Weird question. I mostly read on a Kindle with a big font in the hot tub. Works great. #ACityOnMars by @zachweinersmith.bsky.social is lots of color and illustrations so won't work that way. My page-size color eInk isn't waterproof. So I guess print is best? I get far less reading time for print.

#StarTrekAdventures #ttrpg at #RPGNight at @rbccvt.org - A Cure Worse Than The Disease. I knew my players would really get into a bit of anti-capitalism! And set a new record for 'how many ways can we split the party' - five players burned through all 4 crew support forming subparties of subparties.

No surprises here really, but it's interesting to see how being #genderfluid influences advertisers. In-game ads may show hands with or without nail polish, depending on the identity they're tied to. On the streets of Nassau, people selling scarves call me ma'am, people selling cigars call me sir.

We have always been here, even when you didn't see us, even when we had - have! - to hide amongst you for our own safety. We have always been part of your sports, your music, your culture, your community. We've never been a threat. All we're asking for - demanding - is to be safe, and to be seen.

"Spirits Beneath The Surface" is my #TheOneRing #proactive #ttrpg played on Discord and we just had our second play session, and I am just loving how it's going. I mostly sit back and let the players riff for 2/3 of the time. This airier pace is proving a boon for everyone's fun and creativity.

My #RPGNight crew at @rbccvt.org voted for "no Q episodes" in #StarTrekAdventures; but when we finished early and I hastily started an adventure I hadn't read through, it turned out it was a Q episode (Trelane, actually). I think I walked the line of keeping it frustrating in a fun way for them.

Finished #StarTrekResurgence. Despite a few action scenes I had to play ten times to get through them. I've never played this style of game, and I gotta say I liked it more than I expected. Gameplay mechanics were weird in places but I didn't mind how much agency I did and didn't have.

That's odd, the TTRPG feed vanished from my Bluesky, though my own Alt TTRPG feed I built based on it (same thing, minus a couple of big games that drown everything else out) is still there. Wonder how that happens. I liked to bounce between the two.

On to #TheSwordTriumphant with no idea where the story is going to go! Feels like this could have been 3 trilogies. (I just hope the Kindle/Goodreads link works for this book - I like to use Goodreads to view my notes/highlights, but #TheSwordUnbound refused to synch them, no matter what I tried.)

Since #Ireland is high on our list of places to move to if USA gets bad enough, we hoped to vacation there this September to see it - fly to Dublin, hire a car, use Cork as a base of exploration. But finding it hard to fit our budget. Intl travel is too costly; domestic, too perilous. 🙁

Today at #BadArtClub for International Women's Month I exerted my considerable lack of talent on two important women of science, #MarieCurie and #KatherineJohnson. Reference pictures also included. My art skills are okay in some areas, but not people, and especially not faces. But I keep trying.

#TheSwordUnbound - I find Threeday so refreshing. A scheming, conniving fair-weather friend who tells you, "I am a scheming, conniving fair-weather friend." Everything he says is a lie and the most honest thing you've heard.

My #ttrpg players in #StarTrekAdventures were unusually hard to herd tonight. Players are always prone to going in unexpected directions, but tonight they were exceptionally stubborn about never going where the adventure invited them, then getting frustrated about not making progress. Fortunately...

It's way too early to be writing an adventure for my new #proactive #TheOneRing #ttrpg. The characters haven't been made, let alone do they have goals. That's why I've only written seven pages so far. Well, the village of Northhills and its first annual Games will be the same, anyway, right?

Not gonna be specific, but, having a very unpleasant interaction with a moderator on a particular company's forum that feels very witch-hunty and I wonder how I earned a big red screed about my post yesterday when I MADE NO POST YESTERDAY. And the day before, I only noted the forum software is old.

Three nanoprobes for the Vulcans under 40 Eridani Seven for the Tellarites in their debate halls Nine for the Humans with the faith of the heart One cube for the Borg Queen on her Borg throne In the Delta Quadrant where the drones form hives

Round trip time from finishing #TheSwordDefiant to buying the next book: measured in seconds. Maybe faster than it was from #GideonTheNinth (and this despite Sword not having any obvious queer representation!). So many 'wait let me read that again did that actually happen?' moments at the end...

Finished our #MerryshireDetectiveClub #ttrpg playtest and sent in my playtest report. We're all very much looking forward to the full rules and being able to do mysteries in our own village - thanks to snow cancellations we never had time to do any more than the included starter adventure.

Not sure who did this, but it's genius. #ttrpg #pleasefortheloveofgodtrysomethingelse

8159 elves, exactly, in the world of #TheSwordDefiant. Why 8159? It's not a prime number, but is the multiple of two primes, 41 and 199. Not sure why that would mean anything. Is there some numerological or allusory significance or just a number that sounds good? @mytholder.bsky.social

A quick pencil sketch of a new character for the #StarTrekAdventures #ttrpg - this is Cmdr. Xerxab th'Kyrdar, an Andorian XO trying to wash off his participation in some of the questionable actions in the Dominion War and rededicate the Federation to its ideals again.

After my first session running #MerryshireDetectiveClub I feel way more confident about running a mystery, though there are some rules I need to bone up on. #ttrpg

Gearing up again for my #MerryshireDetectiveClub playtest at #RPGNight at @rbccvt.org again on Friday. Finally going to start (Them willing and the brook don't rise)! I made a one-sheet summary of setting + village + rules + chargen for handing out for Open Table arrivals. Hopeful/anxious/excited!

#ChildrenOfMen was a fucking amazing movie and fucking hard to watch in 2006. But watching it today... it's so much more powerful. And very, very hard to watch, but so amazingly powerful. I've been sobbing like nuts for the last half hour.

My #MerryshireDetectiveClub playtest game was cancelled at #RPGNight due to multiple cancellations but those of us who did show threw together a quick improv #StarWars #ttrpg game in which we stole a stolen lightsaber from some pirates before the Empire could steal it. Goofy fast-paced improv fun.

This is a digital painting I did inspired by a post I saw about the secret bi/pan/poly/ace agenda: keep straights from hating us for not being straight, keep gays from hating us for not being gay, and keep everyone else from finding out that we're secretly dragons.

Frantic game prep for #MerryshireDetectiveClub #ttrpg at #RPGNight. I wish there was a playtesters chat so we could trade tips and materials - I did a mockup of a certain last will, a Donnybrook village writeup, and quick-refs, I'd love to share. Nervous about the game itself; never done a mystery.

After all these years it finally occurs to me that for all that Mr. Morton is the subject of the sentence, what the predicate says, he spends most of the song not getting around to doing. And in the end, when Pearl shows up with a single rose, he ends up being the object of the sentence.

Given the author's #ttrpg writing credentials it's no surprise #TheSwordDefiant is making me want to start writing up rules to run a campaign in its setting. But I'm not because I bet Gareth already did it better than I ever could before he even finished the novel - maybe before he started!

Finally getting to watch #StarfleetAcademy and after the first episode I am totally in.

Doing some updates to my guide to the Lumi-väki, the Snowmen of Forochel, in part to get my deadname off of it but also making little improvements throughout. 11 pages about the culture and ways, then 10 pages of #TheOneRing #ttrpg mechanics. Feedback welcome. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

My group's #MerryshireDetectiveClub lives in the charming Merryshire village of Donnybrook. Named for the brook, of course. #ttrpg

And thus ends the tale of Malenmîrwen, Ñoldo crafter turned unwilling warrior, who finally has set sail for Tol Eressëa to rejoin her wife after almost 7,000 years apart, her purpose on the Hither Shores at last fulfilled. An amazing ending to an incredible #TheOneRing #ttrpg. I am floating on air.

Finished reading through Merryshire Detective Club playtest rules and jazzed to run it at #RPGNight at @rbccvt.org on Friday. This is gonna be so much fun. I've never run a playtest, or GUMSHOE, or really a murder mystery, so it's also a bit scary. I can say, just reading the book is a laugh riot.

Unexpectedly finished #HistoryOfTheHobbit mid-cruise with no Internet; 23% of it was index. Had not loaded @zachweinersmith.bsky.social's #ACityOnMars on my Kindle, so I started @mytholder.bsky.social's #TheSwordDefiant earlier than planned. So far it's proving awesomely fun.

The storm is delaying my return from our cruise a day and left us standing outside in 14F for almost 1.5 hours outside the Brooklyn port. What a day. So eager to be home but not today. But the hotel has a hot tub.

A great end to our #StarTrekAdventures #ttrpg at @rbccvt.org #RPGNight tonight - the players really pulled out some great victories against tough odds against the Tholians. I'm away next week, but when I get back we'll be setting the phasers down for a few weeks to playtest #MerryshireDetectiveClub.

Narvi Jr, my free, mobile-ready #perchance #dice app for the #TheOneRing #ttrpg, now has support for adversary dice - which means a) ominously dark dice images and b) correct handling of favored and ill-favored when Gandalf is the worst roll and Eye of Sauron the best. perchance.org/narvijr

Favorite #ttrpg character concept I never got to do enough with. He's an ancient Elf librarian whose sole joys in life are reading, and arguing with people about the best way to organize the bookshelves. But his twin sister wanted adventure so she made a bargain with a fae to become a sorceress. 1/2

What was probably the penultimate session of a #TheOneRing #ttrpg by #Discord was full of twists and turns; Dwarf treasure vault, or long lost temple? Seemingly neither - perhaps a prison for Ungoliantë's big sister? Maybe we shouldn't have opened that door after all. Oops.

I want to see Cyrano Jones appear in #StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds, but only if @pattonoswalt.bsky.social plays him.

Local folks - we traded in our car and so I have a few bits and bobs from the old car available for great prices: P234/45R18 tires, only used one season, $199: vermont.craigslist.org/wto/d/south-... LiON car cooler/freezer, $99: vermont.craigslist.org/app/d/south-...

In 8 days I will have been retired 2yrs, and yet I still regularly get a guilty "playing hooky" feeling. Is it my volunteer work? There's always more to do, of course, but I just came off days of doing SO much, between month/year end financials, and hosting a blood drive. What is wrong with me?

Today's #OpenTable #ttrpg at @rbccvt.org was the quickstart of #Invincible which was a ton of fun, though we did run up against some limitations in the mini-rules and some of the characters felt too powerful. Really looking forward to the full game and making our own characters!

Today I get to introduce more Americans to the sublime, unexpected joy that is seed-cake. My recipe (tinyurl.com/seedcakes) uses poppy-seeds and applesauce, for a light, sweet flavor that never fails to win people over. If I'm late bringing them to the pride fair bake sale, people ask after them.

Tonight's #StarTrekAdventures #ttrpg was as close to a TPK as I have ever gotten, and I had run out of ideas for how to save it, when the chief engineer managed to combine some great rolls with some clever ideas, and pull a real Trekkish miracle save out of nowhere. Would have made great TV, too.

In one week, a @americanredcross.bsky.social blood drive at RBCC! 1) Preregister at RedCrossBlood.org at rainbowbridgeCCVT to get in and out faster, and so the Red Cross can prepare. 2) Read up on eligibility and the process at RedCrossBlood.org. 3) Bring your ID with you. 4) Save some lives!

I would stay at a hotel like this even if I had no reason to be in that town.

The bad news: it's a kidney stone. No sleep last night, a few days of pain/exhaustion ahead, and probably having to go to Dr. Grumpypants again. The good news: it's a kidney stone. It presented oddly, so I was almost sure it was a diverticulitis bowel obstruction, which would have been much worse.