Fantasy-themed tools for real life
A good story is irresistible.
Why should you have to leave your life to live inside one?
Why should you have to leave your life to live inside one?
“It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”
— Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
You already know what it feels like to live inside a story. That feeling isn't something to grow out of — it's something to build with. Strop Studio makes tools that put you back inside the story. The real one. Yours.
A training program inspired by warrior mythology. Real workout programming with real progressions — wrapped in motivational dialogue that meets you where you are, on the days that are hard and the days that aren't.
Your task list, run by a snarky tavern keeper who has opinions about your dishes. Ambient pub sounds, musicians in the corner, a storyteller by the fire, and NPCs who won't stop trying to flirt with you while you clean.
I'm a licensed clinical social worker who married into the world's fittest family. They love the gym. I found it unbearably boring. I'd start programs, lose interest in a week, and feel like the only person alive who couldn't just make herself do the thing.
Then I'd open a book, read a training montage about some warrior getting stronger, pushing through pain because life or death or love was on the line, and think: that. I want that. (Not the six-pack, the feeling that it matters.) I want to feel like I'm inside an important story, not just poking around at the gym in my stupid gear.
When my doctor told me my cholesterol was too high, not moving my body stopped being cute and started feeling dangerous. I have people I want to be around for. So I started building the thing I wished existed — a workout experience that feels like the books I love, backed by real programming that my certified-trainer sister-in-law and people-who-get-hit-for-a-living brother-in-laws would actually approve of.
As a clinical therapist, I know that there are entire therapeutic modalities built on the principle that story drives behavioral change. This isn't a gimmick, it's a clinically informed approach wearing really cool armor.
The name "strop" is the leather strap used for a blade's final sharpening — the last step before the cut. You've already done the hard work of showing up. We're just the final edge.
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Strop Studio is self-funded, which means we have no investors, no funding rounds, and no committee of people who've never read a fantasy novel deciding what gets built. I'm just one person with a clinical background, a love of story, and a stubborn belief that the mundane parts of life deserve to feel like something worth showing up for.
I can't wait to hire artists, writers, voice actors, designers. The highest purpose of business will always involve real humans doing amazing work and getting paid for it. But first we need the revenue, so we're using what we can until we get there.
Every decision is intentional and double checked by experts and every feature exists because it matters, but the person orchestrating it all is the same person who couldn't stop wishing her real life felt more like the books she loves.