Hello all!

Just a quick update to let you know that the Ryne crowdfunder will be ending 8am Wednesday 23rd (BST). We've fully funded, and hit our first two stretch goal, so there will be a rulebook full of art and guest writers coming 2023!

You can still pledge to Ryne here on Indiegogo.com, and we'll be running in-demand pledges once the crowdfunder ends - though we won't necessarily be able to use later pledges toward stretch goals.

Thanks so much to everyone who has supported Ryne so far, and we'd really appreciate your help in this last push! 

Thryn ^ Adam

Ryne is now on Indiegogo! Help us print Ryne as a beautiful hardback book.

Five years ago, we first started thinking about and making These Flimsy Rituals. We spent a year working out what kind of podcast we wanted to create, the kind of stories we wanted to tell and the world we wanted to play in. We sat down to play a game of the Quiet Year and built a community precariously balanced on the edge of a cliff. The people there would celebrate each year when the titan that had, over millennia, carved the canyon that surrounded the villages strode past. Then we drew cards and told the story of their one quite year of peace.

An adventurous child climbed out on the branches of the Koak trees that hung over the chasm. A strange group known as the Parish turned up following a weaver named Vilte. A storyteller called Jeddah tried in vain to stop the takeover of the bullish stonemason, Aya. The Remnant didn't walk past. Vilte was poisoned. A Remnant of storm approached. The community fractured between those who chose to seek refuge in the caves beneath their village, and those who fled the coming of the Frost Shepherd.

Then, we sat down to play a longer game in that world. We knew that we wanted something that created the kind of collaborative, narrative-focused game we loved, but we couldn't find the one that fit our world. So, we made our own. We called it Ryne.

Five years later and Ryne has changed a lot from the game we started with in that first season. Its changed from a rough hack, a mash-up of bits from our favourite Powered by the Apocalypse games, into a game that we think is really polished, sharp and brings its own unique take on both PbtA and fantasy. 

We're delighted to bring it to Indiegogo, to get one step closer to printing it as the book we dreamed of when we first started making it. Hardback, full of great art, with evocative details about our world and everything you need to play. We've spent a lot of time shaping, so it works for the stories you want to tell. When you play a game of Ryne, you'll make the world your own. Together you'll create titans of stone and moss and spirit, you'll detail their landscapes, and the people, flora and fauna that make their homes there. You'll tell stories of great journeys, of communities adapting to change, of impossible projects to heal fraying colossi.

Ryne is a game shaped around our tagline, "Small stories in big worlds". We can't wait to hear about the world you create and the stories you tell within it.

Hello everyone! This is just a quick announcement to let you know that Ryne will be crowdfunding on Indiegogo this Thursday, 21st of July. Head to our pre-launch page if you want to find out more, and get notified when we launch!

Ryne is the game that we played during our first season, Tiding. We've been working on it since before we launched that series in 2018. All told, we've spent probably five years turning it into the game that we want it to be. We feel like it's reached the point where we're ready to bring it to print. We're really proud of it and hope, especially if you're a listener, that it's something that will provide the perfect companion to our show with details about the world and rules for playing your own games of Ryne.

We'll bring some more news once we go live, but for now we'd appreciate people signing up for our pre-launch. Basically, the more people that sign up before we launch, the smoother everything goes for us and it becomes more likely that we hit some of our more exciting stretch goals! We'll also be giving one person who signs up a free fabric map of Ryne, added to their pledge.

 - adam

"Regardless, we weren't in there long... A couple of nights, as best we could tell, before we were dragged out down Mawk's Mantle. That leaves us back where we started, I guess - the flickering dawn, the stage, the bismuth nooses, that bloody heron. Funny what your mind notices in the direst moments."

~~~

Our ritual fades, our story ends. Behind the fallen arras, twenty years of asking and wondering. Nilkat and Belka stare into the cooling fire. They trace the knot and growth of exhausted timber, with only ash and ember to shape the phantoms of the trees that could have been.

~~~

A finale, then. We play the HISTORY IS GONE BUT WE REMEMBER by Ben Roswell as we let ourselves drift from our tale of Ginnels and Swifts, the bastard nim Shifs and the defiant Maybes. We study the city from a distance, imagine the stories that could have been, those loose ends ready to be woven into our greater tapestry.

~~~

Episode title from Camp Adventure by Delta Sleep

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Chat to us on Discord

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson.

Series art by Ben Swinden.

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin.

cw: betrayal, death, violence, arrest  

"Boctive Deign, Xenarus Crow, Neah nim Gorse - they’d fill the air with blood and smoke. Their treachery had already claimed Boleth and Serrivomer, they came for us next.

There are those that rightly call the Lodge a sanctuary, but I will never step foot there again. For me that place is nowt but a tomb, in its halls our revolution is buried."

In an instant, the violent arc of Galena's pistol brings down Embrace's dawn-blessed son and with it the revolution's fault lines are seared into reality. Oken lies dying, Ivar is fractured, Ezra faces an assassins blade, Neah frays at the seams, and Ash must decide where his true loyalties lie.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

Boctive Deign: A charismatic member of the Wolves, whose radical treatises on Embrace are widely distributed and eagerly read.

Crik Rise: Leader of the Flint Street Knappers. Once a friend of Ezra and Nilkat, but life has taken them on a different path.

Flint Reccan: A former Jackal and companion of Oken, who stayed in Eolith as envoy to Bregu after the slaying of Relict.

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Xenarus Crow: The cynical leader of the Triumphant Maybe and member of the Wolves.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Trusted: A small cell of revolutionaries loyal to Neah, headed by Ido Ozk Erut.

~~ PLACES ~~

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

Episode title from Loyalty Festers by Onsind.

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Support us on patreon patreon.com/theseflimsyrituals

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

c/w body horror, family conflict, betrayal

“Embrace is a hole. A rip in the heart of the world. It’s like the gardens of Crown’s Ait - petal and green cloistered by wall from the world around. Ordered sweeps of fragant colour and soft, useless lawn. Beautiful, I’m sure, but that beauty belies the effort put into maintaining it”

As the Gall blossoms into new life within Winter’s Lodge, betrayal and despair bury their roots beneath it. Hidden out of sight of the revolution, long laid plans break and new purposes are found. Duty and despair clash violently as those drawn to the Gall’s new beginning are at odds over what it means.

Oken, Neah and Ash each find themselves grappling with destiny and choice.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Mel: Once an envoy of the remnant, Relict. Brought to Embrace with Oken, she rebuilt her gestalt consciousness beneath the city. She now resides within Oken, dormant but attentive.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Trusted: A small cell of revolutionaries loyal to Neah, headed by Ido Ozk Erut.

Umbral Provenders: A legitimised organisation of smugglers, who use the cut to smuggle contraband into and out of the city. Based in Atrium, they use criminality to enforce their hold there.

~~ PLACES ~~

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze. A broken assortment of bismuth lined tunnels that runs over, under and parallel to the physical city.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

Episode title from Nothing Fades Like The Light by Orville Peck

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Support us on patreon patreon.com/theseflimsyrituals

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

c/w violence, police, outer-body experiences

“A tree of crimson and bone that grew down miles, visible despite the layers of architecture between, its every inch of growth fuelled by the centuries of us. Our blessings and our bonds, our lusting and loving and hoping and playing and learning and striving.”

Ivar and Ezra watch the barricades of Tail's End and Loven Street become overwhelmed, as the Pale Lanterns arrive and turn the tide of the fight against them. Hopping from machine to machine, the pair watch the city struggle in snapshots of panic and violence, leaving more of themselves behind with each passing moment. 

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Foible: The second ghostly member of the Jubilant Maybe. Kindly protest prepper. Was murdered by the nim Shifs and the Swifts.

Nilkat: A former factory mechanic, turned revolutionary. A member of the Ginnels and our story’s narrator.

Oxbow Lake: A member of the Jubilant Maybe, who joined them on the election score. Partner to Foible.

Trilvo: The matriarch of Tail’s End. A doctor, used to working on ghosts and spirit.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Likelihood Lads: A group of bookmakers and petty thieves who run the Loven Street races.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Pale Lanterns: A group once founded to guide stray spirits, but over time their purpose has slipped from benevolent, to enforcers, to oppressors.

~~ PLACES ~~

Hinter Ward: Embrace’s southernmost ward. The north is dense tenements, while the south has been abandoned to marsh and spirit.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

Episode title from Almost Was Good Enough by Magnolia Electric Co.

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Support us on patreon patreon.com/theseflimsyrituals

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

c/w violence, betrayal, body horror (ghosts)

“Ask me to talk about history and politics and you’ll be stuck for hours; ask me about the forces that shape our world and my tongue is still. I place my faith in others interpretations and what they say happened - a new Remnant awoke in Embrace that day.”

As alarms wail and the barricades are overrun, Winter's Lodge and the secrets it holds are under threat from all sides. With the nim Shifs closing in and the Death's Defiant on the doorstep, the splintered Jubilant Maybe cling desperately to their tasks. As the pressure rises, they can only hope against hope that they're doing the right thing. 

Neah closes a trap, Oken finds his duty, and Ivar and Ezra try to keep themselves together. 

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

Anancrik Rise: Leader of the Flint Street Knappers. Once a friend of Ezra and Nilkat, but life has taken them on a different path.

Boctive Deign: A charismatic and cunning revolutionary, whose radical treatises on Embrace are widely distributed and eagerly read.

Nilkat: A former factory mechanic, turned revolutionary. A member of the Ginnels and our story’s narrator.

Winter’s Yawl: An ancient ghost, plotting in the gaps between the cobbles. Allied with Lilylium.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Likelihood Lads: A group of bookmakers and petty thieves who run the Loven Street races.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Pale Lanterns: A group once founded to guide stray spirits, but over time their purpose has slipped from benevolent, to enforcers, to oppressors.

~~ PLACES ~~

Hinter Ward: Embrace’s southernmost ward. The north is dense tenements, while the south has been abandoned to marsh and spirit.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

Episode title from I Was A Teenage Anarchist by Against Me!

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Support us on patreon patreon.com/theseflimsyrituals

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

Sounds from JorgenJak on freesound.org

Hello everyone! Unfortunately, there's no new episode today. Thryn is in the middle of submitting their PhD and then taking a well-earned break, so instead we'll release the next part of Embrace either next week or the one after. Sorry if you were looking forward to finding out what's happening with the Lodge and Ash and the horrible, possessed carousel. You'll just have to wait a little bit longer. In other exciting news, we've just released the new playkit for Ryne, the game we play in Tiding! This is the final major update before we hopefully Kickstart next year, so we wanted to tell you about it. We're really proud of the were it is. We've spent a lot of time finessing and reworking its core systems so that it works for the kind of thoughtful fantasy we want to tell (and we hope other groups will want to tell too!). The playkit has four rolebooks (the Guide, Heart, Tethered and Weaver), two ways to play including a quickstart and a load of advice for the Fates to help you run the game. Please, check it out and let us know what you think. You can get the playkit for free here.

c/w gore, loss of identity, body horror (ghosts)

“As we lay entangled, fingers on each other's throats, the roots and tendrils of something new grew around us.”

There are few options left, but choices must be made. Regrouping in the streets of Tail's End, Ezra and Ivar put the weapon stolen from the Pale Lanterns to use. They risk their selves to defend their cause. Meanwhile, back in the labyrinth, Ash arrives at Rodella's Heart. Carn leads him to the Tender's sacred, grisly relic. It's time to become a Jackal. 

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

Carn nim Daker: The ancient founder of the Tenders, the slayer of Caerdroia and Rodella. Body mythologised, sai rule the Jackals still.

Dorish nim Shif: A younger member of the nim Shifs. Still a child, appears as a Jackal in Tiding.

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Trilvo: The matriarch of Tail’s End. A doctor, used to working on ghosts and spirit.

Valour nim Shif: The leader of the nim Shifs who now stands on the precipice of fulfilling all of her family’s ambitions.

Virtue nim Shif: The brother of Valour and Vigor. Has a reputation for not quite matching his sibling's ambitions.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

Likelihood Lads: A group of bookmakers and petty thieves who run the Loven Street races.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

~~ PLACES ~~

Hinter Ward: Embrace’s southernmost ward. The north is dense tenements, while the south has been abandoned to marsh and spirit.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

Episode title from Arsonist's Lullabye by Hozier

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Support us on patreon patreon.com/theseflimsyrituals

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

c/w thought invasion, injury, explosions

“If we had one advantage, it was that we faced them on our own turf. Most of the fighting would take place amongst the gambling dens and race courses of Hinter Ward. If there were anywhere suited to turn the odds, it were there.”

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Ahste Whist: One of the seven, a group of revolutionaries who mutinied on a warship during the time of the People’s Ward.

Branch & Fleece: The chaotic leaders of the Likelihood Lads. The lasses have an ongoing love/hate relationship with Ivar.

Carn nim Daker: The ancient founder of the Tenders, the slayer of Caerdroia and Rodella. Body mythologised, sai rule the Jackals still.

Crik Rise: Leader of the Flint Street Knappers. Once a friend of Ezra and Nilkat, but life has taken them on a different path.

Dorish nim Shif: A younger member of the nim Shifs. Still a child, appears as a Jackal in Tiding.

Eviron Eaves: A prominent member of the Winter’s Lodge who the others look to for leadership.

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Valour nim Shif: The leader of the nim Shifs who now stands on the precipice of fulfilling all of her family’s ambitions.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

Likelihood Lads: A group of bookmakers and petty thieves who run the Loven Street races.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Pale Lanterns: A group once founded to guide stray spirits, but over time their purpose has slipped from benevolent, to enforcers, to oppressors.

Trusted: A small cell of revolutionaries loyal to Neah, headed by Ido Ozk Erut.

~~ PLACES ~~

Hinter Ward: Embrace’s southernmost ward. The north is dense tenements, while the south has been abandoned to marsh and spirit.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

Episode title from Science/Visions by CHVRCHES

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Support us on Patreon 

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin