Zack Thomson
@zackthomson.bsky.social
Game design student, speculative fiction writer, niche TTRPG enthusiast.
Scanners, the kids in Akira, splashes of x-men: PsiRun is well worth your attention in a one off psychic born-to-run blast.
Kieron Gillen@kierongillen.bsky.social · last mo.I just backed PsiRun Second Edition on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/117...
THOR: They have rejected him! BALDER: What!? No! THOR: Aye! They have forsaken our most beloved Starmer. BALDER: Let’s fuck them up.
for character building, it always seemed like 50-75% of any such list were basically filler that nobody ever chose. As opposed, say to PBTA/Blades/Spire playbook moves, where you get a modest list but the majority are very punchy in how they affect gameplay. I can see there's
The only reason for a ttrpg to have thousands of feats is if it’s a millipede game with bad proofreading.
Adrian Tchaikovsky@aptshadow.bsky.social · 2mo agoReading some crowdfund TTRPG descriptions highlights how my relationship to games has changed over time. One recently advertised "thousands of feats and skills" to customise your character with. I do remember when that would have been my thing. Now I'm wondering what real choice that "thousands"...
Having seen what goes down in these places, I think few things have been as poorly named as “soft play”.
Share the last 4 TTRPGs you played Masks: A New Generation Public Access Primetime Adventures* Heart: the City Beneath *technically my GMless hack of it 😅
Kieron Gillen@kierongillen.bsky.social · 3mo agoShare the last 4 TTRPGs you played The Scions* Deathmatch Island Troika (thanks, Aliette!) Mythic Bastionland
The year is 2030. I now own a home in every walkable US neighborhood, which I've paid for by selling rubber stamps that say "refused to release the Epstein files"
I hate this version of the United States so much.
Ron Filipkowski@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 5mo agoI regret to inform America that this was just posted by the HHS Secretary.
happy to report that Cincinnati zoo has an orphaned opossum named Ellie as an animal ambassador and she is adorable
The day after we put the final touches on issues #88-91 of “Swamp Thing”, news broke about the passing of Tatjana Wood, the original colorist on the series. Tomorrow, March 2nd, would have been Tatjana’s 100th birthday. Let’s raise a glass to one of comics’ originals.
I had a wild day and I've been quiet because it's been a bit overwhelming! We hit our goal and then some! There's still lots of time to help us get to our last stretch goal for our Trophy Anthology, featuring @premeemohamed.com and @quinnblackwell.bsky.social :D
Amanda/iamatrex@iamatrex.com · 8mo agoFrom the publisher that brings you Sprigs & Kindling (that's me!), in collaboration with @jesseross.com and @pemetawe.bsky.social comes a new anthology of one shot incursions for Trophy! Sign up to be notified of launch 😄 www.kickstarter.com/projects/fir...
"Everything is politics...You don't get to make art in a fascist state" CMAT delivering, mar is gnách. 👏 (Same goes for sport btw) #Speirgorm
Let me guess, wealthy people who moved to Dubai to avoid paying taxes now want the countries they moved from to protect them?
I am shaking with anger. This fucking administration is evil to the core. Join your neighbors and find ways to fight back. You are called. You cannot stand by in silence or inaction.
ProPublica@propublica.org · 5mo agoNEW: Guards have taken away crayons, colored pencils & paper during recent room searches at Dilley, according to detainees and others. After one inspection, the children just “cried and cried and cried,” a mother said. The facility denies the claims. By @mckenziefunk.com @micarosenberg.bsky.social
This is very close to how most PbtA and Forged in the Dark games handle things. Apocalypse World didn't call them lore blocks but the threat structure is very similar. If you want to see an iteration of the AW threat, check out the factions in Blades in the Dark. Looks similar to me!
Clayton@explorersdesign.bsky.social · 5mo agoIt's been a couple years since Reach of the Roach God was published, and I'm still thinking about how it pulled off stat blocks without stats. It's a load-bearing piece of tech that's criminally underused. www.explorersdesign.com/designing-lo...
I dunno when or if Kalum is going to do anything with it, but I wrote a Scenario for the cosy Cadfael-em-up Rosewood Abbey directly inspired by Ken Russel's The Devils.
Wyrd Science Magazine@wyrdscience.bsky.social · 5mo agoI think there should be more mash-ups & cover versions in TTRPGs, creators associated with well known titles doing short 1 shot adventures in their style set in different games, like a Mork Borg’esque scenario written for a “cozy” game like RiverBank or a parallel Mausritter society in Alpha Complex
kind of amazing that everything trump does can be understood through the lens of narcissism and it's related needs (e.g., self aggrandizement, revenge, domination, grievance validation). i don't think any character has been so one-dimensional, not even wile e coyote or scrooge mcduck
Sorry (and I know this is the point but) what the fuck is left of sociology then
Zachary Levenson@grundrza.bsky.social · 6mo agoYesterday, those who teach Intro to Sociology at Florida colleges (as opposed to universities) received a ready-made curriculum from the state and were ordered to teach it. Yes, you read that correctly. The *state* is enforcing a curriculum on college profs, complete w/ the following restrictions:
A good piece, but an additional aspect is nearly everything we do exploits resources in ways we need to avoid. Which is to say the entire foundation / thrust of our technologies is often deeply flawed and does not consider ecosystems, biodiversity, etc in other than an exploitive or Disneyfied way.
Aftermath@aftermath.site · 6mo agoThe left doesn't hate technology, we hate being exploited: aftermath.site/anthropic-clau...
Its like the Terminator if everyone just *pretended* Skynet was real
The fact that screen writers can fairly easily characterize techbros as sociopaths with a fetish for teens, and reality just keeps saying, "Oh, yeah? Well what if I was much dumber?! Would you like that?!" is why I exercise more than I ever thought I would.
Love that AI, a thing we hate and don’t want, steals everything, ruins everything, shittifies everything. Drinks our water, plagiarizes our art, pisses all over our information fidelity, drives kids to suicide, serves the right-wing, and fucks up our devices and services. Good job, techbros!
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 6mo ago“.. ‘many system vendors will go bankrupt or exit product lines due to a lack of memory. Mobile phone production will be reduced by 200-250 million units, and PC and TV production will be significantly reduced.’ Yikes.” @pcgamer.com #DRAM www.pcgamer.com/hardware/mem...
But… but… look at all it’s accomplished!!! A world we could have only dreamed of before AI! I mean… so many… uh… I use it for… well… It’s. Um. Hmm… There are so many more buttons and prompts to use AI now!
Chuck Wendig@chuckwendig.bsky.social · 6mo agoLove that AI, a thing we hate and don’t want, steals everything, ruins everything, shittifies everything. Drinks our water, plagiarizes our art, pisses all over our information fidelity, drives kids to suicide, serves the right-wing, and fucks up our devices and services. Good job, techbros!
Always look at the words they use. It's always a narrative about being left behind, never a value proposition. That's because there isn't one. LLMs are Clippy crossed with predictive text: two things you traditionally switch off if you want to get any actual work done.
Bill Corbett@billcorbett.bsky.social · 6mo agoSorry to get radical but I don’t think it’s my job or yours to embrace, accept, understand - and certainly not to use - the thing being sold to us as AI. I don’t like any part of it, so I won’t. I’m missing out? Good, that’s what I want. You’re worried about me missing out? That’s fuckin weird, man.
The left tried for decades to pass green energy subsidies, passed them, the subsidies worked, and now literally the entire planet's electricity grid is going to convert to solar+battery. It just doesn't feel like "tech" because it mostly produces kinda boring blue collar jobs instead of billionaires
Albert Pinto@70sbachchan.bsky.social · 6mo agois there a technology that "the left" is excited about? www.transformernews.ai/p/the-left-i...
It's kinda annoying how solar panels were hung around the neck of the left as impractical pie in the sky treehugger shit *right* up until it started outcompeting every other energy source. Then suddenly, instead of going "hey the left was correct about solar" it's no longer a "left" idea!
