Anthraxus, The Dramatist
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Worldbuilder, GM, and Fool
I have been on the site for awhile now. I tend to prefer to write modern/near future horror, but the contests provide a nice avenue to encourage me to dip into other genre's or styles. I enjoy making storygames with randomized elements and explicit game features such as adjustable stats and equipment systems and randomized combat.
If you would like to know more about me, please check out my interview in the January 2025 CYS Monthly Newsletter
Achievements:
Achievement Unlocked: Kicked Upstairs
Achievement Unlocked: Intrepid Interviewer
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Storygames
A retelling of a short story written by myself for an old Horror fanzine. That story focuses on a particularly eventful evening in the life of freelance photographer Pamela Grey in the world of the Dark Conspiracy RPG. In this story game you take the place of Pamela.
The world you live in is much like today's, only a little worse. The rich are richer, the poor are poorer, and the gap between is so much wider. So much is controlled by the mega-corporations and rich interests that large swatches of the ever expanding urban sprawl are marked as "Outlaw Territory, Enter At Own Risk" - where even the police don't go, either for fear or lack of resources. The middle class has mostly disappeared except for the lowest echelon of corporate execs, and legislative changes have allowed many that would have previously been on the public dole to instead sell their vote to corporate interests in exchange for support. Crime is up, as are disappearances, theft, and violence. Even as bad as the world has become, there are persistent rumors that even worse things lurk in the shadows. Many neighborhoods have abandoned houses that everyone knows better than to enter, and even in the outlaw where the police fear to tread there are rumors of entire blocks that no one but the mad or the most desperate are willing to risk going into after dark.
You and Susan, your significant other, are doing ok. Her job with Aprico has afforded the two of you a small place in a small gated community owned by the company. A prized place in the vanishing middle class. Your home is close enough to the gates that you can still easily indulge in your favorite hobby, walking through Chicago with your trusty camera in hand, particularly at night. The sale of these photos as art pieces to the ultrawealthy, facilitated by Susan's contacts, has helped with sporadic lump sums of money. Susan pays the bills, but your money pays for luxuries and splurges.
In the twilight one often finds isolated moments of beauty and mystery that would never been seen in the daylight, and you work to capture these moments in the perfect clarity of your lens. You know the risks of being out alone at night outside the gates, but even Susan has had to admit that the last couple of pictures you sold would not have been possible if you hadn't been out there. To help comfort her (and yourself to be completely honest), you recently bought a large knife to carry with you, just in case.
So, come explore the night and see what waits for you in the dark.
The job listing was simple "Earn 100K » in your sleep!" Having not been able to find a steady job for over a local year and half, you jumped at the chance.
Now, eight months later by the clock on the pod, you have suddenly been awoken from hypersleep to fulfill your role as the emergency backup crew of PrimObs 80085. There is no sign of the regular crew, and even worse, no sign of the rest of the backup crew, so it is up to you to determine what happened and hopefully get a message back to sector command for rescue.
Entry for EndMaster's Prompt Contest 4: Prompt #27) A story involving a space station.
This work is currently being rewritten to include an additional successful ending. If you find a path that appears to dead-end, please come back and try this story again soon.
An entry for MHD's Fairytale contest, this is a retelling of the old Appalachian Fairy Tale "The Little Princess of the Forest".
Come listen to the telling of one of the wildest fairy tales I've ever heard. This story was originally told by Marshall Ward for a fairy tale collection, and has stuck with me ever since I first heard it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Grab a seat and listen up, as it starts like this...
You have made your way through the city, state, regional, national, planetary, sector, parsec, arm, 64th-, 32nd-, 16th-, octo-, quarter- and semi-finals to arrive with a guaranteed spot in the Finals of the 169th cycle IntraGalactic Culinary Challenge brought to you by Mag King and Gal-actic Robotics held on RecStation 420 in the Lagoon Nebula. When those magnetronics need to sing, 🎶🎶 Call on Mag King 🎶🎶! Do you need a handy robot pal? Everybody wants a Gal!
You face a varied array of challengers and an even more diverse panel of judges to win over in the two round Final. Before each round, you will have time to plan your dish and explore the features of the station. Who knows, you might even find something to help in the contest! Judges and contestants are randomly selected with every read-through, and finding things is done by a random function of your stats, so every new read is a fresh game.
This was originally going to be an entry for EndMaster's Promt Contest 4, but I ran out of time and quickly wrote The Backup
This is a storygame conversion of the Minion Hunter Board Game (and Minion Nation expansion) by GDW, based on the Dark Conspiracy TTRPG by GDW and Dynasty Presentations, with some modernization updates by myself, and is set in the same world as my "A Night in Chicago" storygame.
This is a simulation of a complex boardgame and while I have done my best to add some narrative to the events, it does not have a standard ending that you are working towards. Every movement is a "round" in the game, and while you are developing your own stats and equipment, the forces of the Dark influences are advancing their plots. The story ends when one of the main Dark Minion races (ETs, Fae, Morlocks, or Nukids) gains 20 plot points, or you defeat enough plots to run out the plot deck.
Full rules are detailed within. Give it a try and see if you can save Dark America from the corrupting influence of the Dark Minions.
It was just supposed to be a quick run down to the bodega. Ten minutes, tops. Then you saw something in the alley, and now everything has been turned upside down.
This is incomplete. Sorry, I just ran out time.
Entry for Sherbet's Summer's End Synergy Contest
Recent Posts
CYS Rimworld - Anomaly 2 CYS Gazette Galavant on 12/26/2025 12:58:50 PMSecret Santa 2025 on 12/22/2025 5:48:00 PM
CYS Rimworld - Anomaly 2 CYS Gazette Galavant on 12/21/2025 3:20:48 PM
If you are reading through from the beginning, beware that Episode 3 is nested incorrectly.
CYS Rimworld - Anomaly 2 CYS Gazette Galavant on 12/21/2025 12:25:27 PM
With the DLC I am using there are 3 or 4 "official" endings, but I've never actually managed to keep a game going long enough to reach any of those. Most people just shoot for some ambiguous goal, like get up to X number of colonists or last Y number of years, or just go as long as you can before you get wiped out.
One of the DLCs I am using, Anomaly, introduces a lot of horror elements to game. That one has the official ending that I have closest to achieving previously, and probably the one we are currently closest to achieving in this run.
Another, Ideology, allows for using either predefined or custom build religions, called ideoligions, that provide an additional layer of commonality and rules to the pawns. These can also impact the relations your colony has with the other NPC factions that populate the world.
The third, Biotech, introduces tech and research to allow genetic modifications and creations, as well as having pawns that hook up (typically reflected by them sharing a bed and wiggling next to each other with little hearts floating up, the graphics of the game are PG at worse) can have kids.
Because some of the NPC factions can be pirates, cannibals, and nudists there can be pretty mature topics that come up, such as slavery, cannibalism, and various war crimes. Also due to the ages of various pawns being randomized on creation, and then exacerbated by cryosleep in many cases, there can also sometimes be some uncomfortable age gaps in relationships if you pay attention to that, although I am actively avoiding as much of that as I can.
To give some kind of flavor and interest to this run, I decided to base the initial group of colonists off of the staff of the Gazette at the time. That reminds me, we have new staff now, so I know the next few new recruits to summon. It is critical to recognize that these pawns, as they are called in game, are primarily just named after people here on the forums, as a form of engagement and homage. The relationships that form, the wounds, the deaths, and the victories are emergent from the game and do not reflect on those real people in any way. For example, the pawn for EndMaster has lost his left hand and the pawns named for {Spoilers} Fresh, TCat and RK have died {/Spoilers}
This is the second run I've posted about here, and Sherbet did one before me, if you look back in the Creative Corner.
CYS Rimworld - Anomaly 2 CYS Gazette Galavant on 12/20/2025 11:10:21 PM
Sorry, what's that? I was telling a story over here? Oh yeah, so I was. Well. I guess let's get back to that. Perhaps some of the new folks on the site will find it interesting.
Shortly after the caravan headed out for the research post, with only two people left in camp things slowed down pretty drastically. Fortunately we had a mysterious 'dark scholar' that contacted us and asked to join.
Crosswell is a Yttakin with both a death refusal ability that allows her to ignore being killed four times. She also has a beast call skill. Unfortunately she has some weird ideology, but at least it doesn't have any problematic principles. Even better she is excellent with animals and research. While the caravan is still out there, we don't have anyone in the base that has a good animals skill, so this is pretty fortunate. Since she "won't take no for an answer" anyway, we might as well make use of her.
Very shortly after Crosswell joined the Forum, Stargirl finally awoken from her psychic ritual abduction. Suranna immediately goes to work on converting her to Cystianity. Her starting certainty in her ideoligion is moderately high, so this will probably take a bit.
Meanwhile, the toxic wastepacks that we took way back in update 5 (almost 3/4 of a year ago in game time) have finally decomposed. Looking at the amount of pollution they left behind, it was definitely the right call to move them as far away from the base as possible. Speaking of cleaning up waste, one of the first things Crosswell undertakes is to haul the various corpses still scattered around over to the harbinger tree to be eaten.
Elsewhere, the caravan has finally reached the outpost. This one is very large, with a complex multiple building layout. Fortunately there is a convenient hole in the outer wall to go through. As they approach, a truly horrific Thrumbolizard ambushed the group as they stepped through the wall. This huge genetic monstrosity is very powerful and dangerous. Because of the ambush, it popped up practically on top of us. I was expected a ferocious melee fight, and totally called that one.
The Thrumbolizard was a whirl of horn, claw and fang. Almost instantly TCat and Endmaster were bleeding and within only a few seconds the Thrumbolizard catches TCat first with a horn and then a bite that tears out her throat. Endmaster was knocked down with a sweeping tail attack.
Suddenly, the Thrumbolizard reveals an unexpected ability. It engulfs RK in a flaming breath. Panicing from the fire RK runs and tries to put himself out, while Mr. Nobody and Anthraxus continue the increasingly desperate fight. Finally Mr. Nobody got off a lucky shot that blew the Thrubmolizard's brain out.
Coincidentally, back at the main base, just as we killed this weird Thrumbolizard, a pair of wild Thrumbos wandered onto the map. At the lab, to avoid the moral impact of viewing a corpse, Anthraxus quickly dug a few graves and buried TCat.
Needing some shelter, we risk checking a copule of the closest buildings. Fortunately they are both empty of threats. We quickly designated some sleeping area to give the wounded a place to heal up. For some reason I could not force anyone to unload the bedrolls we brought along no matter what I tried. Nevertheless we press on. Just past these first couple of buildings, a feline paragon charged at us. Everyone who was conscious ganged up on it and killed it pretty quick, although it got a couple good swipes in on Anthraxus.
Apparently the caravan ate most of the prepared meals on the way here and had been feeding off of berries and raw meat. With the chaos of the fight and attempted recovery, we haven't had a chance to even build a fire yet. Because of this Anthraxus collapses from food poisoning, while Endmaster and Mr. Nobody learned no lessons and ate more raw meat from Iselle's packs, gaining food poisoning.
On top of that, the caravan's arrival was noticed by a Mechhive, giving us a little less that three days to finish searching the base, deal with any more critters, recover from those fights, and then hopefully gather up all the stuff and head home. Because of this, while Anthraxus was recuperating from the food poisoning. everyone else pressed on, exploring several rooms but not finding much useful.
They continued into the largest building in the complex. In a large room with a couple of salvageable electrowombs, valuable genetic development tools, they were suddenly ambushed by an Ursine Paragon and a really bizzare creature called a Manalope, basically just a giant hand with a natural chemfuel filled sack on the wrist.
The fight was vicious and bloody. This was the first time that EndMaster had found himself in a fight with a creature he could actually target with his "psychic slaughter" ability, as everything else has been too big. It wounded the Manalope pretty heavily, but not enough to actually take it out of the fight. In the next blink, the paragon bear was on top of him.
In the middle of this fight, back at the base, Milton, Suranna, and Crosswell looked skyward as a tremendous boom thundered across the sky. A shuttle was crashing!
They spread out, and we were lucky that it only wiped out half of our peanut crop. Just a little bit further north and it would have taken out either one or both of our windmills. There was hope that we might find a survivor or two inside, but unfortunately the three crewmembers died in the crash. At least we will get some steel and components out of the wreckage, and the harbinger tree will get some more food.
Back at the lab, the battle was going poorly. First EndMaster and then Mr. Nobody were struck down by the beasts. RK tried to pull back and Anthraxus was able to recover enough to try to come help. RK managed to squeeze off the final shot that killed the Ursine paragon, while Anthraxus was just barely able to beat the Manalope to death with his gun. Everyone was critically wounded. It was a miracle that the the Manalope did not explode when it died, as Boomalopes usually do. EndMaster and Mr. Nobody were able to almost drag themselves out of the room by the time Anthraxus collected them and RK and returned everyone to the sleeping areas in the safe room.
Anthraxus treated everyone's wounds and focused on getting a fire going and cooking some food to help mitigate everyone's food poisoning. Unfortunately, because it was required to keep a close eye on what Anthraxus was doing, as well as Mr. Nobody as he was the next person to recover enough to be able to walk around, the building infection in one of RK's wounds was overlooked.
Over the next day, while Anthraxus and Mr. Nobody tried to keep everyone fed and not dead, the infection built and spread. The lack of any real medication beyond a couple wild healroots that were nearby allowed the infection to build quicker that any available treatment could catch it. I was shocked when there was a notification that RK had died!
Not only is this saddening to myself on a meta level, it also hits everyone with a mood debuff for losing a friend and colonist. This is too much for Mr. Nobody, who succumbs to insane ramblings. This is risky as there are still a couple of unexplored places in the complex that might hold dangers. Fortunately most of the expected riches of the place have been gathered.
Anthraxus focused on exploring the rest of the place, and was moving quick enough that he was in a completely different building when an ambushing Cathorse revealed itself in the prior building he had looked in.
This bizarre creature, really more of a horse-sized cat than a cat-sized horse, charged out into the courtyard, but Anthraxus was able to cripple it pretty heavily by the time it closed, and was able to kill it with only a couple significant wounds. The choice to not setup storage in the freezer proves costly as some of the genome material we have collected rotted away in storage. We were able to salvage the ones from the first lab so this probably isn't too impactful, although it is costly in consideration of possible trading materials.
While the wounds were not enough to incapacitate or even seriously impede him, the pain fo the wounds were enough to cause dark shadows to drift over Anthraxus's mind and he joins Mr. Nobody in insane rambling madness. A caravan cannot be reformed while members of it are suffering a mental break and we have less than a day to recover from the breaks and vacate the area before the mechs show up. There is no chance to survival if that happens and all of this will be for nothing.
My apologies, dear reader, but because of the ever-shrinking timetable I was focused on trying to have EndMaster get as much together as possible to haul back as soon as Anthraxus and Mr. Nobody finished their rambling and mutterings I forgot to take screenshots, although I promise you didn't miss anything really significant. Both of them stopped rambling with six hours left, and everything got packed upand cleared out with just under two hours left on the clock. The march back to base takes three uneventful, hungry days, as they had to fully rely on foraging food for the last day and half of the trip.
Meanwhile, back at base, we may not have had any survivors from the shuttle crash, but a woman crashlands in a pod south of the base. She is an independent space refugee named Macy, but pretty much as soon she recovers from her minor injuries, she chose to leave, even before the caravan returned.
Almost as soon as she left the map, the caravan came in. All of them were starving, having been completely without food for at least a day, but that was quickly remedied. Now, I would have sworn I made sure to include RK's body in what we brought back, but looking in the stuff that Iselle is carrying its not there. This is unfortunate as there are means to bring people back from the dead, but only if you have the body. RK's death is also difficult on the whole group as he was a Mod, and Cystian's love their Mods. This means that we need to designate a new Mod. We also can do another skip abduction if there is anyone out there that wants to join the colony. Or perhaps we could get RK in a new skin?
Surprisingly we have not gotten any quests recently, but I'm sure that will change soon enough. We do have a few decisions to make:
Vote One: Who should be the new mod? Probably know who will be the winner here, but if for not other reason than interaction, please vote your opinion. Milton isn't an option because he already has a role.
- Option 1: EndMaster, although he is tied with Anthraxus for worst social skill level.
- Option 2: Anthraxus, also has a bad skill level for the role.
- Option 3: Crosswell, barely better than EndMaster or Anthraxus and she might leave at anytime.
- Option 4: Suranna, with a social skill of 5 is the second highest in the group.
- Option 5: Mr. Nobody, has the highest social skill of the group.
Vote Two:Should be abduct someone else? Stargirl is almost converted.
- Option A: Yes, kidnap a new version of RK.
- Option B: Yes, kidnap a new person. {Feel free to suggest a name}
- Option C: No, we have enough people for now.
Vote Three:Perform a void provocation ritual. We still need to encounter two more entites to advance the monolith again.
- Option I: Yes, see what comes.
- Option II: No, let's get better equipped first.
Because it has been so long since the last update, and we have Christmas coming up, we'll let the votes run until 12/27.
Do you have Aphantasia? on 12/17/2025 10:10:15 PM
"The R slur" and other gamer words on 12/17/2025 10:09:21 AM
Honestly well put. There is also a directly proportional relationship to how obnoxious someone made themselves and how long that offense will be remembered by the mods.
Secret Santa 2025 on 12/16/2025 9:33:41 PM
Secret Santa 2025 on 12/16/2025 9:27:44 PM
drawings mayhaps on 12/16/2025 8:59:41 PM
