I heard 1d6 flies buzz when I died
10.03.2026 22:06
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I heard 1d6 flies buzz when I died
Reading @idraluna-archives.bsky.social's Zurth hexcrawl and I'm thrilled. There's like a minimum of 10 good ideas per page.
I'm Zurthpilled. I'm a Zurthhead. I'm standing on the street asking strangers if they heard of Zurth
Man-at-arms
Happy birthday fellow Chicagoan!
I see the appeal to keep players on their toes but why bother when there are plenty of other things doing that already.
I imagine because dungeon architecture carries and distorts sound that dungeons actually having a lot of ambient noise. Sounds of combat just get mixed in with everything else
Orc raiders
New month, new newsletter. Talking about why I didn't blog this month haha
Also including a ton of links to posts I found interesting!
elmc.at/catmail-2/
The Coen brothers have such a talent for creating overwhelming malicious and magnetic villains
The Coen brothers have such a talent for creating overwhelming malicious and magnetic villains
(Now feel free to tell me why I'm wrong)
My preference is for a fail-state table with some neutral results ("wake up in bed next to someone!") and maybe a positive one ("gambling wins!") over a general table with careful balance of negatives and positives that every carouser rolls on every time. I crave DYNAMISM.
Rolling on a table is fun of course, BUT the old way hits harder because it gives carousing higher stakes (through chance of failure) while also making failure its own sort of reward (through letting you roll on a silly mishap table).
Hot take on a niche topic: Carousing MISHAPS are better than general "carousing tables." The drift from rolling on a table of silly mishaps if you fail your save(/whatever) to just having a general table you roll on every time a PC carouses has watered down what makes carousing fun.
Turning Bluesky posts into a blog
"Kolda Cracker of Bones" is what they called me in high school
See also @forlornencystment.bsky.social post about minimalist location sketches. This should be taught in public schools forlornencystment.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-...
If you're ever worried about your settlements being underprepped, remember that people used to run years-long campaigns with Wilderlands of High Fantasy which described towns like this:
"Boblin the goblin" isn't a direct reference, rather a stand-in for the trend of treating goblins as goofy cutesy mascot characters (see also "gerblins," "gobbos").
The cutesy goblin on its own is fine, if a little low-effort & saccharine. But it's a tired trope and IMO it's overstayed its welcome
The Coen brothers are the only living directors that could pull off Nabokov, but then again I think they're the only ones that could pull off any "impossible to adapt" American literary authors, namely Cormac McCarthy & Pynchon (sorry PTA). IMO they get it like no one else does
I'm glad someone has the courage to speak out against Boblin the Goblin because that has got to go
Additionally in designing a game not to my like you committed an unforgivable moral transgression that compromises all your current, past, and future endeavors
Oh, you thought The Bloggies were over? The Bloggies haven't ended. They might never end.
Vote in the Bonus categories this week!
Ballot: forms.gle/d6YbnUqiuypv...
www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/
you get it
My home game is fairly orthodox human-centered BX, but now a different group wants me to run for them I'm going totally opposite. Play whatever you want. Sexy vampire. half-demon. Human-size mech with tiny pilot. Sentient pile of worms. Hell yeah. Just no bards.
Assassin 33 A.D.?? I heard it's a surprisingly decent entry in the christploitation canon
Ten Types of Special Rooms is in the final! Vote for that and both entries with Colonial in the title if you want a special prize (my admiration)
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
It would have been a hollow victory had your post not been such a formidable challenger!
The 10 Types of Special Rooms is in round three? Can we keep the dream alive? Only with your support.
Join me on the path to glory. WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR CHAINS.
Something I like about the Dying Earth series is that Jack Vance calls deodands and grues and the like half-men. Much stronger than D&D's "humanoid."
Calling orcs half-men has a kind of haunting & tragic weight to it whereas calling them humanoids sounds like you're about to bring out the calipers
How about just Analysis?
I also like Reasoning as a counterpart to Cunning