339. Become Uncoffinable

From Topic Lords by Jim Stormdancer

April 20, 2026 · 1h 5m

About this episode

The episode discusses various topics including faction design in games, linguistics, and the creative process in naming.

Lords: Watson Wren Topics: Faction design in historical strategy games Linguistics makes it easier and harder to name things You belong in SLUSD. What is SLUSD? The Cremation of Sam McGee https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45081/the-cremation-of-sam-mcgee The magic systems of Brandon Sanderson Microtopics: The Three-Body Problem (Not That One) Jade City; Jade Legacy. Making any non-creamy soup into a creamy soup. Boiling an entire civilization down to a concept simple enough to program. Getting to the end of the tech tree first and winning science. Greece as the origin of many of our modern ideas about government. Grand strategy games where you spend most of your time trying to not to be assassinated by your family. Dwarf Fortress except it's obsessed with the royal family. Hiring Charles Babbage to invent the analytical engine because otherwise all your game jams will have to be board game jams. Playing a TTRPG and having to name something so first you have to create thousands of years of linguistic history. The World Builder's Disease. (A.k.a. having a delightful hobby) What you might have named somebody back in Zelda Times. Developing a set of phonotactics so that you can…

People in this episode

Host: Jim Stormdancer

Guest: Watson Wren

Topics covered

Faction design in historical strategy games
Linguistics
Magic systems
Grand strategy games
World Builder's Disease
TTRPG naming
Investigative journalism

Keywords

historical strategy games
linguistics
magic systems
TTRPG
World Builder's Disease
grand strategy
investigative journalism

Mentioned in this episode

Products: SLUSD

Books & works: The Cremation of Sam McGee, Jade City, Jade Legacy, The Three-Body Problem

Places: Ohio, Greece