Nicola Mustone
@nicolamustone.bsky.social
Author of buthonestly.io - Essays on leadership, programming, and web - dev of small things at nicolamustone.com
At my #DND table, I relied on players to remind me what they had cast and who it affected. By round 3, Bane might be forgotten, or remembered after the dice landed. That is the part of a fight I built OpenFray to remember. openfray.app/news/what-yo... #ttrpg
What your DnD initiative tracker forgets — OpenFray news
I used to rely on players to remind me which spells were still running and who they affected. OpenFray keeps that part of the fight on the board.
openfray.app
A zombie that should have been a speed bump killed one player and nearly wiped my D&D table. My rolls looked rigged, so I built a JavaScript dice roller that records every die behind the total. buthonestly.io/javascript-d... #JavaScript #DnD #OpenSource #TypeScript
A JavaScript Dice Roller That Shows Its Work — BUT. Honestly
A fair dice roller and a rigged one produce numbers that look exactly the same. After a night of zombies that would not die, I built one that shows its work.
buthonestly.io
What's your favorite homebrew creature in D&D? Mine is the Wick and it started as a scarecrow. Then a party set it on fire. The Wick has been burning ever since. It still knows where its post is — it just isn't going back. openfray.app/s/nssrpmfm2v #DnD #TTRPG #Homebrew #halloween
Wick
Medium Construct, Neutral Evil. Challenge 7. Shared by OpenFray.
openfray.app
OpenFray 1.2 is out: save a fight mid-round and pick it up next session, and publish an encounter or a creature to a link anyone can open. More in 🧵 openfray.app/news/openfra...
OpenFray 1.2 — OpenFray news
Save a fight and pick it up next session, prep the next one early, and publish an encounter or a creature to a link anyone can open. Compatible with 5.5e and 5e.
openfray.app
shotlist 0.5.0: dialog: accept / dialog: dismiss for alert/confirm/prompt. Playwright silently dismissed them, so a confirm() click went down the cancel branch and the shot never changed. Also: teardown: for cleanup after a shot. Also added security fixes shotlist.dev #opensource #playwright #webdev
shotlist — annotated UI screenshots, described as data
shotlist opens your running site, drives it to the state you describe, clips a region, draws the callouts, and writes the image where you want it. Each screenshot is a YAML file.
shotlist.dev
What’s growing in your next D&D encounter? The Waking Garden has 67 cultivated horrors for #DnD, from unsettling vegetables to the fey tending them. Need something your players haven’t seen before? Pick one from the garden and run it directly in OpenFray: openfray.app/the-waking-g... #TTRPG #5e
The Waking Garden — a DnD 5e bestiary for OpenFray
Sixty-seven original creatures for Dungeons and Dragons 5e: sentient vegetables across three stages of growth, the ecology around them, and the thing they all grew from. Free to read, and built into t...
openfray.app
OpenDice 1.4.0 is out! New: floors and ceilings. 2d6min3 — every die counts at least 3 2d6max5 — and at most 5 2d6totalmin8 — bound the pair, not each die Also 4d6kh now keeps one die instead of throwing. MIT, zero deps - rollful.dev #TTRPG #GameDev #JavaScript
Rollful — a hosted dice-rolling API
Roll dice over HTTP. Rollful parses a dice formula, rolls each die through a CSPRNG, and returns every die it rolled. Powered by the OpenDice npm package.
rollful.dev
For years I'd open the Site Editor, find the block that almost did what I wanted, and ship the almost. The tool was fine. I'd stopped asking for what I wanted. My blog runs on Astro now. buthonestly.io/wordpress-to... #WordPress #Astro #blogging #opensource
The Block That Almost Did What I Wanted: WordPress to Astro
Liking a site is not the same as loving it. Why I left the WordPress Site Editor for Astro and Markdown, what it cost, and what the site runs on now.
buthonestly.io
OpenFray 1.1 is out. The combat console runs on a phone: the tracker, the stat block, and the controls are three screens you swipe between. Free, open source, no account needed. Compatible with 5.5e and 5e. openfray.app/console #TTRPG #DnD5e #GameMaster
Combat console — OpenFray
A fast, browser-based combat console for Game Masters running DnD 5e.
openfray.app
We should take better advantage (and care) of domain names. Between the mid-90s and the early 2000s, the web exploded, and with it, the demand for names.
Teammates ran a learnup on software licenses today, off an essay I wrote. Half of it on WordPress and the GPL. What if it had shipped MIT? CC0? All rights reserved? Does it still spread? buthonestly.io/how-to-choose-a-software-license-for-your-next-project/ #WordPress #OpenSource #tech #gpl #mit
How to Choose a Software License for Your Next Project
Push code to GitHub with no license file and it isn’t really open source — just visible. Choosing one feels like a legal maze, but it matters.
buthonestly.io
A screenshot never tells you when it stopped being true. It keeps rendering the old UI until a reader notices before you do. So I made each one a YAML recipe you re-run — and put drift detection in CI. Learn how and why. buthonestly.io/shotlist-aut... #OpenSource #DevTools #tech #automstion
shotlist: Annotated Screenshots, Described as Data
I built shotlist because I knew I'd never keep docs screenshots up to date by hand. Each annotated shot becomes a YAML recipe you run instead of redo.
buthonestly.io
Shotlist is now available on npm. It started as an internal library to generate screenshots for OpenFray. After using it on the project, I cleaned it up, made it reusable, and published it for everyone. shotlist.dev #opensource #javascript #typescript #nodejs #webdev #devtools #npm #automation
I've been building a D&D combat tracker: OpenFray. Free, open source, runs in a browser tab, no account needed. It tracks the fight — turn order, monster resources, conditions, mass saving throws — so you can run the table instead of the spreadsheet. openfray.app #TTRPG #DnD #5e
OpenFray — a DnD 5e combat console for GMs
OpenFray is a free, open-source combat console for running encounters in the world's oldest tabletop roleplaying game. Compatible with 5.5e and 5e: initiative, creature resources, conditions, group sa...
openfray.app
I had fun these days building an npm package and its hosted API for rolling dice! Yes, just rolling dice. All your dice rolling needs can be taken care of via my hosted API for free, no account and no authentication required! rollful.dev #npm #restapi #dice #ttrpg #roll #astro #typescript #js
Rollful — a hosted dice-rolling API
Roll dice over HTTP. Rollful parses a dice formula, rolls each die through a CSPRNG, and returns every die it rolled. Powered by the OpenDice npm package.
rollful.dev
A GPU is often confused with a graphics card, but they are not the same thing. This matters because AI relies less on graphics and more on parallel matrix math, memory bandwidth, and software. Learn more about GPUs at buthonestly.io/what-is-a-gpu/ #AI #GPU #MachineLearning
What is a GPU and Why Does AI Need Them? — BUT. Honestly
GPUs are crucial for AI due to their ability to perform parallel calculations, surpassing CPUs in matrix math efficiency.
buthonestly.io
I walked into a police station that doesn’t exist and knew exactly where to go. Games don’t just tell stories. They build place-memory—and decades later, fictional buildings can feel like somewhere you’ve actually been. buthonestly.io/observations... #Gaming #ResidentEvil #GameDesign #Memory
The Buildings That Never Were
A fictional police station I haven't visited in years. I knew exactly where to go. On grief, place-memory, and the buildings games build in your head.
buthonestly.io
The Buildings That Never Were I walked into a police station that doesn't exist and knew exactly where to go....
The Buildings That Never Were
I walked into a police station that doesn't exist and knew exactly where to go.
buthonestly.io
carbonara.rocks just got a full redesign 🍝 Rebuilt on Astro + Tailwind — faster, cleaner, and fully open source (MIT). Code’s all here: github.com/SirDarcanos/... #astro #tailwindcss #opensource #webdev
Authentic Carbonara Recipe (No Cream) — The Real Italian Way
The real Italian carbonara — eggs, pecorino, guanciale, pepper. No cream, no onions, no shortcuts. Learn the authentic method, plus the swaps that still work.
carbonara.rocks
AI is useful. That is exactly why it can get slippery. This essay is about the moment AI stops waiting for your direction and starts setting the rhythm of the work. Use it as a companion, not a lead. #AI #ADHD #Productivity buthonestly.io/observations...
When AI Stops Being a Tool
came back from sabbatical, opened Claude, and built for 18 hours a day. The work looked productive. Then I noticed AI was setting the rhythm.
buthonestly.io
I came back from sabbatical, opened Claude, and started building for 18 hours a day. It felt productive because it was productive. That was the problem. On AI, ADHD, friction, and learning to use the tool without letting it lead. #AI #ADHD #Productivity
When AI Stops Being a Tool
Quick Summary I came back from sabbatical and started building with AI so intensely that the tool began setting the rhythm of my days. The problem was not that AI was useless. It was useful in exactly the way my brain likes: fast feedback, low friction, and constant novelty. The dopamine was not really in the code. It was in the loop: ask, see, fix, ship, repeat.
buthonestly.io
Caring is not always a feeling. Sometimes it is a practice: asking one more question, validating before resolving, and keeping empathy available when emotion goes quiet. Learning to Care Without Feeling It #ADHD #Leadership #neurodivergent #management
Learning to Care Without Feeling It
Caring doesn’t always come naturally. How I learned to practice empathy and curiosity, not as emotions, but as disciplines that make better leadership possible.
buthonestly.io
Learning to Care Without Feeling It Quick Summary Curiosity can be practiced intentionally, even when it doesn’t come naturally. Empathy is often a learned behavior, not just a feeling, and can start by "faking" it well....
Learning to Care Without Feeling It
Quick Summary Curiosity can be practiced intentionally, even when it doesn’t come naturally. Empathy is often a learned behavior, not just a feeling, and can start by "faking" it well. Systems and small structures help keep you caring and curious when your emotions are quiet. Detachment can be a strength when it protects your energy while still letting you show up for others.
buthonestly.io
New! Cool! Free! A small and excellent text-to-speech tool by @nicolamustone.bsky.social. Use it for anything you’d like, entirely free of charge. buthonestly.io/resources/fr...
Free AI Voice Generator – BUT. Honestly
This is a small text-to-speech tool that you can use for anything you'd like, entirely free of charge. Paste text in the box, pick a voice, and click Generate .
buthonestly.io
Design doesn’t matter if your site is slow. A beautiful site that takes 5 seconds to load quietly kills trust, conversions, and search visibility. Performance isn’t anti-design. It’s what makes design work. buthonestly.io/web/wordpres... #WordPress #WebPerformance #WebDesign #SEO #CoreWebVitals
Design vs. Performance: Balance for Your WordPress Site
Learn how to balance speed and design on your WordPress site, improve Core Web Vitals, and know when visuals are worth the performance cost.
buthonestly.io
WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 approaches. With a host of new features rolling out in Gutenberg and Core, it's a crucial time for developers. Check out all the upcoming features and updates here: developer.wordpress.org/news/...
What’s new for developers? (February 2026)
WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 is on the way and introduces major developer-focused updates, including the always-iframed post editor, viewport-based block visibility, per-block custom CSS, expanded Gutenberg UI components, and new AI and CLI tools. Explore what’s coming.
developer.wordpress.org
Choosing what to play is harder than playing. ADHD + large library = scrolling instead of gaming. The real problem isn’t taste. It’s context. I started using AI to structure my mood and cognitive load. buthonestly.io/web/choosing... #ADHD #GameDev #Gaming #AI #ExecutiveFunction
Using AI To Choose What To Play With ADHD
Using AI with ADHD to reduce decision friction when choosing games, focusing on mood, cognitive load, and fit instead of recommendations.
buthonestly.io
I used to blog in furious bursts, then disappear for months. Turns out it wasn’t laziness, it was ADHD cycles. My ADHD planner is set of self-made rules that work with my rhythm, not against it.  buthonestly.io/web/adhd-pla... #ADHD #Creativity #Writing #Neurodiversity #MentalHealth
My Mental ADHD Planner: How I Blog Without Burning Out
How I built a simple mental ADHD planner to manage focus, avoid burnout, and blog in a way that fits my brain.
buthonestly.io
Machine learning isn’t an oracle. It recognizes patterns, but it can’t predict real breakthroughs. This essay shows why ML fails at novelty, using speedrunning data as a concrete example. #MachineLearning #AI #DataScience #TechReality #Programming #CriticalThinking #IndieWeb
AI Is Not an Oracle: The Limits of Machine Learning
Machine-learning curves look confident until speedrunners change the game underneath them. MediEvil shows why “AI as oracle” fails.
buthonestly.io
I didn’t become a web developer by following a roadmap. I learned from browser games, forums, “View Source,” broken CSS, and PHP files that made no sense at first. #WebDev #Programming #IndieWeb #TechWriting #LearningInPublic
What Is a Web Developer? How I Became One Before AI
What is a web developer? A pre-AI learning story with honest advice on skills, timelines, jobs, and using AI without skipping real understanding.
buthonestly.io