crustmonster

[crustmonster]

Lil guys! Giant centipedes sculpted by Kev Adams for Otherworld Miniatures.

#ttrpg #miniaturepainting #dnd #osr #d&d

[crustmonster]

playscii starmap for a tabletop game. i think most of them are in the right place

[crustmonster]

the reddit blackout is just another incident in a long desperate fight to turn the internet into the most advertiser friendly capitalistic hell hole possible.

the Tumblr porn ban and features like Tumblr live, twitters implosion, the threat of a TikTok ban, twitchs new rules restricting streamers ability to advertise, discords new changes to make it more like social media instead of the messaging app it is, YouTube's ridiculous policy restricting content and banning creators for "the children" (advertisers), literally everything meta is doing

the whole internet is forcebily losing its creativity and uniqueness and being forced into bland corporate boxes and being censored in an effort to make the rich richer

I miss the old internet where we weren't all pushed to use the same few social media sites with the same bland layout and being used to make money off of every second

[crustmonster]

The two genders.

[crustmonster]

Rust monster corroding a shiny new sword before snacking on it (AD&D Monster Cards Set 4, TSR, 1982) Many cards in Set 4 are unsigned or have their signatures cropped. Harry Quinn contributed many of the signed illustrations, with some signed by Erol Otus and some unsigned ones resembling Jim Holloway's work.

[crustmonster]

Here’s a Wraith I drew for This Mortal Coil! Currently funding on itch.io right now. The more money we raise, the more monsters get illustrated!

Check out this sick Liminal Horror hack here: https://carpedavid.itch.io/this-mortal-coil

[crustmonster]

in the latest cyber-news: the internet archive has lost their case against 4 major publishing houses (verge article). they’re going to appeal, but this is still a bad outcome. the fate of the internet is currently hanging in the balance because 4 multibillionare publishing groups missed out on like $15 of combined revenue during the pandemic because of the archive’s online library service. it’s so fucking stupid.

for those who don’t know what the internet archive is, it’s a virtual library full of media. books, magazines, recordings, visuals, flash games, websites - a lot of these things either don’t exist anymore or cannot be found & bought. heard of the wayback machine? that’s part of the internet archive. it is the most important website to exist, and i don’t say that lightly. if the internet archive goes down, the cultural loss will be immeasurable.

so how can you help?

boycott the publishing companies involved in this. they’re absolute ghouls, frankly, and don’t deserve a penny. the companies involved are harpercollins (imprints), wiley (imprints), penguin random house llc (imprints), and hachette book group (imprints). make sure the websites are set to your location as it may differ worldwide.

learn to torrent. download a torrent client (i recommend transmission), a vpn (i recommend protonvpn - sign up and choose the area that’s closest to your continent/country), and hit up /r/piracy on reddit for websites. with torrenting, you can get (almost) any media you want for free in high quality, with add-ons such as subtitles, and with no risks of loss. i would also recommend getting into the habit of watching stuff online for free. the less you can pay to a giant corporation, the better.

get into the habit of downloading and archiving materials. find a TB external hard drive, ideally the higher the better. it’ll probably cost around $60 for 1TB and continue to go up, but they’re so so useful. if you can’t afford a drive, look for any GB harddrives or memory sticks you have lying around and just fill them up. videos, pdfs, magazines, songs, movies, games - anything you can rip and download and fit on there, do it, because nothing is permanent.

donate to the internet archive. this is the most important option on the list. the IA relies entirely on funding, and it’s going to need more to fight this case. whatever you can donate, do it. i promise it’s helpful.

and finally…

[crustmonster]

Painted some Ral Partha lion centaurs cause my character in the AD&D 2e campaign I’m playing in died and got reincarnated as one.

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #ttrpg #d&d #osr #ad&d 2e #miniature painting

[crustmonster]

Made some hot glue slimes and oozes.

#ttrpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #d&d #osr #miniature painting #rpg

[crustmonster]

Dungeon23 day 1!

#dungeon23 #dnd #dungeons and dragons #ttrpg

[crustmonster]

The way I see it, the +1/2 level thing is such a roadblock to me starting up a new 4e campaign that I am willing to alter everything that runs on the assumption that you’ll be adding half your level to a roll just so I can get rid of it. To me, philosophically, smaller numbers are always better than bigger numbers.

You’re right, 4e fix will not be compatible with 4e. At least, not in the 4e + Essentials kind of way. The goal is to streamline the mechanics of the player characters to make jumping right into the mostly unaltered mechanics of the rest of the game less of an ordeal.

The class features on a chopping block are things like the fighter weapon talent. Nobody wants to waste valuable character sheet real estate writing down something that only gives a +1. Also considering altering things like the wizard’s arcane implement mastery just because it’s clunky--there has to be a simpler more elegant way to do functionally the same thing.

4e Fix--dev log 1

Some of the best times I’ve ever had playing D&D were with 4th edition. It’s the only edition where I got just as much enjoyment out of interacting with the mechanics of the game as I did hanging out with my friends playing make believe. That said, it’s pretty hard to get back into 4e after playing other editions of D&D, and especially other RPGs in general. Once the game gets going it’s easy enough to play, but the sheer amount of effort you have to go through to make a character, and to level them up between sessions is daunting. Plus, the game is slowed down by lots of bonuses that are so small, and rules so specific, that they don’t have any meaningful impact on gameplay. The way I see it, these problems are mostly due to “vestigial 3.5-isms”–game elements from the previous edition that stuck around even though they didn’t need to. 

The goal of 4e Fix is to create a supplement that can be used alongside the core 4e books which removes these vestigial game elements, and incorporates a handful of modern game design elements to streamline and declutter the D&D 4e experience without altering so much that it stops being D&D 4e altogether.

To-Do:

Simplify races (renamed to origins) down to 2 traits each. Get rid of  minor bonuses too small to matter.

Simplify classes. Get rid of class features that provide minor bonuses too small to matter. Rewrite class features that provide feats.

Get rid of ability scores–just use modifiers.

Get rid of the “add ½ your level” bonus some stats have. Adjust monster math to compensate.

Simplify weapons and armor, taking inspiration from the way D&D Gamma World does it.

Experimental:

Get rid of both feats and skills–replace them with a single new thing that fills both roles.

I’ll be posting updates.

#4e fix #d&d 4e

[crustmonster]

This weeks map! An abandoned roadside insect and reptile attraction! And it’s a dungeon!

[crustmonster]

New games are just in!

[crustmonster]

Me: I never need to buy an RPG system again and neither do you.

Also me: oh shit oh fuck look how pretty:

[crustmonster]

For our session today!

Handrawn by me, keyed version isn’t very legible if you’re not in person unfortunately.

[crustmonster]

I maintain that the Palace of the Vampire Queen (1976) is the only “official” D&D adventure that’s ever been playable right out of the box, but that’s because its key looks like this. I like to think it’s so bare-bones cause it was from the era when “it’s a dungeon” was the only gimmick you needed.

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #d&d #ttrpg #od&d

[crustmonster]

play better games