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Swordfish Islands

@swordfishpress.bsky.social

I write, layout, and publish table top RPGs.

210 Posts387 Follower97 Folgt
Roger Giner-Sorolla@rogerthegs.bsky.social · 4d ago

I don't know if this is a direct inspiration - it lacks the "beating you half to death" step - but it's certainly a fine example of the old nat-20 on Intimidation. from Lord Dunsany, The Hoard of the Gibbelins (1912)

Now Alderic determined to go up against him. So he took horse and spear and pricked till he met the dragon, and the dragon came out against him breathing bitter smoke. And to him Alderic shouted, "Hath foul dragon ever slain true knight?" And well the dragon knew that this had never been, and he hung his head and was silent, for he was glutted with blood. "Then," said the knight, "if thou would'st ever taste maiden's blood again thou shalt be my trusty steed, and if not, by this spear there shall befall thee all that the troubadours tell of the dooms of thy breed." And the dragon did not open his ravening mouth, nor rush upon the knight, breathing out fire; for well he knew the fate of those that did these things, but he consented to the terms imposed, and swore to the knight to become his trusty steed.
Swordfish Islands@swordfishpress.bsky.social · last mo.

Elsewhere someone said: “A level 1 character is probably an adult with a profession…” I don’t think that’s true. If you have a profession, you’re part of society. Maybe you had one, but it’s all 17 year olds, bastards and 6th sons, etc. Or that’s what happened on earth, why would fantasy differ?

Dr Rob@robheighton.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Going to open up a chippy called The Chip of Theseus. Every week I replace one item on the menu with something slightly different – halloumi bites for mozzarella bites, etc. – until you're not sure whether we really still serve the same food we did last year

Swordfish Islands@swordfishpress.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Counter Point: more campaigns need to use ancient earth pantheons directly so Bropollo can give your ladies snake hair when they spurn his advances. No one ever remembers his plague arrows either. Or the PCs can go quest for Brosiris’s chopped off weenie or whatevs. We forget their weirdness.

Rise Up (From the Grave) Comus@riseupcomus.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I am tired of reading RPG pantheons that are Hellenic reskins. I am tired of reading "And then, MY sun god, Daylor, is good and he hates the undead, but--get this--there's also a god of orcs and he's bad." Please give me weird, contradictory, and confusing fantasy divinities.

Angus Abranson@angusabranson.bsky.social · 4mo ago

(RPG PDF Spotlight) Shipwrecked in the Swordfish Islands is a system neutral sandbox and RPG toolkit built around Marlo’s Mire. This 10.5 square mile island is thick with danger, 12 points of interest, 7 mapped locations, and an interwoven network of NPCs. angusabranson.com/2026/06/19/r...

(RPG PDF Spotlight) Shipwrecked in the Swordfish Islands

Shipwrecked in the Swordfish Islands OSR Setting by Swordfish Islands The timbers of the mighty ship squeal in futile protest as the drowned peaks of ancient mountains split her oaken belly. Desper…

angusabranson.com

Swordfish Islands@swordfishpress.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The new island in the Swedish Islands archipelago is making it into people’s hands. People say it’s pretty, and feedback on the main NPC calls her “a hyper-competent NPC that rides that morally gray line while still having a lot of personality.”

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Goblin Archives@goblinarchives.itch.io · 4mo ago

I guess everything makes it's way back to The Thing. Using the dramatis personae from the script as a template for the 70+ NPCs I'm writing for Nemesis. (I keep a notes app on the phone to scrawl down ideas and then transfer them to the manuscript). Also using Traveller 08: Prison Planet for inspo

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𝖂.𝕯.@icastlight.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I love when people do exercises like this with OD&D. Be it just monsters or a whole campaign.The variance around a common ruleset interests me & I delight twists of the well known. OD&D by its nature is an excellence clay.

Rise Up (From the Grave) Comus@riseupcomus.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Herein I read the monster manual entries from OD&D in order and try to parse them into groupings and categories that let me use them at the table. Every attempt to read OD&D is some sort of bizarre self mortification ritual. It's not the text itself, it's the grappling with it that's important.