This is published in response to recent posts by Throne of Salt, A Most Majestic Fly Whisk and The Furtive Goblin's Burrow. Unlike those posts, this is not a collection of fictional books, but is instead a silly short story about an imaginary novelist that I wrote many years ago. Gameable content is low in this one, so I'll draw a line right now for those casually browsing.
The entities of The Beyond are infinitely varied, but draw on the traditionally nightmarish: eldritch horrors, demonic beings, tentacled monstrosities, horrifically assembled flesh golems, spectral maidens with bleeding eye sockets, faceless statues, the greys…
THE UPSIDE-DOWN:
Make it weird by turning the lights out and switching to Cthulhu Dark...
This is a write-up of a solo run-through of what is actually a game for two players! Our Big Show of Worth is a micro game by Vian Nguyen available for purchase from the following link:
https://jubnuggets.itch.io/big-show-of-worth
An unknown deity challenges the existence of the world you call home.
It’s up to you, the most acclaimed theater group of your town to represent the worth of your existence through your dramatic performance.
UPDATED 10th July for greater clarity, thanks to feedback from Dan of Thrown of Salt
You might be familiar with the Lego analogy used for the design of roleplaying games.
 |
| Designers do some subtly disturbing shit with LEGO |
if you buy a lego set that has a castle on the front of the box and use the lego inside to build a spaceship are you playing lego "wrong?" are you told "no, idiot, you should have bought the spaceship lego, instead!"interesting interesting
Earlier in the week I posted a play report of a PARIAH mini-game-within-a-game I finally got to the table, Mutagenic Hive Swarm. Players take on the role of pariahs undergoing an intense and terrifying psychedelic experience: re-manifesting inside a bio-mechanical reptilian hive swarm ship in another dimension... as bugs.
I've put a first draft of the "zini" edition up on itch.io. They'll be a few more updates, with the ultimate goal of this transforming into a zine-length mini-setting/adventure/sandbox.
 |
| MUTAGENIC HIVE SWARM: OUT[BREAK OF HIVES] NOW! |
…totus mundus agit histrionem
- Petronius
Sometimes it takes a while for me to catch on, and so it was with Hamlet: a One Letter RPG by W.H. Arthur. Regular readers may recall my interview with Arthur back in 2021, but if not please follow the link or have a glance over his itch.io page: he has built up an excellent catalogue of games and material during the two years that have passed since he kindly agreed to be interviewed.
 |
| Screenshot: a business card RPG, Hamlet |
This is a play report of a PARIAH sub-game that takes place in the Hive Swarm aspect of The Beyond
However, in truth it is my homage to the now-nerfed forces of Hive Fleet Kraken and my brief, intense love affair with them back in 1998. I miss you x
 |
| Prayer to GW: please don't sue me for using this image, nor what you are about to read... |
From Sketches for My Sweetheart, The Beyond:
Wisewomen speak of the chaotic immediacy of Dawn in contrast with the rarefied reptilian intelligence of Dusk: within the Beyond, these two realms have conflated.
The plague swarm is a complex, technologically advanced culture of monstrous insectoid reptiles driven by the insatiable hunger of Dawn to replenish and reproduce. Biomechanical monsters driven by the desire to assimilate all life and reform it in their own image
The civilisation spans millions of worlds and represents the amalgamation of trillions upon trillions of species, dreaming of a reality in which no single element exists outside of their domain, working in unison towards their goal of multiversal omni immortality