nothing to see here...

yo... I'm reviving this blog? if i know you from discord/twt and you see my old posts, no you didn't. :) game design/writing/art blabber prolly, and a side of genshin fandom

[ostermad-blog]

There's a kickass 72-hour stream of folks playing tabletop roleplaying games to raise money for MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians), and it's live right the fuck now!

They've a fantastic lineup of games over the next couple of days, and my game, MONSTER GUTS is on the schedule! There might even be some free keys to it as a donation incentive!

Head right here to go to their Twitch stream and catch these phenomenal games and help raise money for a really vital cause!

[ostermad-blog]

MONSTER GUTS Break-Even Sale

With the MONSTER GUTS Break-Even Sale coming to a close, I wanted to toot my own horn on one of my favorite bits of ttrpg tech in MONSTER GUTS. (art by @rapidpunches btw, who absolutely fucking rocks)

A lot of combat-focused ttrpgs really struggle with enemies that are a lot larger than the player characters. The general consensus has been that on a battlemap, the enemy token takes up more space, they often have greater reach, and that's about it. MONSTER GUTS is a game built around fighting those kinds of foes, and the typical approach leaves a lot to be desired. In MG, we build a battlemap out of playing cards, each card representing a place where one or more Scavengers can hang out during combat. The monster, on the other hand, doesn't sit on one of those cards. Instead, they are represented by a card that's centered on a gap between them.

In MONSTER GUTS, we use range bands (Close, Near, and Far) to measure the effective range of abilities. For players, Close means a target on the same card as your character, while Near means targets on adjacent cards, and Far means there's a card between you and the target. For monsters, though, while the definitions are the same, their reach is considerably larger. After all, this Sparksquirrel is Close to 4 different cards. But using cards in this way also gives us another great advantage: you can always tell where the monster's different parts are. The head of the sparksquirrel is to the left, the tail to the right. If the sparksquirrel were to turn around, well, you turn the card around. That makes it really easy to focus fire on individual parts to make sure you break as many as you can (since breaking more parts means you get more rewards at the end of the Hunt).

Oh, also, if you're on a different elevation (like you launched yourself high into the air with the Vespine Spear), you just place another card perpendicular to the grid where your character is. No need to remember which character is flying high or whatever, no need to fiddle with elevation values. Just add another card, and you can keep the same range system the game's already using with no muss and no fuss. While I'm sure I'm not the only person to have come up with this idea, I haven't seen anything like it elsewhere. I think it's really effective for fighting big enemies, making them feel intimidating on the battlefield, acknowledging their superior reach without any special rules or counting, and clearly showing their orientation with respect to the player characters' positions.

If that sounded interesting to you, check it out! MONSTER GUTS by Wheels Within Wheels Publishing (itch.io) MONSTER GUTS is 25% off for a little over a day left, so hurry on over and grab that reduced-price copy while you still can! Every copy you buy adds a community copy for folks who can't afford the game, and every $5 tip you add puts another community copy into the pool.

[ostermad-blog]

MONSTER GUTS is on sale!

To celebrate MONSTER GUTS almost breaking even (and also the month of my birth), I'm putting it on sale! It's 25% off until the first weekend of February.

MONSTER GUTS | Breaking Even Sale by Wheels Within Wheels Publishing - itch.io

Of course, every purchase adds a community copy to the pool, letting folks without funds have the full the game at no cost. Every $5 you add in tip adds another community copy, too!

Now for some MONSTER GUTS propaganda.

You want to play a ttrpg inspired by the Monster Hunter videogames? A lightweight system with punchy combat and humongous weapons? Then you're in for a real treat with MONSTER GUTS.

The MONSTER GUTS book comes with 12 weapons that are your character class (ranging from the Bowgun to the Vespine Spear), 4 helpful animal companions (the Caterpal, Dogepal, Hooterpal, and Palline), 6 beasts to add complications to your Hunt, and 6 monsters to Hunt with unique loot to power up your scavengers!

And once you've picked up the MONSTER GUTS core book, there's a ton of supplemental material to add to your game! There are new beasts, monsters, weapons, locations, even campaign supplements available to spice up your table! Check 'em out here: MONSTER GUTS! - Collection by Wheels Within Wheels Publishing - itch.io

[eggisonchan]

why do I always get big drawing motivation right before bed lmao

[eggisonchan]

just a smidge more work on this, i was sadge so I didn't get far

[eggisonchan]

FINISHED FINALLY

[ttrpgbrackets]

THE FINALS

Man With a Gun (Spire: The City Must Fall)

Survivor Final Ability (Shxll Casxngs)

Voting ended onDec 21, 2023

Well everyone, we're here. There were a few delays in the process, but it's time for the finals. An inexplicable gun vs a conspicuous lack of a gun. A showdown for the ages. The usual propaganda will be below, but just in case anyone hasn't seen the pinned post yet, I want to congratulate our finalists.

BXLLET and its expansion SHXLL CASXNGS can be found on Legendary Vermin and Rathayibacter's respective itch.io pages.

Spire: The City Must Fall can be found on Rowan, Rook, and Dekkard's website.

And away we go!

Man With a Gun:

Roll Fight+Occult to cast this spell. If you succeed, a person with a gun enters the room you’re currently standing in. You don’t get to say who they are, whose side they’re on or what they want, but you can guarantee that someone with a loaded gun will walk into the room as long as there’s a reasonable entry point for them to walk through.

What makes it so cool?

So Spire's Inksmith is the pulp novelist as a wizard; they write cliches and potboiler fiction into reality. This isn't even one of the signature class abilities, it's an optional move, but it's just so perfect for what it is that it's always what pops into mind when people ask about cool abilities.

Survivor Final Ability

With 20 bullets on your person: if you bury your bullets in a place of adequate size, your old community comes back to you in full, provided you never touch another bullet. This only works once.

What makes it cool?

i adore this as a conclusion to the Survivor's arc. you watch your community be destroyed, you venture out into the cruel world that did it, you fight and bleed and barely survive, and only by collecting an unimaginable treasure trove of violence can you win back what was lost forever. most players will not gather 20 bullets. 10 is already a tall ask for a desolate apocalypse, not to mention that the more you have the bigger a target is painted on your back. you'll die in the dust, and as you're bleeding out you'll look down at that spot on your character sheet, taunting you. you could have saved them. you could have gotten it all back. alas.

[legendaryvermin]

So extremely excited to be in the fuckin finals WHAT THE HELL!!!?? I figured this might be a good time to talk about what BXLLET means to me, and why I wrote the Survivor (and SHXLL CASXNGS generally).

When I first read BXLLET it wasn't finished yet. It was mostly a couple of playbooks that Rath had thrown together. What struck me about it though was how thoroughly a single playbook illustrated a whole world in my mind. Even without all the accoutrements of modern ttrpgs- splat books, art, bestiaries, history of the world- I was there, breathing the baked hot air of an arid post-western apocalypse where the protagonists are at best helpful, but never heroes.

SHXLL CASXNGS is a meditation on the periphery of that world, wondering what the extremes of a Slinger can be. Who is the most violent slinger I can imagine? The least? What does it look like if someone is trying to fix this broken world? What if they can only fix its artifice?

The best outcome in a situation in BXLLET is that nobody fires a shot. You don't want to die, and you definitely don't want to come out the other side with fewer bullets than you started with. The best outcome is to amass power until you're practically a god with a target on your back that is nigh irresistible.

So the Survivor is posing a very specific question: "can someone climb the tower, sit on top, and leave it behind?"

I think the answer is ultimately up to the table, but how they choose to answer it at the end of that journey, should they ever get there, is something that hopefully reveals something about their beliefs to them.

Anyway, that's a little more propaganda to vote survivor. 😌

[rathayibacter]

the thing thats so wild to me about BXLLET is like, yeah, im proud of the game. it's a real sharp ten pages, it's got some punchy lines, and the core idea (what if bullets were your xp, and all it took to kill someone was spending a bullet) is really fun to play with.

but BXLLET would be so much less if it weren't for all the phenomenal supplements for it. i wrote ten pages, and a whole host of fantastic designers took that and ran with it. theres easily 200 pages of BXLLET supplements out there now, and somehow stuff's still getting made. BXLLET's a good game, elevated to incredible new heights by the community that's popped up around it. it's incredibly fitting that the finalist here isn't from BXLLET itself, but from one of the beautiful works that grew out of it.

so, while we're talking about it, I wanna plug everyone's phenomenal work. here's a link to every BXLLET supplement (which, if we've forgotten something, def let Elvie or I know and we'll add it asap!)

and secondly, im making BXLLET free for a week. if you're intrigued by any of this, id highly recommend spending any money you would have spent on BXLLET on these awesome supplements instead. keep the love going. thank you all so much.

[ttrpgbrackets]

THE FINALS

Man With a Gun (Spire: The City Must Fall)

Survivor Final Ability (Shxll Casxngs)

Voting ended onDec 21, 2023

Well everyone, we're here. There were a few delays in the process, but it's time for the finals. An inexplicable gun vs a conspicuous lack of a gun. A showdown for the ages. The usual propaganda will be below, but just in case anyone hasn't seen the pinned post yet, I want to congratulate our finalists.

BXLLET and its expansion SHXLL CASXNGS can be found on Legendary Vermin and Rathayibacter's respective itch.io pages.

Spire: The City Must Fall can be found on Rowan, Rook, and Dekkard's website.

And away we go!

Man With a Gun:

Roll Fight+Occult to cast this spell. If you succeed, a person with a gun enters the room you’re currently standing in. You don’t get to say who they are, whose side they’re on or what they want, but you can guarantee that someone with a loaded gun will walk into the room as long as there’s a reasonable entry point for them to walk through.

What makes it so cool?

So Spire's Inksmith is the pulp novelist as a wizard; they write cliches and potboiler fiction into reality. This isn't even one of the signature class abilities, it's an optional move, but it's just so perfect for what it is that it's always what pops into mind when people ask about cool abilities.

Survivor Final Ability

With 20 bullets on your person: if you bury your bullets in a place of adequate size, your old community comes back to you in full, provided you never touch another bullet. This only works once.

What makes it cool?

i adore this as a conclusion to the Survivor's arc. you watch your community be destroyed, you venture out into the cruel world that did it, you fight and bleed and barely survive, and only by collecting an unimaginable treasure trove of violence can you win back what was lost forever. most players will not gather 20 bullets. 10 is already a tall ask for a desolate apocalypse, not to mention that the more you have the bigger a target is painted on your back. you'll die in the dust, and as you're bleeding out you'll look down at that spot on your character sheet, taunting you. you could have saved them. you could have gotten it all back. alas.

[legendaryvermin]

So extremely excited to be in the fuckin finals WHAT THE HELL!!!?? I figured this might be a good time to talk about what BXLLET means to me, and why I wrote the Survivor (and SHXLL CASXNGS generally).

When I first read BXLLET it wasn't finished yet. It was mostly a couple of playbooks that Rath had thrown together. What struck me about it though was how thoroughly a single playbook illustrated a whole world in my mind. Even without all the accoutrements of modern ttrpgs- splat books, art, bestiaries, history of the world- I was there, breathing the baked hot air of an arid post-western apocalypse where the protagonists are at best helpful, but never heroes.

SHXLL CASXNGS is a meditation on the periphery of that world, wondering what the extremes of a Slinger can be. Who is the most violent slinger I can imagine? The least? What does it look like if someone is trying to fix this broken world? What if they can only fix its artifice?

The best outcome in a situation in BXLLET is that nobody fires a shot. You don't want to die, and you definitely don't want to come out the other side with fewer bullets than you started with. The best outcome is to amass power until you're practically a god with a target on your back that is nigh irresistible.

So the Survivor is posing a very specific question: "can someone climb the tower, sit on top, and leave it behind?"

I think the answer is ultimately up to the table, but how they choose to answer it at the end of that journey, should they ever get there, is something that hopefully reveals something about their beliefs to them.

Anyway, that's a little more propaganda to vote survivor. 😌

[rathayibacter]

the thing thats so wild to me about BXLLET is like, yeah, im proud of the game. it's a real sharp ten pages, it's got some punchy lines, and the core idea (what if bullets were your xp, and all it took to kill someone was spending a bullet) is really fun to play with.

but BXLLET would be so much less if it weren't for all the phenomenal supplements for it. i wrote ten pages, and a whole host of fantastic designers took that and ran with it. theres easily 200 pages of BXLLET supplements out there now, and somehow stuff's still getting made. BXLLET's a good game, elevated to incredible new heights by the community that's popped up around it. it's incredibly fitting that the finalist here isn't from BXLLET itself, but from one of the beautiful works that grew out of it.

so, while we're talking about it, I wanna plug everyone's phenomenal work. here's a link to every BXLLET supplement (which, if we've forgotten something, def let Elvie or I know and we'll add it asap!)

and secondly, im making BXLLET free for a week. if you're intrigued by any of this, id highly recommend spending any money you would have spent on BXLLET on these awesome supplements instead. keep the love going. thank you all so much.

[ttrpgbrackets]

THE FINALS

Man With a Gun (Spire: The City Must Fall)

Survivor Final Ability (Shxll Casxngs)

Voting ended onDec 21, 2023

Well everyone, we're here. There were a few delays in the process, but it's time for the finals. An inexplicable gun vs a conspicuous lack of a gun. A showdown for the ages. The usual propaganda will be below, but just in case anyone hasn't seen the pinned post yet, I want to congratulate our finalists.

BXLLET and its expansion SHXLL CASXNGS can be found on Legendary Vermin and Rathayibacter's respective itch.io pages.

Spire: The City Must Fall can be found on Rowan, Rook, and Dekkard's website.

And away we go!

Man With a Gun:

Roll Fight+Occult to cast this spell. If you succeed, a person with a gun enters the room you’re currently standing in. You don’t get to say who they are, whose side they’re on or what they want, but you can guarantee that someone with a loaded gun will walk into the room as long as there’s a reasonable entry point for them to walk through.

What makes it so cool?

So Spire's Inksmith is the pulp novelist as a wizard; they write cliches and potboiler fiction into reality. This isn't even one of the signature class abilities, it's an optional move, but it's just so perfect for what it is that it's always what pops into mind when people ask about cool abilities.

Survivor Final Ability

With 20 bullets on your person: if you bury your bullets in a place of adequate size, your old community comes back to you in full, provided you never touch another bullet. This only works once.

What makes it cool?

i adore this as a conclusion to the Survivor's arc. you watch your community be destroyed, you venture out into the cruel world that did it, you fight and bleed and barely survive, and only by collecting an unimaginable treasure trove of violence can you win back what was lost forever. most players will not gather 20 bullets. 10 is already a tall ask for a desolate apocalypse, not to mention that the more you have the bigger a target is painted on your back. you'll die in the dust, and as you're bleeding out you'll look down at that spot on your character sheet, taunting you. you could have saved them. you could have gotten it all back. alas.

[legendaryvermin]

So extremely excited to be in the fuckin finals WHAT THE HELL!!!?? I figured this might be a good time to talk about what BXLLET means to me, and why I wrote the Survivor (and SHXLL CASXNGS generally).

When I first read BXLLET it wasn't finished yet. It was mostly a couple of playbooks that Rath had thrown together. What struck me about it though was how thoroughly a single playbook illustrated a whole world in my mind. Even without all the accoutrements of modern ttrpgs- splat books, art, bestiaries, history of the world- I was there, breathing the baked hot air of an arid post-western apocalypse where the protagonists are at best helpful, but never heroes.

SHXLL CASXNGS is a meditation on the periphery of that world, wondering what the extremes of a Slinger can be. Who is the most violent slinger I can imagine? The least? What does it look like if someone is trying to fix this broken world? What if they can only fix its artifice?

The best outcome in a situation in BXLLET is that nobody fires a shot. You don't want to die, and you definitely don't want to come out the other side with fewer bullets than you started with. The best outcome is to amass power until you're practically a god with a target on your back that is nigh irresistible.

So the Survivor is posing a very specific question: "can someone climb the tower, sit on top, and leave it behind?"

I think the answer is ultimately up to the table, but how they choose to answer it at the end of that journey, should they ever get there, is something that hopefully reveals something about their beliefs to them.

Anyway, that's a little more propaganda to vote survivor. 😌

[rathayibacter]

the thing thats so wild to me about BXLLET is like, yeah, im proud of the game. it's a real sharp ten pages, it's got some punchy lines, and the core idea (what if bullets were your xp, and all it took to kill someone was spending a bullet) is really fun to play with.

but BXLLET would be so much less if it weren't for all the phenomenal supplements for it. i wrote ten pages, and a whole host of fantastic designers took that and ran with it. theres easily 200 pages of BXLLET supplements out there now, and somehow stuff's still getting made. BXLLET's a good game, elevated to incredible new heights by the community that's popped up around it. it's incredibly fitting that the finalist here isn't from BXLLET itself, but from one of the beautiful works that grew out of it.

so, while we're talking about it, I wanna plug everyone's phenomenal work. here's a link to every BXLLET supplement (which, if we've forgotten something, def let Elvie or I know and we'll add it asap!)

and secondly, im making BXLLET free for a week. if you're intrigued by any of this, id highly recommend spending any money you would have spent on BXLLET on these awesome supplements instead. keep the love going. thank you all so much.

[ttrpgbrackets]

If anyone wants to try out one of the games in the finals, the author of BXLLET, the game for which SHXLL CASXNGS is an expansion, is free this week thanks to the author (the above tumblr user)!

[legendaryvermin]

Shit. Let's do that with SHXLL CASXNGS too. Play games y'all. Let us know what you think!!

[eggisonchan]

why do I always get big drawing motivation right before bed lmao

[eggisonchan]

just a smidge more work on this, i was sadge so I didn't get far

[eggisonchan]

why do I always get big drawing motivation right before bed lmao

[eggisonchan]

the last time I used this app was... A very different time in my life so now I think I need to purge my following lists xD my tastes have diverged pretty significantly in terms of, what I want to come on this app and see and do, it seems.

[eggisonchan]

This blog is probably going in more of a writing/art/game design (TTRPG and vidja game) direction, if old moots aren't interested in that I 100% get it.

Also looked back at some of my old dms with folks from when I was in early high school and holy shit I was such a fucking centrist pacifist idiot LMAO thanks to those who put up with my bullshit in that time. Kind of embarrassing to look back at. Am gay and angry now.

I'm not really engaged with kpop anymore, I think that's one of the big things I'll be cleaning out from my following, also because a lot of the groups I was following have disbanded or hiatuses or had scandals such that I'm... Not so interested in supporting anymore xD

❤️ thanks for the journey thus far, and I hope you'll join me for the next chapter. I'll probably be blabbering a lot more about ttrpgs, and about the games that I'm writing and putting on itch.io, and about the shit I'm researching to try to develop a broader base of knowledge in game design :) if that sounds interesting stick around. I'll be updating my Tumblr sometime soon to link to my itch, and probably also twitch, so you can find the things I've made and sometimes see me work on them, if that suits you.

[eggisonchan]

the last time I used this app was... A very different time in my life so now I think I need to purge my following lists xD my tastes have diverged pretty significantly in terms of, what I want to come on this app and see and do, it seems.

[eggisonchan]

guess I'm figuring out how to post on this site again?

Meet Yahiko and Tobuime, NPCs my partner wrote, and let me help bring to life :) characterizing Tobuime and writing little blurbs of her slow, measured anger towards the union and her adherence to tradition means I now have tobuime brainrot so we might see more of her real soon

They're married and I love them but SPOILER yahiko is so dead now after the one-shot they were featured in. Sadge

[ttrpgbrackets]

Round 3

Survivor Final Ability (Shxll Casxngs)

Castigate the Enemies of the Godhead (Lancer)

Voting ended onNov 9, 2023

Propaganda Below

Survivor Final Ability

With 20 bullets on your person: if you bury your bullets in a place of adequate size, your old community comes back to you in full, provided you never touch another bullet. This only works once.

What makes it cool?

i adore this as a conclusion to the Survivor's arc. you watch your community be destroyed, you venture out into the cruel world that did it, you fight and bleed and barely survive, and only by collecting an unimaginable treasure trove of violence can you win back what was lost forever. most players will not gather 20 bullets. 10 is already a tall ask for a desolate apocalypse, not to mention that the more you have the bigger a target is painted on your back. you'll die in the dust, and as you're bleeding out you'll look down at that spot on your character sheet, taunting you. you could have saved them. you could have gotten it all back. alas.

Castigate the Enemies of the Godhead

When you rest or perform a Full Repair, you can push the Manticore into an unstable Castigation State (or bring it out of one). In this state, the Manticore explodes immediately when destroyed due to damage or reactor meltdown, vaporizing it and instantly killing you and any other passengers. Characters within burst 2 must succeed on an Agility save or take 8d6 explosive. On a success, they take half damage. This only takes place if you are physically present in the Manticore.

What makes it cool?

First off, you should understand that most mechs in Lancer have fairly mundane technological abilities. Stuff like Assault Cannon, Deck-sweeper Automatic Shotgun, and LB/OC Cloaking Field. Generally utilitarian gadgets that sound like they could exist. So, all the weirdness I'm about to describe is happening against a backdrop of otherwise fairly grounded military sci fi.

CASTIGATE THE ENEMIES OF THE GODHEAD sounds nothing like a normal sci-fi gadget.

The Manticore, the mech, with the castigate ability is basically an unstable nuclear reactor that is also an unstable religious fanatic. It is covered in a field of radioactive lightning and/or the barely contained wrath of an ancient god. It is constantly on the verge of exploding both literally and figuratively.

Basically, between battles, you can decide that you're about to go out in a blaze of glory. and then, when you die, you explode with enough power to vaporize any enemy in the core book twice over, as well as any party members standing too close. There's no way to cheat it, either. You have to be in that cockpit, and blow up along with your mech. It makes you a suicide bomber.

Lancer consistently blurs the line between mundane advanced technology and genuinely divine blessings. Is this a walking bomb spewing fragments of old data, or is it a righteous weapon of God's fury? In a sense, Ra is the sun, and the sun is a sustained fusion reaction, so maybe a fusion reactor really is literally a small piece of God.

[legendaryvermin]

ok i know i wrote the survivor... but: think about this too: what if you do it? you save the town! Wow! and you did it (probably) by cutting a swathe of violence thru the wastes at LEAST as wide as the thing that ruined your home in the first place. do you tell anyone? how would they even react? And what if that past comes calling? what happens when your old enemies come wanting a duel? wanting blood? pick up a bullet and everything you worked for is *gone* gone. But do you know how to fix a problem without more violence?

[ostermad-blog]

Bxllet Clip Released!

Hey! You know Rathayibacter's game Bxllet, the best ttrpg released in 2021? You should check out Bxllet Clip, a zine by yours truly. Our first issue is the Pinxps Issue, featuring the delightful Bxllet Gxrls designed by Brian Yaksha. Inside, you'll find a kickass Bxllet hack by Adira Slattery, an interview with Rathayibacter Toxicus, a pair of adventures by Martin Dubuque, brand new rule modules from Rathayibacter, and a crossover supplement between Bxllet's Wastes and Troupe's Fiefs with new classes and Beasts by TheOriginalCockatrice. Pick it up here: https://dubdubpub.itch.io/bxllet-clip-the-pinxp-issue The better this does, the more likely it is that I can pay more people to write stuff for Bxllet, so...

Oh, and if you don't have Bxllet, you can grab both Bxllet and Bxllet Clip together in a combo deal at no extra cost! Check it out, and please share widely! I don't have a big social media presence, so any boosts would be appreciated!

[dateaboysuggestions]

Date a boy who wants to start a podcast with you.

[peachysuho]

how are exo going to top artificial love at this point bc they started out with my lady then moved on to playboy then got bold with artificial love so like What’s Next bc at this rate they’re gonna have a group circle jerk on stage at their next tour titled Ex'Actly What Is Going On Here

[taemins-day]

okay so here’s the deal, i’m broke & got bills and i also got all these kpop albums so if y’all are interested i’ll be selling the majority of these for $10 with the exception of the special edition albums and the 3 signed albums and if you buy 5 or more i’ll take $10 off. send me a message if you’re interested in buying something, albums and prices will be under the read more. 

update: i made this post at 2am so i forgot to mention shipping. i’ll ship anywhere in the US for $5 and for international shipping just message me and we’ll discuss a convenient price.

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