> The People's Revolution of the Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May is depicted in Night Watch. It ended the increasingly tough reign of Lord Winder. Tension had been rising, and while the nobility arranged a quiet succession by Lord Snapcase in the background, the people on the streets started a revolution and attacked Watch Houses all over the city.

> A few streets around Treacle Mine Road were barricaded at first. Soon more people started barricading streets, barricades were moved forward and merged together, covering at least a quarter of the city - including the food industry. The resulting area was called The People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road. The watchmen of the Treacle Mine Road Watch House led the Republic together with some enthusiastic angry young men, among them the then-living Reg Shoe.

> Although the Republic originally was invaded succesfully, the change of history recorded in Night Watch resulted in Sam Vimes under the name of John Keel saving the Republic until Lord Snapcase had become Patrician. But because history finds a way, those who died in the original revolution still died, in an attack planned by Carcer prompted by Snapcase's concerns about what "Keel" could get up to if left alone for a month after serving as such a prominent leader after less than a week in the city.

> Each year, on the 25th of May, a group of survivors of the uprising gathers at Small Gods' Cemetery to honor the casualties with lilacs and, affectionately, one hard-boiled egg (from Madam Roberta Meserole). The seven killed were mostly Watchmen from Treacle Mine Road: John Keel, Cecil Clapman, Horace Nancyball, Billy Wiglet, Dai Dickins, Ned Coates, and, temporarily, Reg Shoe - he will lie in his grave for a time during that day, and then leave.

> The 25th of May is also memorialized, among those who survive, by the wearing of lilac on that date. Persons known to wear it include Sam Vimes, Fred Colon, Nobby Nobbs, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, and, improbably, Havelock Vetinari (he, at the time a young assassin, has kept his and his aristocratic aunt Lady Roberta Meserole's, not-insignificant involvement in the affair entirely secret).

> The date is not publicly known as it was one of those revolutions where everybody likes to pretend in the aftermath that it never happened, with many new Watchmen uncertain of its relevance to the point that one new recruit tried wearing lilac only to be sharply criticised by Fred Colon. Vetinari once speculated about erecting a statue in memory of the soldiers, but Vimes rejected the idea, stating that the dead men would not want to be immortalised and inspire others to be heroes after they were betrayed for going beyond the call of duty, requesting that the men be simply left in peace.

Wear your lilac and if you're well prepared bring a towel, too.

To celebrate Sir Terry's Birthday there are some things on the official page:

> We have brought together ways to get involved for all ages, from activity sheets to social media assets, all of which focus on one thing: celebrating the joy of Terry’s work. You can click on all the below images to access and download the files to use.

Made this proof-of-concept "Discworld" inspired gameplay video starring Discworld's the Watch

GNU Terry Pratchett!❤️

Collaboration with @Imajunation (https://imajunation.com/), Thijs Viegers and Paco Vink

\#Discworld #GNUTerryPratchett #SpeakHisName #TerryPratchett @discworld

> GamesRadar+ can exclusively reveal that Modiphius, the studio responsible for tabletop adaptations of Star Trek, Fallout, and more, is working on a Discworld TTRPG. > > Having secured the rights to the beloved series with an agreement from the late author Sir Terry Pratchett's estate, Modiphius is already at work on a Discworld roleplaying game "around the city of Ankh-Morpork and the wider Disc." This will hit Kickstarter later in the year. > > Dubbed 'Terry Pratchett's Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork,' it's the first tabletop RPG to use that setting in almost 30 years. (To be precise, Discworld's last pen-and-paper outing was in 1998.) While it's unclear whether this version will use a new system or utilize one from the best tabletop RPGs, Modiphius promises "to publish tabletop games that honor the humor, satire, and darkly entertaining fantasy series."

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/7849066

> A follow up to a previous post: > > > Eeek. Writer and narrative designer Rhianna Pratchett has kindled a little frail hope that we might one day play another brand new Discworld videogame, while responding to earlier comments from Perfect Entertainment co-founder Gregg Barnett about who exactly owns the intellectual property rights to Perfect's old Discworld adventure titles from the 90s. > > > > Barnett made these comments during a lengthy interview with Time Extension about the creation of the 90s games. In between the anecdotes about collaborating with Terry Pratchett and getting cussed out by John Cleese, he dangled the carrot of a potential re-release, explaining that the key problem is that half the intellectual property rights for the games have now reverted to the British monarchy under UK law. To quote Night Watch, "two types of people laugh at the law: those that break it and those that make it." > > > > ... > > > > "Whenever something closes in the UK, intellectual property rights revert 50% to the original creator and 50% to the crown, which is King Charles. So that's the two owners of the games. So yes, there have been discussions and something may be happening down the track - a rerelease or a remaster. But it's obviously a complicated process when you're dealing with the crown." > > > > ... > > > > "We only have rights to the characters, not the games themselves," Pratchett told PCGamer following Barnett's statements. "If we did have the rights, then this would be a whole lot easier. We're genuinely not sure who does own the rights because studios have been bought and sold over the years, along with IP. > > > > "Last time we investigated this, they were thought to be with Sony, but that's never been fully confirmed," she continued. "We'd certainly love to see the old games rereleased. It's news to us if His Majesty owns 50% of the Discworld games. Who knows what might happen if that's really the case. Maybe he's a fan!" > > > > In the same interview with Time Extension, Barnett broached the ambition of making a brand new Discworld game, but suggested that this would be impossible, again due to legal obstacles. "Unfortunately, before Terry passed away, him or his agent or somebody had signed off every property to either ITV or Prime or the BBC literally across the board," he said. > > > > Pratchett says this is incorrect, however. "No one has signed off everything to anybody," she told PCG. "We still own the IP rights... The reason why Gregg got the rights to do the games was that he came with solid ideas which fitted the nature of Discworld. The simple reason that there's never been a fully fledged Discworld game since then is no one has come to us with the right ideas and the resources to actually make it happen."

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/7568495

> > In a recent interview with Time Extension, Gregg Barnett (the designer of the classic Discworld point-and-click adventures from the '90s) revealed that remasters of the games may finally be on the cards after years of confusion over who owns the rights. > > > > The series of games based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld books was released between 1995-2000, and is comprised of Discworld, Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!?, and Discworld Noir. All three titles were originally published on PC and were also notably created with the input of Pratchett himself, who helped to edit the dialogue. > > > > For years, it's been believed that the rights around the game were in a state of limbo due to most of the companies involved in their creation either being absorbed by a larger company or going out of business altogether. Still, though, we couldn't resist sneaking in a cheeky question to Barnett during our recent chat regarding a potential rerelease, and his answer sort of took us by surprise. > > > > We asked Barnett whether any retro publishers had tried to contact him to try and pick up the trail of where the rights may be, and shortly after, he replied: > > > >> "Yeah! We are a little bit beyond that point. I don’t want to give you a scoop, but a Discworld re-release may happen. The original rights are complicated in the UK, but it turns out that 50% reverted to me as the creator because the company Perfect Entertainment had been closed for over 10 years." > >> > >> "Whenever something closes in the UK, intellectual property rights revert 50% to the original creator and 50% to the crown, which is King Charles. So that’s the two owners of the games. So yes, there have been discussions and something may be happening down the track – a rerelease or a remaster. But it’s obviously a complicated process when you’re dealing with the crown."

TierMaker Discworld Community Tier List

Apologies for not being able to upload an image at the moment.

Obviously TierMaker isn't the be all end all of community opinion, but I stumbled upon this tier list recently and found it strange. I have a handful of friends who have read some of the books, and they were surprised by some of the tierings too. Some trends I noticed:

• "Entry" books seem to be tiered high, and books occuring later in the Discworld timeline get tiered lower
• Tiffany Aching books are tiered very low
• I believe the earlier books are generally getting tiered higher than the later books, but I haven't actually verified that.

I guess my biggest question is is the opinions of the community actually so diverse? Maybe many folks haven't read all the books so it gets skewed like that? The site says it compiles 32 tier lists which sounds like a decent amount of data to me.

Josh Kirby’s art has adorned hundreds of book covers – perhaps most notably dozens of Terry Pratchett novels, especially the bestselling Discworld series.

His body of work is far more wide-ranging, though – Kirby’s paintings have graced the covers of volumes by Ray Bradbury, Ian Fleming, HG Wells, Jack Kerouac, Herman Melville and Neil Gaiman, and he’s done posters for movies including the Star Wars franchise.

Now the family of the artist, who died in 2001, is looking for a philanthropist of the arts to keep the vast collection of original paintings together and make sure Kirby’s original artworks are preserved for posterity in one or more museums or galleries. (...)

Mort is a funny, heartwarming introduction to Death, one of the major Discworld characters. It starts off with Death deciding to take on an apprentice, Mort. Turns out, Death loves curry, has an adopted daughter, Ysabell, and gets REALLY UPSET and VERY ANGRY indeed when people harm or kill cats and kittens. And he rides a horse who is most adorably named Binky.

After starting on his new job and getting acquainted with Death’s household consisting of Ysabell and his servant Albert, Mort starts to realise that one of the reasons for Death taking on an apprentice was so that Ysabell would have a companion to talk with. After showing him the ropes so to speak, Death starts to send Mort on solo missions. One of the souls he has to usher into the beyond is that of young Princess Keli who is about to be assassinated by an assassin sent by her uncle. Unfortunately, Mort falls for the princess and in order to save her kills the assassin instead, thus interfering with fate, precisely something he had been told not to do. Mort is too scared to confess to Death about what he has done, so he just stays silent. Unluckily for him, reality of the history that was to be starts to resist the reality of what Mort has done, leading to the possibility that Princess Keli, whom Mort had saved, might end up dying. So now Mort tries his best to somehow save the princess’ life.

Some of my favourite things about this book are the style of humour and getting to know Death. Death is a cat loving anthropomorphic personification making sometimes refreshing, sometimes very insightful takes about mortals and existence in general:

"TAKE THESE THINGS, NOW, said Death, fingering a passing canapé. I MEAN, MUSHROOMS YES, CHICKEN YES, CREAM YES, I’VE NOTHING AGAINST ANY OF THEM, BUT WHY IN THE NAME OF SANITY MINCE THEM ALL UP AND PUT THEM IN LITTLE PASTRY CASES? ‘Pardon?’ said Mort. THAT’S MORTALS FOR YOU, Death continued. THEY’VE ONLY GOT A FEW YEARS IN THIS WORLD AND THEY SPEND THEM ALL IN MAKING THINGS COMPLICATED FOR THEMSELVES. FASCINATING. HAVE A GHERKIN.”

“He gave it an experimental shake. AND DUE TO LIVE ANOTHER THIRTY, THIRTY-FIVE YEARS, he said, with a sigh. ‘And he goes around killing people?’ said Mort. He shook his head. ‘There’s no justice.’ Death sighed. NO, he said, handing his drink to a page who was surprised to find he was suddenly holding an empty glass, THERE’S JUST ME.”

Death also happens to be very keen on trying to understand more about humans and various human activities, such as how people have fun. This leads to some unintentionally hilarious circumstances: “WHAT IS THIS FUN? ‘This is!’ TO KICK VIGOROUSLY IS FUN? ‘Well, part of the fun. Kick!’ TO HEAR LOUD MUSIC IN HOT ROOMS IS FUN? ‘Possibly.’ HOW IS THIS FUN MANIFEST? ‘Well, it – look, either you’re having fun or you’re not, you don’t have to ask me, you just know, all right? How did you get in here, anyway?’ he added. ‘Are you a friend of the Patrician?’ LET US SAY, HE PUTS BUSINESS MY WAY. I FELT I OUGHT TO LEARN SOMETHING OF HUMAN PLEASURES. ‘Sounds like you’ve got a long way to go.’ I KNOW. PLEASE EXCUSE MY LAMENTABLE IGNORANCE. I WISH ONLY TO LEARN. ALL THESE PEOPLE, PLEASE – THEY ARE HAVING FUN? ‘Yes!’ THEN THIS IS FUN. ‘I’m glad we got that sorted out. Mind the chair,’ snapped Lord Rodley, who was now feeling very unfunny and unpleasantly sober. A voice behind him said quietly: THIS IS FUN. TO DRINK EXCESSIVELY IS FUN. WE ARE HAVING FUN. HE IS HAVING FUN. THIS IS SOME FUN. WHAT FUN.” As the story progresses, it starts getting clearer that the loneliness of his job was getting to him, providing some clue to Death’s actual intentions for hiring Mort: "‘Drowning your sorrows, are you? I HAVE NO SORROWS. ‘No, of course not. Forget I mentioned it.’ He gave the glass a few more wipes. ‘Just thought it helps to have someone to talk to,’ he said. The stranger was silent for a moment, thinking. Then he said: YOU WANT TO TALK TO ME? ‘Yes. Sure. I’m a good listener.’ NO ONE EVER WANTED TO TALK TO ME BEFORE. ‘That’s a shame.’ THEY NEVER INVITE ME TO PARTIES, YOU KNOW. ‘Tch.’ THEY ALL HATE ME. EVERYONE HATES ME. I DON’T HAVE A SINGLE FRIEND.” After all, his job was such that “Death must be the loneliest creature in the universe. In the great party of Creation, he was always in the kitchen.”

This is followed by an interesting and humorous phase of Death actually trying to find an alternate job for himself. He ultimately ends up getting the job of a cook at "Harga’s House of Ribs down by the docks” where he thoroughly enjoyed himself as he “spun and whirled, chopping, slicing and frying. His skillet flashed through the fetid steam. He’d opened the door to the cold night air, and a dozen neighbourhood cats had strolled in, attracted by the bowls of milk and meat – some of Harga’s best, if he’d known – that had been strategically placed around the floor. Occasionally Death would pause in his work and scratch one of them behind the ears. ‘Happiness,’ he said, and puzzled at the sound of his own voice.” This leads to a truly hilarious scene when as a result of being summoned during the Rite of AshkEnte, Death appears “wearing an apron and holding a small kitten.”

Death’s efforts with trying to find work that he would actually enjoy doing and Mort’s princess problem inevitably collide leading to a satisfying conclusion. This is the second time I am reading this book and I think I enjoyed and loved it even more than I did the first time around. I would love to share some more jokes here, but then I would probably end up copy-pasting the whole book! This book definitely does the job of making me laugh and feeling a little better than usual.

Cohen the Barbarian was angry. Angry that he never died in battle, angry that the world had forgotten him, and angry that his knees were starting to play up in the cold.

He was also angry that his faithful mount had been gifted the ability of magical speech. The horse was insisting that they had made a wrong turn back at Slice.

He was also angry that the horse was probably right.

This was not how it was supposed to end for the barbarian. This was not how the Discworld’s greatest hero imagined it at all.

--------

TROLL BRIDGE is a love-letter to Terry Pratchett and Discworld. It exists because an awful lot of people thought it ought to.

The film is adapted from the short story 'Troll Bridge', published in the anthology 'A Blink of the Screen': https://discworld.com/?s=blink+of+the+screen

Special thanks to The Pratchett Estate, Discworld.com, The Foundry, Shotgun Software, GarageFarm.NET Render Farm, Golaem, our 300 volunteers, and over 4,500 backers. Every frame pressed with love – this is your production.

The solution/key: https://abload.de/img/finalkeyc3c5s.jpg

Original Source: https://shop.paulkidby.com/discworld-massive-massif/

Original Artist: Paul Kidby

Calling all crafters & Discworld fans!

Myself and some friends from my crafty Discord are holding ourselves a “Discworld makealong”. And naturally we’d love to invite our friends in the Fediverse to join in too 🥳

No pressure. No deadlines. Just for fun. And any craft welcome!

So far knitting and cross stitch are well-represented but I’m sure we’ll pick up a few more along the way 😄

November 4th, through Hogswatch season, ending in the new year\*. You’re very welcome to join in with your project at any point!.

Some of us will be on Mastodon under #DiscworldMAL. I for one will be on Lemmy too. And of course if you want to join the Discord, link’s in my bio, but not necessary if you’re not into that.

(Oh and for those of you who have no idea what Discworld is or what I’m talking about, congratulations you’ve got 41 books to look forward to!)

\*I suspect most projects will not actually be finished by then, because we’re slow and easily distracted. As demonstrated by me not posting about this until it’s a week away 🙃

Edit: WIP pattern suggestions list https://docs.google.com/document/d/1--9xJSdy\_y7KqBPMqQCFCVmCgvzyJFsP\_WooG5TzA-o/edit?usp=sharing

@discworld #Discworld #GNUTerryPratchett #Knitting #CrossStitch

Small Gods: A masterful comic satire on Religious Institutions and Fundamentalism Small Gods is a fantasy comic satire on religious institutions, religious fundamentalism, philosophy, and the weaponisation of religious fanaticism for political power set in the Discworld. It explores how religious beliefs and faith shift and change over time, from being centred on the deity to being centred on the religious institution itself. Rereading this was an absolute joy!

This is the story of how Brutha becomes the eighth prophet of the god Om. Omnia is a monotheistic theocracy based on the Seven Books of the Prophets of Om, or the Septateuch. Omnia was a place where: "No matter what your skills, there was a place for you in the Citadel. And if your skill lay in asking the wrong kinds of questions or losing the righteous kind of wars, the place might just be the furnaces of purity, or the Quisition’s pits of justice. A place for everyone. And everyone in their place." Vorbis, the exquisitor in charge of the Quisition, enjoyed near complete authority and power over everyone out of fear of the Quisition’s pits. As the story opens, we have Brutha, a novice at the Citadel, working in the gardens when he comes across a tortoise who speaks to him. The tortoise in question is actually the god Om, who inexplicably finds himself in the form of a tortoise and unable to do much more than speak to Brutha in his mind. On Discworld, a particular god’s powers depend on the number of believers the god possesses. As the story progresses, we understand why even though the great god Om was held supreme in Omnia, the actual god Om was at present virtually powerless having Brutha as his only believer. Om starts to understand the reason when he ruminates: "… it can’t be just him who believes in me. Really in me. Not in a pair of golden horns. Not in a great big building. Not in the dread of hot iron and knives. Not in paying your temple dues because everyone else does. Just in the fact that the Great God Om really exists." After all, "Belief shifts. People start out believing in the god and end up believing in the structure….. “Around the Godde there forms a Shelle of prayers and Ceremonies and Buildings and Priestes and Authority, until at Last the Godde Dies. Ande this maye notte be noticed.”’" Religion starts out centred on the god and then ends up centred on the Institution with people going through the motions because it’s what everyone does, or out of fear of the Institution. This had the unfortunate effect of turning the great god Om into a "small god". Similar to the other gods on Discworld, Om doesn't really care or think much of humans beyond realising the need to have believers. As the story progresses, due to his association with Brutha, Om starts to get a better understanding of humankind and also to care for them. Brutha starts out as a novice who simply took everything taught by the religious institution on faith to someone who realises what's wrong with the system and tries to change it.

Similar to a lot of other Discworld books, an underlying sense of anger and frustration permeates this book, with this book probably being Pratchett’s angriest. This is particularly evident when he speaks of the actions of the Quisition, generally involving torture and murder on a regular basis: "And it all meant this: that there are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal, kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do. Vorbis loved knowing that. A man who knew that, knew everything he needed to know about people." (A very astute judge of humankind, I must say). And, in relation to the the actual Quisitors: "But there were things to suggest to a thinking man that the Creator of mankind had a very oblique sense of fun indeed, and to breed in his heart a rage to storm the gates of heaven. The mugs, for example. They had legends on them like A Present From the Holy Grotto of Ossory, or To The World’s Greatest Daddy".

Even though the subject matter is serious, there are numerous hilarious jokes, puns and comic twists strewn throughout the book to make a reader laugh out loud. Some of my favourite jokes were: "Nhumrod looked around the garden. It seemed to be full of melons and pumpkins and cucumbers. He shuddered. ‘Lots of cold water, that’s the thing,’ he said. ‘Lots and lots.’" Another one which speaks of the somewhat random rules of religions: "‘I nearly committed a terrible sin,’ said Brutha. ‘I nearly ate fruit on a fruitless day.’ ‘That’s a terrible thing, a terrible thing,’ said Om. ‘Now cut the melon.’ ‘But it is forbidden!’ said Brutha. ‘No it’s not,’ said Om. ‘Cut the melon.’ ‘But it was the eating of fruit that caused passion to invade the world,’ said Brutha. ‘All it caused was flatulence,’ said Om. ‘Cut the melon!’"

I don’t consider this book to be either against religion nor particularly for religion. The case of faith vs doubt is not a theme in this book and is not much of a thing on Discworld considering that the Gods on Discworld are very “present”. Even then, atheists like Simony do exist. In fact a running joke in the book is that people try to put some distance between themselves and atheists because atheists tend to be struck down by lightning (by Io the god of thunder). However, this book definitely speaks out against the use of unspeakable violence and subjugation in the name of god by people like Vorbis, without being in the least bit heavy handed about it. Now there is another thing about this book and Discworld books in general that I have loved, besides the social/religious commentary and humour, is that these books make me feel a little hopeful for humanity in general. In the midst of terrible events we have instances of people sometimes putting aside differences to do the right thing: "He looked around in time to see a wave lift a ship out of the water and smash it against the dunes. A distant scream coloured the wind. The soldiers stared. ‘There were people under there,’ said Argavisti. Simony dropped the flask. ‘Come on,’ he said. And no one, as they hauled on timbers in the teeth of the gale, as Urn applied everything he knew about levers, as they used their helmets as shovels to dig under the wreckage, asked who it was they were digging for, or what kind of uniform they’d been wearing." And, "The black-on-black eyes stared imploringly at Brutha, who reached out automatically, without thinking … and then hesitated. HE WAS A MURDERER, said Death. AND A CREATOR OF MURDERERS. A TORTURER. WITHOUT PASSION. CRUEL. CALLOUS. COMPASSIONLESS. ‘Yes. I know. He’s Vorbis,’ said Brutha. Vorbis changed people. Sometimes he changed them into dead people. But he always changed them. That was his triumph. He sighed. ‘But I’m me,’ he said. Vorbis stood up, uncertainly, and followed Brutha across the desert. Death watched them walk away." This is another reason I have loved this book. I will end this with a couple of thought provoking metaphors I loved from the book:

"‘About life being like a sparrow flying through a room? Nothing but darkness outside? And it flies through the room and there’s just a moment of warmth and light?’ ‘There are windows open?’ said Brutha. ‘Can’t you imagine what it’s like to be that sparrow, and know about the darkness? To know that afterwards there’ll be nothing to remember, ever, except that one moment of the light?’" And another one which speaks of the wonders of the world:

‘Life in this world,’ he said, ‘is, as it were, a sojourn in a cave. What can we know of reality? For all we see of the true nature of existence is, shall we say, no more than bewildering and amusing shadows cast upon the inner wall of the cave by the unseen blinding light of absolute truth, from which we may or may not deduce some glimmer of veracity, and we as troglodyte seekers of wisdom can only lift our voices to the unseen and say, humbly, “Go on, do Deformed Rabbit … it’s my favourite.”’ (This one is also a little funny!)

A few days back, I came across a thread on Mastodon where people were sharing great opening lines of books. I pitched in with the following opening lines from Discworld:

"THE SUN ROSE slowly, as if it wasn’t sure it was worth all the effort." - from The Light Fantastic.

"THIS IS WHERE the gods play games with the lives of men, on a board which is at one and the same time a simple playing area and the whole world. And Fate always wins." - from Interesting Times.

So to all Discworld fans out here, pitch in with some Discworld quotes, be it starting lines or anything else. Or even just talk about your favourite books in the series. Let's have some fun!

This is another one:

"I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?"...

Death thought about it. "CATS" he said eventually. "CATS ARE NICE."

-Terry Pratchett (Sourcery).

AND….

GNU PTERRY

Site | Paintings | Drawings |

>Paul Kidby is an English artist. Many people know him best for his art based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld. He has been included on the sleeve covers since Pratchett's original illustrator, Josh Kirby, died in 2001.

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Anyone else notice that Moist Von Lipvig(Richard Coyle) is narrating the new Going Postal and Making Money audiobooks?

I've only gone through 3 books of the whole series and 2 of which were DEATH books, so, I do like DEATH, and my favorite line is "WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?" in the Book Reaper Man. So, tell me what are your Favorite lines and Favorite characters?

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/1659628

> I've previously mentioned the runaway success of the Good Omens graphic novel adaptation and that has got people thinking about Discworld: > > > Good Omens' Kickstarter has broken all records for comics on the platform and shows that Terry Pratchett's Discworld is due a rebirth. Discworld is beloved by millions, and despite a spotty history with adaptations, Good Omens shows that it can and should be given the opportunity to flourish. > > > > ... > > > > Discworld has had comic adaptations before, including The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Guards! Guards! and Mort. However, these adaptations start at the beginning of Discworld canon, which is significantly weaker than mid and later novels, leaning more heavily into outright fantasy parody than the dense and inviting world that quickly forms. The Discworld books are broken up into both one-off adventures and series following unconnected main characters, most famously the upright Watch Commander Vimes, the powerful and petty witch Granny Weatherwax, and Death, who has a cameo in almost every Discworld novel. At the same time, Discworld's settings evolve as the stories progress, with the city of Ankh-Morpork undergoing social and technological evolution. This kind of true growth and progress is perfect for a serial comic story, as is the ensemble way in which Pratchett structures each book's cast. > > > > One of the major disadvantages with adapting Pratchett's Discworld novels for screen - as seen in pretty much every TV-movie and series - is the huge budget needed to create living, breathing locations shaped by an army of colorful characters, including trolls, werewolves, and orangutans. However, this is far less of an issue in comics, where talented artists can realize Pratchett's vision without breaking the bank. At the same time, Discworld is famous for its witty dialog and strong narrative voice - elements which comics can bring across, especially by drawing on devices like caption boxes and thought balloons.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/2841976

> Spoiler warning: If you do not know yet, but want to read the Terry Pratchett novel Going Postal, please stop reading here. Spoilers below and in the links! > > ... > > ... > > ... > > The page XClacksOverhead.org lists public-facing websites broadcasting the X-Clacks-Overhead header aka Known websites carrying the signal. > > I learned about this tribute to Terry Pratchett from a recent Golem.de article [German]: GNU Terry Pratchett: Eine Hommage für Eingeweihte an den Scheibenwelt-Erfinder > > Citing Wikipedia: > > Users of the social news site Reddit organised a tribute by which an HTTP header, "X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett", was added to web sites' responses, a reference to the Discworld novel Going Postal, in which "the clacks" (a semaphore system, used as Discworld's equivalent to a telegraph) are programmed to repeat the name of its creator's deceased son; the sentiment in the novel is that no one is ever forgotten as long as their name is still spoken. > > > > A June 2015 web server survey reported that approximately 84,000 websites had been configured with the header.

Among the many things I love about the Discworld novels are the descriptions of people. Terry Pratchett often manages with a few sentences to paint a picture that is often a bit funny, sometimes slightly weird but always hits the nail right on the head.

 

As an example, these descriptions of the witches in Lords and Ladies:

>"The first one - let us call her the leader - flies sitting bolt upright, in defiance of air resistance, and seems to be winning. She has features that would generally be described as striking, or even handsome, but she couldn't be called beautiful, at least by anyone who didn't want their nose to grow by three feet."

>"The second is dumpy and bandy-legged with a face like an apple that's been left for too long and an expression of near-terminal good nature. She is playing a banjo and, until a better word comes to mind, singing. It is a song about a hedgehog."

>"The third, and definitely the last, broomstick rider is also the youngest. Unlike the other two, who dress like ravens, she wears bright, cheerful clothes which don't suit her now and probably didn't even suit her ten years ago. She travels with an air of vague good-natured hopefulness. There are flowers in her hair but they're wilting slightly, just like her."

 

I also found this one in my collection of quotes, but I can't find out where it is from. Does anyone know? I think it might be my favourite.

>"Many people could say things in a cutting way, Nanny knew. But Granny Weatherwax could listen in a cutting way. She could make something sound stupid just by hearing it."

 

Do you have more examples?

I finished the second series yesterday and I'm ready to share what I thought of it.

If I have to give it a rating out of ten, ten being perfect, one being not only technically bad but also morally offensive, this is a 6,9. I liked it enough, but series 1 was an 8,8.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2863924

> ! > > Love the discworld puzzles! Completed this one a while ago. The boxes are also really beautiful: > > !

"It belonged to a small man with a beaming red face, one of those people blessed with the permanent expression of someone who has just heard a rather saucy joke.

“Only I grew this carrot,” he went on, “and I reckon it’s grown into a very interesting shape. Eh? What d’you think, eh? Talk about a giggle, eh? I took it down to the pub and everyone was killin’ ’emselves! They said I should put it in your paper!”

He held it aloft. It was a very interesting shape. And William went a very interesting shade." -The Truth, Terry Pratchett

The artist did such a good job imo

I recently saw Good Omens (Not Discworld, but still a Terry Pratchett adaptation) and I really enjoyed it.

I was wondering what you think the best Discworld adaptations are? I saw some trailers but most of them didn't look that great to me.. But I'd love to give some a chance if there are any recommendations?

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A few years ago I stumbled onto this, and it provided a nice afternoon feature film. Figured the folks here would enjoy it!

On "The Other Place" I remember seeing lots of threads about your favourite line, joke or quote in the series. And those threads were fun, but ultimately it's always the heavy hitters being repeated over and over.

So my question to you, Lemmings and Kbinauts, is what is your favourite underrated line in the series? Something that makes you laugh, or makes you think, every time but you never see talked about?

Yes, this whole thread is just an excuse to post about how much I adore the following description from Moving Pictures:

> It looked like a large, ornate pot, almost as high as a man of large pot height.

Honourable mention goes to my second fave, also in fact from Moving Pictures and the best side character in the series:

> Sunnink dreadful in there, he thought. Prob'ly tentacled fings that rips your face off. I mean, when you finds mysterious doors in old hills, stands to reason wot comes out ain't going to be pleased to see you. Evil creatures wot Man shouldn't wot of, and here's one dog wot don't want to wot of them either.

I've read both of these gods know how many times, and still laugh out loud every single time.

Go on, share your favourites!

Title seems self explanatory, no?

Years ago I read a disc world book for the first time, the wee free men, I can't remember much except I loved it.. Now I've bought the colour of magic and planning to slowly read them all. Is there a certain order recommended? I was planning to go by chronological order but thought I'd ask :)

Thought I'd post this up here since I've not seen it mentioned. For those who want to explore the world of discworld, this is a great MUD.

Very friendly community when I hop on every few months, and with a lot of rich detail from the books.

Like probably most of you I do own at least the majority of the books in physical form. But sometimes it's just easier to read on Kindle.

Sadly they're about £5.99 each, which is absolutely worth it if you can afford it, but x41 books it really adds up.

The good news is, if you check regularly you'll find that one or two books go on sale at a time for as little as 99p. Personally I pick up anything that goes under £2, currently I think that's just Guards! Guards! but they change all the time.

If anyone knows what schedule they change on that would be useful info, atm I just have a reminder to check back every couple of weeks.

(link is to the UK page but I'm sure the same applies on other Amazon sites too)

I figured that this would be as good as any for my first post on Lemmy - showing off the entire Discworld Collector's Library series that I managed to purchase from BookDepository.com before Amazon shut it down. Was able to pickup the whole series for around $500 USD. So glad I was able to get these and never figured I would own the complete set of these nice hardback editions.

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