Wolfgang Baur

Word of the Day: tergiant

In 30 minutes I posit DMs and GMs are NOT simply unpaid entertainers at the game table plus the latest gaming news from @koboldpress.com @ospreygames.bsky.social @theonyxpath.bsky.social and more on tonight's The Gaming Gang Dispatch #1296. 8pm ET/7pm CT/5pm PT 😜 youtube.com/watch?v=K3DXl9pnhQo

Score Huge Savings with the Tales of Sand & Scales 5E D&D Bundle - The Gaming Gang Kobold Press has teamed with Fanatical for the Tales of Sand & Scales 5E D&D Bundle.

Score Huge Savings with the Tales of Sand & Scales 5E D&D Bundle - @koboldpress.com @fanatical.com #DnD #Midgard #Southlands #TTRPGs thegaminggang.com/save-money-o...

I posit DMs and GMs are NOT simply unpaid entertainers at the game table plus the latest gaming news from @koboldpress.com @ospreygames.bsky.social @theonyxpath.bsky.social and more on tonight's The Gaming Gang Dispatch #1296. 8pm ET/7pm CT/5pm PT 😜 youtube.com/watch?v=K3DX... #TTRPGs #Miniatures

The image shows a rectangular Roman dice tower (turricula) made of four copper alloy (bronze) plates with punched cut-out Latin letters and cut-out decorative patterns. At the bottom front is a stepped exit chute with small bronze bells attached to the opening. The tower is a Roman anti-cheating device. It has an open top and is hollow inside except for three staggered, downward-sloping plates, designed to randomize dice as they fall, ensuring unpredictable dice rolls. When the dice rolled out of the exit chute they rang the bells! There is a decorative dolphin either side of the stepped exit chute. The top of the front plate has two decorative pine cone finials. Height 25 cm. There is a single die shown next to the stepped base to illustrate how it was used. The front inscription reads: PICTOS VICTOS HOSTIS DELETA LVDITE SECVRI Translated as: ‘The Picts defeated, the enemy has been destroyed, play in safety’. Around the top of the three remaining sides, a second inscription made with cut out letters reads: ‘UTERI/FELIX/VIVAS’ translated as ‘Use happily; may you live well’. Found at a Roman villa at Froitzheim in Germany in 1985.

Roman anti-cheating gaming accessory!

This Roman ‘turricula’ (dice tower) was used to ensure a fair roll of the dice! 🎲🎲🎲

Dice dropped into the top, tumbled over sloping internal levels, and appeared randomly below.

From Froitzheim, Germany, AD 300-400

📷 LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn

#Archaeology

Seems like only yesterday!

20 Years of Kobold Press! The state of Kobolds from 2006 to 2011- March 4, 2026 It's our 20th anniversary! Join CEO, Wolfgang Baur as he recalls the first few years of what we now call Kobold Press.

I blog about the dawn of Kobold Press: the weird and wonderful DIY phase from 2006-2011, with a motley cast of layabouts and geniuses. #ttrpg #history #20years

koboldpress.com/20-years-of-...

Hastening Doom soon on Backerkit April 2026

Hastening Doom is a sprawling megadungeon from Kobold Press coming to BackerKit in April.
Hastening Doom is an exercise in monster-slaying, trap-outwitting, and puzzle-solving inspired by the oldest of old-school adventures.
Sign-up to get notified here: bit.ly/490SbCy

Kobold Press 20th Anniversary Sale!

Twenty Years. Four Weeks. Endless Adventure!
This March, Kobold Press celebrates 20 years with a special “Era” Anniversary Sale. Check back each week and explore two decades of bold design at 20-40% off.
koboldpress.com/kpstore/20th...

The world’s most elusive colour is worth billions – if we can find it The discovery of bright yet stable pigments is vanishingly rare, making them hugely valuable. Now chemist Mas Subramanian is unpicking the atomic code of colour and homing in on our most-wanted hue

The discovery of bright yet stable pigments is vanishingly rare, making them hugely valuable. Now chemist Mas Subramanian is unpicking the atomic code of colour and homing in on our most-wanted hue

Disney comic artist Carl Barks has a street in the Netherlands named after him, Carl Barksweg. There’s also Mickey Mousestraat, Donald Ducklaan, Goofystraat, Asterixstraat, Obelixstraat, & Popeyestraat.

Brannon Blackrose Human Vanguard Tales of the Valiant Kobold Press

Missed Kobold Chats on Friday? Kendo revealed the Human Vanguard - Brannon Blackrose. Watch it here: bit.ly/4rYpAXb

It is Mexican-Catalan jargon of the Yukon, so probably not quite standard Spanish. I got the spelling from a 1971 history of mule trains in the gold fields.

A diagram of the Kootenay sturgeon-nosed canoe with a pointer prow like a Greek galley. Caption: This peculiar craft was especially suitable for rough lake waters and was used in only one other area in the world; the Amur river region in Asia.

The Kootenay sturgeon-nosed canoe!! I live for Gold Rush period detail.

Cover of Canada West magazine issue Winter 1971 with B&W cover photo of three “miners drifting for gold on Spruce creek - Arlington District-1899”. Big western hats and a mine cart are in evidence.

Sigh, “terms” not teens. This is the zine in question

My daughter gave me a 1971 magazine that includes a clear description of 19th century gold rush mule trains and I totally sincerely delighted! Teens like carigador, aparejo, and manta from the Spanish-Catalan tradition! Daily schedules! Photos!

This is a graph of the death of US science.

For me, the value of an autograph is always the joy of meeting the author at a signing.
It’s a memento, not an investment.

WELL NOW, would you look at that?

A massive, 26-YEAR-LONG study of MORE THAN 2.4 MILLION people in Sweden found found NO EVIDENCE to support a causal link between acetaminophen (the API in Tylenol) use during pregnancy and increased risk of autism, ADHD, OR intellectual disability in children.

The 2024 versions are new. But if you are looking for more 2014 items, Kobold Press has a monster book and others on DDB and in print.

Yes, they are also available for 2014 in the Book of Ebon Tides! That is what they were published for first.

Book of Ebon Tides Kobold Press D&D Beyond

Now Available!
New subclasses from Book of Ebon Tides for 5E2024 on D&D Beyond. Which one are you excited to play first?
Find out more here:
www.dndbeyond.com/changelog#Pl...

Post a pic you took, no context, to bring some zen to the feed.

It was a basement show in a small club and the drum machine was not entirely cooperative. It was a sweaty punk mess, and I adored it. Loud and good.

Yeah, that era was a good time for college/indie bands in Champaign. Stuff like Naked Raygun and Galaxy 500 and Big Black came in, but so did “big acts” like REM and the Replacements and Husker Du.

I miss $10 tickets. 🎟️

Large and slightly ripped shoe poster for “Billy Bragg with Michelle Shocked” appearing at a Mabel’s Small text reads tickets: $8 in advance $10 at the door available at Record Swap, Record Service, That's Rentertainment Mazuma Records (Charleston) Mother Murphey's (Normal) WEDNESDAY MAY 4 9:00 Touring with Billy Bragg are representatives from the Democratic Socialists of America, the Committee in Solidarity for People of El Salvador, and Act Up. a lobbying group concerned with AIDS research. Members of these three groups will speak at the show.

A show poster I kept from the late 80s. Mabel’s was the main small show venue in Champaign-Urbana at the time. Tickets $8 advance, $10 door.

Book of Blades Shard Tabletop Kobold Press

Blades clash and battle rages across the pages of Book of Blades for Tales of the Valiant RPG, now on Shard Tabletop!

Expand your library and gird yourselves for WAR!

bit.ly/4ciADW8

Lost 19th century film by Méliès discovered at the Library | Timeless Library conservators recently made a startling discovery in a batch of decaying film reels -- a long-lost 1897 film by early cinema icon George Méliès. The French magician-turned-filmmaker's

Some wonderful news for film nerds
via Library of Congress
blogs.loc.gov/loc/2026/02/...

Philosophy #FAQ Ontology: what the fuck? Causality: why the fuck? Epistemology: how the why the fuck? Phenomenology: the fuck.

My dudes