Alexis Smolensk - Revision history

Tao alexis: /* The Tao of D&D */

2026-04-22T00:11:48Z

The Tao of D&D

Tao alexis: /* Experimentation */

2026-04-21T23:54:35Z

Experimentation

Tao alexis: /* The Tao of D&D */

2026-04-21T23:20:43Z

The Tao of D&D

Tao alexis: /* The Tao of D&D */

2026-04-21T23:08:43Z

The Tao of D&D

Tao alexis: /* Pre-blog Mapmaking */

2026-04-21T20:12:16Z

Pre-blog Mapmaking

Tao alexis: /* Mapmaking */

2026-04-21T20:11:31Z

Mapmaking

Tao alexis: /* Mapmaking */

2026-04-21T20:11:06Z

Mapmaking

Tao alexis: /* Mapmaking */

2026-04-21T20:08:43Z

Mapmaking

Tao alexis: /* Mapmaking */

2026-04-21T20:03:28Z

Mapmaking

Tao alexis: /* Mapmaking */

2026-04-21T19:57:20Z

Mapmaking

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:11, 22 April 2026
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	The blog is a workshop. The finished product is on the wiki.		The blog is a workshop. The finished product is on the wiki.
		+
		+	== The Authentic Wiki ==
		+	Writing this on the 21st of April, 2026, there are 1,529 pages on the wiki. The balance of these are spells, sage abilities or studies related to that concept and monsters. Apart from these there is content about ordinary things, an adjusted but scattered set of pages about Earth's history, houserules related to combat, the adventure and the game setting. There are another 4,000+ posts that could conceivably be written, but it is probable that the number of unwritten pages will continue to balloon faster than those that are written, simply because there are so many things that might be written about and thus added. The content is here to define my game world; the players make free use of it during games, because NONE of this content is privileged for the DM's rules. These are the game rules, and any player of the game is therefore entitled to look at them. None of the material here has been designed for game narratives that might someday be used. There is a small collection of pages meant for explaining self-play gaming. Someday I might wish to add tables of combats or campaigns that took place once upon a time in my game, but as I rarely keep such notes, this isn't likely ever to take up a significant part of this wiki's content.
		+
		+	Additionally, there is no fan-based material included. This wiki is not a place for tributes, reinterpretations, homages or speculative additions supplied by enthusiasm for the game world. No celebrities are written about here, no popular modules, no alternative role-playing games are discussed, no celebrated designers are profiled, no passing controversies are preserved for their own sake, and no space is given over to the habits of fandom. This is not a catalogue of influences, a record of enthusiasms, or a general commentary upon the hobby. As a writer of D&D, I have no interest in discussing alternate editions or play styles, nor singular tastes about the hobby, nor anything that might be included merely because it is related to D&D by ornament, recognition, trend, fashion, completeness or deference to what the larger gaming community happens to value. For example, the reader will not find a page discussing how to paint miniatures here.
		+
		+	Not only is this rare, to my knowledge there is no other D&D wiki on the internet that is so rigorously stripped of fandom. There is no room here for people who claim to love the game, but wish to discuss its celebration rather than its substance.

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:54, 21 April 2026
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	Showing how, starting with any basic map from any fantasy genre, it's possible to build a trade system that does not depend upon the Earth's distribution of goods and services: [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2010/07/lets-try-it-from-beginning-again.html Let's Try It From The Beginning Again] (2010); [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2016/04/making-distance-table.html Making a Distance Table] (2016); [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2016/04/building-index-table.html Building an Index Table] (2016).		Showing how, starting with any basic map from any fantasy genre, it's possible to build a trade system that does not depend upon the Earth's distribution of goods and services: [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2010/07/lets-try-it-from-beginning-again.html Let's Try It From The Beginning Again] (2010); [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2016/04/making-distance-table.html Making a Distance Table] (2016); [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2016/04/building-index-table.html Building an Index Table] (2016).
		+
		+	Starting from the concept of [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2013/03/world-plotting.html World Plotting] (2013), leading to the structuring of [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2019/06/improvements.html Improvements] (2019) and then eventually into [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2022/04/inventing-village-blocks.html Inventing Village Blocks] (2022) and ultimately the structures of [[Hammer (symbol)\|hammers]], [[Coin (symbol)\|coins]] and [[Food\|food]].
		+
		+	Thinking aloud about [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2009/01/changes-in-experience.html Changes in Experience] (2009) leads to a rule that solves the problem.
		+
		+	Dissatisfaction about [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2009/01/changes-in-experience.html Secondary Skills] (2008) leads to a weird design on randomly determining a character's history without the need of a backstory with posts like [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2010/01/intelligence-redux.html Intelligence Redux] (2010)... which leads inevitably to an entire system (still undone) of the [[Character Background Generator\|character background generator]], which seems to bother everyone except those people who actually play in my game world.
		+
		+	The same discussion about secondary skills for characters suggests the idea of [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2009/10/player-sages.html Player Sages] (2009), then the importation of "sage abilities" [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-higher-class.html for all the classes] (2014), followed by [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2014/11/deeper-and-deeper.html Deeper and Deeper] (2014), that ultimately explodes into a total rebuild of all [[Sage Ability\|character game abilities]] in the campaign.
		+
		+	The blog is a workshop. The finished product is on the wiki.

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:20, 21 April 2026
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	For this reason, in keeping with the point of this discourse, there is nothing special to be learned about me or my beliefs from my blog. It plays, essentially, to the choir. The last six posts will clarify whether or not the reader cares to read more. There is no reason to go back to the beginning and read it all. That won't tell what I believe now or who I am, because I'm no longer the writer I was 18 years ago. Going back more than two years is a waste of time.		For this reason, in keeping with the point of this discourse, there is nothing special to be learned about me or my beliefs from my blog. It plays, essentially, to the choir. The last six posts will clarify whether or not the reader cares to read more. There is no reason to go back to the beginning and read it all. That won't tell what I believe now or who I am, because I'm no longer the writer I was 18 years ago. Going back more than two years is a waste of time.
		+
		+	=== Experimentation ===
		+	Understanding, then, that the blog is too large, too old and too historically layered to serve as a straightforward path to "knowing me," the best use of the blog has been its use in a series of thought experiments. My best achievements are those that have been proof-tested through experimental language on the blog first and then structured rationally in the Authentic Wiki, where this narrative appears. Discussions of mapmaking and how I was doing it steadily culminated in various posts, featuring images like the one shown, where my process was described step by step, transforming a group of blank pink hexes into a usable map: [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-its-done.html How It's Done] (2009).
		+
		+	Showing how, starting with any basic map from any fantasy genre, it's possible to build a trade system that does not depend upon the Earth's distribution of goods and services: [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2010/07/lets-try-it-from-beginning-again.html Let's Try It From The Beginning Again] (2010); [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2016/04/making-distance-table.html Making a Distance Table] (2016); [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2016/04/building-index-table.html Building an Index Table] (2016).

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:08, 21 April 2026
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	== The Tao of D&D ==		== The Tao of D&D ==
		+	I encountered the community again in 2006/07 on blogs, and frankly could not believe what I was seeing. Characters had become "heroes," character-creation a mess of min-maxing, the landscape a series of purposeless edition wars, flooded with the nonsense of GNS and, as far as I could tell, a company that seemed unable to control it's own product. Stupidly, in deciding to blog inside of this mess, I vastly underestimated how hard-wired the true believers had become. I should have started a quiet little blog talking about game design, maps and the substance of the above; instead, I went at it like a pitbull, which had always been my nature. The result was the polarisation of most persons against me; the collection of a few supporters; and occasionally those who assumed that because I was spouting what was to them "nonsense," I was a rube just waiting to be exploited.
		+
		+	Searching for a name for the blog, I did think that I would be explaining my way of playing; "way" was "tao" in Chinese and it sounded like a suitably philosophical name, and memorable. The choice walked me straight into those carping about anyone daring to suggest that there was "one true way" to play D&D (which I have never contended), and those who decided that because I happened to use a Chinese word that also refers to the religion Taoism, obviously this meant I was a Taoist. Ah, the flak I got for not being one. My first post, on May 28, 2008, described [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2008/05/tao.html my first session as a player]; my fifth post would later become infamous as the "[https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2008/06/seizing-day.html mustard post]." Together, these established my premise of what D&D was really about.
		+
		+	By August I was writing on my back after knee surgery, because I'd had an inspiration about [https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2008/08/unified-theory-hd-m-x.html hit points] while waiting to have my quadraceps tendon put back together, which became [[Hit Points per Die\|this rule set]]. In September I wrote, "[https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2008/09/youre-not-fucking-hero.html You're Not a Fucking Hero]," that cemented the conflict between myself and those indulging in "no effort D&D," which I think was the death knell of my D&D reputation. From there on, it was just me doubling down again and again, so that no matter what value I might ever add to the blog, I was always going to be "that guy" telling people "how to play." Yes, mistakes were made.
		+
		+	Since, it's been a conflict raging in my own conscience. On the one hand, those were things that some readers took hard because they challenged their right to play a game in the way they loved. On the other, these were things I truly believed then, and still believe now. None of the, oh, thousands of things I've read trying to argue or explain or justify or rationalise or detail the logic of player characters playing their fantasies in a game that is supposed to suspend its rules so this happens has changed my mind. And there are far more arguing that point of view than mine. In fact, I don't think there's anyone arguing mine.
		+
		+	My game experiences, outlined above, prior to my starting a blog, describe D&D experiences filled with intense loyalty to my game world by players who only quit because they were forced to by circumstance; playing a long-term game that was nuanced and rich in structure and style; by much praise; by houserules that greatly improved play; and within a culture where most everyone else struggling to be a DM failed at it. The culture in which I write in now, the one opposed to me, has trouble getting a campaign to last three games; they have trouble agreeing on any rules; they argue endlessly if rules are even necessary; and they cannot seem to explain their points of view at all, outside an assertion that they "feel" the game is this or that. I don't relate to these people. And when I sit down to write a blog post, I have no idea how to write one that will appeal to them, because nothing in fact seems to appeal. They are far, far more concerned with what a game doesn't do, versus what it does. Those few able to hold a thought in their minds imagine creating some game structure or rule that I remember having designed and either abandoned or actually physically created ''forty years ago''. I can't relate to their points of view. Other than to flat out lie to them, to tell them what they want to hear, I have nothing that's "popular" to say.
		+
		+	For this reason, in keeping with the point of this discourse, there is nothing special to be learned about me or my beliefs from my blog. It plays, essentially, to the choir. The last six posts will clarify whether or not the reader cares to read more. There is no reason to go back to the beginning and read it all. That won't tell what I believe now or who I am, because I'm no longer the writer I was 18 years ago. Going back more than two years is a waste of time.

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:12, 21 April 2026
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	The structure shown integrates multiple layers of game-relevant information at once: terrain and elevation by colour, rivers, settlement hierarchy and regional naming. Later, this style of map would become a structural foundation for later concepts that will be addressed later in this document. Steadily I added to the shown map of Voronezh, adding the world section by section, dividing it into [[Sheet Maps\|sheets]] that each accounted for hundreds of thousands of square miles each, reaching from the edge of the explored Arctic as far southwest as Gambia and as far east as Siam. Then, in 2017, after having mapped the whole western half of China, somehow — I'll never know how — I deleted months of work. Since then, I lost my appetite for making [[20-mile Hex Map\|20-mile maps]].		The structure shown integrates multiple layers of game-relevant information at once: terrain and elevation by colour, rivers, settlement hierarchy and regional naming. Later, this style of map would become a structural foundation for later concepts that will be addressed later in this document. Steadily I added to the shown map of Voronezh, adding the world section by section, dividing it into [[Sheet Maps\|sheets]] that each accounted for hundreds of thousands of square miles each, reaching from the edge of the explored Arctic as far southwest as Gambia and as far east as Siam. Then, in 2017, after having mapped the whole western half of China, somehow — I'll never know how — I deleted months of work. Since then, I lost my appetite for making [[20-mile Hex Map\|20-mile maps]].
		+
		+	== The Tao of D&D ==

@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 [[File:Saxony.jpg|right|350px|thumb|East Central Europe]]
-== Mapmaking ==
+== Pre-blog Mapmaking ==
 I had been using paper maps, particularly atlasses for years. When the internet happened, I went looking for a universal world map on a scale that would be useful for my game, even before I had begun playing it again. By 2001, I felt sure that eventually, I would find players, when I wanted to work hard enough; in the meantime, I sought to "get ready for them" by trying to build a substantive system.

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:11, 21 April 2026
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	This is the first part of my game world that I mapped. Done in publisher, I could adjust the colours of the hexes to denote elevation (or anything else), draw trade routes in red for my aforementioned trade system, specify which actual cities, towns and places existed int he world, add details if I wished, while retaining absolute and solitary control over the content. Those who later would suggest my doing this work onto GoogleEarth fail to remember that the enshittification of such systems by outside sources could easily destroy decades of my work in a fingersnap. That is no way upon which to structure a reliable, self-contained project.		This is the first part of my game world that I mapped. Done in publisher, I could adjust the colours of the hexes to denote elevation (or anything else), draw trade routes in red for my aforementioned trade system, specify which actual cities, towns and places existed int he world, add details if I wished, while retaining absolute and solitary control over the content. Those who later would suggest my doing this work onto GoogleEarth fail to remember that the enshittification of such systems by outside sources could easily destroy decades of my work in a fingersnap. That is no way upon which to structure a reliable, self-contained project.

−	The structure shown integrates multiple layers of game-relevant information at once: terrain and elevation by colour, rivers, settlement hierarchy and regional naming. Later, this style of map would become a structural foundation for later concepts that will be addressed later in this document. Steadily I added to the shown map of Voronezh, adding the world section by section, dividing it into [[Sheet Maps\|sheets]] that each accounted for hundreds of thousands of square miles each, reaching from the edge of the explored Arctic as far southwest as Gambia and as far east as Siam.	+	The structure shown integrates multiple layers of game-relevant information at once: terrain and elevation by colour, rivers, settlement hierarchy and regional naming. Later, this style of map would become a structural foundation for later concepts that will be addressed later in this document. Steadily I added to the shown map of Voronezh, adding the world section by section, dividing it into [[Sheet Maps\|sheets]] that each accounted for hundreds of thousands of square miles each, reaching from the edge of the explored Arctic as far southwest as Gambia and as far east as Siam. Then, in 2017, after having mapped the whole western half of China, somehow — I'll never know how — I deleted months of work. Since then, I lost my appetite for making [[20-mile Hex Map\|20-mile maps]].

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:08, 21 April 2026
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	[[File:Voronezh.jpg\|left\|490px\|thumb\|20 miles per hex]]		[[File:Voronezh.jpg\|left\|490px\|thumb\|20 miles per hex]]
	This is the first part of my game world that I mapped. Done in publisher, I could adjust the colours of the hexes to denote elevation (or anything else), draw trade routes in red for my aforementioned trade system, specify which actual cities, towns and places existed int he world, add details if I wished, while retaining absolute and solitary control over the content. Those who later would suggest my doing this work onto GoogleEarth fail to remember that the enshittification of such systems by outside sources could easily destroy decades of my work in a fingersnap. That is no way upon which to structure a reliable, self-contained project.		This is the first part of my game world that I mapped. Done in publisher, I could adjust the colours of the hexes to denote elevation (or anything else), draw trade routes in red for my aforementioned trade system, specify which actual cities, towns and places existed int he world, add details if I wished, while retaining absolute and solitary control over the content. Those who later would suggest my doing this work onto GoogleEarth fail to remember that the enshittification of such systems by outside sources could easily destroy decades of my work in a fingersnap. That is no way upon which to structure a reliable, self-contained project.
		+
		+	The structure shown integrates multiple layers of game-relevant information at once: terrain and elevation by colour, rivers, settlement hierarchy and regional naming. Later, this style of map would become a structural foundation for later concepts that will be addressed later in this document. Steadily I added to the shown map of Voronezh, adding the world section by section, dividing it into [[Sheet Maps\|sheets]] that each accounted for hundreds of thousands of square miles each, reaching from the edge of the explored Arctic as far southwest as Gambia and as far east as Siam.

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:03, 21 April 2026
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	In 2003, I stumbled across a website called "[https://www.fallingrain.com/world/ fallingrain.com]", which provided coordinates for localities around the world. Unfortunately, the site was deliberately built so as not to be downloadable, at least not with any tools that I had at the time. So calmly, patiently, copying 10,000 figures a day, I manually went through the entire list of localities and saved them on excel, creating sortable, searchable database from which I could plot a hex map of the world prior to the creation of GoogleEarth. Curiously, I did this work by coming into my job a half-hour early every day and then just cutting and pasting, cutting and pasting. Where there is a will, there is a way. Thus it was that by September of 2004, I had created a better alternative.		In 2003, I stumbled across a website called "[https://www.fallingrain.com/world/ fallingrain.com]", which provided coordinates for localities around the world. Unfortunately, the site was deliberately built so as not to be downloadable, at least not with any tools that I had at the time. So calmly, patiently, copying 10,000 figures a day, I manually went through the entire list of localities and saved them on excel, creating sortable, searchable database from which I could plot a hex map of the world prior to the creation of GoogleEarth. Curiously, I did this work by coming into my job a half-hour early every day and then just cutting and pasting, cutting and pasting. Where there is a will, there is a way. Thus it was that by September of 2004, I had created a better alternative.
		+
		+	[[File:Voronezh.jpg\|left\|490px\|thumb\|20 miles per hex]]
		+	This is the first part of my game world that I mapped. Done in publisher, I could adjust the colours of the hexes to denote elevation (or anything else), draw trade routes in red for my aforementioned trade system, specify which actual cities, towns and places existed int he world, add details if I wished, while retaining absolute and solitary control over the content. Those who later would suggest my doing this work onto GoogleEarth fail to remember that the enshittification of such systems by outside sources could easily destroy decades of my work in a fingersnap. That is no way upon which to structure a reliable, self-contained project.

@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 This is more or less where my game was prior to the release of 2nd Edition. Large scale changes to setting and combat, a few smaller house rules that hadn't reached fruition yet, patient players who were enjoying that their game experience stretched from southern Russia to Portugal, the west coast of Africa, the Barbados and Ireland. Characters gave birth to children, spending enough down time in travelling from one part of the world to the next that those children grew up in some cases and became characters themselves. It was a far-ranging, unusual game that existed in a vacuum, since no one knew about it at the time except my players.
 == Mapmaking ==
 I had been using paper maps, particularly atlasses for years. When the internet happened, I went looking for a universal world map on a scale that would be useful for my game, even before I had begun playing it again. By 2001, I felt sure that eventually, I would find players, when I wanted to work hard enough; in the meantime, I sought to "get ready for them" by trying to build a substantive system.
 Thus, in 2001, I came across the Expedia travel site, which did provide a world-wide map of everywhere. Shown is a bit of detritus that I was able to find in my junk files. This was obviously insufficient, but the internet was decided lacking at the time and I did not have access to a viable scanner. The problems are obvious; I could not control which cities appeared, I could not adjust the borders, I could not change the colouring, I could not reasonably add my own labelling and so on. I began to conceive that if I wanted a map that I could create feasibly in a program (I had been trained on Publisher throughout the 1990s when working as a freelance and commissioned small city journalist), it would have to be created from scratch. That would have to be the only way.
-In 2003, I stumbled across a website called "[https://www.fallingrain.com/world/ fallingrain.com]", which provided coordinates for localities around the world. Calmly, patiently, copying 10,000 figures a day, I manually went through the entire list of localities and saved them on excel, creating sortable, searchable database from which I could plot a hex map of the world prior to the creation of GoogleEarth. Thus it was that by September of 2004, I had created a better alternative.
+In 2003, I stumbled across a website called "[https://www.fallingrain.com/world/ fallingrain.com]", which provided coordinates for localities around the world. Unfortunately, the site was deliberately built so as not to be downloadable, at least not with any tools that I had at the time. So calmly, patiently, copying 10,000 figures a day, I manually went through the entire list of localities and saved them on excel, creating sortable, searchable database from which I could plot a hex map of the world prior to the creation of GoogleEarth. Curiously, I did this work by coming into my job a half-hour early every day and then just cutting and pasting, cutting and pasting. Where there is a will, there is a way. Thus it was that by September of 2004, I had created a better alternative.