Hi, my name is Miriam Robern. I’m a white, queer, transgender creator making books and games and things.
My creative output is a grab-bag of various endeavors. I write fiction, I code browser-based video games, I design tabletop roleplaying games. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. I’ve shifted the focus of this Patreon to Cortex content, but I am always inevitably making a whole bunch of other stuff, too.
Here’s a few of my projects that you can download right now:
- Jac Triton’s Last Kiss, a short story featuring interstellar superspy Jac and a load of interesting pronoun choices (and if you like that, the story continues)
- The Vicious Crucible of Verdigris Valley, a ready-to-play RPG, complete with integrated characters, setting, and plot
- Citizen Swords against the Ogre King, a turn-based tactics video game you can play in your browser
If there’s anything that unifies all the things I do, it’s themes more than media.
It may sound trite, but I’m really interested in stories and games that are about making the world a better place. I don’t know about you, but I’m more than a little tired of hard-eyed men who are going to wreak revenge on badguys by using their guns and their difficulty expressing emotions. Yawn! Give me a builder with a plan over a loose cannon with a grudge any day of the week. And since that’s what I want to see, that’s what I make.
I am also keenly motivated to produce media that forwards queer and gender-expansive representation. It took me a long while to get here. I spent years thinking I had to make things that were a little queer, acceptably queer. But I’m done with hiding on the outskirts. The stuff I make now, and the stuff I’ll release here, is unrelentingly queer. That’s just how I roll.
Lastly, I aim to make accessible media for everybody. This is what drew me to roleplaying games in the first place, and what delights me about making video games for web browsers. No fancy consoles necessary for this fun! Nearly everything I release through Patreon is freely accessible, for anybody who can get at it.
So whether you’d like more Cortex stuff or you’d like to support me making all this other stuff, I will happily accept your generous patronage! All my patrons get early access to my new stuff before it goes public. The patronage I receive here lets me do more, make more, release more. Thank you so much for helping to make that happen!