New Blog
As someone who has slowly been killing off their social media, and after 10 grueling years working in the advertising industry, I was very easily persuaded by Daniel Sell's latest call to action: "Go make a blog now."
Quick introductions: I'm Giuliano, a game designer from Brazil. I have been dabbling in TTRPGs for, oh god, 7 years now, having always been drawn to these weird games after secretly watching my brother play Vampire: The Masquerade in the late 90's.
Odds are you have played or at least seen Bakto's Terrifying Cuisine somewhere in the web, it is my most popular adventure by far, and it has somewhat of a tenuous connection to Troika, which is charming considering where this blog is coming from. Despite not being written for Troika (the original was statted for Lotfp of all things, yikes), Bakto's was unofficially adopted as a part of Troika by some players, serving as an extension of the Blanchmange's kitchen.
Coincidentally, I've also been delving into Fighting Fantasy this year, after finding an old copy of "The Riddling Reaver" in my parent's house, a leftover treasure from my brother's 90's RPG fixation. I vaguely remember seeing the book in my youth, the striking cover, the pocket sized nature of it (pocket books were not common in Brazil at the time) and the fact it was kept in the bathroom for the longest time, all contributed to my interest in it. When I grew older I figured that book was a traditional CYOA book and never thought much of it. But when I actually cracked it open I was delighted to discover that it was actually an adventure module (4 adventures to be precise, some form of proto-adventure path, oh no), complete with childlike scribbles I do not recall ever making. It is a terribly railroady adventure, that still follows the CYOA formatting and its a bit at a loss with regards to player agency. I don't think my brother ever ran it, I don't recall ever seeing anything but Vampire books in the house, so I wonder if this wasn't some weird Christmas gift from an oblivious relative. Brazil in general has never been super into fantasy RPGs, Vampire and Call of Cthulhu adjacent games were and still are kings when it comes to sales and actual play, so it was an odd find for sure. I'll probably dive into the cultural quirks of the Brazilian TTRPG sphere at a later post.
I guess what I want to say with all this is that I owe a lot to Troika and fighting fantasy in a roundabout way. In 2026 my goal is to dial things back a little, beyond killing most of my social media presence, I've also culled a lot of what I offer on itch.io, trying to start fresh. I want to get back to running a regular game, I want to write more, I want to stop writing ad-copy, I want to stop selling things.