iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Up here in Canada we're righteously annoyed at Trump's Lake Ontario bullshit, but I'd like to take a moment to remind everyone we still have SKELETON LAKE and no one is ever going to take that away from us.

A screenshot of Google Maps showing a body of water labeled Skeleton Lake in Ontario, Canada,

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Another sneak peak for my second entry in the The Great Canadian Game Jam, The Great Glacier! It's a solo game where you fight off rivals and dodge hazards, seeking DESTINY and GLORY upon the glacial summit. It won 3rd place! It'll go on sale next week.

The cover art for The Great Glacier, a solo ice-climbing game of destiny and glory by John McQueen-Scott. The cover shows the silhouette of a Norse voyager in front of a frosty mountainscape.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Sneak peak of one of my Great Canadian Game Jam submissions, The Dreaded Chimeribou! You play as campers trying to escape a mythical, Canadian cryptid. It's a fun little survival horror, resource management trifold, releasing next week! Art credit goes to John Bilodeau.

The cover of The Dreaded Chimeribou, a GM-less survival horror game for 3-5 players. The cover art features the chimeribou, an amalgamation of caribou, beaver, and goose, in an ornate frame above stock photography of a mountain valley.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

I've been spending some time refining the combat in the system I'm working on, and as I've already taken my licks on this topic so I may as well lay it bare! For context, Body is one of the 3 core attributes. It governs physical attacks and defense, among other things. Oh, and *all* PCs get 4 HP.

If Attacker Body > Defender Body: Damage Dealt = Attacker Body - Defender Body.
If Attacker Body <= Defender Body: The attacker must make an emergency Aptitude Test.
On a Success: Attacker deals 1 point of damage.
On a Failure: Attacker suffers damage equal to Defender Body - Attacker Body. If the stats are equal, attacker suffers 1 point of damage.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

First round of commissions has come in for the next Stargazer Keep zine, so I think it's time for a cover reveal! Artwork provided by the incredible Tristan Tolhurst. www.instagram.com/tristandraws...

Cover for Stargazer Keep: Yellow - The Sword of the Septarch. Art details a imposing sphinx flanked by two hovering, mechanized jackal statues.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Kiddo was fascinated by the game table yesterday, so I let him roll some dice and run through some rooms with me. He defeated a metal skeleton and me the Machine God, who he asked if he wanted to play outside with him. He also scribbled arcane runes across his character sheet. Like a real gamer!

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Frustratingly, I found a few misprints in the final books. For anyone who might be wondering, the missing entry in this table is: 12. “When the sun sleeps, the chambers awaken.” Etched in the stone wall.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

A word of wisdom: don't mess with a roosting family of manticores when 2/3rds of your party started with 1 hp! But death means character advancement in Stargazer Keep, so the party returned with replacements and renewed strength to have their revenge.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

This afternoon I ran a game for the first time in well over a year. It was actually the first time I've had the chance to run Stargazer Keep since the manuscript was finalized in 2024! We had 2 character deaths, and the players were eagerly rolling up replacements as the last survivor ran to safety.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

And then there's the statue depicting Artemis herself from the Temple at Ephesus. The Alien Astronaut crowd has an absolute heyday with this one. This... This is a creature! Or maybe... A suit? 4/

A statue of Artemis recovered from an archeological site in Ephesus. It depicts Artemis the Mother, rather than the more familiar Hunter figure.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

There's so much cool stuff to draw from for the design of this section, but I'm especially fixated on a Biblical passage referencing Artemis as the protector of "the image that fell from heaven." And wouldn't you know, some folks believe that "image" is an artifact held in the Liverpool Museum! 3/

An elongated stone sculpture that some people believe to be the "image that fell from heaven."

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

And believe me friends, when I say EVERY location. We even keyed hallways and staircases. Some of them contain secrets, loot, and encounters! You'll see me say "this section has 30 rooms!" but the map only shows Y1-Y17. Well, when you add S1-S11, it starts to look a lot bigger. (s is for stairs) 4/

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Huge shoutout to Tristan Tolhurst, who did a lot of work on the last release, including the cover art for Raiders of the Machine God. Tristan has been an incredible collaborator. Check out his work and hit him up if you need anything commissioned! www.instagram.com/tristandraws...

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

If this is something you'd have been interested in, sound off! Maybe we'll do a special edition box for the next campaign.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Packing up a few extra-special Stargazer Keep starter kits. These are basically thank-you packages only for the most devout Dio fans we know, but now that I have them in-hand, I wish we had made a special edition backer tier!

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Any of y'all metroidvania fans sleeping on Ultros should really check it out. It's a really unique take on the genre, and not just visually. It's got combat and platforming and puzzle solving, but also gardening? And really soft rogue-lite elements? And it's psychedelic as all hell.

A screenshot from the game Ultros. The scene shows the player character standing near a dead, slumping figure impaled by a sword. The background is coloured in vibrant neon green, violet, and purple. A dodecahedron is featured in the centre of the frame, part of an intricate mural. Mysterious florals, overgrown organic mass, and vaguely religious/mythological motifs dominate the scenery.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

How about a sneak peak of the rooms we've got in store for the next section of Stargazer Keep? Which room are you most interested in exploring? If you ask nicely, I might tell you about it.

A screen clipping of a google doc sidebar listing the rooms in Stargazer Keep - Yellow: The Sword of the Septarch. The listings include Orange-Yellow Staircase, Seven Circuit Labyrinth, Crystal Edifice, Waveguide Exhaust, Scalable Wall, Waveguide Shaft, Garden Terrace, Resonance Basin, Catastrophic Release, Scaffold Hoist, Radiant Rise, Antechamber, Stairs of the Jackal, Sunstone Throne, Breached Stairs, and Ritual Chamber.

A screen clipping of a google doc sidebar listing the rooms in Stargazer Keep - Yellow: The Sword of the Septarch. The listings include Stairs of Taranis, Balcony Seating, Shrine of the Sun, Harmonic Ascent, Sunblind Steps, Solarium of Solitude, Hall of Records, Fractured Plasma Conduit, Tomb of Heroes, Caduceus Staricase, Cenotaph of the Ascended, Overcharge Staircase, Celestial Stage, and Arpeggiated Oscillator.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Who likes worldbuilding? I just had a blast blitzing through the backstory and faction lore for the next section of Stargazer Keep. It's always fun to puzzle over what needs to be vague and obfuscated, leaving room for GMs and players to fill in the blanks.

A screenshot of a google docs sidebar listing the key factions and NPCs in Stargazer Keep - Yellow: The Sword of the Septarch. The listings include Durendart the Warrior King, Chrysopoeian Knights, Golden Specters, Jackals, Exalted Elves, Theosebia, Stalla Polaris, Nebula and Country Girl, Kristoff, and Machine God Cyboros.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

How big is my Christmas turkey this year? Oh, about 8 litres.

A turkey, spatchcocked and split into two 4 litre water jugs filled with brine.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

This is a dungeon, right? It's definitely a dungeon.

A fold out spread from the Voynich Manuscript. It's incomprehensible and written in an unknown script scholars have yet to decipher, but this particular segment resembles some kind of psychedelic, semi-organic building layout with lots of interesting patterns.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Here's a picture my 4yo drew yesterday. Is it weird to say it makes me feel something?

A sullen figure with a large head and pointy ears looks upwards, as the world crumbles at his feet.

Scratch that. The kiddo says it's a Christmas tree. I'm questioning my grasp of reality.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Who likes drugs? Who likes finding random drugs in a Wizard's tower and taking them so you can peer into oblivion?? Well then you better get your ass over to the Stargazer Keep Kickstarter campaign before the campaign ends. There are plenty of psychotropics to go around!

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Stargazer Keep Class Reveal Part 7: The Haunted Dreamer! This is a character who's having a rough time. They're quite literally haunted, deprived of sleep, and more than a little unstable. Instead of seeking therapy, they find themselves in a megalithic tower in the middle of the desert.

Pages from Stargazer Keep Black: Voyager's Handbook detailing the Haunted Dreamer player class

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Stargazer Keep Class Reveal Part 6: The Wicked Legion! This is one of my favourites! The concept here is these characters are possessed. Like, a lot. They can generally maintain control of themselves, but on occasion the demons come out with blood and fury.

Pages from Stargazer Keep Black: Voyager's Handbook detailing the Wicked Legion player class

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Stargazer Keep Class Reveal Part 5: The Cursed Singer! Magic is very powerful and widely accessible in Stargazer Keep, and we wanted to make a class that really hones in on that. Enter the Cursed Singer, who is given enhanced magic abilities, but at a cost.

Pages from Stargazer Keep Black: Voyager's Handbook detailing the Cursed Singer player class

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Stargazer Keep Class Reveal Part 4: The Holy Outlaw! Essentially a mercenary, a sword for hire, but specifically under employment by the church. It’s a twist on traditional paladin-style classes, one that may lack moral superiority.

Pages from Stargazer Keep Black: Voyager's Handbook with details of the Holy Outlaw player class

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Stargazer Keep Class Reveal Part 3: The Chained Vicar! Literally a priest who was locked away for criminal behaviour, broken shackles still attached. Though they may be disgraced or even discommunicated from their faith, they still cling to their holy sacraments.

Pages from the Stargazer Keep Voyagers' Handbook containing details for the Chained Vicar class

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Ok, I'm gonna do one more, this time with the text of all three zines. The top 3 words are KEEP at 132, DAMAGE at 131, and STARGAZER at 125.

A word cloud generated from all 3 zines in Stargazer Keep. It contains the words keep, damage, stargazer, hp, roll, test, voyager, verses, tower, random, special, morale, and presence.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

And here's our Orange book, the Raiders of the Machine God! This is the actual meat of the adventure, so we have some fun words like... oops, more damage!

A word cloud generated from Stargazer Keep Orange: Raiders of the Machine God. It includes stargazer, keep, special, damage, morale, test, cyboros, machine, hp, and random.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Next is Red, the Stargazer's Guidebook. Damage is still high on the list, but this time its been overtaken by some of the more obvious choices, like voyager and stargazer!

A word cloud generated from Stargazer Keep Red: Stargazer's Guidebook. Standouts include stargazer, damage, keep, voyagers, hp, roll, and tower.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

I thought it might be fun to generate some word clouds using the text from each of the 3 zines we're publishing in our first Stargazer Keep Kickstarter campaign. Starting with our Black zine, the Voyager's Handbook. Be prepared to take some damage, I guess!

A word cloud based on Stargazer Keep Black: Voyager's Handbook. The standouts include damage, voyager, fallen, cacophany, stargazer, roll, keep, and tower.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Stargazer Keep Class Reveal Part 2: The Reticent Masquerader! A dramatic character who likes to attract attention, Reticent Masqueraders have the ability to serve as a distraction when their friends are in trouble.

Pages from the Stargazer Keep Voyagers' Handbook containing details for the Reticent Masquerader class

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Stargazer Keep Class Reveal Part 1: The Nameless Stranger! A character whose identity is defined by self-determination. They have rejected the name they were given at birth, and their power comes from the control they have over their identity.

Pages from the Stargazer Keep Voyager's Handbook containing the details for the Nameless Stranger class.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Happy to announce that we FINALLY crossed the $10k cad threshold for Stargazer Keep on Kickstarter. As promised, we'll begin revealing each of our 7 classes! Likely starting tomorrow morning. Thanks to everyone who helped us get this far!

Kickstarter campaign page for Stargazer Keep: Part 1 of a Mork Borg compatible megadungeon.

Created by Terry Herc Games and John McQueen-Scott.

3 epic MORK BORG-compatible zines. 150+ pages of cursed magic & dungeon crawling. Print + PDF. Power metal fantasy.

$10000 cad pledged of $2500. 128 backers. 3 days to go.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

Hey folks, time to talk some Stargazer Keep mechanics! When you think of cosmic sword & sorcery, or just sword & sorcery in general, what are the heroes wearing? There's usually quite a bit of skin exposed. Any armor worn by these characters seem to be purely aesthetic.

He-Man staring into the distance. He is scantily clad, with not much more than a harness and some pauldrons.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

This is the message I got today on my kid's daycare app and I'm fucking dying 😂 NOODLE MAN

Today friends after circle time had a very interesting activity of NOODLE MAN. Teacher made a noodle man face and set a yarn 🧶 and disposable cup. The yarn looked like noodle as it passed from noodle man mouth. Children were wrapping the yarn on the disposable cup, it was amusing them to see that as the yarn was moving inside of the mouth while wrapping on the disposable cup by them, the noodle man looked like man is eating noodle.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Hey folks! Let's make a character for Stargazer Keep! If you're familiar with Mork Borg, this is going to look familiar. On top of rolling for abilities, we're going to randomize our class, weapon/armour, equipment, and a bunch of other fun stuff. It's a quick and simple process. Let's get into it!

A character sheet for the upcoming ttrpg Stargazer Keep. It has spots for your name, class, and level at the top.

There are 5 spots for ability modifiers for our core stats: Strength, Agility, Presence, Toughness, and Stargaze.

There's a spot for you to track your HP.

There are check boxes to mark off whether you've used your talisman and wish. You can also list your Talisman Points as well as its Properties.

As we go down the sheet, you can record your Weapons, Armour, Class Power, Equipment, Silver, Pack, Background & Traits, and ZOdiac.

Finally, the bottom has ample space for you to list your verses, or magic spells you have access to.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Beneath Stargazer Keep, sealed behind a heavy, iron door, a soul-hungry demon drags his chains as he prowls the halls of the Crypt. These catacombs are packed with the bones of all who have fallen in the tower, taken by the demon's chains at the moment of their death. 1/6

2-page spread from Stargazer Keep. Art depicts a horse-headed demon on the left and a crypt on the right.

"Murrabas. HP 66 No morale Unyielding Ward -4 Chains of Murrabas 3d12 Special When a voyager is killed by the chains of Murrabas, they are instantly dragged into the depths of the Crypt.

The scraping of chains echo through the walls of Stargazer Keep, heralding the arrival of Murrabas. A manifestation of the Mortal Earth’s hunger and greed, this dreadful demon spawned centuries ago when the Eye of the Cosmos was ruptured during the Transorbital Cataclysm. He serves a single purpose: to hoard the bones of the dead in his ossuary and prevent them from a celestial burial among the stars.

Voyager Advancement. Upon returning the bones of a fallen voyager to Nebula, she feeds them to her serpent Country Girl. Scales shed like motes of starlight and fly into the night sky, resting among the innumerable constellations. Those who partook in the ritual are imbued with the strength of the Cosmos and gain a voyager level, as well as the following benefits:
HP Increase: Roll 6d10. If the result is equal to or greater than your current maximum HP, increase it by 1d6.
Ability Score Increase: Roll 1d6 for Agility, Presence, Strength, and Toughness. If the result is equal to or greater than the ability score, increase it by 1 (to a maximum of +6). If the result is less than the ability score, decrease it by 1. If the ability score is 1 or less, it will always be increased unless the result on the 1d6 is 1. In this case, the ability is reduced by 1 but never below -3.
Stargaze: Your Stargaze score does not change during voyager advancement.

Voyager level is limited by the highest section of the tower that has been reached. Voyagers who reach the maximum level for their section are rewarded silver equal to 10 x their voyager level for completing the ritual (in place of advancement)."

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

I'll leak a spoiler for Stargazer Keep that illustrates what we're going for here. There's a massive brass organ in the very first room of Raiders of the Machine God. We've referred to it as our big red button. The organ is pictured on the cover of our Voyager's Handbook. Art by Monika Sifert. 11/

The cover of a book titled "Stargazer Keep Black: Voyager's Handbook". The artwork depicts the pipes of an ornate organ in black and white.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Folks, we're so close! It looks like we're going to hit 100 backers sometime tonight, so you can expect me to drop by Dio top 20 list first thing tomorrow morning. If you have any deep cuts you would want to see on a top 20 list, this is your last chance to convince me!

Screenshot of a Kickstarter campaign page showing 98 backers have pledged $7802CAD with 19 days to go.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Without downloading anything new, where are you mentally.

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John McQueen-Scott ✨🧙‍♂️🤘 @rocketboot.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Quote this with a book you read way too young that explains why you are the way you are. I was very confused as a child, and this book did not help.

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