On “Crytolos”

What does the name "Crytolos" mean?

Crytolos is the Demon Ruler of Aeykia. You see, when the Mekatrig defeated the forces in Ironmaw Mountain with the Argothald, he appointed a Demon Ruler to rule over each one of the Twilight Kingdoms…

Your eyes are beginning to glaze over, aren’t they?

OK, let’s try a human explanation. Crytolos was a creature in a table-top fantasy role-playing game I designed. The name of the game was Argothald, which is why my LiveJournal blog is called the "Argothald Journal."

Yeah, I’ve just given you enough clues to figure out my real name, with a little help from Google. Like you couldn’t figure it out before this post. (If you couldn’t figure it out before this post, subtract 2 from your web-fu. If you still can’t figure out after this post, subtract 5 from your web-fu. If you don’t care who I am but read my posts because you’re interested in what I have to say, add 10 to your overall Humanity talents.)

I enjoyed playing Argothald. It represents a time in my life that I’d like to recover someday. But for that, I’d need players, and mature table-top role-playing gamers are a rare breed these days.

There’s a number of things that I got out of playing Argothald:

– The face-to-face social element.

– The shared creation of a story.

– The mental exercise of creating a world that, if not believable, was at least entertaining.

I ran the Argothald campaign from 1979 through 1989. Unfortunately, my face-to-face gaming life came to an end. My fellow players moved away, or developed other life commitments of their own. Argothald gradually petered out.

As I discuss in another post, I found substitutes: live-action role-playing (for about 12 years), and World of Warcraft.  But I missed Argothald, and still do.

The story of the Argothald, the demon ruler Crytolos, the planet Tala, and the characters who lived in this world will probably never be finished. It will join one of many unfinished tales in the universe, living on only in the memory of those few who choose to remember it.

At least I can get some small joy by keeping a few names alive from that time in my life.  "Crytolos" is one of them.

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. wgseligman

    A better way to say it

    Sometimes you find someone who says it better than you can:

    Why Game?

    1. wgseligman

      *Gasp!* You figured out who I am!

      Seriously, I decided about a year after I wrote this post that I didn’t have to be anonymous on LiveJournal anymore. When I decided to write Isaac’s biography, it reinforced my need for a public presence on LJ.

      Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be an easy way to change the name of this account from “crytolos” to “wgseligman” or something like that. I’ll just have to deal with with the occasional confusion.

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