Recovered: 2020 Slush – Benign Brown Beast

Posted by

Admin

On April 18, 2025

Bits and pieces from 2020.

I added art to my entry in the Troika! Tarot Jam (11 days left at time of writing), and I now consider it finished. For these I wanted to communicate a lot of flavor without the standard explanatory preamble, to help them fit in such a small space. I think a lot of the backgrounds would be better remixed, but can stand alone as-is. I only hope that the illustrations aren’t so specific that they interfere with anyone’s interpretations of their own characters.

I don’t technically have more time during social isolation because of work. But I still need things to occupy my mind, so here are some RPG-related activities:

Troika! Tarot Jam
Good Morning Apocalypse Game Jam
The Great Khan’s Celtic Adventure Contest
Cone of Negative Energy: Please Stay Home Bundle
Free PDFs from Exalted Funeral

There are also lots of other things:

Entertaining Yourself in Times of Quarantine
Virtual School Activities (all kinds of cameras and virtual museums)
The National Mall [Cherry Blossom] Bloom Cam
The Localhost Gallery (A Minecraft Art Gallery)
Streaming Concerts
A Streaming Variety Show
Catch a Sourdough Starter

Please, stay safe and support each other.

This post was first shared on March 20, 2020.

Things That are Getting Me Through

Everyone is experiencing these times differently. I’m fortunate enough to have a job that I can do remotely and to not be alone in my isolation. But here’s some of what’s been keeping me going, and I hope it can help.

Pets

I have a cat. I feed her every day. She sits on my lap and purrs and bites me.

We also caught a sourdough starter. I feed it every day. It has not yet bitten me.

Self Care

Because I now live what my father has generously called “the life of a scholar”, I don’t get a lot of sunlight. I find that vitamin D supplements help me sleep better.

I was never a gym person, but the total lack of activity has started to wear on me. I’ve taken up the seven-minute workout, which I like much better than I thought I would.

The first few weeks without shaving are all terrible scraggly neck beard for me. With nobody to see it, what better time to push through that period and find out what other terrible scraggly facial hair I can grow?

I miss math and I also miss programming. I’ve taken the opportunity to write a couple of janky scripts: one that generates thumbnails for video files, and one that removes cruft from CBZ and CBR files, shrinks them a little, and converts CBR to CBZ. Use at your own risk, but I am proud of them.

I brûléed a Cadbury creme egg. It’s worth doing at least once.

Before this, we sometimes saw a comedy show called Spoons & Toons & Booze. They’ve become Spoons & Toons & Booze & Zoom now, and they’re raising money for the employees of the theaters where they used to perform.

On a smaller scale, we’ve hosted a few movie nights with distant friends on twoseven.xyz. It works about as well as any new tool, which is to say, plan at least an extra half-hour at the beginning for socializing and troubleshooting. Test what you’re planning to do by yourself first.

On Netflix, after The Great British Bake-Off, Terrace House might be the most bizarre and calming show I’ve found. Six young Japanese adults live in a nice house and get nice cars. There don’t seem to be any stakes or anything? They all keep going to their normal jobs and stuff. After each episode, a bunch of enthusiastic commentators remark on all the drama that may or may not have happened. It’s pretty good.

Sylvan Esso released a new live album.

Podcasts

Lots of podcasts will keep you informed or expose you to new and complicated ideas. These are (mostly) not those.

Phoebe Reads a Mystery

Phoebe Judge, host of Criminal, reads a mystery novel one chapter at a time. She started with The Mysterious Affair at Styles, then The Hound of the Baskervilles, and currently The Moonstone.

Recently launched by Mike Wozniak, frequent guest on The Beef and Dairy Network. The usual arc of an episode is roughly: bizarre to sad to cringe to absurd. It’s pivoted into the current situation seamlessly by releasing shorter, more frequent episodes, and I think they’re stronger for it.

The Tranquillusionist

Helen Zaltzman of The Allusionist (same feed) reads odd things in a calm voice, with musical accompaniment by her husband, Martin Austwick.

Make My Day

Josh Gondelman has a single guest on to play a made-up game show, where points are given to answers based on how much they cheer him up. Money is given to charity. Strange motivational speeches are delivered.

Seltzer Death Match

Self-explanatory, I think. They’ve been editing through a backlog recently, so there’s a bunch of new ones.

372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back

Two of the minds behind RiffTrax read through bad books. My cousin recommended this to me and in exchange I recommended

Bad Books for Bad People

Jack Shear and Tenebrous Kate read through books that they think the other will enjoy/hate.

Monster Man

James Holloway reads through old monster manuals, a couple entries at a time. I particularly enjoyed the episode about mind flayers, and why they are the perfect 70’s Doctor Who villain. Nominally topical!

Others

Life is short. Also have these recommendations, with the understanding that I don’t enjoy them any less for having lost the energy to describe them:

Games

When there was less on our minds, my wife and I would set aside days to solve mysteries, things like Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective or T.I.M.E. Stories. These days we play a lot of LEGO Batman 3, which is good because neither of us is any good at video games and it’s fun regardless.

Quarantine has also gone on long enough that I found my old RuneScape account. While my old character is still sitting there in RS3, I’ve been playing Old School RuneScape, and it’s really interesting to start again at the beginning.

I’ve started playing in a Lasers & Feelings game with a bunch of doctors and it’s good fun and breezy. The same group is also getting ready for a more involved 5e game which should be interesting.

I’ve been playing in a West End Games/d6 Star Wars game and it’s wild. The rules can be found online practically by accident, and they’re worth a look.

Finally, it looks like I will be GMing again, likely 5e. I’ve never actually run 5e proper, but I’m hoping I pick it up easily enough.

This post was first shared on May 8, 2020.

Automatic Tables

In 2012, I was (and still am) fascinated by the random table. A random table presents an exponential number of ideas in a linear space. Recombinant elements play in the gap between improv and rationalization, making each idea potentially unique and interesting. At the same time, raw probability can be leveraged against this massive scale to emphasize recurring themes or elements, building up a world solely through repeated use and implication.

So I took this fascination and built a bunch of tables that required rolling lots of dice to arrive at vaguely “fine?” results (if we’re feeling generous). Now I have the technology to easily automate these things, and I have done so. They might be more useful this way but mostly it was just fun to revisit them.

2024 here: As I recovered relevant posts, I simply attached the generators from this roundup. They can all be found under the “Generators” tag.

This post was first shared on August 16, 2020.

Links, August 2020

Podcasts

On The Media

OTM recently “rebroadcast” a past favorite episode of mine about post-apocalyptic literature. Interviews are with Jeff Vandermeer, Claire Vaye Watkins, and Kim Stanley Robinson discussing the nature of horror.

Here Be Monsters

An endless source of mood pieces and ruminations, HBM is parting ways with KCRW and seeking alternative funding. While they acknowledge this could mean a Patreon, they’re trying to get listeners to sponsor the podcast first. So that’s a potential avenue for promotions, shout-outs, or stranger ideas if you’re interested.

2024 here: They now also have a Patreon, in addition.

The Dungeon Economic Model

I heavily favor shorter podcasts, and these 10-minute faux PSAs about dungeon ecology with inexplicable running gags are really working for me.

Dead Club Podcast

Tunng is a long-time favorite band of mine and they’re releasing a podcast to accompany their new album.

RPGs

Game Jams

Itch.io has a big problem with navigability. Some kind soul has made a dynamic page that lists all ongoing physical game jams. So if you’re in a slump, maybe try one of these.

2024 here: The page still exists, but is no longer up-to-date. Still, there are many jams on itch, even if it’s harder to navigate them there.

Understanding Monsters

Dan at Throne of Salt, my unrequited blogging rival, has a really good post on monsters. It neatly articulated some ideas I hadn’t been able to pin down, and I know I’ll be referring back to it.

Drawing Maps

Anne at DIY & Dragons has done another comprehensive dive into a single game mechanic, this time examining map-drawing-for-advancement. It’s really good and thought provoking, and might give you ideas about “fixing” the ranger class or running more cut-throat rivals.

Sword Ferns & Salmon Flesh

Linden at Lapidary Ossuary reached out to me a while ago about hacking PALACE RUN for their own ends,¹ and now has a more finished game to show for it. I’ve really enjoyed seeing what elements they chose to keep and scrap, and what elements were added to the game (it has a lot more now). I’m eager to hear how it plays some time.