@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

bwebster

@bwebster@dice.camp

He/Him
TTRPG designer, founding member of Archstone Press and co-designer of The Years of Adventure RPG

Mostly interested in the NSR but with passing interest in Pathfinder (2e), PbtA, other indie systems, and RuneQuest/Glorantha

I also occasionally boost or post about (leftist) politics, Boston/urbanism, SFF stories, decentralization, skiing/climbing/outdoors

šŸ³ļøā€šŸŒˆ

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

LeviKornelsen, to random
@LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

Gonna go fly away in about half an hour, but: A stray thought:

  1. D&D DMs are often the ones who care about the rules most.

  2. People who care about the rules a lot often want to tinker with them.

  3. It's never been easier to become an small-press/indie designer.

  4. There's apparently a DM shortage.

  5. Obviously, they're all running off to make their own things.

Yeah? Yeah?! No. Probably not. But maybe?

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@LeviKornelsen I left 5e behind pretty quickly after trying my hand at GMing, and now Iā€™m making my own game, so I would say that checks out in my anecdotal experience!

bwebster, to random
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

Birthday gifts from my partner (and courtesy of Pandemonium in Cambridge). The quality on both of these is excellent, and the Mausritter box set is so cute. I took a break from creative stuff for my birthday this weekend and just relaxed, which was nice, but of course I couldnā€™t get away from TTRPGs entirely šŸ˜‚

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@thopan Iā€™ve had (and run) the Stygian Library in PDF form for years now, itā€™s excellent. That and Gardens of Ynn might be the most influential adventures towards my own work in terms of adventure design, they are really worth checking out if you havenā€™t already.

If weā€™re talking book quality, itā€™s also really nice. The pages are thick, the binding nice, no complaints there at all

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@thopan the cool thing about Stygian Library (and to some extent Ynn as well) is that it can really fit into just about any campaign. Iā€™ve run it in sci fi (Stars Without Number) and Fantasy, and I even had a friend run it in a Godbound campaign (with some modifications). I think every game Iā€™ve GMed has been connected to the library in some way lol

Tim_Eagon, (edited ) to fediverse
@Tim_Eagon@dice.camp avatar

Just curious, have you purchased anything from creators who've posted about their creations here on the ? Please boost for more visibility.

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@Tim_Eagon I think almost every TTRPG (and adventure/setting/supplement) Iā€™ve bought in the last few months has been from people I see on here.

Tim_Eagon, to Archaeology
@Tim_Eagon@dice.camp avatar

Roman, I think not! Definitely Kryn Dynasty!

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/24/1226575715/archaeologists-roman-empire-dodecahedron-england

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@Tim_Eagon Iā€™m surprised to see this being referred to as having an unknown function, my understanding was that we were pretty sure that these were used for knitting/fabric working. Or at least, knitters were sure of that šŸ˜‚

gbhnews, (edited ) to fediverse
@gbhnews@mastodon.social avatar

šŸŒž Good morning ! This is GBH News bringing you the world from . It's 34F at Logan Airport and visibility is 4 miles.

New Bedford, Mass. is (re)building a salt marsh on part of its urban waterfront as a resilience measure.

WHAT! : Jon Stewart will return to host the Daily Show -- but only once a week.

Trump won in New Hampshire, and Biden also won - as a write in candidate.

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@gbhnews wow Iā€™d love to hear more about that salt marsh!

BlackAzizAnansi, to random
@BlackAzizAnansi@mas.to avatar

The fact that business owners fought to keep remote work from being more widely adopted is a fucking tragedy. Remote work solved so many problems i.e. less greenhouse gases, less traffic (which means less strain on infrastructure), more money circulating in smaller towns, less wasted time commuting for employees (which also means less money being wasted on gas) etc. But nope, we gotta justify these buildings somehow.

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@BlackAzizAnansi the one thing that remote work does make more difficult, in my opinion, is worker organizing. Itā€™s only half surprising that the manager class never realized that. I donā€™t know if weā€™ll see any unionization efforts come out that wouldnā€™t have been possible without RTO, but I sure hope we do (mostly because I just want to see more unions in general)

bwebster, to random
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

This whole alexandrian thing, and then finding out on top of it that Ben Milton is shilling for Greg Gillespie as of two weeks ago, all in the same day, is wearing on me more than I expected. I was very much in the camp of ā€œdonā€™t let the shitheads take over the OSRā€, but Iā€™m just not sure anymore.

Hyades51, to random

Has mastodon.social still got moderation issues? Itā€™s really getting a bit disruptive that half the interesting conversations I want to read have massive gaps in them.

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@Taskerland @Hyades51 to be fair, itā€™s hard to see the spam from here because .social is limited (which is what the original post is referring to)

bwebster, to random
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

Iā€™m going to be starting an in person game of (2e) next weekend. First time playing Cairn and first time playing in person since before the pandemic I think. Iā€™ll be using Rackham Vale as the setting, and plan on just running it straight from the book. I have 2 players who are new to RPGs, 2 who have played 5e a bit, and 1 who has played D&D extensively, but pretty much only his own house-ruled AD&D. Anyone have any advice?

Toastie, to solar
@Toastie@journa.host avatar

Before permitting a new #solar facility in #Washington, the state needs to know if it will impact #Indigenous cultural resources, like artifacts, first foods, or burial grounds. To find out, they rely on a land survey conducted byā€¦ the developer.

Often, the developer contracts this work out. And contractors, according to critics, chronically produce surveys that are ā€œat best deficient and at worst deliberately negligent.ā€

The state may check their work. Or not.

https://www.hcn.org/issues/56.2/energy-industry-washingtons-solar-permitting-leaves-tribal-resources-vulnerable-to-corporations/view

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@Toastie @ProPublica green colonialism is so disappointing, but not surprising. I really appreciate your coverage on it, both in this case and stuff youā€™ve shared previously, I may not have been aware of it otherwise. I started working for a solar company recently (not Avangrid), and Iā€™m definitely going to be paying more attention to where they are building. Not that I have a role in that part of the company, but I can at least try to say something.

LeviKornelsen, (edited ) to random
@LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

In Indie TTRPGs, a major distinction can be made between:

1-Those who don't understand they're doing weird alt-culture bullshit.

2-Those who know it but aspire to be closer to the geek mainsteam.

3- Those who know it and embrace it wholeheartedly.

4-Those who believe it but don't give a shit about the fact.

...

If you call people doing weird art shit with their games pretentious, you aren't in (3).

If you're really, really mad about D&D's popularity (not Hasbro, D&D), you're not in (4).

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@LeviKornelsen Iā€™m pretty sure Iā€™m still in 1 and in denial about it. Other people care about the same things I care about in game design, right? Right?!?

bwebster, to random
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

I really love everything about RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha (the newest RuneQuest), except for like, most of the rules. So thatā€™s cool

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@SJohnRoss I never made it that far so youā€™ll get no argument from me there šŸ˜‚

bwebster, to random
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

Planning out an in-person Dolmenwood + Rackhamā€™s Vale game, and struggling to decide if I should use Cairn or Dolmenwood (aka OSE) for my rule set. On one hand, I like the simplicity of Cairn and it fits with my sensibilities as a GM better. On the other hand, Iā€™m a sucker for systems that are made explicitly for their setting (like new RuneQuest for example), and I think the Dolmenwood player rules might be more appealing to my players coming from 5e. (Opinions welcome!)

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

This is further complicated by the fact that I really want to use physical books for this game, but have yet to acquire any of them. I was supposed to get Cairn for Christmas, but the books were delayed and I probably wonā€™t be able to pick them up for another for another few months. And the Dolmenwood Kickstarter hasnā€™t completed yet (but I backed at the physical level there).

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@Tim_Eagon I think Cairn is what Iā€™m currently leaning towards! Itā€™s so light that I feel confident I could print out the relevant pages without much issue. Maybe Iā€™ll just start off with a couple sessions of Cairn + Rackhamā€™s Vale and see how it goes from there, not even including Dolmenwood from the start.

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@Tim_Eagon Iā€™ll check it out, thanks! Although, if Iā€™m running Rackhamā€™s Vale, I already have a pretty extensive bestiary to work with, and I think I want to stick with just that to keep the dark-fairy tale vibe. It is in OSE format though, so Iā€™d have to do the conversions on the fly, but hopefully thatā€™s not too hard.

LindseyBonnette, to random
@LindseyBonnette@dice.camp avatar

How to people name things man, its a complex process involving words and feeling and not looking like an idiot the first time you say it out loud.

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@LindseyBonnette Iā€™ve been using vulgarlang.com for a while now to generate a conlang for naming in , which is super helpful for this. But then again I also named all of my ancestries stuff like ā€œMolepeopleā€ and ā€œFrogfolkā€ so ya know, sometimes itā€™s just best to have a name that people can understand instantly

kimhu, to random
@kimhu@peoplemaking.games avatar

Maybe I don't have control of anything;
Maybe the world does not spin because I want it to spin-

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@kimhu this is so good! The text with the image conveys such strong emotion, itā€™s so relatable while also so clearly otherworldly. I love it

18+ mekkaokereke, (edited ) to random
@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io avatar

Remember when we let one far-right dude make up the whole critical race theory panic, and then reactionaries passed "anti-CRT" laws that were really anti-diversity laws, so that teachers were afraid to even teach about civil rights and the Holocaust, and then US students' knowledge of the Holocaust dropped precipitously? And it dropped the most where those anti-CRT laws were passed?

Well, what if we let the same dude make up a whole plagiarism inquisition against the Harvard president?

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@yaygya @colo_lee @Itty53 @venitamathias @mekkaokereke @mmlvx @valthonis uh, you can take New Hampshire off that list. Theyā€™re nearly a red state already. And Alaska seems like it would still be at least purple. You can add Massachusetts, every county in the state voted for Biden in 2020

bwebster, to PbtA
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

One of the things I love about the scene that is really starting to develop is the combination of the fun stuff about the with the innovations that have been made in other parts of the RPG world (, other story games, etc.). There are some really good innovations that have happened outside of the OSR, and I think games that bring in a wide range of ideas are often better for it. Not a controversial belief I donā€™t think, but just wanted to say Iā€™m excited about it

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@thopan this post was mostly inspired by talk I see in the NSR discord about people working on new games, so I didnā€™t have any published games in mind unfortunately. I know there are some kicking around though, and hope someone else might be able to chime in with an answer! Iā€™ll see if I can find some better examples when I get off of work

PT_WHITE, to random

Star Wars: Andor Season 2 delayed until 2025

https://bespinbulletin.com/2023/12/star-wars-andor-season-2-delayed-until-2025/

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@Tim_Eagon @PT_WHITE my hope is that this means they didnā€™t scab the writers, and season 2 will have the same excellent quality of writing that season one did. Would be worth the wait!

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