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Beginning to Migrate (some) Content to the NEW Doug Alone

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  Beginning to Migrate (some) Content to the NEW Doug Alone I have had the idea since early on in this blog to possibly move it from this sort of hosted/third-party set-up to something more owned by me. This past week, I started to make this a reality: https://www.dougalone.com There are a lot of reasons behind this but let us start with caveat. I have exactly one real complaint about Blogger/Blogger and otherwise most of the decisions are about my creative process itself.  The One Real Complaint The newer Blogger themes tend to be plenty responsive as they are but there is still some degree of back-end handling that tries to serve up a "mobile-friendly" version of the page [note, this is based on looking into the errors and messages sent, I could be wrong]. This is the exact same page but Google, itself, treats this as a website trying to share multiple copies of the same content and basically passes this off as a reason to not index the site.  After over a year of havin...
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The GLOW 1992: Agent Johnny Blue vs The Kid, Part 4 - Celebrations [Tricubes] [Mythic] [Dixit]

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    This, and the rest of The GLOW, has been migrated to the new Doug Alone home: https://www.dougalone.com/2025/09/28/the-glow-1992-agent-johnny-blue-vs-the-kid-part-4-celebrations-tricubes-mythic-dixit/
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Fourth Wall Break #11: Just Catching It All Up

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  Bringing Back the Fourth Wall Breaks It has now been very nearly three months to the day since the last proper Fourth Wall Break  and since tomorrow [which would actually be the actual three-month-iversary] was supposed to have a Bleak + Pearl  session that is not ready to go out, I figured I'd combine those two needs into one and post this in a few minutes.  Why is this  a Fourth Wall Break while the " Waking Back Up " post wasn't? I don't know, Space Pilgrim, I just volunteer here. Afterall, this is my personal solo rpg play journal that is largely posted online because the pretense of talking to other people helps me to sort my thoughts.  Where Is Bleak + Pearl  Then?  I mean, it's right here [imagine me pointing to some files on my hard drive]. It's only been around a week since I actually got my internet fully set-up on my main comp and even then there are a couple of pieces I should get for EU compatibility before I consider things more st...
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Wondering about False Machine's 'On Guard' as a solo set-up

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On the day I am writing this, which should be about a month before I post this, False Machine posted blog entry called 'On Guard' . The tl;dr version is that the "game" is a set of guards simply guarding the back entrance of a magical academy. They cannot leave the post — per se — and therefore the game is mostly played out in the construct of "doing nothing." The four pillars, as laid out by False Machines, are "Stay in Place," "No Drama," "Long Term Awareness," and "Minor Situations." The post then goes on to discuss visual and other sensory elements, structures, questions about how this could played. It sounds, to my ears, like something you might see in the Nordic LARPing community . In that context, it is easy to imagine a game where everyone stands around an actual door and then various things occur when a Greek Chorus of sorts suggests intrusions into the calm. Nowadays, I do very little of that type of...
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Waking Back up the The Doug Alone

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  Ok, so that picture is a sunset and not a sunrise. This means it does not quite  work for a post about returning to blogging after a couple of months of moving and general hiatus, but it's also just a picture to celebrate the move to a new country and mostly  pulling it off. Starting to learn the language(s) more and more but there's a long way to go until I internalize it. Getting several of the accounts set-up. Just generally learning which shop sells what and what brand names I need to look out for. That sort of thing. Next Monday, September 1, I'll kick off a The GLOW  campaign that I started playing on pen and paper while staying in one 90%-empty house and played a bit more while staying in a different 90%-empty house. The "session-0-slash-launch" post will explain why it showed up. Probably on Friday, at least that's the plan (September 5) should kick back off Bleak  + Pearl  season 2 after several months. Both of those posts were basically complete...
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The Doug Alone Taking a Nap for the Month of July [probably August]

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The past two days have been a LOT of noise and fury and sound. After a week of lesser amounts of noise and fury and sound. As of right now, something like 90% of what I own is on a shipping container [with around 6% left to pack and move, though it's the big  6%] and 4% to be used in the final week here in the United States [or donated/recycled/etc]. The movers should be here in the next 10-20 minutes and then chaos will reign once more as I try to sit quietly in a corner and not bother anyone until they finish that big 6% [beds, furniture, some of the heavier boxes, the computer I am currently typing this on]. At one point, I was going to do a little showcase of my "solo set-up" for the next month+. Take photos. Don't quite have the time now, alas. So I'll just lay it out: Dice box [which has, I think, 5 complete sets of polynomial dice].  Additional dice bag with 3 sets of Fate  dice.  ShadowDark .  The new Gamemaster Apprentice Base Deck 2E .  Fate Conde...
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Happy First Birthday, The Doug Alone

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  Happy birthday, Doug Alone, you are now one year old [officially].  A bit over a year ago (maybe 1 year + 1 week) I had come up with the idea to play a solo campaign that could be entirely played on my oldish smart phone . I didn't need a lot of apps, per se. A PDF viewer to view a Tricube Tales  micro-setting (I chose Guardians of the Shadow Frontier ) and the Tricube Solo  PDF. A dice app. Then Google Keep to track the short scenes.  Here is what the original playthroughs looked like: As you can see, I misunderstood how scenes worked with Tricube Solo  and thought you had to draw an Ace/Joker to move on to the next. It made a fairly action oriented episode played out over a few set-pieces.  After playing out a "session" over a few short bursts, I would recap it to this blog . It was nice and relaxing. For the blog version, I would type as many or more words than my initial notes. Sometimes I would add in dialogue and side scenes. A simple piece of ...
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Fourth Wall Break #10: Arcs/Games Likely (and less likely) to Appear on The Doug Alone. aka, Doug's Wishlist

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This page has been migrated to the new Doug Alone home: https://www.dougalone.com/2025/06/19/fourth-wall-break-10-arcs-games-likely-and-less-likely-to-appear-on-the-doug-alone-aka-dougs-wishlist/
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The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 21 - The Nurse House Calling the Doctor

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    "Previously..." and Campaign/Arc Summary The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 21 — The Nurse House Calling the Doctor The Final Advance The Waiting Room For the Final Time Tumbling Down The Death of the Witch-King The Nurse's Choice NOT the GLOW 1999: Transporter Jani Blum Doug's Commentary Credits Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont The team has fought their way to the top of the Rambler — Dr. Roman Patel's floating skyscraper. Nemesio Jones has gone back downstairs to help people evacuate. Varvara Clean has stopped to destroy all the data she can find in the communications hub. This leaves Genny, Hitomi, and Eustace to confront The Doctor himself as well as his two elite bodyguards: Yori and Ambra. The "siblings." No matter the outcome, the Patel empire is going — quite literally — to crumble. And once the Witches ...
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The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 20 - Heading Up

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    Reader Options/Controls "Previously..." and Campaign/Arc Summary The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 20 — Heading Up Recalling a Cleaner The Past Is a Foreign Country Skitter Scatter Doug's Commentary Credits ← Previous Arc Session |[ ↑ Arc/Campaign Page ]| Next Arc Session → Hide Prep Phases Hide Notes/Commentary Hide Game Mechanics Sections Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont After fighting their way to base of the floating skyscraper called the Rambler — the base of the Patel operations — the team has begun their assault on the final piece — and core — of the cabal. Amy Patel has control of the mini-disc and is planning on destroying her family fortune but the team is making sure that all loose ends are tied up first. About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont Eustace Delmont is a psychic on the cusp of "grad...
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