Chris Gardiner
Narrative Director at Failbetter Games. He/him. Our titles include: Fallen London, Sunless Sea/Skies, and Mask of the Rose. Opinions are mine, so there.
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- He was! I think they have a surprising amount in common – particular their shared ability to look at mundane things in the world and see the miraculous in them.
- It is *possibly* my favorite book. I thiiiink most of the FL writing team have probably read it. I know Nigel Evans, who wrote a lot of early FL, had.
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- They are all genuinely great!
- I would actually recommend the core book, which has a great adventure in it. The whole book is an exceptional piece of game writing and design. I’m running a campaign at the moment!
- To be more helpful — this one: freeleaguepublishing.com/shop/the-one...
- Stayed up WAY too late playing this last night. Absolutely hypnotic. It’s like doing archaeology but on literature. And tangled family relationships. And possibly reality itself. Oh, and every now and again your spade develops sentience and tries to entomb you.
- TR-49: OUT NOW Narrative deduction / audio drama "Outstanding" - PC Gamer "Politically fierce" - Polygon "One of the best" - Thinky Games "I wanted to know everything" - RPS "Impressive - very impressive indeed" - Eurogamer $6.99 / ~6 hours Steam: tinyurl.com/2jvt9ewk iOS: tinyurl.com/4ucwx4s7
- I am reading his book right now and it is enormous fun.
- HELLO! My name is Alice Bell. I used to write about games, and now I still do that but also write murder mysteries with ghosts and jokes. The latest is about solving a murder in a pro-wrestling gym and is out now! uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
- Leigh Brackett was so goddamn cool. (From an excellent essay on her by @corabuhlert.bsky.social in issue 7 of the @newedgeswordmag.bsky.social magaizine.)
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- Oo! Thank you!
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- Oo – and earlier editions of Ars Magica advocated for “troupe play” where you had rotating GMs in the same campaign.
- The Bakers’ fabulous Wizard’ Grimoire series of games all have one player and 2 GMs (for a given value of GM).
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- Yes! I’m gobsmacked at the difference.
- I switched to Tidal a couple of years ago and drastically prefer it. The sound quality alone is *drastically* better than Spotify. I hadn’t realised how garbage Spotify’s sound quality was until I switched. It was like hearing all these songs for the first time again.
- Oh my god. Reading this made me emit an anguished wail of grief for a past that never happened.
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- Wow this looks really nice!
- Will someone please come round and inflate my cat.
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- This is a great way to describe it. I also find the older I get and the more honed my process gets, the more the process *itself* is an enjoyable and satisfying experience. (Certainly more so than praying for inspiration on a deadline!)
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- It’s proper good
- Ate a waffle 12 feet away from Danny John Jules.
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- Oh, that's a fascinating switch to think about!
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- CORRECT ANSWER
- I would like to request a new layer of Hell specifically for hotels that turn on TruMotion/Motion Smoothing on their TVs and then lock you out of the settings that would allow you to turn it off.
- Essentially, I think that LLM-generated dialogue only makes sense if you believe that the product of writing is words. But the product of writing isn't words, any more than the product of justice is prisoners, or the product of love is weddings. The product of writing is meaning.
- I had five fascinating conversations for this RPS piece, gathering perspectives on genAI chatbots in games, as seen in Where Winds Meet. Thanks to @meghna.bsky.social, @pyrofoux.bsky.social, @maxkreminski.bsky.social, and @chrisgardiner.bsky.social www.rockpapershotgun.com/horrible-bor...
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- Yes! Someone made exactly that category error in response to my original post in fact.
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- The board game it’s based on is one of my all-time faves.
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- I just finished this a couple of days ago. It’s great!
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- Absolutely. A vital part of games writing is working out what can be said better via another discipline.
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- Absolutely. “You don’t need to interact with this” is crucial information to convey with game, artistic, and narrative design. It’s one of the most important things you can communicate!
- It was deeply cathartic to be asked to contribute some thoughts to this piece on the use of LLM chatbots in NPC dialogue. And a privilege to be among such insightful company. Very grateful to @samuelhorti.bsky.social for giving us so much breadth and depth to discuss such a hefty topic.
- I had five fascinating conversations for this RPS piece, gathering perspectives on genAI chatbots in games, as seen in Where Winds Meet. Thanks to @meghna.bsky.social, @pyrofoux.bsky.social, @maxkreminski.bsky.social, and @chrisgardiner.bsky.social www.rockpapershotgun.com/horrible-bor...
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- My fervently-held, probably sacrilegious, Ars Magica opinion is that the best way to play is to use the 2e rulebook, the 2e Houses of Hermes book, the 2e Covenants book *and absolutely nothing else*. Early 2e was focused, simpler, hadn’t pinned down too much canon, and brims with medieval charm.
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- Mortally offended at the mere thought than Gen AI could generate anything comparable to my bespoke and preposterous fuck-ups. Too many fingers? Pfft. Those are rookie numbers.
- idk personally I like making things with my brain and my weird fingers
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- I’d suggest a more recent one: Deathworlder, by @writervh.bsky.social: a squad of mostly women grunts on a desperate mission across a world being terraformed under them by Tyrannids. I (a non-expert) found it very approachable and really enjoyed reading it. It even has romance. In worty forty!
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- Hang on – is this why my Traveler suddenly and mysteriously got much nicer to use? I think it is!
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- HEY YOU SAID “FAIL BETTER”
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- It is the actual best feeling in the job I think. You say some words, then some preposterously talented human makes them real! You can see the thing with your actual eyes! It exists now! There’s no rush like it.
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- So, so good. I love that game.
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- You’re getting great use out of the skeleton hand. It has a whole personality.
- This video made me giggle. Hannah having a normal one today.
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- These are amazing books. No-one does it like Lee.
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- THIS IS THE BEST GAME.
- Our boiler broke at the weekend, and our house was FREEZING. But a very nice man called Barry from British Gas came around and fixed it. Anyway today I got a text asking for feedback on Barry, and possibly I shouldn’t reply to these things while still loopy on painkillers from root-canal.
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- BARRY! CALL ME!
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- I can only hope that one day we will each and every one of us be blessed by the presence of Barry.
- It‘s always a treat to talk to @erionmakuo.bsky.social in-depth about her work. In Mandrake, character design, writing, and illustration are so tightly knotted that it’s impossible to tell where one ends and the next begins. Tons of gorgeous art in the link! store.steampowered.com/news/app/371...
- And here’s our previous conversation about designing homes for characters in Mandrake, and how Erion works story and setting into every on of them. Even more luscious art! store.steampowered.com/news/app/371...
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- Super-excited for this. I love GW1.
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- I’m very charmed by Perils & Princesses, which is way better than it needed to be.
- Oo – I’ve been looking forward to the final version of this!
- Surprise, we're getting pretty close to the final version of REALIS! ICYMI: I've been making a TTRPG about mystical moons and living spaceships and sentences that can kill you. A preview is available now (see my pinned post), but the full version draws near! www.kickstarter.com/projects/cru...
