Gareth Hanrahan's Avatar

Gareth Hanrahan

@mytholder.bsky.social

He/Him. Novel THE SWORD TRIUMPHANT out May '25. Currently writing: Black Iron 4, Unannounced Novel, The Dreadful Heir, Terraforming Mars rpg, Across the Abyss, Metadungeon!, other stuff.

4,954 Followers  |  755 Following  |  4,553 Posts  |  Joined: 03.07.2023
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Posts by Gareth Hanrahan (@mytholder.bsky.social)

I’m very glad you enjoyed it!

05.03.2026 19:24 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

It snapped back to normal when I wrote some words so technically I wrote 12000 words this morning

05.03.2026 13:43 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Does the story contain a lot of subtext?

05.03.2026 12:44 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Open document
Word count says document is 17000 words long
Panic as document was 29000 words last night
Select all text, hit word count
Word count reports the selection contains 29000 words, but the document as a whole contains 17000 words
Scream silently and keep typing.

05.03.2026 12:11 β€” πŸ‘ 20    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 0
I'm the Villain in My Own Story (feat. Rachel Bloom)
YouTube video by racheldoesstuff I'm the Villain in My Own Story (feat. Rachel Bloom)

Obligatory video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhzN...

04.03.2026 16:51 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Yeah, a press release has gone out, but apparently the press have not put it up anywhere.

04.03.2026 13:04 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
363: that would be cruel Hullo FairyMetaCompsKnightsPressLinksSpoiler Warning For ByeBye **** In April Image are celebrating 50 (count β€˜em!) issues of I Hate Fairyland, with I hate...

This week's newsletter! I Hate Fairytale Crossover! DIE Metadungeondungeoning! O Fortuna! Links! How an oracular audience with Garth Marenghi defined the future of The Power Fantasy! Stuff! Things!

04.03.2026 12:42 β€” πŸ‘ 35    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 2

Greg Davies: Controversy brewing here.

Theseus: Nothing in the rules about getting outside help.

Alex Horne: He is technically correct.

Greg Davies: Are you telling me that the other contestants would have survived if they'd brought some twine?

Alex Horne: Theseus wins the full five points!

04.03.2026 10:58 β€” πŸ‘ 33    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 3

"heron in a pedalo, I know
I know it's serious"

04.03.2026 10:56 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

I found a screenshot of the rpg core awards, and apparently a press release was sent out a few hours ago. But it's not up on rascal or bgg or anywhere I can find...

04.03.2026 10:12 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

But yeah, Arkham Bed and Breakfast would work as a concept.

04.03.2026 10:02 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

That's from last year, I believe.

04.03.2026 10:02 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Does anyone have a link to the actual Origins Award nominees for this year?

04.03.2026 09:58 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

it feels like cyberpunk and the London gangster genre are an obvious fit, I dunno why there hasn't been more cockney cyberpunk stuff

we could call it "cockneypunk," you could have razorbirds and netgeezers

04.03.2026 08:53 β€” πŸ‘ 166    πŸ” 23    πŸ’¬ 25    πŸ“Œ 10

Alex: Next up, our final team task of the series.

Contestant 1: Oh, j'ai dΓ©testΓ© celui-ci!

Contestant 2: ε½Όγ‚‰γŒγγ‚Œγ‚’ε°η„‘γ—γ«γ™γ‚‹γΎγ§γ―ι †θͺΏγ«ι€²γ‚“γ§γ„γŸ

Alex: Let’s see how team one approached the task.

Contestant 1: [reading card] β€œBuild a tower to reach heaven. Highest tower wins.”

04.03.2026 09:03 β€” πŸ‘ 25    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Greg: And the task was...?

Alex: Conquer the city.

Greg: And you?

Odysseus: Built a giant wooden horse.

Greg: And it's impressive. Completely fails the task.

Odysseus (suddenly looking very like Jason Mantzoukas): But does it, Greg? Does it?

Alex: There was a camera inside the horse.

04.03.2026 08:14 β€” πŸ‘ 79    πŸ” 23    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 1

Greg: So. Escape the cave, sail home. Shouldn't take long, assuming nobody's insulted a god.

Alex: Well, let's take a look at how Nobody did!

Odysseus: (head in hands)

03.03.2026 20:47 β€” πŸ‘ 49    πŸ” 9    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 2
Preview
50-Year Reread of The Lord of the Rings – 3: β€˜Elves, Elf-friends and β€œFriends of Gandalf” A blog series in which I reread LOTR 50 years after I first read it, age 10, over the winter of 1975-76: Introduction: Three Different Books 1: A Sequel to The Hobbit 2: On Hobbits In the previous …

This is the next instalment in my #LotR re-read. Here I discuss the moment when Frodo, Sam and Pippin pass into darkness like a rustle in the grasses and there meet talking animals, exiled elves and, a bit further on, a pagan water spirit. And what do 'friends of Gandalf' have in common? #Tolkien

03.03.2026 20:37 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Alexander the Great: I think I smashed that.

Alex Horne: Well… it doesn’t say anywhere that you can’t cut the Gordian Knot.

Greg Davies: I’m going to let him have it. Five points.

03.03.2026 20:19 β€” πŸ‘ 68    πŸ” 14    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
The Dungeon Book Enter a world of dungeons and dragons, magic and manticores, goblins and gargoyles in this captivating standalone fantasy from the author of The Gutter Praye...

Out in August from Orbit - THE DUNGEON BOOK.

(Kipling’s Jungle Book, only the child is abandoned in a D&D dungeon and adopted by goblins, a Minotaur and a talking skull…)

www.orbit-books.co.uk/titles/garet...

03.03.2026 20:21 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

Bloody hell

03.03.2026 20:02 β€” πŸ‘ 359    πŸ” 112    πŸ’¬ 9    πŸ“Œ 0

Alex: And now for the prize task, we’ve asked the contestants to bring in the most desirable thing. The most desirable thing will get five desirable points.

Greg: Odysseus?

Odysseus: Horse!

Greg: A wooden horse. Good to know we’ve got our loser. Eris?

Eris: Well, I have this apple…

03.03.2026 19:38 β€” πŸ‘ 23    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Greg: What’s next?

Alex: Well, sometimes we like to set a task for just one of our contestants. Or, in this case, twelve different tasks.

Hercules: Oh for f -

Greg: Roll VT!

03.03.2026 18:42 β€” πŸ‘ 83    πŸ” 17    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 3

Greg: What was the wording on the task?

Alex: Make Achilles invulnerable by dipping him in the Styx. Most invulnerable Achilles wins.

Greg: Dip the baby. The whole baby. They’re not going to hang onto a heel or anything stupid like that.

Alex: First, let’s see Thetis’ attempt.

03.03.2026 17:54 β€” πŸ‘ 131    πŸ” 30    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 6
a film crew guy in a wetsuit pulling the huge scale model from Raise the Titanic along by means of a rope over his right shoulder as he wades in chest-deep water. he's pulling a face that makes it seem like hard work but is inadvertently making himself look like a Terry Gilliam giant hauling home his supper.

a film crew guy in a wetsuit pulling the huge scale model from Raise the Titanic along by means of a rope over his right shoulder as he wades in chest-deep water. he's pulling a face that makes it seem like hard work but is inadvertently making himself look like a Terry Gilliam giant hauling home his supper.

talking of behind the scenes film photographs i think this is still my favourite

03.03.2026 16:10 β€” πŸ‘ 92    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

That's four Infrastructure Weeks, 2.5 scaramuccis, or time enough to release concepts of a healthcare plan twice.

03.03.2026 11:23 β€” πŸ‘ 14    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image Post image Post image Post image

NEW: Dagger in the Heart from @rowanrookanddecard.bsky.social
is a complete narrative campaign for Heart: the City Beneath which guides your group from your first steps into the streets of Derelictus, to the deepest depths of the Heart itself.
tabletopbookshelf.com/products/dag...

01.03.2026 01:43 β€” πŸ‘ 30    πŸ” 11    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Hmm. Then you'd need to keep the magic simple enough and also ensure it doesn't dominate the game.

(Or take a leaf from @jdragsky.bsky.social 's Seven Part Pact and give the wizard a whole complex minigame of balance that the other players don't know about or need to understand...)

03.03.2026 09:13 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Yeah, but they're different things in Earthsea. The climax of Wizard is Ged acknowledging his shadow as part of him; in the Lord of the Rings, the shadow is always evil. One's about balance and acceptance, the other's about hope and resistance. (One's Taoism, one's Catholic!).

03.03.2026 09:11 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Hmm. I don't know. It'd depend on what you wanted to evoke - and is everyone playing a wizard, or do you want a mix?

02.03.2026 21:27 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0