Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by martin

not a martian, honest @kyonshi.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 4h

every 3-4 years when they are cleaning it the authorities allow visitors into the #lodz waterworks.
They are pretty fussy about security (I guess rightly so) but they do allow pictures.

#pictures #water

1 49 3

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 5h

I sometimes find myself homesick for life on the homesteader spaceships from "Record of a Spaceborn Few" by Becky Chambers.

There they compost their dead into rich soil and a regular (although not common) sight is that of the priest/botanists taking the soil to public vegetable and flower beds […]

Original post on dice.camp

dice.camp

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 20h

So it's very jarring to be dropped into BOTW where it is expected that you will ambush goblins and kill them and that's Just Fine because they are "monsters". Like, I can still enjoy the game, but it's strange to be reminded that conventions haven't moved along with my own thinking!

#botw […]

Original post on dice.camp

dice.camp

1

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 20h

I am finally playing Breath of the Wild, a mere 8 years after it's release. It is, of course, an exquisitely clever and enjoyable open world experience. However:

In the last few years I have been challenging and dissecting the default concept of sub-human monster races in D&D, especially ones […]

Original post on dice.camp

dice.camp

1

Reposted by martin

Jürgen Hubert @juergen-hubert.mementomori.social.ap.brid.gy · 2d

With the recent influx of newcomers from #bluesky , it behooves us to contemplate what we can do to improve #moderation on the #fediverse - something that has been a problem in the past, and is one of the major reasons why the Fediverse is not as big and as diverse as it could be.

The first and […]

Original post on mementomori.social

mementomori.social

3 30

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 4d

Deinonychus Takedown by Wobbly Works: https://www.tumblr.com/wobblyworks/719931399633780736/deinonychus-takedown-for-animation-practice

Makes me think about D&D combat...

#osr #ttrpg #animation #dinosaur

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 6d

Describing a Daedra-lord NPC: "They have the dark laid-back charm of a Vampire LARPer flirting in-character with the Olive Garden waitress."

#videogames #letsplay #elderscrolls #battlespire

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 6d

From Rutskarn's playthrough of Battlespire:

"Now, there IS a way to defeat these guys: you find an optional, hidden codeword near the end of the level that banishes them. Alternately, you can get rid of all of them at once by uninstalling Battlespire and chewing the CD to splinters, a strategy […]

Original post on dice.camp

dice.camp

1

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 7d

Very funny text-and-screenshot playthrough of Battlespire, the bad sequel to Daggerfall. https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=31123

This series is from 2016, but it seems the author is still writing things over at https://www.patreon.com/rutskarn.

#videogames #letsplay #elderscrolls […]

Original post on dice.camp

dice.camp

1

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 10d

How to design a print and play game, the Postmark way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFcqzisgDaok

#boardgames #gamedesign #printandplay #PostmarkGames

1

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 15d

"Ten Randos You'd Meet in the Wilds of Marlinko Canton", by Chris Kutalik.

https://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2025/09/ten-randos-youd-meet-in-wilds-of.html

Entry 10: Toma and his Two-Headed Boar. Wandering swineherd with a cursed, intelligent two-headed boar named Clever-Crass. Claims to be […]

Original post on dice.camp

dice.camp

1

Reposted by martin

Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · Aug 24

My latest cartoon for @theguardian.com books

A character walks into a shop. The sign reads:
“Books”
Across the floor of the bookshop, past the bookshelves, is a stair down with a sign reading:
“Used Books”
Across the used books floor is a stair down marked:
“Antiquarian Books”
Across the antiquarian books floor is a stair down marked:
“Forbidden Books of the Elden Ones”
Stalactites hang. Strange tomes sit on plinths. Unearthly creatures scuttle in the gloom. A figure stands before a cash desk where a cyclopean, tentacled staff member says:
“Yes, we do have the new Stephen King but it's back up on the ground floor.”

13 340 1.1K

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 17d

How to make huntable monsters, by Pointless Monument:

https://pointlessmonument.blot.im/how-to-make-huntable-monsters

#osr #NSR #ttrpg #blogospherefind #monsters

How to Make Huntable Monsters - Pointless Monument

There are many ways to defeat a monster. Here is a list so you can enthusiastically support any mad idea your players want to try. Note: I’ve used

pointlessmonument.blot.im

3

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 17d

> Inside, an oil lamp illuminates brightly patterned fabric and carelessly strewn books. “How the fuck did you find me?” demands Valeria in a whisper.
>
> For a moment Jes can only stare blankly. Then: “We weren’t looking for you, soup for brains!”

Continuing my solo play-through of Spinetooth […]

Original post on dice.camp

dice.camp

1

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 18d

My energy goes up and down, as does my enthusiasm for reading RPG stuff. Right now both are at a low ebb, and I have to remind myself:

It's okay to not read everything in my RSS feeds. It's okay to not to keep up with all the forum threads. I'm not failing at some kind of schoolwork if I can't […]

Original post on dice.camp

dice.camp

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 20d

Oh this is a nice superstition. Stealing this one.

#osr #ttrpg #ageofsail #sharpe

'She is, she is,' Chase said. 'The Spartiate, and she's bewitched, Sharpe.'
'Bewitched?'
'Sails faster at night than she does by day.'
'That's because she’s built of stolen timbers,' Lieutenant Holderby opined.

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 20d

In "Sharpe's Trafalgar" the titular protagonist travels on a British navy ship of the line and we get various descriptions of the cavernous bowels of the ship, filled with fetid airs and scurrying rats - as well as this line:

"Cowper, the purser, who normally stayed mole-like in the lower […]

Original post on dice.camp

dice.camp

1 1

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 21d

Tesfaya traces his fingers along the ancient story beads, and recites, sing-song:

"In the long ago she grew, sprouted, was mewling born. Cactus lady, desert queen, mother of those with waxy skin."

Continuing my solo play-through of Spinetooth Oasis with part 9, "The Serpent which Circles the […]

Original post on dice.camp

dice.camp

1

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 21d

With my new laminator I've made a dry-erase gamesheet for VOYAGES by Postmark Games. Not only that, but it's double sided so it has both the first two maps for the game.

https://www.postmarkgames.com/voyages

#laminator #postmark #voyages #boardgames #rollandwrite

1 1 3

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 23d

Continuing my solo play-through of Spinetooth Oasis: https://spinetooth.weavingstories.co.uk/story/8-funeral-feast.html

You can read from the beginning here: https://spinetooth.weavingstories.co.uk/

#spinetoothoasis #osr #ttrpg #solo

Spinetooth Oasis

spinetooth.weavingstories.co.uk

1

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 24d

I've gone from school holidays (less childcare than usual) into coughs & colds season, and my chronic fatigue is really bad.

I'm trying to remind myself that it's always bad at this time of year, but it's frustrating to go from being (relatively) productive with creative projects back in July […]

Original post on dice.camp

dice.camp

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · Sep 9

And it has a foldout map! 😁

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · Sep 9

Look what arrived today!! The Electrum Archive #1 by @EmielBoven. Sold by the lovely folks at Peregrine Press in Leeds.

#electrumarchive #osr #sciencefantasy #ttrpg #zine

Front cover depicts adventurers advancing weapons drawn up the steep steps of a vaguely Egyptian temple. At the top, emerging from the great black doorway, a huge golem(?) of samurai armour with a tiny mask for a face. Sky and pyramid form a strikingly orange background.

Back cover. More of the same scene - here we see the side of the temple, overgrown in bushes and with a four-eyed crocodile-headed statue standing beside.

1 9

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · Sep 9

Quoting a review of "The excavation of Hob's Barrow":

"Were these creatures the bedraggled and horrific Yorkshirefolk they appeared to be, or just harmless zombies?"

😂👌

#videogames #excavationofhobsbarrow #yorkshire

martin @martin.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · Sep 8

Goust is a hamlet on a 3000ft high plateau in the Western Pyrenees. It is accessible only by a narrow mountain footpath across the Pont d'Enfer ("Bridge of Hell").

Due to its isolated situation, the inhabitants of Goust evolved a curious funeral custom: the deceased was placed in a coffin and […]

Original post on dice.camp

dice.camp