Mina McJanda (she/they)
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minahoneybat.bsky.social
Mina McJanda (she/they)
@minahoneybat.bsky.social
430 followers 85 following 120 posts
Layout artist, graphic designer, RPG writer, fan of communities and evolution, human person. You might have seen my work in SPIRE, HEART, LANCER or VOIDHEART SYMPHONY~
Want your game made beautiful? Get in touch!
36 | wlw | trans
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minahoneybat.bsky.social
(though I'm also very fond of Urban Horror's "I can't believe it's not nWoD")
October 13, 2025 at 5:16 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
Most recently, I've been designing masks – the facets of reality you wrap yourself up in to protect your core truths from exposure to other realms. Kinda like warframes, if a warframe was a diving suit you wore to go dimension-hopping? Anyway, it's real fun to design reality-warping powers for them
The Hydrologic mask that lets you create precipitation with Cloud, provide mighty strength with River, and become freezing and massive with Iceberg. The Volcanic mask that lets you surge upwards with Flame, scorch everything around you with Lava, and reflect back attacks and inquiries with Obsidian.
May 6, 2025 at 3:49 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
It's particularly been fun working with the flexibility of the baker's Otherkind Dice system (lumpley.games/2022/03/14/o...) – Psi*Run is one of my all-time favorite games and I'm having a good time welding it to the Resistance System to allow for longer campaign play.
The core rolling mechanics of the game, demonstrating roll steps and some of the possible outcomes available to you. There's a lot of text here so I'm just gonna put down a sharing link: https://tinyurl.com/darkstarrolls
May 6, 2025 at 3:49 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
Turns out it's real hard to stop having ideas once you start! I'm now 80+ pages deep into layout and having a great time.
The intro to the mask section of the book, showing a star-filled mask on a colorful psychedelic background. Text reads: MASKS. The death of the old world has made reality a valuable commodity. Nowhere is that clearer than with masks. These relics are pure, portable, and powerful – a rule of reality in the palm of your hand. Most domains won't use them, preferring instead to relinquish the power and responsibility to autonomous guardians. After all, mask-wielders must be on call to fight the domain's enemies, push beyond its borders, and use their powers with responsibility. Frankly, most domains don't trust their people with the responsibility. Those that choose the path of the mask, however, become a force to be reckoned with – a shard of reality wielded by an intelligent and passionate mind. Let's see what you do with yours. Mask Traits Your domain will have one mask per exile, each mask ready to be worn by any of you when you embark on a delve. When you're wearing a mask, you gain: Its phases: You can invest essence in Heft, Flow, and Haze, and use that phase's power when you're rolling with that pool. Core Mechanic: Each mask has a unique passive ability changing how you use and invest essence. Advances: Hit beats while wearing a mask to unlock boosts for all future users – training in skills and colours, and improvements to its powers. Sovereignty: With a mask, you can break a realm's laws at will (though there are still consequences). A Fault: When masks break reality, you don't always get to control how it happens. Each mask on a delve adds a fault to the pool the GM can pick from. Potential Laws: Laws and masks go hand in hand. When you gain a mask, you must also pick one of its laws to be enshrined and followed in your domain.
May 6, 2025 at 3:49 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
I'm having a lot of fun with this, no idea how long it'll be until I get something playable. For the moment I'm just enjoying finding out how many different things I can do with a book's spreads...
April 9, 2025 at 10:16 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
These concepts are Masks, Darkstar's main source of power. Maybe you unearth forgotten lore as the Talekeeper, talk to machines as the Wirerunner, or coordinate allies as the Colony Queen. Every one of your domain's masks can be worn by any PC, though each imposes its own laws on your realm.
April 9, 2025 at 10:16 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
In a strange place where the Voidheart Symphony campaign has finished but my producer's away and thus cannot tell me what needs working on.

To cope I've returned to DARKSTAR ANTHEM, the existential roadtrip game I start five years ago – kinda HOMEWORLD meets WARFRAME meets GET IN THE CAR, LOSER
Art showing a glitching blob over a black void. Text over the art reads: Darkstar Anthem – An interdimensional road trip after the end of everything.
April 9, 2025 at 10:16 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
Also, it's 19 hours to go!!!! Get on this game now if you want a thoughtful, cool, extremely fun game of psychic revolution and community organization. Or if you think I might be biased, see what my colleagues had to say:
A screenshot of the Rowan, Rook and Decard email sent out to our followers, reading: REASONS TO BACK VOIDHEART SYMPHONY THERE’S NOTHING LIKE IT There are lots of games that contemplate revolution. Most of them are not as good as Voidheart is at considering what it looks like to succeed. The way players will see rebels’ victories reflected in the real world as they force back the power of the castle, inch by inch, is a rush. PROPERLY CLEVER DESIGN Mina doesn’t spend enough time talking about how bloody clever this game is. The joined - and opposed - real World and unreal Void - pitch you through stories of overblown combat, allegorical exploration and genuine worries over paying the rent. In Voidheart Symphony, you’re telling stories about revolution and resistance, but you’re also moving fast, infiltrating nightmares, and changing what’s wrong with the real world in really tangible ways. REAL PRETTY BOOK Making gorgeous books is kind of our thing at Rowan, Rook, and Decard. You remember Eat the Reich, right? Kissable vampires and neon pink cover art? Do you not want another book designed with that kind of sensibility? We’ve got holo foiling and a bunch of other tricks up our sleeves to make this sparkle. Maybe literally. And an actual in-world zine you can hide around your players’ homes. AN INDUSTRY VETERAN’S BEST GAME (SO FAR) Mina’s won awards for her game design as well as her graphic design. This is the product of ten years of thinking, creating, and being really quite angry about several things and you need it.
April 2, 2025 at 8:16 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
Happy Trans Day of Visibility! It’s been seven years now that I’ve been an out trans woman, and a decade since I became a full-time TTRPG person - hard to say which changed my life more lmao

Much love to all my trans siblings out there - you’re beautiful and I’m proud of you all💖
March 31, 2025 at 4:43 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
There's a reason the book's credits look like this!
The front of the book, showing the name 'Minærva McJanda'. The internal credits of the book, showing the writer and layout artist as 'Mina x Minerva McJanda'.
March 9, 2025 at 1:34 AM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
We'll likely hold off on officially updating stretch goals until my UK-side comrades have a good night's sleep, but personally? I'm very excited to get to £50k so that I can talk more about my ideas for a new playbook:
A graphic spray-painted onto tarmac, showing a red head and a blue head overlapping to form a purple region in both. Stencil text next to the graphic reads 'The Union'
March 7, 2025 at 7:42 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
I'm extremely happy to report that it only took us six hours to raise the same amount Voidheart 1e pulled in over its entire campaign! Thanks so much to everyone who's already taken a chance on the new campaign, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the next 4 weeks goes
March 6, 2025 at 10:36 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
Then there’s your big guns: your Shadow Moves. These can change the course of a fight and break reality in your favour, but with each use the void seeps deeper into your soul. You start with one, and getting each new one is a big deal.
(You can also access them in the city, but it’s much riskier.)
A section from the book, giving the Harlequin's shadow moves. They are: Made You Look. When you make yourself the centre of attention, mark void to pick one: The enemy reveals a hidden weakness, The enemy ignores your allies, Your allies have fleeting Advantage making use of this, though the enemy will act against you. Tears of a Clown. When you put on a pantomime of emotion, mark void to overcome an enemy with the emotion you were performing. Each rebel gets fleeting Advantage taking advantage of it. I Was Never Here. When you successfully Dodge, mark void to leave a duplicate in your place to distract the enemy. Mark Void again to blow it up (stun, close). And Next You'll Say... When you tell an opponent what they’ll do next, mark void to make them pick: do exactly what you predicted, or stumble, hesitate or flinch. If they do what you predicted, say how you planned for this and get fleeting Advantage on Strike.
March 4, 2025 at 10:15 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
No matter what you pick, you'll have three crucial tools available to you: your Core Moves. You'll have a question you can always ask the Architect about people in the scene, a special magic you can evoke in the city, and a way you can help the other rebels rest during a delve.
A rebel showing their skills in the city and in the castle: in the city they surveil their target with long-range cameras, in the castle they use those same cameras to blast their enemies with light.
March 4, 2025 at 10:15 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
First, there’s character details. Playbooks suggest Particulars (your look in the city), Castle Form (how you shift in the castle), and your Role in society: a Provider in their 20s might be a medic or TA, an Icon might be an athlete or streamer. They're suggestions but help you hit the right notes.
A pile of tarot cards, all with photography of modern people as their art.
March 4, 2025 at 10:15 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
Like most Powered by the Apocalypse games, you make your character by picking a playbook. Each one is a particular approach to your revolution: the Authority offers leadership and advice, the Provider bandages the wounds caused by capitalism, the Captive wants to return to their stolen life.
The list of playbooks from the book, summarized below: The Authority pushes back the castle with their own kingdom. They might be a leader, mentor, or gang boss. In the castle, they guide and inspire their allies, or dictate the actions of their foes. The Captive’s body is imprisoned, dead, or lost, but their mind’s trapped in the void. They walk the castle’s halls, haunt the city, and look for a way back to real life. The Harlequin might be keeping morale up, or maybe a revolution without dancing is no revolution at all. In the city, they’re a class clown, slacker, or artist; in the castle they clown on foes and keep allies upbeat. The Heretic rebels by forging their own path in life. They might be a class troublemaker, political agitator, or grifter. In the castle, they misdirect foes, find hidden paths, and avenge their friends. The Icon is adored by society as a top athlete, model, or celebrity, but that’s its own set of chains. In the castle they’re impossibly perfect, invulnerable to flaws, or audaciously charming. The Inhuman was an animal, a ghost, a castle minion, but now they’re leading a human life. In the castle they can blend in with its minions, gain insights into vassal’s mind, and use mystical powers. The Penitent was an active agent of the castle, but now they’ve joined the rebels. Can they wield the power it gave them without tainting the rebel’s cause, and make amends for the suffering they inflicted? The Provider does what they can to keep their loved ones safe. In the city, they’re a parent, volunteer, or carer. In the castle, they heal their companions, keep the group together, and shape the raw void into allies. <This one is redacted in the image, but you get to know that it's called The Union and it's about plurality and selfhood!> The Watcher sees signs of the castle everywhere. They have keen insight and a hunger to know more – useful in their daily life as an academic, or investigator, and great for navigating and surviving the castle.
March 4, 2025 at 10:15 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
Only 32 hours until the Voidheart Symphony campaign launches! Today I’m gonna talk about the people you’ll be playing – the rebels.
March 4, 2025 at 10:15 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
But it won't kill you, and eventually the heat will die down. If you kept a lid on your personal crises, this is your opportunity to give your rebel a moment of peace and happiness, and go into the next investigation better off for it. If you didn’t, those crises turn into long-term consequences.
Two men embrace at a nightclub. The eyes of the man facing the camera have been hidden by a splash of magenta paint.
March 3, 2025 at 7:35 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
I've described the investigation before, so let's skip to your victory.
First, the vassal’s ruined as the castle withdraws its protection.
Second, you steal their power back. Send it into the world to heal your city or give the vassal a conscience, or trade it to the void for transformative power
A yin-yang diagram in blue and purple. The blue side is labelled The World: Everything that exists, your context, your city, your people. The purple side is labelled The Void: All That’s Impossible, Dreams, Nightmares, and Stranger Things beside. Text on the World side gives two options: Reformation: Give the vassal a newfound conscience and let them take the brunt of the castle’s reprisals. Liberation: Push the castle away from your city and build a new world. Text on the Void side gives three options: Redefinition: Change who and what you are. Expropriation: Extract material benefits from your victory. Occupation: Risk your soul to infiltrate the castle’s heirarchy.
March 3, 2025 at 7:35 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
From here, there’s a rhythm to play:
1. Decide how your new target's hurting people & how your mundane life is under threat
2. Investigate while keeping your life stable
3. Win and use magic to change the city; lose and the vassal does the same
4. Rest and wait for the next bastard to come along
Four icons arranged in a circle, linked by clockwise arrows. Starting at the top and moving clockwise, they are: Setup, a photo of hazy figures pinned to a wall with a knife. Action, a calendar with some days crossed off and a skull on the last day. Endgame, a protestor throwing a molotov cocktail at a werewolf. Aftermath, a sun rising.
March 3, 2025 at 7:35 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
I was going to write more design threads over the weekend, but then I remembered: Voidheart has a lot to say about taking care of yourself when you're making something sustainable.
So! It’s now THREE DAYS until the Backerkit campaign launches - let's talk Voidheart campaigns.
#ttrpg #Voidheart
Three rebels haloed in a glowing aura sit on a rooftop looking over the city: a woman haloed in purple looks at a laptop, an athlete haloed in yellow dangles their feet over the edge, a cat haloed in blue takes a comfortable perch.
March 3, 2025 at 7:35 PM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
Or maybe that was the last quality, and this was your final fight. As the avatar falls and the shard crumbles away, how do you use this power to heal the world? And how will the castle respond? Find out tomorrow!

(And as always, follow the project at www.backerkit.com/c/projects/r...)
A multicoloured sunrise lights up a city.
March 1, 2025 at 12:11 AM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
You can hurt them back with the Strike move – your chance to cash in an Opening and break a Quality. This is where your signature weapon comes in: you compare its perks and flaws to the demands of an Opening to see how easy it is to hit Strike's trigger – and the stat you'll need to invoke to do so.
The Strike move, text as follows: When you exploit an Opening with... …stealth and guile, invoke Wands. …precise insight, invoke Coins. …direct force, invoke Swords. …arguments and emotional appeals, invoke Cups. On any hit, you remove the Opening and break one of the foe’s Qualities. If you break its final Quality, it’s defeated and no longer a threat. Otherwise, the Architect will trigger that Quality’s Break Move, and on a 7-9 also pick 1: They lash out, and you mark a condition. They single you out, and get an Opening on you. They reshape the arena, introducing a new threat.
March 1, 2025 at 12:11 AM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
Breaking a Quality narrows an enemy’s options, breaking every Quality defeats them, but your enemies won't sit there and let you kill them. To strike away a Quality, you’ll first need to find an Opening your attack can exploit. There’s two main ways to do that: identify a weak spot, or make one.
Two core moves from the book. They are: Line It Up: When you watch or test an enemy to find a weak spot, invoke Coins. On a hit, you find an Opening. Say where it’s coming from – the environment, a chink in their armour, a flaw in their fighting style, something else. On a 7-9, pick 2; on a 10+, pick 1: The foe sends an attack your way. The Opening only lasts a few moments. The foe sees you; get fleeting Disadvantage on Strike. Pressure: When you apply pressure to a foe and force their attention onto you, invoke Swords. No matter what, they’ll retaliate – they get an Opening on you. On a 7-9 pick 1; on a 10+ pick 2: They’re thrown off-balance, and you get an Opening on them. You pin them in place, preventing them from moving. You give an ally a window to act freely.
March 1, 2025 at 12:11 AM
minahoneybat.bsky.social
Your enemies are built out of Qualities: discrete strengths they bring to the fight. Minions have 1; enforcers have 3; the avatar starts with 4+, but loses one with each dead enforcer.
Qualities do three things: they shape the fiction, provide unique reactions, and change the arena when they break.
The three Qualities of The Untamed Fire, a roiling engine of steel and chains. They are: ETERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE: A roiling, screaming, chaotic explosion in the centre of the creature. Reactions: Open a vent to unleash a gout of flames; Raise the arena’s temperature to a sweltering heat. Break: The fire rages out of control, and the detonations tear chunks out the floor of the arena. STEEL CLAWS: Twisted, juddering, red-hot forelimbs of steel and hate. Reactions: Shred through a rebel; Leave ragged, molten rents across the arena. Break: The creature howls and shifts into a bipedal giant. SPIKED TAIL: A bundle of chains and pistons that can fling hissing shards of iron across the arena. Reactions: Fire a fusillade of iron shards; Lash out at a rebel behind the Untamed Fire. Break: The tail spasms wildly and lashes around of its own accord.
March 1, 2025 at 12:11 AM