Weaving Stories
Writing about game design, stories and having fun. Thoughts, ideas, odd contraptions, diverse figments, entrancing phantasms, peculiar enigmas...
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30 October 2025
Mastodon round-up 1

A dark ink drawing of a stone vaulted corridor and descending staircase. An enigmatic silhouetted figure approaches up the stairs. “The dark, psychological pen and ink images of Fritz Schwimbeck”

I have now been actively using Mastodon for approximately one year. Time to gather together the best things I’ve found there, and also archive some of my own thoughts so I can find them again later. This is everything up until May 2025; more to follow when I have time to curate.

Fediverse / IndieWeb

Cool links 😎

RPG blog posts

  • All about the Eye of Vecna (via me)
  • Sandbox Settlements: Prep, Run, and Thrive (via elmcat)
  • The Monstrous & Terrifying Wild Pigs of Hampstead’s Sewers (via david_castleton
  • Why Orcs? Or, Why Do I Love Orcs? (via lyme)
  • The Seven souls of Shadoom. “An old post that I love dearly. It embodies my favourite aspect of Arnold’s writing: this sense that instead of performing fantasy world-building from a 21st century perspective, he is able to peel back the enlightenment and see through medieval eyes.” (me)
  • Modules as touchstones (via squishymage42)
  • Revisiting GNS (via LeviJornelsen)
  • Rules, retcons, and rightsholders: The tough road for superhero RPGs (via cannibalhaflinggaming)
  • Prep Preferences & Interpretive Labour (via thomas)
  • What’s a Thieves’ Guild and Where Did it Come From? (via me)
  • Reflections after finishing Zozer Games’ Far Horizon (via cybergoths)
  • Dragon Kobolds - The Drak (via juergen_hubert). “The dwarves of old knew how to summon dragon servants, and could provide these to others. But those who own such a dragon should be careful to always heed the feeding instructions…”

  • Pulp Adventure Location: Trinadade & Martim Vaz. I posted some quotes here and then went on to read a book he mentions, The Cruise of the Alerte, leading to these thoughts: 🧵 Some quotes I rephrase slightly because character limits are a hard master.

    “I accordingly procured a bill of health for Sydney; not that I had the slightest intention of going there, but I knew that this document would satisfy the authorities of any place at which I was likely to call for stores: every harbour on either side of the Atlantic can be considered as being more or less on the way to Australia”.

    This feels very relatable to buying train tickets in Britain. Buy a ticket for London and you can probably argue for any route!

    The author receives many other reports of treasure. I like this Nigerian prince-level one: He “modestly asked for 1,000l. down before the slightest hint as to the nature of his treasure or its locality; but there could not be the slightest doubt as to my finding it, and as 1 item alone of this pile consisted of ten million £ worth of golden bars, it would be the height of folly on my part not to send him a cheque for the comparatively ridiculous sum of 1,000l. in return for such information.”

    This is just lovely: “A huge green roller, very high and steep, suddenly rose as if by magic from the deep; then swept over the shoal, and, when it reached the shallowest part, its crest hung over, forming a cavern underneath, through whose transparent roof the sun shone with a beautiful green light; and lastly, the mass overtopping itself fell with a great hollow sound, and was dashed to pieces in a whirl of hissing foam.”

    What an encounter! “Rolling easily on the green ocean swell, near the shore, lay a small schooner at anchor; her crew were engaged in stowing her mainsail. A quantity of barrels were being quickly landed here from one of the schooner’s boats, and several other wild-looking men were carrying these up to a cavern a little way up the rocks. And who, we wondered, were these people, and what were they doing; these were mysterious proceedings for a desert island!”

    “We then set forth to explore the island. We climbed the narrow path that zigzagged up the bare cliffs, and in the construction of which a considerable amount of labour must have been expended, a proof in itself that the rare visitors to the island were Portuguese, for these people alone take the trouble to make roads on desert islands. They seem to love for its own sake the arduous work of cutting paths up difficult precipices, and very cleverly they do it too.”

    RE the previous quote: obviously it’s a racist stereotype, especially the idea that the Portuguese just thrive on difficult road building (as opposed to it be a result of different policies, priorities, etc.). But at the same time, it’s so oddly specific and mildly complimentary that I find it more amusing and bizarre than offensive.

    “Here the mountains rise sheer from the boiling surf—fantastically shaped of volcanic rock; cloven by frightful ravines; lowering in perpendicular precipices; in places over-hanging threateningly…the mountains have been shaken to pieces by the fires and earthquakes of volcanic action; huge landslips of black and red volcanic debris slope steeply into the yawning ravines and loose rocks large as houses, ready on the slightest disturbance to roll down, crashing, into the abysses below.”

    “On the summit of the island there floats almost constantly, even on the clearest day, a wreath of dense vapour, never still, but rolling and twisting into strange shapes as the wind eddies among the crags. And above this cloud-wreath rise mighty pinnacles of coal-black rock, like the spires of some gigantic Gothic cathedral piercing the blue southern sky.”

  • Are fewer rules actually less complicated?. “The debate about rules density in roleplaying games is a bit of a mess, frankly.”, via @cannibalhalflinggaming
  • The Tenchi Muyo! RPG is my Carcosa (via me)
  • Seven-Part Pact: Time. “A solid post by Dwiz about speeding up and slowing down time in RPGs” (via me)
  • Haters Welcome. “I think collaborative creative games help you become a better human, so I want everyone to play them.” (via benrobbins)
  • Shorter, more freqent sessions (via JasonT)

Funnies

RPG thoughts

  • Often unfilled dungeon niche: The chihuahua. @LeviKornelsen Small, hair-trigger, extremely loud, roving alarm system.
  • Idea: RPG in a post-apocalyptic desert. 🧵 There is so little water that the only way communities survive is (Fremen-like) living in sealed habitats where 99.9% of water is recycled; food grows in hydroponic racks.

    Adventurers search through ruins and underground caves for all kinds of useful loot, but the holy grail is water: a litre carefully transported back to the habitat is as precious as gold.
  • Thinking about rooms in dungeons with unstable footing: 🧵
    • walking on tops of stacks of mouldering books metres tall (man-sized bookworms cause surface ripples as they slowly chew their way)
    • the scree slope of an underground river that leaves only a small space to the cavern ceiling
    • football-sized fungal blooms that burst into dry powder when you step on them
    • platforms of loose junk forming islands sticking up from oily water (slippery pipes lead to higher levels)
  • I think it would be fun to run an OSR campaign where the goal, known from the outset, is to slay a dragon before it emerges and lays waste to the kingdom. 🧵 The dragon dwells at the bottom a megadungeon under the city, which has been sealed for centuries to prevent the underworld spewing forth horrors.

    Now the King is forced by augurs of doom to break the seals and grant licences to any who would dare the darkness beneath, seeking the power to defeat the dragon...

    Pressure to beat the dragon as soon as possible leads to players having multiple goes at it, starting before they are really powerful enough, learning and adapting as they go.

    Some crews specialize in recovering bodies and selling them for resurrection (like Dungeon Meshi). Also, giant spiders that creep around the lower levels and drag bodies off to be preserved in webs, including those left by the dragon. So corpse recovery doesn't involve fighting the dragon.

    Partly I just really want to have the "dragon" in D&D, as we hardly ever manage that. Partly, I love the idea of the party really needing to gather information and plan tactics against a single terrifying foe.
  • I am rereading The Hobbit. Here is Thorin talking about dragons... 🧵 "Dragons steal gold and jewels ... and never enjoy a brass ring of it. Indeed they hardly know a good bit of work from a bad, though they usually have a good notion of the current market value" (pg 28 in my Harper Collins paperback).

    I love the idea of monstrous dragons who hoard valuables for no reason... But of course know how much it goes for on eBay. 😂 It really makes sense of D&D groups that award XP for loot even before selling it - clearly all denizens of fantasy worlds can just see the value of treasure hovering above it in yellow numbers.

    Also the next sentence is "[Dragons] can't make a thing for themselves, not even mend a little loose scale of their armour." Which suggests that Tolkien's thought is maybe that dragon's scales are not grown but built??

    In Chapter 12, Smaug says "I am armoured above and below with iron scales and hard gems". All of which may just be poetic language from Tolkien. But what if it isn't? What if dragons commission armour from master smiths?

    It suggests an opportunity for an enterprising party to act as a go between dwarven smiths and a dragon, taking a cut of the vast sum charged - another way of "looting" the dragon. Or pretend that you are there for legitimate business, but instead scouting out weaknesses or just stealing treasure.

    But then if these deals happen every few centuries, these tricks will have been played before, and so even honest parties will meet suspicion from the dragon.

    Also, to defeat the dragon: first produce an accurate sketch of the dragon's armour. Take it to a sage to identify which mastersmith's handiwork it is. Track down the (presumably) long ruined dwarven kingdom. Fight through it to find the secret plans, and identify the weaknesses deliberately installed by the dwarves as a safeguard against draconic aggression.
  • It was deep, deep, dark, such as only goblins that have taken to living in the heart of the mountain can see through... 🧵 This resonates with the idea of the mythic underworld. It's less about this race can see in the dark and this one can't, but that deep darkness is a thing you become part of, and then it becomes part of you - that creatures are changed by becoming denizens of the underworld.
  • Easy quirk for a flavourful magic item: inversion of the norm... @periaptgames A cloak that hides you from perceptive creatures and points you out to others. A resizable rowboat that is weightless at full size, and incredibly heavy when shrunk to pocket-sized. A hammer that smashes through steel and granite but is worthless against glass. A lantern that makes bright light and pitch darkness alike into shadowy gloom.

    An oil that opens locks really, really loudly. A box that turns nutritious food into potable water. Paired rings that make one wearer float and doubles gravity for the other. An animal statuette that comes alive and panics.
  • Studying a book of magic in #NineTalesOfRaffalon by Matt Hughes: 🧵 "The relationship between tome and reader was far more complex, combining elements of the prickly way confreres of the same profession might work together, along with the pupil/mentor axis, overlaid by the complex sentiments longtime players of a subtle and demanding game gradually developed toward each other. It was a mix of collegiality, rivalry, testiness, and the ancient human practice of upmanship."
  • Conundrums in the dungeon: 🧵 Should the weaver either heave the lever to cleave the reaver, or believe the diva, that deceiver, and beaver to retrieve her - or neither: cool the fever, have a breather?

    The bragger swaggers: he nabbed the hag, grabbed the bag. But you could be laggard, sneak up on the blaggard, draw the jagged dagger and stab, make him stagger, grab the swag. Is it worth the hazard?

    Hsst! Basilisk - 'twixt obelisk and bricks. Nix on your tricks! or you'll be transfixed, sent across the Styx. Now, be brisk: with the picks, whisk onto the disk and we'll take a risk, lunatics: frisk its sticks, nick the chicks - quick!
  • In 1782 in a gold mine in Transylvania people found a strange silvery metal. 🧵 Rarer than platinum, it was dubbed "paradoxical gold".

    Now 988 crystals of this metal are arranged in towers, buried a mile beneath a mountain, bound in copper and ancient lead from a 2,000 year old shipwreck. Protected by an immense metallic octagon they sit, colder than the space between stars, colder than anything else in the universe.

    A Call of Cthulu scenario? No, a physics experiment
  • World-building idea: The sun is a ball of literal fire, burning heavenly coals. 🧵 Over the course of the month it burns more and more dimly before guttering out. Then, moon dragons bring more coals and ignite it again.

    From time to time coals, still burning, tumble to the ground. They start forest fires and burn cities. They also contain strange eggs that birth into fantastic or horrifying creatures, and veins of super hard gold that never fully cool.
  • Thoughts about my cheese caves module: 🧵 The cheese is very precious: sold to nobility for gustatory delight; can induce prophetic visions. Nighttime caretakers have gone missing. The PCs are hired to sit with the cheese at night and figure out what's going on. All this is complicated by the owner being very suspicious of her workers (the cheese is worth a lot more than their wages) and in conflict with the union, who refuse to work until this is resolved.

    The simple solution: a family of mimics is in the caves - some of the big wheels have been devoured and replaced by mimics. But there's more going on that confuses the issue and offers other opportunities.

    A few months back: The owner's husband realized that the door in the lower level was a dwarven ruin and went questing for the key. He found it but was infected by deadly spores and died just outside the door on his return. That level is now full of deadly mushrooms and sealed off.

    oh, also there's some carrion crawlers that live stuck at the bottom of a well, fat and contented on the cheese scraps that get dropped to them. The workers know there's something down there, but they refer to them as "cave puppies" and would be horrified to know what they're really feeding.

    Finally, the dwarven ruin is haunted by an ancient ghost; it entrances people to come open the door to the ruin.

    Red herrings: Are the disappearances the fungus? The ghost? Is the ghost that of the owner's husband?

    If the party want to loot the dwarven tomb they will need to do it while convincing the owner they are still working on the disappearances and get the treasure out past the shakedowns designed to prevent cheese theft by employees.

Other thoughts

  • Continuing my unplanned Vorkosigan re-read: 🧵

    "The Warrior's Apprentice" and "Mountains of Morning", the two first books about Miles Vorkosigan, and establishing very different aspects of him. In the first we get his brilliance, his ability to inspire loyalty, his unstoppability - but also some of his greatest failures: all the deaths and lies spiral from his overconfidence and unwillingness to admit defeat. At the end he feels ashamed of the cheers of "Admiral Naismith", despite his successes.

    In "Mountains of Mourning" he is much less showy and impressive (despite some piercing insights into the people around him) but we see clearly his honour, his self-sacrifice. This short novella (which won a Hugo and a Nebula) is key to who Miles is, and it's his personal commitment here to a dead child that ultimately turns out to be so important many books later.

    Continuing the Vorkosigan reread: In "The Vor Game" Miles' genius is blended with more awareness of the stakes - more humility - and I find him much more appealing. The part where he and Gregor are playing off each other to manipulate the crazy mercenary had me jumping up and down with excitement! So good 😁

    Pretty much everything Miles achieves through this book is through him talking and putting himself at risk, and it's thrilling throughout.

    Plus there's this moment 💛

  • I recently finished reading "The Deed of Paksenarrion", a fantasy trilogy by Elizabeth Moon published in 1988. 🧵 It's a perfectly fine fantasy yarn, filled with tropes but still engaging and a satisfying read. Here's some things I found noteworthy:

    The first book takes place not in an adventuring party, but with a mercenary company, and is very low-fantasy. The author's bio mentions her sevice in US Marines, and I think there is versimilitude to the heroine's time as an ordinary foot soldier.

    There's a serious attempt to take the kind of religious "magic" of #dnd (clerics, paladins, etc.) and think it through with a religion that makes sense.

    The later parts of the trilogy deal convincingly with disability and depression.

    Overall, a solid fantasy adventure that I found quite moving in its conclusion.
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