Ben L
@benlaurence.bsky.social
Author of Through Ultan's Door, Downtime in Zyan, and Mazirian's Garden. Creator of the podcast Into the Megadungeon.
Links here: https://linktr.ee/ultansdoor
Patreon: https://patreon.com/ultansdoor
Webstore: https://throughultansdoor.bigcartel.com/
Links here: https://linktr.ee/ultansdoor
Patreon: https://patreon.com/ultansdoor
Webstore: https://throughultansdoor.bigcartel.com/
Ok I just finished my second reading of Book of the New Sun (phenomenal, better the 2nd time). Before I jump back in with more Wolfe I want a sword and sorcery qpalette cleanser. What should I read next? The original Savage Sword of Conan comics or Karl Wagner's Kane books?
October 31, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Ok I just finished my second reading of Book of the New Sun (phenomenal, better the 2nd time). Before I jump back in with more Wolfe I want a sword and sorcery qpalette cleanser. What should I read next? The original Savage Sword of Conan comics or Karl Wagner's Kane books?
Do you want to have animal people without choosing between satanic beastmen and furries? Perhaps consider these unsettling human-animal hybrid from 1827 as an alternative.
October 30, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Do you want to have animal people without choosing between satanic beastmen and furries? Perhaps consider these unsettling human-animal hybrid from 1827 as an alternative.
The design of these old covers for Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is amazing
August 30, 2025 at 7:17 PM
The design of these old covers for Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is amazing
@ratkingrpg.bsky.social saw my post with my rinky-dink map of the redoubt of the Children of the Spore. He was like, "oh I looked at your map and doodled this little thing up". Imagine being able to "doodle" something like this up.
June 9, 2025 at 3:33 PM
@ratkingrpg.bsky.social saw my post with my rinky-dink map of the redoubt of the Children of the Spore. He was like, "oh I looked at your map and doodled this little thing up". Imagine being able to "doodle" something like this up.
I'm through grading hell and sitting down at long last to do some ttrpg writing. I'm working on the Tower of the Golden Spore, the redoubt of mysterious and mystical fungal raiders. It's an adventure location in the White Jungle of the dreamlands. Here's the map I used in my campaign.
June 3, 2025 at 2:32 PM
I'm through grading hell and sitting down at long last to do some ttrpg writing. I'm working on the Tower of the Golden Spore, the redoubt of mysterious and mystical fungal raiders. It's an adventure location in the White Jungle of the dreamlands. Here's the map I used in my campaign.
At the very last performance at the Court Theater of the play based on Jason Lutes' graphic novel Berline rn. Super excited! it's about to start
May 19, 2025 at 12:32 AM
At the very last performance at the Court Theater of the play based on Jason Lutes' graphic novel Berline rn. Super excited! it's about to start
(2) Anticipation for this forthcoming zine from James, about his new game/setting The Secrets of Sha-Arthan. (Yes James is giving me a lot of life rn.) 2/x
May 10, 2025 at 1:19 PM
(2) Anticipation for this forthcoming zine from James, about his new game/setting The Secrets of Sha-Arthan. (Yes James is giving me a lot of life rn.) 2/x
The locations was inspired by the amazing art of Stathis Tsimberledes@decadencecomics.bsky.social from his book Transmutations of Human Bodies and Other Flora. Sadly now out of print, but here's a pic of what it looks like.
April 7, 2025 at 4:00 PM
The locations was inspired by the amazing art of Stathis Tsimberledes@decadencecomics.bsky.social from his book Transmutations of Human Bodies and Other Flora. Sadly now out of print, but here's a pic of what it looks like.
To be clear, the Bell is very hard to run. I needed to do a a lot of prep, because it makes available tons of information w/ no guidance. I focused on filling in details abt the NPCs so I could just infer (improv) what they would and wouldn't know, and what they would be willing to share. 3/4
March 27, 2025 at 3:57 PM
To be clear, the Bell is very hard to run. I needed to do a a lot of prep, because it makes available tons of information w/ no guidance. I focused on filling in details abt the NPCs so I could just infer (improv) what they would and wouldn't know, and what they would be willing to share. 3/4
It would be so bleak, but the NPCs are incredible. They're tragic, unnerving, lovable. I spent my time prepping a Hollywood Russian accent and getting into the head and backstory of Arkady, the "first diver". It paid off: the players loved him, and I was able to answer all their questions. 2/4
March 27, 2025 at 3:57 PM
It would be so bleak, but the NPCs are incredible. They're tragic, unnerving, lovable. I spent my time prepping a Hollywood Russian accent and getting into the head and backstory of Arkady, the "first diver". It paid off: the players loved him, and I was able to answer all their questions. 2/4
I ran the 1st session of Gradient Descent. The Bell is a banger basecamp. It's the most evocative space I've ever imaginatively inhabited. A discarded cyclopean thruster floating outside the megadungeon, six retrofitted rooms with oxygen but no gravity, groaning metal, claustrophobic 1/4
March 27, 2025 at 3:57 PM
I ran the 1st session of Gradient Descent. The Bell is a banger basecamp. It's the most evocative space I've ever imaginatively inhabited. A discarded cyclopean thruster floating outside the megadungeon, six retrofitted rooms with oxygen but no gravity, groaning metal, claustrophobic 1/4
in twenty sided gamestore in Williamsburg. A truly incredible OSR etc section.
March 20, 2025 at 8:31 PM
in twenty sided gamestore in Williamsburg. A truly incredible OSR etc section.
The Oneironaut is here at long last, my Patreon exlusive mini-zine! Travel in issue 1 with titular Oneironaut to revisit the Ruins of the Inquisitor's Theater from Through Ultan's Door 1 for new lore, better faction play, and an Appendix N!
March 17, 2025 at 12:24 PM
The Oneironaut is here at long last, my Patreon exlusive mini-zine! Travel in issue 1 with titular Oneironaut to revisit the Ruins of the Inquisitor's Theater from Through Ultan's Door 1 for new lore, better faction play, and an Appendix N!
You probably know this but Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino is really great.
March 1, 2025 at 4:55 PM
You probably know this but Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino is really great.
My first great love for a ttrpg was WFRP 1e. True, I started w/ and played the most D&D. But in HS, I hung with friends who played WFRP and I fell in love. It was about the evocative art, and the weird vision that felt so much less bland than D&D. I guess I have never been into vanilla.
February 28, 2025 at 7:56 PM
My first great love for a ttrpg was WFRP 1e. True, I started w/ and played the most D&D. But in HS, I hung with friends who played WFRP and I fell in love. It was about the evocative art, and the weird vision that felt so much less bland than D&D. I guess I have never been into vanilla.
I saw Joshua Oppenheimer's film The End, a post-apoc musical abt the last living human family of a billionaire oil executive, who are holed up in a luxurious bunker while the earth burns, and they grapple with their self-deceit and moral evasions. It was the darkest thing I've ever seen.
February 28, 2025 at 4:23 PM
I saw Joshua Oppenheimer's film The End, a post-apoc musical abt the last living human family of a billionaire oil executive, who are holed up in a luxurious bunker while the earth burns, and they grapple with their self-deceit and moral evasions. It was the darkest thing I've ever seen.
I'm watching the Mononoke 2006 tv series on Netlfix. It is visually gobsmacking: gorgeous over designed interiors that are claustrophobic in their colorful effusion. Because of hauntings the spaces become ever more surreal, like iterating prisons. This image is somehow of the interior of...a boat.
February 13, 2025 at 3:50 PM
I'm watching the Mononoke 2006 tv series on Netlfix. It is visually gobsmacking: gorgeous over designed interiors that are claustrophobic in their colorful effusion. Because of hauntings the spaces become ever more surreal, like iterating prisons. This image is somehow of the interior of...a boat.
We had an old friend who is a hardcore weaver staying with us. I extracted some choice terminology about textiles and weave patterns to convey the opulence of Zyanese fashion. Putting you on notice: my adventures will force you to consult a dictionary MFer. Also I'm using these you can't stop me
February 12, 2025 at 5:41 PM
We had an old friend who is a hardcore weaver staying with us. I extracted some choice terminology about textiles and weave patterns to convey the opulence of Zyanese fashion. Putting you on notice: my adventures will force you to consult a dictionary MFer. Also I'm using these you can't stop me
OSR games focus on cooperative exploration of dangerous environments. They discourage backstory and unique character builds. But I think we can recover the individual story of a character in an OSR frame through downtime. It's an opportunity for each PC to follow a unique path apart from the group.
February 11, 2025 at 5:28 PM
OSR games focus on cooperative exploration of dangerous environments. They discourage backstory and unique character builds. But I think we can recover the individual story of a character in an OSR frame through downtime. It's an opportunity for each PC to follow a unique path apart from the group.
In case you were wondering, when that colleague asked me for D&D recs to introduce his son to the game, I gave two answers:
The normie answer: D&D Essentials Kit
The OSR answer: Beyond the Wall + Winter's Daughter + The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford
The normie answer: D&D Essentials Kit
The OSR answer: Beyond the Wall + Winter's Daughter + The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford
February 10, 2025 at 6:47 PM
In case you were wondering, when that colleague asked me for D&D recs to introduce his son to the game, I gave two answers:
The normie answer: D&D Essentials Kit
The OSR answer: Beyond the Wall + Winter's Daughter + The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford
The normie answer: D&D Essentials Kit
The OSR answer: Beyond the Wall + Winter's Daughter + The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford
After Bones & Videotape we decided to switch to a Mothership campaign! The PCs are operatives of the University of Idalia Minor (from Hull Breach) tasked with extracting artifacts from Gradient Descent. What other modules or resources should I drop in? Obvs I'm writing my own downtime system
February 5, 2025 at 5:52 PM
After Bones & Videotape we decided to switch to a Mothership campaign! The PCs are operatives of the University of Idalia Minor (from Hull Breach) tasked with extracting artifacts from Gradient Descent. What other modules or resources should I drop in? Obvs I'm writing my own downtime system
After a long day and terrible political news for my family, I watched Bresson's Lancelot of the Lake (1976). Knights of the roundtable return having failed to find the grail and have no purpose. They mope & clank around in ridiculous armor while horses scream in the background. 5/5 no notes
January 29, 2025 at 5:10 PM
After a long day and terrible political news for my family, I watched Bresson's Lancelot of the Lake (1976). Knights of the roundtable return having failed to find the grail and have no purpose. They mope & clank around in ridiculous armor while horses scream in the background. 5/5 no notes
In my White Jungle material, I layer hex features in the key from least to most secret. They're discovered in the order listed. (You don't automatically find everything in the hex.) The ordered sequence lets you tell a story. As an example, take hex E10 of the Brambles, the top jungle level. 🧵1/4
January 29, 2025 at 2:11 PM
In my White Jungle material, I layer hex features in the key from least to most secret. They're discovered in the order listed. (You don't automatically find everything in the hex.) The ordered sequence lets you tell a story. As an example, take hex E10 of the Brambles, the top jungle level. 🧵1/4
Last night we finished the 10th session of Bones & Videotape. Definitely will give it a write up when we're done! I'm finally getting the hang of Mothership. It's all abt when you call for saves and panic checks, and how you describe things getting worse if they fail. Also when to distribute stress.
January 16, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Last night we finished the 10th session of Bones & Videotape. Definitely will give it a write up when we're done! I'm finally getting the hang of Mothership. It's all abt when you call for saves and panic checks, and how you describe things getting worse if they fail. Also when to distribute stress.
Rereading William Hope Hodgson's House on the Borderland for a Patreon project. What I remember are the swine things (of course). What I forgot was the incredible vision of the dying of the sun and the end of the solar system. The book is more closely related to the Nightlands than I remembered!
January 14, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Rereading William Hope Hodgson's House on the Borderland for a Patreon project. What I remember are the swine things (of course). What I forgot was the incredible vision of the dying of the sun and the end of the solar system. The book is more closely related to the Nightlands than I remembered!