io now!

Hey folks, if you want a quick and easy way to send some support to Ukraine and get a little reward, might I suggest the Itch Bundle here: https://itch.io/b/1316/bundle-for-ukraine . Both Wonderland Nights: White Rabbit’s Diary and the Dragons of Tirenia supplement Double Cross are in there from Sky Bear, and there are many more wonderful games besides.

Slava Ukraini!

Dragons of Tirenia: The Story So Far (Updated)

Ok so I don’t know about you but I LOVE this post. If you’re curious as to how all our campaigns in this world have been fitting together, James has made an updated timeline that lays it all out very clearly! Enjoy here: http://tirenia.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-story-so-far-updated.html

Image: ‘Journey of the Magi.’ Benozzo Gozzoli, c. 1460.

Dragons of Tirenia: The Giant’s Tomb

Just another little cross-post of James’s blog 🙂

He ran a short session for the library the other day, and it was really quite exciting! Dragon player characters, the threat of giants returning… all very good ingredients for a thrilling adventure. Check it out here: http://tirenia.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-giants-tomb.html

Image: The Lion Gate at Mycenae. Wikipedia, 2019

The End of ‘The Ruins of Auromia’ Tirenia campaign

Last week, just before the new year, James wrapped up his most recent Dragons of Tirenia campaign. I know in the post he says he doesn’t know when the next one will be but…. this is James. Less than one week later he already had the next one in mind 🙂

You can read the wrap-up, and what came before, here: http://tirenia.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-ruins-of-auromia-sessions-11-13-and.html

Panini, G.P. (1757) Ancient Rome [Oil on Canvas]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Podcast Episode #32: All About Dragons of Tirenia

Have you got questions about our RPG setting, Dragons of Tirenia? You’re not alone! Even our personal friends have said, Hey, what’s that thing you’re always going on about? So here is a podcast episode that goes into our development of the setting since starting in 2014, all the way up to future plans we have for supplements, adventures, and related media.

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/47911144

If you enjoyed this episode, let us know! We might just do a lore episode if this one proves popular.

The pictures below are referenced in the episode:

Our logo by Ryan Wong of ryanwongdesigns.com
The campaign map used at Armageddon 2020
The Bronze and Silver Dragon factions, by Polina Bliss
James running a game at Armageddon 2020
Intro Guide and Double Cross zine cover by Polina Bliss
Fiumenze City Guide and Death of the Artist zine cover by Polina Bliss

Dragons of Tirenia: Player Agency in Tirenia

Today on the Tirenia blog James is talking about player agency. It’s always an interesting topic to me, as my personal tastes trend more towards players having a greater level of agency and inventive power. I come from a theatre background, so my improv skills play a big part in this. But it’s also something children engage in when it comes to imaginative play. What’s your preferred level of agency? Do you like it on the rails, or are you a railroad breaker like me?

Check out the post here: https://tirenia.blogspot.com/2021/08/player-agency-in-tirenia.html

Image: ‘The Creation of Adam.’ Michelangelo Buonarroti, c. 1512.

Dragons of Tirenia: Making a Tirenian character

James has dropped another insightful Dragons of Tirenia theory blog post: https://tirenia.blogspot.com/2021/08/making-tirenian-character.html

I feel like player characters having a family in some way, whether it be a blood family, adopted family, chosen family or whatever, enriches a game so much that it’s worth the extra effort. How about you? Have you ever had a player character with a family? Come chat on our Discord server sometime!

Image: ‘Francesco Sassetti and his son Teodoro.’ Domenico Ghirlandaio, c. 1488.