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Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

5.2K followers 1.1K following 12K posts

Portfolio: https://perplexingruins.carrd.co/
You can find my games: https://perplexingruins.itch.io/
You can support me here: https://www.patreon.com/perplexingruins
You can watch a few vids here: https://www.youtube.com/@perplexingruins

Posts Replies Media Videos

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Perplexing Ruins @perplexingruins.bsky.social · Dec 8

The growing image library available to patrons. Available to use in commercial publications...to make money with...And if you're not a maker, but a lover of art and are able to show $ appreciation, you can do that to. At $1/mo just to say, "keep it up PR, I dig it!"
www.patreon.com/perplexingru...

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

👆👀

New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine @newedgeswordmag.bsky.social · 5h

WELCOME SYMON HEILÖGU!
@symonheilogu.bsky.social will have new illustrations in this year's issues. See cool previews and sign up to be alerted when the crowdfund launches: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

An illustration in progress of a famous Tekken character, by @symonheilogu.bsky.social

Black and white illustration of an ancient Chinese warrior, by @symonheilogu.bsky.social

Black and white illustration of a martial arts master posing on a ledge, dragon in the background, tiger by his heels. Art by @symonheilogu.bsky.social

January 17, 2026 at 4:47 PM

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

Uh this is intriguing

Lari Assmuth @lariassmuth.bsky.social · 5h

Sat at home yesterday evening getting a little drunk on British ales and ran a mini-solo playtest of the card-based FitD space fighters game I’ve been working on. And a lot of stuff was *really* bad!
But today morning I fixed a bunch of stuff and now it feels like maybe it might work after all! Yay!

A small coffee table with a pair of rough cut-out cards of spacefighters, some papers, a dice tray with some six-sided dice, a computer in a corner and a Penguin Classics coffee mug with the title Great Expectations on it.

January 17, 2026 at 4:47 PM

Reposted by Perplexing Ruins

Ways Unseen

@ways-unseen.bsky.social

A couple of rooms, hidden behind a coastal cave...

Links in bio to itch for map-related resources and Ways Unseen website for commission enquiries.

#rpgmaps

January 17, 2026 at 1:07 PM

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

👀

Ben M | Periapt Games @periaptgames.bsky.social · 20h

Another #fantasticaluniquities poster! An odd #TTRPG MacGuffin.
Art credits: Pexels. Adobe Stock. @perplexingruins.bsky.social. Some illustrations by Fernando Salvaterra (@salvaterra.bsky.social) - used with permission.
Fonts: Trottoir, Blackout Midnight, Rubik Broken Fax.

Poster titled Jade Cube of the Sunk City. A labyrinthine green cube is enmeshed in beams of light, phosphorescent text, and seaweed. Text reads:
Recovered from ocean floor, slick with algae.
Faint groaning sound can be heard when held to ear.
Solid ground near the cube becomes wet abyssal silt.
Any city it is brought into soon begins to subside.

January 17, 2026 at 3:03 PM

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

one of the great things about studying professional artists, watching them work, or interviews, is you get to see that they yes, in fact, they fudge hands & feet. they botch or use short cuts. it just happens.
just the pros, they practiced enough to minimize it, or have the tricks to get through :)

January 16, 2026 at 8:08 PM

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

Some progress on panel 1 - having a great time

January 16, 2026 at 5:55 PM

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

Going back to “school” - learning new things and skills - don’t make fun of me - it’s already intimidating enough at 40+ to try and learn how to draw

January 16, 2026 at 3:39 PM

Reposted by Perplexing Ruins

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

Selling these 2. $50 ea shipped. DM for queries

January 15, 2026 at 8:41 PM

Reposted by Perplexing Ruins

Nicholas Offerman

@goodklown.bsky.social

On less depressing news the new editions of Sprinkles came in today

January 16, 2026 at 3:01 AM

Reposted by Perplexing Ruins

Colin Le Sueur

@byodinsbeardrpg.com

Reposting this for a different time zone. If you’re looking to get a different vibe for your zine, check out this tutorial!

Colin Le Sueur @byodinsbeardrpg.com · 1d

Want to make your own #TTRPG art for #ZineQuest or #ZineMonth but all you’ve got are photos? Have no fear, follow these ██ steps and you, too, can have some cool art without having to go anywhere near slop.

youtu.be/gFMYiNA2bMk?...

Many thanks to @chaoclypse.bsky.social for his previous tutorial!

Turn Photos into Zine Art

YouTube video by By Odin's Beard RPG

youtu.be

January 16, 2026 at 7:29 AM

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

Just want to thank all the best feedback I received pertaining to my comics queries yesterday- nerds really are great!

January 16, 2026 at 1:15 PM

Reposted by Perplexing Ruins

Afraid of Encounters

@isaacisafraid.bsky.social

I just ran @chrisair.itch.io's Mothership module, When In Rome. It ended on a TPK 💀 and it's the first time it ever happened in my game. Thankfully everyone loved it 😅

My Mothership table in a cafe. Five players. My GM screen is a laptop.

January 16, 2026 at 12:45 PM

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

Connected to my previous question about comics:
Rec me 1-2 Mech robot manga anime series.
Seems to be loads. Just brushing up on missed pop culture

January 15, 2026 at 11:46 PM

Reposted by Perplexing Ruins

snow

@snow117.bsky.social

Reminder, Screaming Metal: Vector Soul drops its playtest on my blog TOMORROW! So go follow it and maybe throw me some bucks. This game is a doozy. Here's a few screenshots from the doc, including content warnings, nested media, and forced feminized pilot background.

www.patreon.com/c/snowttrpg

Hyper Trauma
In the early 2000’s, the Canadian-produced, young adult cartoon, “Hyper Trauma” aired for two seasons on Noggin. During its run, AftMap, a small book publisher, acquired the rights to make and release a D20 TTRPG set in the universe of Hyper Trauma called Screaming Metal: Vector Soul. This book is a collection and modernization of those rules. The original archive has not been found.
Hyper Trauma is a type of brain trauma brought on by extended stays in Hyperspace (HySp). Average trips may cause headaches or nausea, but long distances cause temporary amnesia, personality shifts, and hallucinations.
The show followed Silver, the hegemony’s star-pilot and infamous rebel-hunter, as they were flung from their mech into HySp, only to be discovered by ruin scrappers a year later. Suffering with amnesia, Silver experiences a shifted personality AND a new gender identity while exploring their own vile past and complicated relationships with the war. Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger in which Silver and her old rebel-rival, Princess Clue, kiss after an intense duel.
The Lotus Galaxy
Welcome to the program, dog. There is nothing out there in the galaxy and we are so very alone. And so we spread ourselves to her edges, died, repopulated, spread again, found what we left behind thinking it was god or aliens or whatever, and then we died again, at least most of us did, and from there we repopulated again, but this time from different points in space and spread ourselves out and, woah, look at that, now there *are* aliens, but not really because they are just us but from “over there” and that scared us so we killed them, but also some of us wanted what the aliens had, and they too feared us and wanted what we had and so we killed each other and blew half of the galaxy up with bombs and then after much, much time we all forgot about that stuff and spread out and found her edges again, only this time they were riddled with scars and machines and woah, that means aliens …

Touchstones
Hound/Handler, leather and latex, SuZi, the aesthetics of Marathon, Alien, Cowboy Bebop, The Fifth Element, Signalis, Citizen Sleeper, HARDCASE, Dredge, Firebrands, Hypnospace Outlaw, QWOP, Heaven Will Be Mine, suffocating or drowning, The Matrix Reloaded, Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk, doll’s night at Farraguts, Persona 3, Yugioh season 0, Armored Core VI, Death Stranding, Gundam: Encounters in Space.
Content Warnings for:
Blood, gore, forced feminization, medical experimentation, forced servitude, phantom pains, manipulation, consensual non-consent, handler/hound, stalking, sexual violence, impact play, knife play, gun play, blood play, bondage, psychological torture, impregnation, terminal illness, cults, consistent use of “dice” and not “die,” digital horror, ageplay, digital bestiality, drugs, drug play.
Play
You can play this game a few different ways: solo as a pilot or a handler, or one person can be the pilot and the other their handler. You can keep adding pilots and handlers to your game. There can be 10 pilots and one handler. 10 handlers and 5 pilots. You can max out your discord server with pilots and handlers. Each player will need either a pilot sheet or a handler sheet, at least 10 ten-sided dice, a calculator, and a group chat to keep track of all players.

Solo
When playing solo as a pilot, you will generate random missions, do downtime, and work your way up the leaderboard. The dice will do the heavy lifting for you, all you have to do is react, feel your feelings, and allow yourselves to get lost.

Structure
Monday, a galaxy-wide no-fly curfew is in effect. 3d fine applicable. Mission folders are passed to Handlers. New laws go into effect at 0400 CST. Weekly fees are paid at 0900.
Wednesday, the Falcon Hanger is opened for handlers to trade missions.
Thursday, new recruits are added to the leaderboard.
Saturday, weekly missions are discarded at 2359 CST. Incomplete missions are considered failures.
Sunday, the faction turn is rolled. Consequences are enacted immediately.

Daily fees are paid at 0900 CST each morning. The Leaderboard is updated at 2200 CST.

If a cost is not paid at 0900, you gain nothing from that service that day and lose all previous benefits at 1200.
Time
If played online via a group chat, forum, or discord, time moves at real world pace. If played in person around a table, time moves at the pace needed to facilitate excitement.
Dice
When asked to roll Xd, roll that many d10’s, treating each dice as a digit of a larger number. So, 3d would generate a number between 001-1000.

2. Carceri
You were given a life sentence for your crimes against the hegemony and sent to Carceri. It’s miles of hostile architecture house the system’s undesirable as it tours the edges of the galaxy. Roll 2d10 to determine how many years you spent on your sentence and add it to your age. Ask another player (the one you find the cutest) to write your crime in your permanent record.

3. Conscript
The Plear Hegemony stole you and d10 other children, conscripting you into one of their experiment cubes isolated out of orbit. Psychological and medical. They stretch the definitions of the human body. They made you do it to each other. The edges of your brain are as cracked as your personality. Add “lab pig” to your permanent record.

4. CryoClone
Clones are left in cryosleep until their primaries (originals) pass away. You are one such clone, only you were awoken before your primary’s expiration date. You experience phantom sensations from your primary’s ongoing life. Your memories of childhood are theirs–you have only experienced servitude. Add d10 to your age. Your primary will die in one year and leave you empty.

5. Disposable Son
You are the (d10+3)th son in the line of succession for a noble family, stripped of all masculine social standing according to the laws set forth by the hegemony, and sent off to the Vector program. Your role within your family (and nobility) is as useless lapdog. Add “cuckolded nobility” and to your permanent record.

January 15, 2026 at 11:17 PM

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

Reading. Kid LOVES trucks so when saw what I was reading was super curious. Looked up some transforming vids and now all we’re talking about it robots haha

January 15, 2026 at 11:00 PM

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

Rec me a story arc / graphic novel from conventional superhero comics. Assume there are 1000 favs for a 1000 people; assuming 3-4 responses.
Curious about Galactus, dare devil, silver surfer, Indiana jones-likes, firefly-likes. Knowledge of super heroes is from Saturday mornings and bad movies 🤷

January 15, 2026 at 10:44 PM

Reposted by Perplexing Ruins

Exeunt Press 💀

@exeunt.press

Hi and welcome to all the new followers!

Exeunt Press makes solo-friendly games that blend storytelling with structured mechanisms.

Explore a dark and corrupting forest, sell cursed items to unsuspecting customers, or become a stale muffin. Weird and wonderful games await: shop.exeunt.press

January 15, 2026 at 10:23 PM

Reposted by Perplexing Ruins

The Wreck of the Adam Seats

@iknowadamseats.bsky.social

Sharing to watch later, but in case this isn't in there - I am begging literally anyone to talk about Necrobriscola hollow-press.net/products/man...

January 15, 2026 at 10:11 PM

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

Selling these 2. $50 ea shipped. DM for queries

January 15, 2026 at 8:41 PM

Reposted by Perplexing Ruins

Dungeons & Possums

@dungeonsandpossums.com

Start keying this, nerds! All are welcome, do not be afraid. Bravely decide what something is!

Dungeons & Possums @dungeonsandpossums.com · 2d

Friends of the old school or the new school or no school at all: join me in #gygaxiandemocracy once more!

Key this chart of #ttrpg doodles!
Pick a number!
Tell me what that number is & what it does!
Be immortalized forever as The Item Namer!

The first such doodle I've done with my Nerd Pens 😊

A pen and ink drawing of B&W line art. Seven doodles are present, each numbered sequentially 1-7. 1. A ring with a broad flat stone on its face and a floral design down the side of the band. 2. A goblet with a bat theme, where its wings wrap around the lip of the cup and its feet form the stem. A dark gem is present between its feet, below its snarling face. It is filled with dark liquid. 3. A candle, unburnt, scribed with runes. 4. A dark sphere, giving off some kind of energy, floating above an ornate round metal base which is decorated with chased runes. 5. A fetish or other wand consisting of a bird's foot clutching a crystal, with a bright band around the length of bone stretching down from the gripped crystal, where a clump of long feathers are tied on with string and strips of fabric. 6. A dagger with a broad, spear-like shape and a riveted olive wood grip. The blade is black and has runes engraved down its entire length, which glow. 7. A feather quill scribing characters and symbols or diagrams on a strip of paper next to a round glass inkwell with cork stopper.

January 15, 2026 at 7:30 PM

Reposted by Perplexing Ruins

Tony

@tonydoesnerdystuff.bsky.social

Hell yeah. The Kodama are glow in the dark too. Upgraded my printer’s nozzle and it was way worth it.

A book shelf full of manga and Kodama figures.

January 15, 2026 at 7:30 PM

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

@danielwarrenart.bsky.social is an inspiration! badass artist, awesome dude! dropped a strong piece of relevant art this week 👍💪🤘

January 15, 2026 at 7:08 PM

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

Spent my morning playing around a bit with some album cover design! Silly yes. Fun, also yea. These'd pop off the shelf yea? (i mean in a cool way) - thinking epic-folk/black synth vibes, with some obvious dashes of goth/postpunk

So you know, if you have a musical project, looking for work

fake album cover showing a boar bleeding onto a root

fake album cover of a skull on a mountain with a burning banner

January 15, 2026 at 4:19 PM

Perplexing Ruins

@perplexingruins.bsky.social

But actually, one just wishes the brain washed could sit through just a few of his opening monologues - it would have to be nothing but eye-opening….right?

Perplexing Ruins @perplexingruins.bsky.social · 2d

the only people that watch Stewart are the people who agree. So really he's just entertainment & validation industry. And the people that disagree probably think he's making it all up. And he's snarky and maybe even annoying, but damn that joke about Alaska in a box 😂
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IcU...