As part of the excitement for the upcoming Puerto Rico Comic Con, which I posted about yesterday, and all the gaming goodness that is happening there, I learned of a project for a system-agnostic TTRPG supplement being created by a very talented local artist in Puerto Rico, Eliana Falcón-Dvorsky, who posted about the project in the Puerto Rico Role Players Discord Server, and I was immediately curious. Eliana was tremendously kind, replying to my questions, sharing details about art and the upcoming gaming project, and gracefully answering the interview I am sharing with you below.
Who is Eliana Falcón-Dvorsky?
I am a writer and artist born, raised, and living in Puerto Rico. I eat, breathe, and obsessively think about storytelling and character writing, frankly. My main publication work is my own webcomic, Cosmic Fish, which I write and draw. I’ve also worked as a colorist and editor for Somos Arte’s La Borinqueña, and as an art director, storyboard artist, and character designer for Dakiti Productions’ animated adaptation of Rockolandia. I’m also a huge anthropology, gardening, and cooking nerd, so it’s not all art, haha!
How would you describe your art?
I tend to have two distinct styles, and some people know me either for one or the other, rarely both. I’m usually known in larger circles for my “cute art” and the application of a lot of Puerto Rican folklore and criticism of our sociopolitical situations in my work. For my closer social circle, they know me as a bit of a darker writer and artist, constantly exploring complicated themes with as much nuance and empathy as I can. So, there’s an interesting dichotomy in my work that I think tends to cross over once in a while due to overlapping themes or design choices, but only now am I a little brave enough to finally start showing all sides of my work.
How did you discover tabletop role-playing games?
I used to RP a lot with friends back in the forum days and early days of Skype and Discord, so the transition has been pretty natural, honestly. After Hurricane Maria, I was looking for a bit of a distraction while everything in real life was descending into chaos. Back then, I lived in a rural area in PR. We didn’t have running water for 5 months, electricity for 8, and I’d be driving over debris, flooded bridges, and broken roads that were ready to collapse for about a year. I lost a few family members, either directly or indirectly, in the aftermath of the storm. Tabletop suddenly became an interesting and welcoming hobby I could play with others in person, without needing electricity or being online. The group didn’t work out, sadly, but it opened the door for me to play different games and plenty of homebrew systems with my online friends once I managed to get back online.
What games do you like to play?
I’m definitely a very RP-oriented kind of player because of my past, and I focus a lot on balancing player-dynamics in the groups I’m in. In my DMing, I tend to prioritize the player’s narrative goals and themes, finding ways to challenge them as writers (all of us are writers and artists) or to help them explore something they’ve never had a chance to before. I’m a storyteller first, but I always try to find a group that looks for a nice balance of play/combat systems and RP to be able to challenge myself. For a long time, I played homebrew systems designed by a friend of mine from Australia. And for a while, it was very liberating because of the diverse classes my friend’s system focused on, which I felt many mainstream systems lacked. It was after that we began expanding to other systems like Daggerheart and Blades in the Dark. I tried getting into Triangle Agency, but it didn’t click. I’ve tried getting back to D&D, but Baldur’s Gate 3 is currently the only way I’ve been able to play it since 2017.
What are you currently playing?
I’ve been playing the same weekly Blades in the Dark campaign for almost 2 years now. We play it on Discord, so we try to get our RP and character moments in written RP during the week and then play a heist or session on the weekend. It’s worked for the most part, but admittedly, we’re very invested in the drama hahaha. It’s been really fun, and it’s been fantastic to work with a team that goes over lines and veils and other table etiquette that I wish were a bit more common locally. I think for a game like BitD, communication and these tools are very important.
What would you like to play?
I think after two years of Blades in the Dark, I’d like to explore brighter settings, not necessarily simple, but I could go for a theme set in a forest or someplace more diverse. I’d like to try a longer Daggerheart campaign or The Quiet Year. I’d love to play Eat the Reich, which I got during a Kickstarter campaign, but I haven’t had the chance yet. If not, my girlfriend is the one with a long list of different systems and games, so I tend to follow whatever she’s vibing with.
What are you working on (that you can tell us about)?
Right now, I’m juggling a few personal projects, trying to see where I can fit their output. I’d love to go back to Cosmic Fish even if it’s not as consistent as I could before; I have a horror comic set in Puerto Rico that I’d love to start, a children’s book that’s been in the over for a while now, but I also really want to expand my first TTRPG worldbuilding module, Arcton: From Ingala to the Wastes. So, I have a lot of diverse projects in the works!
Tell me about your project, Arcton: From Ingala to the Wastes? What is it about?
Arcton has been a setting I’ve been using on and off for about 7 years or so. It started as a response to how I would fix WotC’s Thay and a few other issues I have with the worldbuilding of that setting as a whole, and it slowly began evolving into its own thing. Because the system it was built on was one of the discontinued homebrew designs made by my friend from Australia, the book is currently more of a system-agnostic worldbuilding module that offers tools and inspiration rather than concrete stats.
Arcton is a northern nation founded by eight liches after they succeeded in their revolution and “ascended”. Each lich runs a region and uses the Officers (or living servants) to gather citizens, bring them back as enslaved undead, and force them to work in mines or their armies. However, the story is about the citizens, about the history, the context, and what role YOU can play in it.
The first book is an overview that explores worldbuilding, history, flora, fauna, and some NPCs, and offers the necessary tools to inspire DMs and players in their campaigns. With the rise and normalization of thoughtless and effortless AI slop, I’m really hoping this book inspires people to read and to add their own take to my work, create their own interpretation, and try to build something of their own without a machine, no better than an undead, to do the thinking and working for them. I think anyone can be a storyteller, and TTRPG’s popularity is proof of it. I want more human stories! The book is a tool by creatives for creatives, and it really tries to cover as much anthropological background and art as I can in 106 pages.
The goal is to then release supplementary books covering 2-3 regions per volume. These will offer maps, details, biographies, lists of encounters and items, NPCs, story hooks, and enemies for each region. Some might change genres, from a government conspiracy drama to a murder mystery set in a nomadic town, to even an adventure story about finding a library of forbidden knowledge, adding more inspiration to a craft sparked by creativity.
I understand you will have it available at the Puerto Rico Comic Con. Where can people find you there?
YES! My main focus is still my comic, Cosmic Fish, but I will be at 115-E in artist alley, at the rightmost end of the hallway. I’ll also be selling plenty of TTRPG stickers and goodies. The comic my girlfriend and I work on, named Weekend at Benny’s, will also be available, and it takes place near Arcton.
What other ways can people get Arcton: From Ingala to the Wastes, and support your other projects?
From May 7th to May 28th, Arcton: From Ingala to the Wastes will be available on Backerkit as part of Pockettopia. The goal is to help the book become widely accessible for a limited time. I’d also like to try to unlock bonus items for you to use in games, including character/NPC and item cards, setting prompts, tables, and hopefully help fund the next book that covers Ingala and Fraye, my recommended suggestions for first-time explorers.
Thank you, Eliana, for participating in this interview. If you are in Puerto Rico, be sure to visit her at PRCC; if not, be on the lookout for her Backerkit project. You can follow it via this link: Arcton: From Ingala to the Wastes.
As a bonus, when you follow the project, you get access to a 19-page preview of the material. I am blown away by these 19 pages alone. I used some art from the Backerkit preview page in the post, but there is more art in the preview. I love the heraldry, the symbols, the full-page art. Beautiful! The setting seems very imaginative, and I really want to learn more. Make sure you check it out.
