The METADUNGEON OPENS (goes live) tomorrow, and some of the treasures (rewards) are LIMITED DON'T MISS OUT: bit.ly/4bLRZKh

In 24 hours, the DIE RPG Metadungeon crowdfunder launches. In 23 hours, we have the livestream launch party where @mytholder.bsky.social, @gshowitt.bsky.social, @exstasisgames.bsky.social and myself gather and GET EXCITED IN A STREAMING FORMAT. Details inside!

From the Ballad Hunters Kickstarter to the arrival of Paragon Blade, let us gather ‘round and sing the latest Pelgrane Press headlines

But shall this crazed old man be tamely suffered to drag a whole ship’s company down to doom with him?

Concerting with @mytholder.bsky.social

The Dungeon Book - Chapter Art Ch 17: The Dungeon Door A prison gate is locked. The keys are in the hands of the gaoler. But the Dungeon Door opens to any­ one with the courage to cross the threshold, from either side. (17/17) #thedungeonbook #tradart #garethhanrahan @mytholder.bsky.social

There's something a bit poignant about a Bluetooth device failing to connect to another device right next to it when they're the only Bluetooth devices for hundreds of thousands of kilometres around.

A horse walks into a bar. "Why the long face?" asks the barman. "Your lungs hold around 5 litres" replies the horse. "Mine hold 50. I can breathe in almost two THOUSAND litres of air a minute. Big lungs need big noses and big mouths, which need long faces. Centaurs? They'd fucking suffocate, mate"

Same with writing. Same with game design. The boring, hard work is how you learn.

Resource trackers are never as good as physical resources in a boardgame. People overlook the impact of small pleasures like when players collect their income in Terraforming Mars & dump cubes onto their player mats. Getting tangible things & seeing others get them is part of the physical experience

I just got a fairly standard Nigerian Prince email ("your 45 million dollars will be sent to you when we get your bank details"), with all the usual Random capitalisation, hyperbole and absurd nonsense about how the world works, but they're claiming to be Trump so it looks remarkably legit.

*taps that map showing tanker transit times and how Europe’s about two-three weeks behind parts of Asia*

The problem with AI is it makes plagiarism so low effort When DS9 was created, real human beings put actual time and effort into stealing from Babylon 5

The specificity of the time ('after lunch') had me expecting it to be 100 years ago last Tuesday. If you wait until last August you can repost this as "1000 days ago last Wednesday."

🫂Friends 🍟Snacks 👩‍🍼Mom's Basement 🧭An ever sprawling pocket dimension through time Everything you need for the 🔻DIE METADUNGEON🔻

Over on the Pelgrane site, I blogged a bit about the origins of the Merryshire Detective club. Contains secret behind-the-scenes gossip from the secret pelgrane Slack... pelgranepress.com/2026/04/02/t...

That would be a fun OOO message to write. “I am currently commuting for work and may not be able to reply immediately. “If your query is urgent, I would encourage you to go outside and look at the sky, then give some thought to the concept of urgency.”

There can be only one.

We're excited to announce that Gareth Hanrahan @mytholder.bsky.social will be joining us in October at the Clayton Hotel in Cork as an in-person guest! octocon.com/2026/04/gare...

Simply one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen

Alan Moore on now.

* TRUMP PUTS HANDS OVER EYES * DECLARES IRAN NO LONGER EXISTS IF HE CAN'T SEE IT * THEREFORE WAR IS OVER

Less than a week to go until DIE RPG: THE METADUNGEON launches, and we have our cover reveal. Behold what happens when an Edition War gets literal, as is DIE's wont. www.backerkit.com/c/projects/r...

The folksongs of England and Scotland are coming to life, and not the good kind! Stop the horror, using song magic of your own. ‘My lips they are so bitter,’ he says ‘My breath it is so strong If you get one kiss of my ruby lips Your days will not be long’ www.kickstarter.com/projects/pel...

*reads news* I'd just like to say that tabletop roleplaying games are a hobby that you can play by candlelight and it's good to walk to your friends' house.

We're doing our own Children of Time! To enter: tag the person to whom we should send your personal effects

A good April Fools gag would be if NYT published a Connections puzzle that was good and made sense.

Also, I’ll be in Dublin in May… ilfdublin.com/whats-on/fes...

The Ballad Hunters kickstarter is live! I’m really looking forward to giving this one a try! www.kickstarter.com/projects/pel...

The Irish translation of Dracula by Seán Ó Cuirrín refers to the Count not as a vampire but as a “súmaire” i.e. a leech or parasite. And if that word doesn’t succinctly cover both the undead and the aristocracy I don’t know what does.

Available now in print: Scenarios for Five Evil by @mytholder.bsky.social and @malcolmcraig.bsky.social handiwork.games/product/five... Or as part of the FiveEvil Bundle: handiwork.games/product/five... Find out more: handiwork.games/fiveevil #fiveevil

Breaking news

The next Royal Mail special issue stamps are themed on folklore. They are due out on March 27th. One of the stamps is the water spirit Grindylow, known at a tarn near Coniston, Cumbria (and other places) as Jenny or Jinny Greenteeth. bbc.com/news/articles/…

I learned today that there’s a copy of the script of the episode of The Simpsons where Nelson knocks over the Sunsphere in Knoxville Tennessee in the (still standing) Sunsphere in Knoxville Tennessee.

Three key points we seem to forget: 1. The cost of international bulk shipping has dropped 98% since the 1950s due to containerization. 2. *Everything* got off-shored, for everyone. It's all global supply chains now. Shipped by oil. 3. You can optimize for efficiency or resilience, but not both.

These are wonderful. I found the whole set here: briansibleysblog.blogspot.com/2021/09/eric...

Some of the small spot illustrations by Eric Fraser that accompanied the Radio Times magazine’s weekly listings for the BBC’s 1981 radio adaptation of Tolkein’s “The Lord Of The Rings”.

In Irish we don’t call it an escalator we call it staighre beo which means living stairs and I think that’s beautiful

Meanwhile, in the 24th century of the CARS universe.

I originally pitched the current novel as "Breaking Bad on Earthsea", but as I try to fix it it's becoming more "what if Magic only from the perspective of a booster pack"

By the time we get to Return of the King, the joking tone of a "Hobbit sequel" has mostly vanished, but this line never fails to make me laugh. Pippin's like, WHEN'S DINNER? and Beregond regards him grimly. "An old campaigner, I see."

In return for information about the thieves, Crimestoppers are offering a large bounty.

I thought this treasure was lost, but it was lurking in a crate from an office move. It's LOVE IS NOT CONSTANTLY WONDERING IF YOU ARE MAKING THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF YOUR LIFE by an anonymous author, not a Choose Your Own Adventure in which you, as an ace starfighter, must escape from a planet (cont.)

There are bits of Charles Fort in Kinsale that always feel like walking around the ruins of Gormenghast.

1/4 One of my English teachers, Jim 'The Basher' Quinlan, died recently in Cork. When I was 14, I challenged his view that all poetry meant *something*. So he challenged us to write a poem that meant nothing. The only two lines I remember are: (1/n)

William Butler Yeats gazing in the direction of Bethlehem:

But his emails and also his complete incompetence and corruption and seriously everything