Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 20h

Standing nearly 1000 feet above the forest floor, ancient monoliths of quartz sandstone guard the mist-touched valley of Zhangjiajie National Park.

A vale of these forest-cloaked giants of stone is right at home in #dnd or #fantasy #writing.

#ttrpg #nature #dnd5e
📷: Filip Kulisev

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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 1d

Across East Java is a region known as the Ijen volcano complex, a series of composite volcanoes famous for spewing sapphire-hued lava.

While mineral deposits cause the coloration, in #dnd & #writing, the source can be fantastical.

#nature #volcano #ttrpg
🎥: Olivier Grunewald and Régis Etienne

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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 2d

"Sorry, me lord."

Reposted by Iam Pace

ZealZaddy 🔜 PaxUnplugged @zealzaddy.bsky.social · 3d

Let’s break down the budget of a TTRPG project! I hope it’s helpful and you release lots of cool TTRPG product! I also hope it helps ensure paying collaborators fairly (or even great)!

#TTRPG #RPG #GameDesign #GameDevelopment #IndieTTRPG #TTRPGCommunity #IndieDev #GameBudget #HowItsMade
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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 4d

Salar de Uyuni is a glittering expanse, a 10,000-square-kilometer mirror capturing the sky and all who tread upon it.

Located in Bolivia, this 3,900-square-mile dry lake is the world's largest salt flat.

What magic awaits upon its scintillating surface?

#dnd #ttrpg #writing
🎥: Matias De Rada

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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 5d

Fiery blades are staples of both ancient fairytales and contemporary fantasies.

A few notable examples are 𝐷𝑦𝑟𝑛𝑤𝑦𝑛 ("White-Hilt") from Celtic legends, 𝐿𝑎ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐶ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑏 ("Sword of Whirling Flame") from the Old Testament, and the 𝐹𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑇𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑒 from #dnd.

#dnd5e #ttrpg #writing #folklore
🎥: Kiwamissimo

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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 5d

Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 7d

At the edge of a city, a great temple rises from an urban glade.

Wat Sam Phran (Thailand) is encircled by a massive dragon, whose length spirals hundreds of feet around the seventeen-story-tall Buddhist sanctum.

#dnd #dnd5e #ttrpg #history #writing
📷: Pier Rick; Deltec Homes; & Jude Allen

This image is by Pier Rick.

Against a sunset sky stands a pink tower, its paint has faded over the decades. Wrapped around the 17-story temple-tower is a green dragon, its maw open as its head hovers above the roof.

This image is by Deltec Homes.

This image was taken from the ground near the tower, looking up.

It shows the great coils of the green dragon encircling the temple-tower. They are truly massive. The details of the scales and spins on the back of the dragon are quite clear in the image.

This image is by Jude Allen (@jude_allen).

This image more clearly shows the dense urban glade the tower stands in.

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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 8d

With intricately carved green jade, Medusa's visage is caught in stone like those who gazed upon her uninvited.

Along with Stheno and Euryale, she was one of the three Gorgon Sisters, and all were daughters of the two sea deities Phorcys and Ceto.

#dnd #ttrpg #writing #fairytale
📷: Luis Alberto

The photographer and sculptor is Luis Alberto (IG: l_aquart).

A full-sized bust of Medusa. She faces to the left of the photo. The rich green color of the jade shines in the light. Numerous fanged serpents of respectable girth writhe about her head and neck, several coiling as if to strike the viewer.

The photographer and sculptor is Luis Alberto (IG: l_aquart).

This image is of the back of the bust and shows the tangled nest of vipers and copras that make up Medusa's hair.

The photographer and sculptor is Luis Alberto (IG: l_aquart).

This is a closer look at the side of Medusa's face, showing the fine details of her nose and shapely chin.

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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 9d

Sequoias rise hundreds of feet from a sea of snow, the red hue of their bark stark against the white of winter.

Forests of massive trees are a staple of fantasy adventures, providing primordial locations of ancient wonders.

#dnd #ttrpg #writing
🎥: Quin Schrock (Giant Sequoia National Monument)

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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 11d

The ruined fortress of Raglan Castle (Wales) offers elements of fantasy and horror—a murky moat, a dark forest, and a tragic history.

The style of the keep earned it the moniker the Great Yellow Tower of Gwent.

📷: FBJ Mavric, letrain_bleu; & S. Slater
#dnd #ttrpg #fantasy #writing #halloween

This photo is by FBJ Mavric (IG: fbjmavric).

The sun sets on the ruins of a fortress. In the distance are tilled fields, but in the foreground are the ruins of the once mighty walls and towers, crumbling and cracked.

This photo is by letrain_bleu (IG: letrain_bleu).

An aerial drone view from the side of the fortress where the moat surrounds the great tower. As with many such ruins of this age that were slighted (intentionally destroyed), the roofs are gone and some of the wall sections are crumbled. From an aerial view, the photo shows into the great hall and towers.

This image is by S. Slater (Flickr).

The photo is taken from the ground level. It is from the perspective of someone standing on the other side of the moat from the great tower.

Along the stone work of the moat grows moss and the dark water is filled with water plants and algae.

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Reposted by Iam Pace

Keith Ammann @ Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 12d

TODAY'S THE DAY! Making Enemies: Monster Design Inspiration for Tabletop Roleplaying Games, with cover illustration by @kroovv.bsky.social and interior illos by @jencmars.bsky.social, is now on shelves!

Get it at your friendly local game store or through one of these links: spyandowl.com/making...

A hardbound copy of Making Enemies on a wooden dining table. On the cover, a huge, pearlescent arthropod bursts out of a subterranean crevice and drives one of its large barbed claws through a dwarf fighter's abdomen, while another dwarf cowers in fear. The book is surrounded by blue and red polyhedral dice.

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Reposted by Iam Pace

Guild Wars 2 @guildwars2.com · 12d

The King & Queen of Horrorween decree: unleash your twisted talent! Enter the community run art contest for royally wicked rewards—if you dare, mortals! 👻👑🎨

en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/162980...

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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 12d

The Singapore Supertrees stand more than 50 meters, and they are solar-powered hydroponic gardens hosting a variety of plants.

The light-wrapped tree structures offer inspiration for magical forests or buildings in a Fey village.

#dnd #ttrpg #fantasy #writing

📷: Jayakumar Thirugnanasambantham

This photo is by Jayakumar Thirugnanasambantham (IG: jay_jk_).

A tower shaped in the semblance of deciduous tree stands in a circle of flag stands. Around it rise similar towers, all of which are dotted with blue and lavender lights. At the top of each tree tower are crowns of branches spotted with lights.

$This photo is by Jayakumar Thirugnanasambantham (IG: jay_jk_). A mist-like fog fills the area, watering the plants and refracting the green and blue lights of the park to create a beautiful cloud of illumination.$

This photo is by Jayakumar Thirugnanasambantham (IG: jay_jk_).

The lights of the park are now yellow and light purple. The image shows the sky walkways connecting the towers.

This photo is by Jayakumar Thirugnanasambantham (IG: jay_jk_).

Another image showing the walkways high in the air.

Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 13d

Within the woods of Yamanashi reside the works of Nagato Iwasaki, figures born of wood fallen from the forest.

The sculptures offer inspiration for Fey or magical woodland creatures, such as dryads or a special breed of treant.

#dnd #dnd5e #ttrpg #fantasy #writing
📷 : Nagato Iwasaki.

The sculptures and images are by Nagato Iwasaki (IG: nagato_iwasaki).

Three sculptures stand together in a small clearing within the forest. The ground is touched by fallen leaves. Each sculpture has a slightly different pose, but they all stand and, save for one, face the left side of the photo.

The sculptures and images are by Nagato Iwasaki (IG: nagato_iwasaki).

This image shows the back of one of the more curvacious, feminine sculptures, which stands in a forest glade. The ground is littered with leaves and tall, thin trees surround the section.

The sculptures and images are by Nagato Iwasaki (IG: nagato_iwasaki).

This image is a closer photo of one of the sculptures, which has its faceless head turned toward the sky.

The ground is damp and muddy, and a large evergreen stands closely behind the figure.

The sculptures and images are by Nagato Iwasaki (IG: nagato_iwasaki).

Within a green forest, thick with trees and boulders, stands two wooden sculptures crafted from asymmetrical pieces of wood. They stand upon a massive rock along the shore of a clear stream weaving through the woods and rocks.

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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 15d

The path stretches into the unseen distance. Its length flanked by ancient trees, their great boughs reaching to form the facade of an arched roof, wrought of branches and leaves.

These paths in Lucca and Tuscany are shown in all four seasons.

#dnd #ttrpg #writing #fairytale
📷: Massimiliano Lazzi

This photo is by Massimiliano Lazzi (IG: maxlazzi) and it was taken in Tuscany, Italy. It is a different location from the other three photos.

A path littered with leaves leads between two lines of trees that stretch into the foggy distance. The old trees are quite similar, creating a strange illusion of an endless corridor of nature.

This photo is by Massimiliano Lazzi (IG: maxlazzi) and it was taken in Lucca, Italy.

This photo looks similar to the first photo, but it is of a different location. The path is illuminated more by daylight. It is sunnier and the trees are fuller of leaves. It appears to be early fall as the leaves are slowly turning yellow and orange and have begun to drop.

This photo is by Massimiliano Lazzi (IG: maxlazzi) and it was taken in Lucca, Italy.

This is the same path as the second image. It is deep winter. Heavy snowfall blankets the path and trees, which are now completely barren.

This photo is by Massimiliano Lazzi (IG: maxlazzi) and it was taken in Lucca, Italy.

This image, like images two and three, features a path between towering trees with the end lost in mist. The branches of the trees sharply curve upward, creating a sort of image of soldiers standing in a line saluting.

Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 15d

That is a good observation. It does remind me of a number of follies, such as Wimpole Tower.

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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 15d

As though lifted from the pages of a fairytale, Donjon de Septmonts features the iconic aspects of a storybook castle—pale ashlar walls and high towers capped with canonical roofs.

The 12th-century keep was the seat of the Bishop of Soissons.

📷: Deflorenne Sébastien
#dnd #history #ttrpg #fairytale

This photo is by Deflorenne Sébastien (IG: sebastian_travelscape_coelho).

The image is a drone shot slightly angled down at the castle ruins. The sun is on the horizon, marking the twilight hour.

In the foreground is a dense forest of green trees.

The ruined keep itself is tall and slender, featuring many floors and narrow towers capped with conical roofs.

This photo is by Deflorenne Sébastien (IG: sebastian_travelscape_coelho).

This drone photo is similar to the first but the twilight is darker, the sun is gone and the clouds mark its absence with vibrant hues of orange and yellow.

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Reposted by Iam Pace

Joshy McBoo! @riseupcomus.bsky.social · 20d

This quote by Gildor from The Fellowship of the Ring has informed a lot of my choices in my Middle-earth hexmap project:

‘But it is not your own Shire,’ said Gildor. ‘Others dwelt here before hobbits were; and others will dwell here again when hobbits are no more. The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.’

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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 18d

Beneath a blanket of winter's works rests ancient Cappadocia (Central Anatolia), that city of stone where the bronze-age Hittites carved dwellings from the hoodoos of a volcanic mountain.

Cappadocia has inspired many locations in fantasy.

📷: Dennis Schmelz (IG/dennisschmelz)
#dnd #dnd5e #ttrpg

Photo by Dennis Schmelz

A drone photo shows the sharp spires that the volcanic Taurus Mountains are famous for, and the spires that people carved into homes and churches. Soft snow gently covers much of the surface. with an even lighter vale along the flanks.

Photo by Dennis Schmelz

The famous red-hued stone structures of Cappadocia are carved from the very rock of the mountains, and they rest beneath a blanket of snow.

Photo by Dennis Schmelz

This image is the roughly the same as the second but from a slightly different angle showing some deciduous trees in winter beside the natural-stone structures.

Reposted by Iam Pace

Joshy McBoo! @riseupcomus.bsky.social · 19d

Have you seen ridella.xyz? It's like a Wordle for riddles. It's a good place to find solvable riddles for puzzles and sphinxes in your RPGs.

Ridella - Daily Riddle

Can you solve today's riddle in four tries? Start with a partially complete riddle. Each incorrect guess reveals another clue. You have one chance to solve once the entire riddle of the day is reveale...

ridella.xyz

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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 19d

The tower's luminous facade is biomimetic, a strange weave-like surface imitating organic symmetry.

The 40-meter Tower of Light (Manchester) was designed by Tonkin Liu, and it offers inspiration for a mage's tower in #dnd, #dnd5e, and #ttrpg.

📷: Beverley Neill, Matthew Burnett, & Dominic Ellis

This photo is by Beverley Neill.

The lights that illuminated the tower have been turned to a soft purple, a pervasive lavender embracing all the tower. Its once-white surface is now a soft purple.

This image is by Matthew Burnett.

A white tower with a facade of what appears as stacks of arched cathedral windows rises from a well-lit modern city.

This strange tower is heavily illuminated from both within and without.

This image is attributed to Dominic Ellis, which appeared in his article about the tower.

The tower and base structure are lit with a dark green light.

This image is attributed to the Manchester City Council, which was posted on their official account.

The tower glows with the same lavender color as the first image.

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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 20d

Hewn by glaciers, Ásbyrgi is a horseshoe-shaped canyon holding streams, ponds, and caves within. At the canyon's center is Eyjan ("the Island"), a plateau of rock.

The canyon offers ideas for hidden wilderness exploration.

📷: Örvar Atli Þorgeirsson, Petur Gunn, & Michal Klajban
#dnd #dnd5e #ttrpg

Photo by Örvar Atli Þorgeirsson (www.arcticphoto.is)

The image shows the land in autumn. The trees are marked with the bespoke orange and brown of fall. The sheet of moss and vegetation blanketting the flat stone housing of the canyon follows suit, turning a rusty brown.

Photo by Petur Gunn (Shutterstock)

The image shows the canyon green and verdant; the plantlife along the upper section is bright with life.

Photo by Michal Klajban (Wikipedia)

This is an image showing the trees within the canyon. There are a few corpses of tall trees intermingled with towering brush.

Photo attributed to Gide to Iceland travel site.

Early autumn has come. And the trees and plants were their distinct yellow and orange for the long visit.

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Reposted by Iam Pace

Xiao Tong 🦋 CTC @velinxi.bsky.social · 22d

For those who came before #expedition33

Fan art of expedition 33. Maelle is in the forefront with her rapier, while the ghosts of the previous expeditions fight alongside her.

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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 22d

Across the interior, the sweeping curves of polished woodwork reflect the soft amber light.

The beautiful carpentry of Bar Raval (Toronto) offers ideas for an elven structure incorporating living trees into the building's frame and furniture.

📷: Jonathan Friedman & Bar Raval
#dnd #dnd5e #ttrpg

This image is attributed to the location, Bar Raval.

The image shows the interior from beside the bar. In the ceiling are circular holes or chambers that hold bottles of liquor on shelves that run along the inside of the circular impressions.

There are two tables, each using the foundation of a large wooden barrel.

Lamps hang from the ceiling by long necks.

This image is by Jonathan Friedman.

This photo shows the bar from the perspective of one of the barrel-bound tables.

The sweeping, natural curves of the bar and woodwork across the ceiling and walls are quite striking! Everything looks so smooth and shiny in the soft amber light.

The frames of the windows are asymmetric. No window frame is the same. While many are circular, each circle is slightly different.

This image is by Jonathan Friedman.

A close-up image of a corner of the bar shows the curves and slopes of the surfaces that are intended to mimic the natural movements of wood and nature.

To the left of the image are shelves of golden bottles and jars.

In the background are windows in circular frames.

In the foreground is a pile of citrus fruits for drinks, oranges, lemons, and limes.

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