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Brian / Stout Stoat

@stoutstoat.co.uk

1.7K followers 220 following 700 posts

International awards winning publisher in Scotland, run by Brian! Queer 🏳️‍🌈 Autistic ♿ https://www.stoutstoat.co.uk

www.stoutstoat.co.uk

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 12d

I wrote a massive TTRPG setting guide encyclopaedia about the ancient Scotland and the Picts who lived in it. It covers everything scholars currently know about life in the 7th century, from landscapes to kingdoms to faith, magic, settlements, and so much more.

Check it out!
carvedinstone.scot

Carved in Stone

A storyteller's guide to Pictland. Available now for pre-order!

carvedinstone.scot

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 1d

How???

Reposted by Brian / Stout Stoat

Dig It! @digitscotland.bsky.social · 6d

"It’s basically the best book on the Picts ever written" 😍

Dig into 7th-century Scotland with "Carved in Stone", a comprehensive guide to the Picts with 350+ historically informed illustrations covering everything from language to fashion. Pre-order to save 20%: www.stoutstoat.co.uk/carvedinstone

Digital illustration of a stonecarver and a bard holding a lyre

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Reposted by Brian / Stout Stoat

Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 14d

Distraction from Today's News. Let me infodump about my favourite Pictish stone carving, called "Old Scatness 3" after where it was found.

He is one of my favourite drawings, and he has a very important lesson to teach us. I tear up just thinking him because he's so wonderful. (1)

Digital drawing of a Pictish carved stone. It shows a naive inscription of a boar, with long rectangular body spouting a ridge of hair, 5 or 6 legs, a charming snout, and tiny tusks. Swirls fail to form into Celtic knotwork along its body.

Meme, photo of Autism Announcement news blast from Fox News, with Trump and RFK Jr visible.

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 3d

Oh the Kickstarter books were _awful_. I kept trying to get one started, and would loathe the character, perspective, tone and events, give up, and then pick up another one and find it sucked in entirely different but equally boring ways. Final straw to disenchant me from Sanderson, tbh.

Reposted by Brian / Stout Stoat

MiMi Aye @meemalee.bsky.social · 4d

Author and filmmaker Justine Bateman on generative AI

"They're trying to convince people they can't do the things they've been doing easily for years - to write emails, to write a presentation. Your daughter wants you to make up a bedtime story about puppies - to write that for you." We will get to the point, she says with a grim laugh, "that you will essentially become just a skin bag of organs and bones, nothing else. You won't know anything and you will be told repeatedly that you can't do it, which is the opposite of what life has to offer. Capitulating all kinds of decisions like where to go on vacation, what to wear today, who to date, what to eat.
People are already doing this. You won't have to process grief, because you'll have uploaded photos and voice messages from your mother who just died, and then she can talk to you via AI video call every day. One of the ways it's going to destroy humans, long before there's a nuclear disaster, is going to be the emotional hollowing-out of people." - author and filmmaker Justine Bateman from a piece by Emine Saner for the Guardian

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 5d

I had COVID for the first two days so it's been a struggle, not gunna lie

Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 5d

I'm going to do the October challenge where I live through every day of October

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 5d

the thing is I'll be like "wow this is so useful" but three weeks later it will be the sticky note oracle that will tell me my future, not the clickup subscription I still haven't remembered to cancel haha

Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 5d

Congrats on the success and momentum! I find physical planning a lot more memorable and functional than digital boards like on Trello. Plus it's sorta like a peer pressure effect having a timeline staring down on you haha

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 6d

I am a machine that turns Pictish research into vaguely gay speculations

Reposted by Brian / Stout Stoat

Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 12d

Carved in Stone

A storyteller's guide to Pictland. Available now for pre-order!

carvedinstone.scot

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 9d

We spent years researching and writing about the Picts... if we can't use that for weaving magic, what was the point??

ArchaeoPlays @archaeoplays.bsky.social · 9d

Morning! There was a TON of interest in textile magic when I mentioned it as a possibility for wizard ‘spellbooks’ in late 7th century Scotland, so let’s do a deeper dive into Pictish textiles & possible textile magic…

#rpg #ttrpg #indiettrpg #dnd #pathfinder 🏺 #archaeologysky #fiberarts #textiles

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Reposted by Brian / Stout Stoat

momatoes @momatoes.com · 10d

If you enjoyed a game on Itch, leave a comment!

Honestly, it really brightens a creator's day. And it's a big encouragement for others who may be interested in getting that game.

Itch hides reviews from the game page, so I find comments more useful in the long run.

Like a game? Comment away!

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 9d

I'm pretty good at making all the graphics and preparing to announce something... I'm very bad at actually finding the words to announce something 😅😅😅

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 10d

Yeah and your pictures are REALLY good!!!!! Genuinely such a pleasure to have your work in the book, and to work together again. So many of your pieces bring a big grin to my face :)

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 10d

OH YEAH did I mention that pre-orders have a 20% discount until the 5th of November??

Probably the best price you could grab this actually physically massive tome for. This book is 300mmx260mm. It's bigger than the D&D PHB. It's encyclopaedia sized!!

Screenshot of the Carved in Stone listing on the BackerKit pre-order page, with the price marked down from £50 to £40.

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 10d

Aspects like the fire festivals make an appearance, but with a potential for a Pictish twist. There's also a lot of discussion of interpreting local animist faith, and of the presence of Christianity in Pictland (and the British Isles) in the appendices too. So lots to dig your teeth into!

Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 10d

We talk about this in the introduction of the book, where we go through "how we know what we know", basically. We have tried to be both inclusive of the potential for culturally Irish/Dál Riatan aspects to bleed into Pictland, but we're also quite moderate too.

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 10d

So good news -- because there's so many gaps in the Pictish narrative, we've had to use evidence from their neighbours to help paint a comprehensive picture. A lot of the day-to-day parts of the book (like cuisine, fashion, methods of travel, trade, faith, etc) will also overlap with Dál Riata!

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 11d

Okay so wild thing, scholars have been asking that same question too 😂

There has been SO MUCH new research in the last couple of decades that re-contextualises what we know of their culture. It's a super exciting time!

Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 11d

Pictland is the focus, but that does include their relationship with their neighbours! We continually touch on Dál Riata because it's continually interlinked with Pictland, like faith (the Celtic Tonsure and Iona), trading/raiding, and politics. We'd love to do more in the future, too!

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 12d

Thanks Jonah! You were stellar to work with, and I love how your pieces in the book came out (especially this little boar tattoo 🐗 💕)

Illustration of a long-haired, muscular fella washing themselves with damp cloth. On their shoulder is a tattoo of a boar, rather crudely shaped. It is a close replica of the Pictish boar from the stone Old Scatness 3.

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 12d

The book itself is system neutral with no rules, but it frames everything you need to know through familiar lenses (like random encounters, equipment tables, quests & tasks), or present topics in ways that lead you to question how you want to handle things in your game (like saints and spells)!

Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 12d

Good question - distribution is a bit complicated with BackerKit, because you don't actually pay until I lock orders and charge cards. Folks will be able to buy the PDF directly via itch.io soon after the 6th of October - I just want to square up fulfilment for the KS / first round of preorders.

Screenshot of an itch.io page for Carved in Stone

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Brian / Stout Stoat @stoutstoat.co.uk · 12d

There'll be copies with @ipr.bsky.social in the USA, hopefully from mid-November :)

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