Ben / alebensform

Oh, hey.

Visa and Mastercard now say you can't pay for WoW. Magic the Gathering. FFXIV. DnD. Lord of the Rings. Because they're all "adult" content against their ToS just for being "fantasy".

Let that sink in.

Spread this like wildfire and have people in those circles call them. No quarter.

Understood. Thanks for the response and sorry you have to deal with these frustrating publishing issues. I'll keep my eyes open for if/when it becomes available.

@lavietidhar.bsky.social I just learned about The Hood and I really want to read it. Any estimate on a US ebook publisher for it? If you can say.

Save vs. Total Party Kill - Ramanan Sivaranjan Awards for Excellence in Gaming 2025 My friend Warren messaged me a few days ago. “Ram,” he said, “reminder to write the Rammies, Ennies are in 2 days.”Wait, what? The year zooms by and I’m always caught on the back foot. Even with the w...

Fuck the Ennies! No hype, no fanfare, no award shows, no spell checking, no nothing. I didn't even grab pictures for this post yet. Just the Ramanan Sivaranjan Awards for Excellence in Gaming 2025.

"President Trump is deporting moms and dads and making deals with the cartels and terrorists." Easy peasy.

I grew up around similar beliefs. Luckily, they never sent me to the ER, but they left marks that I'm still trying to remove.

The bit about not believing hard enough really struck home.

It's also a good reminder that people turn to this out of desperation. I like having my compassion encouraged.

Just finished "From Enceladus, with Love" by Ryan Cole in @clarkesworldmagazine.com

Charming little space story about friendship, love, and family with a bit of suspense thrown in. Worth a read.

clarkesworldmagazine.com/cole_03_25/

#scifi #shortfiction

2 hours!?

Actually, I wish I were at that level. I've been dreadfully inactive for quite a while now. 😕

whoever is doing ANYTHING -- acting in her shows, directing, going to hp world, checking her books out of the library -- to give her attention or put money in this woman's pockets is actively harming and killing trans people and especially trans women.

YouTube video by J_II Shepard Tone

Here's a new tactic for reducing telephone hold times in #retail

Use this as your hold music /jk

youtu.be/BzNzgsAE4F0?...

Yeah, #1 was a surprise fav for me the year it came out and I'm not sure why I haven't read #2 yet. I'll take this as a cue!

@alexwhite.bsky.social have you thought about writing an adventure for the Alien ttrpg?

Graphics code isn't my specialty, but I'm taking this in. On thing that confuses me, though, is why you don't ever use the variable `w`. What was it meant to do?

Also, if you value fiction in general, paying for short fiction helps support the authors, often new, who keep the artform alive.

And Clarkesworld specifically publishes some great stuff.

Doodle Land by Evlyn setting for Tunnel Goons

Last day for Evlyn Moreau's Doodle Land sale.
30 copies are on order for the @ratti.bsky.social zines store. So you may want to grab the physical copy instead if you can afford shipping. Otherwise grab the full color hyperlinked PDF on itch
#TTRPG #tunnelgoons #osr

The cover for Tiny World TTRPG Jam. It features a red map marker and dotted cartography lines.

It's time for #tinyworldjam!

Join me and @vidityavoleti.bsky.social in making #TTRPG micro settings that can fit within a few pages - worldbuild on a small scale, keep the scope easy, and have fun with it

Submissions open from now until January 31st at 11:59 pm ET

itch.io/jam/tiny-wor...

My copies of 3 & 4 arrived yesterday! Excited to dig in!

It's always interesting to me to find out whether people rhyme "zine" with "line" or "magazine"

#pronunciation #descriptivenotprescriptive

Why is it every time I see live music, I realize that it's so much more amazing than recorded music (which is already good)?

Then forgetting the lesson and going months without seeing any, only to get the same reminder when I finally go back.

#lessonslearned #lessonsnotlearned #musicisamazing

I just got out of my local stop on this tour. So good! Hadn't listened to them before but now I want to hear all their stuff.

#spygrass

And there are lots more! As I suspect other readers already know.

I'm not ashamed of any of them. They're an honest part of my past. But they don't reflect my current interests or values.

Five authors I've read that I'd like to have on this list:

Ursula K. Le Guin
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Ann Leckie
N.K. Jemisin
Alex White

I don't do enough repeat reading of the authors I like, so I'm afraid this'll be me from like 10-20 years ago. There's a bunch of more current authors that reach 3 or 4.

But here are five authors I've read five or more books by:

C.S. Lewis
Isaac Asimov
Stephen R. Lawhead
J.R.R. Tolkien
Gene Wolfe

Today I read a story in a spooky Halloween anthology that broke tone and was just really sad instead of spooky.

I mean, it was still good, but it left me wondering what it was doing in that book.

#stories #reading #books

I need to actually play (instead of only read) this

Today I learned that, not only are you into TTRPGs, you're into cool TTRPG presses like @melsonia.bsky.social

Can't wait to get my copy here in the US

Honorable mention:

Check out the Film Reroll Podcast episode rerolling this classic.

www.filmreroll.com?p=579

And check out The Film Reroll in general. I get so many good laughs every episode from those folks. #TTRPG #ActualPlay podcast using #GURPS

A nice bit of nostalgia. Don't be a blockhead, watch you some Peanuts for the holidays next time one rolls around.

The World War I Flying Ace dogfight does so much with so little. Only ever the doghouse/airplane in frame, but the background, colors, sound effects, and narration do so much work.

So good

Linus mentions "pumpkin carols," a promise never fulfilled.

I wonder if anyone else has any...