Cave Of The Bear

No idea why I post/repost some of the things I do. Just random whatnot, I suppose. Generally trying to have a good time with no drama.

[grumpyoldgrizzly]

Received my expansions to the DRG board game. Cool, more options for the thing I don't get to play NOW. I'm an idiot, but at least I admit it. Anyway, it's gorgeous and very well made and packaged, so a hearty 'good job' to Ghost Ship Games and Mood Publishing. Y'all will continue to get my money. Worth it.

I post so rarely, mostly because my life is alternately boring and a cesspool. If I actually posted, for real real, it'd just be depressing and I'd come off like one of those whiny bastards that complains all the time. I live vicariously through y'all, so, thanks for continuing to post, no matter what it is.

[probablybadrpgideas]

Remove content from people's character sheets if they dare to use your online platform

DnD Beyond is deleting all 5e spells and magic items

The digital platform DnD Beyond is keeping most of 5e, but deleting all its old spells and magic items, replacing them with 2024 content.

[smiling-through-sadness]

DnD Beyond walks back spell and magic item changes after fan outcry

DnD Beyond is now keeping all 2014 content on players' character sheets, after Wizards of the Coast faced major backlash from fans.

[probablybadrpgideas]

lol

lmao, even

[netherworldpost]

if you build a company based in fun, and you make it less fun to make more money, you are going to fail

hi i am atticus q redghost

and i occasionally moonlight as your business advisor on tumblr dot corn and i have Feelings about Business because of Reason I am resolving this year

the promise of increased technology, at it's core, is increased reach

(I am talking to you via text that I typed out on Sunday, September 1, 8:57 AM -- you are reading it at whatever day/time -- and in a location we are not together at, which is good because I just woke up and I look A Mess)

and/or increased accessibility

you are reading my ramblings for free instead of paying me to be your business consultant

i am publishing my ramblings at no cost and minimal effort

this is accomplished via the technologies of internet connections, browsers, and good ol' tumblr, which I am working on a client essay for and it's due in twelve hours but it's fine it's fine it's totally fine to spend 20 minutes writing this

we'll call it research

don't tell anyone

and/or increased efficiency

this could go under "accessibility" and frequently does but we're listing it out here because this is Business Ramble 000 not How to Business 101 a course many folks would benefit from

Good Idea: Digital Character Sheets Tracking Things

These are glorified spreadsheets.

At the end of the day they have "Number interacting with Variable equals New Number."

That's. Not. Rocket science.

Something basic (you do math yourself), make it more efficient (it does math for you, infinite variety, infinite quantity, copy/paste, starters for infinite builds)

Given ~*~the very basics of fucking technology since the early 90s~*~ you can make these printable, blank and/or filled out, at minimal (likely $0) cost and therefore every goddamn character sheet is an ad for your company. Hey! Did you like playing this game! Come Here For More!

Better Idea: Release versions of every system you've ever built ever.

What's Cooler Than Cool? Ice Cold!

What is among the cheapest resource a company can acquire and maintain i am literally talking about paper clip money? Server space for black and white PDFs as they can be compressed like whoah!

There are arguments and measurements about what systems it makes sense to build and maintain digital auto-calculate auto-populate systems for. That's a whole consulting / internal structure.

I'm explicitly talking the sheets that you spent decades putting into books and selling as loose sheets to write on and/or photocopy.

You should have your old static rules available for a nominal price or significantly more preferable, free.

Your business case: "We want people to buy the latest" makes sense. You're a business.

My proposal: "You have to make this stuff fun or you will die. Stuff that costs you nothing to provide should be provided.

Everyone playing an old school game night is an ad for your new stuff.

Every comic shop...

Every YouTube channel...

Every retro enthusiast who says 'Oh Crap Old Stuff is Free'...

Is an ad for your new stuff that costs you nothing."

My case study that I am correct is the existence of YouTube (free to use, premium subscriptions, whole lot of old stuff watched EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY), Tubi (old stuff, free to watch, paid for via ads), PlutoTV (old stuff, free to watch, paid for via ads)

et cetera

Best Idea: You shape the world you build in partnership with the players. OLD AND NEW.

Aside from maybe computer programming, in which there are entire civilizations of work being done for free, a system that is literally as old as the internet -- I don't know the exact number but I promise you between Website To Ever Exist #001 and Website To Ever Exist #100 there was a guide on How to Make a Website, a spirit that has never died and has only increased exponentially --

D&D has one of the largest, most expansive, most dynamic, most diverse research and development laboratories via player base

and the company could be given this data

for free for the simple cost of not trying to squeeze the blood out of every copper penny

I would murder people really enjoy having a personalized R&D department so vast provided to me for free.

you have built a dedicated fan base over the course of multiple generations by publishing books and guides and accessories

you want to increase revenue which is what a business does

okay cool

why not try increasing accessibility and efficiency

you have so much low hanging fruit here

If your product is "make more fun" and you make it less fun to make more money then you are going to go out of business.

the decline will be slow and grinding and you're going to spend a fucking fortune on consultants and management turnover

maybe i should stop talking here and send a request for pitch materials and become one of your consultants

BUT I WON'T BECAUSE MY TUMBLR IS BASED ON "HERE IS FUN STUFF IT IS FREE."

you think listening to shareholder demand is going to keep you in business and you're scared because interest rate levels have jumped from damn near zero to a reasonable level in a (relative) short period of time

you are in the imagination and inspiration business

you are not a tech company

you are not an app store

you are not a microtransactions warehouse

you are a company where a single DM at a single game can say "Everyone is looking a little bored. Everyone gets free magic god weapons!" and then everyone cheers

and you are a company where a single person at a single DM at a single game -- even this very same game -- can say "everyone start rolling the magic god hates you now" and then the crowd cheers because it's a big battle

your job is mythology

you are a modern mythology company

a myth begins to change if you wait 20 years or go in any direction 20 miles

if you provide frameworks you will succeed

if you provide roadblocks you will fail

as for me, thank you for this space, the above move is creating a lot of fucking problems for my back office and I do not want to deal with them and I Have Feelings and now they're parsed into words and images from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for various reasons

thank you and good night

("Atty it's very early in the morning")

I believe I said good night!

(Atticus shuffles out of the studio grumbling)

[willardkurtz]

It's the 10th anniversary of Giger's Death today (12/05/2024).

RIP

Pictures taken from the documentary Dark Star: HR Giger's world (2014)

[ne0nthc]

[athousandgateaux]

[grumpyoldgrizzly]

The stack is short, but import'. Again, Lil' Sis', I only seem to post for your amusement. (The monkey's name is Carl.)

[grumpyoldgrizzly]

@thechurchofsplatterdaysaints

Most of my stuff is still in storage, so no immediate access to my books, but the lower shelf of DVDs is at least viewable. Sorry about potato-quality pic, my crippled ass doesn't move very well these days.

See, I must like you, because I NEVER post here.

[vocedelmorte]

“The sadness will last forever.”

— Vincent Van Gogh’s suicide note  (via louis-de-pointe-du-lac)

[pasteboard]

hey netizens! i'm not sure how many people are aware, but youtube's been slowly rolling out a new anti-adblock policy that can't be bypassed with the usual software like uBlock Origin and Pi-Hole out of the gate

BUT, if you're a uBlock Origin user (or use an adblocker with a similar cosmetics modifier), you can add these commands in the uBlock dashboard to get rid of it!

youtube.com##+js(set, yt.config_.openPopupConfig.supportedPopups.adBlockMessageViewModel, false) youtube.com##+js(set, Object.prototype.adBlocksFound, 0) youtube.com##+js(set, ytplayer.config.args.raw_player_response.adPlacements, []) youtube.com##+js(set, Object.prototype.hasAllowedInstreamAd, true)

reblog to help keep the internet less annoying and to tell corporations that try shit like this to go fuck themselves <3

[cerberusxt]

LGBT Pride Space Marines

Hello Tumblr. For my first post on my resurrected Tumblr account (we can thank the slow death of Twitter for that) here is one of my painting project, a full team of Space Marine painted using various LGBT Pride flags as color scheme. They are called the Gate Crushers because F the gatekeepers.

From left to right : Bear pride, Pansexual Pride, Non-Binary pride, Bisexual Pride, Lesbian pride, Progress flag, Gay men pride, Trans pride, Asexual Pride, Intersex Pride, Straight Ally, Polyamory.

[butch-king-frankenstein]

My favorite thing about Thomas the Tank Engine is that it canonically takes place in a train post-apocalypse where the Island of Sodor is the only safe zone in a totalitarian dystopia in which steam trains are routinely killed and their body parts are sold or cannibalized for repair

If you think I’m kidding you need to read the original books

[co-rp]

could you please direct me to a source? i would feel much better if this was validated.

[butch-king-frankenstein]

It took me so long to find this quote online but I did it because it’s so much darker than one might expect from Thomas the Tank Engine:

“…Engines on the Other Railway aren’t safe now. Their controllers are cruel. They don’t like engines any more. They put them on cold damp sidings, and then,” Percy nearly sobbed, “they…they c-c-cut them up.” -”The Bluebells of England.”  Stepney the Bluebell Engine.  Rev. Awdry, Wilbert.  London: Egmont Publishing, 1963.

This illustration, by Gunvor and Peter Edwards, accompanied the above text in the original book, and depicts a pair of unfortunate Other Railway engines moments before being disassembled with a blowtorch.

[nightjarring]

HOLY FUCK LOOK AT THE ONE IN THE BACKGROUND THEY TOOK ITS FUCKING FACE OMG

[butch-king-frankenstein]

[zidane-xv]

the early thomas the tank engine books are pretty standard stuff. saccharine bubblegum type stories and illustrations. if you watched the show, it’s like that in book form. the second half of the railway series are so fucking dark and surreal i’m convinced they were a result of reverend wilbur awdry doing copious amounts of lsd and having hallucinations of his own death.

[butch-king-frankenstein]

Excuse me but the very first story in the Railway Series is about an engine who hides in a tunnel and refuses to run because he doesn’t want to get his paint job ruined in the rain, so railway management seals off the tunnel.

They eventually let him out because another engine breaks down or something, but the original plan was to just leave him in there forever.

[shulamithbond]

On the show, didn’t they also hook up one engine to a generator, so he’d never move again? That was literally one of the lines, I think. It’s on some other post on here. It was chilling.

[butch-king-frankenstein]

Yes!  This also happened in the books, to an engine referred to only as “No. 2″, but the television series applied the same scenario to an invented character named “Smudger”, in the episode “Granpuff”.

“Smudger,” said Duke. “Was a show-off. He rode roughly and often came off the rails. I warned him to be careful, but he took no notice.” “Listen, Dukie” he snared. “Who worries about a few spills?” “We do here! I said, but Smudger just laughed.” “Hahaha!” “Until one day, Manager said he was going to make him useful at last. Smudger stopped laughing then!” “W-w-why? What did he do?!” “He turned him into a generator. He’s still there behind our shed. He’ll never move again.”

[deducecanoe-deactivated20161213]

This is so fucked up

[unclewhisky-deactivated20150726]

No, listen.

Okay, so we see Railway Management doing all this shit, right, but supposedly it’s so much worse in the Other Railways? I mean, sure, you might get turned into a generator or bricked into a tunnel for not doing as you’re told, but at least you’re not cut up and sold for parts, right? It’s not so bad on the island of Sodor, right?

Or maybe that’s just what Railway Management wants the engines to think.

Maybe the island of Sodor is the real totalitarian regime, and the engine citizens (slaves) are fed propaganda, illustrated in hellish grays and sulfuric yellows, about how bad it is everywhere else, at all the Other Railways.

You are lucky to be an engine of Sodor.

Railway Management cares about you.

Trust Railway Management.

Stay on Your Track.

It Could Be So Much Worse.

[coralineandthesapphicfantastic]

Wtf the fuck is this train based 1984 bullshit

[emilycutie5]

What… did I just read?

[fuckyoubaker]

[grumpyoldgrizzly]

And this is why I’ll never willingly give up tabletop RPG gaming.

[not-safe-for-democracy]

[mudwerks]

dead on

I wish he had been wrong

[cryptid-corpse]

Reblog if there's something wrong with you

[mangomoth]

when i was a teenager and i learned about how light pollution and a certain billionare’s satellites obscure the night sky and all of its glory that humans have looked up and admired for hundreds of thousands of years, i always kept the mantra ‘they would steal even the skies from you’ hidden deep in my gut like a warning

but now i’m in my 20s and in the midst of a plague, having to watch corporate entities like space x and jeff bezos scramble for a piece of the infinite vastness of our universe while we’re all down expected to toil for their gains, live in an age of widespread sickness where we can’t be granted healing or rest without a profit, have every single piece of our lives cut up and dressed for sale like a butchered animal, from basic human needs to human expression. and now that same mantra comes to mind, but now instead of a cautionary warning it sits in my chest and my throat bc it has gone from a warning to a certainty. they will steal even the skies from you.

[meanwhilebackinthedungeon]

– Daniel R. Horne

[skaldish]

Call to Action: Protect Religious Freedom

Help the Heathen community defend their religious freedom! Our Heathen identity is in danger from invasive copyright and trademark of religious terms. This is not the first time this has happened. Last year, an individual successfully trademarked ‘HEATHEN’ for commercial gain, barring Heathens from using our own identity marker. Now, ‘Forn Sidr’

Hey all, remember when ‘Heathen’ was trademarked and it was super infuriating?

Well that stunt is getting pulled again. Someone who isn’t even a heathen is trying to trademark ‘Forn Sidr’ and is going after Forn Sidr of America for it.

I cannot emphasize enough how absolutely buckwild this story is. Even if you don’t donate to help FSoA cover legal fees, at least click through to read about the tea.

As always, please donate if you can but reblogs and reposts go a long way even if you have a small blog. Forn Sidr of America needs to achieve this goal by December 18th so it’s crucial this gets around!

[skaldish]

As of 12/8 Forn Sidr of America has raised $679

We have 10 days to raise the minimum $2,500 needed for a legal retainer.

And in case it isn’t evident from the recent update…

Forn Sidr of America has assurance of victory. If you’re sick of white supremacists trademarking Heathen shit for gimmicks, now is the very real opportunity to stop it.

Spread the word!

[fjorn-the-skald]

I was just looking at the website/group that’s trying to trademark the term, and my gods…it makes me cringe: white supremacy, toxic masculinity, and gross misrepresentation/invention of historical ‘facts’…so if you can help Forn Sidr of America in this fight, whether by donating or sharing, please do!

[seven-of-ten]

This was such a trip from start to finish. I can’t believe I live on this planet sometimes.

[viking-illustrator]

This a screenshot from the norskk website:

I had seen this shit before, but didn’t realize it was all coming from the same asshole.

Even if you’re not a heathen, imagine if someone was telling you that you couldn’t worship in the way you wanted. A threat against one of us is a threat against us all.