Into the Depths

Older writing organized by series or topic with descriptions for ease of navigation. Best place to start if you're wanting a more organized way to dig into the archives and aren't sure where to being.

By Series 

Ironsworn Session Reports - A solo Ironsworn campaign done in the style of FromSoftware fantasy games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring. Includes practice writing prose as well as notes on mechanical insights gleaned from playing the game. 

By Game 

Unknown Armies -  Everything related to Unknown Armies by Greg Stolze and John Tynes. A gritty and gonzo urban fantasy game of post modern magick. One of my favorite settings and systems. There are streets with secret names. 

About Mystery Thought Bomb

Greetings, I am your host Karin Malady. Author of the TTRPG The Portal Tomb, writer on the video game Dear Future, and essayist at Deep Hell dot com, as well as other yet unannounced projects. I can be found on Bluesky on the rare occasion. Beloved by friends for my dire visions and strange powers.

This blog is a dumping ground for design thoughts, homebrew projects, session reports, etc. Around 2019 I started self-publishing on Itch.io but as places for discussion fell apart and communities drifted away, I haven't had much space to experiment or participate in much at all. So I am attempting a more solitary project of just putting out my thoughts as I dig into what interests me. My history with games bounces all over the place, starting with playing D&D 3.5e with people who were really not invested in helping me enjoy or understand the game to making friends with people who were willing to try new games and introduced me to things like Little Fears, Vampire the Masquerade, and Don't Rest Your Head. I can enjoy a tactical game or a story game depending on what I'm in the mood for or obsessed with at the time. My goal is to always draw influences from outside of games to build systems that lend themselves to bombastic drama, inexplicable connections, and what the Tao Te Ching refers to as "mysterious power."