It’s the end of an era! The Compleat Stratigist is changing hands, on Monday. Mike and Danny established the Stratigist in 1975 and it has been the center of NYC gaming for 51 years. They have had several stores in other locations too. I think the high point was 7.

I just reread Robert Heinlein's If This Goes On, for no particular reason. Also redeveloping a taste for Jerked Quisling…

People talk about the 26 words that started the internet. Nobody talks about the 3 words that started civilization: EVERYBODY POOP HERE. Think about it. When you start to manage waste, to protect other things, you have a system that leads to a whole lot of other systems. W/o it civ fails fast.

@sskorkowsky.bsky.social got the Muppet Show theme stuck in my head. It’s not really a bad thing as I’ve had worse things stuck in my head. The problem is he updated a version of the lyrics. Now my mind is mashing all the versions I know into an extended dance remix.

Today was the kind of day where I had to say the sentence: "You put a boxing glove on a wiffle bat, and gave it to a seven year old, what did you THINK would happen?" Life in the arts.

A small request to the TTRPG writing community: Could you please put a date on your work? It could be publication date, a release date, or anything like that! I’m hoping for some kind of temporal marker so I know WHEN it came from! Accident… Research… Time-machine… Library… You know.

This address is important in the lore of @deltagreen.bsky.social. Does anyone recognize it?

<muffled> This isn’t even Sherry!

First game: AD&D 1E in 1979 Last game: All The World's Problems (Beta) Next Game: Delta Green Playtest Longest game: AD&D 1E Favorite game: one that someone else runs Favorite mechanics: Red Markets Favorite setting: Apocalypse World (think about it) Favorite art: today, A|State. tomorrow?

Never forget the COVER UP in @deltagreen.bsky.social …or the SAFTY CABLE in Theatrical Lighting.

Okay, its come up so often recently, that I have to say it again. from the point of a near permanent GM, who has been playing RPGs for 47 years: IT'S OKAY TO MAKE STUFF UP!!!! As a matter of fact, I actively encourage it! It’s your game, play how you want! Have fun and don’t be hurtful.

Jonathan has an interesting piece of gaming history! He's auctioning it off for a good cause.

Here's a draft manuscript of the Magic: The Gathering roleplaying game from 1996, and I've giving it away as a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood, with permission from the authors. Not sure how much to ask for. Vanishingly rare. $1,872 raised so far. #mtg #ttrpg

Seeing Buffalo/Southern Tier weather in the Hudson Valley is strange and a little amusing for this Snow Belt kid. I want everyone to know IT'S GOING TO BE OKAY!!!! It will melt and spring will come! How do we deal with MONTHS of this? Well, we do a lot of projects and play a lot of ttRPGs.

Tired brain today. Now, I’m wondering why I wrote "5# d20 nails." I’m pretty sure 8d would be sufficient for most dice nailing applications. Maybe I shouldn't worry about it. Brain: " hey… dude…. You cold worry about it. Just a little.…

The other day I found a plain gold ring amongst the gravel in a gutter. I picked it up and dropped it in my pocket, and forgot about it. Today I was finding something in my pocket and found the ring. I was thinking, "what have I got in my pocket?" This story is vaguely familiar for some reason.

Working! So much to do…

Over the holidays I went back "to the Shire", where I spent my youth. It’s in the Snow Belt. The weather was awful. 3’ of snow, low, grey sky, an ice storm. I am very much an outdoor cat. I do a lot of "out in it" things like XC skiing and winter camping. There is a lot of great terrain for it

With things going well on www.kickstarter.com/projects/lum... I offer this bit of Apocalyptica: YOU NEED ACTIVE PATROLLING. With out it you are blind and a ripe target for raiders. It doesn’t take much and you can get the older kids involved. They are naturally good at it.

I have decided that my Arch-Nemesis is named Otto Korekt. He is a former spy from the GDR. He hacks into everything I write and changes things. He does this to cloud my work and annoy me. I will persever.

Metatopia 2025 is now in the books. I’m back at work and holding on to an amazing weekend with wonderful people! it was great to talk to everyone, even if it was only for a minute! So many games! So many cool ideas!

When you play a lot of @deltagreen.bsky.social, you see the world a little differently. The agents had trouble contacting their handler because…

I had to get a new copy of DREAD by @epidiah.bsky.social My old copy just gave up and… well, anyway, it’s gone.

500 good words on a project and clean laundry. Lately, thats a hell of a victory!

Back in the '80s I had a group of D&D players who were totally into empowerment fantasy. They showed up with mostly barbarians with a “17” dump stat. Yes, everything else was an “18." I figured "what the hell, roll with it!" I told them to roll a d6 and add those points to their stats however…

So there I was brooding over something, with roadrunner quietly running in the background. (Try it! It works!) When @lumpley.bsky.social drops a super post on that sinking feeling that "you aren’t going to succeed" in a game, and how much he loves it. "BONG!" I realized that Chuck Jones' wrote…

Under hollow hills hits a sweet spot for me personally. Talking with @megueyb.bsky.social about it was like a walk in the Fae realms. If you ever worked, or just loved, live performance this game will take you places. Old friends you just met, or astounding new sights you’ve seen a thousand times.

Good morning friends! To celebrate Pride, we're putting the Under Hollow Hills collection on sale on itch: itch.io/s/154748/und... There are community copies too. Check it out!

Still going. Still writing.

I’m not very good at handling GIFs

Movie you’ve watched more than six times using gifs. (“Hard mode” no Star Wars, Star Trek, or LOTR)

If you run @deltagreen.bsky.social's Impossible landscapes, you will begin in Washington Sq. Park on Aug 10, 1995. For maximum realism make a loop where someone comes up and says "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke" quietly, every 45 seconds. Play this the entire time the agents are within the park.

I’m not a great writer, but I keep trying! I was recently asked about the best trick/hack/app I’ve found. After thinking awhile, I said "a cheap notebook and a cheap mechanical pencil." Catch thoughts as you have them. No batteries, architecture to manage, or updates required! Just write!

1. First RPG? - AD&D 1E 2. First you ever ran? - AD&D 1E 3. Played the most? - AD&D 1E>2E 4. Run the most? - AD&D 2E probably. 5. Favorite? - Delta Green 6. Most recently played? Delta Green 7. Most recently run? Delta Green It will take time to beat AD&D, played A LOT as a kid.

My sweet spot in Delta Green is highly a competent character who is completely out of their depth and gloriously struggle to figure out how to apply their skills to *THIS* situation. …or a rando who understands they have NO skills that are relevant, but recognize "this is fucked up!"

Sustaining. Doing what I can. Writing when I can. I’m still here.

Is it a game? Is it a setting? Is it a scenario? I may have found Schrödinger's design envelope.

I love that game designers across at least six time zones are virtually pawing through @megueyb.bsky.social's button box, oohing and ahhing, and guessing at the provenance of each one. Just made my night.

This advice is important now, and will be even more important in two weeks, when the next administration is going to flood the zone with horribleness, with the intent of overwhelming everyone into compliance. Pick your battles and keep your focus. Trust others are doing the same elsewhere.

I had a conversation the other day that I can’t stop thinking about. The crux line aimed at me was: "You artists just make shit up! We hate you for it. It isn't right!” I walked away at that point. It’s a real world BLOCK.

For anyone running Delta Green, don’t forget the COVERUP! It can be the most mind numbing, horrific and humanity challenging part of any plot line. If you are hand waving it you are leaving the best part out.

Thinking about, and sending energy, to all the Happy Jacks Crew, the Boggards +, Rennfairies, and other LA denizens who are dealing with the apocalypse. 🔥🔥🔥 PERSEVERE!

Over at @morrus.bsky.social's site, @planesailinggames.com wonderful game The Long Road Home is in the latest print news! This is one of my favorite games.

Note to self: Must finish 1E before adding more to the 2E folder, or starting 3E. I mean it, me. Knock it off!

Last child in the Woods is very much worth reading. Meguey Baker mentions it in her excellent article lumpley.games/2024/12/29/t... It’s one of my favorite books. I first picked up a review copy at Strand Books before it was released. It is equally applicable to adults.

When I started gaming, there were THREE simultaneous versions of D&D. It was more like a collection of stuff you made a game with. We added stuff from MERP, Harn, Arduin, JG, the encyclopedia and old National Geos. Really anywhere we found something fun/useful. I still look at gaming that way.

Ran a short casual playtest this a.m. Had fun! Never got near the specific mechanic I had in mind. Thats okay! It generated a lot of ideas.

The two loudest noises in the world: A BOOM when you expect a click. And A CLICK when you expect a boom.

Have a beautiful solstice, everyone!

Taking a break from writing. Cleaning up the work room! If I need to hide, I can sneak behind my mending pile, hide in the books I’ve read stacks, or disappear into the forest of outdoor gear. There could be a cat in here, or a whole tribe of cats! I’d never know.