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Nick Drage

@sonofsuntzu.bsky.social
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  1. 1

    The head of Count Binface seamlessly photoshopped on top of a picture of Wesley from The Princess Bride.
    Nick Gibbins @nick.gark.net
    He is not the real Count Binface; he inherited the costume from the previous Count Binface. The man he inherited it from was not the real Count Binface either - his name was Cummerbund. The real Binface has been retired for fifteen years and is living like a king in Patagonia.
    30 12
    Jul 8, 2026
  2. 2

    Reply

    I've terrible recall for this kind of thing... Philippa Georgiou comes to mind though...

    27 0
    Jul 10, 2026
  3. 3

    Cripes. "star names" should probably be in capitals, and glowing slightly...

    Chortle @chortle.bsky.social
    British autism sitcom attracts star names
    British autism sitcom attracts star names
    Fred Armisen, Penn Jillette and Patton Oswalt in audio comedy
    21 6
    Jul 21, 2026
  4. 4

    The original post, and Angus's thread, are worth your time if you've been struggling with... well... anything.

    We're all at the whim of enough stupid rules ( I am slowly coming to terms with my anger towards basic physics ) without trying to obey the arbitrary ones...

    Angus Johnston @angus.bsky.social
    "Do the thing you can do instead of beating yourself up over not doing the thing you're not doing" is honestly life-changing, even life-saving, advice.
    20 6
    Jul 26, 2026
  5. 5

    I think this is a key point... AFAICT... this isn't a policy specifically aimed against freelancers, it just doesn't really take them into consideration at all.

    We'll see how the consultation goes...

    The "But for me it was Tuesday" meme ( https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ButForMeItWasTuesday ) but with the following text over it: for you it was the administrative straw that finally broke your business - then - for me it was a tax policy invented in the taxi on the way to the meeting
    Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social
    I don't think this is about political perceptions, it's that the ministerial direction to HMRC, such as it is, is 'where's my revenue? Squeeze the collection gap more!' which results in a bunch of policies which hit that function but have negative externalities elsewhere.
    16 4
    Jul 19, 2026
  6. 6

    Division Bell is an interesting way to see what you, and others, think...

    ๐Ÿ”” Division Bell
    Yesterday's Verdict
    ๐€๐ง๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ง๐ก๐š๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฌ๐ข๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐–๐ก๐ข๐ญ๐ž ๐‡๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ž ๐›๐ž๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ๐ž ๐‚๐ก๐ซ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฆ๐š๐ฌ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ”.
    Division Bell respondents called:
    โŒ NO
    61% โŒ NO โ€ข 39% โœ… YES
    ๐Ÿค” How would you have voted?
    ๐Ÿ”’ Vote anonymously at divisionbell.uk

    Division Bell | Stop Arguing. Start Predicting.
    The Daily Political Forecasting Game
    15 0
    Jul 15, 2026
  7. 7

    ๐Ÿ”” Division Bell

    I just voted on today's Bell.

    ๐–๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐’๐ก๐š๐›๐š๐ง๐š ๐Œ๐š๐ก๐ฆ๐จ๐จ๐ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐›๐ž ๐‡๐จ๐ฆ๐ž ๐’๐ž๐œ๐ซ๐ž๐ญ๐š๐ซ๐ฒ ๐›๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ž๐ง๐ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐‰๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ”?

    ๐Ÿค” How would you vote?

    ๐Ÿ”’ Vote anonymously at divisionbell.uk

    Division Bell | Stop Arguing. Start Predicting.
    The Daily Political Forecasting Game
    15 0
    Jul 15, 2026
  8. 8

    something something generalists something

    Andy Famiglietti @afamiglietti.org
    If your college degree trains you for a specific job and that job goes in the toilet, you are FUCKED If your college degree trains you to be a broadly capable person, you have options!
    10 2
    Jun 27, 2026
  9. 9

    Recommended, as always, especially the @nebula.tv exclusive question, there's always a lot of thought that goes into the answer given...

    @techaltar.bsky.social
    Trust me bro, our models went rogue Nebula: nebula.tv/videos/tfc-t... YouTube: youtu.be/kHSN5rIq7e0
    7 1
    Jul 24, 2026
  10. 10

    Me: I have a firm set of tasks to work through today, but some little online breaks will help.

    Also me: but how would witch based, artillery focused, squadrons actually work in my pet high fantasy setting, and crucially - what would they be called?

    BlueSky is a wonderful and dangerous place...

    Polkaroo Banzai๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ @rallymodeller.bsky.social
    I give you the anime "Izetta, The Last Witch". She is indeed riding a scaled-up anti-tank rifle as her broom. Takes place in an ersatz-WWII setting.
    7 0
    Jul 14, 2026
  11. 11

    The "second breakfast" picture of two hobbits from Lord of the Rings, but the half-arsed meme text reads "some kind of pun about a second heat dome being inbound" at the top and "bleurgh" at the bottom.
    7 1
    Jun 28, 2026
  12. 12

    This is a fascinating/terrifying observation from a community point of view.

    Good morning ๐Ÿ™‚

    Elliot ๐Ÿ”œ OffKai @nameoftheyear.bsky.social
    This was a big lightbulb moment while working on Blaseball โ€” the community team observed & hypothesized that the most personally-invested fans always go beyond being a fan of it as-is, and become a fan of their own personalized idealization of it instead. That is, superfans resist change the MOST.
    6 0
    Jun 29, 2026
  13. 13

    Doing a live demo is always a brave and stupid idea...

    badly drawn bee ๐Ÿ @soapachu.bsky.social
    perfect dead drop 10/10 no notes (the shrouds really make this)
    Launch of the Qualcomm Dragonwing for robotics. A presenter is on stage and a robot walks on to join him, holding a tray with a tech component on it. The presenter takes the piece of tech and then moments later the robot just collapses on the stage. A few twitches follow. Some lanyard wearing stage hands cover the fallen android with black cloths, before manhandling it off the stage. The presenter looks shell shocked throughout. ▶
    5 0
    Jul 22, 2026
  14. 14

    This is well put on "multi-table games", larger TTRPGs needing multiple GMs, and worth your time if you're looking at how to build something that big.

    ( the included definition of megagames is a bit wobbly... but also probably the best we have ๐Ÿ™‚ )

    Grant Howitt @gshowitt.bsky.social
    A blog about writing and running 30-player, 6-GM games, why it's difficult, and why I refuse to learn from my previous mistakes: www.patreon.com/gshowitt/pos...
    TO DIE WOULD BE A GREAT (MEANING LARGE OR IMMENSE) ADVENTURE I have the DIE RPG to thank for this. Kieron Gillen, author of same, came with us to GenCon 2024 and had an idea for a big game of DIE that needed thirty people to work correctly, and we did what we could to facilitate that. It was the sort of metatextual onanism that Kieron loves as much as overwrought puns and 90โ€™s alt-pop: he, the noble and valiant indie comic book author Kieron Gillen, was magicked into a roleplaying game by his evil alter-ego, also confusingly called Kieron Gillen, but this one wore a leather jacket so you knew he was a bad guy right from the get-go. He played both. The thirty players were divided up into six tables of five, each of whom played through the same scenario which involved rescuing their GM from an evil GM, I think? A microcosm of the broader plot, anyway, and - spoilers, I guess - each one of them unlocked one sixth of the magic word needed to defeat the malevolent Leather Gillen. ON WRITING DIFFERENT THINGS I get a bit caught up in this stuff, myself. Once I start writing - if things are going well - I get too many ideas, and I want to use them all. I want good bits in everyoneโ€™s game. I want to prove to them that Iโ€™m a great designer, and not only a game designer, I can design adventures too! I promise! Look! And: the relationship between what I write and what a player experiences is, perhaps, never more tenuous or brittle. You write a scenario, and you have to communicate it to a prospective GM in such a way that they can remember it, but not feel limited by it, but still definitely run it in a recognisable way. And then they communicate that to the players, who have their own agency, and thereโ€™s five of the buggers running around in different directions at any one time. And then weโ€™ve got fucking dice to worry about, so thereโ€™s never a sure thing. Thatโ€™s just a normal game - now, you do all that six times and have them cross over, and suddenly the GMs are sifting through your notes written four months previously trying to find a way to connect them to this hot afternoon instant in Indianapolis where half the tables have finished early and the other half are nowhere near the end. But the best thing, bar none, the highlight of my GenCon and most likely my year, was calling together all thirty players in a rousing chant of โ€œDOOM! DOOM! DOOM!โ€ (Doom is an important concept in Orc Borg, being as it is their deliverance to heaven, and as such people started slamming the tables and bellowing it with very little provocation.) I had uncovered the secret to running a good multi-table game: synchronised yelling. And why not? It works at football matches! It works in churches! And protest marches, and the military, and concerts, and the bit in Battlestar Galactica where they bark so say we all and you get a bit tingly about the scalp, and groups of people eight beers in outside my flat at 2am, and when you think about it, a solid portion of all human interaction after we worked out how to make noises with our mouths. Player characters are all shards of five reincarnated saints, or hallows, whoโ€™ve been called to the cathedral to defend it against the onslaught of flesh that the Heart is sending in to disrupt the summoning ritual (a ritual which ought to involve some yelling). Weโ€™ve got six different Seven Samurai-style defend the town adventures lined up, and all of them have something special going on. [DISCORD SCREENSHOT, message from Grant] "light update to the Heart scenario on the drive as Sillion has corrected me: the severed angel wings are now only used to power the red nightmare defence robot, not the magical escape moon train as originally intended"
    5 1
    Jul 16, 2026
  15. 15

    I realise that this is inappropriately serious thought... but as someone who advocates for using randomness, I'm struck that nonsense/whimsy is similarly maligned but useful...

    Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
    why are people only ever described as "no-nonsense", what if you're a nonsense person, what then
    5 0
    Jul 6, 2026
  16. 16

    Thought leadership.

    ... I mean, quite seriously, randomly getting people from a discipline together is bound to generate something useful ...

    Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social
    From time to time I toy with the idea of organising a conference composed entirely of tea, coffee and lunch breaks.
    4 0
    Jul 26, 2026
  17. 17

    This very short video www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbhw... is an excellent summary by @diplostrats.bsky.social of the megagame format.

    What is a Megagame?
    YouTube video by DiploStrats
    4 3
    Jul 24, 2026
  18. 18

    Reply to @sonofsuntzu.bsky.social

    A large frog head peers over the top of a row of houses. It is presumably the top of a hot air balloon. Above it, meme style, is the word "Soon".
    4 1
    Jul 8, 2026
  19. 19

    Reply to @nameshiv.bsky.social

    This feels like something you could offer as a paid service...

    4 0
    Jul 6, 2026
  20. 20

    I mean there's "don't compare your Inside to other people's Outside", and the Johari Window... but this analogy really sticks, and is worth taking on if you do anything creative.

    But also there's a great point about soft power, a concept the current US administration just doesn't understand?

    Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social
    Chris Addison has a wonderful riff about art. You can enter an opera house from two doors. The foyer leads you through gilt and red velvet to an opulent space to see magic. The stage door reveals nails and ropes and gaffer tape and greasepaint and mess. >>
    4 0
    Jul 5, 2026
  21. 21

    Reply

    This is now on the status page, which doesn't appear to have a "this is operational...ish" setting.

    bsky.app/profile/stat...

    Bluesky Server Status @status.bsky.app
    We are investigating an issue with our CDN origin, which is occasionally failing to load media assets. status.bsky.app
    4 0
    Jul 3, 2026
  22. 22

    Analogy win.

    Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social
    Voxpops
    3 0
    Jul 22, 2026
  23. 23

    "He's fat! He's round! He's always on the ground! Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, Defender of the Faith and Lord of Ireland ... Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, Defender of the Faith and Lord of Ireland"

    Good morning.

    The Bearded Halfling - KS is now Live @thebeardedhalfling.bsky.social
    I absolutely agree on all your points. Medievalesque movies don't have to be perfect (especially medieval fantasy) but by the gods I want them to just look better. Also medieval vibes are 100% allowed. Reminds me of this: youtube.com/shorts/2bWe8...
    Feudal Football Fans
    YouTube video by Pat Mandziy
    3 0
    Jul 19, 2026
  24. 24

    Worth watching, as always, but especially for the extra thinking on the @nebula.tv version ๐Ÿ™‚

    @techaltar.bsky.social
    It's official. OnePlus is gone. Nebula: nebula.tv/videos/tfc-o... YouTube: youtu.be/GFutwCA3cnA
    3 1
    Jul 17, 2026
  25. 25

    LFG

    Damion Schubert @zenofdesign.com
    Finally it's my moment to shine
    3 0
    Jul 16, 2026