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Ways to get your player’s heart pumping: make the legend of a feared monster worse then they thought. Or at least feel that way. This is my intro of Utral, the mythic kraken, to my players.

“Satisfy my waters or die in them. Be quick. I am hungry.” Said a voice like that of cracking thunder in your mind. You hear Eros crying from the deck over the howling winds. “Guys! Utral is here!” When you scramble to top deck, you see one of the long, tentacle arms wrap around the mast and others creeped over the side of the ship in silent threat. You must act fast.

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House rules which grow enough they spin-off into their own systems, commercial or otherwise. (Game design)

The Tabletop Roleplaying Hobby is Broad and Deep

I’ve been thinking a bit lately about what we’re talking about when we say “tabletop roleplaying” because there are so many aspects to the hobby. Even people who are hard-core tabletop roleplayers who game on a schedule often spend just as much or more time engaging with other aspects of the hobby.

These are a few aspects I came up with, but I’m sure I’m missing a few. What say ye?

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In 1976 Tim Kask worried that D&D had grown stale after two years, not because they hadn’t released enough new rules but because adding more official rules had made the D&D world more well-defined with less room for creativity.  (From the foreword to D&D Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry by Gygax and Blume, TSR, 1976)

The “new trend” primarily refers to the introduction of artifacts and relics, legendary items that all players might learn about and want to find, but with powers determined by the DMs so their true nature would be unique in each campaign.  These included the Wand of Orcus, the Eye and Hand of Vecna, and the Sword of Kas:

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Discovering the Neighborhood of Make-Believe in the NPR archives

In the 1978 Christmas Eve broadcast of NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered, Mr. Rogers explains his decision to invite Santa to his Neighborhood of Make-Believe — he wanted it on the record that Santa would never watch children while they’re sleeping. This nearly 40 year-old interview with the star of  Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was the first delightfully unexpected discovery I made while searching through NPR’s in-house digital archive. The interview was contemplative and funny and, lucky for me, there was more. Mr. Rogers was interviewed on NPR over a dozen more times between 1975 and 2002. What’s special about these interviews is their incredibly slow pace. And it’s not just the way Mr. Rogers talks–it’s the way he reveals the thoughtfulness and deep compassion for the perspective of children that went into every creative choice on the show.  

Here are the greatest hits from nearly thirty years of NPR interviews with Mr. Rogers.

All Things Considered, 6/5/1975

Bob Edwards introduces him by saying, “Mr. Rogers is, for adults anyway, almost unbearably slow paced.”

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Bob Edwards: Mr Rogers is, for adults anyway, almost unbearably slow-paced. Steven Banker asked Fred Rogers to account for the difference. 

Mr. Rogers: I think it depends who you are. I happen to be a person who is rather well-modulated in his way of speaking and in his way of dealing with feelings. And so consequently, I am myself. And I think maybe that’s the most important thing that I can be to children on television, is myself. 

All Things Considered, 12/12/1979

39 days into the Iranian Hostage Crisis, Mr. Rogers returns to All Things Considered to discuss with Susan Stamberg how parents can use this time to teach their children to, “develop empathy for all sorts of people.”

NPR Archives

Susan Stamberg: A crisis situation presents a tremendous opportunity to really teach lessons in morals and values, doesn’t it? It’s a way to acknowledge the fact that there’s anger, but you can go beyond that and say, but this is the wrong way to express your anger. Taking prisoner is the wrong way.

Mr. Rogers: I have trouble with right and wrong. But I know what you’re saying. And I think that it’s more helpful to say, this is not the way we do it in our family. This is not the way we would do it in our country. And then go on to say how we as a family feel. And our notion of how we as a country feel is such and such. And this gives the kids a very secure sense of belonging to a family, to a country that has these ideals.

Morning Edition, 3/18/1983

Eight years after his initial interview with Mr. Rogers, Bob Edwards admits he has converted to the slow-speed philosophy of the Neighborhood.   

Getty Images

Bob Edwards: I have a confession, I’m almost 36 years old and I enjoy your show. It’s not so much what you’re doing with children I mean I see that now as a father, it’s television and something is going on there. You use the medium so well.  

Mr. Rogers: Anybody likes to be in touch with somebody who’s honest. We all do… I think that the box, there’s a certain safety in the box. And I wonder — when children see me on the street they invariably say, how did you get out? And I try my best to explain what television is and that it’s a picture and that I’m a real person and that’s why I could be there at that moment. They think that you’re so big. And I invariably say to them, you know the scary things you may see on television, could never come and visit you.

Fresh Air, 11/13/2002

Mr. Rogers appears on NPR for the last time a year before he passed away in 2003. In this Fresh Air interview with Barbara Bogaev he reveals more about his life outside the “Neighborhood of Make-Believe” than in any of his previous appearances.

Mr. Rogers: I had every imaginable childhood disease, even scarlet fever, and so whenever I was quarantined—and you know, they used to quarantine people for chicken pox and all of those things—I would be in bed a lot, and I certainly knew what it was like to use the counterpane as my neighborhood of make-believe, if you will. But I had puppets.

Barbara Bogaev: You mean, the window? You would use what? Finger puppets or shadow puppets, or what?

Mr. Rogers: And things on the bed. I would put up my knees and they would be mountains, you know, covered with the sheet, and I’d have all these little figures moving around, and I’d make them talk. And I can still see my room, and I’m sure that was the beginning of a much later neighborhood of make-believe.

Sarah Wilson is a public history intern with NPR’s RAD team. She works with the RAD team to uncover NPR history and collect oral history interviews with notable current and former staff.

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GURPS at DriveThru RPG

Steve Jackson Games is now providing GURPS PDFs at DriveThru RPG, so you can grab the crunchy goodness of this stalwart old school generic system (and its many, many supplements) from the same place you already purchase RPG PDFs.

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A post shared by Amaury Guichon (@amauryguichon)

https://instagram.com/p/BYY37HgnSso/

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Springhill Cemetery, a prominent hilltop burial site for notable figures throughout the history of the settlement of Rochdale.

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A hero in more ways than one

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INKTOBER Day 14!

The world of Airth. Literally torn apart by an ancient war between the gods who created it, Airth is divided into 4 sections:

1. the Stratos, a chain of islands high in the sky where the Sylph people live

2. The Rimland, a massive ring of continents and giant islands where Most of the inhabitants of Airth live. Wake lives here.

3. The Abyss, a stretch of atmosphere filled with incredible cloud formations and tiny floating islands. Limberg and Grimm are from here.

4. The Core, an ocean covered rocky sphere filled with colossal caves. The Tengru, monsters and beasts, and the Dark Lord live down here.

There is a prophecy that the Dark Lord will regain his power and destroy what’s left of Airth to start a new planet with him as ruler. The only thing that can stop him is the Star Seed. It is the key to making Airth whole again and destroying the darkness forever. But is the Star Seed only a myth?

http://skyheartcomic.com

#inktober #inktober2015 #SkyHeartComic

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Your One Tabletop RPG

Spread this one far and wide!

Through crazy advanced technology masquerading as magic, you’re restricted to play only one RPG for the rest of your life. Thankfully you are allowed to use all supplements that are available or will become available for this game.

What game would you want it to be, and why?

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If you’re on the fence about Confederate monuments, take 15 minutes to listen to this episode. It may help you decide.

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Interesting mini-docu on two former prisoners who played D&D while in jail and now as free men.

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Ambient sounds for writers

Find the right place to write your novel… 

Nature

Arctic ocean

Blizzard in village

Blizzard in pine forest

Blizzard from cave

Blizzard in road

Beach

Cave

Ocean storm

Ocean rocks with rain

River campfire

Forest in the morning

Forest at night

Forest creek

Rainforest creek

Rain on roof window

Rain on tarp tent

Rain on metal roof

Rain on window

Rain on pool

Rain on car at night

Seaside storm

Swamp at night

Sandstorm

Thunderstorm

Underwater

Wasteland

Winter creek

Winter wind

Winter wind in forest

Howling wind

Places

Barn with rain

Coffee shop

Restaurant with costumers

Restaurant with few costumers

Factory

Highway

Garden

Garden with pond and waterfall

Fireplace in log living room

Office 

Call center

Street market

Study room from victorian house with rain

Trailer with rain

Tent with rain

Jacuzzi with rain

Temple

Temple in afternoon

Server room

Fishing dock

Windmill

War

Fictional places

Chloe’s room (Life is Strange)

Blackwell dorm (Life is Strange)

Two Whales Diner (Life is Strange)

Star Wars apartment (Star Wars)

Star Wars penthouse (Star Wars)

Tatooine (Star Wars)

Coruscant with rain (Star Wars)

Yoda’s hut with rain ( Star Wars)

Luke’s home (Star Wars)

Death Star hangar (Star wars)

Blade Runner city (Blade Runner)

Askaban prison (Harry Potter)

Hogwarts library with rain (Harry Potter)

Ravenclaw tower (Harry Potter)

Hufflepuff common room (Harry Potter)

Slytherin common room (Harry Potter)

Gryffindor common room (Harry Potter)

Hagrid’s hut (Harry Potter)

Hobbit-hole house (The Hobbit)

Diamond City (Fallout 4)

Cloud City beach (Bioshock)

Founding Fathers Garden (Bioshock)

Things

Dishwasher

Washing machine

Fireplace

Transportation

Boat engine room

Cruising boat

Train ride

Train ride in the rain

Train station

Plane trip

Private jet cabin

Airplane cabin

Airport lobby

First class jet

Sailboat

Submarine

Historical

Fireplace in medieval tavern

Medieval town

Medieval docks

Medieval city

Pirate ship in tropical port

Ship on rough sea

Ship cabin

Ship sleeping quarter

Titanic first class dining room

Old west saloon

Sci-fi

Spaceship bedroom

Space station

Cyberpunk tearoom

Cyberpunk street with rain

Futuristic server room

Futuristic apartment with typing

Futuristic rooftop garden 

Steampunk balcony rain

Post-apocalyptic

Harbor with rain

City with rain

City ruins turned swamp

Rusty sewers

Train station

Lighthouse

Horror

Haunted mansion

Haunted road to tavern

Halloween

Stormy night

Asylum

Creepy forest

Cornfield

World

New York

Paris

Paris bistro

Tokyo street

Chinese hotel lobby

Asian street at nightfall

Asian night market

Cantonese restaurant

Coffee shop in Japan

Coffee shop in Paris

Coffee shop in Korea

British library

Trips, rides and walkings

Trondheim - Bodø

Amsterdam - Brussels

Glasgow - Edinburgh

Oxford - Marylebone

Seoul - Busan

Gangneung - Yeongju

Hiroshima

Tokyo metro

Osaka - Kyoto

Osaka - Kobe

London

São Paulo

Seoul

Tokyo

Bangkok

Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)

Alps

New York

Hong Kong

Taipei

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Extended Outage

Yesterday, February 8th, at 12:30PM PT Instapaper suffered from an outage that has extended through this morning.

After spending multiple hours on the phone with our cloud service provider, it appears we hit a system limit for our hosted database that’s preventing new articles from being saved. At this time, our only option is to export all data from our old database and import it into a new one. We expect the service to be fully recovered today, February 9.

We pride ourselves on being a reliable service with minimal downtime (we were up for 99.3% of 2016), and know many of you rely on Instapaper every day. We apologize that this issue has resulted in an extended period of downtime.

We assure you we haven’t lost any data. While you may not have been able to save articles during the outage, anything you’ve already saved to Instapaper is safe. We appreciate your patience while we work diligently to get it resolved.

- Instapaper Team