aryxymaraki
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aryxymaraki
@aryxymaraki.itch.io
330 followers 130 following 3.4K posts
He/they. Freelance writer and game designer. Work on DM's Guild, DTRPG, itch.io. harpooncannonpublishing [at] gmail.
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aryxymaraki.itch.io
I went with the tofu block as an enemy in my game instead of the gelatinous cube
TOFU BLOCK (LEVEL X) Wounds 6, Vitality 4X Armor X Combat Skill +X, Magic Skill +0 Toughness, Quickness, Mind: One at +X, one at +(X-1), one at +0 Attack Techniques (X AP total): Attack* (X-1 AP): 1d20+X to hit, 1d6+X damage. Add (X-1) in any combination to attack and damage. Defense Techniques (X DP total): Defend (1 DP): Make a Combat Test. On a success, reduce damage by X.
December 2, 2025 at 8:44 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
Picture of Tim Curry looking up as he prepares to escape to the only place that has not been corrupted by capitalism: SPACE!
November 30, 2025 at 7:53 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
yeah, "objective consensus" is the phrase I have in my notes. the idea that reality is real, and objective facts do exist, but within the bounds of reality we get to work together to define what actually happens.
Your job is to defend the concept of reality as an objective consensus; the idea that effect follows cause and facts can be known and results predicted, but we work together to define what things are and how they work. You defend this against the forces of uncreation that want to tear down our reality and make everything subjective and able to be redefined at any moment subject to the whim of whoever is strongest at the moment. And you do this by redefining reality to your whim because you're the strongest at the moment. It's a tightrope to walk.
November 26, 2025 at 6:04 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
the new spellcasting focus for Six HP Dungeon comes with art included
RUNE Weight: 1 2-Handed Spellcasting Focus Tier: 1 One of the thirty True Runes of Creation. You have learned how to call on its power. RUNE TRAIT: You must spend a Combat Action to draw your Rune before using a technique from it. You can draw your Rune on an item or a surface. Your Rune is consumed when you use a technique, and you can only have one Rune drawn at a time. You must have two free hands to draw your Rune, but require no free hands to use a technique from it. RUNE SPELL – ROOTS OF LANGUAGE: All lettering is derived from the runes of creation. You can read all writing as if you spoke the language. Focus Element Techniques Be Rune Fire Evoke Fire, Invoke Flame, Recall Fire, Extract Ice Ci Rune Lightning Light Flash, Light Ray (Ranged), Illude Thunder, Incandescent Flare Da Rune - Throw Rock (Ranged), Move Fire, Falling Ice, Shove (Melee) Fu Rune Death Foresee Harm, View Death, Predict Lightning, Portent of Flame Ga Rune Acid Dissipate, Scatter Blood, Sunder Bone, Melt Face He Rune Death Obliterate (Melee), Extinguish (Ranged), Terminate (Same), Kill Je Rune Ice Ice Shield (Defense), Ice Wall (Defense), Ice Spike, Ice Wave (Melee) Ko Rune Ice Crystal Prison, Frost Nova (Melee), Stop (Physical), Cease (Death) Lu Rune - Can cast Heal Symbol spell. Regenerate (Defense), Plague Growths. Ma Rune Thunder Thunder Punch (Melee), Lightning Kick (Ranged), Fire Dance, Wind Breath (Physical, Same) A picture of each rune, labeled, is below the text.
November 26, 2025 at 12:59 AM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
This year is the first one I've had solo games on itch, so I submitted All Systems Go for this year's bundle.
A member of the Mobile Infantry from Starship Troopers looks directly at the camera and says "I'm doing my part!"
November 25, 2025 at 4:48 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
this would be a variant of six hp dungeon, aka "everything has six hit points"

eventually, someone's gonna roll a 6
When you make an attack with your Attack Action, choose a weapon, a technique, and a target. Your target will be a specific monster, such as Goblin, Knight, Goblin Berserker, or Goblin Warmonger. If anyone has ever used this weapon + technique combination against this type of monster, your attack deals damage equal to your attack’s Power. If this is the first time this weapon + technique combination has been used by anyone against this type of monster, roll 1d6; the result is the attack’s Power against this target. This roll result is a permanent result and applies to all characters for the lifetime of this dungeon (until The Dragon is slain). You will want to record the result.
November 25, 2025 at 4:20 AM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
this would go great as a more personal focus for Godeaters of the Astral Sea

it's already got a whaling town (Wet Camp Town) and astral leviathans to hunt
Astral leviathans Astral leviathans are enormous space-whales. Some are more ancient than civilizations. They don’t feed on ordinary food; rather , they feed on concepts. Roll (1d8) Concept 1 Obsession 2 Love 3 Justice 4 Wisdom 5 Faith 6 Sorrow 7 Apathy 8 Greed An astral leviathan may manipulate events to try to generate its preferred concept to feed on. If you can offer it a source of its preferred concept, it may be willing to offer assistance in exchange.
November 24, 2025 at 4:04 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
for common (everyone has one if they want one) staves I like the WOIN mechanic, which is basically just that spellcasting implements give you a pool of additional MP. staves, being the largest and most powerful, give you the most additional MP.

for magic staves this is what I did in AFN
Magister’s Staff – This quarterstaff is an iconic image of a powerful thaumaturge. A magister’s staff contains one or more spells from a single tradition and an amount of MP. A character with Magic Skill +3 or greater who casts spells of the same tradition as the staff can attune themselves to the staff during a rest. A character can be attuned to only one staff at a time. A character who is attuned to the staff can use it to cast the stored spells. It costs the normal amount of MP to cast the spells (by spell description), including any effects to Amplify, Invest, Sustain, etc. MP stored in the staff can be spent on the spells, but not invested. The attuned character can spend or invest their own MP as well. The staff does not recover MP normally, but regains all its MP when you rest. A magister’s staff has a base MP of 10. For each Apprentice spell stored in the staff, subtract 1 MP; for each Initiate spell stored, subtract 3 MP; and for each Adept spell stored, subtract 5 MP. A magister’s staff cannot be created if its stored spells would reduce this MP value below 0.
November 11, 2025 at 1:08 AM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
jfc is that actually how many words they were asking for

because this is the current draft of Against the Fall of Night, a 90-95% text-complete whole-ass game
Screenshot of the bottom left corner of MS Word. Page: 112 of 118 Words: 49,258
November 6, 2025 at 9:43 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
unrelated but we love a hyperregenerative troll
TROLL (LEVEL 5, LARGE) Wounds 20, Vitality 8 Armor 5 Combat Skill +5, Magic Skill +0 Toughness +5, Quickness +2, Mind +1 Attack Techniques (5 AP total): Bite* (2 AP): The troll chomps with a mighty bite. 1d20+5 to hit, 1d10+7 damage. Claw (1 AP): The troll lashes out with a claw. The troll can use this attack technique up to twice on their turn. 1d20+5 to hit, 1d6+5 damage. Defense Techniques (5 DP total): Instant Regeneration (2 DP): The troll regenerates around the wound. The attack’s damage is reduced by 1d6. In addition, make a Toughness test. On a success, an attacker using a weapon must make a Combat test; on a failure, the weapon is stuck in the troll and must be recovered when the troll is helpless. If the troll’s Regeneration trait is disabled, this technique instead only reduces damage by 1d4 and has no chance to grab the weapon (see Elemental Vulnerability). Passive Traits Regeneration: The troll rapidly regenerates injury. At the end of each round, it regains 2 Wound and all Vitality. A troll cannot suffer a Severe Injury or die due to Wound damage while this trait is active. Elemental Vulnerability: If the troll takes fire or acid damage, it loses its Regeneration trait this round. If the troll has zero Wound or is reduced to zero Wound by fire or acid damage, it immediately dies. Sunlight Vulnerability: If the troll is in direct sunlight at dawn, noon, or sunset, it immediately is turned to stone. (This may make it difficult to recover any weapons caught in it through Instant Regeneration.)
November 6, 2025 at 4:55 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
yeah they were just 'what happens beyond zero hp' tables. despite the gore, they were actually more merciful than D&D of the time, which was instant death at zero hp!

attached is just a table that you might enjoy reading and that the post made me think about, from the most ridiculous game i know
A screenshot of the Explosive critical effects from a game that is somehow called Dungeons: the Dragoning 40k 7th Edition. Results range from 'the target drops what they are holding' to 'the target's chest explodes outwards with such force that not only do their organs go flying, but any explosives they're carrying detonate'
October 19, 2025 at 12:17 AM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
with the release of the mecha stock art pack I can go back and do the finishing touches on All Systems Go, the solo mecha RPG where you can feed your damaged components into a black hole for displeasing you
AT Captive Black Hole. Whenever you roll on the Component Damage table, you can choose to replace the result with “Component fed into black hole. Continue to perform the Startup Step as normal, but you gain no benefit from this Component for the rest of the Campaign. This Component can’t be damaged again.” Priority: First. Startup Step: “Throw the active relativistic jet into the accretion disk.”
October 18, 2025 at 10:55 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
Against the Fall of Night inches closer to v0.6 as I have finished updating Heroes Rise, the intro adventure, to better align with the current game structuring

also I am still pleased by the taunt table I included in the original version for the villain to taunt the heroes with
Dialogue Table: Ephialte likes to taunt their enemies. Up to once each round, as desired, you may roll on the Dialogue Table, below, to see what Ephialte says. (You may want to reroll if Ephialte has already used that taunt. Or maybe they just repeat themselves.) ROLL (1D8) TAUNT 1 Only Night is eternal! 2 Darkness will consume you; darkness unending. 3 Only sunset, and already there are no true heroes left. 4 Your world will never see another Dawn. 5 Your life is only the first thing we will take from you. 6 Light is a poison. Embrace darkness and know your true form! 7 We were like you, once. It is not too late to welcome the Night. 8 We will exult in your fall!
October 15, 2025 at 12:22 AM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
Frog from Chrono Trigger, standing ready
October 10, 2025 at 2:46 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
I have notes about a Mage retroclone kicking around

I think a lot of it isn't just the sprawl, but the fact that WoD in a lot of ways is about the philosophy and exploration of thought in ways that are deeply unpopular in gaming right now
Your job is to defend the concept of reality as an objective consensus; the idea that effect follows cause and facts can be known and results predicted, but we work together to define what things are and how they work. You defend this against the forces of uncreation that want to tear down our reality and make everything subjective and able to be redefined at any moment subject to the whim of whoever is strongest at the moment. And you do this by redefining reality to your whim because you're the strongest at the moment. It's a tightrope to walk.
October 6, 2025 at 2:39 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
my crew mutinied when I asked them that
Screenshot of a discord message. I am quoted saying "Someone stop me from writing a wargame". The person responding says "Aryx, as your friend of 10+ years, I would never stop you from doing that."
September 26, 2025 at 3:51 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
I have a rule very much like that in AFN, which if I recall correctly was inspired by Dungeons: the Dragoning for me rather than 13th age

(I built each level for each class out of 5 things, and leveling costs 5 xp, so why not include the option to have 1 XP = 1 thing directly)
OPTIONAL: PIECEMEAL LEVELING Instead of gaining a level all at once when you gain 5 XP, you can instead gain one part of a level each time you gain one XP. Most of the time, a class gains five elements at each level. An element is either +1 to a stat, your level-based Vitality increase, or a class feature. When using piecemeal leveling, each time you gain 1 XP, pick one element of the next level of your class. (For example, if you’re 2nd level, then for each XP you gain, you can gain one element from the 3rd-level line of your class chart). Once you’ve gained all five XP, your level goes up, you get any associated skill increases, and you can start buying elements from the next level down. Sometimes an element might contain more than one presented element on the class table, making it appear that your class has more than five elements. When your Magic Skill reaches +1, you automatically gain the Magical Tradition feature. When your Magic Skill reaches +3, you automatically learn a spell, and again when your Magic Skill reaches +5. These elements are built into Magic Skill (because you don’t add your Magic Skill to spell damage innately like you do with Combat Skill and weapon damage, and learning extra things for free helps balance that out). Similarly, some traits of the ironsoul and berserker classes are free, and do not count as an element; because they include tradeoffs that pay for them.
September 21, 2025 at 7:31 PM
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A gun with an integral blade-barrel.
September 19, 2025 at 6:16 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
we enjoy a good search results table

this is what you roll on when you search the Border Material, the place furthest from the Astral Sea itself, where dead gods lie rotting for eons unknown before godeaters show up to loot their precious godsblood; you might get to roll up to three times in a day
Search Results Table (Border Material) (Travel 5) Roll (2d6) Encounter 2 Celestial tides 3 Stellar wind 4 Blazing starlight 5 Astral leviathans (beached) 6 Supernal mountaintops 7 Sidereal shifters 8 Plutonian glaciers 9 Husk (Aged, Prolonged) 10 Husk (Ancient, Prolonged) 11 Husk (Ancient, Endless) 12 Husk (Antediluvian, Endless)
September 15, 2025 at 2:05 AM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
putting words down in godeaters of the astral sea for the minimalist jam

fortunately, it's minimalist, words is all I need to do
The Hooks In the shining silver light of the astral sea, the gods swim and cavort. Their forms are as varied as their powers and temperaments, but all are enormous; the smallest of them is larger than a full-grown blue whale, and the largest are the size of entire worlds. Their dance casts rainbows across the waves that beat upon the inner planes. The sea is a bright place where life and light rule. But what happens when one of these gods dies? Their corpse washes down the astral rivers and into the astral tributaries, among the floating islands and beyond. You live on the floating islands on the edges of the astral sea, and salvage the dead gods to make a living. But it is not free from danger. As the gods decay, their body becomes more and more dangerous. You must survive the environmental dangers and avoid or defeat the monsters that grow or feed on their corpse; they are your competition for resources. There are many valuable resources that can be extracted, but none are so valuable as godsblood, the divine essence that fuels the economy of the floating astral islands, and no godsblood is so valuable as the crystalline godsblood that can be consumed to gain power. You are a godeater. You sail the borders of the Astral Sea, avoiding the reaching tendrils of the Material, looking for the husks of dead gods. You harvest the blood of dead gods for money, equipment, and power. Your equipment is an eclectic hodgepodge of times and places, all put together by the ambient astral power and the blood of the gods. One of your crew members might be wearing full plate and carrying a laser sword, while another has high-tech forcefield wristbands and a pickaxe. Depending on your particular crew, you might end up with a vibe anywhere like “Sherlock Holmes in plate”, “Cyberpunk Moby Dick”, “Victorian wizard-gentlemen with laser swords”, or a wide variety of other possibilities. The Astral Sea is a strange place where anything is possible. The general aesthetic…
September 5, 2025 at 5:41 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
I am certain that I don't know what this experience could be like (pic unrelated)
A picture of two knights touching halberds in front of a crown. HEXDIVERS Two bros out killing goblins, call that the Man-Date of Heaven
September 5, 2025 at 12:36 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
Homer and Mr. Burns stand on a snowy mountain next to a snowmobile that Mr. Burns has proposed they use to cheat in a race to the top of the mountain. (Which he set up himself as a team-building exercise for workers at the power plant. It's a whole thing.) Homer: "Wow. You sure know how to cheat, Mr. Burns." Mr. Burns: "Yes, well, I'm older than you."
September 4, 2025 at 5:58 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
Homer excitedly leaning the entire top half of his body out of his car window, mouth open. He's also driving. This is probably not a great idea but nothing bad is happening. Caption: "It must be the first Tuesday of the month. New TTRPG day!"
September 2, 2025 at 5:39 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
we have greataxes

now to take a break from this project to work on Godeaters of the Astral Sea for the Minimalist Jam 4

itch.io/jam/minimali...
GREATAXES Weight: 2 2-Handed Melee Weapon A heavy chopping weapon. Includes picks and other weapons that rely on heavy force. May have originally been designed to actually be useful. These ones require two hands to use. Greataxe Techniques: Heavy Chop Cleaving Strike Haft Punch High Cleave Sweeping Slash Weapon Tier Passive Dane Axe 1 When you deal overflow, you can change Combat Zone as no action. Panabas 1 1/combat, when you deal at least 4 overflow, make an additional attack. Greataxe 1 Advantage with Sweeping Slash. Yue 1 Advantage with Heavy Chop and Haft Punch. You can’t change Combat Zone. Mattock 1 Useful for digging through reinforced areas. Felling Axe 1 Advantage with Cleaving Strike. Foot Adze 1 1/round when Cleaving Strike deals overflow, gain 1 Ingredient. Shoka 1 Apply overflow from your Power 6 attacks to another monster in same zone. Tungi 1 Can use Broad Swing technique. Ono 1 1/rest, attack with High Cleave at start of combat as no action. Lumbering Ono 2 When you deal overflow, you have advantage on next technique. Heroic Yue 2 You and enemies in your zone can’t change Combat Zone. Deathstriker 2 After killing 99 enemies (at least 9 with each technique), upgrades to Deathstriker Reborn. Bloody Shoka 2 When you deal at least 3 overflow, you recover 1 HP. Drakewing Axe 2 If there are exactly two enemies in the zone you attack, you attack both. Runescribed Axe 2 Pick a spell from an implement you have unlocked and add it to this weapon. Truesteel Greataxe 2 All attacks are Power 3. Toppling Axe 2 1/round, when you deal at least 4 overflow, make an additional attack. Dhakkon Blackedge 2 When you Explore a room, choose a technique; it has advantage next attack. 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. Fosite Axe 3 When you deal overflow, increase the Power of all your techniques by 1 until end of combat (maximum 6). Titan’s Mattock 3 Weight 6. …
September 1, 2025 at 7:16 PM
aryxymaraki.itch.io
as a side effect of the adjective meaning 'a thing used for felling trees' being the same thing as a derivative of the word 'fellow', I have created a greataxe that's 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.
August 31, 2025 at 7:05 PM