@ickbat
Used to be a galactic archaeologist. Now I design tabletop games about epic heists, illegal mech racing, daring sky pirates, doomed expeditions, and other such nonsense. 🚀 Black Armada Tales cast member. https://ickbat.itch.io
I guess all I can really say is in the black water with the sun shining at midnight, those fruit shall come ripe and in the darkness of that which is golden shall split open to reveal the revelation of the fatal softness in the earth...
I love that you're doing this, Camilla, and I'm very excited to hear what you think of both games!
(Also, frankly, always a delight to see them sitting in a photo alongside their brilliant inspiration! Fine looking covers all round, I feel...)
Small pleasures: reading "This is Now You Lose the Time War" by @maxgladstone.bsky.social and @amalelmohtar.com again, to prepare before playing duet TTRPGs "Against Time and Death" by @ickbat.bsky.social and "The Words We Leaves Behind" by @whodo.bsky.social
❤️📚
It’s been pretty popular in the indie ttrpg scene over the last few years! Full credit to Oli Jeffery for the original innovation, way back in 2018!
www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/2...
An absurd deal for my favorite-favorite FitD game. Honestly folks, don't sleep on this.
Interesting supplement model, too. Deep Cuts, obvs, but also Dagger Isles, Blades ‘68, heck even Broken Spire and Flame Without Shadow.
(I would love to see Broken Spire expanded a bit. Not much, but a bit.)
Deep Cuts is such a fascinating supplement, and really serves to highlight just how much game there is in Blades in the Dark. I rarely look at a game and think ‘I could basically play this forever’, and that’s just the core book.
I just listened to @cprevas.bsky.social’s game of Chiron’s Doom, and I think you should too! It’s classic Chiron’s Doom — the curiosity, the spiralling complications, the fear…
Plus I found a new AP to listen to, and that’s always a bonus! Thank you christine!
I've been wanting to play Chiron's Doom by @ickbat.bsky.social for YEARS, so when I needed to sit down and record a solo game for the show it was the obvious choice and, truly, this game was everything I hoped it would be and more. what a sick fucking game holy shit I had so much fun
I just finished listening — this was fantastic! Vintage Chiron’s Doom!
Thank you so much for playing, and for sharing your game. It brings me such joy!
9-and-a-bit hours left!
Something like 24 hours now…
Feeling a bit of a post-Valentine's Day comedown?
Why not recapture some of the magic with a bundle of top-notch two-player ttrpgs? Featuring my very own... <checks notes>... Chiron's Doom, a tragic game about a doomed expedition!
(For real, add some romance and the tragedy gets even juicier!)
I loved Double Eagle. Loved it.
Holy crap, Tim, what a tour de force! Very excited for this one, and now thinking about how I can copy *your* homework… 🤔
Yo, where are the sci-fi narrative diorama skirmish games at? Malev's Greathelm or Peter Vigors' Necropolis28, but in space?
(God Through History was through the School of Theology. Counted towards my degree, but I had to pay out of pocket for that one — the government scheme for Uni fees wouldn’t cover it!)
Ha ha! Yep, all real modules. I did a double degree, Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science. My science major was physics, obvs. My arts major was early modern European history, but it was hugely flexible so I did all sorts of fun stuff.
Probably could’ve added Philosophical Problems of Space and Time…
I could also probably do okay, but yeah, joint Arts/Physics degree.
Hong Kong Cinema
Pirates and their Enemies
Quantum Field Theory
Cosmology
God Through History
A figure stands before an overgrown entrance
Standing stones at sunset
A figure with a torch considers a ruined city
Refuelling station on a fiery lava world
Ayup, I'm Paul. Still consider myself pretty new to all this (I'm old, and I started late) but I love what I've learned to do. Feels a bit like sorcery :)
#portfolioday
Nah, I think it needs more room to breathe than a one shot. Even the best tuned FitD one shots feel to me like they’re sort of missing the point, and the fun.
If you ever fancy trying it online, across tricky timezones, I’m in!
I reckon it’s the kind of game where you really need your players to commit.
It’s a similar kind of commitment required to make other sandboxes (like Blades or a|state) sing, but I suspect A Nocturne fails less gracefully without it.
Never not wishing I was playing A Nocturne.
I feel like ‘make an ancient mystery cult’ is pretty much always the answer.
2026. Playtest packet. It’s happening!
✊
2026 is the year I (finally) get Speed Daemons out in the world.
It’s a game of illegal mech racing in a crumbling domed city on an alien world. Races are arguments and victories are currency; PCs race to release pressure and change the world.
It’s the Matrix meets Fast & the Furious with mechs!
I've been talking about this with some people, and I really think this might happen, and I'm going to do my part as well to make it so. 2026 the year of anthologies and magazines and building communities through making things together. I'm starting early with eraserflag: ehronlime.itch.io/eraserflag
Stealing the Throne turns five next year, and it still pops up, which always makes my day. Big thanks here to @inkslinger1.bsky.social for shouting it out!
Honestly, who wouldn’t want to steal a giant thousand-year-old robot?