Just ran my first session of Mongoose #Traveller. Two PCs (my wife and my dad were playing) had to find a missing Scout Services guy who had been up to some light criminal activity. Was pretty fun. Learning how combat works, with its dodge mechanic and aiming, was a bit difficult.

Second traveller subsector map has been pencilled - the Tobia subsector, a hub of the imperium right on the edge of the wilds of the Trojan Reach. The Berg and Tobia clusters vie for economic dominance, while merchants from the famed Borderlands run arrive in Fist.

"let's not take a dead man's pants" - Calamity the Beast friend #GameNightQuotes

Was making a lentil and chickpea tagine, and then accidentally spilled a HALF CUP of ground sumac into it. I scooped out much of it, but there was still SO MUCH SUMAC. Basically, I rolled a nat 1 while cooking. Dinner is... Not good.

What would a dogma 95 style manifesto look like for TTRPGs?

Question for cyclists, especially Canadian cyclists. You're on a wide shoulder on a main road. Not a protected lane, just a painted line, but fairly wide (6' or so). An ambulance is coming up behind you. Do you pull over, or does that rule just apply to cars?

The Hotbox is the most complex mech in Cyberrats in Space. It carefully balances Heat, enabling it to deal devestating amount of Harm depending on what zone its in. Thematically, it's a repurposed all-in-one kitchen box, complete with Sudz™ brand dishwasher attachment

I've joined a mom group that walks out kids (all little girls, all friends) to and from school. I absolutely love it, all of the moms are amazing. It's the most wholesome part of my day, and I wish more men had these sort of social opportunities.

Kiddo in bed. Dinner is had. Dishes are done. Pyjamas are on. Scotch is poured. Time to watch the first episode of the new season of #JetLagTheGame

I love the stupid things fandoms latch onto. Some might say it's beating a dead horse, but I find it comforting. Things like 40k purple orks, Star Trek's transwarp salamanders, D&D's gazebo, Bobby B from Game of Thrones. Anyone else got some favorite dumb fandom jokes/memes ya don't get tired of?

Bought a skinned rabbit at the specialty butchers the other day. Just spent 90 minutes braising it in a decent French white wine, w rosemary from the garden, farmers market shallots, and local mushrooms. Now comes the hard part. Convincing my daughter it's chicken.

Years ago, I ran a Delta Green campaign where one of the PCs was a government spin doctor. While the rest of the PCs investigated, he'd talk to the media and say it was "just a weather balloon". I honestly think that would be a fun horror comedy TTRPG - being PR for the X-files.

I'm not your Dad and you don't have to do what I say, but: This is just a reminder to tell someone you love them today. Life happens fast.

Why yes, I *did* make a Traveller subsector map for my eventual campaign. The Gazulin subsector - on the edge of imperial space geographically, but in their own heads, they're right next to the Core Systems.

I just played Among Us for the first time. I knew it was good, and just late to the party. Turns out I'm really good as the imposter - I win more than lose, and apparently that's hard.

Just learned that some of my favourite episodes of Love Death and Robots were originally written as short stories by Alistair Reynolds. Is he worth tracking down and reading?

Have the urge to rent a fancy hall, order some brandy, scotch, fine wine, and port, put on a suit, and spend the day playing Diplomacy. As a teen, I thought it being Kissingers favourite game made it cool. Now that I'm older, it makes me realize how much of a psycho he was. Cool game, though.

I haven't posted in three days, and I get almost twenty new followers? Considering my last post, i wonder how many are right wing bots?

Thoughts and Prayers, motherfucker.

I can't wait to never find out what David Brooks or Ross Douthat thinks about this

It's odd how every Dragon Age game is completely different from the others. Like, if you played origins (1st) and then Veilguard (4th) you'd be forgiven for thinking they're entirely different franchises. Except for some nouns, they're almost completely different- tonally, thematically, even genre

Doing some prep work for my upcoming Traveller campaign. I've got four distinct hooks, each of which can be done whether or not PCs begin play with a ship (it's kind of random in Traveller). Gonna flesh out each to a few paragraphs, and go from there. It leads to a thought: 1/

I do think you’ve gotta hand it to Ezra Klein for this one, which we need more of, much more, from his peers www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/o...

I don't normally talk hockey here, but man, this one stings a bit. Clowe was, IMO, one of the most underrated players of all time, and I was super stoked to see him work w Mike Grier.

Ditto for Zeppelin fans.

Hooboy. Time to rack my plum cider, put on a batch of peach habanero hot sauce, make blackberry jam, harvest some tomatoes, and make pear juice (for more cider). Time to get domestic AF.

I always knew our side of the war would be filled with joke writers

Started work on my first Traveller campaign. Set it on the border of imperial and independent space, in an area rife with pirates, bounty hunters, scouts, and speculative merchants. Looks to be interesting so far.

Cyberrats is a fun series. I've got the first two - think ninja turtles meets XCOM, w/ a heavy dose of anti capitalism messaging, and you're in the right ballpark. Plus, the art is absolutely fun and unique.

Woody Allen's "Apocalypse Now"

Today was the day that the teachers got to assign kids to their new classes. My daughter's teacher decided "I can't let her go! She's too CUTE!" And kept Scout for another year. So now my kiddo goes up a grade, but keeps her same teacher. Which she's pretty thrilled over.

Looks dumb, right? Too often, this is how we design cities. #CarDependency

I'm glad that, over the years, I've dissected rpg adventures and the cardinal sins of game writing. I fell into those traps today, on an adventure I'm working on. Luckily, I caught myself. "Dave, this is a lore dump. Axe it." You become a better writer when you critique the works of others!

Schools started again. Which means it's time to eat "come on, let's get ready for school" every morning, for an hour, before you complete the ritual with "it's been an hour, how are you not ready yet!?"

Gave up on band of brothers. I've seen it so many times. Read the book. Read the supplementary books. And seen the documentaries about all of those. So I'm researching The Pacific, instead. It's like Band of Brothers, only grittier and with fewer characters. It's very good.

Just finished reading this traveller adventure - "the last flight of the amuar". The PCs are hired to find a missing merchant vessel and rescue the crew. It's... Fine. Imagine a book that spends a bunch of time on act 1, a bit of time on act 2, and then act 3 and the finale get one page. 3/5.

The company that makes Jack Daniels whiskey is moaning about the Canadian boycott resulting in a 62% sales drop. It should be 100%. Keep it up, Canada.

Lady and her family were walking and taking up the whole mixed use path, so I ringed my bell to make room. I was a bit close, and it startled her. "Jesus!" She said, and then angrily lectured me. "Christ, lady, don't take up the whole path, then!" She then called me out for language.

Foggy morning.

70 years ago, on this date, Emmett Till was kidnapped and brutally murdered by white men. His family, including his cousin who was with him at the time, is repeating the train ride he took from Chicago to Mississippi in 1955 to mark the anniversary

Plum juice has cooled and been treated with campden tablets to kill bad yeasts. Racked it into my fermenter, added some apple juice, honey, turmeric, water, and yeast (EC-1118, "champagne" yeast). Now to turn this bad boy into cider... Hopefully around 4% ABV.

MY DAD: makes his bed every morning, before going to work. ME: Made my bed once in 2007. (I was trying to impress a girl). MY DAUGHTER: "my bed is so messy and destroyed, I HAVE to sleep in your bed, dad!"

"I don't care what anyone says, I LOVE that movie."

Wellp. It's been a few years. Time to rewatch Band of Brothers for the umpteenth time.

Kinda want to write a #traveller adventure where the PCs are space truckers, and form a convoy to get past imperial tax stations. With truck stops, drunken brawls, CB radios, and everything.

Neighbour gave me a bunch of yellow plums and a bag of crabapples, so now I'm making cider, because of course I am.

The best d&d campaign I ever ran had a weird way of awarding experience points: Basically, you collected XP at the start of the session, for what you did last session. Which meant if you missed a session, you'd be down two sessions worth of XP. You got a static XP gain each session. 1/

If you have a platform, you should put Alex on it. He's a platform loving fellow.

Look what came in the mail! A Christmas-themed adventure for Dungeon Crawl Classics, written by yours truly for Tales from the Smoking Wyrm ( @trevorstamper.bsky.social )

Finished the first of the three - a fairly odd module where the PCs' motivation is basically "hey, you like this bar - save it" and then, in the write-up about the bar, the notes are "look, I don't know. Make this place cool so your players wanna save it" Traveller adventures are weird, man.