Ray Irving 🇺🇦
@skiingmouse.bsky.social
British ex-pat in Switzerland. TTRPGs (mainly Call of Cthulhu), Cyber Security, Philosophy, Psychology and whatever interests me…
Reposted by Ray Irving 🇺🇦
Let me tell you a story (before the ship explodes):
October 24, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Let me tell you a story (before the ship explodes):
This would make Reform a sort of Arc B for useless MPs!
A wise MP knows you don't defect until your conference expenses claim has cleared.
So what’s going to happen first then after that? Leadership contest or everyone defecting to other parties before Friday
October 8, 2025 at 12:51 PM
This would make Reform a sort of Arc B for useless MPs!
A lifetime studying primates provides valuable insight on humanity…
October 5, 2025 at 5:41 PM
A lifetime studying primates provides valuable insight on humanity…
Took me 25 minutes to download an app, create an account and set up credit card payment to charge a hire car before returning it in Germany. Ridiculous!
As a non-electric car owner I have been trying to charge my dad’s car at various commercial charging points today, and the whole experience has been utterly shitty. The future is a damn mess!
September 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Took me 25 minutes to download an app, create an account and set up credit card payment to charge a hire car before returning it in Germany. Ridiculous!
A one shot should be designed to complete in 4 hours. A good one also has safeguards to ensure it does.
One-shot #TTRPGs should be one session, no more no less - yeah? Am I being unnecessary purist about this?
September 18, 2025 at 4:26 PM
A one shot should be designed to complete in 4 hours. A good one also has safeguards to ensure it does.
Reposted by Ray Irving 🇺🇦
If you're in London - my third evening of lightning talks about Radical Land Policy is next Tuesday - have a look at the Luma page to see the speakers!
luma.com/v8knl21z
luma.com/v8knl21z
Land Talks #3: New Prisons, Open Source Construction, Land in Japan & More! · Luma
🗺️ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck
Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…
luma.com
September 9, 2025 at 8:13 PM
If you're in London - my third evening of lightning talks about Radical Land Policy is next Tuesday - have a look at the Luma page to see the speakers!
luma.com/v8knl21z
luma.com/v8knl21z
I urge you all to back this - like me - he says in a desperate effort to atone from dropping out of Paul’s play by mail game in the early 90’s!
555 strong. The Cork Børd is crowded, the pins red with secrets. Only 2 days left before the case closes. Stretch goals still waiting to be cracked. Don’t miss your shot to join the investigation.
#CörkBord #MörkBorg #NordicNoir #TTRPG
www.kickstarter.com/projects/all...
#CörkBord #MörkBorg #NordicNoir #TTRPG
www.kickstarter.com/projects/all...
September 9, 2025 at 2:07 PM
I urge you all to back this - like me - he says in a desperate effort to atone from dropping out of Paul’s play by mail game in the early 90’s!
In The Hobbit the people of Lake Town don’t really believe in the dragon under the mountain anymore.
Apparently this is a “feature” of humanity - a potentially very destructive one…
Apparently this is a “feature” of humanity - a potentially very destructive one…
The order of science:
1.) Discover there’s a deadly problem
2.) Work for years to solve it
3.) The problem may not be gone forever, but we’ve won
4.) People forget the deadly problem actually existed
5.) People decide this must mean the science to solve it was a hoax
6.) The deadly problem returns
1.) Discover there’s a deadly problem
2.) Work for years to solve it
3.) The problem may not be gone forever, but we’ve won
4.) People forget the deadly problem actually existed
5.) People decide this must mean the science to solve it was a hoax
6.) The deadly problem returns
Yeah. In 2013 I door-to-door canvass to get my city to fluoridate the water. Conversations went like this:
Me: I used to be an environmental chemist.
Them: 😀
Me: I used to test drinking and wastewater.
Them: So you’re against fluoride?
Me: No, I support it!
Them: 😡 (woo jibberish)
Me: I used to be an environmental chemist.
Them: 😀
Me: I used to test drinking and wastewater.
Them: So you’re against fluoride?
Me: No, I support it!
Them: 😡 (woo jibberish)
August 6, 2025 at 4:05 AM
In The Hobbit the people of Lake Town don’t really believe in the dragon under the mountain anymore.
Apparently this is a “feature” of humanity - a potentially very destructive one…
Apparently this is a “feature” of humanity - a potentially very destructive one…
Listening to an @apocalypseplayers.bsky.social #CallofCthulhu actual play. The investigators are early 90’s kids. For plot they have flashed back to an earlier game of 2nd edition D&D. So they are 2020’s adults RPing 1990s kids RPing 2nd edition D&D characters! 🤯 Love this Matryoshka meta spiral! 🥰
August 3, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Listening to an @apocalypseplayers.bsky.social #CallofCthulhu actual play. The investigators are early 90’s kids. For plot they have flashed back to an earlier game of 2nd edition D&D. So they are 2020’s adults RPing 1990s kids RPing 2nd edition D&D characters! 🤯 Love this Matryoshka meta spiral! 🥰
This is why #CallofCthulhu should always be set in the UK. Tea is the perfect counterpoint to cosmic horror.
Hmm. Thing is, they don't want just tea, it's tea and cosmic horror. And while yes, tea gets offered as a matter of course, cosmic horror does not. It'd just be awkward if I did.
"Hello, aunt, cup of tea? Oh, and THE YAWNING VOID BETWEEN THE STARS SWALLOWS ALL HUMAN ENDEAVOUR AND LEAVES NO TRACE."
"Hello, aunt, cup of tea? Oh, and THE YAWNING VOID BETWEEN THE STARS SWALLOWS ALL HUMAN ENDEAVOUR AND LEAVES NO TRACE."
June 16, 2025 at 12:49 PM
This is why #CallofCthulhu should always be set in the UK. Tea is the perfect counterpoint to cosmic horror.
@fuzzybunny.org & I once shared an office. We talked nonsense at the coffee machine. Follow us both now and you too can join the party! 🎉
I DID THE RITUALS
I DID THE HUMAN SACRIFICES
I PAINTED THE PENTAGRAM
WTF
I DID THE HUMAN SACRIFICES
I PAINTED THE PENTAGRAM
WTF
June 2, 2025 at 6:00 PM
@fuzzybunny.org & I once shared an office. We talked nonsense at the coffee machine. Follow us both now and you too can join the party! 🎉
Close but no cigar. He was actually part of a legion slaughtered by a Celtic death cult. Artists impression of what happened based on a floor mosaic from a Verulamium villa
May 31, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Close but no cigar. He was actually part of a legion slaughtered by a Celtic death cult. Artists impression of what happened based on a floor mosaic from a Verulamium villa
Best. Shakespeare. Ever.
May 30, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Best. Shakespeare. Ever.
Reposted by Ray Irving 🇺🇦
So I’ve finally got around to reading the Silmarillion and will have a go at summarising here in this thread.
April 27, 2025 at 4:53 PM
So I’ve finally got around to reading the Silmarillion and will have a go at summarising here in this thread.
I recently ran a Dread game where I turned out the lights and gave the players two flashlights to represent the two flashlights in their inventory.
Oh man, there's some alternate timeline out there where this continued throughout game design up to the present day.
Traveller's played with the players sitting under the table, viewing the map through periscopes.
Vampire's played in the dark; the Storyteller gets a single candle to read the dice.
Traveller's played with the players sitting under the table, viewing the map through periscopes.
Vampire's played in the dark; the Storyteller gets a single candle to read the dice.
April 24, 2025 at 11:58 AM
I recently ran a Dread game where I turned out the lights and gave the players two flashlights to represent the two flashlights in their inventory.
Essentially we’re now all “supply” for a narcissist, but unlike if one is hired by or in a relationship with a narcissist, there is nothing one can do about it.
The truth has become basic. Trump is a fool who is fucking everything up. There's no more to it than that. But there's only so many times you can write that column. So people are forced to construct 'well actually he has a point' arguments and 'hidden strategy' think pieces.
April 11, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Essentially we’re now all “supply” for a narcissist, but unlike if one is hired by or in a relationship with a narcissist, there is nothing one can do about it.
My concern is what happens when they start making goblins to ride them!?
Colossal didn't make a dire wolf. This is not a dire wolf! Stop saying it is!! I feel like I'm going mad!!!
April 9, 2025 at 5:41 AM
My concern is what happens when they start making goblins to ride them!?
Reposted by Ray Irving 🇺🇦
March 31, 2025 at 9:55 PM
This. It’s like me telling my boss I want to go 80% so I can bake my own bread & make my own clothes. But clothes & bread don’t cost me 20% of my income, so I’m worse off…
April 4, 2025 at 3:21 AM
This. It’s like me telling my boss I want to go 80% so I can bake my own bread & make my own clothes. But clothes & bread don’t cost me 20% of my income, so I’m worse off…
I’m furious that not only has #Meta used pirated books to train its AI but is now forcing it down my throat by adding it to WhatsApp with no option to disable it.
April 2, 2025 at 10:21 AM
I’m furious that not only has #Meta used pirated books to train its AI but is now forcing it down my throat by adding it to WhatsApp with no option to disable it.
I was actually shocked visiting friends in California to learn how much extra I’d need to earn for the same standard of living
The average UK worker is paying a lower effective tax rate than their US equivalent (19%).
Great stat via @tomcalver.bsky.social.
Great stat via @tomcalver.bsky.social.
March 30, 2025 at 10:42 AM
I was actually shocked visiting friends in California to learn how much extra I’d need to earn for the same standard of living
So my next #ttrpg challenge is to run Moria - quite the most beautiful, wonderful, heart rending supplement I ever had the pleasure to read. Really liking #TheOneRing system so far…
March 29, 2025 at 2:24 PM
So my next #ttrpg challenge is to run Moria - quite the most beautiful, wonderful, heart rending supplement I ever had the pleasure to read. Really liking #TheOneRing system so far…
Finally watched Civil War. It’s grim and well done - beautifully shot, written and acted. Also gripping, I was planning to multitask but ended up just watching.
March 23, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Finally watched Civil War. It’s grim and well done - beautifully shot, written and acted. Also gripping, I was planning to multitask but ended up just watching.
Reposted by Ray Irving 🇺🇦
Twice in the year, at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the sunrise shines right along Ingram Street, turning the Iron Duke, his steed, Copenhagen, and even his traffic cone hat, into a shadowy work of art against the great doors of GoMA.
Pic: u/Hoyerman68
Pic: u/Hoyerman68
March 20, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Twice in the year, at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the sunrise shines right along Ingram Street, turning the Iron Duke, his steed, Copenhagen, and even his traffic cone hat, into a shadowy work of art against the great doors of GoMA.
Pic: u/Hoyerman68
Pic: u/Hoyerman68