I came across a really cool art book called Vermis recently. The background story is that it's a guidebook to an unreleased dungeon crawler from the 90s. I've only had a chance to look at the preview images so far and it has a wonderfully dark, Gothic esthetic to it. Lots of bone, flesh, and decay. https://hollow-press.net/collections/plastiboo/products/vermis-i I've been considering running some dungeon crawls for my monthly one-shot group and Vermis looks great to use as inspiration.

Got to the part of the book where Tristan and Jonah talked about campaign prep and having a list of names that could be pulled for improvised PCs. If you haven't come across it, Malcom Bowers' "Gary Gygax's Extraordinary Book of Names is a nice resoruce for names if you can find it. It breaks apart names by irl nationality/ethnicity and then alphabetically lists common male, female, and family names. It seems a nice alternate to the name generators ... I also like having the alphabetical list so I can find names that make useful initials and the like. Anyway here is the female personal names under Cornish as an example: Female Personal Names Common: Demelza, Eseld, Jenifer, Kerensa, Lowenna, Morwenna, Rosen, Tamsyn, Tryfena, Wenna Standard: Ailla, Angelet, Arranz, Athwenna, Banallan, Barenwyn, Berlewen, Bersaba, Beryan, Blejan, Bryluen, Burien, Caja, Carenza, Ceinwen, Chesten, Columba, Conwenna, Cordelia, Crewenna, Cryda, Delen, Demelza, Derowen, Derwa, Dywana, Ebrel, Elestren, Elowen, Endelienta, Endelyon, Eseld, Eselt, Esyld, Eva, Ewa, Ewe, Glanna, Gweniver, Gwennol, Hedra, Jenifer, Jenifry, Jenna, Jowanet, Kayna, Kelynen, Kensa, Kerensa, Kerenza, Keresyk, Kerra, Kew, Ladoca, Loveday, Lowenek, Lowenna, Mabyn, Manacca, Mariot, Marya, Melior, Meliora, Mellear, Melloney, Mellyn, Melwyn, Melyar, Melyonen, Melyor, Meraud, Merouda, Metheven, Morenwyn, Morgelyn, Morveren, Morvoren, Morwen, Morwenna, Morwennol, Morwetha, Neraud, Nessa, Newlyn, Newlyna, Nonna, Rosen, Rozen, Rozenwyn, Senara, Sevi, Sowena, Steren, Talwyn, Tamara, Tamsyn, Tecca, Tegen, Tregereth, Tressa, Trevenna, Tryfena, Vorva, Weneppa, Wenn, Wenna, Wylmet, Ygerna, Zethar

Lowell Francis was talking about a TTRPG called Sword Opera and around the 35” mark he mentioned Proactive Roleplaying and goals for PCs. (Side note, one of the podcasters on this episode has a bit of a warble in their recording) https://aroundthehearth.openhearthgaming.com/episodes/open-hearth-podcast-episode-3

Every time I go to Target/B&N/Jo-Ann I take a quick spin through their book section to see if they have the latest from the Fishel boys... and I have been looking for months haha. I finally caught one today and was excited to see our name on the cover in tiny font. This one is a collaboration with a few other GMs and was a lot of fun to work on. There are a few new locations in here that we came up with together, but a few of them are also well-worn and well-loved locations from our home games. If you have ever played a TTRPG at our table, you might find a familiar town or city inside.

So do you could play an RPG with any four other people, how would it be? You can be one of the players or the GM or assuming you get to play with them a few times you could even swap with one of them at a point? To start, for me it would be Brennan Lee Muligan as my fellow dm ( would love to play as a player and also experience running a game for him). For my first random celebrity it would be Alton Brown. Dude is a huge geek, and cosplays with Adam Savage occasionally and I think it would be a hoot to have him at a table. Back on the DND side, Vin Diesel would be amazing. Seeing as he based Riddick on his Drow Ranger and put up a ton of the money to get those movies made , I feel like he would buy in harder than anyone... Especially if the game was about family. Finally I would put Felicia Day at the table, if not because she seems like an incredibly pleasant person, but also because she has so much geek cred. The level of impact she has had on nerd culture really isn't talked about enough. Not only in her Media appearances like the show she started the Guild, but supernatural, Buffy, ( plus the second bring it on, which you can for sure nerd out on the 7 freaking movies that are in the series), and more. And of course she is the one that worked to get Critical Role on the air, since it had already been a home game for some time? And if you can't pick just four, who would you pick?