a close up of a person 's face with the words nooo written below it ALT: a close up of a person 's face with the words nooo written below it

Reading this from my bed at 4 in the afternoon.

IndieFest (5/21) at Upstairs at Bow

Music, comedy, community. A launch party and fundraiser for the CS Independent.

Ticket link in bio or 👇
www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticket...

#cambridge #somerville

Was it Andy Weir whining again?

The hair dresser wants to know all about your life.

The dental hygienist wants you to know all about theirs.

Thanks for a great event!

Photos of the Alexandria RPG library at PAX East.

The Alexandria RPG Library was a highlight of PAX for me. Hundreds of ttrpgs free to browse (and borrow for a play session).

Premium sourcebooks, mainstream systems, RPGs from your favorite franchises, and lots of cool indies. Really worth checking out if you're a pen & paper RPG fan. #PAXEast

It's really shitty you're so desperate for attention you don't care what bigotted garbage you end up spewing trying to meet your hot takes quota.

Allucinalia by Maggie French A solo journaling game about dreaming.

Check out Allucinalia. It's a solo journaling #ttrpg that gives you the experience of creating a surreal and subconscious-exploring dream journal, without actually having to remember your dreams IRL.

maggiefrench.itch.io/allucinalia

PAX East panel - WE Are The Main Characters!: Bolstering and Uplifting Others In Your D&D Campaign

… @DianaOfTheRose.com mentioned a good way for DMs to spotlight people was to create situations where a character's less common abilities / niche utility spells could be used.

Great point that hyper-detailed systems like #DnD can provide a menu of options for GMs' encounter design as well. (🧵3/3)

…it does make it harder for newer players who miss having a clearer "menu of options" they can choose from to reduce decision fatigue on what they can do. It's a #ttrpgdesign game design tradeoff I thought I fully understood UNTIL today, at a #PAXEast panel about character spotlight sharing… (🧵2/3)

Glowing d20. Public domain photo.

In my homebrew #ttrpg system I've veered away from character creation rules providing many specifically-defined abilities in favor of broader stats that can combine and cover an even larger number of creative, player-brainstormed abilities and uses.

It's great for experienced players, BUT… (🧵1/3)

Your booth / brand looks great! @magathachristie.bsky.social & I will be stopping by. 😁

Posing with the mind flayer part of the Baldur's Gate III booth at PAXEast 2022.

I'm heading to PAX East on Thursday!

Hoping for cool new ttrpg finds, maybe some good chats about fantasy novels (I read The Bright Sword recently; 👍👍👍).

Happy to meet new people, so say hello if you're similarly interested, especially if you're also from Cambridge / Somerville. #PAXEast

Is there a Boston branch of it?

An excerpt from REAMDE by Neal Stephenson: “Do you want to see California?” He could hear Marlon beaming. “Yes.” “It is probably a better place for you,” Csongor said, “than for me. If I go, I will take you. You can be the star. I will be your—” “Bodyguard?” “Fuck that. I was thinking entourage.” “California, here we come!” Marlon exclaimed. Csongor thrust a stubby finger out the window at a road sign that said canada 50 mi/80 km. “We are going wrong way,” he pointed out. “Before California, we have to get into trouble. Then out of it.” Marlon shrugged. “But that is what we do.” Csongor nodded. “That is what we do.”

I've been re-reading @NealStephenson.bsky.social's novel Reamde, and I'd love to see another sequel focused on Csongor and Marlon.

Great buddy dynamic just beginning, fun fish-out-of-water characters both figuring out a fresh start (and maybe some redemption).

#Books #NealStephenson #Booksky

#TurnBasedThursdayFest - Celebrating everyone who makes, plays, and loves turn-based video games! - TurnBasedFest.com #Gaming promo banner.

Final hours of this year's #TurnBasedThursdayFest!

store.steampowered.com/sale/turnbas...

Thank you everyone who participated, found great games & spread the word! It makes a big difference for a ton of indie devs; helps the quality & innovation in turn-based games keep growing!

For more…👇 (🧵1/2)

TBTFest Featured Reveals Show 2026 YouTube video by Turn Based Lovers

Two days until #TurnBasedThursdayFest features more than 450 hand-picked games in a massive 7-day online festival and Steam sale! 🎉

The festival will begin with a 25 game trailer showcase -- first-time game reveals, brand new launches, release date announcements, and more.

Watch it on Youtube:

"Beyond the festivals, we want to activate more of our public spaces, open up underused buildings, and bring more art into the streets, parks, and neighborhoods where people already are."

Love this.

Is anyone running against @massgovernor.bsky.social in November?

Screenshot from The Cambridge Somerville Independent. "We have Tuesday office hours, and they launch in Davis Square."

If you're in #SomervilleMA, #CambridgeMA, or #Boston adjacent and want to support local journalism, give @csindie.bsky.social a follow.

Marc's a dedicated reporter, long-time member of the community, hosting weekly office hours at Diesel Cafe in Davis Square & Toscanini's in Central Square.

Header of The Cambridge Somerville Independent.

There's a brand new site covering Cambridge & Somerville, MA local news, started by the same journalist, @mhlevy.bsky.social, that founded & grew Cambridge Day into a successful local newspaper:

csindie.com

Cambridge Day cut most Somerville coverage in December; I'm glad this is starting up!

The Armory building front in Somerville, MA.

Somerville cultural center the Armory is looking for new tenants!

www.thesomervilletimes.com/archives/145... #SomervilleMA

They have a call for proposals open until March 11th for artists, arts-oriented businesses, and arts-focused non-profit organizations that want space via a 3-5 year lease.

It's very funny to come across this post as a stranger, click in to your profile and see your bio "befriending cats and reading books."

Like, "Oh. At the same time apparently." 😄

Thanks to @magathachristie.bsky.social and her excellent taste in books as a writer herself, for suggesting it to me.

Cover of A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers.

I read 'A Psalm for the Wild-Built' today, and it's a really charming, short humanity-focused sci-fi book.

Optimistic world-building, delightful characters, touching moments of friendship, and encouraging thoughts on our pursuit of purpose.

#Books #SciFi #Humanity

📣 DEMO OUT NOW 🎮

FOLK EMERGING is a
🔥 stone Age
🦣 nomadic
⏳ turn-based
⬢ 4X strategy

Play the demo here 👉 store.steampowered.com/app/4352180?...

Webcomic strip from QuestionableContent.net - Anh tries to get Faye to gossip about a former boyfriend's prowess in bed, and whines to Faye's (sentient android) girlfriend, Bubbles, when Faye won't participate.

Webcomic strip from QuestionableContent.net. Marten's sentient android companion Pintsize (a chaos gremlin known for being wildly inappropriate) meets Marten's new girlfriend.

Appending some random strips from it so I'm not promoting a fun comic with only a big text blurb excerpt.

More meaningful emotional payoffs are delivered through longer-term character arcs.

Excerpt: "Something I've been thinking about a lot the last couple years is how one of the major themes of my comic is the idea of found family- the people in your life who you can depend on to be there for you no matter what, even if they're not your parents or siblings or whatever. It's been interesting watching the comic grow into a whole network of found families, with different characters occupying different places in some kind of weird hyperdimensional Venn diagram of mutual caring. And also some of them are robots. And most of them are very horny. And there's butt jokes. Oh hey I just wrote the elevator pitch for my comic! Only took me 22 years."

QuestionableContent.net has been a daily webcomic read for me for like 10 years now, and this (commentary from today's random-throwback-comic-while-the-creator-is-on-holiday-break) is probably a big reason why.

#Webcomic #FoundFamily

😆