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Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords

@glenatron.bsky.social

1.3K followers 360 following 9K posts

GM and producer and music composer for Crudely Drawn Swords, lead guitarist for The Patient Wild, Game Designer for The Hallowed Walk and Trilogy, Programmer, Horse Trainer, dork-ass-loser and now apparently novelist?

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Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · Oct 17

I've picked up some followers lately so I'll do a new intro post - for many years I ran a very funny epic fantasy podcast called Crudely Drawn Swords, which you can listen to right now. I'm also a musician, programmer, game designer, horse trainer and apparently now novelist? I'm learning to draw.

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Reposted by Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords

Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 1d

I truly don’t get the appeal of podcasts having to be video now. Podcasts are at their very best when you’re doing something else, working out or playing videogames etc, and no good podcaster has ever been someone who should be shown on screen that’s just not how that works. It’s a goblin job.

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Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 32m

Do you need an audiobook to listen to? A good one, that you'll enjoy? Because I have just the thing - I know it's good because I wrote and produced it and I have listened to it so many times by this point but I still like it: www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Redst...

Audible

Try Audible free for 30 days! Start listening to best-selling audiobooks, exclusive Originals, and free podcasts with the Audible app.

www.audible.co.uk

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Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 35m

This sounds great!

Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 1h

I remember when singers used to sing about real things, like waking in the morning and stepping outside and taking a deep breath and getting real high and screaming at the top of your lungs "WHAT'S GOING ON???"

Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 1h

It's hard to pin the blame for the disaster that was the Fourth Crusade on any single individual, but one thing we know for certain is that the pope was Innocent.

Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 1h

It would be very appropriate if that was another thing you'd forgotten prior to the re-read.

Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 1h

I was so busy recommending The God-King Chronicles to someone asking for audiobook suggestions earlier this evening I totally forgot to mention my own book.

Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 1h

👀

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Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 5h

This is very funny and well-executed.

Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 5h

Many people have been blamed for the fiasco but we do know for certain that the pope was Innocent.

Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 5h

Almost exactly what happened in the Fourth Crusade, to the point that they probably built that event around the historical record. Suffice it to say that even as crusades go (generally poorly) the fourth is not considered among the hits.

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Reposted by Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords

Wizard's Tower Press @wtpress.bsky.social · 8h

Today's update on the Kickstarter campaign is all about the Lady of Lake, and all her sisters, because there are lots of them. Come and meet the Grawgedd Annwn: www.kickstarter.com/...

The cover of They Are Still Here (Mae Nhw Yma O Hyd).

The image is of the sorceror, Gwydion, surrounded by wild animals (wolf, boar, deer) in a Celtic knotwork frame. Gwydion's hat is crowned with antlers. He carries an axe in his right hand and an oak twig in his left.

Art by Josh Arklin.

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Reposted by Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords

Jess Nevins @jessnevins.bsky.social · 8h

I think I'm always going to be amused that for around 1,500 years the Mesopotamians labeled various enemies from the north and east as "Ummān Manda," or "the horde from who knows where" (Akkadian).

Just couldn't be bothered to even learn their names. Just wrote down "Ah, some guys, y'know."

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Reposted by Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 11h

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Reposted by Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords

Ali Hancock @alihancock.bsky.social · 10h

Badenoch slagging off English degrees. As someone with a degree with the word 'media' in it, it's nice to have a rest.

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Reposted by Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords

Patrick Samphire but for Halloween 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @patricksamphire.bsky.social · 10h

These may well be the best books I've ever read. Certainly the ones that had the most effect on me.

Simon Spanton @simonguy.bsky.social · 11h

"You're a mythago. I made you. My dreams made you. Like the journal said..."

A photo of copies of the 1986 Grafton paperback of Mythago Wood, the 1990 Grafton paperback of Lavondyss and the 1994 Grafton paperback of The Hollowing, all by Robert Holdstock. The cover art of the first is by Peter Goodfellow and of the second and third by Geoff Taylor.

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Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 10h

They hit me like a sledgehammer in my early twenties - I particularly love Mythago Wood, Lavondyss, and Gate Of Ivory, Gate Of Horn. He made deep time and long lost stories feel so solid.

Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 11h

Shepherds forewarned.

Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 11h

That song's treatment of Tolkien is Led Zeppelin's greatest crime.

Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 11h

No, Frog the first is someone different.

Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 11h

I'm so excited to hear this - I've been looking forward to it for a long time.

Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 11h

If the government wanted fewer disability claims they would be making COVID vaccinations free for everyone and recommending we all get them. Literally the lowest-hanging fruit on this branch and one that governments remain irrationally resistant to.

Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 12h

They're some of the most interesting fantasy around, wizards in suits and floating skyscrapers, corporations run by skeletons selling shares in gods, wild stuff that works because Gladstone is great at plotting.

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Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 13h

I think it's useful to invert the question- what does it looks like when a mechanism interrupts storytelling? An example for me is when a character is going to act but then we have to stop and negotiate a dice pool - even if the pool is constructed from narrative elements we've broken flow.

Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords @glenatron.bsky.social · 13h

I heard of a campaign where the GM only remembered very late that one of the characters had been eating spaghetti constantly for the previous eight years.

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