Armaan Babu

@armaanautomatic.itch.io

1085 Followers 325 Following

Freelance writer, most often at ComicsXF. Critic, game designer and GM, fascinated with all the ways stories are told. Find me and my stuff at: https://linktr.ee/ArmaanBabu

Text: Khalid was a key rallying figure in the movement. “We won’t respond to violence with violence. We won’t respond to hate with hate,” he told crowds in a now famous speech. “If they spread hate, we will respond to it with love.” Image: A rallying crowd, with the caption: " A mass rally in Kolkata in 2019 to demonstrate against a citizenship law that was said to favour Hindus. Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images" Below the picture, a sentence underline in red: "The state was unforgiving in its response."
A cloudy swirl heading a blue page. Below that, one out of five stars represented by one yellow star in front of four greyed-out ones. A gold headling in quotes: '"We deserve a better world."' Below that, text: 'Armaan Babu says: We deserve a better reality. I want to see a world of joy. Hope. Room for creativity, and a safe space where wild ideas can crash and burn until one of them takes off, soaring towards the stars.'
A wolf in a brown suit, holding a hand of three cards. On the table in front of him is a lantern that lights the room, and a skull. A caption box at the bottom of the screen reads, 'Hearing stories is important work. Everyone wants to be heard, and so few are listening.'
Travis Willingham, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Marisha Ray and Matthew Mercer looking mildly confused, standing just behindthe word 'Araman' in gold lettering.
The Vision punches Simon Williams, shouting "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND" as the Scarlet Witch looks on in shock.
Poorna and Armaan dressed in outfits from K-Pop Demon Hunters, singing "You know together we're golden - gonna be, gonna be golden."
An excel sheet table, with the heading 'Roll to Cop': 1 - You remember the time a golden retriever stole your ice cream as a child. +3 Melancholy. 2 - You recall the time you were playing fetch with your cat. It caught the ball - and never returned. It now plays for the Boston Red Sox. +2 Melancholy. 3 - You try to do golden retriever things, such as wagging your tail and having a wonderfully shiny coat. You fail spectacularly. +1 Melancholy. 4 - You try to do golden retriever things, such as playing fetch with friends, having a smile everyone loves, and eating food people have dropped on the floor. It works out great, and you begin to question yourself. +2 Melancholy, +1 Joy. 5 - You lobby for the rules to be changed. Golden retrievers are now banned, as are chimps, apes, birds, reptiles of all kinds, and invertebrates. The internet cancels you, but you win your next game. +2 Melancholy, +1 Joy. 6 - You conspire with the neighbourhood cats for revenge. Their plans turn out darker than you could have imagined...but it's a start. +1 Melancholy, +1 Joy. 7 - You're distracted by cute cat videos. Roll again. 8 - You lobby for the rules to be changed. Golden retrievers are now banned, as are chimps, apes, birds, reptiles of all kinds, and invertebrates. The internet cancels you, but you win your next game. +2 Melancholy, +1 Joy. 9 - You take up painting, leaving behind baseball forever. You miss it - but you've also found your calling! +1 Melancholy, +2 Joy. 10 - You find a new style of training - retriever style. After weeks of this (and an extensive flea care routine), you're ready to outplay a dog. +1 Joy. 11 - After weeks of painstaking research, you find an obscure rule that doesn't ban golden retrievers, but DOES ban the way they hold a bat. +2 Joy. 12 - You realize that you can have your OWN golden retriever on your team. Best new bud AND teammate? Aces! +3 Joy.
Cover for DC's 'Two-Face' #5, featuring a white-haired white woman wearing a jacked covered in dice and a white shirt. The woman is standing over a green felt table, triumphantly holding a six-sided die, with a speech bubble that says "DIE!" Another die has already hit the table. On the table, a small Two-Face is running from this woman. He does not look happy.
An illustration of a wolf holding cards in a simple wooden room. The wolf, lit by lantern light, is wearing a simple brown suit and tie. A skull sits on the table. A box of text reads: "Hearing stories is important work. Everyone wants to be heard, and so few are listening."
An illustration in green of a young girl pushing a wheelbarrow stacked with hay. In a box, text reads: "'Lost? Me? Oh, not at all!' She stands up taller and squares her shoulders, projecting an image of adulthood so stiff she looks almost about to tip over. 'But, I guess I could use a little help. Can I ask you somethin', pretty please?"
A hooded figure with a burning light for a face is surrounded by smaller figureswith light burning from their helmets. The main figure holds a pair of pickaxes, and is sitting beneath an apple tree, illuminated by firelight. A black text box at the bottom of the screen reads: "Just seems like there's so much of it, like it goes on near forever. Seems fair for eachof us to get a square, don't it? Do you dare hope?"
A painted illustration with a closed eye on top of the page. A brown haired woman in a loose fitting brown jacket and striped lavender pants sits beneath a tree, illuminated by a campfire, looking straight out the screen. A block of text at the bottom of the picture reads: "So-got any good hopeful stories? Anything about what the world should be?"
A creeping border around a framed illustrated image of a pale woman dressed in white, staring at a twisted red tree with yellow and blue fruits against the background of a stormy sky. A side heading to the left reads "FABLE" A heading below the image reads "A Marvellous Chance" Below that, medium size text reads: "When you draw this card, you may ask the DIVINE one question. The DIVINE decides which of the PANTHEON the question applies to you, and either grant you: - One BLESSING from their highest tier. - Seven FOLLOWERS. This card is then permanently removed from the game until NAULA and ATTIKLIK attain a joint victory." Below that, smaller text reads: "Rosalie saw before her eyes a tree of marvellous beauty"
A numbered list, that reads: 001 - Intro, 002 - What This Game Is, 003 - What You'll Need, 004 - Overview of Gameplay, 005 - General Advice on Play, 006 - Character and World Creation, 007 - Game Setup, 008 - Battles, 009 - Hero's Post-Battle Resolution, 011 - Journal Entry - Hero, 012 - Post-Battle Resolution - Villain, 013 - Journal Entry - Villain, 014 - Completing a Set, 015 - Ending the Game, 100 - Character Abilities, by Level, 101 - Opponents and Abilities, 102 - Alternate Modes of Play, 103 - Tracker Sheets, 104 - 'Bonus Content', 105 - Examples of Play, 106 - Acknowledgements, 107 - Similar Games I've Made
Two purple shaded eyes look out over a heading: 'Why. Won't. You. Stay. DEAD?!", which hovers over a knight looking up at a stone castle. Sub-headong, 'Rage against the dying of the dark.'
A hand reaching for a sword, a gold thread connecting them. The heading 'To the Hilt', sub-heading "A two-player game of power, agency and trust."
A single page with six dice faces displayed. Each face has writing on it, with the words 'Start Here' pointing to the first dice face. 1 - "Write a word, give it a page." 2 - "Add a word to any page." 3 - "Write a question." 4 - "Answer a question, or reroll." 5 - "Reference another page." 6 - "Using the pages, write a story fragment." All faces point to words in the middle, which say "Roll When Done".
"Step 9: Write one final journal entry to describe what happens next. The game is over." The words are on a pale red page in the center of a scraggly border.
Heading: Even Dragons Are Trampled Before Us Description: The year is 1524, and dragons have invaded your kingdom. As the humans run helter skelter, it’s up to the more surefooted horsekind to save the day. Find them. Prepare for them.Survive them. In bold, and underlined: Trample them. There is a solid silhouette of of a flying dragon on the left, and a rearing horse on the right.
Image of the Vision, standing next to the Wasp, who is saying "He's not a *robot*. He's a *synthezoid*, artificially built by Dad's "son", Ultron, but human in structure. "I can show you father's notes sometime if you'd like to go over them."
Cartoonish image of Ben Grimm Thing, smoking a cigar with an air of self-satisfaction on his face. A banner above reads "IT'S A THING THANG" while the banner below reads "YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND".
Comics images of three men discussing the sovereignty of Narimar in the lead up to Indian independence, with a representative from Narimar pointing out that Narimar is neither Indian nor Pakistani, neither Hindu nor Muslim - which presents a problem for the British attempting to carve maps up along those lines.
White text over a black background, crediting Aveena Sawyer, Marissa Rosen, Ishmael Gonzalez and Alex Gibson as singing sex ghosts 1 through 4.
A grey-blue skinned, hooded figure with three-fingered claws and warped legs peeking out of their shroud, their figure cloaked in shadow but for their grinning teeth, beneath two speech bubbles that say: "A critic? SHOW YOURSELF!"
A radiant gold outlined square image of two chairs around a table, next to text. Heading 'Hot Date', sub-heading 'Go on a date with Karlach - now that's playing with fire. 0.1% of players have this achievement.'
A wooden stand in the shape of a nose with an obnoxiously large fake mustache.
3D image of a fluffy cat with blue eyes with with text below that says "Kira the Cat: Come to pay your respects to the real lady of the house, I see. What a clever creature you are!"
Cover to Terry Pratchett's Hogfather, showing a skeleton with glowing blue eyes in a Santa suit on a sleigh drawn by large boards through a cheery night sky.
An comics panel of a golden robot drone, Skeets, hovering behind Booster Gold (gold and blue costume) saying "Yes, well, I don't know about you...but *I* think this is the worst thing you've ever done."