Shrines: Sites of Reverence & Power

Essay Excerpt: The Cultural Production of Sacred Space
10 months ago – Mon, May 26, 2025 at 10:45:02 AM

Venerators!

What is James even doing, you might ask. How is this book not done? Well, James is writing this essay, and thereafter the book will be done. James has rejected and restarted this essay about four times because the subject is complex, scholarship takes work, and the feedback so far has, to be gentle with myself, encouraged a more accessible voice and more obvious utility to tabletop roleplaying. You'll see little of the latter here, but having nailed this language down (specifically having found semiotics as a framework that's as useful as but less alienating than Buddhism's formal terms), the rest of it is coming fast.

Essay Excerpt

Here's the first part of the likely-three-part essay that concludes this book.

Part 1: The Cultural Production of Sacred Space

"If ceremony sanctifies time, sacred architecture sanctifies space. Its volumes conjure the sacred within the mundane the way political borders conjure states from the wilderness. Both cases contrive an abstraction: nothing a priori or even tangible announces space itself as sacred or under some particular governance. That relies on semiotics, or signage and its interpretation into meaning (citation). States erect literal signs, but sacred architecture signs mostly with aesthetics: form, material, iconography, perfume, melody, and other sensory cues articulate ideologies about the sacred’s nature. Venerators construct sanctity in response as both abstraction and concrete experience, interpreting the signed ideologies within the context of their own. Sacred space is therefore as much reaction as declaration—a conversation between architect, clergy, venerator, and even secular witness.

The ideologies of sacred space derive from (and develop) spiritual traditions: Cathedrals mimic the cruciform to invoke and subsume visitors into the death of Christ; wabi-sabi gardens welcome accidents as texture to emphasize impermanence. These details require their cultural context for meaning. Without its builders, we would recognize an extraterrestrial temple only insofar as its ideologies resemble those of Earth. We in fact project our ideologies by assuming temples (or any other type of building that we recognize) as options at all. Fear, love, and awe—basic components of sacred experience—require mutual understanding to elicit, but signing and interpreting specific spiritual doctrine leans on shared, if not imposed, historical knowledge. Consider how tour guides grant access to ancient ruins that might otherwise just be rocks. 

This of course relegates the sacred itself to social production. Sanctity simply lacks ontology without beings to declare it and others to not just understand the declaration but agree. Sanctity emerges from instruction and participation like fun at a party or propriety at dinner. It’s a vibe, each instance unique and contextual to the signs, those interpreting them, and the conditions of that encounter. Even solitary mystical experience interprets through the mystic’s cultural framework. Christians in deep prayer encounter Christian saints, not Muslim or Hindu ones (unless mingling with those traditions). Spiritual nonconformists, and especially iconoclasts, presume the ideologies they reject. Even that fear, love, and awe that we call sacred experience and which amoebas might feel in glimmers depends on socially-dependent narrativization to qualify.

This is all to say that engaging with sacred architecture co-produces elaborate aesthetic takes on meaning, on holiness—that the sacred part of those spaces relies as much on tradition or natural form as the values that venerators bring within them, and that each of these contemporary negotiations is a collaborative act of creation between all beings involved. Holy sites would cease being holy if we all agreed (because their holiness emerges from agreement), which means we produce their holiness anew with each visit, recollection, or reference—instances that cannot possibly equate as the world and we ourselves permute through time. Veneration is generative conversation, a bridging of cultural contexts to not just describe but realize preeminent importance. Let this not denigrate the sacred as arbitrary, but exalt our creative powers as sentience in an interdependent world."

Parts 2 & 3

I needed to lay the above groundwork for what follows, for what I'm writing now:

• Shrines as hyper-localization of sacred space, and thus hyper-specification of its ideologies
• How all of the above plays out in interactive genre-fiction, specifically...
  • Sacred space as more concrete and literal than negotiated and figurative
  • Shrines as gameplay power dispensers
  • Magic as naturalism by stitching game-world lore to the mechanics of interaction

I promise I've uncorked this bottle and am pouring in earnest now.

As always, to weigh in, please consider joining our Discord server. 

Thanks again, and in touch,

James

Major Printing Update
12 months ago – Fri, Apr 18, 2025 at 08:47:26 AM

Venerators!

This is all big and good, so I'm jumping in: about a week ago, while discussing the latest layout, the project's printer decided that this book no longer makes sense for the riso printing method. They referred us instead to another local printer that uses offset printing, which, as they explained, would exceed the print quality that riso could produce, satisfy our environmental requirements, and—given the price of riso printing—free up a bunch of the budget for value elsewhere. This is entirely excellent for all of us, and I'll tell you why.

Summary

• Riso printing out, offset printing in 
• Print quality up, manufacturing costs down
• Reinvesting these savings...
  • Paper stock massively improves
• Estimated fulfillment timeline: This summer

For the details, read on.

Print Quality

Riso adheres ink to paper differently than other forms of printing. The method creates rich and unpredictable textures, but with heavy layers it struggles with sharpness of detail and even permanence on the page. It seems that our layers got too heavy: there's too much color, and both the illustrations and text (which I swore I'd keep readable) gained too much detail in their polish. The bottom line is that riso printing stopped being the highest-quality method for this book. Nobody wants ink to come off on their hands or background colors to bleed into text, so I'm taking the printer's advice and changing methods.

Our new printer, staying local, is Prestige Color in Lancaster, PA. Here's an example of offset-printed material that I saw while touring their workshop:

On Colors

By switching to offset printing, we also free ourselves from riso printing's fixed, limited palette and gain access to the full CKMY color model, which lets me push readability with increased contrast by darkening that cranberry a bit and perhaps even introducing a third color for the text. All of this will finalize as we print some test proofs and hold the book in our hands, so I'll share screenshots and real-life photos as we move ahead (timeline info below).

Cost & Value

When I showed the new printer our material specs (paper stock, dimensions, colors, etc.), they actually laughed at how much more expensive riso printing is. The project immediately regained a chunk of its budget (which was, to be totally transparent, well into the red because of what I paid its team). I both marketed and priced this book as a riso product, however, which means, without ambiguity, that I owe you those savings as value.

Having met now with the printer twice and crunched the numbers, the biggest ROI appears to be upgrading the paper stock. We're locking in for Cougar® Smooth at #130 for the covers (with foiled detail) and #100 for the interior pages, perfect-bound at 8x8". This stock is velvety and sturdy—as nice as any paperback on my shelf.

Here it is, blank and cut to size, with my (wretched, distracting) hand for scale:

I'm ultimately glad this happened because riso printing's craftiness and charm are just subsets of how books feel, and they were likely to fail anyway. We left zines behind a while ago, and this change is the saddle-stitch in that coffin.

What Happened with Risolve?

I like these people very much, and I'm not going to bad-mouth them, but I'm also not going to lay myself across these tracks. We've been coordinating with full, unremarkable transparency since before this Kickstarter launched, reviewing PDFs of layouts in progress, strategizing colors and readability—even printing a physical test-proof (which I thought turned out great!). The current design has been in place for many months.

Basically someone higher up at Risolve stepped into the conversaton and disagreed with previous approvals. Let's call this a communication lapse—and a fortuitous one. The book gets better here.

Fulfilllment Timeline

But it also has to come out if it's to be at a book at all. I can't express enough gratitude for your collective patience. As I said in a comment on the main campaign, zero aspects of this process went as quickly as I expected. In future projects I won't carry as much of the weight myself, I'll crowdfund far closer to completion (like, done, borderline ready to print), and I'll be less permissive with myself when it comes to scope-creep. At this point, I bet I want to ship this book more than you want to receive it, so hang tight, sweet baby vens, we're almost there.

With the new printer's turnaround of 12 to 15 business days and in-house shipping setup, this Kickstarter has every reason to fulfill this summer. I can print test-proofs much more affordably now, which means I can iterate out whatever issues lurk in my book design without elaborate riso labor—especially concerning colors and readability. We'll also ship directly through the printer (maintaining the press' commitment to compostable packaging), which should further speed things along. Please keep an eye out for BackerKit emails confirming your address and collecting payment for shipping.

That's plenty for today, but I'll be back in touch soon.

Stay safe out there,

James

Gameplay Tools section PDFs
about 1 year ago – Tue, Mar 25, 2025 at 01:41:12 PM

Venerators!

The Gameplay Tools section is the book's first to hit 100% (pre-polish, anyway—I'm sure we'll tinker). Please share with me any feedback you may have by commenting on this update or by posting in the Discord server's #WIP channel. 

Download the PDFs here

For visibility, the vignette section is close behind, the intro's refining, and the essay is on draft three. Onward toward fulfillment.

In touch, as always,

James

System Reveal: Pilgrimage
about 1 year ago – Sat, Mar 15, 2025 at 02:03:04 PM

Venerators!

When I said "I'm delaying this book to include more gameplay tools," this is the biggest and coolest example of what I meant. I've designed, workshopped, discarded, and redesigned this system multiple times now, and while it's possible some revelation or intervention will change the details, you're looking at the end of a long and proper design process.

Pilgrimage

I give you Pilgrimage, a portable roleplaying system for spiritual character development over 3-5 sessions of travel to a holy site. The book contains plenty of those sites (plus generative worldbuilding tables, theory, etc.) that all furnish GMs, but this design helps players explore spiritual themes at the character level. If stories emerge through play, that's where narrative systems shine—and we should help unburden GMs anyway.

Worksheet Cards

The system gets two full spreads in the book's Gameplay Tools section for unpacking the ambiguity (What is "Ego?" What counts as "harrowing?"), but the above are both sides of an A6 worksheet card that players can mark up alongside their character sheets to track a pilgrimage's progress. 

I'll be printing these on A6 card stock at Fireball Printing in Philadelphia, which a handled previous game of mine called HEARTSWEAT at the same specs. 

I hope to include one card with each Kickstarter delivery. Regardless, EM|NCD's itch.io page will offer a black-and-white, printer-friendly version for free.

On System-Neutral Design

Developing this system spotlit the inherent difficulty of system-neutral gameplay design for TTRPGs. In short, it seems to be all about self-containment. If the tech is truly portable between different games, it can't rely on quant from any one of them. Its inputs and outputs—the two points where it interfaces with broader systems—both benefit enormously from abstraction, which is to say outsourcing the compability step to human brains. That's a feature, I think—part of the fun—since abstract narrative is tabletop roleplaying's value-proposition over video games.

Given a character with spiritual dimensions, this system is basically:

• INPUTS: Decide when gameplay events count as "harrowing" (abstract!)
• PROCEDURE: Increment a sub-stat, roll some dice, analyze results (concrete)
• OUTPUT: Roleplay changes in your character's spirituality (extremely abstract)

I wonder how long this pattern will hold true in my work and what it means for narrative systems design across media. You couldn't do this in a video game, but then again, you wouldn't try.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Here's the perennial Discord link for those who may wonder, say, what the last shrine in the book looks like, how Taoism and Buddhism relate, or what my organic farmer friend is gonna do that with that one steep hill.

In touch, as always,

James

Art is officially locked
about 1 year ago – Wed, Feb 26, 2025 at 10:52:30 AM

Venerators,

This update is short but monumental: Conner, our exceptional artist, has completed and delivered the book's illustrations, tables, and decorative elements in their entirety. Art for the project is now officially locked.

Layout of the print-ready manuscript has long been underway, but now it's snapping into place with final assets—and quickly.

Development updates should end soon, and then manufacturing updates will begin. I know that this is all happening much later than projected, but I promise you're getting more book than you backed, and I'll stay in touch every step of the way.

With great enthusiasm,

James