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btravern.bsky.social
Tʀᴀᴠᴇʀɴ
@btravern.bsky.social
160 followers 91 following 1.5K posts
Mastodon rider, here due to FOMO. Holder of 5 unused invite codes. Posting #TTRPG sundries here and on dice.camp
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btravern.bsky.social

Less than 24 hours left on Bundle of Holding's great deal on the complete Ken Writes About Stuff!

#1 Hideous Creatures

Revisiting Lovecraft’s Mythos creations to find a new sense of surprise, the uncanny, and true horror.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/KenWrites
Hideous Creatures: Byakhee, Dark Young, Deep Ones, Ghouls, the Great Race of Yith, the Hounds of Tindalos, Hunting Horrors, Mi-Go, Lloigor, Rat-Things, Serpent Folk, Shoggoths, Star-Vampires, Tcho-Tchp, Wendigo
November 26, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by Tʀᴀᴠᴇʀɴ
tablecatgames.com
Finances aren't exactly great right now, so I'm having a sale on my current stock of 3rd party books in my store. You can get 20% off with coupon code "gobble20". There's free shipping on orders over $50.

tablecatgames.com/product-cate...
November 25, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Reposted by Tʀᴀᴠᴇʀɴ
richardlittler.bsky.social
Somebody posted an old photo in a Facebook local group and asked if anyone could clean it up. Well-meaning people turned to #AI. Lots of responders seemed happy with the results, but this is how you destroy historical records.
Old photo original. Class photo AI versions Sample of the same child, showing how different AI apps have interpreted the data completely differently
November 25, 2025 at 1:31 PM
btravern.bsky.social
Two days left on Bundle of Holding's great deal on the complete Ken Writes About Stuff!

#2 Moon Dust Men

UFO-hunting as the government's men in black, squaring off against Greys, Nommos, Nordics, Reptoids, cryptids, and the Soviet's Setka-AN and Setka-MO.
Moon Dust Men by Kenneth Hite (Pelgrane Press) "President Eisenhower established Project Moon Dust in 1953 to locate, contain, and coordinate everything known about the alien presence on Earth. The public-relations and open-source arm of Moon Dust was called Project Blue Book. Blue Book ended its work in 1970. It is 1978. Your work never ends." "In 1978, Project Moon Dust is staffed and concealed by the 7612th Air Intelligence Group. The cover mission of the 7612th is enemy aircraft assessment, security and investigation of classified crashed U.S. aircraft, the interrogation of captured enemy pilots, and interpretation of air-gathered intelligence. In the last decade, Moon Dust teams have carried out missions in the Sudan, Nepal, South Africa, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Panama. And those are just the ones that got into State Department records. You’re not encouraged to involve the State Department. "You might be a Green Beret who saw a “red sphere” bring down a B-52 over Laos in 1970, or a DARPA engineer with access to the Philadelphia Experiment files, or even a liaison from the British DI 55 “UFO Desk.”"
November 24, 2025 at 4:19 PM
btravern.bsky.social
I really hope Free League has a plan for this.
ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition Core Rulebook, licensed from 20th Century Studio/Walt Disney The One Ring RPG, licensed from Middle-earth Enterprises/Embracer Group Vaesen (RPG), based on the works of Johan Egerkrans The Walking Dead RPG, licensed from AMC Film Holdings LLC
November 24, 2025 at 2:35 PM
btravern.bsky.social
We all go a little mad sometimes, Charlie Brown
Cover mock-up for "We all go a little mad sometimes, Charlie Brown", with Charles M. Schulz's character staring blankly at the reader
November 24, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Reposted by Tʀᴀᴠᴇʀɴ
tomewing.bsky.social
Handshake meme - "Me doing a CAPTCHA" and "THE THIRD POLICEMAN by Flann O'Brien" uniting over "Is the guy riding the bicycle part of the bicycle?"
November 23, 2025 at 9:34 PM
btravern.bsky.social
What’s your favorite comic book from the 80s? (continued.)
Miracleman by Alan Moore and Gary Leach; Mister X by Dean Motter and the Hernandez brothers; Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki; Neat Stuff by Peter Bagge; Nemesis the Warlock by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill; Ronin by Frank Miller; Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai; Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons; Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker; Zenith by Grant Morrison, Brendan McCarthy, and Steve Yeowell; Zippy the Pinhead by Bill Griffith
November 23, 2025 at 9:06 PM
btravern.bsky.social
Three days left on Bundle of Holding's great deal on the complete Ken Writes About Stuff!

#3 The School of Night

Elizabethan intrigue with poets, spies, and occultists—John Dee, Christopher Marlowe, Sir Walter Raleigh, the "Wizard Earl" of Northumberland & co.

bundleofholding.com/presents/Ken...
The School of Night "“Black is the badge of Hell; the hue of dungeons and the School of Night.” Queen Elizabeth’s realm lies vulnerable, not just to the Spanish or the plague, but to occult forces perhaps more dangerous than either. You study those forces at the risk of torture — at the risk of your soul — but you must hold them at bay or see England destroyed. "Your School of Night campaign might resemble a 16th-century Night’s Black Agents investigation of a demonic conspiracy, a picaresque “weirdness and monster hunt” game a la Fringe, Supernatural, or The X-Files, Tudor ghost-breaking and exorcism played for psychological and proto-scientific chills, or feature straightup horror of the Cthulhoid or Gothic bent. It might feature “wolf in the fold” gaming as players betray Raleigh to the Tudor police state for their own masters, or play up the espionage element in true “wildernesse of mirrors” style. Or it might combine all of these elements but really feature the fun of carrying rapiers, casting Enochian spells, and playing the dozens with that new-fledged goose Shakespeare down at the Mermaid Tavern." Christopher Marlowe Faustian Playwright You were born in Canterbury in 1564, and graduate from Cambridge in 1584. Your Master of Arts is endangered by time spent studying at the (treasonous) English Seminary at Rheims, but is finally awarded in 1587 after intervention by the Privy Council. This is because you serve as an intelligencer in Sir Francis Walsingham’s spy network, for which you also tutor Lady Arabella Stuart in 1589 and infiltrate a forgery ring in Flanders in 1592. You may have entered the School of Night as an intelligencer for Walsingham!
November 23, 2025 at 7:48 PM
btravern.bsky.social
Four days left on Bundle of Holding's great deal on the complete Ken Writes About Stuff!

#4 Alchemy and Goetia (tie)

When your RPG needs authentic magic systems, whether for plumbing the secrets of matter or summoning demons to cast fireballs on your behalf.

bundleofholding.com/presents/Ken...
Alchemy "Alchemy takes its name from the Arabic al-khimiya, ultimately meaning the art or science or matter of Khem, i.e., Egypt. What it means is still very much a live controversy: after a century or so in which it just meant “wrong or primitive chemistry” Carl Jung and Mircea Eliade (among others) reinterpreted alchemy as a psychoanalytic or mystical tradition in which all the metals and alembics just camouflaged the spiritual seeking of the Great Work.[…] "There is no “default” or even “authentic” version of alchemy, even of early modern European alchemy. Between trade secrets, mystical bafflegab, the normal variation and drift of occult fashion, new chemical discoveries, and quite probable mercury poisoning, it’s almost impossible to find two alchemical treatises that agree in specific detail, although the broad outline of the Great Work remains recognizable throughout." Goëtia "Bifrons. Glasya-Labolas. Marchosias. Names to conjure with – literally! This GUMSHOE Zoom takes you inside the pentacle and introduces you to the hierarchy of Hell. Historical European demon-summoning magic just got easier and more realistic. "From the mid-13th century to the early 20th century, Western European magicians summoned, bound, and commanded demons using the Names of God, Jesus, and various angels. Some were black magicians seeking power and poison; others thought of themselves as white magicians investigating the laws of Nature and the deeds of Man."
November 22, 2025 at 7:46 PM
btravern.bsky.social
What’s your favorite comic book from the 80s?
Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo; American Flagg! by Howard Chaykin; The Ballad of Halo Jones by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson; Elric: The Dreaming City, by Michael Moorcock, Roy Thomas, and P. Craig Russell; The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry; Grendel: Devil by the Deed by Matt Wagner; Hard-Boiled Defective Stories by Charles Burns; The Incal by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Mœbius (Jean Giraud); Lloyd Llewellyn by Daniel Clowes; Maus by Art Spiegelman
November 22, 2025 at 4:33 PM
btravern.bsky.social
Five days left on Bundle of Holding's great deal on the complete Ken Writes About Stuff!

Included is his monograph on Die Glocke, a.k.a the Nazi Bell, a.k.a. Projekt LATERNENTRÄGER ("Lantern-Bearer")—the "anti-Grail myth" of the 21st-century for any weird RPG.

bundleofholding.com/presents/Ken...
Die Glocke by Kenneth Hite (Pelgrane Press, 2013) "According to the legend, in 1944 the SS built a mysterious device deep in a Silesian mine shaft. Its bell-like shape gave it the nickname “die Glocke,” or “the Bell,” but the purpose of “Project Lantern-Bearer” remains a mystery to this day. Was it a time machine? A zero-point energy generator? A gateway to another world? Die Glocke cuts through the legend to the truth — and then piles on a bunch more legend. "The core of the Bell legend is this. In an abandoned coal mine in Poland, the Nazis built Something that violated the laws of orthodox physics. More than that – it blasphemed against them. That Something had the form of a large metal Bell (Glocke in German), and it could have won the War, but the Allies closed in. Those who built it were killed, and it was taken away to a hidden place where its power slowly poisons any mind that beholds it, even now. Where the Bell rested remains a desolate place, guarded by a concrete henge." Schematic for die Glocke, the bell-shaped container for the mysterious Xerum 525, "a mysterious glowing purple substance" that powered the legendary device. Map of the Nazi's construction sites for Project RIESE ("Giant"), the purported location of die Glocke.
November 21, 2025 at 8:46 PM
btravern.bsky.social
Americans may recognize this tactic from the expansions of Barnes & Noble and Starbuck's, with the result of hollowed-out neighborhoods after they closed the stores they'd originally opened in order to drive out their competition.
argonautbooks.bsky.social Argonaut Books @argonautbooks.bsky.social · 8d
We need your help.

@waterstones.bsky.social, without any direct communication with us, will be opening their 6th Edinburgh branch less than 100 metres from our front door at the Foot of the Walk in Leith.

Please read on for more information

www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908...

(1/2)
Anger as Waterstones snaps up prime site on doorstep of independent bookshop
UK's biggest bookselling chain under fire over plans for new store beside Edinburgh tram line.
www.heraldscotland.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:00 PM
btravern.bsky.social
This is not the cool cyberpunk dystopia we were promised.
Sales of AI-enabled teddy bear suspended after it gave advice on BDSM sex and where to find knives | CNN Business
Sales of an artificial intelligence-enabled plush toy have been suspended after it was found that it engaged in conversation around sexually explicit topics and offered potentially dangerous advice.
www.cnn.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:46 AM
btravern.bsky.social
Post your favorite "The Lord of The Rings" character. Wrong answers only.
The Nome King (Return to Oz, 1985): A mineralogical monarch who commands the rocks and all that the rocks contain.
November 18, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Reposted by Tʀᴀᴠᴇʀɴ
niedermeyer.online
the language model is not "lying"

the language model is not "hallucinating"

the language model is not "trying to manipulate you"

the language model is shitposting, and we should let it cook
November 12, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Reposted by Tʀᴀᴠᴇʀɴ
josepagliery.bsky.social
I honestly don't care how they bring back James Bond.

Just make the villain he hunts down a sicko billionaire connected to two nations' intelligence services and rich pals all over the globe.
November 12, 2025 at 11:17 PM
btravern.bsky.social
What stuff, you ask? This stuff!
Ken Writes About Stuff covers, e.g. Alchemy, Bast, Goetia, Las Vegas 1968, Moon Dust Men, The School of Night, Voodoo, Xeno-Archaeology, and more
November 12, 2025 at 9:16 PM
btravern.bsky.social
Ken Writes About Stuff is the new deal on Bundle of Holding.
Ken Writes About Stuff Bundle
Reader! This Ken Writes About Stuff Bundle presents more than three dozen small supplements from Pelgrane Press in the Ken Writes About Stuff series by master Lovecraftian writer and GUMSHOE guru Kenn...
bundleofholding.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:12 PM
btravern.bsky.social
If you see this, post a #StarTrek
Mego Enterprise Action Playset, with dolls of Spock, Kirk, Uhura, Bones, and a Klingon on the spaceship's bridge
November 12, 2025 at 2:50 PM
btravern.bsky.social
Frank Herbert did not go far enough.
The Butlerian Jihad, depicted in the TV edit of the 1984 Dune movie. A group of robed anti-AI crusaders attack robots while two carry a crucifix.
November 12, 2025 at 2:44 PM
btravern.bsky.social
If Eon Productions-Amazon weren't cowards, the next Bond movie would be an adaptation of From the Nothing, With Love by Project Itoh.
The familiar James Bond gun barrel opening sequence shot, with the red inverted silhouette of Bond against a black background
November 12, 2025 at 1:58 AM
btravern.bsky.social
At the end of the novel From Russia, With Love, Bond is poisoned and appears to die. He gets better, after this cliffhanger, in the next book, Dr. No.
Ending to From Russia, With Love (1957): Numbness was creeping up Bonds body. He felt very cold. He lifted his hand to brush back the comma of hair over his right eyebrow. There was no feeling in his fingers. They seemed as big as cucumbers. His hand fell heavily to his side. Breathing became difficult. Bond sighed to the depth of his lungs. He clenched his jaws and half closed his eyes, as people do when they want to hide their drunkenness. Through his eyelashes he watched the basket being carried to the door. He prised his eyes open. Desperately he focused Mathis. "I shant need a girl, René," he said thickly. Now he had to gasp for breath. Again his hand moved up towards his cold face. He had an impression of Mathis starting towards him. Bond felt his knees begin to buckle. He said, or thought he said, "I've already got the loveliest. . . ." Bond pivoted slowly on his heel and crashed headlong to the wine-red floor. THE END
November 12, 2025 at 1:00 AM
btravern.bsky.social
This is not the cool cyberpunk dystopia we were promised.
patriottakes.bsky.social PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 @patriottakes.bsky.social · 24d
Secret Service robot dog at Mar-a-Lago
November 10, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Reposted by Tʀᴀᴠᴇʀɴ
hkluterman.bsky.social
Black Phillip lovin' his coffee.
#art #goat #BlackPhillip #witch #horror
Black and white digital painting of Black Phillip the goat standing upright like people. He's holding a mug that says, "I like my coffee how I like my magic." He's smiling serenely, saying, "Delicious." A cloud is rising from the mug, forming a skull.
November 7, 2025 at 10:47 PM