Just came within six inches of getting t-boned while turning left on a protected arrow by a guy in a white Honda who ran the red

In drafts, writers sometimes just call characters A, B, C, D and then name them later, and sometimes just pick names to match the letters, and once you see it you cannot unsee it Like Resident Evil Village: Alcina, Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela Dimitrescu

Billionaires: "I'm going to spend enough money to end world hunger twice over in order to performatively staple my dick to a wall with a staple gun branded 'racism and transphobia.' Also everyone just gives me money" Indie journo: "Found this chud's list of brownshirts, pls tip so I can eat today"

What's darkly funny about this to me is that these so-called "tech titans" all think there will be "an event" and then we will live in a Fallout/Mad Max/Wasteland world, but they also claim to be huge fans of Roman history, the empire that nobody can agree "this is when it fell." +

I think the reason Trump likes gold so much is that it's soft, dense, pliant, and orange.

A few days ago there was a comment I saw in passing that was pretty negative about players pre-making character builds, the usual biz of someone planning out a D&D character for 20 levels or figuring out their next ten Discipline purchases in Vampire or whatnot. Ooo, game history time! 🧵 +

If you're an old-school fantasy adventure gaming #osr kinda person and you wanna make some magic items with a weird vibe, here's a simple tip: Pick a theme like "fire" or "vampires" and then make ten items around that theme. The first few will be basic, but you'll stretch to make the last few. +

Finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and that was... disappointing. I'm a fan of all the Maya and Inca elements (and their choice to use the modern-day descendants of those people as a living, thriving culture), but damn, the horrible input control system just really made the game a chore. +

Expecting the upcoming "Tomb Raider: Legacy of AI" to be the Angel of Darkness of the Survivor series.

Student: "Master, how am I to achieve enlightenment when I am continually burdened with doubt, disgust, and despair?" Master: "Who is the 'you' that is burdened?" Student: "I live, I feel, I eat, I breathe. I exist as part of the world, even if 'I' am nothing." 🧵 +

I think for the next Tomb Raider game it should have a running record loop of your gameplay and every time you die it sends the prior 3 seconds so they can watch it and then discipline their shitty inputs programmer

When I was in my old pal Tony's anthropology class, he would teach "culture is negotiated, culture is shared." (His car was in the shop, I drove him to the college, I got to audit the class. He's basically a modern-day Indiana Jones.) This got me thinking a bit... (RPG-relevant) 🧵+

Billionaires are just wanna be kings who've replaced "I'm in charge because God says so" with "I'm in charge because the market says so"

Over in the Dismal Science (economics), there are a few different macro ways to describe the, uh, throughput of an economic system, whether it's your Keynesian C + I + G + (X - M) or the Friedman M × V = P × Y. +

Ok time for a ridiculously niche game design post. Back in 2006, there was a book for 3.5 edition D&D called "Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords." This book covered "martial adepts," basically fightery types who could initiate special maneuvers to do wild combat stunts. 🧵+

I commented the other day on @daddyrolleda1.bsky.social's video about starter adventures, noting that I was going to do some writing about L1: "The Secret of Bone Hill," and it's time for me to stop putting it off and do the aforementioned writing! 🧵 1/

Got a print copy of Vampire 20 a year ago, kept it on the shelf. Finally got to use it this week. Pages immediately started falling out. Dtrpg will not replace it. Thanks for nothing for$140.

Some "when should you roll dice in an RPG" chatter buzzed by my feed and reminded me of the intersection of Dungeon Master (RPGs)/Dungeon Master (BDSM), to whit, sometimes participants want the illusion of being out of control when in fact the outcome is not really in doubt.

Watched the old 1987 film "Malone" and I'm chuckling at the thought of MAGA boomers melting down at the idea of Burt Reynolds doing an 80s remake of Shane where he kills a bunch of white supremacists

Data center in Georgia siphoning off civic water secretly, data center from Musk building unpermitted gas turbines. So now the question is: Will anyone do anything about it? Or are billionaire "AI" moguls allowed to just do whatever they want with no consequences?

I'm reminded by @grinninfoole.bsky.social that I promised to do a bit of a deep dive into the Avignon Papacy after one of Elbridge Colby's minions reportedly evoked it in a meeting with the Vatican's nuncio to the US. Since Trump continues to clash with Leo XIV, it seems fair to follow up on this.

If you ever doubt the value of telling stories, remember that the entirety of social media rests upon millions of people sharing the stories that mean something to them every minute of every day.

Quote with your vibe if you were a vampire.

One element of Blocking on social media that I find interesting is how one could see it as an extension of capitalism moving labor off onto the customers. You are now solely responsible for policing interactions with people with whom you disagree. It is on you, the individual, to block. 🧵+

I for one would love to have a working sodium ion battery system and EV, but: 1. If this is a "Deepseek" moment for the industry, that implies it's all smoke and mirrors*, and 2. The U.S. would never allow those here as it might endanger oil/gas * See second post due to text limits

A lot of game design is applicable for a variety of life situations because you're making a tiny microcosm to generate an experience for people, which may involve encouraging specific feelings and behaviors. A little about "encourage the behavior you want to see"... 🧵+

Really not enjoying this conspiracy by Big Headache to make my sinuses close up AND my head pound at the same time

It's kinda wild that after having checks stolen out of my outgoing mail, washed, forged, and cashed, the #1 response from people is "Why are you using checks?" when: 1. Some services only accept checks 2. Some charge egregious fees for online payment 3. Some force autopay if you want to pay online

Trying to report stolen mail to the post office so of course my phone just magically stops working part way through the call

Keep seeing posts about "Trump approval rating craters" and "Republicans face declining popularity" and like, yes, that is the point. Fashies and authoritarians love public acclaim, but absent it they will just do what they want, by force if necessary, and revel in being unstoppable. +

ngl it's kinda hilarious that ppl are petitioning for Facebook, the app that relied on capturing user data so that dudes could decide who to hook up with (or "Zuck Fuck"), to not capture user data on ppl seen with its facial recognition eyewear Like this is the whole point! It's stalkervision!

The amazing thing about orbiting the moon is that you won't find the Epstein files there, either

Hurts not to be able to do contract work in RPGs due to my employment agreement. I had two outstanding contracted projects when I got this gig so I get to finish those, but have to negotiate for anything else for which I'd get paid and a different company would own the work. +

I guess it's not that wild to me that ppl really want to believe that cognitive deficits aren't a thing. "Oh Tourette's can be managed" "Oh anyone can learn to draw" "Oh face blindness is something you can train out of" No, and this is the same Calvinist nonsense about "if you work you get rewards"+

Seen some opposed takes of "No Kings protests are great b/c people are mobilizing" vs. "No Kings protests are performative, have no goals, accomplish nothing real" and having watched small-scale mobilization, on the union side of things, I think it's important to keep in mind: +

When we have food riots in fall because there's no fertilizer today, ppl will not remember international geopolitical causes, Americans will just blame minorities and vote for more fascism

"If it's important they'll make time" I guess for these ppl it wasn't important to understand how ADHD brains work, so they didn't bother to make time to learn about neurodiversity

Occasionally I like to make little adventures or supplements for various RPGs, just for fun. Recently someone challenged me to make a musical in #Deadlands (a horror Western), Savage Worlds Adventure Edition, so... I did. Cheers. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

So a while ago I was at a game store and a guy behind the counter was chortling about D&D wheelchairs making no sense, much like the same complaints that ppl make about glasses and wheelchairs and such in Star Trek, and if you'll gimme a second here, gonna disassemble this nonsense 🧵 +

The "If a Democratic party President had done these things Rs would be screaming for impeachment" is not just another one of those attempts at an internet gotcha, but a failure to understand that the whole point of Republican policies is that they are allowed to do what everyone else is not

The reason so many science fiction stories are about aliens invading and attacking earth is that they're mostly made by colonial imperialist cultures who fear a technologically superior civilization doing to them what they do to everyone else

I was doing some writing of a Western-style adventure and it occurred to me that (as any Pokemon enjoyer knows) the names of people's pets tell you a lot about the person. Whether it's a cowhand's horse or a Poke-trainer's Squirtle, how they present their pet to the world reflects their persona.

I would imagine that the oil dogs are cheering over the Iran war because spiking oil prices give them a chance to make big profits in the short term. They're probably looking at regional destruction as a chance to shock oil supplies and get ever richer. +

Saw "The Bride!". Phenomenal movie. Sumptuous and inflammatory. Well worth the watch. Spectacular performances. Masterful use of color and form. A raw, explosive message.

Mom's side: Died before I was born Dad's side: NASA engineer on Apollo

As a homeowner in California, I now know why so many homeowners here have grass lawns in the middle of a drought-stricken desert Every three months a code enforcement vehicle comes by, a week later we get a threatening letter to cut down the plants or be fined thousands of $$$ +