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Convention Chronicles #1
Hi all, DM Basho here. I wrote a fun, simple encounter to get my teen players back into Tomb of Annihilation after Christmas. Here’s a short module you can drop into any campaign. Background: The Big Bad crushes a glitching artefact, and it yeets the whole party into a comic convention — where their Holy Avenger is suddenly made of foam, and their Fireball is "a burst of glitter and dry ice." I cleaned the whole thing up into a free 34-page module: Convention Chronicles #1 — The Realm of the False Heroes, which transforms classic fantasy gameplay with an unexpected con adventure. The core twist: foam physics make weapons harmless, while spells turn into playful special effects, creating a humorous and memorable gameplay environment. * HP is swapped for Hype: victory depends on winning over the crowd with creativity rather than combat, making player engagement central. * To [...]
Harvest Bales, Late Summer Mist
Painted from an evening walk through Suffolk. The almost-pink mist and long shadows, combined with the sweep of the field to the epic sky above, created a true and warm sense of space and clarity. Prints and full landscape portfolio: https://www.saatchiart.com/en-gb/bashomatsuo
The Iron Church – Why Do People Quit Fitness Training?
The Four Goals That Run Every Training Programme — And The Adaptive Engine That Serves Them When a new disciple opens Iron Church, we don't ask them to pick a "split." We ask them what they actually want. There are six options on the screen, but four real adaptations underneath. The New UI for the Iron Church "Aesthetics" is simply hypertrophy with a specific visual slant. "Just get me training" is a default for the undecided. But the four truly meaningful goals, established as distinct physiological processes by sport-science literature, are: Get Stronger Build Muscle Lose Weight Feel Healthier Each one trains a different system. Each one has a different evidence base. Each one demands a different discipline, a different volume profile, and an entirely different relationship to fatigue. The most common reason lifters stall isn't a lack of effort—it's training for one adaptation while expecting another. A powerlifting [...]
The day I met the Buddha, and killed him
Delhi. Many people say they have “done” Delhi, but in all honesty they haven’t. They have perhaps done the tourist parts of New Delhi, or maybe spent some time in an Ashram there – which amounts [...]
Chan Buddhism, Daoism and Zen – Journey through the East
Writing an article about Zen is almost a contradiction in terms. That is unless I simply leave the rest of it blank... Just a finger, pointing to the moon… But, I don't want to do that! At its basic [...]
You’re the Pretender – a Tier 1 tribute
A loving tribute to 5 years of Tier 1 Military Simulations events. They say that it is only when you lose something that you realise the value it had. That emotional wrench requires a loss of access. Not that [...]
Basho’s bonus modules: Rime of the Frostmaiden – an Adventure with Pirates
When I was a child, I had no one to play Dungeons & Dragons with. Now, I am 45 and play with my own children. Yes - I built my own players! Our players: the piplins! [...]
Beijing and the Great Wall – Our final days in China
"So," said Cesca loudly and clearly, just as I was drinking from a water bottle, "What's all this about China and Tiananmen Square?" I almost did a spit take. "Quiet!" I said and I looked around, wiping water running [...]
Critical Praise for “Trials & Tea Ceremonies”
A hilarious and heartfelt journey for anyone who has ever wondered: "Is this it?" What happens when the life you've built no longer feels like your own? That's exactly what Basho and his wife Cesca felt. So, they walked [...]
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist | Dungeons & Dragons
**Caution this post contains spoilers for WDH!** My players (9-year-old children, my wife and her 70+-year-old mother) just completed Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and there follows my write up of the adventure. The piplins! [...]
The Iron Church: Why Most ‘AI’ Fitness Apps Are Just Marketing (And How I Built One That Actually Works)
7 AI Pipelines ? 5 AI Prompts, 2 Deterministic Engines. Discover the technical strategy behind building The Iron Church—an AI fitness trainer defined by periodisation science, multi-prompt architecture, and serious consideration of your real equipment. This article is the [...]
A Wild Sheep Chase
**Caution this post contains spoilers for The Wild Sheep Chase!** When I was a child, I had no one to play Dungeons and Dragons with, it being the 80’s and the game not being popular here in the United [...]
“The Backroad to Bures”
"The Backroad to Bures" by Basho AI image upscaled from 2019. It would make a lovely computer background.
Varanasi City of Gods – Special Edition
How does it make one feel to be in one of the most “holy” cities in the world?
“Countryside walk” – Digital Watercolour
"Countryside walk" by Basho Painted in Rebelle 3.
Varanasi – City of the Hindus
Many Indian cities are a jumble, a mix of the ancient and modern, but nowhere I have ever been compares in this regard to Varanasi. I come from a country, and from a city, which [...]
Yaks for tea and Tibetan Temples. Living the high life in Shangri-la
"You have to imagine," said the man in broken English, "that this..." he gestured his hands at the view in front of us, "big lake... flood wide and deep... great water!" He broke into a wide toothy smile.
The Iron Church – Why Do People Quit Fitness Training?
And what the science — and AI — say about how to stop them. I would leave work after a long, hard day in the city and simply have no energy to attend my GoJu Ryu Karate training. I’d [...]
Children of the Red Rose
**Caution this post contains spoilers for Children of the Red Rose!** When I was a child, I had no one to play Dungeons and Dragons with, it being the 80’s and the game not being popular here in the [...]
And so I went for a walk…
"And so I went for a walk..." by Basho Painted by hand onto a Microsoft Surface Studio 2 in the software "Rebelle" using a digital stylus. This is near the village of "Mount Bures, Suffolk, UK" [...]
The Purpose of Travel – Now Published!
We often take arriving at the destination to be the purpose of travel. Taken in this way the journey itself is not the point, rather it is the serious business of transporting our bodies from one place to another. Getting [...]
“Morgan” – Digital Watercolour
"Morgan" by Basho Painted in Rebelle 3.
The Alam Clock Lesson
Early in my leadership career, I had a junior member of staff who was late to work. Nothing unusual about that, you may think, for are we not all occasionally late into the office? Most of us commute and moreover [...]
Basho rewrites: Rime of the Frostmaiden – Sunblight
**Caution this post contains spoilers for Sunblight!** When I was a child, I had no one to play Dungeons & Dragons with. Now, I am 46 and play with my own children. Yes - I built my own [...]
Mount Wudang and the Meaning of Life
In China, Daoist temples atop mountains are so numerous that there must be something about these high places that answers a longing for cliff edges and being above the clouds. A simplistic analysis of this, one using that most ignoble [...]
Jawbreaker – Ultimate AI Upscaled 4k edition
I was at the gym and, as usual, I was watching downloaded films on the gym's TV while cycling or rowing. I decided to watch the documentary "Samsara" by Ron Fricke and was amazed to see that I had [...]
Remembering Catherine
"Remembering Catherine" by Basho Today, on the anniversary of her passing, I present a new painting; a present for my mother in law. This digital portrait was painted in Rebelle 5 Pro.
Basho’s new watch, the choice…
Introduction Watches. Why do some people take them far too seriously, spending unknown amounts of cash on seemingly over [...]
Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir 2018 – wine review
I wanted today to take you on a journey to the Marlborough region of New Zealand and elicit a [...]
Bangkok, city of a thousand names
Thailand, again we arrived in Thailand, but this time by air. The siege of Bangkok airport, which had messed us [...]
The story of my new PC
what a nightmare ordering off the web can be!
Wudang Mountain – Climbing the Dao in China
A journey to Wudang Mountain; the small mountain range in the northwestern part of Hubei, China, just south of [...]
Basho Reviews : Iron Man
Prepare to want one of those suits!
Bangkok and the Railway of Death
Many people speak of trekking in the north of Thailand, but such over-popular options are not the flavour we go [...]
Tokyo Marui Pro Goggle Review
After coming home from my travels I accessed my secure shipping container and got out all my airsoft gear. GZ is coming and I wanted to do a ops check and full clean so I would be ready. My old, fantastic, HFC mesh mask had seen better days. After considering the risk of using rusty mesh, I benched the mask and started hunting around for another solution. There was something else too. My team now play 24h milsim games. As I was going to join them, I needed a face rig that would enable me to eat and sleep in the field, but not be a compromise on safety.
Dell Alienware M11x Review: Portable Gaming Heaven?
When I was considering taking a year off, I started looking around for a computer that I could take with [...]
Fear is the mind killer
Cesca skydives 15,000ft and Basho jumps the 134m highwire Nevis bungy!
An Island Nation
Existence by virtue of land and sea
TM93r MAEG Review PART 2
At long last the task is finished. The Soul Edge is mine. A weapon of such awesome power that gravity itself appears affected when the mighty energies contained within this weapon are unleashed.
The Harsh Judge
For most martial artists, being mugged in broad daylight is an unlikely occurrence. Fit, aware and confident looking people do [...]
Hanoi, Halong Bay and Tet New Year – Part Three!
The travel blogging is back! Note: This is the third part of a complete three part article that completes our [...]
E Prime, truth and Plato
A collection of posts regarding E Prime and my part in the discussions (I am Basho)
Outside Context New Zealand articles now on iPhone
The most common question I have been asked by people after returning home is, “which was your favourite country to [...]
Tier 1 Military Simulation – Airsoft Training Day
It is often said that Airsoft is a game of extreme variety. At one end of the spectrum there are the speedball players who only play in small arenas. For they the game is about CQC accuracy, high rates of fire and aggression. Tactics tend to be personal and if they play as a team at all it is usually in very small groups. There is hardly what could be called commanders. This was the airsoft of Electrowerkz. Veterans of that site tend to be tough, able to run into massive volumes of fire without flinching and a little unhinged. All the way at the other end of the spectrum is the sort of military simulation that companies such as Stirling offer in the form of training missions, hiking into countryside for 2 days for a 10 minute fire fight and being tortured when captured. It is into this enormous dichotomy that Tier 1 Military Simulations has launched their services pitched at both parties.
The Purpose of Travel – Now Published!
We often take arriving at the destination to be the purpose of travel. Taken in this way the journey itself [...]
Basho Reviews : Sins Of A Solar Empire
...more depth than the Mariana trench!
Yaks for tea and Tibetan Temples. Living the high life in Shangri-la
"You have to imagine," said the man in broken English, "that this..." he gestured his hands at the view in front of us, "big lake... flood wide and deep... great water!" He broke into a wide toothy smile.