Aaron der Schaedel

Little bit of news from ‪@MildraTheMonkVT‬

Sounds like he and his team are more or less done with Final Fantasy Legend Edition, and any new updates are just gonna be him playing around with the massive tomes he's created.

More details here:
mildra.itch.io/finalfantasy-le/devlog/1121457/so-w…

2 months ago | [YT] | 1

Aaron der Schaedel

Finally finished this fantastic labor of love I started earlier this year!

This is also the final video I'm making for this year -- I've been wanting to focus more on my writing projects lately, but I didn't want to leave this hanging in limbo like so many other things I've started.

After I feel like I've made some significant progress on my writing projects, I'll go back to making more video guides and reviews.

Happy Halloween, and until we meet again in 2026!

2 months ago | [YT] | 1

Aaron der Schaedel

Last of the pseudo-sponsored videos have been uploaded, so now begins the work on what I *really* wanted to get done this year.

And after that, who knows?

I don't like making big promises or hyping things up; I've been too disappointed by hype in my life, and have also failed to live up to my own hype sometimes. At this juncture I prefer to just do things, and show it off when all is said and done.

Here's another pointless poll. since clicking things is fun.

4 months ago | [YT] | 4

Aaron der Schaedel

Here we are, on the noon of another Gary Gygax Day, with me officially being yet another year older.

I was originally mulling over what to say for this particular post, most of it being morose misgivings of my modest makings and the meager means it affords me.

But that may have just been because I was stuck at my dayjob and was finally crashing out after subsisting almost entirely on Red Bull for 12 hours.

...but the funny thing about that is now that I'm out of there, I'm (emotionally) feeling better.

So I'll leave you all instead with where the channel stands, and what I hope to accomplish after I get that done.

First, I got two sponsored (ish?) videos I'm working on. I was given a review copy of the games Cursed Captains of Cthulhu, and Acheron. I've got scripts ready for those, and I'm proof-reading them before I fire up the recording setup.

Once I get that done, I'm going to get back to work on my love-letter to this hobby of ours: Fanmade Final Fantasy Games: Disc 2.

If I get those all done before the year is out, I'll consider it a successful year.

After that? Bunch of stuff is on the table, but no idea what I'll get to until the time comes closer. I had a lot planned this year, but much of that got set aside when it came time to see if I could actually pull it off.

Things remain:
-Publish some of my own RPG books.
-Start streaming as a ttRPG vTuber
-Make some video game prototypes
-Run an alarmingly experimental game for the general public

Time will tell which and if any of those shake out.

But for now? I'm gonna spend the day introducing some of my younger friends to the wonder world of tabletop RPGs.

(And arguably, ruin their lives by doing so)

5 months ago | [YT] | 3

Aaron der Schaedel

I normally roll my eyes when I see these sections in rulebooks but...

This one? This explanation?

I like this one.

(From Final Fantasy ttRPG Legend Edition)

7 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 16

Aaron der Schaedel

ttrpg-basics.xyz/

It's more or less what it says on the tin: basic stuff about tabletop RPGs.

It's a more frills free, and text based counterpart to my YouTube channel, for folks who may be more interested in the written word to learn about, well, the basics of tabletop RPGs.

I plan on having new articles for this launch on Fridays.

7 months ago | [YT] | 7

Aaron der Schaedel

We'll start with our useless poll for this one. What comes next in this sequence?

11, 22, 33, 55, 88...

--
The meat of this post is an update about where things are with the channel. The big familial problem I was anticipating finally happened with my father passing away; I avoided any major commitments since I knew when that happened I was going to need to drop everything and reunite with the family for awhile.

While I was at the services for his funeral, my sister and I discussed some numeric patterns relevant to our family history. That's what that sequence was -- we found a double digit Fibonacci sequence amongst some of the birthdays in the family. It got me wondering what the next number should be, and the poll is the end results of my musing on the matter.

While I appreciate the condolences those I've told this to have offered me so far, and those that will no doubt come in at hearing this news; don't worry too much about me. My relationship with my father was complicated, to say the least.

I digress though.

Now that he's in the ground and I'm back in the foothills of Kentucky, let's discuss what comes next, since the biggest burden has been relieved, shall we?

I have three videos I want to get done before this year is out. Two of them are games I was given review copies of, and the third is the big one I've been going on about for awhile: Fanmade Final Fantasies, Disc 2.
Research comes first for these.

I also have one of the websites I wanted to launch in a mostly usable state. I'll announce that separately, but there's still the other one I need to work on before I go back to working on videos.

And finally, in the interim, I'm still working on writing the odd, generic source booklet here or there. It probably won't be till 2026 that I can afford to start working on proper ttRPG books in earnest. Since one year is plenty of time for plans to change, I'm keeping those mostly to myself.

For now though? I'm gonna spend the next few days playing a VERY HAPPY and NOT AT ALL HORRIFIC computer game called Fear and Hunger 2: Termina.

7 months ago | [YT] | 3

Aaron der Schaedel

Latest set of videos is done, uploaded and scheduled. One final experiment, a minor one.

So for now, I go on a brief hiatus, as I am often wont to do after finishing a set, and then get to work on the other things I hope to accomplish this year.

8 months ago | [YT] | 7

Aaron der Schaedel

My ridiculous experiment has long been over, and the algorithm figured out what it was supposed to do with me after the brain-rot left the tubes. Nature is healing.

Which means it is precisely the right time for me to play around with things and mess things up again, because I'll never learn the maxim "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

But anyway.

I've got another batch of videos that are almost ready. The sort of content that did put me on the map; informative, and specific. I just need to finish some illustrations and adding in my VFX, and they'll be ready for upload.

Once that's done, I've got two majors goals I want to have done before the year is out.

First, is Fanmade Final Fantasies, Disc 2. Because at the end of the day, I'm in this for the love of tabletop RPGs, just like the folks who pour themselves into fan made games.

Second, I've got an idea for two more websites I want to launch -- one for plaintext explanations of RPGs; a sort of cheat sheet for the basics, and an explanation of some basics that'll help in ANY tabletop RPG.

The other will discuss more unusual questions; things you'd find in the comments section, with me giving huge walls of text explaining something like why there's One Handed Swords and Light Weapons listed in the weapon skill category for a particular game.

If I can get those things done, it'll have been a good year for me.

9 months ago | [YT] | 2

Aaron der Schaedel

That experiment is over, and until I forget why it wasn't such a hot idea, I probably won't do that again. Probably.

In other good news, I'm almost done with the first draft of the book; the idea is that it's a generic set of sub-systems that can work with most RPGS, following a theme of gamifying non-combat and downtime.

The bad news there: I probably won't be able to fund publishing it for like...a year. Unless I have a sudden stroke of good luck. Kickstarter isn't an option. I refuse to deal with the indignities of hoping people think my idea is good enough to put money down for when I don't even have a product that exists yet.

And due to issues in my family life, I'm also unable to make any major, long term commitments. So Actual Plays are out of the question till that gets resolved.

Which means I'll finally get to work on Fanmade Final Fantasy Disc 2. In addition to my garden variety stuff.

On a different note, I've realized a lot of my best writing is buried in the comment sections of my videos. A shame, really; that's the sort of stuff that really demonstrates the judgements and rulings I make when I'm GMing.

That, and also I miss the era of the internet that was mostly the written word, before it was dominated by video media.

I think it might be a good idea to make a blog featuring that stuff -- so people don't have to wade through comments or wait for several minutes for me to verbally explain something (that may not even address their question!)

Plus, folks for enjoy reading deserve to be catered to as well, blast it!

10 months ago | [YT] | 0