I am a writer of small fictions. Sometimes I do other things, but right now I’m working on my very first novel. NOW. AT THIS VERY MOMENT. @zedecksiew
It wasn’t an existential threat like it was for many—but 2025 was for me still quite a wrestle. The past two years have been. I am still not over stuff that happened in 2023. Maintaining friendships is hard; I am often angry; I always feel like I am nothing at all. But hey! I am finally getting the therapy I need; Sharon and I have been working more on our house; and my personal +…
Islands of Weirdhope , the maritime expandalone to ECO MOFOS!! , by the fearsome pairing of David Blandy and Daniel Locke , is currently crowdfunding. Scant hours left! The Backerkit campaign ends Tuesday. Go back it NOW . You should back it because I am part of it. I will be in Four Fathoms Deep , an adventure anthology launching together with the core rulebook. I will be in very good company . I…
CHAPTER SERF is a tabletop roleplaying game and adventure, set in Warhammer 40K, where you play those hooded peasant weirdos you sometimes spot in the backgrounds of the art. Full PDF downloadable >>> HERE <<< Printer-friendly version >>> HERE <<< A5-booklet format version >>> HERE <<< (thank you @tubilak !) + Here’s the pitch: + CHAPTER SERF is a game about candles. As a fan of Warhammer…
NO SPUR BUT YOU, MY BROTHER A powerful gang of cockerels, a series of killings, and bitter quarrel between siblings. +++ IN DEEP NIGHT, A COCKEREL CROWING An ill omen, folk say—of bad weather at dawn; of vengeful spirits passing through; of violence, death, to be discovered tomorrow. In Sang Sarama, a cockerel crows every night . Folk keep their windows shut. Neither screams nor begging will get…
A trader selling herbal medicine, her beautiful children, and a trail of empty cribs. +++ A DAY FROM TOWN, BY A MUDDY BANK Auntie Sa is breaking camp. Her four daughters douse the fire pit; her two sons load fist-sized jars and child-sized urns onto handcarts. Her youngest boy sits on a log. Auntie Sa towels his head dry. He sits hunched, staring into space, arms pressed to his chest like a rat,…
Names of places come difficult for me, too! I wrote Lorn Song as being suitable for slotting into any "peripheral" territory---ie: any region outside a metropole / imperial core. When I write places like this I tend to think in my mind that they are part of an upland, or the uplands. I like this generic name; it feels real, true to the area's relationships. Locals would call their homes by…
rovee-eats-art : Made this for the crocodile, thought they deserved some fanart cause I love them so much and I couldn’t stop thinking about them. ^———^ ( Ó w Ò) Hi @zedecksiew ( 👉🏻👈🏻) V——-V !!! Somebody made fan art of my crocodile! Ahhh!!!
LIFE CYCLE A seed from a divine source, the tree it grows into, and the demon that follows. +++ THIRTY YEARS AGO, AS THE SUN SET Prau Sa Pritiya danced. Her chest shivered, her hips swayed—she so stirred the god of hunters that he shook his house of sky. That night there was a meteor shower: the stars fell, and set the forest afire. That night the god of hunters fell in love with Prau Sa Pritiya.…
(Photos: Patrick Stuart , Scrap ) Attention As Devotion In Nottingham we visited the Museum Of Curiosities . It boasts “haunted items from around the world”, gathered via its owner’s “paranormal investigations and his contacts within the world of the macabre”. Mummies, tools from Victorian morgues, dybbuk boxes . Basically: goth Halloween kitsch. Besides a shelf of…
(Photo by Shuyi ) A CROCODILE, EATING is an installation work, ritual performance, and shrine. It is part of WEIRD HOPE ENGINES , a contemporary visual art exhibition about tabletop roleplaying games, running at Bonington Gallery, Nottingham, UK from now until 10 May 2025. If you ask me to build a world, I will build a crocodile. On linoleum flooring, stones are arranged into the shape of a…
JUDGEMENT IS A BLADE She is a good sorcerer, but a poor disciple. She finds it difficult to concentrate. When she arrives the bell has been struck—the lesson has already started. The teacher looks at her sideways. The teacher sighs, closes his eyes, and continues. “Judgement is a blade,” he says. “When you judge another,” the teacher says, “you thrust a dagger at their chest. It may be that you…
Last weekend, 7-9 March, Sharon and I hosted a party. Because: It was my birthday the week before; Sharon’s “Portal” work, which began on our local beach , then travelled to the 9th Asian Art Biennial in Taiwan, needed to come home again; Sharon had to film a short educational documentary about her practice with the National Gallery Singapore ; We made ShrineShare last year, but…
THE PONTIANAK, IN FICTION The following is one of a pairs of essays I wrote as a Stretch Goal for A PERFECT WIFE . Pretty basic stuff for hantu aficionados, of course. But it is designed as orientation for GMs / players who are unfamiliar with the Malaysian context—a primer of the pontianak’s pop-cultural significance; an author’s note for why I wanted to treat her story the way…
What happens when a toxic man forcibly marries a murderous vampiress? A PERFECT WIFE is an adventure of contemporary supernatural horror , featuring the Malaysian pontianak , set in modern-day Kuala Lumpur. A TTRPG zine with art by Amanda Lee Franck and Scrap World , layout design by David Blandy , and text + design (+ some art) by me! This is also a fundraiser ! Everybody working on the zine is…
A PERFECT WIFE (It is Vampire Weekend! Have a pontianak -themed urban-horror investigative adventure. I wrote it with Kuala Lumpur in mind, but it should work for any big city just fine.) +++ DISAPPEARANCES An inner-city neighbourhood, too ugly for gentrification. Refugees have settled here. They fled war in their own country. But they have not escaped violence. People work basement sweatshops, or…
EDIT: Freddie Foulds over on Bluesky found the post for me! It was a Chris McDowall post: Alien Dojos . This is now a fan post about the genius that is Alien Dojos. Every martial art described there (for use with Into The Odd ) has a resolution mechanic that involves doing something tactile with dice, beyond just rolling. For “Bafistan Fist Fighting” each punch is a d6,…
This post is a brain-fart—me trying to jot a thought, lurking and seeing TTRPG folks react to GNS Theory for the upteenth time. + Context: GNS Theory seeks to frame, understand, categorise, and model tabletop roleplay—and, via this framework, suggest solutions and improvements to the craft of TTRPG design as a whole. Understanding GNS Theory, it is asserted, will allow you to create…
In “Replica, Aura, and Late Nationalist Imaginings” , the political scientist Benedict Anderson (most famous for his Southeast Asia scholarship and that definitive critique of nationalism, Imagined Communities ) muses on the Lincoln memorial: Within a temple explicitly mimicking “the religious edifices of a safely pagan Greece”; Mazda Corp floodlights designed “to…
At her funeral Silver’s children did not cry. Their grief was dry as pyre kindling. They said: “We will sail east past the border. We will search for our mother in the shoals of the dead. We will bring her home to the warmth of the sun. We will see her smile again.” They were Samry the brother, older and bolder; and Sellie his sister, smaller and smarter. They spoke such words, such oaths against…
The opening of my soon-to-be-real Cairn RPG adventure, The Tide Returning , is a crime scene. The king of Zum and his sceptre has gone missing in the night. Hired to find him, you are allowed a tour of the royal bedchambers, to find clues to where he’s gone. Design objectives for this opening: Give players an idea of who and where their quarry is. Who did the king prefer spending time with?…