Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rob Donoghue

@rdonoghue.bsky.social

2.5K followers 230 following 5.2K posts

Not writing nearly as much about RPGs or Agile as I would like to be.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Rob Donoghue @rdonoghue.bsky.social · May 31

Before I actually crack open Daggerheart, I want to talk about a very important related topic: THE BOX.

Because I had not been paying attention, it was only when I walked into Games & Stuff that I realized that the hardcover book came bundled with a box.

I was very curious about this.

13 14 130

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Iron Spike @ironspike.bsky.social · 20h

As a reminder: Godot is 100% free. And this is the game engine used to make Dome Keeper, Cruelty Squad, Brotato, and Cassette Beasts. It's very flexible and can produced polished, professional-quality games.

You can get it here.

godotengine.org

Godot Engine - Free and open source 2D and 3D game engine

Godot provides a huge set of common tools, so you can just focus on making your game without reinventing the wheel.

godotengine.org

2 32 120

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Evil Hat @evilhat.bsky.social · 9h

Once again, Fred brings you a look at our financials.

Fred Hicks @deadlyfredly.bsky.social · 12h

Q3 sales numbers (public-facing, primarily volume based, no strong distinction made between physical and digital sales, but still, visualization) for Evil Hat: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Archive going back to 2016 (when I switched over to doing them in Drive) drive.google.com/drive/folder...

2025Q3 Quarterly Numbers for Evil Hat

docs.google.com

11 31

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Ashley Hankinstein Illustration 🌙 @ashleydoesartstuff.com · 10h

Hey there, #PortfolioDay!

I'm Ashley, an artist who works on book covers, TTRPG's, and tarot cards. I thought today I'd show y'all two of my fav pieces that I just saw are in the wild~ 💚

Done for the @oldgodspod.bsky.social TTRPG with @montecookgames.com

#DigitalArt | #MyArt | #DarkArt

A tall young man leans forward on a countertop of a market stall, face close to the seated young woman who runs it. They are deep in conversation. We see a banner for her store, "Ruth's Apothecary", and note that she is surrounded by various witchy supplies including ceremonial knives and hallucinogenic dreamer's tea.

A young woman with overalls stands yelling in the middle of a river, her arms outstretched to try and distract to shadowy monsters that have chased her and her friends to this point. Behind her, a man carries a woman in a yellow dress, who look is looking over his shoulder, terrified at what she sees. He is carrying her toward a house on top of a hill with lit windows, a beacon of hope.

3 36 120

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Brendan Keogh @brkeogh.bsky.social · 9h

Visa and Mastercard have the opportunity to do something really funny.

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 13h

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.

7 130 480

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Mark Curnell @books4maphead.bsky.social · 14h

9 19

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Olivia Hill @machineiv.bsky.social · 13h

Oooooo I talked to Rascal about #iHunt and punk rock and film and stuff you should check it out.

Rascal News @rascal.news · 16h

"We’re out here doing the Black Flag and NOFX and Bad Religion of roleplaying games."

@machineiv.bsky.social and the crew behind an #iHunt short film have big aspirations for the scrappy, satirical tabletop RPG all about a monster hunting gig economy.

#iHunt’s monster hunting gig economy stalks onto the screen

Turning a punk satire RPG into a transmedia project.

www.rascal.news

12 31

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Elizabeth Little @liz-shrikestudio.bsky.social · 1d

gamefound.com/en/projects/...

Oh, right, this goes live today. I should probably say something.

You Will Die In This Place by Shrike Studio - Gamefound

You Will Die In This Place is a nihilistic survival-horror dungeon crawl TTRPG about exile, decay, and the inevitability of death.

gamefound.com

6 74 180

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Fernando Salvaterra @salvaterra.bsky.social · 18h

Hi #PortfolioDay! 🎨

I'm a fantasy cartographer from Brazil working on hand-drawn maps for novels and RPGs.

I have a Patreon with maps + stock art for indie RPGs.

💼 cara.app/salvaterra
🗺️ www.patreon.com/tomeofsalvat...
+🔗 fernandosalvaterra.carrd.co

#cartography #ttrpg

fantasy map illustration depicting a landscape full of ragged mountains up and down, crossed by crooked roads, some on giant stone structures. There is a valley with hills and woods to the south, a desert with wretched lands just east of it, wetlands to the west and east with flooded cities and temples, snowy plains to the northeast with a giant skeleton and tree and an impossibly tall mountain in the northwest whose peak is obscured by dark clouds.

a fantasy map illustration depicting a continent with a bigger mainland and a large island to the west of it. the biomes go from snowy mountains, a vast wetland, grasslands with many hills. the prevalent features here is that it is crossed by many rivers in all directions and it is surrounded by a the shades of a vast submarine landscape that where part of this land before a big flood catastrophe.

colourful drawing of an island crossed by a mountain range, rivers and forests scattered around.

a planar map in the shape of a compass rose. The direction arrows are the four classical elemental planes with the material plane in the centre and several layers of other planes of existence around it.

5 79 190

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 1d

“No Kings” is great , but we really don't get a functioning democracy back until we internalize, bone deep, the instinctive response to this and every other statement like it: “I don’t care what that rich guy thinks.”

Make it your morning affirmation. Say it ten times at the top of every hour.

The Independent @the-independent.com · 1d

Elon Musk calls for US troops to be sent to San Francisco for war on drugs: ‘It’s the only solution’

Musk demands US troops be sent to San Francisco for war on drugs

www.independent.co.uk

120 980 3.5K

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Fred Hicks @deadlyfredly.bsky.social · 1d

Rob Wieland's first email to me was on Sat, Oct 21, 2006, asking to get the PDF of Spirit of the Century to go with his physical-copy purchase.

There since the beginning.

Wish he could've been there until the end.

Cover of Fate Worlds Volume 2: Worlds in Shadow, featuring cover art taken from Rob Wieland's contribution to this book, the amazing King-Arthur-in-Mech-Suits CAMELOT Trigger setting. Armored mech-knights suit up to face the robotic horde led by the giant-floating-head MerGN-A!

In this interior image from CAMELOT Trigger, we get a closer look at the giant floating head MerGN-A as her mouth opens to disgorge endless flying robots.

Writing credit:

CAMELOT TRIGGER
by Rob Wieland
editing by Tom Cadorette, Mike Olson, and Brian Engard
art by Brett Barkley

14 95

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Worldcon In Memoriam @wcinmemoriam.bsky.social · 1d

Game designer Rob Wieland (b.1978) died on October 12. He worked on Shadowrun, Star Wars Saga Edition, Firefly, and Vampire: The Masquerade. Wieland hosted the Theatre of the Mind Players livestream and wrote for Geek & Sundry, Dicebreaker, and Forbes.

1 15 61

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

ＧＥＲＧ @sgoa.st · 2d

you don't have forever. do cool shit with your friends now.

@robowieland.bsky.social forever.

rob wieland DMing a ttrpg on a fundraising stream we ran back in 2019. rob is explaining to two other people on screen how greg's roll meant his character did a cool flip in a plane and killed a bunch of nazis.

rob on a fundraising stream from 2020, cackling at greg fucking up a challenge and inadvertently killing two player characters in the process.

rob smiling behind greg and vee at their wedding as they complete their vows and just before he declares them husband and wife.

rob, vee, greg, and their siblings celebrating in the basement after the ceremony and moments after signing the paperwork to make it official.

6 57

Rob Donoghue @rdonoghue.bsky.social · 2d

Fuck

Tom Lommel @tomlommel.com · 2d

Gutted to hear about the passing of @robowieland.bsky.social today.
He wrote games, wrote about games, and was a smart, passionate advocate for the TTRPG hobby. Gone too young.

1 11

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

The Ghost of Moose Johnson @pseudo310.bsky.social · 2d

octaNe. Success on a dice roll meaning that you got to narrate the outcome was a huge 🤯 for me.

Thought Punks 🎲 TTRPGs + Punk 👩‍🎤 @thoughtpunks.com · 2d

For tons of folks, there was that -one- game that blew the doors open and showed what #TTRPGs could be. The one that started the #IndieGame rabbit hole.

What was YOUR "gateway" indie #TTRPG? The first one that made you realize a whole other world was out there?

1 13

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 2d

This is what social media was *supposed* to be for: expert deep dives. And porn, of course.

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 2d

This two-parter below is exactly why it's hard to make clothes in the United States.

Let's look at how much it costs to produce a button-up shirt in the US. 🧵

Someone on Twitter replies to me: "meh. buy american or stfu."

Two hours later, in a separate thread, the write: "$30 for a single button-up is ridiculous unless it is decent quality silk."

6 42 210

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Adam Jury @adamjury.com · 2d

I too thought this said "I'm Not Your Personal Trainer" AND I thought it was a Traveller supplement.

Daniel Solis @danielsolis.bsky.social · 2d

Design tip: The font Futura is drawn with geometric shapes and minimalist features, which makes it especially prone to confusing lowercase a and o.

I thought this said "I'm Not Your Personal Trainer"
#typography #graphicdesign

5 7 52

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Tony DiTerlizzi @diterlizzi.bsky.social · Aug 26

To my delight, we've receive requests for signed prints from a couple of the images from my "Stuff I Did in the '80s" series. I've spruced them up a bit and will post a link to order in the coming weeks.🎨

3 9 82

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Marguerite @marguerites.bsky.social · 2d

How exciting on so many fronts, but @cemurphy.bsky.social and @aptshadow.bsky.social as guests?! How wonderful!

See you all in Cork next October, I hope.

2025.octocon.com/announcing-o...

Announcing - Octocon 2026 - Octocon 2025

Octocon is delighted to announce our 2026 venue and guests of honour! Clayton Hotel Cork City and Online Saturday 3rd October - Sunday 4th October, 2026

2025.octocon.com

2 6 12

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Molly Knight @mollyknight.bsky.social · 2d

Whistling when ICE is about to kidnap someone for no reason is incredibly effective. They know what they are doing is wrong and will scatter in the wind when too many witnesses gather.

FORM A CROWD
STAY LOUD
PROTECT EACH OTHER
CODE I:
ICE NEARBY
BLOW QUICKLY IN A BROKEN RHYTHM:
PRE-PRE-PRE!
→ ALERTS THE COMMUNITY THAT ICE AGENTS ARE IN THE AREA.
ROGERS PARK WHISTLE PROTOCOLS
WHY A WHISTLE? ON THE STREETS
• A SIMPLE TOOL FOR FAST ALERTS.
• LOUD.
RECOGNIZABLE.
IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE.
• OUR VOICES ARE
STRONGER TOGETHER.
WHISTLES GUIDE
PEOPLE TO:
• FOLLOW ICE CARAVANS
• CATCH UP WITH THE CROWD
• ALERT NEIGHBORS
TO JOIN IN
NOISE = VISIBILITY.
CODE 2:
CODE RED
BLOW THREE LONG BLASTS:
PREEEE-PREEEE-PREEEE!
→ ICE IS DETAINING SOMEONE.
FORM A CROWD, STAY LOUD.
DON'T STAY SILENT. STAY NONVIOLENT.
WHY IT WORKS
• INSTANT ALERT
SYSTEM
• FASTER THAN SOCIAL MEDIA
• TURNS SILENCE INTO COMMUNITY
ACTION
ORIGINAL FLYER CREATED BY:
WHAT YOU CAN DO
• WEAR YOUR WHISTLE AROUND YOUR NECK
TEACH FAMILY
EIGHBORS TH
CODES
• USE IT WHEN ICE IS
SPOTTED
• PROTECT EACH OTHER, ALWAYS
TOGETHER, WE KEEP OUR COMMUNITY SAFE.
FORM A CROWD, STAY LOUD.
THIS FLYER DISTRIBUTED BY:
PROTECT RP
• @PROTECTRP_

82 2.9K 5.8K

Reposted by Rob Donoghue

Dan Larson @danlarson.bsky.social · 8d

I got the email notification about this from Spreadshirt last week and promptly deleted my account. If you have one, you should too.

Michael Dashow @mdashow.bsky.social · Aug 19

Warning to anyone who has their art on Spreadshirt.com: They now have a feature where anyone can remix your art and it's impossible to opt out unless you just leave the site altogether.

Spreadshirt to artists: We’re taking your designs for AI pivot-to-ai.com/2025/08/19/s...

Spreadshirt to artists: We’re taking your designs for AI

Spreadshirt is an online print-on-demand store. You can sell T-shirts and mugs and so on. My wife Arkady Rose is an artist as well as a musician, and had a pile of designs on Spreadshirt and Redbub…

pivot-to-ai.com

11 560 610

Rob Donoghue @rdonoghue.bsky.social · 2d

I’m definitely biased in that I would buy a new edition of Horrified at the drop of a hat, so the D&D branding is mostly a curiosity in this case. But we shall see!

Rob Donoghue @rdonoghue.bsky.social · 2d

The risk is that they end up too unpredictable or swingy, and make it frustrating to try to play a character and HOPE for the right roll. Gonna have to play to find out, I suppose.

Rob Donoghue @rdonoghue.bsky.social · 2d

The biggest risk with these games is that they can turn into a solvable puzzle. Randomization can offer some surprises, but a certain kind of player can start directing the whole table because they have seen the 8 step path to victory. Random abilities mess with that.

1 3

Rob Donoghue @rdonoghue.bsky.social · 2d

Usually, in one of these games, characters are very similar but have a unique option for how to spend their action. In this, that has been replaced with a d20 roll with multiple possible effects.

This is what I’m MOST curious about.

1 2

Rob Donoghue @rdonoghue.bsky.social · 2d

Each set had multiple monsters, and you play against a combination of them, so there’s decent replay. D&D is a decent conceptual match, so I’m curious how it will play out. Biggest change appears to be in the characters.

1 1