The record buying public has the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFu8...

The police can have a little bit of brutality back at the station, just this once as a special treat.

For any non-Brits watching this, it is absolutely inconceivable that members of the establishment face consequences, get arrested etc, unless it is so nakedly corrupt and illegal that it threatens the whole rotten edifice.

Oh, my fucking god, Alison Hammond actually said we shouldn't have arrested him because he's just a little birthday boy.

Also worth noting that, from what I can tell, Andrew isn't facing justice for the noncing, it's leaking confidential commercial information.

I note that the US Resist Libs are following this story and I predict some hilarious comedy misunderstandings round the word "republican" in the next few days.

Yousaf's statement takes the right tone I think: "Due process matters but so does accountability. For far too long, wealth, titles and status have protected men.

I am (obviously) not in favour of repealing the equality act in totality. I am in favour of removing belief from protected characteristics. I'd rather just have that unprotected than have the establishment decide which beliefs are worthy of respect (transphobia) and which aren't (Trotskyism).

Again, this is not a case of Andrew's behaviour suddenly being exposed. It's a case of the establishment deciding to pay attention to that which has always hidden in plain sight.

Alright, actual RPG discourse rather than shitposting. 1/ It's *all* rules. Handwavium? Rules. Hard skilling? Rules. Dropping a safe on Steve's PC because he stole your weed and didn't replace it? Rules. And only one of these is dysfunctional and Steve deserves it.

Online 2.5 nights plus En Garde. Mondays - Pulp Cthulhu. GM. My benevolent dictator group where I'm the only GM by design and choose what we play.

It'll be interesting to see if Reform stick to this when it becomes clear that the "protected beliefs" section of the Equality Act is specifically what's protecting transphobes right now.

If Fred Durst tells the WWE to go fuck themselves I will take back half of the mean things I have said about Limp Bizkit over the years.

I can't take *any* Wuthering Heights adaption seriously, because any time I hear the name "Heathcliff" my mind immediately sings "no one should terrify the neighborhood".

My personal experience is that the younger generations are way less pro AI than older generations often think. The 19 and 20 year old in my Pulp Cthulhu group are both extremely averse to it to the point it was one of the first things they asked about when joining.

It has come time for us all to admit that Kevin is the greatest and wisest game designer ever to have graced this earth, apart from the bit where he designs games.

By the way, you know who was right about Ryan Dancey and the OGL?

Ooo, this looks very much in my areas of interest, especially with what looks like a custom system. (I'm just hoping it devotes at least some time to backstage as well as in the ring).

I see that AEG have decided to drive support for Ryan Dancey's career to its lowest possible level.

It is (of course) not the case that the working class can't be bigoted. It *is* the case that the working class are more racially integrated than the middle class, especially in urban areas.

What do you call a knobhead who hangs around with game designers? Gary.

I've dated all the way across the political spectrum, from Bennites to anarcho-syndicalists.

I should probably stop promoting my views on Ryan Dancey and promote my upcoming KS instead. BOSR Fantasy City! Underground! Probably has puns! Launching April. www.kickstarter.com/projects/148...

In other news, because I insist on using the full world database for Total Extreme Wrestling my games are basically me putting on a show then reading a RPG for 20 minutes while the database loads the next month.

Thinking on the difference between the OSR (general) and BOSR and as well as tone, I think it's that from the start the BOSR took a catholic approach to which games were included. Unlike the OSR, it actually was an "old school revival", not a revival of a single game system.

On the OSR, I think it's complicated. My theory is: For cultural/historical reasons there is always going to be a demand for fantasy murder hoboing. Old D&D is probably the only real option there (well, and T&T).

Steve Jackson Games' GURPS Traveller has been available since 1998, two years *before* the OGL. I was involved with SJ Games through about 2003, and the fucking OGL killed a 20-year old game line. SJG tried to reboot GURPS in '04, but the damage was already done.

My feelings on the OGL are mixed in general. When the revocation attempt happened it needed fighting - too many people had made games based on that agreement. That doesn't mean a large part of me doesn't suspect we'd have been better off if it had never happened in the first place.

As Ryan Dancey discourse is crossing the timeline, a reminder of what the OGL was *actually* supposed to achieve. It wasn't some benevolent gift to the community; Dancey was trying to drive system competitors out of the market.

According to one of my younger players I have "serious unc energy". Is this a good thing? Should I get a pipe and a sports car?

Actual question for theoryheads. Who said (paraphrase) that in physical warfare you attack your opponent's weakest spots and in ideological warfare the opposite? I thought it might be Gramsci but I can't find any record of him saying anything in that area.

I love Riot Cabaret. Many promotions have audiences who will join in with Michael Oku's "Now We Play". But Riot Cabaret have an audience who respond to Michael Oku describing himself as a "slut for titles" by chanting "Now We Slut". "That one's not going on the t-shirts" - Michael Oku

This incidentally is the only good critique of anti art I've ever had to face. If I'm honest, the bastard completely threw us with his friendly cup of tea making attack.

Honestly, the anti art stuff is both a bit, but also something I authentically (if not entirely seriously) believe. I sometimes consider writing about it, but I'm fully aware that much of the RPG theory sector is still at the "wow, Duchamp's Fountain is ART!" stage.

RPG's and philosophy. House Tytalus's policy of constant ideological conflict makes them the most objectively correct Ars Magica House. Even the demon summoning is justifiable; they did it because nobody else was willing to get their hands dirty and do the work.

This is my MOST correct unhinged opinion.

I'm not doing the unhinged opinions meme again. Just be reassured I still hold all of these opinions and I can no long distinguish between those I honestly believe and those I believe ironically.

I actually think the best OSR stuff leans into the fact you're a group of dickheads and worse when it tries to go heroic. Despite Gygax's intentions, D&D does Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser WAY better than it does Conan and his bloody swathes.

A lot more modern bands should take influence from Electric Six.

Yer average D&D party isn't scrappy rebels though, they're the kind of people clubmen spring up to stop. (Warhammer Fantasy, especially early Warhammer Fantasy, yes. But that's pretty explicit).

We've seen them fat and bloated those who once could hold a flame I've run for home and words gone by but nothing seems the same I can watch the world in secrecy from one side of this glass From the other my reflection and I don't know which is worse

Quentin Letts has dropped another dystopian fantasy. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

I think expectations for the norm returning to 40-60 pages for most RPGs (which frankly is enough for most unless they're lore heavy) might be useful. I'm less convinced that "even more Itch.io one page rpgs" is any kind of solution.

It is worth noting that Weev was heavily promoted and defended by certain arty 'progressive' types who liked having an edgy hacker friend until Weev's (already known) political beliefs became too prominent to keep glossing over.

I can understand why a designer might not *like* someone altering their game for artistic reasons, but the whole idea that the purchaser of a game owes "respect" to a designer is just an illustration of how parasocial the RPG hobby is. We're not friends. This is a commercial agreement, nothing more

Final thoughts for now on house ruling. 1. "RAW" and "Rules from designer" are conflated. If something is codified and agreed, it's RAW by definition. (My En Garde game has lots of rules, but I try to write them all down rather than improv where possible).

Also, the other house rules thread. More constructive and less obnoxious, but less funny.

Normally discourse waits more than a month, but hey. Yes I house rules, this is why I'm right to and it's because I know better than the designer.

Weird historical adjacent 400 page simulationist RPGs that sell under 50 Drivethru copies (Rome, Medieval Tales) are the true punk rock RPGs. They're the category where a designer is following a creative vision seemingly unaware of either commercial viability or community social capital.

For example, I am NOT (to be clear) saying that Mythic Bastionland is a bad game. I AM saying that its popularity is based on a design that deliberately removes the emulationist and simulationist elements of Pendragon and leaves the game parts. OSR design applied to a different design school.