Ty

@mindstorm.bsky.social

2116 Followers 553 Following

I'm just a silly little guy (he/him). Creator of TTRPGs and enjoyer of blogs. Gold Ennie award winner and definitely a person. https://www.mindstormpress.com/

Frosted Coffee Hawaii Coffee comes from the tropics-and so does pineapple juice. Here they meet in a delicious summertime cooler. 2 cups strong, cold coffee 1 cup chilled pineapple juice 1 pint soft coffee ice cream Combine ingredients and beat thoroughly with a rotary beater or electric blender until the mixture is smooth and foamy. Pour into tall glasses. Makes 4 to 5 servings.
Cover image of The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
A spreadsheet control panel, with four sections. A detailed round by round time per turn, a bar chart with total times for each character, and pie charts with a percentage of time per combat (one with the GM characters, one without)
Porcelain skin, cracked in places and put back together with veins of gold. The doll steps forward, her movements stiff and slightly delayed, as if she has to queue them up and then execute them all at once. On her back, a winding key endlessly tick-tick-ticks, crafted in the design of butterfly wings. Her eyes are icy blue, and her head tilts with a small smile as she greets you. Behind her, three clockwork porters carry her goods, devoid of the spark of sentience that fills her eyes. Her dress and coat are of the finest quality, cut, and lavender coloring. A jar attached to her hip is perhaps the strangest thing on her person—or rather, its contents are: a human skull. Miss Martine is a living doll, commissioned by a travelling merchant years ago. When he met an untimely end, she knew not what to do, and could only carry on his work. He rests now, at her hip, and she’ll speak to the skull when she thinks nobody is around. She knows that the merchant had a son, and she desperately wants to get a letter to him. She hopes to one day meet the person she considers her “brother.”
5 panels from Witch Hat Atelier. The character is trying to work on something, decides it's not right and starts something new. He then gets intimidated by the blank page and goes back to the old work. The cycle repeats.
A picture of Norn and Susan, a cat, staring at the phone camera.
Meme of Cypher from the Matrix movie, sitting in front of screens of code. Caption: You get used to it. I don't even see the bullets... All I see are trap, puzzle, monster.
A photo of Ty and Norn in a game store. They are both very happy and holding each other close.
a top down picture of a perogy pizza
Map of Zork 1 by drsushi
A tweet: Food $200 Data $150 Rent $800 Candles $3,600 Utility $150 someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying Replies are: dril spend less on candles, to which dril replies "no"
A ceramic worm with a top hat on top of the book HIS MAJESTY THE WORM
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Ty and Norn together smiling in a board game cafe
A meme: THE MYTH OF “MAKING MOVES” IN PBTA Players: I CONSENT GM: I CONSENT The fiction: I DON'T! ISN'T THERE SOMEBODY YOU FORGOT TO ASK?
Phone screenshot of a video call. Ty is in the top right corner smiling. The main video shows Susan, a beautiful tabby cat, staring into the camera at Ty.
Image of Leto II Atreides as a Sandworm; cropped from the 1987 Ace paperback cover of God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert, itself a reuse of artwork from the 1978 paperback edition. Original artwork by Bruce Pennington.
Art of Ty, drawn by Norn Noszka. It is in black and white, and shows Ty with big eyes, a plaid shirt, medium length hair and a beard. It has Scott Pilgrim style vibes.
Powered by the Scent engine. Insert the vial and dial into the adventure. Below, a picture of someone shovelling a scent canister into the hexagonal scent engine.
A very close up shot of a screen door in a hex layout. There is a blurry porch and dog in the background.
Chapelle Roan in her "Roan of Arc" outfit, which is platemail and chainmail. She's holding a crossbow, her red hair is braided, and she's got a badass look on her face.
An email detailing the "You Need a Budget" Fan Fest that is happening in San Diego on April 26.
A picture of a very large grizzly. The caption says "The Boss has emerged from hibernation." Text reads: "The Boss" has emerged from hibernation in Alberta's Lower Bow Valley. This 650-pound grizzly is the region's undisputed alpha- famous for feasting on other bears, surviving two train collisions, and fathering around 70% of the local cubs.
An artist rendition of Atlantis, with concentric circles that alternate between waterways, buildings, and a horse racing track. Around the city is farmland. Made by Rocío Espín Piñar.
Bran wants Keeler’s backup in an ill-considered raid on Jackabacka’s junkyard. Keeler knows how ill-considered it is, though. “Oh come on, it’ll be fun,” Bran’s player says. He hits the roll with a 7. “So, the carrot or the stick?” Keeler’s player says. “The carrot,” he says. “You’ve got hard highlighted, yeah? The way I figure it, with that, plus one from me, this raid could give you enough experience to get a whole improvement.” “Hm,” Keeler’s player says. “at’s an interesting point.”
Panels from Berserk. Guts, a massive warrior is teaching the young boy Isidro how to fight. Isidro: Ain't training about practicing basics for a long time before learning techniques and stuff? You sure about a novice like me learning these kinds of improvised tactics? Guts: Aren't you laying the groundwork every day? Isidro: Yeah, but!!! Guts: For starters, you won't get anywhere imitating me, right? Everything about us is different, including fighting styles.
A photo of the Frasassi Caves. An entrance to the cave contains a temple built into the mouth.
Someone to play as Mr Bones, Emilia's talking skull. Now, Mr Bones is ostensibly on Emilia's side (figuratively and literally), so you'd probably think, "this is another player type roll" And you would be correct. But Mr Bones can't really do things without Emilia, and they're not happy about that, so maybe if the player taking the role of Emilia has a frenemy, that's your optimal person right there.
A giant hog hanging from a hunting stand.
A bottle of maple syrup called "Maple Joe." The mascot is a man in red plaid with a big white bushy beard and hat. It looks like Tony from Plus One EXP.
Six panel meme. A men gets a medal, bites it, kisses the presenter, gives everyone the finger, sprays champagne, and then drinks the champagne out of the bottle. The reveal on the last panel is that he only got 3rd place.
Norn and Ty in suits for a wedding. Outside in the greenery, with the sun coming down. Norn is in burgundy and Ty is in navy
A tweet from Ty saying the duality of "you can do that with 5e" and "there's a powered by the apocalypse hack for that"
The hues & clues board game, with many different colors on a grid.
Each day is played out, 1 free slot, go to classes (4 slots) five days a week then 2 slots afterward Weekends you have 8 slots 1 slot of time to get to class and 1 back
Nick: What would happen if you took the Nature, History and Religion skills out of D&D 5e? Like... you kind of _need_ knowledge skills, right? Or at least a single skill you can roll to know things? What if you didn't want a skill like that? How would knowing things work? For example, if we see a Hag in Tomb of Annihilation and a player goes "Would my character know anything about hags?" the answer kind of has to be "Give me a _something_ roll." right? The other option is to just tell them yes or no, and elaborate accordingly. Disregarding D&D 5e, just TTRPGs in general... do dice need to be involved when a PC wracks their brain for in-universe knowledge they _may_ know but aren't guaranteed to know? I feel like the answer is yes, but I'm trying to entertain the idea that the answer could be no. Ty: Congratulations, game designer. You have stumbled upon one of the Great Discourses of TTRPG design. There are still more to find! Good luck.
A college of Gandalf from Lord of the rings and a Zelda dungeon entrance. Above it, in neon scrabble tiles, reads "Friend."
Art by Faith Schaffer of a woman kneeling. A glowing green sword hovers in front of her. She has a magical swirl of green power around her head. She's wearing a brown dress.
A page from the book called Hell of a Party about playing as a wizard attending a dorm party.
A newspaper illustration depicting a man engaging in barter, paying his yearly newspaper subscription to the "Podunk Weekly Bugle" with various farm produce.
Tony sitting on a chair while Ty stands beside him.
Ty standing in front of a very short door you'd have to duck to get through.
The cover of Koriko and a bookmark with the table of contents on it.
Exploration and discovery are going to be a major part of the game. Even if only make 15 hub locations, making each of those interesting, interconnected, and exciting is a challenge. And doing it all by myself is like an engine running on one cylinder when could be firing on all six. With five other players around the table, it's time to tap into their creativity for my own nefarious purposes. As an added bonus, players taking over a bit of the worldbuilding means that they can surprise and delight each other and me. Let's lay out the design goals so can address each one: Light collaborative worldbuilding between the GM and players. The players get to add to scenes and make them come alive. The other players and the GM have a chance to be "wowed' by the added elements. There is structure, provided by the GM, to the way elements are added. A element can be added, incorporated, and then gameplay can quickly resume.
A gaming table full of sheets for a blades in the dark game.
Two oracle cards side by side, the warrior and the witch. The warrior has a circle with weapons coming out of it. The witch has town hands reach towards each other, with vegetation between them. The warrior says perfectionism, burnout. The witch says experimentation, rebellion.
Coming soon to Kickstarter. Can't Take The Heat. Two mythical monsters, a werewolf and a siren, make flirty eyes at each other in the kitchen.
Three panels from Berserk, with Isidro asking Guts about learning the basics an Guts offers advice about how best to fight.
The berserk manga projected on a wall. It's the eclipse scene, with a helmeted figure kneeling below an eclipse as silhouettes in the background walk towards him. There's a face in the right side of the panel making an alarmed expression.
Magpie, an older eccentric woman, spins a wheel of fortune while looking back at the viewer.
Starlight the cat looking back at the viewer. She is a cat with dark purple fur with spots of lighter fur like stars.
A post with a little drawing of Ty. It says mindstorm, on tour.