Turns out the secret deep in the jungles of Lost Ruins of Arnak is victory points. www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

This is an interesting thread about online behavior and the difference between lolcowing and criticism. I've seen it many times that someone who's being criticized owns up to it and does what is asked of them, only for the online assault to turn more abusive in intensity. It's always depressing.

A great thread about the appeal of AI to the billionaire class.

Looking forward to this!

the wikipedia image for sexual roleplay is making my lose my mind

The Grimes song We Appreciate Power is an interesting indicator of how ideas of what's cool have been changed by the adoption of LLMs on a broad basis and all the cultural fallout that has entailed. This might have felt cool 7 years ago. Does it feel cool now? www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYG_...

I remember discovering the internet in the 90's. It was a wonderful experience, delving deeper into a mysterious realm with stranger riches the deeper you went. The experience of AI is the opposite: The deeper you go, the more meaningless and banal it appears.

Turns out you can build a civilization in just an hour! www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

In Anne Rice and VtM both, there's the idea that vampires remain stuck in their own time, increasingly out of synch with the times. But I'd posit that it's spookier and weirder if it happens like at the end of Sinners, where we see familiar characters updated to the fashion of a new era.

This is going to be great! If you're in Edinburgh, check it out. I've had a small part to play by consulting on it.

This was so striking to me when I first visited East Jerusalem and Ramallah. The media imagery of Palestine is dominated by either paranoid terror fantasies or crisis and devastation, but when I got there there was a shop selling Hello Kitty backpacks for kids across the street from my hotel.

This is the Werewolf equivalent of Vampire's The Crimson Gutter, a starter chronicle and a toolbox with scenarios, characters and locations you can use as a chronicle or as raw material for your own purposes.

This is an extremely interesting point! And it's true, it does feel like the aesthetics of amateurishness have changed radically in a very short period of time.

A few years ago, I was at a cruise ship bar with a Palestinian friend. The ambient level of sullen racism around us was rising, and I asked him if he was okay. He replied: "I'm fine but I'm worried about our trans brothers and sisters."

Seriously, there’s something ghoulish about Israel being allowed to take part in Eurovision, with all of it cheerful and vapid celebratory vibes, while it is simultaneously continuing to commit genocide. It’s some real”let’s invite Hitler to dinner but let’s not talk politics!” type indifference.

I was at a party for a friend's birthday yesterday, and at one point we were three middle aged men all talking about currently reading Horus Heresy... and a fourth who had already read it.

In 2005, I started to read books about Antarctica for a book project. It never happened, but somehow this became a hobby for me, and I've been writing about Antarctic movies, books, etc. ever since. I even visited Antarctica a few years ago.

Brass: Lancashire made an impressive capitalism simulator. www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

How to review rpgs: 1. Your way of play is the one true way. 2. Determine if the game in question fits your way of roleplaying. 3. Judge it to be lacking. Note: Some games don't even try to fit your way of roleplaying. This is because their designers are wrong and stupid. Explain how this is so.

This is a wonderful thread from a writer on Game of Thrones. The feeling of Real Work In The Creative Industries is so palpable... Including in all the positive ways, since there's a reason we all keep doing this.

One of the last things I did before leaving Renegade was write the art description for the cover of the newly announced V5 book Courts of the Damned. renegadegamestudios.com/vampire-the-...

How do you adapt the Moomin stories? @hypergames.no knows best: • getting the curvature of Moomintroll just right • avoiding any reference to capitalism (which hasn't yet sullied Moominvalley) • leaning into life's heaviest questions Beautiful work, all told. www.theguardian.com/games/2026/m...

Finished reading Karin Fossum's crime novel When the Devil Holds the Candle (Djevelen holder lyset). It has been on my pile of unfinished books for years, ever since I borrowed it from my grandmother because I needed to read it for a work project I completed years ago.

Distilled is a lovely boardgame about distilling spirits. www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

One of my bedrock beliefs is that capitalists *really* hate capitalism. They name their beloved institutes after the likes of Adam Smith, but they ignore everything Smith had to say about the necessity of competition to keep markets from turning into monopolies: pluralistic.net/2023/06/09/c... 1/

One of the things I learned from working with Vampire and Werewolf was to think of a roleplaying game in terms of multiple releases. It's not just one book, but a series of books. How to make that work so that they're all valuable and useful, but so that it works regardless of which ones you have?

V5 designer Kenneth Hite talks about the parallels between the Second Inquisition and his own vampire/espionage rpg Night's Black Agents.

For @typebarmagazine.bsky.social, I wrote about how trying to play nice with the modern concept of "fandom" is ruining the greatest card game that's ever existed www.typebarmagazine.com/the-fandom-s...

The biggest Palestine flag I've ever seen at the Paris May Day parade

I'm halfway through my study project to play 100 boardgames I haven't played before. One of my goals was to be able to form opinions and taste by playing a lot of different things to see if I liked them. Here are some of my newly found views! www.juhanapettersson.com/category/100...

Explored French port life with all the harvests (?) that entails in Le Havre! www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

Every once in a while, I hear from a writer and they say, I was offered this character, I don't really like them, or I don't really understand them. Well, the thing is, THAT'S THE GIG! Dig until you find that spark! If you end up writing characters like this, it is SO much easier if you do. 7/

Invented a new cocktail recipe, which worked! Lobster Martini 3/4 oz Dry Vermouth 3/4 oz Akvavit 3/4 oz Norway Lobster Vodka Stir. The lobster vodka is essentially lobsterwashed vodka. Got it from a cocktail bar in Copenhagen. Considering adding olive bitters.

U.S. military’s secretive Special Operations Command is creating its first-ever center for AI-driven missions including targeted assassinations.

When I was in Havana, we were walking down an avenue with a raised pedestrian walkway in the middle. I remarked on how much space there was to sit, along both sides of the walkway all down the street. Our guide was confused, so I explained anti-homeless architecture to him. He refused to believe me.

Full-res images of these adverts courtesy of designer Sebastian Utbult! (The Solipsist Entertainment one really hits hard...)

This year's KP book Seasons of Larp's PDF version is out and it's free. Go check it out: www.nordiclarp.org/wiki/Seasons...

Not sure if it was the first, but I diligently hunted back issues of Action Force, as G.I. Joe was known in Finland. I read much of the story entirely out of joint, piece by piece as I found new issues in local used bookstores in Tampere and Helsinki.

When I first started working on Vampire 5th Edition core and the Anarch and Camarilla books, I had a longtime hobbyist's knowledge of rpg design, but I felt that wasn't enough. That's why I did a reading project where I read an rpg for each year they've been published.

Kapital! is a game about the class struggle. What more do you need? www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

Kapital! is a game about the class struggle. What more do you need? www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

Playing Puerto Rico was useful for understanding the critical discussion about it if nothing else! www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

As much as I can, for sure. Learning what has been done design-wise is extremely important. Another thing you get from reading the books is understanding how rpg books are constructed. This too is very useful.

Many believe larp and immersive experiences provide the agency they lack in everyday life. Is that true, or is the promise of "sovereignty" even stronger, darker pull? (The video for my Nordic Larp Talk last year is finally up! This was me thinking out loud on ideas I've since developed...)

In Wingspan, I ended my game just trying to make as many eggs as possible. www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

I missed on the opportunity to build the "Cuddling Room" in Caverna: www.juhanapettersson.com/100-boardgam...

The horse op-ed is an instant classic. I can't tell you how much joy this piece gives me. It should be taught in every introductory writing class in no small part because the horse arguments are so compelling. "I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children."

When we came up with this book, I was worried my references were outdated. I was thinking of Ville Valo and HIM, but fortunately Yungblud provided a contemporary update on the aesthetic.

Flashback to the time I created Judith Butler as a custom wrestler in WWE 2K24 (complete with a ring announcer call-out). Straight from the WWE Gender Performance Center!

Facebook's algorithm is showing me propaganda videos of Israeli women soldiers dancing while the IDF is on a murderous rampage all across Gaza, Iran, Lebanon and beyond. Modern fascism has its own depraved aesthetic texture.