Jonathan Tweet

Gamehole Con Featuring role-playing games, board games, fantasy and historical miniature gaming, and collectible card games, Gamehole Con is for the fantasy and adventure tabletop gaming enthusiast.

The last time I went to Gamehole Con, an agent called me out of the blue to represent Grandmother Fish, resulting in a big deal with Macmillan. I plan to return in 2026. It was a good time, and Madison is like Seattle of the Midwest. Maybe I'll run Mighty Ones. Who's with me?

www.gameholecon.com

Yes, and one trick I developed after seeing people play our D&D intro games* was to put the "roleplaying" characters behind barriers. They're in a magic mirror. They're phantoms. Otherwise the PCs might just kill them.

*eg, killing the scared refugee on sight rather than talking to him

It's a great time to be a geek!

Glad you're enjoying it! Krakens are bad enough, so I can only imagine how scary a death kraken might be.

I'm really glad that Rob & I had a chance to update 13th Age. We've learned a lot since 2013!

In @robheinsoo.bsky.social's Arduin Bloody Arduin (13th Age), we fought in a holy temple against a good naga and lizardfolk underlings. They all picked on my magic-user, which was fair. The super-strong, super-precise magic missiles were not fair. In Arduin, "good" is just one more faction. #TTRPG

Magic has Human Rogues and Human Soldiers. "Soldier" and "rogue" seem like the same sort of thing. Backgrounds also feel limiting, taking an aspect of character creation that used to be open-ended ('what's your background?') and turning it to pick-from-a-list ('which background do you have?').

Wasn't the main point of backgrounds that characters could get ability bonuses without them being tied to races any longer? Having soldiers get a Strength bonus is fine, but having half-orcs get a Strength bonus is racial essentialism.

Backgrounds don't seem to carry the sort of weight that race and class do. Race and class are salient enough that Magic picked them up for their creature cards, like Goblin Rogues and Human Warlocks. Backgrounds don't seem distinct enough from classes. Is a "soldier" a class or a background?

Alpha particles are helium nuclei, highly ionizing but easily stopped by solid matter, such as skin. Beta particles are electrons or positrons, less ionizing but able to penetrate skin & cause burns.

Is your game collection really complete if you don't have German-langauge versions of the 3E Player's Handbook and of the first 3E "splatbook"? Somehow I think 3E is particularly suited to German, but maybe that's just me. #TTRPG

These & lots more now on eBay: www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_...

Yes, and I want kids to grow up with a cosmic perspective

Yeah, and people are fish, and ants are wasps.

I'd like to get everyone to talk about "our sun" and "our moon" rather than "the" sun and "the" moon. Other planets have their own moons, and exo-planets have their own suns. Unfortunately, I have misplaced my magic wand.

Excellent.

"I'll just have a 'little water'".

doesn’t “whiskey“ mean “water of life”, like “vodka” and “aquavit”?

"Have Laser, Will Travel". At age 12, I didn't have $5* to buy Metamorphosis Alpha, so I created my own RPG with mutants and laser guns.

*$25 in today's dollars

Ars Magica Goodness! Now that Fork ICE February is over, it's time for a wrap-up of all the Ars Magica goodness that's been released in the last month! Take a look, then … PRE-ORDER Definitive Edition, the Mythic Europe cloth map, & Definitive custom dice NOW! Ars Magica Videos Definitive Samples Unboxing: John and I couldn't wait to unbox the printer samples of Ars Magcia Definitive Edition. Here are our first impressions: …

Ars Magica Goodness! #ArsMagica #TTRPG

I've struggled with this recurrently in my work. I can see getting one attack roll to simulate a minute of hand-to-hand struggling, positioning, feinting, and swinging. But I can't see getting one attack roll to simulate a flurry of arrows. Missiles & movement are why I don't do long rounds. 2/2

Sounds right. I sort of like long rounds for hand-to-hand combat, but not for movement or missile weapons. Someone can hustle 400 feet in a minute, and that's more than I want combatants moving in a round. One can shoot a flurry of arrows, and that's more arrows than I want shot in a round. 1/2

improvgm - Twitch improvgm streams live on Twitch! Check out their videos, sign up to chat, and join their community.

Ars Magica: Reing of Spring 7pm Central
Haunted by visions of demons, the Magi travel to Transylvania to acquire the Grass Crown.
twitch.tv/improvgm

It's wild to me that D&D has introduced a third aspect of one's character type, the background. D&D started with one aspect: race/class: magic-user, dwarf, etc. Then the thief class introduced the race-class combo, which eventually expanded to all races and classes. Now there's a third: background.

one old D&D trick was to use cats as weapons, swinging them by the tail and using them to strike own your foes

YouTube video by Unconventional GMs 13th Age 2nd Edition : One Shot | Swamp Princess | Actual Play

Do you like swamps? Do you like princesses? Check out our latest #ActualPlay #TTRPG of @pelgranepress.bsky.social @jonathantweet.bsky.social @robheinsoo.bsky.social 13th Age 2nd Edition, one of my most favourite games given the 2 hour one-shot treatment - SWAMP PRINCESS.

youtu.be/0CPGgECxMXo?...

Dylath-Leen, capital of Skailand (from my upcoming #ttrpg Dreamland: Fairytale Portal Fantasy Beyond the Wall of Sleep by @exaltedfuneral.bsky.social ) #dreamlands #kadath

How many arrows do you suppose an archer can shoot in a minute? And how far do you suppose someone (in or out of armor) can hustle in a minute? These questions also weigh on how long a melee round should be.

Our Spring KRAKEN Guest of Honor is the great @jonathantweet.bsky.social !

Looking forward to hang out with him, listen to his stories, play games with him,l earn from him and get books and gams signed!

Yes, we still have some space for people to attend!

In 3E when I wrote that kobolds consider themselves to have the blood of dragons flowing in their veins, I assumed everyone would know that it was just a preposterous myth that they told themselves, but people liked the idea so much that they ran with it

That's just "helm" spelled funny. Like "epee" is just "spade" (ie, sword) spelled funny. And "melee" is just "medley" spelled funny ("medley" originally meaning hand-to-hand combat).

Hlanith, river city of the Dreamlands, from “Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, mapped for Dreamland RPG #ttrpg discord.gg/UnYUT52T

(Including the heraldic animal I reworked from earlier on my timeline)

nice!

I still think of 10-sided dice as new-fangled