Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

oh FUCK YES HELLPIERCERS

Hellpiercers Kickstarter copy and extras, right after opening the package

November 11, 2025 at 9:12 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

time to do some playtesting 🔫😼1️⃣3️⃣

Playtest materials for Lucky 13, splayed out so that multiple pages are visible

November 4, 2025 at 12:12 AM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

tabling at the gender fucked variety hour at the leather archives, featuring @snow117.bsky.social hiding in the corner behind the board

Picture of our table featuring zines, games, stickers, and music by myself, Snow, Fen Slattery, and Alexa K. I'm in the back gesturing while Snow is peaking out from behind a display

October 11, 2025 at 2:05 AM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

this makes me think of WTF

October 1, 2025 at 10:45 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

TANK TIME BABYYYY

Clip from the anime Girls Und Panzer of a tank drifting through a city street before crashing and ramming another tank. A girl is shown inside attempting to drink tea

March 18, 2025 at 8:07 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

obsidian entertainment i need an expansion with a graphic sex scene with this fish like yesterday

Screenshot of Kai, an NPC companion from Avowed

February 21, 2025 at 9:06 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

now... working title "Gladiator 13"

half and half that when i watch Gladiator 2 that I just finish this game. It's a tactical gladiator fights and colliseum nonsense ruleset for a traditional D&D fantasy world. also wanted to engage with the stuff that comes with being basically a sports star

Screenshot of some rules text from Gladiator 13

January 25, 2025 at 9:31 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

Next System 13 game!

I got even more witch madness from Agatha All Along and started working on ANOTHER game with witches. This one is more traditional coven shit with that little bit of comic book supers spice

Screenshot reads:
"the hues of magic
GREEN, TEAL, BROWN - CYCLES (Life and death)
BLUE, INDIGO, SILVER - CREATION (Alchemy and enchantments)
PURPLE, BLACK, VIOLET - ASTRAL (Spirits and demons)
RED, ORANGE, PINK - ARDOR (Protection and destruction)
YELLOW, AMBER, WHITE - SIGHT (Divination and time)

POWER OF ONE
POWER OF THREE
POWER OF FIVE
different amounts of people can create “larger” and “lasting” effects"

January 25, 2025 at 9:27 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

Ope missed the screenshot

Screenshot reads:
"ALIENS INVADE POSTAPOC RENAISSANCE
300 years ago, mountainous crystals fell from the heavens and devastated Europe and North Africa. Some say that this was divine judgment. Wild beasts grew to disastrous sizes. Floods, storms, chaos. As we survived into this changed world, the skies now darken. The Benthic Legion has arrived to harvest their crop. The year is 1782 and the horrors of the murky deep beyond us must die."

January 25, 2025 at 9:24 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

So my next WIP to talk about is like REALLY big

It's called Witchnail. I've been poking at the worldbuilding for years. I made timelines of world events. It's fucking SPRAWLING

Excerpt of a small header for Witchnail with reads:
"WITCHNAIL
There is enough iron in the human body to make a nail which is three inches long.

Gothic Fantasy
Witchnail is a game of gothic fantasy. High emotions, supernatural powers, howling winds, and ancient prophecies abound. In Witchnail you play protagonists torn between powerful forces, attempting to navigate this shadowed world."

Notes on two of the playbooks, Heir and Nighthunters.

January 25, 2025 at 8:55 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

Sometimes I write cast lists for games made of pregens. This is one I really like and have been thinking about what like scaffolding I want it to situate within

June Marlowe, the Chosen - you have no magic powers. you will save the world

Gnogin, the Immortal Gobbin - Im ripping off Squee
Clarence Walsh, the Shadow Rider - Summon a black steed of smoke, have a revolver, he/him
Mae Breezewood, the Astromancer - magic stuff, trainee, she/they
Parker Estoc, the Blacksmith's Apprentice - childhood friend, can turn into a hawk, she/her
Dunn Harat, the King's Shield - retired, halberd musket, bighorn sheep man, he/him

January 23, 2025 at 10:04 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

I started writing a game system themed like a lecture. Like you're being TAUGHT how to do magic. It wasn't very good.

This then morphed into more of a "magic is a programming language" style thing with vague victorian theming

Screenshot of my notes app. It reads:

The Applied History of Magic

"Welcome to the Applied History of Magic. Now within this class we will be participating in magical traditions older than you or I, and it is important we respect them. Within this class we will be spell CASTING. Casting people! You will be no common slingspells, willy nilly heaving your magic about. No we are mages; we cast. Loose your magic with patience and precision, patience and precision, within my sight. Now if you would turn to your syllabi, lets talk about my reading expectations..."

-Magus Giefa Killarney

January 23, 2025 at 10:00 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

Wanted to make a weird oracle deck for use in fantasy games that was explicitly NOT tarot, since i know its like something which folks can chafe against for various reasons. Here's a list of possible Major Arcana

(I am not an amazing artist but if you are one and want to make this, message me lmao)

List of prospective cards, which reads:
"The Flood
The Wolf
The Innocent (child)
The Shepherd
The Shadow
The Sage
The Cat
The Lover
The Storm
The Mountain
The Blade
The Sparrow
The Coals
The Singer
The Oven
The Reveler
The Painter
The Duke
The Duchess
The Anchor
The Enchantress
The Blood"

January 23, 2025 at 9:27 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

Working title "Like that one Marvel Game with the Stones"

I love moving little rocks around on a character sheet. I also love this list of damage types.

This WIP is in the notes app on my phone mostly

Screenshot which reads:
"damage types
Primal
Tech
Mystical
Disaster
Impossible

CHARACTERS HAVE
Story (kinda lifepathy)
permanent tokens in a power move

POWER MOVES
Make
Know
Change
Destroy
Endure
Travel"

January 23, 2025 at 9:14 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

Working title "Magic Energy"

A resource management game of wizards! You like make and spend mana and share and shit. It's kinda inspired by that power bottom in Promare. You know the one.

Screenshot of Google Drive. It lists vague descriptions of the combat roles. It reads:
"FURNACE
creates power
IGNITE action, fills your core
if you dont have stuff to spend it on, it hurts you
you can Dump your core and go out, doing damage to everyone around but yourself
shunt: bonus transfer
cap 9

CHANNELER
takes energy to do POWERFUL abilities
intake: bonus claim
cap 7

PHYLAS
has a relic which can generate its own energy. can use extra energy to overclock it
attuned: bonus awaken
cap 3

PARAGON
slowly builds energy over time but doesn't spend it, their abilities increasing in power as they get more
unrelenting: bonus basic attack
cap 9

KYLOSOPH
generate a bunch of energy but require spending a lot to do stuff
focus: bonus charge
cap 5

GEOCRAT
"

January 23, 2025 at 9:07 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

i have made 72 jobs with 200+ abilities and items. i wrote 80% of that in one 24 hour stretch cause ADHD is a hell of a drug

The Drake job, which also showcases the Mastery track

Excerpts of an unlabeled job, the Puck Job, and the Rascal Job

Excerpts of the Slugger job and the Smith job

Excerpts of the Meteorologist job and the Psychic job

January 23, 2025 at 8:55 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

lets start by talking about one of my largest WIPs

FANTASY BURGLARY SIMULATOR

i have been working on and off for nearly 4 years now on this one. its really big. you steal things from rich people and there's lots of tactics. its more and more likely that this should be a board game or a boxed set

Screenshot of part of the "Maneuvers" section from Fantasy Burglary Simulator

Loose and unorganized notes about the statistics of Enemies, Traps, Features, and Terrain

A description of character creation for FBS

January 23, 2025 at 8:53 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

pow yoinking this from @keftiu.bsky.social because i love it and have too many WIPs lmao

A cut and paste image that seems to be made of various like memes. It reads:
"Get to know my work
in progress in my Google Drive
for every like,
i will post one game i love"
The word love is crossed out and a heart is there

January 23, 2025 at 8:33 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

An anti-fascist makeout LARP for 2 queers

To begin, you must have 2 players. Discuss consent and any boundaries beforehand. No means No, and keep an open door. Play can be paused or ended at any time.

Begin on the opposite ends of an intimate space, like a couch or a bedroom. Look towards the other player and make as much eye contact as possible.

One player begins by stating a truth about how fascism, the world, and society discounts, disdains, and often criminalizes your queer love. The second player then responds "Fuck those guys" and moves
towards the first player. Then the players switch roles. The players take turns back and forth, each one exposing a vulnerable fear and the other affirming it while moving towards them anyways.

Once you are next to the other, if you wish to kiss them, then state that "I feel safe here with you." If the other responds in kind, commence making out in defiance of the fash. If you do not wish to make out, you can also celebrate your love and warmth through high fives, fist pumps, and dancing.

Make sure you check in with the other player afterwards.

PUNCH NAZIS

January 20, 2025 at 10:38 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

gerald ford could kind of get it

Black and white photographs of President Gerald Ford as a younger man. One is a closeup portrait in a suit, while the other he is resting on his knees in a sports uniform

January 17, 2025 at 7:24 PM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

I know I have not done much games posting here recently. As a little gift... here's some screenshots of some text from Lucky 13, my game about dieselpunk cat soldiers

Excerpt of miscellaneous gear, including various unexplained statistics and mechanics representing costs and benefits of different pieces. Each line has a REQ number and a bulk number. The objects listed are:
Canteen, Traik Tuna, Pack of Nip, Bottle of Vodka, Respirator, UFDR Dress Uniform, Greatcoat

Excerpt of text, which reads: "Late War: The joint militaries of the WSL and the CAF break through in Agato, rolling into a blistering invasion of Chidentia. The Army of Free Rivers begins to take meaningful territory, cutting off supply lines for the Hounds as their invasion of Koshalya fails. The UFDR’s army then goes on a tear taking territory, pushing all the way back through Strawcz to the pre-war borders of Houndlend. Neither the Oreanus or the WSL make meaningful headway against the other, turning the Bascarl into a meat grinder."

Excerpt of rules text, listing various character statistics. It reads:
"SKILLS
ALLEY – Streetwise and rumors
CHORES – Carrying boxes, mending uniforms, and maintaining weaponry
DRIVE – Operating vehicles
ESPRIT – Camaraderie and singing
GRIT – Composure, courage, and resolve
GUILE – Lies and trickery
GEARS – Machinery and mechanics
HUNT – Tracking prey
MEDIC – First aid and healing
ORATORY – Speaking with conviction
PAPER – Bureaucracy and mathematics
SLINK – Silence, stealth, thievery

ARMS
BULLETS – Pistols and rifles
EXPLOSIVES – Grenades and mines
SHELLS – shotguns, machine guns, and mortars
DISTINCTIVE – Specially trained, like flamethrowers or snipers
MOUNTED – Emplaced weaponry
SHARP – Claw and knife"

January 17, 2025 at 6:40 AM

Adira Slattery

@adira.bsky.social

mmos are good because sometimes a patch will add a new vaguely annoying emote and then everyone will get into a line and do it in a major city

/shakedrink