Nick Bate
@ickbat.bsky.social
2.3K followers 530 following 960 posts
Used to be a galactic archaeologist. Now I design tabletop games about epic heists, illegal mech racing, daring sky pirates, doomed expeditions, and other such nonsense. 🚀 Black Armada Tales cast member. https://ickbat.itch.io
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
ickbat.bsky.social
🚨 The time war has begun! 🚨

Against Time and Death is now live on Kickstarter! Join us if you love:

- intimate stories against the backdrop of epic events
- high-stakes choices
- multiversal time travel stories
- duet games
- This Is How You Lose the Time War

www.kickstarter.com/projects/ick...
Coming soon: Against Time and Death
A duet storytelling game about a forbidden relationship between two elite operatives on opposite sides of a multiversal time war.
www.kickstarter.com
ickbat.bsky.social
Mark 1xp if you successfully finished a race, or 2xp if it was epic.
ickbat.bsky.social
You! 🫵

You want to play a gothic sci-fi investigation game, right? I mean, why wouldn’t you? Uncover conspiracies, fight demons, be space Mulder and space Scully…

Back Ex Tenebris! Only 20 hours left!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/bla...
Ex Tenebris: A star-spanning gothic investigation TTRPG
Unravel mysteries, battle horrors, protect the stars
www.kickstarter.com
ickbat.bsky.social
Hot damn, it’s good to be thinking about Forged in the Dark design again.
ickbat.bsky.social
Yesss! I feel like I successfully found all the bicycles on my first try.
ickbat.bsky.social
Ha! That might be the perfect solution!

Err, I mean, that might be the perfect fucken solution carn the mighty Dons?
ickbat.bsky.social
I’m a pretty earnest and enthusiastic guy, particularly in emails, and I’m starting to worry people will think my words were written by an AI.
ickbat.bsky.social
Oh, you're so welcome! Thank you for taking the time to play it!

Fabric and Spirit, hey -- that's an interesting pairing! What are the concepts underpinning each, if I can ask?
ickbat.bsky.social
Oh, that's amazing to hear! I'm glad you're having a good time with it! It's also nice to hear that it's working in slow time - that was always my hope, that it could fit around busy lives, but it's nice to see it working!

So... which factions are your operatives fighting for?
Reposted by Nick Bate
friendlyfiendish.bsky.social
Huge thanks to @ickbat.bsky.social for creating Against Time and Death. Currently somewhere around the middle of a multi-month game (admittedly, we're playing slowly) and having a delightful time with it.
ickbat.bsky.social
I’m re-watching B5 right now, as you know, so if anything I’m even more keen to hear more about Born to the Purple!
ickbat.bsky.social
Oh, so did you adopt Deep Cuts wholesale? Interesting!

I can definitely see myself switching to the downtime and harm rules — those seem like real winners to me — but I’m less sure about the threat rolls. Honestly can’t remember how advancement has changed!
ickbat.bsky.social
It’s been a little while since I asked…

Which Forged in the Dark game(s) are you most excited about right now?

What’s your current state of the art?
ickbat.bsky.social
No dice, but I’ve got a couple that use a deck of cards instead?

Most notably Stealing the Throne, a game of epic giant robot heists. A big part of the reason I designed it was to take the burden of prepping a heist game out of a GM’s hands and distribute it evenly.

ickbat.itch.io/stealing-the...
Stealing the Throne by Nick Bate
A crew of thieves dare to steal a thousand-year old mecha.
ickbat.itch.io
ickbat.bsky.social
Geez, Girl by Moonlight is good.

But I feel like I don’t hear about it so much these days. Are people playing it?
ickbat.bsky.social
Dagger Isles! All my attention has been on Blades '68, I completely forgot about Dagger Isles!
ickbat.bsky.social
Wait, *two* new Blades books?! What did I miss!

(Also: 🤜🤛. Soon as this draft is in better shape - playbooks especially - I'm going to come knocking!)
ickbat.bsky.social
Family, Speed Daemons playtesting is going so good.

Mech racing, yo. Recommended.
ickbat.bsky.social
Oooh, Divine / Mundane is super juicy!
ickbat.bsky.social
(Speed and Strength speaks to my heart...)
ickbat.bsky.social
Oooh, that’s great! I wonder how we could make that into single words…

Speak / Write
Book / Song

🤔
ickbat.bsky.social
Oooh, justice / mercy is super juicy. It *looks* like one of those is the good one, but when you really think about it... 🤔
Reposted by Nick Bate
rossignol.bsky.social
Read this, #ttrpg folks!
kierongillen.bsky.social
Interview feature with @armadajosh.bsky.social and @beckyannison.bsky.social about EX TENEBRIS, currently in the last week of their crowdfunder, where we talk influences, mystery games, systems and their future.

"I just didn’t want my friends to have to play fascist enforcers."
A Bright Dark Future: Ex Tenebris Interview - Old Men Running The World
If you're a British game designer, you work beneath a cloud - both literally and figuratively. For the former, it's really cloudy here, For the latter, it's a
oldmenrunningtheworld.com
ickbat.bsky.social
Team, help me out by dreaming up cool conceptual opposites for Against Time and Death!

I'm after paired concepts that define opposing factions in the Time War. Both should sound intriguing, and neither should be unambiguously bad. Bonus points if they're a lyrical rather than literal.

🔴 🔵
ickbat.bsky.social
I am all about G’Kar and Londo! That degree of complexity in a pair of characters for a silly space show — what a delight.