itch.io

Nice story - you built well around the omission of the details around the mysterious object the protagonist was dragging.  There were also some excellent lines that underscored the nature of the Jackals.  One of my favorites was "I am the son of a king, but my siblings are counted by the dozen.

Nicely done.  I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the first and last parts of the first paragraph - painting an idyllic scene and then tearing it down.  The depictions of the change demons was also very well done and presented them as from a truly alien plane of existence.  Looking forward to painting those up, and this story will definitely stick in my mind as I do so.

Glad you enjoyed it.  It was written very hastily so I am glad that it was enjoyable to read.

Thanks for reading!

Thanks!  As mentioned in another comment, I've spent time painting up all of the forces that feature in the story.  Definitely served as inspiration!

Thanks for reading, appreciated!

Those are indeed painted by my own hand - none too expertly I might add.  But the main character is 100% inspired by a mini that I've painted.  I initially didn't like the ONI sculpted but painting the model really caused it to grow on me.  I use that one with the long blade as my commander, definitely like the pose.

Fitting into one thousand words was definitely a challenge.  I kept to a strict 1k and would have loved to further expand the characters a bit more.  Thanks for reading!

One of my favorites - you managed fit some nice characterization of both the ship and the captain into the format.  I enjoyed the nods to other aspects of the setting: past conflicts against the Starhost, the Legion as liberators of the ship AI.

And the sci-fi brushstrokes with which you paint the story are satisfying.  I found myself grinning at the banter between Holly (love the shortening of the ship name) and the captain regarding the background temperature.  The marine vital signs tooks me back to Aliens, while the refusal of the ship to allow the shutdown was reminiscent of another AI sharing the same first initial.

Overall a story that I very much enjoyed - it left me wanting to read more!

Great writing, well done!  You managed to convey emotional depth in just a thousand words, which is no small feat.  I found myself wanting to read more about the character's further adventure in exile.  A real pleasure to read, thank you.

Nicely done - I enjoyed your prose and style!

Great mood board!

Glad you like the system -- thanks for giving it a read.  It was fun to work on!

Regarding the hidden dice pools, I think of them very much like a hand in a card game.  Part of the tension in activating an attack is not quite knowing what your opponent has to defend with.  Likewise, there is some depth from "feinting" with fives early in the turn, but holding a high die in reserve.  Or tempting the opponent into clustering their Automa knowing you hold a Massive modifier secreted away.

In the mood board I had an inspirational thought of dice cups that you would shake up, and invert, peek at with your hand as a shield, then place the cup back down to prevent manipulation.  Definitely not a fool proof system - the design certainly targets casual play and would be wildly unsuitable for tournaments. :)