Over the past four weeks, my nights have been filled with JWT bearer tokens, API design decisions, PHP rabbit holes, custom WordPress plugins, and a fully bespoke theme built from the ground up. Tonight marks a milestone that makes all of that effort tangible.
I’ve officially released the Player Area for Tharendell.
This new area allows players to register an account, authenticate securely, and begin interacting with the game world by creating characters—either custom-built or randomly generated. These aren’t cosmetic profiles or placeholder records. Each character is validated against the Basic Fantasy rule set, with the engine enforcing constraints such as race/class compatibility, minimum and maximum stat ranges, and rule-driven eligibility.
In practical terms, this means:
- Race selection dynamically limits available classes
- Character stats are generated and validated against defined bounds
- The system understands and enforces the underlying game rules, rather than relying on user input or assumptions
This marks a shift from infrastructure and scaffolding into playable systems.
With this foundation in place, development accelerates. The next planned release introduces a focused combat simulation: a single-encounter “one-shot” test bed. Players will select (or randomly receive) a monster and engage in a rules-driven fight to the finish. The goal isn’t spectacle—it’s validation. This environment will allow me to build, test, and fine-tune the battle engine in isolation before scaling outward.
Although framed as a fight to the death, characters will not be permanently lost. This is a controlled proving ground for combat mechanics, not a punishment loop.
Once the battle engine is stable, the next major phase begins: integrating DM42, a large language model designed to act as a Game Master, narrating outcomes while remaining strictly bound to deterministic rules.
With a new academic semester starting in four days, time will need to be balanced carefully between work, graduate studies, and development. But the hardest part, building a coherent, rule-driven foundation, is now firmly in place.
Forge42Engine is taking shape.
42SystemStudios is coming into focus.
And Tharendell has officially moved from concept to playable reality.