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Allen Varney

@bundleofholding.com
921 followers 196 following 554 posts

Writer and game designer (PARANOIA XP, Mongoose Publishing 2004). I operate the Bundle of Holding (bundleofholding.com). allenvarney(at)Gmail.

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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 22h
Christopher Morley's "Parnassus on Wheels" is available free on Project Gutenberg: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5311
gutenberg.org
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley. Free eBook digitized and proofread by volunteers.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 29/09/2026
That early Popeye cartoon is remarkable for the fully realized versions of Popeye, Olive, and Wimpy. Many cartoon stars had rough beginnings before evolving into their recognizable forms, but the Fleischers started Popeye right.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 22/09/2026
That guy could have, in a different era, designed a hell of a magic system for GURPS.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 21/09/2026
There are three rival claimants to the throne of France, a monarchy that no longer exists, and there are multiple factions supporting each: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch...
en.wikipedia.org
Monarchism in France - Wikipedia
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 19/09/2026
And, so... How do you think it turned out?
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 16/09/2026
A lineal descendant of Daler Mehndi's 1998 "Tunak Tunak Tun" video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=92yd...
youtube.com
Tunak Tunak Tun Video | Daler Mehndi | Full Song | Daler Mehndi Music
YouTube video by Daler Mehndi Music
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 11/09/2026
I hope someone adapts the "American Chopper" meme to this pressing question.
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Reposted by Allen Varney
RPG Creators Relief Fund @rcrfcharity.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
The Roleplaying Game Creators Relief Fund (RCRF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization founded to provide financial assistance to ttrpg creators suffering hardship due to catastrophic situations. And now donations to the RCRF are as easy as our new QR code!
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 04/09/2026
Stumbo, the comic consisting entirely of long shots of Stumbo.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 28/08/2026
The first was badly proofread, the second was correctly proofread.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 28/08/2026
Explaining the joke: Champions characters are built by spending points to buy Flight, Energy Blast, Lockpicking skill, etc. Many abilities cost tens or 100s of points. A Perklet's cost is measured in tenths of a point.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 28/08/2026
Adventurers Club #23 (Winter 1994), the Hero Games magazine for the Champions #TTRPG, published my article "Perklets," with a list of tiny ways to improve your RPG characters.
Perklets, by Allen Varney, from Adventurers Club issue 23 (Hero Games, Winter 1994). 
Chewing gum? Obnoxiously cute toys? No, “perklets” are the tiny ways life goes well for your character. Too rare or trivial to cost whole character points, these little benefits pioneer a great new design concept: decimal points!

Cost (points)

0.1: Permission to Photocopy

0.2: Can Lift One Eyebrow Like Mr. Spock

0.2: Easily Assumes Full Lotus Position

0.2: Remembers Dreams

0.2: Wiggles Ears, Curls Tongue Into Tube, Can Bend Thumb Back Until It Touches Wrist, etc.

0.3: Immunity to Jury Duty

0.3: Member, International Youth Hostels

0.3: Fruit-of-the-Month Club

0.4: Has Correct Change

04 each: Usually Picks Fastest Line (per Environment: Supermarket, Bank, Airport, Other)

0.4 each: Turns Almost Exactly to Page Needed on First Try (half-phase action, per Environment: Almanac, Dictionary, Encyclopedia, Phone Book, Spellbook)

0.5: On Really Neat Mailing Lists

0.5: Not on Annoying Mailing Lists

0.6 each: Free Pass (per Environment: Disneyland, Euro Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, Walt Disney World)

0.7: Can Fix Parking Tickets

0.7: Tans Without Peeling

0.8: Related to Airline Employee, Flies Cheaply

0.9: Knows Real Words to "Louie, Louie"
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 26/08/2026
"The Man Who Saw Humanity From Two Billion Years Away" - why yes, it IS about Olaf Stapledon (Matthew De Abaitua, The MIT Press Reader): thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-man-who-...
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
The Man Who Saw Humanity From Two Billion Years Away - The MIT Press Reader
Olaf Stapledon published his first epic cosmic novel, “Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future,”...
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 25/08/2026
Really leading with the chin to name your series "Hexchit."
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 23/08/2026
"Things I'd like to see in RPG PDFs" (Reddit r/rpg) - RGB images, hyperlinks, print-friendly backgrounds, metadata, proper page numbering, ePub and Markdown versions: www.reddit.com/r/rpg/commen...
reddit.com
From the rpg community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the rpg community
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 23/08/2026
"It takes less time to read Nancy than to decide not to read it." -- Wally Wood
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 17/08/2026
"The Duke asked him for his card, and found in the evening, when the card fell out of his sash, that he lived at Birmingham, and was a button manufacturer!" www.futilitycloset.com/2025/03/03/i...
futilitycloset.com
Interloper - Futility Closet
After the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington was constantly asked to describe his adventures on that day. Eventually he insisted that all his stories had been told, but during a visit to the M...
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 17/08/2026
"and told him to go up to that regiment and order them to charge, giving him some mark of authority the colonel would recognise. Away he galloped, and in a few minutes the Duke saw his order obeyed." (4/5)
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 17/08/2026
"But every now and then he saw the Cob-man riding about in the smoke, and at last having nobody to send to a regiment, he again beckoned to this little fellow," (3/5)
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 17/08/2026
"He replied he was an Englishman accidentally at Brussels, that he had never seen a fight and wanted to see one. The Duke told him he was in instant danger of his life; he said ‘Not more than your Grace,’ and they parted." (2/5)
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 17/08/2026
"In the middle of the battle of Waterloo [the Duke of Wellington] saw a man in plain clothes riding about on a cob in the thickest fire. During a temporary lull the Duke beckoned him, and he rode over. He asked him who he was, and what business he had there." (1/5)
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 14/08/2026
...and the flying saucer about to levitate him from the trail?
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 09/08/2026
Can't believe Sturgeon's 75-year-old "Microcosmic God" is about to enter the discourse.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 07/08/2026
Repo Man (1984). A few classic Westerns like High Noon (1952) and maybe The Searchers (1956).
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 07/08/2026
With the right playset, maybe Fiasco?
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 07/08/2026
Apparently the first six minutes of Postal are genuinely funny. Reviews at the time relayed this with confusion and unease. Then the rest of the film sucked and the reviewers got comfortable again.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 05/08/2026
I save after every sentence and often after every phrase. I look silly and nervous doing it -- but I don't lose my work any more.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 05/08/2026
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_...
en.wikipedia.org
System and organization controls - Wikipedia
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 05/08/2026
"This repo is the methodology we actually audit against, not a summary of it: 86 controls, 355 test attributes with pass criteria, evidence standards, and the Type II testing method including how we call deviations, with worked examples."
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 05/08/2026
The creator shows up in the Hacker News discussion: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4917...
news.ycombinator.com
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 05/08/2026
Accounting firms conduct audits of enterprise clients using System and Organization Controls (SOC) that validate a firm's internal controls over information systems. An ex-Deloitte CPA made an AI version of the "Chiaro methodology" firms use to prepare for an audit: github.com/Chiaro-HQ/me...
github.com
GitHub - Chiaro-HQ/methodology: The complete Chiaro methodology for SOC 2 readiness and audit. Controls, criteria, evidence standards, and every judgment call, published so you can check it.
The complete Chiaro methodology for SOC 2 readiness and audit. Controls, criteria, evidence standards, and every judgment call, published so you can check it. - Chiaro-HQ/methodology
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 03/08/2026
More about the Jack Armstrong scriptwriter mentioned in that ad, US Army Lt Col (later brigadier general) Paschal N. "Pat" Strong: www.thefreelibrary.com/The+double+l...
thefreelibrary.com
The double life of Brigadier General Paschal N. Strong: how one engineer officer had a lasting impact on the battlefield and the home front. - Free Online Library
Free Online Library: The double life of Brigadier General Paschal N. Strong: how one engineer officer had a lasting impact on the battlefield and the home front. by "Engineer: The Professional Bulleti...
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 31/07/2026
Ross, have you contacted the RPG Creators Relief Fund? www.rcrfcharity.org/submit-an-ap...
rcrfcharity.org
Submit an Application
ELIGIBILITY FOR ASSISTANCE To be eligible to apply for and receive assistance from the RCRF, a person must meet two criteria: 1.  One must qualify as a tabletop roleplaying game creator. 2.  One...
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 31/07/2026
www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02...
abc.net.au
Is there such a thing as a Tasmanian accent?
You can often pick someone as being from South Australia, Victoria or New South Wales by how they say certain words or their unique sayings — but can you pick a Tasmanian?
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 30/07/2026
The rare novel I read straight through in one sitting without ever once checking to see how many pages were left.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 28/07/2026
The Difference Engine depiction of London's poisonous fog was 100% historically accurate, wasn't it?
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 21/07/2026
Presumably Haldeman would never qualify.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 19/07/2026
Editors are helpful in principle, but in the gaming hobby I endured any number of unqualified fatheads who introduced errors and solecisms.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 16/07/2026
Seems clear by now your characteristic dementia will involve mayonnaise.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 15/07/2026
All these posts discussing 300 dice and no Champions jokes. Truly its time has passed.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 15/07/2026
#lifegoals
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 11/07/2026
These late Sugar & Spike stories are sadly neglected. The fantasy elements (Bernie the Brain et al) aren't for all tastes, but I found them a fun recasting of the basic premise. Mayer seemed to get bored easily, so he kept reinventing things.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 11/07/2026
All of these entries point to Austin Grossman's Wiki page.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 09/07/2026
Hacker News discussion of the Damn Interesting fundraiser, with comments by site founder Alan Bellows: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4884...
news.ycombinator.com
A possible future for Damn Interesting | Hacker News
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 09/07/2026
The long-running website Damn Interesting is running a fundraiser to battle the headwinds of modern slopstorms: www.damninteresting.com/a-possible-f...
damninteresting.com
Damn Interesting: A Possible Future
An attempt to secure the future of the site, with an unfortunate quantity of moist metaphors.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 06/07/2026
Attn @acollierastro.bsky.social
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 05/07/2026
For my business's mailing list of 37K subscribers I use Sendy. Self-hosted, Sendy uses Amazon's Simple Email Service; this costs me US$35-45/month. There are also hosted Sendy platforms, but I haven't used those. sendy.co
sendy.co
Sendy - Send Newsletters 100x cheaper via Amazon SES
A self hosted newsletter application that lets you send trackable emails via Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) at 100x cheaper than other hosted solutions.
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 03/07/2026
Russ Cochran also published the magnificent three-volume Edgar Rice Burroughs Library of Illustration.
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Reposted by Allen Varney
New Books at Project Gutenberg @new.gutenberg.org · 02/07/2026
New #ebook at Project Gutenberg: Last and first men by Olaf Stapledon www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/79003
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Allen Varney @bundleofholding.com · 02/07/2026
Is this a bot account? That offer ended two weeks ago.
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