Notices by Epidiah (epidiah@dice.camp)

I've only been coding for five years now and even I'm nostalgic for a time when vibe coding meant installing a dracula colorscheme and firing up a YouTube synthwave channel while you type up your 67th todo app.

Starting to get art for the new Unwritten Earths Symposium project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/unwrittenearths/adventure-and-hobbyist-annual-2025

And folks, FOLKS!

You fire up your computer, what's the first thing you open?

I'm really curious about things that aren't web browsers, but it's okay if it is a browser--maybe tell me the first web page you check if that's the case.

Rooted at the intersection of wargames and The Lord of the Rings,* early #ttrpg often had an interesting tension between the desire to be about wandering heroes exploring a world of wonder/peril and the urge to be about heroes commanding mighty armies in a massive/fantastic battle.

The wanderers obviously won out, but a door was often left open for the commanders.

* And the rest of Appendix N, whatever; but have you read Appendix O, a far more insightful dive into the core influences to D&D?

@saddestrobots Yes!

A few months back, I got to play the Heroes of Might & Magic boardgame and the itches that game scratched!

But I think I had a little more attachment to the heroes in the videogame.

Hey #ttrpg folks!

If you're anywhere near Greenfield, Massachusetts between noon and 4 PM EDT this Saturday, consider stopping by Greenfield Games (https://www.greenfieldgames.com/) where I'll be signing copies of Dread FOR SPOOKY REASONS!

Probably going to bring a red pen to be extra spooky about it.

(This is actually spooky for me because when I sign Dread books, I write a little bespoke questionnaire question in it, too; and it's been a few years since I've written a Dead questionnaire.)

FAQ

Q1: Hey Eppy, are you going to bring your recorder in case someone requests a clumsily rendered version of the Rockford Files theme?

A1: Oh gee, I hadn't thought about that. I probably shouldn't. But maybe, do you think I should?

Q2: Hey Eppy, don't you have a blood-colored ink for your fountain pens? What about using one of those to sign books?

A2: Oh, wait, you're right! I need to dig that out and get to practicing. I can't promise calligraphy, but I can promise faux-fancy!

Q3: When is this happening again?

A3: Tomorrow, between noon and 4 PM EDT! That is, if today is Friday, October 18, 2024. Which, at time of writing, it is.

(Also, feel free to stop by and ask me about games other than Dread. Bonus points if you ask about the horror games I dug in my youth, before the Dread times. Maybe I'll bring some for show and tell.)

Digging out the old horror games I found a few that I never got to play (and in some cases had forgotten about) over the years.

Games like The Whispering Vault, Abyss, Asylum, and The End.

The 90s were an interesting time for horror—especially for TV, fiction, comics and #ttrpgs. Lots of millennial/end-times flavor. Interview With a Vampire, The X-Files, and Hellraiser were all having a big influence in the RPG scene. Splatterpunk was suddenly a thing. Zombie apocalypses were about to go mainstream, so you could see them building up in fringe media like comics. Oh, and all the moody, tales from the point of view of tortured, immortal, superpowered "monsters."

A lot of times, when we talk about horror, what we're really talking about depends a lot on the medium we're discussing. Like if I say horror movie, you're* probably thinking of an 80s slasher flick or something in that genre. But if I say a horror book, you'll probably think of Stephen King. Which is interesting, right? Because almost all Stephen King books you can think of are also movies.

* A generic you, not you specifically.

So I'm curious, if someone other than me was reaching into their bag while offering to run a horror ttrpg* for you, without thinking about it, what's the first game or type of game that would pop into your mind?

* My phone wants to autocorrect "ttrpg" to "trip" and I don't hate it.

My sister just found some hidden surveillance devices pointed at the beds at the vacation rental she's staying at.

So stay safe and always check for creeps my friends.

Unrelated to my previous toot, is there a reason git and github are so opaque and nerve-wracking to deal with? Is it a hazing ritual?

I know I'm inviting folks to explain this comic to me, but I'd like to respectfully request a moratorium on posting this every time you see someone critique an existing standard.

That's not what this comic is about.

Here's some context: Nothing this comic is referring to is older than D&D. So pretend its about #ttrpgs.

Is it saying we can't improve on the games that exist?

Or is it saying attempts to replace them all with a perfect game is doomed to merely increase the population by one?

The CEO of Hasbro in front of Goldman Sachs bragging about how he has 30-40 friends who need AI to play D&D.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/hasbro-ceo-chris-cocks-talks-ai-usage-in-d-d-updated.706638/

I mean, who knows? They could be commiserating on their biggest failures.

Goldman Sachs could've been like, "We tanked the world economy and destroyed the lives of millions because we had a hard-on for those tasty, tasty subprime mortgages and we're staffed, top to bottom, with incompetent assholes."

And Chris Cocks is like, "That's nothing! You know that game I own that's all about imagining things? Turns out, it's so boring, people just let a computer do the imagining for them!"