I don't get people who sign up for an online RPG and then fail to turn up. I'm not talking about people deciding a group/campaign isn't for them after the first session. That makes sense. But why would you go through the hassle of an application form and interview and then not play?

I'm unironically in favour of bears but as a compromise I'm willing to see how less contentious rewilding goes first. But honestly, the fact only 42% support wildcats shows that most people simply don't pay attention to this issue. We have wildcats in Scotland already, although under threat.

I think for whatever reason, tactical RPGs don't attract the discourse people in the way that narrative RPGs do. (Ok, D&D, but that's obviously an exceptional case).

1/ A more serious thread about growing up in the 80s under Thatcher. I was a working class kid. Brought up in a single parent family by a lesbian mother. Every day I woke up to the tabloids and politicians calling my loved ones scum

Happy Thatcher Death Day to all who celebrate. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG3x...

This is, I'm afraid, the other side of the coin of the "the American population can't do anything about Trump and it's up to other countries" argument. I see very few people making the first argument willing to accept the reality of the second.

Fair enough, but this dose kinda move us back to the "we should probably boycott American products and inflict as much pain as possible doing so" argument.

If you're going to be like that you don't DESERVE the Glorious World of Flintlock RPG.

Listening to Coyote Shivers and a) it's a definite guilty pleasure and b) you could absolutely have forseen him turning into a Trumpist arsehole even back then.

Bill Hicks? Would have gone on Joe Rogan and done COVID conspiracism. Kurt Cobain is ok though. He'd just be doing worthy but slightly dull acoustic numbers, but I'm genuinely convinced he'd have still be on the side of the angels. Sid Vicious? There is no timeline where Sid doesn't die of smack

If John Lennon had lived there's a HIGH chance he'd have gone full Roger Waters.

RPG idea that I think may be genuinely brilliant. (Although you can nick it if you want because I'm lazy and it likely won't go anywhere). A scifi RPG. The setting is the UK. And it's all exactly like the "Usborne Book of the Future" said the 21st Century was going to be like, back in the 70s.

Every time I run a RPG campaign set in the 80s it inevitably turns out to be "punk kids fighting back in Thatch's Britain"

One of the other reasons I strongly recommend Muster is that it has one of the most mature and constructive ways I've seen of handling the inherently reactionary nature of D&D that I've seen. It doesn't deny it (it describes D&D as a "chauvinist fantasy") or suggest it can be escaped.

This is what Labour's "Job Hubs" are supposed to replace. They can only think of the welfare of young people in terms of the job market. And when I say "100 kids affected" that's not just paper membership. 100 kids, attending activities weekly.

1/ What I think complicates things with RPGs is it feels like they're a rare case of something shifting from an intensional definition to an ostensive definition over time. The need for the prefix "tt" is a fine example of that. It once wouldn't have been necessary.

Well, the transphobes seem to be getting very jumpy about Bash Back. The validation of a tactic can frequently be found in the reaction of your enemies.

Oxford commas are the worst. I despise them. But I will reluctantly stand with my (entirely wrong) Oxford Commarian comrades against the common enemy.

It was a mistake to stop being invite only, tbh.

The kids are alright. news.sky.com/story/police...

I will not stop pointing out that Spike Trivet is the most underrated heel in Britwrestling until you all love to hate him as much as I do. #wrestlesky www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4t2...

Potentially hot TTRPG take. It's absolutely true we need more RPGs inspired by non European cultures. But we don't need less European RPGs, we need more of those as well. This is especially true of Eastern Europe (where there's few) but it's true of Western Europe. We don't have that currently.

1 like = 1 TTRPG in my library but it's always "Unknown Armies".

Petition to make Bedlam Hall the ur-example of PbtA instead.

Centrists - "We need to talk about left populism as well as right populism" Me - "Ok, as it happens I know a fair bit about this topic. Would you like to start with one of these six historical examples or would you prefer one of these four academic papers?" Centrists - "No, not like that."

Does anyone know what illness this might be? When I woke up this morning I had a fever. My hands felt like two balloons. Then I wrote 12 concept albums about my dad dying in WW2.

The other thing that any serious analysis of support for populism needs to take into account is that time that a group of academics found (somewhat to their horror) that there was a link between populism and reduced inequality, especially left wing populism - www.theguardian.com/world/2019/m...

Any serious attempt to study UK populism (and I accept that "serious" and "Bluesky centrist" are mutually exclusive categories) needs to take two specific examples of centrist populism into account. Martin Bell's run as an "anti corruption" independent.

If you see this, I implore you to post a picture from whatever device you’re using with no explanation.

What centrists think left populism looks like versus what left populism actually looks like. Be very careful what you wish for lads, you just might get it.

Worth noting that 78% of the general public dislike/distrust politicians, so anyone who says they're untrustworthy is in fact in line with polling.

They're frit. "Anti trust in politics" is a rational response to mainstream political parties. And if you think the (still pretty fluffy greens) are what angry left populist anti politics looks like, you really have no idea...

Great moments in music history 874. 1977, Sid Vicious and Freddie Mercury meet in a recording studio. Sid - "Are you that cunt bringing ballet to the masses?" Freddie - "I'm trying my best Mr Ferocious, dear"

Counterargument: This isn't the *only* reason the IWCA achieved these results in 2002 but it was definitely a part - www.redactionarchive.org/2012/03/news... The positive takeaway is that if you immerse yourself in micro community politics the rules of the game change.

"I am an invisible man." Footnote: The author has not yet perfected invisibility.

I am not a military man, as you may have noticed. But my advice to American servicemen being asked to invade Iran is exactly the same advice I gave Russian infantry ordered to invade Ukraine: frag your officers. Now.

So, with hindsight, I'm thinking that Starmer's sycophantic approach to Trump might have not in fact made Trump respect the UK and might not have been the great diplomatic triumph we were told.

I suspect that some of this is related to the modern trend to conflate the view of a character and the voice of the author.

There's a group of local lads (about 15 years old) who will ride at speed down the cycle path shouting "cycle path" at any pedestrians (who to be fair have a proper pedestrian path next to it). And I love that's been normalised for them.

It's also odd to see "we have real alternatives" being argued by the same people who argue that the US two party system is immutable. Like, you clearly don't, otherwise you wouldn't have to tell third party voters to vote against their political beliefs.

Question for boardgame designers, especially print and play designers. How do you feel about TTS mods? My current approach is that I'll make them for private play, but won't distribute them publicly.

Excited to be able to announce EMPIRE 5E! Finally you can play the greatest #ttrpg in the world! Rules for aberrant weather! 50 unique senators for you to fight, more than 149 new ritual spells, and over 4 magic items! Experience massuvely multiplayer fest live roleplaying on *your* table!

The fact she put out an official denial is just *chef kiss*. As is the fact that Buzzfeed put out a pompous article about UK left twitter posting "fake news".

Realistically, in the post war period, the UK has had a mere two far left groups whose membership was genuinely mostly working class (Red Action, Militant), a few borderline (Communist Party, Direct Action Movement) and complications like Class War (a mix of actually lumpen and slumming it).

Simon Dudley isn't the weird outlier some Yimbys are claiming. He was on the board of Build for Britain (formerly known as Conservative YIMBY). Not saying all Yimbys agree with him, just that his views are mainstream Yimby, just crudely put.

"While other parties have become mired in vanity projects and distractions," If I was running Tommy Sheridan, I might be a bit cautious with this line of attack.

Also, it's not as important as the IGV issue, but crikey Tommy is a fast mover. I'd barely had breakfast when he'd set up the next big failed electoral project.

I thought it was a funny idea to teach the cat to waltz. But Kismet loves it so much she now refuses to be held unless I waltz her round the room.

Mostly we should have a pop at @mongoosepublishing.bsky.social for DISCONTINUING THE BEST EVER EDITION OF PARANOIA. (We could also have done with way more books for High Programmers and Internal Security which were *really* good*). I don't care if they didn't sell. Cater to me, not hoi polloi.

Re: Traveller 5e. The one thing I'm not going to be having a pop at Mongoose about is the cost of the books. My understanding is that their writers are salaried, get profit share bonuses and have pension contributions. In terms of worker's rights, they're likely the best of the big publishers.