Same night, different year, cheap Universe.

If we’re going to be in a world full of movie remakes, can we please just start treating them like play runs? Just hand a new director the script to Star Wars and see them put on their interpretation of the same story. We have an actual artistic tradition in which remakes are loved. Use it!

Christmas Carol retelling in which the ghosts are not real, but a con perpetuated by the Cratchets in a last ditch effort to get money for Tiny Tim. Scrooge gets taken increasingly in, right up until Christmas Day… when he realizes his blanket really was stolen and therefore wasn’t the future.

Die Hard is a film that lasts 130 minutes, because Nothing Lasts Forever. #nooneisgoingtogetthat

What is it about cold winter days that lets the grey sky slide between your cells, until you are more welkin than flesh?

Look, I'm not saying they should retcon Star Trek to make Data nonbinary, but I am going to say if he's not going to use 'they/them' then we should at least change his name to Datum.

So, now I'm thinking about Tip and Ozma... And to no one's surprise I have things to say. First of all, a point of clarity: Others read the text and find it affirming, and I read the text and found it felt like being stabbed. I think it's fair to say that knife was in my heart all along. 1/

One of the first trans characters that I remember reading as a kid was Ozma of Oz. She might not fit the exact description of a trans woman (born a girl, changed into a boy, lived as one for many years until reclaiming her gender) but she’s pretty significant. comicsalliance.com/marvelous-la...

Looking at old writing where I used "Ms." when I clearly meant "Miss" and feeling shame about it...

The Outfit needs work, and I need focus. Most of what I need to do is GM advice, which feels irrelevant when I'm the only person running the game, but is kinda important if I want to get past that. This week, as a focusing point for playtesting, I'm going to write up some basic scenarios.

Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to have a hometown. “Hey, this is the one singular space where I grew up, life like a tree anchored deep and able to branch out, rather than a series picaresque lives scattered like broken glass.” Like, how do you tell time in memory if not by shifting locations?

“Now, I'm the king of the wingdings Oh, my alphabet's VIP. I've reached the top and had to stop And that's what's bothering me. I wanna be a letter, lowercase, Printed right into words And be as clear as other text I'm tired of being absurd. Oh, oobeee doo I wanna be like U...”

On the one hand, Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday where I sit with my family and are overwhelmed by the good things and fine people my life has somehow become filled with. On the other hand, Thanksgiving is a carnist horror show that always leaves me a bit queasy just to think about.

Abel kills first. Canonically, Abel sacrifices 'the choicest of firstlings of his flock'. That firstling is the first death in the story. And, God smiles on this offering, and ignores Cain's salad. So, Cain sees a killing, sees God reward it, and then does a killing... and is punished...

This is why ghosts float; there is no feeling to bring them down.

Hrm… I seem to be slowly approaching vegetarian level 4, in which images of meat meals feel like they should come with warnings…

I have now read Zapffe's "The Last Messiah". So, for the rest of my life, antlers will be symbols of cosmic pessimism, antinatalism, and/or evolutionary maladaption. Bet this will confuse my players in a year or two..

The crazy thing is that I don't think I've ever read an alien invasion story where the aliens are just after fossil fuels. Fossil fuels require both life and extreme time scales, something difficult to reproduce even if you *can* travel the stars And showing up for oil fits the usual metaphor well

Just ran session 1 of a Jackie Chan inspired Cortex Prime game that's been in my head for ages... Need to tighten up my own docs on the splat, but it is just really fun to be running Cortex again. I forgot how pleasing the game is. Though, doing it virtually you lose a lot of its tactile feel...

Sometimes I reflect that one of my most consistent recurring motifs across my narrative work (so, roleplaying games, mostly) is the notion of love poetry as an act of violence...

Hey, other GMs... How often do you do flashbacks with your players? Because I feel like I do a lot of flashback work in some of my games, and I have no idea if that's normal. #ttrpg

Well, the curse of scheduling has killed my Lancer game. Looks like the shrapnel has coalesced into a knock off Jackie Chan Adventures game I've wanted to run for years... We're using #CortexPrime, which should be fun. #ttrpg

An unexpected shoutout to Tony Lower-Basch, developer of the #CapesRPG. Capes is one of those games that lives forever in me, despite few opportunities to actually play it. Twenty years old and it's still unique, innovative, and very fun. If you're into GMless games, it's worth your time. #ttrpg

It is useful, from time to time, to learn which of your players are going to say 'ew' when the spider lady has 'mouth parts'... and which very much don't... #ThirstySwordLesbians

All right, it's time to reveal who won the Bannerless Tabletop RPG Grant for September 2025! I got *240* applicants, and paring that down to 10 was rough going. There is truly a wildly diverse, crazy-cool body of work going on ALL around us. Here are 10 of my favorites!

I should just give up describing things properly. If I describe things poorly enough, then I too can turn a giraffe into a monster so enticing people throw their lives away chasing it... upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

Even after all these years I sometimes see someone playing WoW and think to myself, ‘this Warcraft 3 mod is wild…’

Game with a ‘Divine’ elemental damage. It is never stated, but the more lines you read between the more clearly it is just electricity.

Oh, right, but when it comes to romance suddenly *not* having intrusive thoughts is the problem…

Video game idea: A roguelike that is insanely easy to break and make victory trivial... but is also intentionally designed to be real easy to crash once broken. The challenge is not winning, but threading the needle of winning without crashing.

Struggling to wrap my head round #Exalted You’re a mortal explicitly empowered to overthrow gods. There is a corrupt, dysfunctional, and at best negligent celestial bureaucracy… … but you’re telling me the game isn’t about revolting against Heaven? It just loses me, is what I’m saying. #ttrpg

I swear, whenever I introduce a GMC who I note as secretly being some antagonistic power in disguise, my players always end up making them a friend, romantic interest, or apprentice, even when I'm not trying to have that happen. Every. Time. #ttrpg

Looking at a sample character I for a Star Wars #CortexPrime game and am pleased with this Talent Talent: Health Nut Trigger: When you spend time exercising and working out your physique. Effect: Step Down a die in the Dark Pool and move it over to an Exhaustion Complication on yourself.

And, week is up! #7: The Mink Coat Blood, murder, style! #ttrpg #TheOutfitRPG theoutfitrpg.blogspot.com/2025/08/7-mi...

Pet Peeve: Many fictional works present classic Knights and Knaves puzzles by having the knight and knave recite the puzzle. Often with each stating one of the rules: "One of us only tells truths" "One of us only tells lies" But the fact that they said that changes the results! #KnightsandKnaves

I am realizing that I don't want a Star Wars sequel/prequel/spin off/series/book/whatever. What I want is art inspired by Star Wars in the same way Star Wars was itself inspired by Flash Gordon. ... then a bit of film history informed me that film is, in fact, Alien...

Just before midnight... #6: The Tie-Dye Shirt #ttrpg #TheOutfitRPG theoutfitrpg.blogspot.com/2025/08/6-ti...

#5: The Leotard It's interesting how clothing designed for physical performance comes into tension with me putting Function and Pizazz as oppositional... here's one solution... #ttrp #TheOutfitRPG theoutfitrpg.blogspot.com/2025/08/5-le...

Much as I hate #D&D alignment, I have to admit that it's a heck of a trick a trick that the Good/Evil spectrum is entirely words that are both adjectives and nouns, so that Chaotic Evil feels like a complete adjective+noun, and so does Chaotic Evil Sheep. #ttrpg

#4: The Studded Jacket. Because, goddamnit, I need more Clash in my #ttrpg! #TheOutfitRPG theoutfitrpg.blogspot.com/2025/08/4-st...

#TTRPGIdea: Scion game where the PCs are not, in fact, the children of gods, titanspawn, nor in any other way magical, but are nevertheless trying to scam their way past denizens, demigods, and titans by pretending to be divine.

And, before midnight this time: #3: Cargo Pants Yeah... keeping the clothes relevant! I actually like how simple this one is, while still creating an interesting game choice. #theOutfitRPG #ttrpg theoutfitrpg.blogspot.com/2025/08/3-ca...

I wish it was physically possible to throw out books. Got all these books out of storage, just sitting around in boxes, covering up my basement, and no where to put them or way to get rid of them. If only...

#2 Arm Warmers... for real this time! Also, Leg Warmers, because why not? I kind of like how these turned out. #TheOutfitRPG theoutfitrpg.blogspot.com/2025/08/2-ar...

I now have a blog about design in the Outfit! Mostly because I need to get round character limits to talk about #TheOutfitRPG! So... link... theoutfitrpg.blogspot.com/2025/08/welc...

Walking up a gravel drive in heels so wobbly the deer are gonna mistake me for a fawn and raise me as their own…

#2 arm warmers… Shit, actual thing is going to be up after midnight. Great start, Liz!

Well... that was a mess... I may need to set up a Blog to lay this out more coherently...

Weeks start on Sunday, so here we go... #1: The Baseball Cap. The baseball hat is seen everywhere, across multiple settings, and serves a wide variety of uses. Partly, it is a practical device to block the Sun. But, mostly... it bears logos, symbols, words, and colors that convey affiliation.

I am working on a #ttrpg called The Outfit ( #TheOutfitRPG ) It's focused on over the top fashion criminals, in a world that is basically a queer James Bond film that fetishizes the clothing more than the tools. I think this concept, and my rules, have legs. Now to get it walking...