Keith Ammann 🔜 GameStorm

I appreciate being able to turn them off with a single toggle, but Firefox has some nerve referring to these slop functions as "enhancements."

Horror Tactics - The Monsters Know What They’re Doing Horrors are barely sentient living nightmares pressed into service by the guilds of Ravnica to stalk and, occasionally, kill their enemies.

Living nightmares: tactics of the horrors of Ravnica. #DnD

A brown penguin chick of some kind. It looks very much like a man in a suit. It is bedraggled and miserable

Made it to Friday but at what cost

The image shows a rectangular Roman dice tower (turricula) made of four copper alloy (bronze) plates with punched cut-out Latin letters and cut-out decorative patterns. At the bottom front is a stepped exit chute with small bronze bells attached to the opening. The tower is a Roman anti-cheating device. It has an open top and is hollow inside except for three staggered, downward-sloping plates, designed to randomize dice as they fall, ensuring unpredictable dice rolls. When the dice rolled out of the exit chute they rang the bells! There is a decorative dolphin either side of the stepped exit chute. The top of the front plate has two decorative pine cone finials. Height 25 cm. There is a single die shown next to the stepped base to illustrate how it was used. The front inscription reads: PICTOS VICTOS HOSTIS DELETA LVDITE SECVRI Translated as: ‘The Picts defeated, the enemy has been destroyed, play in safety’. Around the top of the three remaining sides, a second inscription made with cut out letters reads: ‘UTERI/FELIX/VIVAS’ translated as ‘Use happily; may you live well’. Found at a Roman villa at Froitzheim in Germany in 1985.

Roman anti-cheating gaming accessory!

This Roman ‘turricula’ (dice tower) was used to ensure a fair roll of the dice! 🎲🎲🎲

Dice dropped into the top, tumbled over sloping internal levels, and appeared randomly below.

From Froitzheim, Germany, AD 300-400

📷 LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn

#Archaeology

Precisely.

Also not included: any Chinese actor, nor any actor who could pronounce their Chinese lines.

I loved the show when it came out, because I love genre mashups of all kinds, and it did quite a few things right. But a lot of water has passed under that bridge, too. And I don't miss it anymore.

That picture includes two characters who were killed off, an actor who passed away 10 years ago, an actor with retch-inducing political views, and three-maybe-six actors who no longer need this show to call themselves successful.

Not included: the creator who's since repeatedly shown his whole ass.

QsotN:

"Slap of guidance!"

"Maybe they're just normal nuisances, like badgers." #DnD #TTRPGQuotes

Making Enemies — Spy & Owl A treasury of ideas for inventing all-new abominations for player characters to confront.

Yo-HO! March fo(u)rth! It's #InternationalGMsDay! And what better way to show your GMs your appreciation than another book for their groaning, overburdened shelves?

MAKING ENEMIES is a deep dive into monster creation, a treasury of ideas for inventing all-new abominations for PCs to confront.

If you run fantasy #TTRPG games (or are just a fan of them) and you haven't picked up Keith's catalog of books, you are missing out!

They are indispensible residents of my shelf!

A rakshasa tears at the throat of a dragonborn paladin in plate armor, while a gnome barbarian with an absurdly large axe looks on, scared and unable to move herself to intervene.

And keep your eyes peeled this year for a newly updated and enhanced edition of a title previously hailed as "the fourth core book of D&D" …

How to Defend Your Lair — Spy & Owl A guide to applying principles of building security and area defense to create strongholds infused with flavor, informed by narrative, and complex enough to force players to think strategically.

HOW TO DEFEND YOUR LAIR is a guide to using real-world principles of building security and area defense to construct villain and monster lairs. Say goodbye to encounters in randomly generated dungeons and hello to a game in which where the fight takes place is just as important as the fight itself.

Making Enemies — Spy & Owl A treasury of ideas for inventing all-new abominations for player characters to confront.

Yo-HO! March fo(u)rth! It's #InternationalGMsDay! And what better way to show your GMs your appreciation than another book for their groaning, overburdened shelves?

MAKING ENEMIES is a deep dive into monster creation, a treasury of ideas for inventing all-new abominations for PCs to confront.

What it is Like to Accidentally be Trapped in a Country at War

By Zack Davisson

Hey! You seen on the news of evacuation orders for Americans whose vacation was suddenly disrupted by a little war as a treat? Well, it happened to me too.

Gather round for story time! Destination, EGYPT!!!

(1)

It wasn't ONLY because of her age.

When we talk about Baby Boomers not getting off the stage: In 1997, the US president was born in 1946.

In 2007, the US president was born in 1946.

In 2017, the US president was born in 1946.

And next year in 2027? The US president will have been born in 1946.

Current events confirm the achieved wisdom of time-honored classics in the social sciences.

I would like to reiterate: To Donald Trump, words do not have MEANING. They have UTILITY. They are things he uses to get what he wants, and that's the only thing they're for. He pushes buttons and sees whether or not the little machine dispenses some cocaine. That is what communication is for him.

This image is credited to photographer Lutajuci Putnik (IG: @lutajuci_putnik). In a narrow valley surrounded by forested hills and rocky cliffs is a medieval fortress. Its tall walls are marked with high, square towers. At the center is a Serbian monastery with incredibly shiny domed rooves.

This image is credited to Luka Esenko.

This image is credited to Luka Esenko.

This image is credited to Zlatovo (Wikimedia Commons).

Manasija Monastery, nestled in the green mountains of Despotovac, was founded in 1406. During the 16th century, it became a center of learning and produced numerous illuminated tomes.

#art #writingcommunity #photography #dnd #writing #ttrpg
📷️: Lutajuci Putnik; Luka Esenko; & Zlatovo

Their weekends are more sacred to them than their oath of office.

The trouble with characterizing them this way is that we glamorize many of the most apt comparisons—Vikings, pirates, gangsters, etc. Calling them those names wouldn't come off as a put-down. They'd wear them as badges of pride. And "vandals" has lost its punch.

But "brigands" is out there.

Ta-Nehisi Coates hit upon the perfect word to describe what Trump and the Republican Party are doing to America: "plunder."

This administration is made up of raiders. They loot the government, demand tribute at swordpoint, abduct innocents, burn down what they can't take. Some are literal rapists.

People say what's the point of impeachment? It'll fail.

The War Powers resolution will possibly (probably?) fail as well, like the Venezuelan War Powers resolution.

You push for both because both are required responses to the illegality we're facing.

I'm glad they're all pushing for a vote on the Khanna/Massie War Powers resolution.

I think they should similarly get behind impeachment.

Thank you for this statement. As a constituent, I ask you to uphold your oath of office and file articles of impeachment first thing Monday morning—whether the minority leader approves or not.

Trump has figured out that he can do any goddamn thing he wants on a Friday night because Congress doesn't work weekends and leaves no one to answer the phones.

It'd sure be nice if Democrats figured this out, too. It's not as though we haven't gathered enough data points.

See, now, this is why "Move fast and break things" is generally less desirable than your common or garden-variety "Move at a reasonable pace and try not to break things."

Dimir NPC Tactics - The Monsters Know What They’re Doing House Dimir is a guild of secret agents and shadowy horrors. If its members end up in a head-to-head fight, they’ve done something wrong.

How to win without fighting: Dimir NPC tactics. #DnD