Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 4h

Ran a #horror one shot today inspired by #FNAF
Player was shocked I let them run out the front door
Thought they'd be clever & lit the building on fire
Then they all went home
So I rolled randomly to see which PC's house all the half-burned possessed animatronics showed up at that night...
#ttrpg

a close up of a brown teddy bear with a black hat on

ALT: a close up of a brown teddy bear with a black hat on

media.tenor.com

3

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 7h

I really need to come back and watch this. Everything I've seen him has been phenomenal roleplaying and storytelling
I'm already so hyped to get into all the layers of his new CR character

1

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 7h

So this is only the second time I've been irritated to the point of negativity about a game we ran for local nerd stuff. The session itself went fine but would have run infinitely smoother on Kids on Bikes. It turned out in spite of, not because of, the mechanics

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 1d

It's not fully rational but after years of running new systems every month, crunchy character building + a lack of pregen characters sends me into a blind fury. I'm bout to just replace this with Monster of the Week and literally run the same one shot I had planned 😡
#MotW #PbtA

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 1d

The game for this month's Library #TTRPG Day doesn't have any pregens and has a like skill point/skill tree leveling system. There goes my night

1

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 7h

I think there's something here about TTRPGs assuming that it is always a years long campaign where every player is gonna buy a book & learn the branching skill paths & all the mechanics & all the weird dice interactions and so good information aesthetic doesn't matter because you'll memorize it all

1

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 1d

I got up to 30 counting by specific titles. My gut says it's probably over 50 even w/o mobile, remakes, JP only and Square Enix produced FF-likes. Way more if you count paid MMO expansions and the new 7 remakes which are kind of different games

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 1d

Next Spooky Season we run Monster of the Week like the good lord intended
#ttrpg #motw #pbta

a car is driving down a street at night

ALT: a car is driving down a street at night

media.tenor.com

2

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 1d

The abilities are too long for their form fillable character sheet so I'm having to edit each one so they don't print illegibly small 🤦‍♂️

1 2

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 1d

It's not fully rational but after years of running new systems every month, crunchy character building + a lack of pregen characters sends me into a blind fury. I'm bout to just replace this with Monster of the Week and literally run the same one shot I had planned 😡
#MotW #PbtA

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 1d

The game for this month's Library #TTRPG Day doesn't have any pregens and has a like skill point/skill tree leveling system. There goes my night

a close up of a man 's face with the words the boys on the bottom right

ALT: a close up of a man 's face with the words the boys on the bottom right

media.tenor.com

1 1

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 1d

The game for this month's Library #TTRPG Day doesn't have any pregens and has a like skill point/skill tree leveling system. There goes my night

a close up of a man 's face with the words the boys on the bottom right

ALT: a close up of a man 's face with the words the boys on the bottom right

media.tenor.com

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 1d

Again, a totally wild swing & I don't have a ton of faith in it. That being said I will absolutely claim it for my own workings if it doesn't turn out to be accurate 😅
Divine Deathmasks that preserve a part of their spirit after death is, as the kids say, metal AF
(and who would be the other mask?)

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 1d

Haven't finished #CriticalRole episode 2 yet but it would be hilarious and not out of character for Taleisin to be playing a god or vessel of a god who is working as the curator for a museum archive about how they were killed
#ttrpg #dnd #CriticalRoleSpoilers #spoilers

1 3

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 1d

You might think you are immune to the noise sensitivity element of ADHD and then you get a kid and they start 4 different noise making toys at once and then keeps playing them for 4 hours straight
On a related note I had thought of an important #Godfall ability and now its totally gone 😬
#ttrpg #dnd

1

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 1d

Grace of the Gods is definitely one of my comfort watches. It's just super chill and sweet. Instead of taking over the world he just wants to start some ethically managed laundry businesses 😅

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 1d

Such academia energy. The bigger deal you are the less you are bound by phones and emails. Our big name professor emeritus at Duke Div had an assistant who fielded all professional contact and he was otherwise unreachable. Ironically I sold him a secret cell phone when I briefly worked at Best buy

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 1d

It's hard to convince myself that paying more for what I'm currently paying nothing (additional) is worthwhile. But jeez, I just pulled the half-watched Thursday video back up on Twitch to finish and it takes like 5 click throughs just to get back and the subtitles are tiny

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 2d

This might be a low key #CriticalRoleSpoilers theory but I'm not sure whatever is happening is quite that complicated or that the world has the metaphysics for that to happen

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 2d

Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh. Demons gathering humanoids to start a cult and protecting and guiding the believers so that their fervor generates a new deity. Either in a form that is advantageous to them or something they can devour
#ttrpg #dnd

1

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 2d

With decades of greater confidence and TTRPG and public speaking experience I'd love to go back and do some kind of group reading now to try and bring more of that energy to it. I might have to look into that eventually

1

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 2d

Random thing I noticed here, I feel like Brennan uses a lot more volume range than Matt and he really likes emphasizing things by going like medium, medium-loud, whisper. It's making the whole table be more volume dynamic but it feels like the sound tech isn't keeping up and is losing them sometimes

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 2d

My secret #Borderlands4 skill is dying after I've already killed the boss
If an explosive can bounce back at me, if a DoT can take that last sliver of health, if a random minion can dive bomb me and explode, I'll find it 😂

a cartoon character wearing a gas mask with the words close enough below him

ALT: a cartoon character wearing a gas mask with the words close enough below him

media.tenor.com

1

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 2d

If all I really care about is the #CriticalRole main campaign and campaign related content is Beacon really giving me my money's worth? I find the Twitch interface abysmal but it's also free with Prime and maybe I can just live with the inconveniences
#ttrpg #dnd

1

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 2d

Full video link in thread! I'm definitely bookmarking this to watch later. This is an incredible feat of translation without changing a single word. The juxtaposition of Shakespearean dialogue and a flawlessly delivered TGIF family sitcom tone is some masterwork craftsmanship by these performers

chira 🎋 @artofchira.bsky.social · Jun 1

whenever i encounter people who say they can't understand shakespeare verses I always send them this clip from the 2019 Shakespeare in the Park production of Much Ado About Nothing

1 9 28

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 2d

I feel like a lot of folks lock in to that version of being like 13 sitting in a lit class and everyone reading a Shakespeare play very badly out loud with no context or emotion or understanding and that stains their remembrance forever

2 2

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 2d

My Echo Knight got to do a teleporting rough house play session with a friendly Blink Dog he rescued and honestly that's a better reward than most uncommon magic items 😂
#ttrpg #dnd

a person in a unicorn costume is standing next to a small dog

ALT: a person in a unicorn costume is standing next to a small dog

media.tenor.com

1

Colby Whittaker (Hagiologist) @hagiologist.bsky.social · 2d

When you're ride or die for your friend but also this time they're actually totally in the right

two power rangers are standing next to each other on a field .

Alt: Black Mighty Morphin Ranger clasping hands with Black Space Ranger

media.tenor.com