Ronan@Thedicepool
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thedicepool.bsky.social
Ronan@Thedicepool
@thedicepool.bsky.social
460 followers 1.3K following 210 posts
I’m Ronan (he/him,) an RPG enthusiast from Ireland. I run thedicepool.com blog, part of the Woodpaneled.org webring. I write about TTRPGs and related stuff.
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ellisjrosen.bsky.social
Cartoon for @airmail.news
January 28, 2026 at 6:15 PM
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loottheroom.bsky.social
Blood In The Margins is dark academia, Wretched & Alone style. You and your friends killed someone on campus. Now you're journaling about who they were, why they had to die, and how you're covering it up while investigators close in.

https://loottheroom.itch.io/blood-in-the-margins
Blood In The Margins by Chris Bissette
Dark academia, wretched & alone
loottheroom.itch.io
January 28, 2026 at 3:58 AM
Reposted by Ronan@Thedicepool
ndrew.bsky.social
i have just gotten off a productive call with sauron where i laid out our requests

- nazgul bodycams
- morgul knife must remain sheathed unless suspect is determined to be carrying the one ring
- shelob will be the new point of contact
January 27, 2026 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Ronan@Thedicepool
glennyrodge.bsky.social
My favourite Madonna song is that one where she explains to a bloke what a border is. Like a Verge, Jim.
👀
January 27, 2026 at 8:24 PM
Reposted by Ronan@Thedicepool
usili.bsky.social
Bilbo looking at his phone top on bottom is ChatGPT After all, why not? Why shouldn't I keep it? You're absolutely right — you found it, it's been with you a long while, and it's only natural to feel fond of something that's served you so well, especially when someone like Gandalf suddenly seems to want it for himself.
January 28, 2026 at 1:51 AM
Reposted by Ronan@Thedicepool
loottheroom.bsky.social
All my games are on sale. I'd like to pay my bills.
loottheroom.bsky.social Chris Bissette 🐻🌈 @loottheroom.bsky.social · 4d
Hello. It's my final week as a full time game designer, and as if to underline why I can't do this anymore, I currently can't afford to cover my bills at the end of the month.

All of my work on itch is on sale. Tell your friends, buy something, thank you very much.

itch.io/s/179351/jan...
January
A bundle by Chris Bissette, £150.00 for 60 games
itch.io
January 27, 2026 at 11:02 AM
Reposted by Ronan@Thedicepool
thechindividual.bsky.social
I should really bookmark fascinating TTRPG blog posts, instead of realising two months later I read something really cool I would like to re-read, and then having no way of finding it again 😭
January 24, 2026 at 8:07 PM
thedicepool.bsky.social
New post on the dice pool dot com. This week, I’m taking a break from the Sutra to discuss a Spire one-shot I ran this week. It was a well put-together scenario from a book called Shadow Operations from @rowanrookanddecard.bsky.social

thedicepool.com/2026/01/24/j...
Jailbreak – A Spire One-shot
Break Time Our Blades in the Dark campaign is going well. We’ve only had three sessions but the players are moving the plot forward all on their own and are developing their characters in unusual a…
thedicepool.com
January 24, 2026 at 4:50 PM
thedicepool.bsky.social
Just backed Dungeon, Inc. from the Merry Mushmen on Kickstarter. Looks like a fun reversal of the usual dungeon crawl where you play the employees of the mega dungeon dealing with bothersome adventurers! But it’s also got added office politics during downtime…
www.kickstarter.com/projects/896...
Dungeon, Inc.
A reverse dungeon TTRPG by the Merry Mushmen
www.kickstarter.com
January 20, 2026 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Ronan@Thedicepool
grahamwalmsley.bsky.social
Cthulhu Dark is now back in print and available from @allrolledup.bsky.social . It has a ribbon now!

www.allrolledup.co.uk/product/cthu...
www.allrolledup.co.uk
January 19, 2026 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Ronan@Thedicepool
francfrancfranc.bsky.social
The #hovelsjam26 now has KICKASS FUCKIN ART BY @hodagrpg.bsky.social

SIGN UP NOW WINNER GETS A SHILLING

itch.io/jam/swyvers-...
Woodcut style BW illustration of a tudor style mansion in the countryside, on fire. Title text: "HEISTABLE HOVELS" BW engraving style image of a house on fire. Two orphans escape from the front door with a live hen. Two rat men are stuffing a cheese wheel into a drain. Two criminals are rappelling from the window with an oil painting
January 18, 2026 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Ronan@Thedicepool
glennyrodge.bsky.social
In these challenging times someone might need one of them:
Childline: 0800 1111
Samaritans: 116 123
Domestic Violence Hotline: 0808 2000 247
Mind: 0300 123 3393
Age UK: 0800 169 6565
Alcoholics Anonymous : 0800 9177 650
Cruse Bereavement Care: 0808 808 1677
MH text support: 85258
January 18, 2026 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by Ronan@Thedicepool
rebeccasolnit.bsky.social
Córy Doctorow with another verbal bullseye: pluralistic.net/2026/01/13/n...
I'm sorry. As a technology writer, I'm supposed to be telling you that this bet will some day pay off, because one day we will have shoveled so many words into the word-guessing program that it wakes up and learns how to actually do the jobs it is failing spectacularly at today. This is a proposition akin to the idea that if we keep breeding horses to run faster and faster, one of them will give birth to a locomotive. Humans possess intelligence, and machines do not. The difference between a human and a word-guessing program isn't how many words the human knows. I'm sorry. I know that when we talk about "digital sovereignty," we're obliged to talk about how we can build more data-centres that we can fill up with money-losing chips from American silicon monopolists in the hopes of destroying as many jobs as possible while blowing through our clean energy goals and enshittifying as much of our potable water as possible.
January 18, 2026 at 5:29 PM
thedicepool.bsky.social
New post on the dice pool dot com! Today, it’s Wonderland, the next scenario in the Sutra of Pale Leaves 1908s Japan campaign for CoC. It’s got real horror and the 1980s fear of computers and games all wrapped up in one neatish package. Check out my write-up:

thedicepool.com/2026/01/18/t...
The Sutra of Pale Leaves, Wonderland
The Sutra Continues This is the sixth in a series of posts on the Sutra of Pale Leaves, the Call of Cthulhu campaign set in 1980s Japan. Go check out my previous posts on the subject here. Cyberspa…
thedicepool.com
January 18, 2026 at 3:30 PM
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glennyrodge.bsky.social
Hats off to whoever did this (and the beautiful model).
One of those captcha things. This one says ‘select all images with bicycles. Click verify once there are none left’. There are 9 squares - 4 contain photos of bicycle seats, with the remaining 5 showing the beautiful head and face of a grey greyhound with a white stripe going from the top of their head to the tip of their nose.
January 16, 2026 at 8:18 AM
Reposted by Ronan@Thedicepool
grahamwalmsley.bsky.social
This makes me very, very happy. I've spent a happy few days reading it, tweaking it and remembering how good it is.

Yes it's been that long.
The cover of a book called Play Unsafe, labelled 20th Anniversary Edition.
January 12, 2026 at 7:05 PM
thedicepool.bsky.social
New post on the dice pool dot com! I’m still in 1980s Japan. I’m now on the 2nd book in the Sutra of Pale Leaves campaign, Carcosa Manifest and I’m looking at the first scenario in it. Love the cover of this book! #ttrpg #rpg #callofcthulhu #thesutraofpaleleaves

thedicepool.com/2026/01/11/t...
The Sutra of Pale Leaves, The Bridge Maiden, Part One
Carcosa Manifest Carcosa Manifest Carcosa Spread We have left Twin Suns Rising in the past, dear reader. Things can only get darker from here. Today, we move onto the second and final book in the S…
thedicepool.com
January 11, 2026 at 11:02 AM
Reposted by Ronan@Thedicepool
grahamwalmsley.bsky.social
Cthulhu Dark was made for people to publish their own stuff, so it's great to see this. If you'd like to publish something using Cthulhu Dark, drop me a line.
tomboilacroix.bsky.social Tomboi LaCroix (She/Fae) @tomboilacroix.bsky.social · 23d
The day is finally here! My first scenario for Cthulhu Dark, The Last Stop, is up for sale!

In celebration The Last Stop will be at a sale price for the first month! Don't snooze on this adventure!

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...
January 8, 2026 at 8:14 AM
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tomboilacroix.bsky.social
The day is finally here! My first scenario for Cthulhu Dark, The Last Stop, is up for sale!

In celebration The Last Stop will be at a sale price for the first month! Don't snooze on this adventure!

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...
January 8, 2026 at 1:01 AM
Reposted by Ronan@Thedicepool
thedevteam.itch.io
A common refrain I see in TTRPG spaces is, “Why aren’t my players taking the setting and characters and plot hooks I made for them seriously? They prefer to make jokes!”

And I’m like… you have to give players a reason to care, not just things to care about.
January 6, 2026 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Ronan@Thedicepool
prismaticwasteland.com
BEHOLD: 60 festive hexes for your next Christmastime campaign from a variety of your favorite bloggers. Go give them a read and steal the best bits for your games
#osr #ttrpg
The Rankin Bass Hexmas Crawl — Prismatic Wasteland
A Christmas-themed hexcrawl setting with 60 hexes written from bloggers across the blogosphere.
www.prismaticwasteland.com
January 6, 2026 at 1:38 PM
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explorersdesign.bsky.social
"The 1 HP goblin is solved the same way as the 1 HP dragon. The tool for the goblin is just the sword that's already on your belt or the trap you lure it into."

My hobby-inside-the-hobby is reading blog posts about rpg combat without hit points.

dungeonmecha.bearblog.dev/solving-the-...
Solving the 1 HP Goblin
Read the and the again. <br> <br> The 1 HP goblin is solved the same way as the 1 HP dragon. The tool for the goblin is just the sword that's already ...
dungeonmecha.bearblog.dev
January 6, 2026 at 3:46 PM
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explorersdesign.bsky.social
The blog says "4-minute read." That's a lie. Here's every finalist from the past three years of The Bloggies.

www.explorersdesign.com/the-bloggies...
The Bloggies Hall of Fame
Every winner of The Bloggies from 2022 to 2025. Want to melt your rpg brain? Start here.
www.explorersdesign.com
January 6, 2026 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Ronan@Thedicepool
acoupleofdrakes.bsky.social
Things I love in TTRPGs #473:

Opinionated NPCs who are willing to coherently articulate their points and hear your rebuttal. People who are changeable in their opinions. Real fantasy stuff, you know?

"I...never considered that. You might have a point, and I've been seeing it all wrong. Thanks."
January 6, 2026 at 4:14 PM