Calum Novak-Mitchell
calumnm.bsky.social
Calum Novak-Mitchell
@calumnm.bsky.social
Folk music, ttrpgs, books etc
Very much what it also felt like to play
December 12, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Especially when those checks usually have zero impact on What Happens Next
December 11, 2025 at 5:12 PM
I’ve enjoyed playing 5e well-enough as a resource-management game with nicely flavoured menus of options, but it’s really weird seeing APs where it looks like the *only* interaction with the system is constant binary pass/fail checks. (which is my least favourite thing about the game!)
December 11, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Into The Odd every time for me. So few rules that learning it is pretty much instantaneous, but every one of those rules makes the world feel Dangerous and Exciting.
December 10, 2025 at 6:10 PM
I've had a think about my Top Five Ghost Stories, and I reckon it's:

The Room in the tower - E.F. Benson
Father's last escape - Bruno Schulz
Number 13 - M.R. James
Ringing the Changes - Robert Aickman
Climax for a Ghost Story - I. A. Ireland
December 10, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Ah weird it showed up for me. (Though it did get a bit confused, maybe because iplayer doesn’t have s2?)
December 4, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Not 100% sure if it’s what you’re asking for - but JustWatch does the trick for me?
December 4, 2025 at 11:24 AM
My theory is that it’s the only mainstream franchise where there is No Point in waiting for it to hit streaming. It’s just a theme park ride for the cinema, so people actually go out.
December 2, 2025 at 3:14 PM
(Also was chatting to a friend who is a lecturer yesterday, and he’s pretty positive about the bunch of students he has right now)
November 30, 2025 at 3:17 PM
I had the same reaction - but it’s been calming seeing the responses from other academics who either don’t recognise the behaviour described at all, or did see it as behaviour from a specific pandemic cohort, that is now much improved in the new batch of students.
November 30, 2025 at 3:17 PM
connery gives this nonsense so much more gravitas than it deserves. Though the scene where he meets with the previous defence lawyer does feel like it’s been beamed in from a much better film.
November 25, 2025 at 2:41 PM
And I feel like npc feeling is amplified by the fact that supporting plots was *so much easier* than initiating them. If you start a story, you’re rolling the dice on whether anyone will bite. If you support what someone else is doing, then the plot is necessarily gathering steam!
November 24, 2025 at 3:59 PM
(not a paper that we published, thankfully)
November 24, 2025 at 3:28 PM