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Brian Yaksha (He/They)

@brianyaksha.bsky.social

1.6K followers 350 following 9.1K posts

Frequently ENnie-Nominated Writer & Designer of Sandbox Toolkits, Narrative Designer, Horrorist. Also an ENnie-award winner. Communist.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · Jun 15

#CommissionsOpen - In need of some stuff for a project or whatever? Want a crazy person who has too many thoughts to help you out? Want to pay me up front rather than way down the line like some people?

Take a good look. $300 bucks get you 1k Words + 3 character spot pieces + 1 map; no AI or shit.

A commission sheet listing all the things 300 bucks can get you - wowee.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1h

I believe all that I am allowed to say is that I worked on an announced book.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 2h

Honestly, I've got some generators I've been putting into HTML output mechanisms. Could be fun to do a jam someday which use those as the baseline for building up something wild and tonally cohesive.

Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 3h

Its one of my biggest issues with them.
Actually this just reminded me I did an IP-free version of Chaos God mutation ideations for Kriegsmesser and that's just been rotting in my drive for god knows how many years.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 3h

There is a kindness in seeing a culmination come to pass. The work is stronger for what all parties put upon it. Egos did not clash. We achieved the meeting of the minds, and that so seldom comes to pass.

I don't laud things easily or often. My choice to do so here is a mark of rare quality.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 3h

I enjoyed working with you, it was an enriching time.
When I look at so much of my experiences in the field it is often in the context of exploitation or in half-measures.

So it was deeply validating to be brought in, especially in a role similar to how others brought me into this field once.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 3h

Daniel put in a ton of work on the thing. Every bit of sharing helps ensure the bounty of such labor is rewarded.

Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 3h

Because lord knows, I /hate/ most mutation tables for being needlessly gonzo. So making an escalating set that is bound to thematic cohesion and compounds upon itself, for people and for places, was a very enriching challenge.

Good for my morale as well.

Thanks for sharing the link, Clayton.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 3h

It is truly one of those rare circumstances where I can look at my work as something other than just being a hired gun making a product.

Got to put-up or shut-up about mutation randomizers too in a way that I think will have utility broadly speaking, which I'll want to breakdown publicly later.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 5h

Can't be Regdar. He ain't getting brutalized.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 8h

In the horror movie that is life, this post is the twink death flag.

Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

In all honesty, I may achieve a personal goal by the end of the month and if I get my contract renewed for another two months as seems to possible, I may actually be able to feel like a human being for the first time in years.

Wouldn't that be wild?
I'll settle for the first part though.

Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

Actively dropping words from my speech and typing, a good sign that I'm at least burning my brain out for work.

But I'm pretty happy with it all at the moment. Money is good, and that is a rarity.

I am however, bereft by the exisistentialism it is causing me. The push-pull issue of survival.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

I almost say the remake wasn't mainstream. Wasn't it a Hulu only release?

Oofda. Halloween movie night looking bleak this year.

Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

Yep.
Was a fun thing to consult on given the disparate sources to bring into it all.

Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

I feel like I keep abreast of horror movies and I'm having trouble thinking of more than one or two from the past few years. In the mainstream at least.

And I'd probably say most of those, narratively, are more about classism overall as the thematic guideline?

Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

Something something the small joys of collaboration rather than being brought in as the gun-for-hire.

The mood I bring in such a role, but therein lies the joy.
youtu.be/-ZZGq74tzro

Nope (2022) - The Impossible Shot Scene | Movieclips

YouTube video by Movieclips

youtu.be

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

I exalt the labor. This is an ideal output of a labor I got to oversee. This is a labor I was invited to experiment with and offer guidance. Small team, bespoke art, a year's work, a modest price, and the rarity of it having me feel proud of its culminating parts?

Damn worth the price of admission.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

Cost-wise, this is the sort of bespoke item you should rightly desire. Daniel's on all the art, local print shop, and an honestly reasonable price for the effort at even the highest tier.

I do not vouch for works lightly - least of all that which I worked on.

I don't play the wheelerdealer role.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

I whinge on a lot about being the artisan up on the mountain, the world obscured above and below, cantankerous in my desire to be empathetic - but its only somewhat a bit.

Working with and talking with Daniel helped me remember the sort of joys that brought me into this craft to begin with.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

To long-and-short it:
- It vibes as a campaign starter.
- Slottable without issue.
- Tools to expand it, if you so choose, upon the world.
- Ronja the Robber's Daughter + From Beyond + Keep on the Borderlands.
- Tailored corruption aesthetics for people / places.

Also helped me rebuild /trust/.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

Duginthroat Divided launched on KS.

It is one of those rare instances of a work I am proud of.

I was able to push some angles in ways that got my brain firing up right.

I was able to witness something come to form that made me appreciate a modality I otherwise often ignore.

I endorse the work.

Plus One Exp | Staying Home For PAXU (cause we live in Philly) @plusoneexp.bsky.social · 1d

I have had a blast playing a few session of this sandbox with @iknowadamseats.bsky.social Ivy & @danielharila.bsky.social!

We finish our adventures tomorrow, but I'll be excited to get back into play when the whole thing is out!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/dan...

Duginthroat Divided

Weird fiction meets fairytale whimsy in this dungeon on your doorstep! For Old School Essentials and other roleplaying games.

www.kickstarter.com

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

Something to be said for letting a thing cook for months. Experimentation does the soul well.

Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

This has been a white whale of mine for a bit now with regards to the granularity of degesis. The means to make map revelation via hexploration or whatnot feel organic / better than the full map plop down.

Its... got a chunkiness to attend to. Plus it works then for prep atop play purposes?

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

Notably also this solves my personal sandbox issue with the hierarchy of importance/information in a weird syncretic way.

So. A worthy attempt to make, on my break today anyhow.

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Brian Yaksha (He/They) @brianyaksha.bsky.social · 1d

Won't work in all courses, but it will remedy a specific thing I want to capture. The FFTA style map location plop-down. The map becoming a board on to its own, and being in its own meta-context.

Thus I need to build some physical tools to test the approach. Theory is fine, execution is key here.

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