A screenshot of a white-on-black terminal depicting a 19x19 go board in ascii graphics, with empty grid intersections as periods, and black and white as Os and #s

It’s absolutely incredible that one of the largest Japanese-run Go servers, which has been running since 1992, is still accessed entirely via Telnet. And while most players use GUI clients that use Telnet under the hood, you can still connect manually and get ASCII graphics streamed to you

The application has remained stable since approximately 9 PM PDT, April 16 despite ongoing Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. We have not seen any evidence of unauthorized access to private user data. We will provide a further update by end of day.

I hear ya. I'm always weighing need-to-know vs mystery building while watching out for spoiling the tension or the reveals.

It doesn't help that my "I want them to know this" urge is always croaking like a pesky frog from the side line.

A story's lore is the Matrix.

It's in every name, it's in the flowers people give, it's in their food choices, it shows up when you buy a knife, it's what taxes you pay, it's the mercenaries, it's in the statue we passed, it is the magic system, and it's in the history that drove us to this point.

I wanted to Bluesky some this morning, but the buttons aren't buttoning. At least, not consistently. Lots 504 errors.

Whenever I'm on Royal Road, I see not only how they are reading #litrpg but also WRITING it. By the bucket load no less.

Brings a damn tear to my eye, it does.

The Table of Random Drama — Travis Bach Have you ever had your players lock-in on a random NPC of no consequence? Or perhaps dig up an old one who’s arc is really done and there’s not much else going on in their life? Do you need someone i...

I put together a blog post about one of my favorite DMing tools - the drama engine.

It's a printable one pager that's used to generate DEEERAMA.

Specifically, character-based problems, wants, goals, and so forth. It's system agnostic, too.

#D&D #ttrpg

www.travisbach.net/blog/2026/4/...

"What? To Detect and Good and Evil, one must also study evil."

- our Celestial's excuse when he got caught reading books we stole from a very questionable necromancer #dnd

I have to hide mine too, haha. My players are in the chat. ^_^

Thanks!

I'm here! I've finally made a work account on Bluesky.

Hi, I'm Travis: an editor, a writer, and a forever DM (GM or whatever-the-given-game-calls-that-role today.)

Hopefully you'll see me around in the D&D, TTRPG, Writing, and SFF spheres hereabouts.

Cover for Rachel Aaron & Travis Bach's DEATH HAS JOINED THE PARTY featuring a man in a track suit running from an ogre while carrying a mimic and being harassed by a flying skull. It's a funny book!

One series ends, a new one begins... introducing DEATH HAS JOINED THE PARTY!

We loved it so much we made a fancy page for it with audio samples!

If you're ready to read/listen to something geeky, new, and hilarious, check out rachelaaron.net/manarunners!