Happy Birthday, Gnoll!

"Heaven's wind howled, whispering rules and requirements, cold and cruel laws that sought order before justice, with only the barest margins given to mercy and kindness."

—A Thousand Li: The Third Realm, by Tao Wong

Congrats to you and the others!

A miniature of a white woman in a long, faded blue skirt and gray top. Her hair is brown and she has a leather guard over her top.

Rear view of a miniature of a white woman in a long, faded blue skirt and gray top. Her hair is brown and she has a leather guard over her top.

Got a mini painted up to represent Violet, the blacksmith’s daughter, whom my heroes will (hopefully) rescue the next time we play Draw Steel.

Flap your arms and fly!

Ahh, cause and effect.

"Because you did not kill enough billionaires 30 years ago, the weather will now get worse forever."

A squarish dungeon room made of Dwarven Forge pieces on a green tablecloth. On the sides of the walls stand several undead miniatures (skeletons, ghouls, and zombies). In the center is a painted red and orange skull sigil. A lone statue sits on a stone dais toward the north end of the room.

The skull sigil was animating the undead in the room and could be destroyed. But I think I did a poor job hinting it to the players, and the one good hint I gave—the zombie reanimating—I immediately backpedaled on.

What it also may have done is prevented them from targeting the skull sigil itself, which made the combat significantly more difficult as they slowly hacked their way through 8 somewhat formidable undead opponents.

Not bringing up where the ability *actually* triggered from may have prevented that.

I think rules transparency is appropriate, and I think it's important your players trust you to run things fairly, but at some point you just gotta let the magic happen and live in their heads.

I regret that moment. Obviously we'll get over it, but it does sting a little.

So I said, just to be clear, this was an ability inherent to the zombie, not the floor sigil. I think for some reason I just wanted to be clear on the rules for future undead encounters, but I should not have done this.

Even one of the players was like, "Aw, why'd you have to tell us that?"

I described what was happening. Something like, "You kick the corpse across the room and it collapses. Seconds later, the sigil on the floor flares up and it twitches back to action!"

The players were, naturally, like oh god not an undying zombie!

For whatever reason, my brain went to rules mode.

I made a mistake while directing Draw Steel last Thursday that still gnaws at me a bit. When you're running a game, you should avoid letting the players see behind the curtain as much as possible.

When the heroes downed their first zombie, it triggered the Endless Knight ability. Well...

Five human knight miniatures painted to look like statues that have been smeared with blood, all standing on some Dwarven Forge tiles on my black painting table.

A closeup of the three leftmost knight statue miniatures. The left is holding a sword pointed downward in its right hand, the middle a two-handed sword pointing up, and the third holds a sword aloft in its right hand and a shield in its left.

The two rightmost knight statue miniatures. The left holds a sword in its right hand and a shield in its left—the sword pointing outward—and the right one holds an axe in its right hand.

“Five human warrior statues, each smeared with blood, stand around the stair.”

—Draw Steel, The Delian Tomb

A flatscreen display on a "smart" water fountain, demanding to be reconnected to the internet.

In 1999, I was playing a decker in Shadowrun, and tried to distract a guard by hacking a water fountain to overflow, and my GM said "why would a water fountain be on the network? That's fucking stupid. No you can't try."

Well it's 2026 and I just want you to know, Phil, that I FUCKING CALLED IT!

king's quest reverse isekai where king graham is spirited away to the modern day and can now die from things like "stood too close to the glass at the aquarium" and "whanging his nuts on a bicycle seat"

Ah, mothers.

"Fortnite has a new rat!"
That's great, they also just fired 1000 people, had a Harry Potter crossover, and had a horrible Darth Vader thing.

I'll pay a furry artist to draw a much hotter rat who is actually gay and continue to show support to the community I am a part of instead of a corporation.

Thanks! Dwarven Forge really kicks the encounter aesthetic up, although obviously it’s not the most accessible option.

I’ve run for decades with a good old battle mat and wet erase markers so I will never fault a white board! (Before this encounter I was doing mat and markers in this same game!)

When you’re introducing people to a game, sure. But if they are on board and keep showing up, at some point it becomes the responsibility of the player to start engaging with and remembering the basics.

Yet I find table after table where someone has been playing for months/years and still won’t.

Oooh! Me! Me!

The rulebook is a feature, not a bug. Making an effort to digest the rules is the bare minimum entry requirement to RPGs. It is wild to me that someone can keep showing up to the RPG table with no understanding of the mechanics of the game.

What a fun session! Wiped out a TON of the Heroes’ Recoveries—I am slightly worried about them going in to the final battle of the tomb’s first level, but adversity is the stuff of legend!

A battle scene in a squarish dungeon room featuring painted undead miniatures and unpainted hero minis.

The battle is not going well for our heroes as the undead swarm!

If your toaster starts working like this website today, report it to us on SaferProducts.gov.

A squarish dungeon room made of Dwarven Forge pieces on a green tablecloth. On the sides of the walls stand several undead miniatures (skeletons, ghouls, and zombies). In the center is a painted red and orange skull sigil. A lone statue sits on a stone dais toward the north end of the room.

The stage is set. I await the Heroes to arrive and Draw Steel!

Fantasy painting of a character standing in a rocky canyon with a pastel pink and blue sky in the background, with a few moons behind the clouds. The character is a pink-skinned female shaman-looking person with curling ram horns growing from her head.

Chimera Shaman

A personal painting I made while I was inspired by the world Laini Taylor created for her books. Have you read her work?

11x18 oil on board (available, framed)

Photo of a black and cream colored small dog on a pink blanket with white ghosts on it. Her eyebrows look angry and is looking toward the viewer.

Text says ‘estimate for teefs. $1100 ~ $1300 maybe $1400 (if complicated). If add on spay: $1100 ~ $1660. Includes medications and cone. Appointment is May 8th’

- desperately need help ; please repost -

I now have the estimate for Tsuki’s tooth extractions and spay. It turns out her spay would be only a couple hundred more in the estimate. Around the same price of the one I would’ve gone to.

ko-fi.com/missalppy

It is a very nice feeling

I've never understood the obsession with "roll to get drunk" in D&D. Like... unless the beverage has some sort of random magical properties... you just get drunk if you have a few.

Lately, I’ve been getting friend requests on Bump from Furry people I don’t know, so I’ve been accepting them all and sending everyone tons of gay stickers. Sending gay stickers to people all over the world, including Europe, America, and Asia

has become my little pleasure uwu