Rob Donoghue

@rdonoghue.bsky.social

3118 Followers 314 Following

Not writing nearly as much about RPGs or Agile as I would like to be.

Steam Machine with a faux wood front panel.
A snippet from an RSS reader. headline, in big bold letters: Communities Might Not Want Data Centers, but Thieves Do Summary, in normal text: That’s a lot of copper.
Absolutely lovely Cold War play maps
Goose From Untitled Goose Game with a butter knife in its beak. The caption is "Value was never an option"
Slides with a blue background. On the left, under the heading "Goose was not valued" is a goose in the Style of Untiled Goose Game labeled "Goose value 0?". On the right, the same goose is in honking pose, now labeled "Goose value 71", with the subtitle "It was the goose that created value"
Box art for The Gang. It shows a stylized bank vault ing gold. Surrounded by black and red poker imagery
Black craft bag, big and blocky, with roller wheels and an extendable handle.
Epics (big blocks of work) ship 66% faster Tasks get done 33.7% faster Pull requests are 16.2% faster Code churn (lines added and removed) up 861% Incidents up 242.7% (+57.9% monthly) Bugs per dev up 54% bugs per apt up 28.7%
Photos of some of those libertarian cards. The center is a prominent diamond with libertarian at the top and evil (well, statist) at the bottom, with right and left to right and left.
As per Shannon Appelcline’s Designers and Dragons, they later separately claimed low self-esteem and savvy business strategy as reasons, which suggests that no single justification was behind the decision.
Movie poster for Spy Game - tag line "It's not how you play the game, it's how the game plays you". Top half is a B&W Robert Redford looking right wth some small clips below him. Bottom is B&W Brad Pitt in shades looking left. Bar between them is title and credits over a background of red stripe of an American flag, which is the only color on this, making it stand out strongly.
3 more iceberg panels in the style of the earlier ones, except this time there's a small boat on the water. Panel 1: Iceberg is positioned normally, and the boat is facing towards it. Label is "ooh, Pretty", and whether that's appreciation or obliviousness before a collision is an exercise for the reader. Panel 2: water level has dropped, but the iceberg has not moved, so now it looks over the boat like a club ready to crush if. Caption "Please don't hit me" Panel 3: Water level is back ups, and the iceberg is gone, leaving the boat alone. Caption: "Wait, what?"
Iceberg diagram like the previous post, except the above water part id two half circles (boobs) and beneath he water is a mech and some swords. It is labeled "This Kind"
Text: I have always liked to describe RPG setting as an iceberg, with a visible part above the water, and an invisible part below Below text is a 3x3 grid of iceberg illustration with labels. Starting from upper left and reading left to rightL The Iceberg: Normal iceberg, some above water, more below The Snowcone: No water: Iceberg is a blue and red snow-cone labeled "Setting: Icebergs as hats: Normal iceberg above the water, but the iceberg below the water is shaped so if you spin it, a different iceberg will sit on top. Arrows suggest rotation. Minimum Viable Iceberg: Almost no iceberg below the waterline More Minimal Than That: As above, but iceberg is smaller Soylent Iceberg: Full sized Iceberg, but it's a Maple Hollow Iceberg: Nothing below the water, only an outline of an iceberg above the water. The Idea of the Iceberg: As above, but the outline is only a faint, dotted line Crap, I Kind of Miss the Iceberg: No iceberg, only water Text below: This is far from comprehensive, but it's a tour of my journey. Thing is - it's not a progression. In retrospect? They're all right.
A map in the style of the Persona 5 city map (that is, stylized iblack and white cons for locations on a red background, with rough, colorful connecting lines), except it's Saint Louis, and the destinations are all local things to do.
A slice of a local tourist map for the area around Burlington, Vermont
That red Tokyo map again.
Freedale map again. It's just named buildings of note, no actual town there. Lovely illustration. Nonsense map.
A stylized map of Tokyo from the game Persona 5 - it's cool and colorful, but if you're familiar with the game, the destinations correspond to actions you can take during downtime.
Zoom in view of a road atlas of the area around Greensboro, North Carolina.
Map of the world, largely featureless, except with dots at major ports and lines connecting those dots.
Photo of the top of a set of escalators. Bollards have been installed around the top of the down escalator, close enough together to prevent a shopping cart from passing between them.
This is a lovely illustration of a town, and a terrible map, because it makes no sense. It is all locations, but no place where anyone might actually *LIVE*. There are 13 buildings in the entire town, including an Inn, a Tavern AND a pub. There is a general store, but no marketplace. There are barracks, despite an apparent population of, like, 50? It is unclear what anyone eats.
Anime bullshit. Post apocalyptic wasteland, tall mech in the back. Ragtag group of heroes in thr front. Looks old and generic.
2 more panels Panel 1 The human, leaving "Gods be with you, Drey Harrick" Dragonborn: Get out of here, Fell. I'm busy... Panel 2 Door bursts open, and the Dragonborn breathes flame on robed attackers DB: ...showing this filth HOW A DRAGONBORN DIES!
4 comic book panels from the D&d Comic of , a Dragonborn is talking to a human panel 1 DB: Your curse is..you are CLEVER. Panel 2 DB: When all is lost, you see it. The wild chance, the weak man, in the line, the last sliver of hope just before the door slams shut. Panel 3 (Close up of mans face) DB: But you can's get everyone through the door, can you. You can never save everyone. Just once, it would be nice to save everyone, wouldn't it. Panel 4 (Zoomed back out) DB: But not today. Because today your plan needs a man to stay behind and hold this door. Now, give me my weapon.
Cutaway illustration of THE PIT, G.I. Joe’s secret command center.
Black background, white text, reading "Temporarily Convenienced Peasant" (Yes, Convenienced is not a word, but it was the most useful opposite to inconvenienced)
Copy of the HEDGE RPG by a Couple of Drakes.
4 panel comic strip Panel 1 Bob, at his desk: After years of work, I finally make good money! Friend: Uh, Bob? Panel 2 Graph with a bar for Bob’s income and the threahold for “good money” in 2020 Panel 3 Same graph. Bob’s "income today" barely crosses the “good money for 2020” line, but is even farther from the “good money today" line Panel 4 Bob looks shocked. Friend: Sorry
Third vault has flipped
2 alarms, 2 vaults. Next hand decides it.
Poker hands!
Cards and board with a very distinctive vector art style
Boardgame that looks like a tech tree, because it is
Cover of “Impossible Mission”, a commodore 64 game.
Achievment Unlocked
Those are not onions. They are, in fact, carrots.
Navy blue satchel bag with a leather front panel. It's very nice!
A shiny metal carafe with a flared mouth containing a coffee filter and groundsZ. Like a chemex, but metal.
“Google Gemini: Writing Original Song”
Seriously, i'm not even sure how to describe it. It's just a picture of some normal looking pens, except the clips have....little, knobby cylinders in them? That spin, maybe?
Table containing the following: First draft - extended (informal) nomenclature Hitter: Hacker - Technician Hitter: Grifter - Negotiatior Hitter: Thief - Ninja Hitter: Mastermind - Specialist Hacker: Grifter - Roper Hacker: Thief - Infiltrator Hacker: Mastermind - Operator Grifter: Thief - Pickpocket Grifter: Mastermind - Fixer Thief: Mastermind - Burglar Whiter hat Hitter - Soldier Whiter hat Hacker - Tech Whiter hat Grifter - Operative Whiter hat Thief - Spy Whiter hat Mastermind - Director Black hat Hitter - Killer Black har Hacker - Cracker Black hat Grifter - Scammer Black hat Thief - Pillager Black hat Mastermind - Spider Foil Hitter - Mercenary Foil Hacker - Engineer Foil Grifter - Con Foil Thief - 2nd Story man/woman/person Foil Mastermind - Fucking Sterling Specialist Hitters: Sniper Specialist Hackers: Maker, Driver Notes: Expand master list to account for primary/secondary? What specialists have I forgotten? Ninja may be a little bit twee, but assassin seemed too much Pillager is deeply Meh 2nd story M/W is awkward Alts: Operator: The Chair Technician: Plumber Infiltrator: Red Team Operative: Agent Tech: nerd
Table containing the following: First draft - extended (informal) nomenclature Hitter: Hacker - Technician Hitter: Grifter - Negotiatior Hitter: Thief - Ninja Hitter: Mastermind - Specialist Hacker: Grifter - Roper Hacker: Thief - Infiltrator Hacker: Mastermind - Operator Grifter: Thief - Pickpocket Grifter: Mastermind - Fixer Thief: Mastermind - Burglar Whiter hat Hitter - Soldier Whiter hat Hacker - Tech Whiter hat Grifter - Operative Whiter hat Thief - Spy Whiter hat Mastermind - Director Black hat Hitter - Killer Black har Hacker - Cracker Black hat Grifter - Scammer Black hat Thief - Pillager Black hat Mastermind - Spider Foil Hitter - Mercenary Foil Hacker - Engineer Foil Grifter - Con Foil Thief - 2nd Story man/woman/person Foil Mastermind - Fucking Sterling Specialist Hitters: Sniper Specialist Hackers: Maker, Driver Notes: Expand master list to account for primary/secondary? What specialists have I forgotten? Ninja may be a little bit twee, but assassin seemed too much Pillager is deeply Meh 2nd story M/W is awkward Alts: Operator: The Chair Technician: Plumber Infiltrator: Red Team Operative: Agent Tech: nerd
2x2 grid Top is GM, split into bad things are bad, and bad things are good Left is “Players” with the same split Nw quadrant is “by the book” Ne quadrant is “GM overreach” Sw quad is “disruptive player” Se quad is “dramatic sweet spot”
Two double sized cards in landscape. On the left is the cultist, with a picture of a cultists in red robes, swinging a scythe. On the right, is the reverse of a similar card, this one showing the stats for a Giant Centipede.
Mage armor and Breastplace cards. THey have (in smallesh boxes) their AC formulas (14 + Dex , etc)
A box labeled "Armor Class 12" with a note that the wizard can't wear armor, but if they cast Mage Armor, they put the card here.
Two circles and instructions to put power tokens in them, and to remove the tokens when you cast a spell.
Stat scores with the modifier, but not hte stat. So Strength is just a +0, with +0 STR save and +0 Athletics
Landscape wizard character sheet. Lots of space for cards to be put on things, and the stats are expressed purely as their modifiers.
SO MUCH STUFF. I genuinely can't really do it justice - just all the things described in the post, plus some OK dice.
The "Read me first" booklet from heros of the borderlands. it's very thin and looks like boardgame rules.
Containers of frozen blocks of food labeled things like “chili” and “veg curry”
Annotation bubble reads: you don’t know what the job market looks like today. You don’t have a real job. I’m a podcaster and I look down on you. I’m lower than the rat and the cockroach.
A tableau of colorful, sci-fi ish cards and tokens whose significance I do not yet know.
A goat, telling us “I am so tired. I am so tired all the time.”
Table entry for the club. Its headers are Name, Damage, Properties, Mastery, Weight, and Cost.
Page from the GURPS Chtorr bibliography, with the relevant bit being that book 5 is slated for a 1994 release. We are still waiting.