iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 16h

Just a reminder that there are lots of text adventures you can play right now....

Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Sky Pirates of Tempest Design Talk #11(c): Outposts Outposts range from small towns to villages or forts, and are where you go to recruit crew and get jobs. If you're like me, you'll be going to them a fair bit.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Went and had some Red Lobster's (had a gift card) to celebrate being done with the Sky Pirates of Tempest base set prototype. I do enjoy a good snow crab, and pretty much only need a cracker for the claws. The rest I just take apart with my hands, like a proper Florida man.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Finished up the final encounter deck for Sky Pirates of Tempest tonight, so the base set prototype is now content complete, albeit a bit optimistic in size. Playtesting with friends will ensue shortly. Tomorrow I'm gonna relax and maybe eat something nice to celebrate.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Making good progress on the last encounter deck for Sky Pirates of Tempest today. Should be done with it today or tomorrow, and then it moves fully to testing for awhile. Gonna start rustling up local friends to come over and play it soon.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I see King's Gambit has been visited by the nazis already, crying over 'accuracy' I'm sure. They're cunning enough not to attach their bigoted reasons to their ratings. If the skin color of Aragorn tilts you that bad, but you don't think you're a nazi, you need introspection more than board games.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Laid plans down for the final encounter deck in SPoT's base set, including a reward that makes one of your crew immortal. That should be fun.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

While I was out I also tried the revamped whopper, and it was tasty. Tasted like a whopper? I'm not really sure how much of a triumph that is because I haven't been to burger king in awhile, and the burgers were never the issue there for me (super mid sides and horrid powdery freestyle drinks were).

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Got out of the house today to go pick up a pair of left-handed scissors I bought from Michael's online (there was an online only 30% off sale), and I was reminded why I fastidiously avoid using websites for anything I can do in person as much as possible....

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Locations planned out for the 8th and final encounter deck for Sky Pirates of Tempest tonight. All that's left on the base set now is to plan and write the encounters themselves for this last deck. Then the base set will move fully to the testing phase.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The most accurate term for LLMs remains "sparkling autocorrect", not anything "intelligence". Don't let tech-illiterate people and shysters convince you of absolute nonsense.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Just finished up the 6th Sky Pirates of Tempest scenario. Now I just have 1 more encounter deck (the 8th one), and the base set will be 'content complete'. I may go buy a new pair of left-handed scissors to celebrate tonight. My current pair is starting to snag a bit. They've served me well, though.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Sky Pirates of Tempest Design Talk #11(b): Dry Docks Dry docks are where you go to repair your ship/heal your crew, and gear up. You can take the following actions there:

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Sky Pirates of Tempest Design Talk #11(a): Taverns Another short one here, taverns exist as a place to not only gain some info, but also to spend info to gain secrets, and to shop for food and minor items. When you go to a tavern, you may do each of its actions once....

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I think I'm gonna head out for my walk in the park now. Hopefully the deer will be out, but if not, that's okay too. I think for my next SPoT design talks, I'm going to dig into the minor locations on the board. Which one would y'all like to hear about first? Dry docks, taverns, or outposts?

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Relaxing today, listening to some Flaming Lips, who have emerged as one of my favorite bands in the last few years. I've got Embryonic on right now, which isn't my favorite of their albums, but I'm giving it a chance to grow on me. Gonna go for a walk in the park after it finishes, probably.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Finished up scenario 5 today. Just 1 scenario and 1 encounter deck to complete now. Prolly by Friday, I'd estimate. I'll probably just walk and relax tomorrow, unless I get antsy to finish up some more work. Happens when I get close to done with something.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I've found myself encouraging several friends who've been going through it lately. Things have been tough for a lot of folks, so just do your best and remember to take care of yourself.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Working on the 5th scenario for Sky Pirates of Tempest today. This one involves carrying around a cursed idol while you seek "the cracked sky" to throw it into, destroying it at last. While you're carrying the idol, all nearby enemies hunt you, but you can hot potato it with other players, if any.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

To be clear, although the board in Sky Pirates of Tempest only shows 1 'archipelago', which is a gyre surrounded by floating islands orbiting around it, the idea is that there are numerous archipelagos in Tempest, each with their own gyre.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Sky Pirates of Tempest #10: Riding the Gyre A short one today. So, I have mentioned that there's a stable hurricane - the gyre, at the center of the board, and you can use it to slingshot quickly around the map, at some risk. So, let's look at an example of doing this...

A diagram showing a path that moves 1 space into the gyre, moves through the gyre for 6 spaces, and then emerges from the gyre for 2 final spaces.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Alright, taxes dropped off with reasonable lead time for Oct. 15th extension deadline, and I picked up the art of Gravity Falls book for myself as a reward for doing the very hard admin stuff like a big boy.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

That's got the 7th encounter deck for Sky Pirates of Tempest done. The landmark it's based on is the Rime-Crusted Citadel, and there's a special snowing icon used in the deck that means "It's cold, suffer 1 damage to your crew" basically. It's a place of eccentric nobles clinging to fading glories.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Finished up most of the 7th encounter deck today. Should be able to knock out the rest of it tomorrow, though I need to put some time towards handing off my taxes to my tax guy (got an extension as usual), so I might not get to it until the day after.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Finished up the 6th encounter deck's editing pass last night, so today I'm gonna focus on designing either the 7th encounter deck or the 5th scenario. I'll probably get in a playtest this afternoon, but we'll see. It'd be nice to have enough landmarks that not all of them get used each game first.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Sky Pirates of Tempest Design Talk #9: Encounters and Skirmishes So, we get to one of the main meat and potatoes of the game, the encounters. Every turn, each player is either gonna be in a battle, have an encounter, or at the very least, have a shop action (which can be modified by an encounter.)

An encounter card back for Skull Island. It has a 30-second hand-drawn floating island with a big skull as its base and the ability "The Lost Treasure - A great treasure lies here, awaiting someone brave enough to claim it."

An encounter card for Skull Island. On it are 3 encounters: A spiked pit trap on Skull Island, a shopping opportunity at the Salty Dog tavern, and a skirmish with a great white ape at the Jungle Temple.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Got a 5th encounter deck edited today. Just 1 to go. I've also gotten the 7th encounter deck started, finishing up the 'shop' encounters, which are, admittedly, the easier bits. Still, good progress today so far.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Thankfully, fewer and fewer people confuse the Wall Street Journal for a newspaper.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Finished up the first editing pass for the 4th encounter deck in SPoT today. Two more need a pass, and then two others need to be designed, and that'll be all the encounter decks taken care of. On the scenario end of things, two more need to be designed. After that, I'll have a fully complete box.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I didn't talk like a pirate any today, but I did spend some time working on sky pirates, so I think I got my quota in nonetheless. Planned out the last 2 landmarks for the base box. Once I finish these last 2 landmarks and 2 scenarios, everything for the base box is at least in first draft.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

It wasn't cheap, but I've finally got my car back, and the work is guaranteed for 50,000 miles, so god willing and the river don't rise, this issue is dealt with now.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Worked out the basics of the last 2 scenarios and landmarks for SPoT today. The goal/hope is 8 landmarks and 6 scenarios in the base box. We'll see how that actually pans out as it slowly becomes a thing, but I feel that'd be a good amount of stuff.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

One thing I really like in games is when not everything is out to murder you. In Sky Pirates of Tempest I've designed a number of 'enemies' as just minding their own business, like the gossamer whale that runs away on sight, or the merchant ships that you can do business with instead of fighting.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Dozed off early last night, so I'm up at the crack of dawn today. Have been editing one of the encounter decks and rebalancing it. Also vastly simplified its special trait.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Sky Pirates of Tempest Design Talk #8: Battle and Enemies So, full proper fights that occur on the board while you're wandering around are referred to as battles, while simpler fights that happen during encounters are called skirmishes. I'm only going to be talking about battles here.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I want to get in a playtest of the new SPoT scenario this morning, but later today I'll try to do some 30-second art on an enemy or two and then talk about how battles work, which might lead to a follow-up talk about skirmishes, which are mini-battles embedded into encounters.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Finished up a 4th scenario for Sky Pirates of Tempest today. I'll give it a try tomorrow for playtest #16. Got word on the car - it'll be expensive, but they'll guarantee the work at least, and I can afford it. Should have it back by end of week.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Yum, I do like a sandwich with plenty of veggies on it, but I rarely have many around the house except during farmshare season. Always nice when I do, though.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Sky Pirates of Tempest Design Talk #7: Crew One of the major tools in your arsenal in SPoT is your crew. They generally let you roll extra dice when making certain types of skill tests, and they can absorb some damage. However, if they take too much damage, they are 'lost' and you discard them.

One of the crew cards, again sanitized with some of my patented 30 second hand-drawn art. Lucky the eyepatch-wearing cat gives +1 die when making spot checks, +1 fortune, and has 2 health.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I will do a little bit of SPoT chatter tonight, though. Nothing too major, but I'll talk a bit about crew here in a minute.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I've listened to several cds today. Decemberists' I'll Be Your Girl, Electric Dreams soundtrack, White Stripes' White Blood Cells, and currently listening to Joan Osborne's Relish. While I'm thinking about it, are there any other albums that have similar energy to Relish?

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I'm not always disciplined about my weekends being time off, but that's only when I'm self-employed. When I've worked for other folks, my weekend has walls around it like that city in Attack on Titan. Emails don't get looked at, etc. I let employers rent me, but no one owns me.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I think I'm mostly going to relax this weekend. This has been a tough week and the car's in the shop anyway, so it's not like I could run errands. SPoT is coming along well, and I have a few other nibbles that may develop into something, or they may not.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Playtest #14 of Sky Pirates of Tempest under my belt. That one slogged a bit. Hard to say if it was my own low energy or not, but I'll look at what I can tighten up regardless.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Spent the morning upgrading some of the Sky Pirates of Tempest prototype parts, and then went through the 2nd encounter deck (of 6 so far) and did an edit and balancing pass. Still waiting to hear back from the garage on my car, but I was in no way expecting to have a car this weekend, so yeah.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I guess after two pretty good cars, I was due for a more troublesome one. The Bronco was pretty solid and make it to 200k, and the Saturn was a terrific car until it died the death. The Buick has a system where it turns off the engine at stop lights and such, then starts up again to save gas, and...

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

So, good news is that the 2nd garage says that the issue should be covered by a recall if I take it to a GM dealership, so I asked them to make sure it's charging for now and hopefully I'll be able to get it fixed for free, or at least way cheaper than the over $3k I was being quoted. We shall see.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Sky Pirates of Tempest Design Talk #6: Ships Feeling like talking more about the game tonight, so I sanitized one of the ship sheets enough to where I felt showing it off wouldn't violate anyone's image rights. There are several sections to the sheet. Art, skills, ability, captain, and inventory.

A ship sheet from Sky Pirates of Tempest, showing a bunch of skills and such as well as high quality mock art.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

If anyone has any questions they want to ask me about Sky Pirates of Tempest, today is a great day for it. I could use the distraction.

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Kevin Wilson @kevinwilson42.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It's a rough week so far. Car is at different garage for a 2nd opinion, had some sad family news. Threw myself into playtesting Sky Pirates of Tempest this afternoon and took out my feelings on the Regency.

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