aryxymaraki

@aryxymaraki

He/they. Freelance writer and game designer. harpooncannonpublishing [at] gmail.

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aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· 1d

full page of maces and hammers

MACES AND HAMMERS
Weight: 1
1-Handed Melee Weapon
No one even bothered to put an edge on these weapons. Their wielders don’t need one. Someone who makes their living beating iron won’t have much trouble beating you.
Mace and Hammer Techniques:
Wide Swing
Hammer Blow
Sideways Smash
Overhand Club
Front Jab
Weapon Tier Passive
Club 1 Advantage on attacks against Skeletons.
Spiked Mace 1 Advantage with Wide Swing, but disadvantage with Front Jab.
Frying Pan 1 Advantage on your first attack after you cook Ingredients.
Flanged Mace 1 1/combat, push an enemy hit from Melee to Ranged zone.
Knobbed Mace 1 Can target up to two Horde enemies with Wide Swing.
Gada 1 Can be wielded in two hands to gain advantage on Sideways Smash.
Jian 1 1/combat, inflict disadvantage on an enemy attacking you with a blade.
Cudgel 1 If you roll Power 1 while attacking an armored enemy, it’s Power 2.
War Hammer 1 Advantage with Hammer Blow against armored enemies.
Shillelagh 1 Enemies composed largely of wood have disadvantage to attack you.
Blacksmith’s Hammer 2 1/rest, while Resting, can convert T2 items into equal Weight of T1 items.
Waterfall Hammer 2 Whenever an ally deals Overflow, they deal 1 additional Overflow.
Truesteel Mace 2 All attacks are Power 3.
Blackwood Cudgel 2 Slashing attacks against you have their Power reduced by 1 for that attack.
Disrupting Mace 2 Deals Radiant damage.
Battering Rammer 2 Power of enemy Defense used is reduced by 1 until end of combat.
Armorbreaker 2 Advantage on attacks against enemies wearing medium or heavy armor.
Spectral Mace 2 Power 1 and 2 defenses from armor do not reduce damage.
Bladeshatter Jian 2 Power 1 attacks with bladed weapons against you break the weapon.
Spiritcrusher 2 Can pay 1 HP when attacking to increase Power by 1 for that attack (max 6).
Sharur 3 Intelligent. Can fly, speak, and wield itself.
Gorz-e Mithra 3 All attacks can be Ranged. Allies (not you) with 0 HP cannot be harmed.
Yagrush 3 Always has advantage on attacks agai…

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· 3d

while doing research on mythical weapons for six hp dungeon I discovered that Kaomadaki , as a name for Vishnu's mace, is sometimes believed to derive from kumada, Sanskrit for the blue water-lily or blue lotus (same plant, two names) anyway it's an owl now @sprintingowl.bsky.social

Kaomodaki 3 Wielder can turn into an owl, gaining flight and night vision. Owl can Sprint as Combat Action, allowing any number of allies to change Combat Zone.

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· 5d

Homer Simpson in bed wearing headphones, asleep.
Text: Let's build your vocabulary. "A". Slaughterhouse. "The cow was slaughtered in the abattoir."

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· 12d

I put entire campaign forced retirement in Against the Fall of Night it is not just possible for the characters to 'fail' and the campaign to end without their explicit choice, it is inevitable, and that inevitability is a big part of the point

Endings and Epilogues
Conditions that trigger the epilogue:
If there are 4 or more Nightmares on the same island.
If a Nightmare grows to a Base Level above level 10.
If you reach five ticks after Midnight on the Night Clock.
If all characters are slain at once.
If there are 8 or more Nightmares active.
If it is Midnight at the start of the Growth Phase and no Nightmares are active, it becomes Dawn. This is

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· 13d

this sounds like the kind of thing I'd say in Cosmic Star Knights 1992

An ultrawave message embedded in the cosmic background radiation carries the cryptographic key that you were given before heading out on this mission, and so naturally you scan it. Ultrawave is a method that compresses a message into a zero-dimensional string, which allows it to exist in all places and times simultaneously, but is hell on data loss and so it is text-only.
Ultrawave: Cosmic Star Knights! This is Captain-General Rex Bankoff of the Galactic Guard. Your provided coordinates should have sent you near PLS-938-317, commonly called Newton, but what couldn't be said over insecure communication was that it is not just a landmark. It's not even a pulsar, knights. Twenty years ago we sent a team over there and we discovered its terrible secret. Newton is the corpse of a cyborg neutron star, and you need to get its heart. The heart should be in the core of the star. The stellar material has mostly been removed, but you'll still have to deal with its robotic remains. It's a real maze in there. Find the heart, and come back as fast as you can. We can see the fourth-dimensional shadow of the Chaos Portal already starting to form. If those Super Void Cruisers make it here before you get back, we're finished. When you get back here, get that heart through the Chaos Portal. If you don't make it in time, that portal will consume the galactic core and turn our entire galaxy into the Dark Lord's personal hell dimension! Good luck, Cosmic Star Knights. We're all counting on you.

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· 13d

in against the fall of night, having and defending a torch to hold back the darkness is of vital importance when facing creatures warped by Night (which will not be everything you face in a Nightmare, but will often show up in climactic areas)

THE NIGHTFALLEN TEMPLATE
To create an ordinary monster that has been warped by Night, apply the following changes.
Reduce their maximum Wounds by 2, to a minimum of 4.
If their Magic Skill is less than +1, increase it to +1.
They gain the Darken ability and the Home in the Dark passive.
Darken* (2 MP): The monster attempts to extinguish a torch, lantern, or similar light source that it can see. If a creature is holding the light source, that creature may make a Quickness test; on a failure, the light source is extinguished. If the light source is unattended, it is automatically extinguished.
Passive: Home in the Dark: In total darkness, the monster gains +2 Armor and +2 DP. If the monster has Aura above 0, it gains +1 Aura. The monster never considers darkness a disadvantageous circumstance.
If the monster is Large or Giant, reduce their Wounds by 4 instead of 2. They gain the Sudden Darken ability instead of Darken. (It’s the same as Darken, but does not require a Main Action). In addition, add the following to their Home in the Dark passive: “The monster regains an additional 1 MP each round in total darkness.”

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· 14d

this was the most fun part of writing all systems go aryxymaraki.itch.io/all-systems-go

There are five different manufacturers
presented here who make Components, in
addition to the Basic Components. The
manufacturer of a Component has no specific
game effect, but you may notice patterns in
their names, Startup Steps, and Component
effects. The five Component manufacturers
are Okikyuzo Heavy Industries (OHI), Apogee
Technologies (AT), Quality Electronics (QE),
Accelerated Critical Component Organization
(ACCO), and Calloused Working Robotics (CWR).

REACTOR COMPONENTS
Basic Reactor.
Priority: First.
Startup Step: “Initiate the
magnetohydrodynamic chamber.”
QE Secondary Reactor Buffering.
Subtract 1 from your Malfunction Points (min 0)
before calculating the effect of your mission.
Priority: Second.
Startup Step: “Bring the secondary core
buffering system online.”
ACCO Multicore Reactor Process.
Ignore the first time this component is damaged
on a Campaign.
Priority: First.
Startup Step: “Aggregate reactor cores to align
the adverse selection effect.”
OHI High Energy Antiproton Generator.
When rolling to avoid catastrophe due to having
one or more Malfunction Points, roll 1d8
instead of 1d6. When you roll for Component
Damage, roll 1d10 instead of 1d8, treating
results of 8+ as 8.
Priority: First.
Startup Step: “Expand the negative mass
annihilation envelope.”

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· 21d

these are the four cards i search for when i cast gifts

Card Name
Bronze Horse
Mana Cost
7
Type
Artifact Creature – Horse
Rarity
Uncommon
Rules Text
Trample
As long as you control another creature, prevent all damage that would be dealt to this creature by spells that target it.
Power/Toughness
4/4
Illus 1994 Mark Poole

Card Name
Ebony Horse
Mana Cost
3
Type
Artifact
Rarity
Common
Rules Text
2, T: Untap target attacking creature you control. Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by that creature this turn.
Artist
Dameon Willich

Card Name
Workhorse
Mana Cost
6
Type
Artifact Creature – Horse
Rarity
Rare
Rules Text
This creature enters with four +1/+1 counters on it.Remove a +1/+1 counter from this creature: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool. Play this ability as a mana source.
Artist
DiTerlizzi
P/T
0/0

Card Name
Shadowfax, Lord of Horses
Mana Cost
3RW
Type
Legendary Creature – Horse
Rarity
Uncommon
Rules Text
Horses you control have haste. (They can attack and
as soon as they come under your control.)Whenever Shadowfax attacks, you may put a creature card with lesser power from your hand onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.
Artist
Valera Lutfullina
P/T
4/4

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Jul 12

but doctor, pagliacci is already a netrunner card

The original Netrunner card "Clown".
4 bits
Program - 1 MU
All ice is encountered with its strength reduced by 1.

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Jul 5

as is traditional, we will run on Archives followed by a run on R&D, to celebrate achievements past and future

Custom Netrunner card Mara Day. Card art is a pink cake with chains and spiky balls.
3 credits. Event: Run * Birthday
As an additional cost to play this event, spend [click].
Make a run on Archives. Whether or not the run is successful, make a run on R&D. If both runs are successful, gain [click] and draw three cards.

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Jul 3

intrusive game design thoughts about mage retroclone today

A mage's Backlash is governed by their Sins. Mages have three types of besetting Sins, being Hubris, Narcissism, and Oblivion, each rated from 1-5. When a Backlash occurs, the form the Backlash takes (and the table you roll on) is determined by your highest Sin. The power of the Backlash is determined by the sum of your Sins. Each time you increase your Essence (including when you gain Essence 1 as part of character creation), you also increase one of your Sins by 1 (your choice). Your Sins may also increase as the result of gameplay or Backlashes.

The three Sins of mages are:

Hubris - To Cast Your Will Into the Teeth of the World and Say "Not Thy Will, but Mine, Be Done"
Narcissism - To View The World Through Thine Own Eyes And Deny Any Other View Differs
Oblivion - To Spew Your Will Into the World Without Care For Its Effects.

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Jul 3

Picture of Pizza the Hutt from Spaceballs, a sentient pyramidal blob of pizza.
Text: No one out-pizzas the hutt

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Jul 1

(I'm not sure if this is actually the right one but it is the closest Crane Clan iaijutsu master that came to mind.)

Kakita Korihime
Force 2, Chi 8
Crane Clan Iajjutsu Master * Samurai * Double Chi * Unique * Soul of Kakita Toshimoko Experienced
Korihime will not refuse challenges. Lose 5 Honor each time Korihime loses a duel.
Limited: Bow Korihime to issue an unrefuable challenge to a dishonored Personality.

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Jun 24

Troy McClure singing at the end of the Planet of the Apes musical "It was Earth All Along".

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Jun 22

Fucked Up Math Zone good luck parsing this spell and you would need to be a very serious archmage to cast it bsky.app/profile/sand...

A whole bunch of runes describing the spell Fucked Up Math Zone. There's a pattern to it, but it is not clearly visible.

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Jun 22

Unlink Causality

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Jun 21

The original Legend of the Five Rings card for Mirumoto Hitomi, a samurai who became the moon.

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Jun 14

this is my MMOTTRPG design Zones are solo content Dungeons are group content Raids are group content which requires a consumable item to unlock (you get the item, or components for it, from Zones and Dungeons)

solo/group rpg inspired by MMO gameplay; when you get the group together, it's for dungeons and raids. to simulate weekly lockouts, you can require a certain number of dungeons be run per raid (make it a 'gathering materials' thing, you need to gather mats to craft the consumable item that unlocks the raid; requires both solo mats and dungeon mats to craft). solo gameplay is farming consumables and crafting and so on, and can include things like rep grinding and other solo content. the best rewards come from raids, but they're the most difficult, so you want to make sure you're prepared and farmed up before going into a raid. this should use flames of the meta-dragon, so you can actually plug in whatever game you want for the raiding portion, and it lets you write the subsystems in meta-draconic ways. (seared by the meta-dragon is the pbta name equivalent) add professions as another layer; any character can have two professions, which are separated into gathering and crafting. gathering professions provide bonus materials, you can still get some of any material without them. crafting professions can make consumables and gear.
a Zone is solo play; when you play a Zone, you can Quest, Farm, or Grind. questing gets you rewards but each reward is unique; you can't get the same reward more than once from a Zone. Quest rewards don't have to be items; they can also be experience or intangibles (like titles). Farming gets you crafting materials, Grinding gets you drops. in general, Questing is more rewarding than Grinding, but Grinding is unlimited.
a Dungeon is group play with no lockout; the first time you complete a Dungeon, you also get that Dungeon's Quest Rewards.
a Raid is group play with a lockout; Raids don't have Quest Rewards, but give the best rewards. Raid lockouts are done by expending consumable items that you got from Zones and Dungeons, so you need to do a certain number of zones and/or dungeons before each time you can do a Raid. items require…

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Jun 10

I still have not figured out what led to this huge spike in downloads for godeaters of the astral sea a few days ago anyway if you find the husk of a dead god floating in the astral sea, drink its blood (while watching for astral bullshit) aryxymaraki.itch.io/godeaters-of...

Screenshot of downloads graph from itch.io. Numbers are not labeled, but there is clearly a huge spike that then drops off a cliff.

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· May 28

I want you to know this has been added to my ideas file for a ttrpg deckbuilding game where literally all conflicts, whether physical or social, are resolved by card game (my ideas file is hundreds of ideas deep this will probably not go anywhere)

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· May 28

ok but I have a reason for it (my mother is a librarian)

Senshi from Delicious in Dungeon thinking about feeding the young ones, but the text has been crudely edited to say "I have to protect them. I must protect the books."

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· May 26

there's always options with other injury systems pic unrelated

The Severe Injury Table for Against the Fall of Night.

Injuries range from minor inconveniences up to instant death.

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· May 22

Orignally a meme of Danny Devito captioned "So anyway I started blasting". Gandalf's face and hat have been very poorly edited in over his face, and he's surrounded by tiny Nazgul.

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· May 12

Marge grimacing. "That's true, but he shouldn't say it."

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· May 4

have you ever seen Deathscythe?

Deathscythe from Gundam Wing. A mech carrying a glowing energy green lightsaber scythe.

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Apr 24

the axe is just a little guy

Deepwoods Feller 2 When you deal overflow with Cleaving Strike or High Cleave, apply it to another monster of the same type in the same zone.

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Apr 22

Brock Samson holding a knife with his license to kill in the background.

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Apr 20

Milhouse playing Bonestorm, glowing in the view from the TV, his hair blown back.
"And all I've done is enter my name - Lord of the Rings Thrillogy"

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Apr 10

maybe not in 5e as designed (they were crazy OP in playtest when they worked like that) but a game where that was just how combat worked would be a better-designed game I'm not biased at all of course, pic unrelated

ATTACK POINTS AND DEFENSE POINTS
Attack techniques cost Attack Points (AP) to use. Defensive techniques cost Defense Points (DP) to use. Unless modified by something else (such as dual-wielding or a defensive or brutal weapon), characters have AP and DP each equal to their Combat Skill. (For example, a character with Combat Skill +2 has 2 AP and 2 DP.)

aryxymaraki@aryxymaraki· Apr 8

I've only read the first one (so far), but it did immediately make me take some notes on implied rules of magic because it's so very stealable. I don't know if these are actually canon truths, but they're the things that it made me think about in the context of stealing for an RPG.