Scott Fitzgerald Gray
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scottfgray.bsky.social
Scott Fitzgerald Gray
@scottfgray.bsky.social
2.1K followers 220 following 1.6K posts
9th-level layabout, vindictive good. He/him. Worked on a whole bunch of D&D. Working on a new game at CORE20RPG.com. Human rights aren’t political. Fuck Trump.
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scottfgray.bsky.social
You can join the CORE20 Discord through the playtest link, and can get design diary updates (as well as awesome general fantasy gaming and worldbuilding tips) by subscribing to Missives From Mooncastle, the Insane Angel Studios newsletter.

missivesfrommooncastle.blogspot.com

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Missives From Mooncastle — The Insane Angel Studios Newsletter
November 3, 2025 at 10:59 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
Just updated to v1.1 based on a bunch of player feedback, the playtest package for the #CORE20RPG includes the full “Playtest Player’s Guide” and “Playtest Magic Grimoire” — the entirety of the player-and-GM-facing rules of the game — plus a 180-strong creature package and guidelines for GMs.

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A stylish logo reading “CORE20”
November 3, 2025 at 10:59 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
The #CORE20RPG is a new approach to d20 fantasy, built on a foundation of freeform characters with no classes and no levels. It turns the aging “pass/fail” core d20 mechanic into fuel for shared storytelling — and you can play for free right now!

core20rpg.blogspot.com/p/the-core20...

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The covers of the CORE20 playtest PDFs, with art with Xavier Beaudlet. The “Playtest Player’s Guide” features an adventurer and their white tiger companion looking out at a haunted tower. The “Playtest Magic Grimoire” features an adventurer stepping into a glowing portal in a dark forest. The “Playtest GM Guidelines” features a shadowy archway opening up into a jungle ruin. And the “Playtest Creature Package” features a red dragon awaiting an adventurer standing in the entrance to their cavern lair.
November 3, 2025 at 10:59 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
I don’t want to tell WestJet their business, but I feel as though taking a bus from Paris to Calgary is going to be slightly problematic!
An airport sign indicating that the WestJet flight to Calgary is now boarding by bus.
October 29, 2025 at 1:07 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
This sixteenth-century painting by Daniele da Volterra has clearly been created using AI, just look at those chonky finger-toes, I am outraged at the Louvre’s lack of a clear anti-AI stance in its curation policies!
An amazing oil painting depicting the battle between David and Goliath. Goliath is on the ground, trying to defend himself against David. David stands astride Goliath, ignoring Goliath’s hold on his left arm as he prepares to stab down with a shortsword in his right hand. Both figures are barefoot. Both have suspiciously long toes.
October 26, 2025 at 7:50 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
Today I learned that sometimes at the Louvre, they pull a couple of people out of the massive crowd in front of the Mona Lisa and let them come up in front of the barrier and take a nice close look.
A picture of the painting La Joconde (the Mona Lisa) by Leonardo da Vinci, looking not great because it’s behind bulletproof glass. For proper alt text, please see any article describing the Mona Lisa.
October 26, 2025 at 8:38 AM
scottfgray.bsky.social
I pulled into Nazareth…
An exit sign on a freeway marks a rest stop called “Nazareth.” Internationally recognized symbols indicate the presence of parking, food, a place to sleep, and fuel.
October 25, 2025 at 6:07 AM
scottfgray.bsky.social
Ghent, Belgium, the night before yesterday’s all-day rain-and-windstorm.
A broad canal at dusk. On the left, across the canal, a long row of tall brick houses stand with windows reflecting the sunset, their foundations descending into the water where the reflections of the buildings are seen. On the right, a dozen bicycles are locked to a railing marking the edge of the canal path. In the distance, a bridge crosses the canal, small boots moored before it and industrial cranes rising beyond it against a cloudy dark-blue sky.
October 24, 2025 at 5:31 AM
scottfgray.bsky.social
A brief stop in Luxembourg. Al Jazeera was on the TV in the hotel lobby when we arrived, public transit is free, and I just had the best kebab I’ve ever eaten in my life.
A nighttime image of a tall stone building, with a multi-arched portico at ground level, arched windows and balcony doors above, and a clock topping it all.
October 22, 2025 at 6:08 AM
scottfgray.bsky.social
Annecy is lovely this time of year. Or any time of year, I’m guessing.
A nighttime canal is flanked by colorful old buildings, including a restaurant in bright yellow, where it curves away and out of sight. In the foreground, the windows of a stone building are set with pink flowers. The broad vista of a lake spreads beneath blue morning sky streaked with cloud and jet contrails. To the right, pleasure boats are anchored out in the water. To the left, the sun hangs just above the distant peaks of the alps reflected in the rippling water.
October 20, 2025 at 7:53 AM
scottfgray.bsky.social
I am not at Gamehole Con this year, having killed all plans for traveling south of the border anytime soon. I am missing a great many people who I would have loved to see in person. But instead, I get to wander medieval fortresses while wearing a Gamehole Con T-shirt, and that’s all right.
Scott — a white male person with a graying moustache and beard, a gray flat cap, and a look of infinite wisdom — stands in front of an impressively tall display of medieval stonework. The black T-shirt he wears is inscribed “XI Gamehole Con.”
October 17, 2025 at 9:07 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
“What have the Romans ever done for us?!?"
Emerging from behind a screen of trees, a monstrously huge Roman aqueduct (Pont du Nord) extends across a slow-flowing river. The lower tier is a series of massive stone-block arches set on huge stone footings in the water and on the far share. The second tier consists of even taller arches. The top tier is the watercourse, raised on smaller arches and towering against clear blue sky.
October 17, 2025 at 4:07 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
I have no opinion on Roman bread, having never tried it. But based even on what’s left of the arena at Arles, I feel confident that the Romans had that circus thing sussed out pretty well.
The exterior of the Roman arena at Arles. A series of arches (originally open but now blocked with bars) stand three storeys high, anchored with massive square columns as they make up the arena’s circular outer wall of gray-brown stone. Another set of open three-storey arches rise above the first.
October 16, 2025 at 3:34 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
In Arles. Apparently, the Romans thought it was just fine to leave all their junk lying around the countryside when they wandered off. I can’t believe it’s been fifteen hundred years and the French still haven’t cleaned this place up.
A section of the numerous Roman ruins in Arles. To the left, a bushy green tree grows over a low foundation wall set with the pieces of shattered walls and columns. In the background, a crumbling tower rises before blue sky. To right, a high arched wall extends out of frame, blocked by white metal bars. In foreground, more slabs of Roman stone lie scattered across the sandy ground.
October 15, 2025 at 6:15 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
Carcassonne la nuit.
Stone archways on the sides of a main gatehouse lead to a third arch opening up to a stone-paved street. A cluster of towers rises in the background, washed by a mix of sunset and sodium-yellow electric light. A crenelated stone defensive wall rises on the left. The higher city wall rises on the right, set with arrow slits and expanding out to a round tower capped with a low-sloped terracotta roof. More towers are seen along both walls in the far distance. Between the walls, a gravel parade ground opens up. The crenelations of the outer wall are set with lights glowing yellow-orange that wash across the stones of the city wall. Seen from the Pont Vieux (Old Bridge) that leads to it from the lower city, the walled city of Carcassonne is seen in the distance, its walls and many towers lit up in orange-gold by countless floodlights. A screen of trees and a large stone building made the midground. The sky above is a deep blue.
October 14, 2025 at 5:59 AM
scottfgray.bsky.social
Of years three-score; yea, I am old,

And naught but toil has filled my days,
Wherein my one desire, oft told,
Unsatisfied, still finds delays,
Till it would seem that here on earth
Perfect good fortune is not won;
My vow has never come to birth,
For I have not seen Carcassonne.
The gate of the medieval city of Carcassonne. To the left, the gray-stone arched gatehouse stands open and the drawbridge is down. To the right stands a rounded gray-stone battlement set with embrasures and arrow slits. Above and beyond the wall, three round towers stand, set with peaked roofs of red terracotta. Above it all, white cloud swirls in blue sky.
October 12, 2025 at 9:05 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
Sunset view from Beynac.
To the left, a life-sized Christ hangs from a cross, bathed in orange light. In the mid ground, a lush valley spreads around a river, bright-green fields and dark-green trees highlighted with gold. To the right, a wrought-iron fence marks off the edge of a cliff path disappearing into trees, all beneath a swirl of cloud where the horizon disappears to gold.
October 12, 2025 at 8:31 AM
scottfgray.bsky.social
I mean, I personally enjoy a bit of gardening, but the grounds of Chateau Villandry might be taking things to excess.
A top-down view from behind a stone rampart of a series of square gardens filled with symmetrical patterns of beds, hedges, flowers, herbs, and more. The size and scope of the view suggests the gardens go on forever, which isn’t far off.
October 11, 2025 at 6:58 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
I’m a hardcore atheist. I also love old cathedrals quite a bit.
The interior of l’eglise Saint-Denis in Amboise, France. Dark walls are set with alcoves lined with statues or hung with paintings. The only illumination comes from stained-glass windows set up high, a single white light shining wide across an altar, and a blood-red point light source partly illuminating one alcove and statue. That statue is Saint Denis holding his head in his hands, as he was said to have survived being beheaded in Paris and to have carried his head to Amboise to be buried there.
October 10, 2025 at 6:21 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
The Guardian headline link for this was on point.
October 10, 2025 at 7:03 AM
scottfgray.bsky.social
I get chateau fatigue pretty fast because I’m honestly not that into fancy houses where some really rich douche used to live. So I was pleasantly wowed by Chaumont-sur-Loire, which we went to largely for the gardens, only to find that the gardens have invaded the chateau interior to awesome effect.
The chapel of chateau Chaumont-sur-Loire. Five sets of arched stained-glass windows stand around the room, but the room has been filled with a huge “dried-flower” arrangement featuring blossoms, branches, and vines that fill the space.
October 8, 2025 at 4:02 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
“Camelot*.”

“Camelot!”

“Camelot!!”

“It’s only a model…”

*Actually le Mont-Saint-Michel.
In the background, a majestic fortress rises high upon a small mountain. In the foreground, tourists wander along a walkway flanked by low-tide mud flats.
October 7, 2025 at 9:26 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
Okay, so I’m at this cathedral, and I’m a virulent antismoker, so no problems there. And sure, I get that I shouldn’t take ice cream into this masterpiece of Norman romanesque and gothic architecture. But when the Catholic church tells me I have to leave my wolf outside, this will not stand!
A sign with three images set in red circles with lines through them, indicating: This is forbidden. One circle shows a cigarette. One circle shows an ice cream cone. One circle shows the silhouette of a wolf. Not a generic-looking dog, but a wolf.
October 5, 2025 at 8:04 PM
scottfgray.bsky.social
Nothing like a walk in Bayeux War Cemetery at sunset to make you really, really want to punch a fucking nazi.
Long rows of white marble tombstones extend off into the distance, with a line of trees against a sunset sky beyond.
October 5, 2025 at 6:29 AM
scottfgray.bsky.social
Et bonjour!
A street in Bayeux, Normandy, France. A hedge overhangs a streetside wall to the left. A line of parked cars stands to the right beside low apartments plastered in beige. A cathedral looms in the near distance.
October 4, 2025 at 7:50 PM