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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Oh that's dope. The idea of them borrowing tricks from the monsters adds a whole other dimension XD

Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

honestly, thus far in running Crows, I'm yet to hit something that makes me go "yea I wouldn't have done it this way" it truly feels like the game I would've made in my dream scenario.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Praying and begging that this game actually makes it to store shelves. As a canuck, I might die if I have to shoulder all the costs of individually shipping this game's supplements to my home.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Always. We've been here the whole time. I feel like if the two of us had sat down and made a game a few years back, it would look something like this (with much lower budget and polish)

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Anyways last night's game was utterly defined by the Acolyte of the Three repeatedly saying "The Three Protects", rolling some wildly improbably outcome, and then celebrating. By the end, the whole fucking party was chanting "THE THREE PROTECTS". Hype tbh.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

And of course, when I say "Crows is a fun world to inhabit", I don't just mean that the lore of the world is fun to explore, but that the rules of the game create a setting that is compelling to be in.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Low-key, Crows has shown me how exhausted I am with "games that help you tell a good story". Crows just...is a fun world to inhabit. What story there is just happens organically as you play. The pressure is off me as a GM to "tell a good story".

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I gotta learn the fiddle tbh...give me two or three years

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Woke up to discover that @loandthehighroad.bsky.social just surprise-dropped their album that I thought was scheduled for November holy fuck this is gonna destroy me I'm gonna be so unbelievably annoying about this

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Routinely someone tells me to get into FFXIV and truly, my refusal isn't based on whether I like the game or not it's that I'm absolutely *certain* I would play it far, far more than is healthy. Don't know if that's HoD's perspective too, but I definitely feel it in my own way.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Tbh as someone who recovered from being a "compulsive" gamer (i.e. sinking thousands of hours into skinner box games) I feel this entirely. So many people in the comments saying "It's okay to play games!" are missing the point entirely.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Every life can be better with a little less League.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I gotta say, seeing it make a comeback was maybe the wildest gaming news of the year for me. Desperate to know what speech convinced the higher-ups that it was time for it to return, but damned if they didn't do it.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Totally! And that's fine, I don't need a fully-formed world. But I didn't feel Sablewood Messengers did much to grab the table overall. I guess I just yearn for being able to go into a game store, grab a softcover magazine adventure, and run it at my table.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Everybody need a balanced diet: you need art that makes you say "wow, the potential of human creativity is truly limitless" and art that makes you say "shit I can do better than *this*."

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

MCDM has been running a clinic on this imo; their starter adventures for Draw Steel (particularly Delian Tomb) do so much, and I felt their introductory scenario for Crows was quite inspired too.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

That's like, not everything, but those are the big things. I need to look at your starter adventure and go "I can run this right now, I should run this right now." That's how a game hooks me.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

- An emphasis on "play it tonight". Don't write a module I have to know by heart to play. Read-aloud text is good here. Good formatting does so much too, as it means I can learn the important details on a skim. Don't be afraid of negative space in this regard.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

- Player guidance. Most players will read even less than the GM. Make sure the flow of a player turn is clear.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

- New GM onboarding. Don't expect me to have read the whole rulebook before the game starts. I'll know the system, but any exceptions to the norm or tricky rules should be highlighted and explained.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Oh man that's a bigger question, but if I had to condense it: - A "microcosm of play"; i.e., it should present all the things that are fun and good about your game. If your game is about dungeon-crawling, your starter adventure can't be about hunting bandits in the woods.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Blades in the Dark provides a "starting scenario". "This is the state of the world when the players start out. Here's some ideas for first scores. Go fucking crazy." That mostly worked fine for me. Really it depends how bulky your system is; the lighter it is the more you can just turn me loose.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I was an always-homebrew GM for a long time, but turned the corner within the past 5-6 years. I'm happy to homebrew a system once I understand it, but I'm never gonna get there unless you give me something to start from.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Yea, I've only run Lancer once and I went homebrew, but I have heard some hit-and-miss with the campaign modules.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I ran Sablewood Messengers and mostly walked away from it thinking, "great, what now?" The answer is...mostly nothing.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I don't think I can talk enough about how important a good beginner module is in getting me to adopt a game like, Daggerheart has sat on a shelf for the better part of the year due to a lack of good beginner modules

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Tbh I helped run a LARP that had multiple currencies and it was dope. Different vendors valued them differently, so their values were technically equivalent, but practically what currency you carried had a direct link to who you were allied with.

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Reposted by Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls

E. R. F. Jordan 🏳️‍⚧️ PROXY, available now! @erfjordan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Wake up, sleeper. Time is short. The station is falling. If you're getting out alive, you need to get to work. Now. hexjellyfish.itch.io/stationfall

hexjellyfish.itch.io

Stationfall by E. R. F. Jordan

A two-player game about loneliness, dependency, and surviving calamity.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I can't stay this hyped, the Crows campaign just ended, pls my heart is in shambles

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

anyways free Palestine I wish Ed Sheeran a very "lose all remaining cultural relevance"

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

"Macklemore debacle" is a lyrically-perfect phrase tbh the good ol' mackle debacle return of the mack and debacle

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Had a case of the autism and started writing a zine for Crows dawned on me that it literally doesn't have an open license or anything yet anyways so fuck it I guess we'll find out soon if I'm just distributing it as free fan zine lmao

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Ahhh, interesting. It's lovely regardless. I'd love to get my hands on a bowlback some day and learn for myself, but for now I simply make do with forcing a bluegrass mandolin to play a bunch of Celtic trad XD

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Ohhh that's gorgeous! I loooove bowlbacks. Honestly, I can't even blame people for that; it truly looks like an antique. I've heard they have really killer resonance, how do you like it?

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

For sure. The courses make it FEEL medieval in a way that's hard to explain. Maybe the lacerated fingertips give people the medieval bloodletting experience. Truth be told, even I was fooled; when I first encountered it, I assumed it was a historic piece myself!

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Anyways obligatory disclaimer that this has further complexities and nuances, and the mandola is technically older, and you could argue every single stringed instrument ever is technically a lute beyond the scope of 300 words to address tho

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

As someone who brings a mandolin to LARP tho, I don't ever want this to change. In fact, erase this thread from your brain. Yes, my F-style bluegrass mandolin is perfectly immersive in this medieval village LARP!

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Meanwhile, the mandolin as we know it only came to be in the 18th century. Until somewhat recently (like, 1990s recently) Irish musicians would even turn their nose up at you sometimes for bringing one to a session. Incredibly young instrument that somehow earns an ancient reputation.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

If you asked someone what kind of instrument their Troubadour character is playing, and they just said "a guitar", you might think they're being anachronistic. But even discounting ancestors like the gittara, vihuela, and cittern, the guitar as we know it dates back to the 13th century.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I swear the mandolin must have some kind of reverse-Tiffany problem, in that it seems to be universally perceived as a medieval-era instrument, despite only being like, 300 years old

Screenshot from the Codex VTT, tooltip for the Musical Instrument gear, which reads:

A portable instrument such as a lute, lyre, mandolin, drum, or fife. Playing it requires both hand slots.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Like, some friction with the Codex aside, this game fucks.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Team I think Crows is The Game for me like, The Game I've been waiting for.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

For sure. And I think that's the tricky thing about the online trans space; when you write something meant to be validating with a circle or community, it will invariably breach that community, grow beyond it, and have unintended knock-on effects.

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Cassandra, Undisputed Queen of Skulls @theicequeer.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

A case can be made that maybe we've swung too far in the opposite direction, but I still considered it valuable at the time (came out ~2016) even for all its flaws.

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