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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE

@thehorizonmachine.bsky.social

140 followers 63 following 34 posts

a machine that prints tabletop roleplaying games | https://thehorizonmachine.itch.io/ | despatches from w.s. healed (she/her) | games by w.s. healed & associates

thehorizonmachine.itch.io

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · Sep 19

currently working on:

- Underside (traumatized capes struggling with identity, out as playtest!)

- PRAXI: Protocol Against Xenoimperialism (OSR-flavored guerilla communist xcom, in dev)

- ULTRADAMNATION: Indebted To The Gods of the Dark (chuunicore urban horror fantasy teenfeels, early dev)

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · 15h

whether that's a solid removal package or something like hashaton or kenessos in the command zone, it does wonders for keeping me engaged in games

w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · 15h

edh tip: if you're like me and have trouble paying attention to stuff that doesn't involve the most important and specialest person at the table (me) i can't recommend enough playing a deck with lots of instant-speed plays

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Reposted by w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE

Golgari Gal @golgarigalsplashes.bsky.social · 2d

My heart is like a claw machine
It’s only function is to reach
It can’t hold on to anything
No, I can’t hold on to anything

Buried Alive
{2}{B}
Sorcery
Search your library for up to three creature cards, put them into your graveyard, then shuffle.
The scrape of shovels and the tumble of cold dirt soon muffled their pleas.
Illustrated by Greg Staples

Altered with a trans flag in the background of the sky. The text box has been painted to look like pavement with chalk writing “there is still time”

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · 4d

white people trying to express their dislike for an inanimate object: okay imagine a racialized minority

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · 5d

i fucking love the duo cards. what an incredible way to emphasize that bloomburrow was about multiple factions coming together ahd finding common ground, literally printing cards featuring two different animal folk with mechanical effects bridging the common ground between those animals' mechanics

w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · 5d

it is generally very strange that you put out a piece of writing saying "here's a cool way of playing and designing games, that i'd like to see more of" and people's reaction was like "the despotic child-empress is enacting another kafkaesque decree upon us"

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · 7d

first look at my upcoming chuunicore ultraviolent teenfeelings ttrpg ULTRADAMNATION: INDEBTED TO THE GODS OF THE DARKNESS is up on my patreon:
www.patreon.com/posts/ultrad...

ULTRADAMNATION: INDEBTED TO THE GODS OF THE DARK -- a first look | rose quarter-drifting

www.patreon.com

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · 8d

people who think the badass antihero who looks cool is badass and cool are not in fact producing an illegitimate or unfounded reading of the work just because you disagree with it. Yes even if the antihero does a bunch of bad stuff and is really sad

Reposted by w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE

David J Prokopetz @prokopetz.bsky.social · 9d

See, the trick is that "the GM exists for the players' amusement, whose job is to ruin their plans for fun" and "the GM rules like a king, and the players exist to be their playthings" is that these SEEM like opposite maladaptive approaches to play, but they both result in the GM doing all the work.

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · Oct 4

if you dont like the insane and bigoted mods on bsky dont worry you can go to mastodon and choose between one of infinity billion sets of insane and bigoted mods with more free time on their hands #dencentralization

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · Oct 2

thinking about my favourite low empathy characters... racter... wenduag... villanelle... delaney 'regina-saskatoon' pollack... aracely sosa... baru cormorant... c'venash vishneri... insul... ianthe... notice how much like any other narrative trope its cooler and better when girls do it

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · Oct 2

skills are often most fun when they are provided 'by' something... (background, npc, class even)... it turns something that is only a technical competency into something produced by a history and a social world... +2 to lockpicking or basket-weaving can be a narrative ability if you let it be...

Reposted by w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE

.˚⊹cat fionola‧₊˚⤾ 🌸🎀 @catoochie.online · Sep 28

"if your whole personality is hating men-" have you considered that the ease with which you are willing to shrink a woman down to one single trait that you have perceived based on what you've been told is "man hating" may be an indicator of misogynistic thinking?

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · Sep 28

for my patreons--the game of the ball, pt. i, a short fable helping illustrate some of the paradoxes of defining 'the game', and a prequel to an essay i'm hoping to have out next month :)

www.patreon.com/posts/game-o...

THE GAME OF THE BALL, PT. I | rose quarter-drifting

www.patreon.com

Reposted by w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE

TrashDeck @akatopdeck.bsky.social · Sep 26

A screenshot of a page from the core rulebook of the tabletop RPG "Lancer". The screenshot is of a third-tier talent called "Here, catch!", describing an ability where mechs can eject superheated fuel rods as a means of attacking their enemies. Exact text follows:

Here, Catch!
You've modified your mech to launch its superheated fuel rods at enemies. Gain the following weapon as an integrated mount:
Fuel Rod Gun
Main CQB, Limited 3, Unique
[Threat 3][Range 3][1d3+2 Energy damage]
On Attack: Clear 4 Heat

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Reposted by w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE

Personable | Markus @personable.bsky.social · Sep 15

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an online woman, in possession of an interesting post, must be in want of really annoying guys replying to her.

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · Sep 28

& i feel like many people taking it upon themselves to write About Trauma take that Rupture as a given and to some degree yknow create narratives that kind of reifnroce it as prediscursive state-of-play and not as like actual social process... and i think that kind of sucks

w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · Sep 28

like yknow in Underside i take quite specific pains to tell you what i (or at least, what the game) believes trauma to be: it is Rupture, an event that is so unthinkable to the people around you that merely experiencing it immediately ejects ytou from society

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · Sep 28

it is veryu fashionable to be making games About Trauma (no judgement, my current big project is About Trauma!) but perhaps we could all benefit to uhhh take the pains to Define Trauma when we do so and actually be thoughtful about what our chosen definition means and what that says

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · Sep 28

jay dragons evil manifesto grew legs came to my house spat in my salad etc... its all Really Fucked Up

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · Sep 19

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Rise Up Comus - 🔜PaxU @riseupcomus.bsky.social · Sep 18

"Just tell them" is such an underrated piece of advice for telegraphing dangers in RPGs.

"How can I hint that the hallway is trapped? How can I hint that if they defeat the dungeon lord, they become the next dungeon lord?"

Just tell them. Tell them out loud. With your words.

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · Sep 17

UNDERSIDE is a dark superhero TTRPG about the rupture between ordinary life and the exosociety you're forced into when trauma marks you as different and inhuman--and about dressing up in a colorful costume to punch people. Get in on the playtest now at my Patreon:

www.patreon.com/posts/unders...

UNDERSIDE PLAYTEST | rose quarter-drifting

www.patreon.com

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · Jun 18

solo rpg where you write out your opinions on the new sabrina carpenter album cover on a piece of paper and you bundle it up and you Eat it. You eat it

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w.s. healed | the HORIZON MACHINE @thehorizonmachine.bsky.social · Jun 17

i say this a lot but it's really baffling to me how the popular reaction to wanderhome was that it's 'cozy' when it is literally like a desperately sad game first and foremost

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