The Marsupialmancer
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themarsupialmancer.bsky.social
The Marsupialmancer
@themarsupialmancer.bsky.social
Some random yahoo who likes TTRPGs and wombats.
Sure, I'll play.

Introduce in five #ttrpg classes (or their equivalent):
Warlord (D&D 4E)
Glass Walker Philodox (Werewolf: The Apocalypse)
Ranger (AD&D 2E)
Warrior->Fighter->Conqueror (Shadow of the Demon Lord)
Guardian/Commander (Fabula Ultima)
introduce in five #ttrpg classes
Mage (AD&D 2E)
High Mage (Worlds Without Number)
Warcaster (Iron Kingdoms)
Order of Hermes (Mage: the Ascension)
Techie (Cyberpunk 2020)
introduce yourself in five #ttrpg classes

- Clan Tzimisce (Vampire: The Masquerade)
- Bone Gnawer (Werewolf: The Apocalypse)
- Shunned Nanomancer (CY_BORG)
- The Infernal (Monsterhearts)
- Masked Horrorist (Electric Bastionland)
December 4, 2025 at 4:41 AM
It is 2:38 AM. I have been playing Rimworld for 12 hours.

What have I done. Why did I buy this? I knew it was going to do this to me.
November 27, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Reposted by The Marsupialmancer
Spent the last two weeks working on this, missing deadlines and not answering messages---but this thing was in my mind like a psychic worm; I just had to get it out, you know?

Process notes and extra thoughts here: slowlorispress.com/post/8005714...

2/
CHAPTER SERF
CHAPTER SERF is a tabletop roleplaying game and adventure, set in Warhammer 40K, where you play those hooded peasant weirdos you sometimes spot in the backgrounds of the art. Full PDF downloadable...
slowlorispress.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by The Marsupialmancer
What can you infer about OD&D if you ignore its actual influences?
coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2025/11/osr-...
OSR: Beyond the Western Desert (or OD&D with Appendix N-1)
The conceit of my current OD&D game is "OD&D without context". What weird mutant offshoot of the tree of RPG development will we create if...
coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by The Marsupialmancer
I decided it would be beneficial to collect my findings over the past few months with regard to AD&D towns & cities into one "master" post. I came up with a list of four themes that characterize these environments which the DM might keep in mind when running adventures there:
The Implied Setting of AD&D Towns & Cities: Four Themes
This is a topic I've been dancing around a lot for the past few months. As my observations have accumulated, I've begun to feel that it woul...
forlornencystment.blogspot.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Tonight, my 2nd Edition players returned to the lands of Sullene, where they'd previously defeated a juvenile white dragon. On the way back to their frontier settlement, they tracked down some kobolds they'd wanted to hire as stonemasons, then settled a labor dispute among their carpenters.
November 2, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Always on the rowing machine I have my design epiphanies.

And always by the time I finish the workout, the idea is gone.
October 27, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Reposted by The Marsupialmancer
My contribution to the proud tradition of trying to understand alignment languages. I discuss why speaking alignment languages in AD&D is socially taboo, how then they are meant to be used to identify creatures with a common ethos, & what this suggests about what alignment language actually is:
Alignment Languages are Socially Repulsive
In my last post on languages in AD&D , I teased that alignment languages were a topic worthy of their own post. Was I right? Let's find out....
forlornencystment.blogspot.com
October 20, 2025 at 2:14 PM
You go back and read your old stuff and muse on chances not taken, or systems not as fleshed out as they could be. Ah well, it's for a system you don't play anymore.

What's this? Bad grammar or typo? Better do a full cover to cover revision and version update.
October 16, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Godbound is one of my favorite TTRPGs, and this is a good list.
New blog post for today; ten commandments of Godbound. I figured I talk about Godbound often enough I should make a blog post with some of my thoughts and advice for it.

aryxymaraki.blogspot.com/2025/10/ten-...
Ten Commandments for Godbound
I talk about Godbound a lot ( free version available here , and the deluxe version available here ; free version is complete and has everyt...
aryxymaraki.blogspot.com
October 10, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by The Marsupialmancer
My first system review, after a year's experience at the table!

Come gawk at my Big Complex Feelings™.

www.valerialoves.com/why-dont-i-h...
Why Don't I Hate Fabula Ultima?
Theoryslop shadowboxing an omnigender Italian
www.valerialoves.com
October 9, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Trying a new hobby to get in touch with my inner halfling.
October 3, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Come for the gamethinks, stay for asides that make you hungry, like noodles and later, fresh guac.
I've been thinking a lot lately about the different ways and approaches that people - and here I mean players, designers, observers, armchair pundits and more - have towards character internalities in tabletop RPGs. whether and how to mechanize them.

This is a thread about Mara's Gamethinks.
September 20, 2025 at 4:45 PM
@aryxymaraki.itch.io is one of the most clever TTRPG game system minds I know and you should buy more of their products.
new release day! it's minimalist jam time

Godeaters of the Astral Sea is a supplement for WOIN or other scifi/fantasy game where you sail the astral sea searching for the husks of dead gods so you can steal their blood

aryxymaraki.itch.io/godeaters-of...
Godeaters of the Astral Sea by Aryxymaraki
a TTRPG supplement about harvesting the blood of dead gods
aryxymaraki.itch.io
September 18, 2025 at 12:33 AM
👁️
OMIOS URES IS OUT!

My classless, level-less RPG set in a weird fantasy world is available as Early Access, pay-what-you-like!

Get it HERE: matheusgraef.itch.io/omios-ures

Full overview of the system + extra images in the replies! Shares & reposts are super appreciated!
September 11, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Reposted by The Marsupialmancer
Redux of an old post of mine that was borderline unreadable, but which had a nugget of wisdom worth salvaging.

There are two totally different types of hexcrawl and nobody else seems to have pointed this out before.

knightattheopera.blogspot.com/2025/09/how-...
How Do You Handle the "Inside" of a Hex? (George Lucas Special Edition)
[Context for this post: this is a re-write of an old post of mine I wrote back in 2021. I wasn't happy with my explanation, and it's filled ...
knightattheopera.blogspot.com
September 7, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Weird dreams where Sir Attenborough was narrating my overseas trip and calling out all the dumb shit I did wrong, like not getting on the ferry right or failing to add something to a drink before slamming it back and offending my host.

I have no idea what country I was visiting in this dream.
September 1, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Rolled stats for the party's hired elf ranger/probable future henchelf.

Turns out they went to badass academy.
August 24, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Sixty six sessions of Worlds Without Number. A wild ride that keeps on delivering, and they've barely scratched faction gameplay and what Legate Writs can do yet.
August 3, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Reposted by The Marsupialmancer
Just heading out to do some errands before today's mapstream...

So I thought I'd drop what I was drawing this morning. This is a redraw of a piece I did as part of my "drawing a day" series back in 2017.

My personal OSR.
July 21, 2025 at 3:55 PM
1. First TTRPG played - AD&D 2nd Edition
2. First ran - AD&D 2nd Edition
3. Played Most - D&D 5th
4. Run Most - D&D 3.X
5. Favorite - Rules Cyclopedia D&D
6. Most recently played - D&D 5th
7. Most recently run - Worlds Without Number
1. First TTRPG ever played-AD&D 2E
2. First ran-2E
3. Played most-D&D 3.X
4. Run most-D&D 3.X
5. Favorite-No favorite (but Godbound)
6. Most recently played-Worlds Without Number (about two Workings away from making @themarsupialmancer.bsky.social run Godbound)
7. Most recent run-AFN solo playtest
1. First #TTRPG you ever played - D&D 4e
2. First you ever ran - D&D 4e
3. Played the most - D&D 5e
4. Run the most - Era of Silence
5. Favourite - Savage Worlds
6. Most recently played - Band of Blades
7. Most recently run - Era of Silence
July 19, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by The Marsupialmancer
I am participating in a ttrpg blog bandwagon about holes organized by @prismaticwasteland.com

it's a quick little post about systemic holes; a hole is a thing you trip over when the game tells you to go somewhere but there's nothing there

aryxymaraki.blogspot.com/2025/07/hole...
Holes of the Systemic Variety
From the widest gully to the deepest trench, holes define who we are and where we are going.  And although Rover here may not know it, he is...
aryxymaraki.blogspot.com
July 16, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by The Marsupialmancer
🧿 #BlueskyCoven

:: The Thrice-Scarred Soul guards his name well, lest the dire entities from Outside, with which he consorts, learn it and sunder his summoning circle.

You visit him in his outer chancel, a basement room with a cement-slab floor under East Atlanta Village. ::

1/
July 16, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by The Marsupialmancer
As one illustration of just how sloppy and chaotic today's mass Xbox layoff has been, some employees at Zenimax Online Studios are now watching their Slack accounts abruptly get locked out. No message from HR, no word on whether they still have a job, just an ominous Slack deactivation
July 2, 2025 at 3:43 PM
The sun is down and it is still just a touch over 100 degrees.

In other news, I feel like writing about the elemental plane of fire.
June 25, 2025 at 12:36 AM