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Alister

@stubbenz.bsky.social
70 followers 239 following 61 posts

D&D homebrewer, acoustics engineer, building scientist, and I like to bake.

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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
You might be thinking of some of the conversation following this video? It was talking about using it as a tool for game designers to learn, rather than something people should emulate, but otherwise uses lots of similar language. youtu.be/9VONeNVPaNs?...
youtu.be
A Case for Board Games - Why Board Games Help You Make Better Video Games - Extra Credits
YouTube video by Extra Credits
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Wait, are you saying that a wildly spinning aerial shot that's desperately trying to track the ball ISN'T the optimal way to watch rugby!?
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Seeing someone post their 4x3 score is like stumbling onto an exceptionally fun landmine, where I just have to accept that the next couple of minutes of my life are about to vanish into thin air
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
This is so lovely and heart-warming! I certainly don't think there's a better way of showing just how personally meaningful the project is
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
I love it when two awesome creators that I thought didn't have much overlap end up doing something together! I'm so excited for this
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
I'm excited for all the art reveals! This is such awesome work
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
I'm so excited!!! Your work on this has been absolutely incredible
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
SMR's first book was the single best-run kickstarter I've seen - even setting aside the book's actual quality (which had amazing mechanics, art, and layout), the project had clear communication, thorough playtesting, and delivered in a reasonable amount of time I highly recommend checking it out!
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Ooh, interview episodes are always great - fingers crossed for this one!
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Chaosium @chaosium.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Wellycon is New Zealand's biggest, fun, friendly board gaming convention! And we'll be there—in fact, we're Gold sponsors.​ And if you drop by the Chaosium booth, we'll also be able to tell you all about Chaosium Con New Zealand coming up in November! Tickets live now: www.wellycon.org.nz
wellycon.org.nz
Wellycon - Boardgame convention
New Zealand's largest board game convention, held in Wellington. We host two conventions, one on King's birthday and another on Labour weekend.
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Lady Emily ☄️ @ladyemily.nebula.tv · 13/05/2026
The Slay the Spire 2 controversy is honestly funny. I can’t think of anything that proves how transparently immature the anti SJW grift is than people being forced to act as if a game they’ve been enjoying for months is now suddenly unplayable woke trash solely because Anita’s name is in the credits
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
In a review otherwise so dedicated to uplifting a game that truly cares about the value of life, that one line has just really stuck with me for the past couple of days for the worst reasons. Sorry for the depressing thread here; I really do think this video is wonderful.
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
In contrast to the rest of the video, this just feels like such a cynical way to view rpgs. It ironically feels like geek culture gate keeping, where the things that "serious gamers" look down on are considered by them to have no artistic merit.
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
This video almost felt like it was in direct contention with that advice - that to create characters in this way is to treat these NPCs as fuel for the fire; pawns to have their depth sacrificed for the entertainment of the players.
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
It just feels like such a departure from the SUSD RPG video which told me that the only thing that mattered was that "you can do this" and that "your characterisation should be the level of professional wrestlers". I loved that advice, and I think my games became more fun for following it.
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
To suggest that the aggregate awfulness of humans is only balanced out if the merit of art is allowed to tip that cosmic scale is already fairly cynical. But then the following section argues that if you're running or playing the wrong rpg, then what you're doing isn't art.
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
I loved this video, but it left me feeling sad that the takeaway opinion following a game review that was so beautifully described as this champion of community and interconnectedness could be "without art, humans aren't worth keeping around as a species".
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DeepBlueInk @deepblueink.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
🚀BOTTLE ROCKET ASTRONAUT - MUSIC VIDEO🚀 Out now!!! - youtu.be/5GshhdAvQ8s (I'm so proud of this, please watch it 💖)
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
It's absolutely wildly different! It's a huge shift in ways I can't even begin to discuss without wading into spoilers for that book, and that makes Harrow the Ninth a bit of a puzzle that needs to be unravelled (making it maybe the most rewarding book to re-read that I've ever experienced).
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
I love the Ancillary series! It does such fun things with perspective; between this and similarly perspective-warping sci-fi novels like Harrow the Ninth, it's amazing seeing books that truly make full use of their medium to tell stories in ways that no other form of media could accomplish
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
This is awesome, but also it's a wild move to post this at midnight, NZ time
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
It's genuinely so exciting to see such a respected and beloved company within the ttrpg scene heading to Wellington!
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Excellent advice, which I've unfortunately experienced both sides of these past few years On an entirely unrelated note, I sure do love the work of my favourite author Terry Pratchett and sure do have very complicated feelings about Good Omens
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Now that's a kiwi with serious digimon energy
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KibblesTasty @kibblestasty.com · 03/03/2026
Kibbles' Compendium of Airships and Artifacts is live now on Kickstarter! Go check it out. There's a 134 page free sample; the book has tons of cool stuff you'll want to add to your D&D 5e game. Compatible with 2014 and 2024. www.kickstarter.com/projects/kib...
kickstarter.com
Kibbles' Compendium of Airships and Artifacts for D&D 5e
A DnD 5e book with new character options, expanded crafting, artifacts you can level with, airships you can adventure with, and more!
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Send help - I showed my partner the Chaos Card and she's laughing so hard that she stopped breathing
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Eclipse is so great! The tech upgrade system is just so much fun
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
This comic is wonderful and you are wonderful for doing so much of a wonderful thing
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
It's all so amazing! I love the Harrow art so much
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
I did say that I wanted Gundam, so this is on me
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
I misread "the Witch Mercy" as "the Witch from Mercury", and this somehow turned an already cursed copypasta into something so much worse thanks to the added whiplash I just wanted Gundam
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
I love your stuff, and I love RPGBOT's guides, so this is perfect!
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
It's so incredibly well-deserved! This was the most fun I've ever had reading a ttrpg, and it all creates such fun chaos at the table
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
I'm rereading Terry Pratchett's Guards books at the moment, and man it's reminding me of just how great dwarfs can be. There's so much Pratchett managed to say about everything from gender expression to faith, all while feeling so extremely and thoroughly "dwarvish".
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
I can't understand why anyone wanted to keep the Gordon Wilson Flats. Even while I was at Vic, the uni had offered to fully digitally preserve the flats so that people could actually view them. It blows my mind that instead they've stuck around in a form nobody can even learn from.
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Looking forward to giving it a go at wellycon!
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
They continue to have such brilliantly perfect titles
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
The games you've made have brought my friends and I so much joy! It's awesome having someone as cool as you out there creating stuff that so many people get to enjoy
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
Absolutely this! It's become such a pain to search for anything on the site - I've just started a campaign playing a half-orc, and all the website links to the books I paid for are dead
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Honestly, I'd probably play a co-op rpg video game with them, see how they engage with the story, and maybe say "Hey, it looks like you enjoy XYZ part of the story - want to give [TTRPG matching their style] a go, where we'll work together to tell a story like that?"
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Steam has its own problems, but regional pricing making indie games accessible to audiences that could never have afforded these games otherwise has been revolutionary. These are players that can't see $30 USD the same way as you. It beaks my heart to see the ttrpg community call them "poor fucks".
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Nah. This is a pretty awful situation for "weird shipping area/currency" people, and laying out blanket blame on consumers feels wildly US-centric. $30USD has substantially different value in different parts of the world.
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Kiana Mai @kianamai.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
FEBRUARY 28TH 10AM PST!!!!!!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf7b...
youtube.com
Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl (PILOT)
YouTube video by Kiana Khansmith
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
That's definitely fair, though I've found that in playtests, players LOVED the feeling of monsters desperately trying to take them down, with successful CON saves reinforcing the idea that they were just shrugging of the hits.
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somanyrobots @somanyrobots.com · 26/02/2025
Let's talk about the tank fallacy! Which is sort of misnamed, but whatever. The design lesson here: it doesn't matter how tanky your are if the enemies don't have any reason to hit you. #dnd #dnd5e #spellboundsea 1/10
A minotaur charges at the viewer, wearing a naval coat and wielding a pistol and hand cannon.
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
I've been a big fan of using the same tactics for subclass design that I use to encourage players to attack certain monsters. There's nothing like seeing a PC charge up a giant, telegraphed attack that looks more like it belongs on a Dark Souls boss! It gives the DM a great reason to rather the PC
Image shows the path of the behemoth barbarian from the DMs Guild product Book of Many Things. It includes a momentous blow feature that allows you to charge up attacks.
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secondlina // Lord of Crows @secondlina.com · 17/02/2025
Crowmance #9 [1/4] ♥️💝🥹
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
The boardgame discussion was fun. It's interesting seeing them compared to RPGs since fans often unknowingly discuss polar opposite problems for each. ("Stop jumping to new games; you should really thoroughly delve into the ones you've got." vs "There's more RPGs out there - try something new.")
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
A year ago, my dnd party finished the dnd adventure 'Rime of the Frostmaiden'. Here's the incredible commission (by the incredibly talented Zoe @fishwitches.bsky.social) we got to celebrate it all! #dnd #art #dndart
Six dnd adventures stand on an iron platform
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Alister @stubbenz.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
I'm so glad they left existing monsters with their current stat block layout. I find the hodgepodge of numbers on the new statblock to be a bit of a mess to try parse at a glance, and was worried they'd just completely remove the current stat block layout.
The dndbeyond update saying they'll use the new stat block for new monsters, but keep 2014 monster stat blocks the same.
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