In this lovely Harper's article about, essentially, how social media has cooked the brains of San Francisco, Scott Alexander runs headlong into Moravec's Paradox. If only someone could program by Q4 what it took millions of years of evolution to develop! harpers.org/archive/2026...

Part of the reason AI writing and art feels so repulsive has to do with the aesthetic journey. With human-created works, I can delve deeper into it and the journey is rewarding. I see more nuance, more detail, more references. With AI, it's the opposite: I look closer and see it's infinitely less.

Robots on surfboards... Supreme 80's cool.

Workers were placed yet again in Hallertau! www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

Lapsille suunnatut Velhokoulu- ja Tarujen aika -larpit ovat kestohittejä. Nyttemmin niitä järjestävä #Avatar on laajentanut toimintaansa pöytäroolipeleihin. Vieraina Avatar-aktiivi Shanetta sekä (live-)roolipeliveteraani @mikepohjola.bsky.social. open.spotify.com/episode/12nC... #LARP #roolipelit

Quoted King Lear twice in The Shakespeare Game www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

Had a nostalgic time playing the awkwardly titled A Game of Thrones: The Card Game (Second Edition) www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

Roleplaying games are a co-creative medium where the players and the GM/Referee/etc may use a published game as a basis for their own creative play. They can try to play close to the game as presented or use it as a springboard for something of their own. This is the beauty of roleplaying for me.

I felt like I only properly understood Tigris & Euphrates at the end of our game. www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

This is one of those moments where you suddenly see your friend in the news and have to go like, I'm proud of you man! (Both for having a movie in the Berlinale and having moral integrity.)

Always amazing to see books I developed reach new audiences via translation!

From the audiobook of the Horus Heresy novel Descent of Angels, I've learned that Lion El'Jonson sounds like Brian Blessed.

My freeform scenario Sticky White is now available at our local game store in Helsinki, Fantasiapelit! www.fantasiapelit.com/index.php?ma...

We have published our first report on larp festivals and conventions, explaining the foundations of the work we are doing in Larpocracy: Larp Festivals as Democratic Spaces. zenodo.org/records/1841...

This is a great *paid* opportunity for larp designers from @makeascenemn.bsky.social! Submit a short pitch and if selected get $300 to write the scenario. First-time designers and BIPOC are especially encouraged to pitch – and you can be from anywhere!

Neysa McMein's "Games I Like to Play" (1934) documents her own games, e.g. her murder game, and games of the Algonquin Round Table, e.g. Alexander Woollcott's murder game variant. A pretty uncommon text, this might be its first complete digitization 🧵 1/ archive.org/details/mcme...

In a few weeks, I'll crowdfund the 20th Anniversary Edition of Play Unsafe, my book about improvisation, story and roleplay. Go here and follow the Kickstarter. (And please repost this, it really helps!) www.kickstarter.com/projects/gra... #kickstarter #ttrpg

Saw 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple at a full movie theatre with a very normal audience. Couples on dates, groups of younger people, but from the vibe and conversations it was clear they had come very specifically to see this movie. It was not just something to do on a Saturday night.

In Argentina, cattle driving also means selling your cattle on the trail in the hopes of getting better livestock. It's just how it works. www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

Jubensha Con 2026 (London, May 8-9) is almost sold out after only two weeks! If you're on the fence, don't wait too long... A big reason we're keeping control of numbers is to make sure we have enough games for everyone, especially since this will be a lot of people's first time playing jubensha.

For 2 years, I was part of the incredible 200-volunteer team that produced the 2024 runs of the blockbuster larp Odysseus. Now YOU can play this extraordinary experience, with a team of professionals, in 2026-2027! www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/...

Slacker's credits also has the best list of classes waiting to be adapted into a catastrophically unwieldy and ill-considered Powered by the Apocalypse game

'Sticky White is a body horror freeform roleplaying scenario about the anxieties and failures of growing old and the chance to get everything you’ve ever wanted.' A body horror freeform roleplaying scenario sounds like my morning, but I'm open to further tweaks.

My new freeform scenario Sticky White started as a creative exercise where I tried to do something in the OSR style. Those roots can still be seen in the scenario's fantasy milieu and open-ended sandbox format, but I ditched the old school mechanics after playtesting.

This is very much a Juhana Pettersson joint and I'm into it. I think there are a lot of great reasons to be interested in this, but I think simply doing something that is decidedly about something other than everything revolving around killing shit is already a big one.

I've been reading some of the early Horus Heresy novels and for the first time, I learned something about the space marines which makes them relatable: When they're not in armor, they lounge about in bathrobes.

One of the questions which I've found fascinating to explore in creative work is, "What happens when you get what you want?" Are you happy? Were your wishes wise and good? Or are there consequences? This topic is also explored in a new roleplaying scenario I wrote called Sticky White.

The grand sweep of human history and also cool toy buildings www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

A Feast for Odin could accurately be called A Feast of Worker Placement Options in all its sumptuous complexity: www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

Consider the Dinobots... Whoever came up with them must have been a genius. Dinosaurs who are also robots. Perfect.

The corporate process of creating art has been carefully designed to sand off any sort of personality or distinctiveness. Somehow, with Dispatch, it feels like they forgot to do it so it retains all the character and personality its makers are capable of.

This is all the best stuff though

Just finished Dispatch, what a wonderful game! If you like superheroes, story driven videogames and sex jokes, here's your thing.

Italian voice actor Carlo Bononi was the voice of all of the characters on Pingu. A trained clown by trade, he used a theater technique called grammelot, which consists of "speaking" in a mix of babbled gibberish noises. He improvised all the voices live and unscripted.

Superhero fights have a habit of escalating... www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

Something new coming up...

The website is live and tickets are now available for Jubensha Con 2026, the world's first convention about English-language jubensha! London, 8-9 May, just £15! Co-organised with the amazing @arlohoward.bsky.social @chronicinsanity.bsky.social, and Suspense Studio (KMS Games)

I've been playing the single player campaign of Battlefield 6 and I'm once again reminded of the narrative contortions contemporary military shooters have to go through if the story is set roughly in the modern day. You have to feel current and edgy but also avoid much of the modern geopolitical map

Just noticed that the Legend Of Grimrock games are on sale. £5 for two of the best Dungeon Master-like (grid-based, but real-time and action'y combat) dungeon crawls ever. And both have workshop/mod support with TONS of user-made campaigns too. Just a must-have if you like the genre at all.

Weirdly, I was also into Dilbert as a child. I found it funny, but I remember when I read a book by Scott Adams and started having the creeping realization that this stuff was stupid. I just didn't have any context for it, this being the 90's.

I've seen wrestling shows from smaller, Nordic promotions before, but on Sunday I was at a big WWE event for the first time, Road to Royal Rumble at Royal Arena in Copenhagen. It was surprisingly different from the experience of seeing it on tv!

Years ago, when I started as the editor-in-chief of the Finnish rpg magazine Roolipelaaja, my publisher (a man of business with a soft spot for rpgs) game me this advice: Around 10% of the audience is the "Toxic Segment". They must be ignored and if necessary, ejected.

An impressively transparent look into how Odysseus, a blockbuster sci-fi larp inspired by Battlestar Galactica, is crowdfunding a permanent home. If successful, this will be a milestone for Larp and for the future of immersive entertainment. Crowdfunding starts March 6th!

Mounting expeditions is risky business in Lost Cities. www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

It's an MTV simulator with almost 30,000 videos, organized by decade, with special sections for Headbanger's Ball and Yo! MTV Raps. This is so good.

The vibes are peaceful in Tokaido: www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

Magnets, how do they work? www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

Pelasin Maria Petterssonin ja Katrine Windin mestarillisen Helicon-larpin. Mikään mahti maailmassa ei onnistu välittämään teille miksi tällainen taidekokemus on niin uskomaton että palautuminen kestää viikkoja. Edes tämä hieno Juhana Petterssonin essee ei onnistu siinä.

Beauty in boardgames, exhibit A: www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

Anyone can be the Thing in The Thing: The Boardgame: www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...