Death Camp for Cutie

"Urania denotes the company of those who are firmly determined to ignore the dual organization of humanity in all its manifestations. They are convinced that this duality has resulted in the formation of two warped and imperfect types. They are further convinced that in order to get rid of this state of things no measures of ‘emancipation’ or ‘equality’ will suffice, which do not begin by a complete refusal to recognize or tolerate the duality itself. There are no ‘men’ and ‘women’ in Urania".

The mission statement of the early 20th century journal Urania. They wanted to abolish the division between men and women.

Rascal Subscriber Drive: History Week News blasts about the past.

Help us get the word out! In honor of losing the Diana Jones Award, we're running a discount on subscriptions — get 25% for six months! This coincides with History Week where we're publishing articles that come at the subject of RPG history from all angles and sides!

Anyone who still refuses to call it genocide is actively complicit.

Denying that one is carrying out genocide is a fundamental part of perpetrating genocide.

Why do neo-Nazis engage in Holocaust denial? Because erasure is essential to the program.

The Israeli government is doing the same in Gaza.

Did he at least get the rules right?

The New York Times purports to offer a plurality of perspectives but here's how that seems to play out in reality:

A right wing opinion piece that says:
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netenyahu are not breaking international law and even if they were they have the right to

1/

I’m truly so proud of this and the work the entire Draw Steel team did. It’s rare to be given both the opportunity and the freedom to take big swings like this, and @jamesintrocaso.bsky.social, @hellomcdm.bsky.social, and @mattcolville.bsky.social made it possible.

So, so proud of what we made.

Well, he did do a kickflip one time, but no one was around to see it

Heroic Resources Find all the community tools you need for your Draw Steel game!

If you're getting started with Draw Steel. Check out Heroic Resources for a list of resources for digital play, in-person play, videos and podcasts: heroic.tools

Does Super Mario Bros. (1985) Have Rules? Yes! No? Maybe? Why do you care? Why does it matter?

i wrote an article about that stupid little question i asked a couple weeks ago, why i asked it, and how the answer to the question can be tremendously beneficial for ttrpg designers
possumcreek.medium.com/does-super-m...

a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a white background . Alt: David byrne doing the hand measuring time against his arm gesture from the once in a lifetime video

it took me awhile to realize this but when I ask my 10yo semi verbal autistic daughter how her day was she'll sometimes do the David Byrne "same as it ever was" gesture from the Once in a Lifetime video to let me know nothing important happened and I fucking love that

The fascists aim to relegate those who will not be complicit in genocide to sacrifice zones, to carve up the whole world into privileged butchers and brutalized victims, to suppress all capacity for solidarity.

If we let them do that, the circle of the included can only shrink. Better to fight now.

lula my countrymen in humble nation USA are starving. please send your country's elite paraquedistas to blow up our tyrannical sherriff/king and his oligarch cronies, hand out sweetheart deals to mining firms in remote areas, put steroids in the plexiglas boxes at Walgreens, and bring back scooters

My bereaved family: Can't believe he's gone. But now, with the power of technology, we can ask him what he thinks about current events

My distorted face glitching on a screen: ToyYotathon Is hERE

Illustration of a hoard of goblins, led by a massive hairy bugbear wielding a serrated blade, swarm towards the heroes. One hero is a human man with blonde hair and shining armour, blue magic blasts from one hand, while the other hand holds a glowing mace. The other hero s a female elf with a flowing cape and a sword made for swashbuckling. In the background is a villager tied up and watching on helplessly.

🗡 Draw Steel is out! 🛡
And with it the official adventure - The Delian Tomb! 🔥
It was an immense pleasure and honor to get to work on this cover!
I am grateful for the trust the peeps from MCDM placed in me...

#mcdm #drawsteel #deliantomb #tomb #painting #ttrpg #fantasy #dungeon #heroes #acrylic

That's a good call

All major Las Vegas Strip casinos are now unionized in historic labor victory The Culinary Workers Union representing 60,000 hospitality workers in Nevada has achieved a historic victory on the Las Vegas Strip.

The Culinary Workers Union representing 60,000 hospitality workers in Nevada has achieved a historic victory on the Las Vegas Strip. For the first time in its 90-year history, all major casinos on the Strip are unionized.

my mom taught me there's two kinds of businesses: hot dog stands and art galleries

- hot dog stands protect territory and keep competition off their turf
- art galleries benefit from more adjacent art galleries, cluster together to amplify reach/support

youre an art gallery, not a hot dog stand

Post ‪Dia Lacina‬ ‪@dialacina.com‬ · 2h Every game should start with you in jail. 5 Dia Lacina ‪@dialacina.com‬ There, now its ultimate form... Screenshot of Twitter post by Dia Lacina stating "this is the only correct game design" showing a graphic from the design document for Diablo of an isometric image of a town with a path to a Temple/Dungeon that goes far below the earth in many layers. But photoshopped in is a sketch of a Panopticon with a road drawn to the town, and the word JAIL written over it. ALT August 4, 2025 at 1:06 AM 2 reposts 14 likes 1 2 ‪MercuryCDX‬ ‪@mercurycdx.bsky.social‬ · 4m Rewriting games like Shining in the Darkness and Fatal Labyrinth to start the protag in jail. Call 'em gritty reboots. Write your reply Screenshot of Twitter post by Dia Lacina stating "this is the only correct game design" showing a graphic from the design document for Diablo of an isometric image of a town with a path to a Temple/Dungeon that goes far below the earth in many layers. But photoshopped in is a sketch of a Panopticon with a road drawn to the town, and the word JAIL written over it. Screenshot of Twitter post by Dia Lacina stating "this is the only correct game design" showing a graphic from the design document for Diablo of an isometric image of a town with a path to a Temple/Dungeon that goes far below the earth in many layers. But photoshopped in is a sketch of a Panopticon with a road drawn to the town, and the word JAIL written over it. A blue lake labeled "lake for fishing) has been added near the town, where as flowing off of a lower level of the dungeon is a blood red lake labeled "evil lake (for advanced fishing).

Open world version

Whatever it is, it has nothing to do with indie games. There's always money in the banana stand. That's the opposite.

I'm fucking tired of people who refuse to believe people when they say they are trying to do X and insist they're trying to do Y when they create something. There's no reason to lie about your reasons for not liking something. You don't even have to say you don't like it! No one is making you post.

2.1 Lenses, Not Boxes I wondered whether this section was necessary, but games discourse seems to repeatedly find itself adrift in questions of whether _ counts as a _. We have seen the question repeatedly: Do games count as art? Do games without goals count as games? Is The Sims a game? Are hypertexts interactive fiction? Are Twine pieces literature? In fairness to the researchers cited here, all of whom I respect immensely, many of these sources pose or imply the question rhetorically. Still, the necessity of such a framing frustrates me. "Is _ a _?" is, in my opinion, a fruitless question. The question can never be answered to anyone's satisfaction, and it often serves as either a provocation to espouse politics or as a cover to institute gatekeeping. Its agenda is usually opaque to onlookers and bewildering to those trying to advance the field from across disciplines. We should be thinking in lenses, not boxes. It is always more interesting to ask "If we think of _ through the lens of _, what do we learn?" We know it is more interesting to ask "What do we learn by considering Tom Stoppard through the lens of poststructuralism?" than to ask "Is Stoppard's work poststructuralist?" And while some works may be more or less fruitful when examined through different lenses, sometimes the most unlikely pairings of lenses and objects are the most rewarding. Certainly any of the questions above would be much better served by reframing them in this way.

Wow we’re having “games are art” discourse again! Just gonna leave this here.

From my dissertation:

"There are three kinds of magic," said Wizzler, handing us each a balloon. "You can control tigers, you can shoot tornadoes from your fingers, or you can fly by holding your breath. The color of confetti inside your balloon will reveal which kind of power you have." I felt the panic rising in me. What if my confetti turned yellow, indicating that I was a Tiger-Talker? My family, a long line of proud Tornado-Fingers, would disown me. Could I ever return home, bearing such shame? I tried to calm myself as I readied the ceremonial safety pin. Green, I thought, willing my hopes into reality. Please be green. I popped the balloon, involuntarily shutting my eyes. When I opened them, would I see the green I hoped for? The yellow I feared? What if, gods forbid, the confetti were blue? I opened my eyes, seeing shock on the faces of my classmates. Wizzler himself stared at me, wide-eye. Looking down, I saw myself covered in confetti... purple confetti.

“I don’t understand,” I growled, my body trembling with pain. “I combined eighty percent Earth-elemental mana with twenty percent Fire-elemental mana (Type B), focused through a twenty-four-sided icositetragon made of yellow topaz. This, in conjunction with my blood type, star sign, sense of humor, and nickname, should have produced a blazing column of lightning to vaporize my enemies. Instead, it made a big bubble that smells like fresh laundry. Why?” Skullgrumbler began to laugh. “You fool! You don’t even realize…” he squealed. “You’re facing east!”

“It’s whatever you want,” explained Magemaster Grampledog. “Magic is just whatever you want.” I knew he was speaking in riddles, but I couldn’t grasp his hidden meaning. “So the rules are…” Grampledog lit a sliver of smokereed. “No rules. You say some words and you wave a stick and whatever you want just happens. You don’t even need the stick.” His wisdom still eluded me. I stared into his face, trying to decipher what he was really saying. “No, listen.” Grampledog snapped his fingers and his desk turned into a pile of chicken nuggets. “I didn’t even know that would happen.” His hat then came alive and began to yodel. “It’s pandemonium,” he explained. “It’s complete nonsense.”

In my experience there are three kinds of fantasy magic novels:

the ending of this explainer might surprise you

He wanted those tamales!

I wonder how much of that was chartering buses to throw trans people under

Draw Steel Creator License — MCDM Productions

But this type of person generally doesn't read more of the text than the snippets shown in screenshots, so they don't know their claims of objective superiority could be tested. If they were saying things in good faith to begin with, that is.
www.mcdmproductions.com/draw-steel-c...

Imagine complaining that something isn't to your liking while having all the avenues to you making your changes and getting money from people for it open.

Motherfucking wind farms…

At least they sound kinda fancy. Imagine how bummed you'd be to find out all that pain was due to a kidney rock

Oh, and it was really disheartening to see people proclaim it Bad Design like that's objective and offer to "fix" it. That's how you never get an actual offer and how I find accounts to block