Say there, partner. Do you remember the time that Jason Dante and Gladys Blue were surrounded by supervillains and fought their way out? Or do you remember when the employees of Adam’s Extra-Fancy Honey Shop were surrounded by a bunch of Beekeepers and had a rooftop conflict? No? Nobody remembers that? Well, that doesn’t matter. PDR remembers.

For a couple years now I’ve had a back-burner project where I was making a board game. Over the past two months, that project has moved to the front burner, so I figured I should make an actual announcement on this website o’ mine.

Surrounded By Danger, as it is now known, is a co-operative game in which you portray Adam Obianu, Gladys Blue, Jason Dante, and their friends in situations where they are surrounded by enemies and have to fight their way to success. I’m gonna be stingy with details for now, but I have done playtesting and so far things are going well.

More to come in the future.

The oceans of planet Gurx are vast and full of life. Here, beneath the surface of a region that is not covered with slime, we see a large Tweheak interrupting an Uebie’s meal as they both swim through a region filled with tiny creatures.

Tweheak

Tweheaks are one of the largest kinds of Lapaouger on all of Gurx, but they live on some of the ocean’s smallest creatures. Neither as intelligent nor as social as the whales of Earth they may superficially resemble, the Tweheaks are filter-feeders who basically only need to point their four mouths toward the sounds of food and swim that way. They’re completely sightless and feed primarily at night.

Uebie

Uebies are a type of Vootuph that have found a lot of success in the oceans Gurx. They can swim extremely quickly, helping them to catch their prey and to avoid predators. They migrate through the oceans with the climate, following the smaller creatures they eat as the seasons change. For a period in the era before the Knowledge Base, the Strondovarians considered Uebie to be a gourmet food item fit for only the most special.

Yena

Yena are tiny Vootuph that feast on the planet’s equivalent to algae and plankton and all that. This makes them a nutrient-rich food source for lots of other ocean life. To survive being a common food source, Yena eat voraciously until they are full, then sink to the ocean bottom to give birth to an innumerable next generation to repeat the cycle, or get eaten in the process.

The Knowledge Base of the Strondovarians

The single most important element in modern Strondovarian culture is their collection of all information deemed important enough to be noted for all time. While it has several euphemistic names in Strondovarian language, it is most frequently called the Revariax and it began, over 10000 years ago, as a physical collection of scrolls or tablets or any kind of physical record. In time those who maintain it came to realize that the physical collection was not as important as the information itself. When they developed computers capable of storing the information, the Strondos kept their information in a systems of well-protected and redundantly saved locations (including beyond the planet Gurx), but accessible to any and all Strondos. A human may check a clock on their phone to see the time or date agreed upon by their culture, but Strondos sync up their devices to the Revariax to see the information their culture agrees upon to make up reality. What political leader is in charge of a nation? What are the latest fashions? What is the goal of Strondovarian culture as a whole? It never hurts to check the Knowledge Base before starting your day.

One important aspect of the Knowledge Base is that, on subjective issues or those open to discussion, it allows Strondos to weigh in. If a Strondo wants to be the ruler of a nation, there is no actual election process, they only need to state it as fact on the Knowledge Base. Strondos who review the fact can either support or deny it. If enough support it, it’s true. Any Strondo who can convince enough others to vote for them can do almost anything they want. For this reason, fame has become the currency of the Strondovarians.

A “Noteworthy” (or “Boais”) Strondo is wealthy. Once their accomplishments are listed on the Knowledge Base, they have something to point to that proves their worth. Strondos who are less famous will clamour for the chance to be linked to the famous ones, and so will happily work for them on projects to be listed and credited in articles, and the Boais will only pick those who are esteemed enough to deserve it. Still less famous Strondos will work for that tier, hoping that their hard work will earn them credits that will get them noticed by their higher ups. And so on. There is, of course, a strata of non-famous Strondos who have no respect and, therefore, in the eyes of their fellows deserve no respect. Strondos who consider themselves better than these dregs can push around or even kill these poor souls, and nobody cares.