Harbinger of Doom

@brandesstoddard

Early 21st century game designer, freelancer writer, stay-at-home dad. I talk about #DnD and other games. He/him.

749 Following1,734 Followers4,134 Posts

Bluesky

gamer

Is this your profile?Claim it and brandesstoddard.dirty.social is yours.Claim profile

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Jul 13

New glasses, who dis? My 12yo has let me know that he thinks they make me look silly. What can you do.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· May 4

Arrested Development meme, first frame intentionally blank.

Portia di Rossi: "Well did it work for those people?"
David Cross: "No, it never does. I mean these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but... But it might work for us."

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Apr 4

If those kids could read they’d be very upset

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Apr 2

Duolingo is as eager as the rest of us.

“Has it happened yet?”

“At tharla sé fós”

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Mar 20

Show somebody who rocks a hat and isn't Indiana Jones.

Big Hat Logan from Dark Souls.

It's a dude in a robe with a comically oversized hat.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Mar 12

Blades in the Dark We had a great time getting into costume and doing a photo shoot of the unboxing this. I've played about one and a half sessions of the game since then. My gaming group isn't super friendly to FitD games, which means I like them more in theory than experience.

Two well-equipped rogues approach a suspicious-looking treasure chest (made of cardboard).

Two cunning rogues check the cardboard treasure chest for traps. Other treasure and gear is scattered about.

One of the scoundrels beholds the treasure: a copy of Blades in the Dark.

The knaves examine their filthy lucre, before perhaps descending into quarreling over how to split it. (Not really. The knave on the left is one of the most generous souls alive.)

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Mar 2

The Mark of the Beef

Grocery store sign indicating beef sold at $6.66/lb

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Feb 9

Whooo’s the familiar now, motherfucker

An owl from a winter lights display, holding a tome of mysterious and occult power

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Feb 5

You are NOT going to convince me that the star-nosed mole isn't some wizard-did-it-while-stoned-on-residuum shit.

A star-nosed mole, viewed from the front. Honestly, if you don't already know what that looks like, I'm not sure how to describe it. Its nose looks like it's made of fleshy tentacles or some shit. Massive digging claws relative to its body size. So freaky.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Feb 3

An inner art tattoo that reads "NO REGERTS." The caption reads "I REGERT NOTHING."

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Jan 25

Donated to the Women's Foundation of Minnesota. Love and respect.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Dec 5

Today in Simulationist D&D: Finally someone has Done The Science on how much extra damage a barbarian rage should realistically give you!

Today's random science thing: next time you need to open a jar, yell "f*ck" for 10 seconds ahead of time; it'll increase your grip strength by 8-9%!

What follows is a table of different studies measuring grip strength, chair push-up hold durations, and similar strength measurements following using a swear word repeatedly for several seconds before the attempt. Each primary finding is in the range of 4.5% to 22% increase in grip strength or activity duration.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Nov 14

@worldsbeyondnumber.bsky.social shirt selfie!

Me, mostly bald and with a face made for podcasting, wearing the extremely cool and comfortable Worlds Beyond Number T-shirt.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Nov 3

Final Fantasy Legend. My first Final Fantasy game, and kiiiinda distorting my idea of what the whole franchise was about. Never finished the game - the mid-late game got insanely hard, a lot like FF1 on the NES.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Oct 17

My review copy of Welcome to the Hellfire Club just arrived!

Front cover of the Welcome to the Hellfire Club boxed set.

Back cover of the Welcome to the Hellfire Club boxed set.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Sep 22

I had an incredible weekend running Citadel LARP. It was everything I wanted from the weekend and more! I built another puzzle box for this event, with help from another staffer. It was our most ambitious puzzle box to date, with rich story clues woven into the puzzles.

Puzzle box, closed, from the top looking down. It is a wooden toy castle from Michael’s, painted fairly intricately.

Interior view of puzzle box. Each chamber is decorated completely differently.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Aug 13

Oh and also it's SO much scummier than that.

Subscription Terms:
At the end of your introductory period on 2025-09-13, you will be automatically charged $34.99 each month until you cancel.

Context: $1.99 != $34.99

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Aug 13

The perfect quote on this comes from your man Edward James Olmos, as Adama in BSG.

Edward James Olmos as Bill Adama in BSG.
"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state. The other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people."

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Jul 22

But here are some pics, to grab your interest or just show you my cat!

A black cat with huge yellow eyes stands on a box. She is much more significant than the box or anything else in the photographer's life, surely.

The interior of a box. A black cat performs quality assurance on the work.

A small box painted gold hangs from chains attached to the edges of the inside of the box. Locks and skulls are attached to the chains as well. Domino bones are scattered around the bottom of the box. The inner lid has text (alt text for that is in the next image), and two dominoes are painted in silver on the inner lid next to the paper.

The text in the image is crypt text interlineated with plaintext. It uses a simple substitution cipher. The plaintext reads:

Just know, Rakjoa, my master has not forgotten you. He bid me fashion this box as a reminder that until the Work is done, we are all in suspense.
Pay close attention. I am showing you the way.
What is concealed in one place is revealed in another.
The skulls that depend answer the emptiness.
Master says, Count every link in your binding. Know it in every detail. If your chains are different one day, then it must matter.
Demands upon us take many forms. I carved these bones myself. None know the total of their cost and counting so well as I.
Or are you stuck on the last of them? You'd have to know the whole count of the stars that wander, (yes, including that one), the number of astrological signs in each Aspect, and the difference betwixt those two.
Else the counting of all the numbers shall weigh on your mind, five kennings and six marks.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Jul 4

This is how I'm taking a mental break from the horrors. How about you?

Screenshot from Hades 2 shows the final stats of my first win over Chronos - boons, time, damage taken, weapons, the whole deal.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Jul 1

A piece of a puzzle. It looks like broken glass.

-he w-o knows
— doors
Our misery sits on the —gs of crows
Who flock upon the heathered moors

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Jun 6

Saw this, thought of Ame. @worldsbeyondnumber.bsky.social

Two images. Top: What you THINK it's like to have an animal familiar. A woman in armor holds a fox that says "I sense danger, m'lady"

Bottom: What it's ACTUALLY like to have an animal familiar. The woman has lost control of the fox, and it is shouting, "I see a fieldmouse! I wanna eat it!" She replies, "MMMFFF!"

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· May 14

Box with glowing lights glued inside the lid and seven smaller boxes inside. The boxes have locks rubber-banded to them. A paper with some text is a out of focus in the foreground.

Two men and a woman in fantasy costuming examine an open box, looking interested. The inside of the box's lid has glowing lights glued to it. The box rests on a display stand with four wooden posts sticking up.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Apr 9

"Set"

The word with the most meanings in English is the verb 'set', with 430 senses listed in the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1989. The word commands the longest entry in the dictionary at 60,000 words, or 326,000 characters.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Apr 7

This CNN section header is giving a real different vibe than what I think they're *probably* going for. Eh, I don't know their lives.

Section headline within a CNN article: Flirting with a bear

Article continues: At the open, the S&P 500 tumbled into bear market territory -- a decline of 20% from a recent peak -- before pulling back. The decline in US stocks came after a historic rout in Asia and massive losses in Europe.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Mar 15

The paladin landed two incredible crits in ambushes against the salamanders, dealing just eye-watering amounts of damage. They're now overlooking the Assembly Hall, where Duke Zalto is inspecting the Vonindod. The PCs are debating their next move - stealth or a lightning-fast assault.

Magic: the Gathering card art for Zalto, Fire Giant Duke. 3 colorless, 2 red mana. Legendary Creature - Giant Barbarian. Trample. Whenever Zalto, Fire Giant Duke is dealt damage, venture into the dungeon. 7/3.

Art credit Justine Jones.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Mar 15

Post-Dragon Heist Session 88 My Dragon Heist PCs, now level 10, are in the Ironslag portion of Storm King's Thunder, with only the lightest modification. In tonight's session, they entered Ironslag through the mines rather than the elevator, slew several salamander overseers, and freed captives.

A fire giant (Duke Zalto) equipped with an incredibly oversized hammer and with two hell hounds on chain leashes fights a team of heroes. Art from Storm King's Thunder.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Jan 27

Thank you, NYC, for one of the most amazing and joyful weekends of my life. I hope it’s not another eight years before I can visit again!

A shot of the big screens at Madison Square Garden, the Gauntlet in the Garden event.

Brennan Lee Mulligan, Zac Oyama, Emily Axford, Lou Wilson, Siobhan Thompson, Brian Murphy, and Ally Beardsley are mostly-visible on the screens.

Below the screens, the seats are PACKED, y’all.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Jan 11

* For those who are unfamiliar, Sturgeon's Law:

It is in this vein that I repeat Sturgeon's Revelation, which was wrung out of me after twenty years of wearying defense of science fiction against attacks of people who used the worst examples of the field for ammunition, and whose conclusion was that ninety percent of S.F. is crud.

The Revelation
Ninety percent of everything is crud.
Corollary 1
The existence of immense quantities of trash in science fiction is admitted and it is regrettable; but it is no more unnatural than the existence of trash anywhere.
Corollary 2
The best science fiction is as good as the best fiction in any field.

Harbinger of Doom@brandesstoddard· Jan 4

Post-Dragon Heist, Session 85 In tonight's game, the PCs fought a firegaunt (CR 11) and two salamanders (CR 5). A substantial portion of the damage they took was from a cold-substituted Fireball that the Scribe wizard cast in a way that hit all three NPCs... and the fighter and paladin.