One of my favourite expansion to the PTTR full book is the lore section. I say 'lore section', it's actual title is: 

That's write. I wrote a faux-academic paper by an in-world academic in the field of parapsychology. It's about 7000 words long, so chunky but not too chunky, and it follows Dr Xiuying Yu of the Bureau of Perceptual Studies at the the University of Tolouse, as she interviews three very old vampires about their lives and movement's through history.

What makes good lore? I think it's three things to watch out for.

If there is a lot of lore, it needs to be optional. For previous SoulMuppet games, I've not written dedicated lore or world-building sections, preferring to use my characters or mechanics to tell the stories I need to. You don't NEED to read this section to play Paint The Town Red. You can get by literally just using the Player's Guide at the start of the game, which tells you everything you need to know in five bullet points.

It needs to be interesting to read. If we're asking our GMs and veteran players to opt into reading this, there needs to be a reward. The lore cannot feel encylopedic.  For Diaspore, I've presented it a novel way, specifically an in-world artifact. I did everything I could to make it entertaining to read: a clear sense of voice, multiple perspectives from different interview subjects, secrets woven into the paragraphs, weave in easter eggs from all the adventures and hidden meanings to certain sections.

It needs to be incomplete. You cannot hope to present every aspect of an RPG world inside a book, however large that book is. You job is to provide information that allows future storytelling to bloom out of what it leaves behind in the readers skull. The role of lore is to provide answers but also to ask more questions of the reader. It needs to both allow and demand play. Lore should be empowering, not deabilitating.

Our three vampires are The Meliphonist, a Iberian Gaul who claims to have invented beekeeper, Alicia Fortwith, an Ancient Greek inventor turned businesswoman, and Kwizera Alderon, an impossibly old African(?) vampire with a variety of guises and roles. We follow them through antiquity, the birth of the first Necropolis in Rome, the abandonment of Europe in the "Dark Ages", then the medieval period and renaissance, and finally explain how vampires exist in modern times.

What else is happening in PTTR land? Well, I did a whole load of interviews.

I sat down with Science and Sorcery for their A Moment Of Awesome series, and talked about setting games in the real world, good use of lore and much more. If you enjoyed the update above, then this is the interview to listen to.

I had a mammoth hour and 44 minute interview on Weird Games and Weirder People. I spoke with Diogo about how we make games, influences on my games design from wargaming (and vice versa), manuscript information theory and tarot cards. This is the longest interview I've ever done and we go into the freakin' WEEDS. I'll recommend checking it out if you like your interviews LONG.

I also appeared on NotD&D with Jess from ENWorld. It's been my third or fourth time on the show, and Jess is a great interview with a really good insight on making games. Give it a listen too!

Episode 3 of OneShot, Paint The Town Red came out yesterday! The thrilling finale of the series is avaliable wherever you get your podcasts. Bad news is, their actions are finally about to catch up with them. It can only go downhill from here. 

Just 2 days left on the project? That means 2 days until our next episode of IT NEVER SLEEPS from MyFirstDungeon. Keep your eyes peeled for when it comes out on Thursday. 

We're nearly nearly done with this project. Thank you so so much for your support, we really appreciate it. Please share the project far and wide across the internet so we can blast through those final goals and finish on a high note. 

Thanks 

Zach