Tom Houghton

A product photo with a supposed hospital employee wearing a vest with three visible pouches that are made of probably nylon and mesh, and they are buckled closed like the buckles on bike helmets, and in each pouch is a baby doll

I have to take an annual fire safety training for work, and I am reminded that I asked some of the folks who manage these things how they evacuate the NICU and apparently they have vests you can load up with babies

📌

Left: castle spiral stair turning clockwise as it ascends; many believe it advantages right-handed defenders

Right: art critic Theodore Cook, obsesseed w/ spirals, left-handedness & fencing, who invented the story in 1902

Here's the Mediaeval Mythbusting Blog on castle stairs:
tinyurl.com/2b99r6u6

Photo of FT Weekend supplement with a printing of Lasers & Feelings

Lasers & Feelings in the Financial Times. Let's go

a poster that reads: HELP! an indie TTRPG game designer pay their rent SALE. below are the covers of the 12 games in sale. get 12 games for $15 dngn club

I wouldn't shilling so hard if it wasn't an emergency. Had some unexpected expenses this summer (which is the slower season for my household) and we are try to catch up. Please consider grabbing EVERY PAID GAME I HAVE for $15 bucks and/or sharing this around.

Thank you so much!

A letter-sized handout titled "How to Play Hard and Have Fun in '68". The principles are: 1. Go in boots and all. The campaign will be shorter than you think. Make stuff happen now. Don’t wait, pull the trigger. 2. Dig the other characters. Dial in on the other player characters, pay attention to their narrative, and get your own character involved. Be their fan, or be their foil. 3. Make the GM sweat. Think of the game like a physics toy, and push the levers you have as hard as you can, just to see what happens. Rattle the cage, jump out the window, don’t look down. Move so fast the GM can’t keep up. 4. Sell the punches. Always choose the bigger reaction. Let your character be changed by the world and by the other characters. Let them be upset, emotional, irrational. 5. Fuck around and find out. If your character dies, they can come back as an echo. If they have to retire, you can always make a new character. The crew cannot be stopped. Act first and think later, make bad decisions, let the chips fall where they may. 6: Learn to stop worrying and love consequences. Most rolls are going to have consequences. Wouldn’t it be boring to succeed all the time? Embrace consequences, and create consequences, then roll them up in a giant ball of chaos and surf on top.

Blades '68: Player Principles handout.

Doodling on an old forgotten art file

i don’t know if rowlf singing “what a wonderful world” to a sleeping puppy is soothing or lie-on-the-floor-and-sob heartbreaking. maybe it’s both. i think I needed both.

The WaPa headline says: 60,000 Gazans were killed. 18,500 of them were children. These are some of their names. Then follows an enormous list of small print names

Thousands of small print names interspersed with some photos of some of the child victims

NEW: 18,500 children have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.

The Washington Post has just published every single known name.

A seminal moment.

22:10 Film The War Game Controversial film depicting the terrible consequences of a nuclear attack on Britain. Programme website 22:55 Documentary Remembers... Mick Jackson Remembers... Threads Director and producer Mick Jackson looks back on the BBC’s 1984 apocalyptic drama Threads.

Hell of a night on BBC Four ahead.

Maz mentoring/consultation signup Are you a tabletop RPG creator looking for advice or support on a project? I'm once again offering an hour or so's coffee and consultation, starting in September 2025. Priority will be given to folks ...

meanwhile, I'm opening up free consultation slots again from Sept, so if you're a TTRPG person who'd benefit from a bit of focussed chat about (a) spreadsheets (b) running a functional micromultinational enterprise or (c) creating books for absolute sickos, hit me up docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

We have a new site! And to celebrate we are opening our curated Mausritter boutique. We have restocks, new third-party releases and CABINET OF CURIOSITIES! An official module written by myself, Andre Novoa, with @losing.games blessing. It's got clockwork lizard, slimy snails and a hedgehog wizard.

So we are hiring at the moment for two jobs - one in social media & marketing, and the other across customer experience & community. Links are here rowanrookanddecard.com/work-with-us... and I want to talk for a minute about what we’re offering beyond “a job in games”.

Link to their Vendor Application page:

www.leedsbgc.co.uk/contact-8-1

Screenshot from a newsletter announcing that "We have been able to secure extra space within the (Leeds Board Game Con) venue for TTRPGs! This is a recent development and we are still working out the finer details of this - whilst we confirm this, we'd love to hear from any TTRPG specialst you may know - please encourage them to fill out the form below!"

@shop.peregrinecoast.press Was @leedsbgc.bsky.social on your radar? Just seen they're expanding their space for TTRPGs at next year's event and are asking for "TTRPG specialists" to get in touch!

On the left: the text "GAMES WORKSHOP" rendered in a vibrant red and yellow angular typeface. On the right: the words "GAMES WORKSHOP" rendered in the same bland Gill Sans-esque capitals that every bloody brand uses these days.

What an utterly dogshit rebrand. Take something unique, characterful and distinctive and make it look like every other bland corporate unbrand out there.

Its hard to beat this gem from the fine folks at @melsonian-arts-council.itch.io

Selection of smugglers nicknames

Tag yourself, I'm Yorkshire George.

Less than 24 hours after @acvalens.net broke this story, it was removed from the site following direct intervention from VICE’s owners, who were reportedly uncomfortable with the subject matter.

Censoring a story on censorship is about as 2025 as it gets.

It's an Abbott and Costello sketch

"I'm going to vote for Your Party"
"So, you're voting for Reform?"
"No, Your Party"
"You mean Labour? I don't support them any more"
"No, YOUR PARTY"

@loottheroom.bsky.social continues doing God’s work

So cool.

I'd love to join a screening like that.

The Prisoner YouTube video by ITV Retro

@floaker.bsky.social in case you haven’t seen, relevant to your interests and a game you made: The Prisoner now officially up on YouTube for anyone to watch. (Not regionlocked in NZ but might be elsewhere)

youtube.com/playlist?lis...

📌

An unbearably sad statement from the Editorial Committee (SDJ) of the AFP news agency, please read:

"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die.
AFP has been working with 1 writer, 3 photographers and 6 videographers, all freelance, in the Gaza Strip… /1

Every single queer in games (video or ttrpgs) should be livid about this.

The audacity of using AI on an adaptation of an Alberto Breccia comic... a guy who went to any lengths to pursue new ways of analog texturing his work. He made comics of nothing but cut up construction paper, he embroidered landscapes in his panels, and inked with fucking razor blades

For board gamers? I think this is one of the best "business cards" around. Expressive, simple, delightful, easily carried, and something you want to keep. Parfait!

Good morning to all weird gun enjoyers, here's some pistols for ants, a pair of all-metal double-barrelled wheellocks, and a pistol decorated with people frolicking about