Secure the Wastes

For my capstone project, I created my own tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) called Secure the Wastes. This was a primarily creative project, so after doing my initial research into how to make a TTRPG, the bulk of the process was thinking of fun and interesting game mechanics and balancing said mechanics. For anyone who doesn’t know, a TTRPG is a game in which most of the players take on the role of characters in a fictional world and play through a story set up by another player, the game master. The game works on a 2d6 system, meaning that whenever you want to accomplish a difficult task, you have to roll two six-sided dice and use the result to see how successful you were. A lot of the time spent on this project involved playing the game with friends and refining the existing mechanics after seeing what worked and what didn’t, so a huge thanks to everyone who helped with reading over the rules and playing the game. I’m extremely happy with how the game turned out, especially the combat system, which I consider to be the most interesting and creatively made part of the game. I learned a lot during this project, mostly concerning what makes fun and balanced game mechanics, but also things relating to statistics and document editing. Overall making this project was fun experienced which I really enjoyed, and I hope people enjoy my game!

The game rules can be found here.

And the Bibliography here.

Please god tune into the next one please we need the funding their kicking us out im posting from my phone its almost out of battery we dont have anything we don

““Slaughterhouse-Five” at 50.” NPR.org, www.npr.org/2019/07/06/739154414/slaughterhouse-five-at-50.

This article was about reflecting on Slaughterhouse 5 years later and included snippets of an interview with Vonnegut about the book. One of the main focuses of the interview was why it took so long to write the book and other things that aren’t quite as important for what I want to look at, but through it all you can see lots of Vonnegut’s purpose in the way the book is written and why certain choices are made. Vonnegut really wanted the book to be the truth, despite being a work of fiction, about the war, not something glamorized or anything like that. It also gives a bit more context about when the book was written, including the time period of the Vietnam War, which can offer new insight into the writing.

Roston, Tom, and The Writer’s Crusade: Kurt Vonnegut and the Many Lives of Slaughterhouse-Five. “What Drafts of Slaughterhouse-Five Say about Kurt Vonnegut.” Time, Time, 11 Nov. 2021, https://time.com/6116467/kurt-vonnegut-slaughterhouse-five-struggles/.

This article is fairly interesting because it goes over Vonnegut’s 23 years worth of manuscripts that never made it to the final product, with approximately 5,000 pages being scrapped by Vonnegut. I think Vonnegut’s mentality towards some of the historical claims he made about the bombing really fits the New Historicist lens well. He says that 135,000 germans died in the bombing, but that number has been discredited for quite some time, with the modern estimate being about 25,000 people. When Vonnegut was confronted about this he asked why is was important, meaning why did it matter how many people died. Which I do agree with in part, the fire bombing of a city is terrible whether 25,000 or 134,000 people died or not. No matter the number it’s still too many. It’s also interesting how the world-historical events around him influenced how he could write, with the start of the Vietnam war and people being generally angry at the war allowing him to decry how poorly Americans had treated germans in World War 2.

Tonguette, Peter, et al. “Reading Kurt Vonnegut While Social Distancing.” The National Endowment for the Humanities, The National Endowment for the Humanities, 29 Apr. 2020, https://www.neh.gov/article/reading-kurt-vonnegut-while-social-distancing.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Novels focus heavily on the connections and interactions between humans, and the world that all of them inhibit. During his life he saw long distant, instant communication get easier and easier, which in his view actually made people less connected. This source goes in depth on one of his books that demonstrates that view the most clearly, but also questions artificial connections to other people like distant familial relations. He talks about lonliness and it relates to his time and his life and its very present in Slaughterhouse-Five.

Remembering Author Kurt Vonnegut, Who Would Have Turned 100 on Friday.” NPR. NPR, November 11, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/11/11/1135984054/remembering-author-kurt-vonnegut-who-would-have-turned-100-on-friday.

My article give plenty of insight inside the often difficult to read mind of Vonnegut this especially pertains to slaughterhouse 5 as the article gives insight to his untreated PTSD which we see the main character of slaughterhouse 5 suffer from. This also affects the neo historicist lens as seeing Vonnegut’s backstory and youth helps us understand many of his views, especially those that pertain to war and pacifism. Vonnegut speaks a lot about how the lens of history is shaped by those in power which perfectly encapsulates the neo historict lens.

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Hello and welcome to my second lit log for The Road!!!!1!1!!!!! Today I will be counting down my top 5 favorite The Road songs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of these songs were handpicked by me because I think that they do a good job of representing the book or because they are about roads!!!!

Number 5 - On the Road Again

On the Road Again by Willie Nelson is a pretty good song, enjoyable listen, but it’s held back by how it isn’t sad enough for the book. It gives off too many good vibes. The parts that do fit fit pretty well, though, because the man and boy go back on the road several times. One way to look at the happy vibes is that being on the road and moving forward is a positive, but I couldn’t bring myself to move this song up.

Number 4 - Highway to the Danger Zone

Highway to the Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins is pretty good for the book, at least certain parts. It’s very high energy and points out how much danger they are going towards, and just generally how dangerous the world of The Road is. The reason this song couldn’t go higher is that it’s just too mechanical in its lyrics, its too much about revving engines and the like. Also, while it does invoke a sense of excitement, its a little too positive for such a sad book.

Number 3 - Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day hits the sad part of The Road just right, but also has parts in it that reflect the high paced action that can take place in the book. It also does a very good job with reflecting the loneliness of the desolate world of The Road. The problem is that it’s too good at reflecting that loneliness, being all about being completely and utterly alone, which doesn’t really fit with the man being with the boy.

Number 2 - Take Me Home, Country Roads

Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver actually does a very spot on job of describing the journey of the man and the boy. They travel along the old roads left from the old world, and all along their journey, the man is going to places he’s been, remembering the past. This is things like his house, but also the city, the ocean, and more. They travel a road that the man knows and is, in a sense “taking him home.” The song even has reference to a woman calling to the protagonist, and the singer “having a feeling he should’ve been home yesterday,” prefectly reflecting the man’s dreams, and also his miscalculations when measuring their travels. This song is basically perfect for the book, other than not quite being sad enough.

Number 1 - Life is a Highway

Life is a Highway by John Cochrane is actually just a perfect descriptor of anything ever and anyone who disagrees is objectively wrong. In a more serious sense, this song connects with what I believe the road represents in the book, not just what it literally is. The road is life, it is survival, and it is the plot. The man and the boy can’t keep going forward and living without the road.

That was my top 5 favorite The Road songs!!!!!1!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!! If you like this lit log please make sure to like and subscribe and retweet and share and save and

For my first literary logging concerning Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, I decided to draw the creature the man dreamed of on pages 2-3 of the book. I tried to stay as accurate to the description as possible, but many things were left open to interpretation and also there was a lot of room for creative freedom. Some of the most important aspects that I made sure to include were that the creature has translucent skin, and you can see its organs. Another important feature I included were the blind white eyes “like spider eggs.” I then colored the organs gray, because everything is gray and cold and sad. I didn’t color the bones because they were described as “alabaster.” I based the anatomy of the creature off of a stag, because that was the vibe I was getting from the description, the only exception being the head, as horns were never described and I feel like if it had horns, it would be said.

I think that the descriptive words used for the creature are very intentional, I think they indicate a weak or fragile creature, something exposed and blind, that lurches and lopes, and gives low moans. This dream and creature, in a way, despite being fragile, represent a part of the man’s sanity. The man claims that men of peril dream of peril, and this is the most perilous and disturbing dream he has had. This dream is not luring him to death. The child is leading the man to fragility, weakness, and blindness, represented by the creature, but he is also leading the man to life. The man feels that he cannot live without the child, but also is aware that he is stronger without him, he sometimes wishes “he had a heart of stone.” This dream perfectly represents that. While my art does not have the whole scene, I’m very happy with how it turned out, and it very much helped me interpret the dream. Also, funny animal.