I've just published the first essay in the design series for Violent Delights: a chess-based RPG about Romeo and Juliet. It's about abstract board games and how we read into them. It also touches on Takuma Okada's Chess: Two Kingdoms.

Daily sketch. Ripping off David Finch.

I would prefer not to I reject your assumptions I deny your premises I refuse your authority I do not capitulate Be ungovernable my friends

Fact: When tiny Space Marines hatch from their eggs, they're yellow. Pretty much like chicken. They only turn blue over time as they grow to their full size. Like plums. #spacemarines #imperialfists #paintingwarhammer #nerdlings #warhammer #commission #legionimperialis

TIL about the Botafumeiro, an 80 kg incense censer that can reach speeds of 80 mph when swung from a rope attached to the roof of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. In 1499 during a visit from Catherine of Aragon it came off the rope and flew through the stained-glass window.

When you return to these ancient churches, when you step down into the nave, deep and somber and heavy with the weight of centuries, notice how far the world has come, and be glad. We still have so far to go, but churches sink much more slowly these days.

Built when Bede was a baby. Light and shade at the Anglo-Saxon church at Escomb in the Wear Valley which was built around 675AD. It is thought to be one of the most complete Anglo-Saxon churches in England.

Daily bunny no.3316 steps right up!

Slightly increase a band. The Beatmore.

Made a Pirates of the Caribbean viltrumite meme

brain buffering 🦈 #art #sharks

Denethor is the original victim of doomscrolling.

A thread of pretty good and universally applicable GM advice and ideas for TTRPGs!

Shark Sunday

For anyone unaware in my reach, Ken Whitman is a guy who came into tabletop gaming and general nerdery ages ago with a lot of hustle, launching LOADS of games and books and other projects, and delivering less and acting less and less honestly over time as he did. The "AI slop profiles" thing? Him.

Daily bunny no.3315 playing hooky

I could NEVER leave this goofy little twerp behind 💥🚀🐸🪐

This, unfortunately, is 100% accurate.

Feeling rather Emmental Mushroom today.

Kyky tuntea häpeää vääristä teoistaan on keskeinen osa ihmisenä olemista. Kun päättäjämme menettävät häpeämisen kyvyn, demokratiamme on lirissä, varoittaa Markus Leikola. demokraatti.fi/markus-leiko...

Well, I guess that's one way of getting around the incoming wave of bullshit age-verification demands on the internet.

Prime Minister Péter Magyar inaugural speech: "The psyche of the whole country was poisoned by politics that was artificially inciting hatred. The Hungarian state is not allowed to do anything like this ever again... This era is, once and for all, finished."

Putin: “Finland, why did it join NATO? Did we have any territorial disputes with Finland? Everything had long been settled.” You forced Finland and Sweden to join NATO, genius.

Pythia

I've noticed that parents who go into "Baby Changing Facilities" invariably come out with the same one. Very suspicious.

Watching David Attenborough get highly deserved praised for his century is reminding me: There is no crisis of masculinity, as such. We have plenty of positive male role models in our society. They just aren’t being pushed into young men’s feeds by nihilistic ad networks and social platforms.

Hat tip to Ellie. Fascinating and eerie. sinceyouarrived.world/taken

Today I'm featuring this purple bull! All the oxen in my shop are 10% off this month. www.etsy.com/listing/4496... #thebeastboutique #Artshop #sculpture #bsnm

Twenty people

Well intentioned people can make a mediocre game a lot of fun. Poorly intentioned people will make a great game terrible.

We've truly created a marketplace of ideas - the problem is that the idea that outcompete everything else are REALLY BAD IDEAS. It turns out unrestricted market competition is bad! It turns out the marketplace of ideas needs some rules, like any other market.

sorry does this make up for it

There's no longing for "inconvenience." There's a longing for media you own and for technology that does exactly what it's advertised to do, nothing more and nothing less, and does not get worse over time with "upgrades."

Daily bunny no.3313 is headed in the right direction

Elementary common sense seems beyond the capacity of Very Online Bluesky People. But yeah, this would have gotten you banned in basically any forum w. halfway reasonable moderation; i.e. any that's not an unusable cesspit of trolls, loons, and harassers.

This is probably gonna gain traction soon, so I want to ground everyone before the fear that may come. The purpose of memos like this is probably best understood as to create fear. If they had the resources and ability to conduct mass crackdowns on trans groups, they would just do it.

You can signal "good stuff over here" with rules, but you can't solve for players being assholes via clever rules mechanics. Do not try. If someone says you should or can, they're full of crap. If they say a game is flawed because it didn't solve for players being assholes, they're full of crap.

Go Halloween Hen!

Also, just practice some basic information literacy. Most "factoids on agriculture" are cherry-picked, spun, and distorted to fit a "poor farmers need your money" narrative. If you hear anything about agriculture, fact-check it before you believe it. EVERYTHING.

Well that's the most badass thing I've read this whole week.

I was going to tell this story to someone who replied to one of the many threads, but I've forgot who they were, and it's been spread wide enough that I just can't be bothered finding who it was for. So you're going to all get the example of what I did the last time I made a cynical loner.

I should be working, and yet...

It’s a mistake to think that Trump’s discard for the rules-based order is good for the revanchist Russian regime (or for China for that matter). Having predictable rules enabled Russia to break them when it saw fit - or occasionally, to invoke them. Having no rules to break is a disadvantage.

Jorts don’t step on my sandwich. Jorts stop walking on my neck. Jorts don’t pee in the sink. What happened to freedom

Florence Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore And their children!

I submit the wee birthday sword I made for my friend's tarot shelf.

Here is a phrase that everyone needs to learn, search, research and ask about in the lead-up to 2026 and 2028: 'UNCAP THE HOUSE' The pros seem to outweigh the cons. And it just seems like the right thing to do. Bonus: It does not require a Constitutional Amendment, just a bill. #UncapTheHouse

This is true, accurate, and correct.

Social Distancing. Any comments saying that this is no longer relevant will be met with the Hanta virus.

Things like this that make me wish I had a 3D printer. Although also if I had a couple ton hydraulic press I could use a 3D printer to printer stamps for use on leather