Tor

Wir sind das Volk! It's finally back online again!

rally-the-troops.com/wir-sind-das...

Early concept art by Chris Foss for Alien (1979)

This is a truly fascinating thread, and discusses an implied cooperation in every game, not matter how competitive. I hadn't thought of it that way and now I am.

a poster for murdoch mysteries shows a sailboat ALT: a poster for murdoch mysteries shows a sailboat

Look what just set sail on Rally the Troops ...

The eleventy-eighth ruleset! There are enough ambiguities and unspecified cases in all of the Hannibal rules versions, that any rules enforced digital implementation would need to make its own interpretations.

Me too!

Not being able to secure either of those titles for implementation is a bummer.

Wikimedia Foundation backing off of this after user outcry is good, but IMO not good enough to offset the horrificness of making the decision originally, and the fact that it's "paused" not "cancelled" and they're "still interested in AI-generated summaries" ain't great either.

Fuhhhhhhhhhhck.

Scavengers Reign (2023)

The best recent sci-fi show that almost no one has seen.

All of Tim Kirk’s art from the 1975 Tolkien Calendar 1/3

This is so ridiculously harmful and has nothing to do with protecting women. It is about social hygiene and the fact that some people think sex work is gross. And it has massive knock on effects.

Panel One: A scientist is giving a lecture. she stands at a lecturn. The current slide shows a list of the five kingdoms of living things: Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista and Monera. She says "Most people assume that fungi are plants. Whereas in fact, they form a kingdom of their own." Panbel Two: Caption : After the lecture The scientist now appears to be in a subterranean cave, before her stand two very large mushrooms guarding a larger, beardedmushroom who sits in athrone wearing a crown. One of the mushrooms says "His majesty is very pleased with the work you are doing."

A recent @newscientist.com cartoon #fungi

Good things can grow in the soil of bad things:

The tariff crisis seems to be sparking a creative surge in me.

For a decade, my game design life has split between work and personal projects.

🎲✂️(1/9)

Bentley's Game of Om Nom Nom!

The follow-on volume to Coast Watchers - this one set on the Western Front in World War I - has hit GMT's P500.
www.gmtgames.com/p-1162-drach...

One of the most powerful pieces of creative advice I've ever come across:

Hang out with people who are better than you at things that matter to you.

My dad used to say: "Your goal should be to be the dumbest person in the room."

In my own life, wow has that turned out to be good advice.

🎲✂️

Great to see The Guardian recycling an article of mine from 2023 without attribution:

https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2023/11/dont-create-the-torment-nexus.html

as

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/14/the-big-idea-will-sci-fi-end-up-destroying-the-world

Title: Modern Folk horrors of the British Isles Five images of various characters: A coven of murderous witches... Who play loud youtube videos on public transport. An ancient malevolent demon... With a three-hour podcast interviewing entrepreneurs. A flock of bloodthirsty ravens... Who think absolutely everything is "Woke". A primordial shambling beast... Wearing a "Make albion great again" baseball cap. A mob of satanic villagers... Who give bad reviews to books they haven't read.

my HORRIFYING cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com books

also also AI art is theft and ecologically unviable and normalizing it only gives it the continued power to destroy our knowledge & institutions

it is soulless and always, always inexcusable, and some people really should know better but I thought I was pretty diplomatic about it frankly

Vijayanagara by @sespagnolie.bsky.social and friends is now out for RTT!

A thousand thank yous to Joël Simoneau for programming it.

rally-the-troops.com/vijayanagara

#PortfolioDay Sci-fi, ruins, and odd plants

Everyone raised on the AP Style Guide is having a moment with this one, thank you @ellecordova.bsky.social

Hey! You can play Land and Freedom right now for free on Rally the Troops! And the game will even do the rules for you, so learning is a breeze. www.rally-the-troops.com/land-and-fre... #antifascism @ccxvii.bsky.social

Yes! It's here.

rally-the-troops.com/land-and-fre...

And it's a good one too! Hope you'll enjoy it. It's the one that got me hooked on war games, and the one that set me off the path to creating rally-the-troops.com

Brage Viking, an anchor handling tug painted in bright yellow and black stripes. It's a properly meaty beast of a boat, ice-capable and hugely imposing. It's currently hanging around one of the ships from the recent collision outside the Humber.

More ships should look like they just sailed out of a Chris Foss painting

To me the biggest alarm, and thus the thing worth discussing at all, is the rampant anti-intellectualism of Tom and Zee’s statements in relation to the conversation Amabel is having.

They’re not just saying games are toys—which they can be. They’re saying we mustn’t pretend they’re anything more.

YouTube video by Mary & Amabel Holland Mechanisms as Metaphors: How Board Games Create Meaning

It’s finally here! Mechanisms as Metaphors: How Board Games Create Meaning takes a look at how board games make persuasive arguments, how they might move us emotionally, and how the ways we talk about the form might hinder its development.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG4z...

Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery PCCC is a conservation cemetery in Gainesville Florida that provides green burials while simultaneously protecting land for future generations.

We are burying my dad at Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery and I want to talk about what that means and encourage you to look into whether there's something similar near you. 🧵1/

Exciting news! We’re thrilled to announce that tapir Yuna gave birth to a rare and endangered Malayan tapir calf Sunday night. The newborn, covered in distinctive white spots and stripes resembling a fuzzy walking watermelon, is only the second tapir born in our 120-year history.

Hey- it's your girl, the person born in America who fled in the Bush years. I have successfully immigrated to four (4) countries over the course of my life and I have some insight into that process. I think you should try if you want, but know that borders exist to be racist which makes it hard.