Absent Gods Studios
Writer / Game Designer / Buddhapunk
"Watching it all build up and burn down. Even this.
Samsara is beautiful."
Stories and games that blur the lines.
We blur fiction and truth, the sacred and the profane, the artificial and the authentic, the dark and the beautiful.
We create work that refuses to look away. Our gothic fiction explores darkness and fleeting grace. Our tabletop RPGs show how danger reveals the animal beneath. Our worlds lack meaning, yet the denizens still reject nihilism.
We are not for everyone. We are for the ones who need to see clearly.
Cerys Cross graduated from The Night Academy in 2092. Niece of the infamous Beach Cities fixer, Viking, she earned an advanced degree in psychology and had seven novels published by 22. Cerys surprised them all by following her uncle into the underworld — a unique brand of fixer who handles problems of the mind. Problems no one else will touch.
Her imprint, Absent Gods Studios, launched at 14. Her first Buddhapunk graphic novel appeared in 2088. The global movement is credited to her early work.
Tabletop RPG
A d12 narrative RPG where identity decomposes under pressure. No hit points — your character sheet is a biography that breaks. Every roll has five independent axes. Playing optimally IS playing dramatically.
Free core rules — coming soon
Setting / Worldbook
Cyberpunk Southern Gothic without the South. Night Academy — a school that saves children by making them too expensive to touch. Buddhapunks who insist on meaning in a world optimized to drain it. The first worldbook for Beautiful Disasters.
Campaign Design Engine
A campaign design system for tabletop RPG gamemasters. Build living worlds where factions drive the action and stories emerge through play. System-agnostic.
Download PDF →
Desktop Companion App
Digital companion for Beautiful Disasters. World-building tools, character management, AI-assisted solo play. Local-first, no accounts required. Your data lives on your machine.
"Look, I'm not a therapist. I neither fix texture nor want to fix texture. I excavate, like an archaeologist. Doesn't matter whether it's luck or the cost of choices. We're all a mass of scars. Armor. Excuse. A bar story. A quiet pain on a rainy Sunday. Scars are texture. Your unique pattern of consequences. Results of the decisions made or avoided, whether yours or others. This stuff is a one-time, once-in-a-species map. The only identity of yours that matters a damn. And, you can drop the descriptors. Sin. Right. The superlatives. You can curse like a sailor but if I hear you use the word 'wrong', I will make you disappear. You get one warning. Sit with your texture for a moment, babe. Then let's talk." — Cerys Cross, 2098