Aaron Voigt

Rascal sometimes feels like a last bastion of real tabletop industry news.

If you want actual Board Game and TTRPG journalism, that isn't afraid to ask hard questions and do actual research, you need to check out Rascal!

Buried Without Ceremony My name is Avery Alder, and for the past eighteen years I’ve been designing tabletop roleplaying games. These are games about community, relationships, doubt, queerness, and the collapse of civilizati...

US customers can now pick up the new boxed set version of The Quiet Year. Check out my webstore for more info!

store.buriedwithoutceremony.com

"A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes."

Poetry

I have come to the idea that we have to collectively, brutally, ritualistically kill Target just to show capital that we truly aren’t fucking around.

The Endie Awards #Endies2025

You're into RPGs.

You've maybe played one this year, or ten, or... sixty-two?

What if you told us about them?

Like, in a blog post, or on here. Tell us what you played, maybe for how long. You could say if you liked them and why. You could even hand out awards.

Welcome to The #Endies2025.

An illustration of a rocketship blasting off in a huge plume of fire and smoke next to a futuristic concrete tower.

After a pause, we are once again accepting pitches for games.
If you've designed a TTRPG (especially one built on PbtA, Forged in the Dark, or Fate) that's near-complete, you can find details about how to pitch us (and the services we provide) here:
evilhat.com/game-submiss...

Share Profits from Avatar with Indigenous Artists Can you spare a minute to help this campaign?

If you haven't yet, please consider reading our petition regarding Avatar Fire & Ash. We're asking that a portion of proceeds go toward helping fund Indigenous futurist art projects. Go here to read, sign, and share:
c.org/mNWjkxpYPv
#NativeSky #AvatarFireAndAsh #IndigenousFuturism

Ending HIV in America Science has made extraordinary progress against HIV. Can innovative drugs and therapies finally end it?

Today is World AIDS Day. I only worked directly with people living with HIV for a year, but it was one of the most meaningful jobs I ever had. HIV devastated a generation of queer people in America, and I think it's worth remembering what that loss was like.

We’re raising Rascal’s subscription prices by $1 in 2026 But you can lock in the old price right now with a holiday discount!

New subscriptions to Rascal News will be rising by $1 in 2026. If you've been waiting to support us, we're currently running a holiday sale where the first two months of our entry tier is only $1/month!

Independent journalism on the cheap? Yippee-Ki-Yay, Anklebiters!

Offit told me that Kennedy is a "liar" and a "terrible human being." I asked him to explain. "It doesn't matter what I say," Offit said. "He thinks the medical journals are in the pocket of the industry, he thinks that the government is in the pocket of the industry, he thinks I'm in the pocket of industry, and he's wrong." Offit continued: "If he has data showing he's right, then fucking publish it. He can't, because he doesn't have those data." I asked Offit if he saw a way to reverse the public's rising distrust in science. "I don't think there is any way to regain that trust other than have the viruses do the education, and the bacteria do the education, and then people will realize they paid way too high a cost," he said.

presented without comment

I have nothing against you or your regional culture but there is an unbreakable spiritual bond between anyone who has ever had to scrape ice off a windshield while hungover

The Bloggies 2026 A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.

The big news this month is a teaser for The Bloggies 2026. Don't worry, you've got plenty of time. Submissions don't open until the New Year. Until then, write, bookmark, and count the days.

www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/

An official announcement will go out later this week.

Happy Critique Navidad my friends! A year ago, Clayton suggested the best gift of all was to write about a designers game, so I decided to review your games for the holiday season! I’m doing it again this year — a review (or so) every day! Submit your own if you dare!

Me on a candlelit vigil for AIDS in 1987.

Me last week. Looking pretty healthy for 58 (28 years living with HIV).

I was diagnosed with #HIV in 1998, when I was 30.
Many of my friends had died of AIDS. I did not expect to live to 50.
I’m 58 now.
HIV treatment works.
Treatment also makes it impossible for me to pass HIV on during sex.
Ensure HIV treatment for all.
End HIV stigma.
#WorldAIDSDay

Santa knows when you're sleeping and he knows when you're awake.

Judah Maccabee knows if you've been assimilating into the surrounding culture and he is NOT going to be okay with it

Image, which names the electric kettle "steam machine" and its heater "steam deck".

evergreen

What, in your opinion, is the actual end goal or "purpose" of playing a TTRPG?

This is for an in-progress writing project and would really love input (via replies, quotes, and/or shares).

The Endie Awards #Endies2025

HEY! YOU! TTRPG Nerd, check this out. As we come to the end of the year, folks are starting to reflect on the games they have played this year. Compile that data, write a reflection piece, and check out LadyTabletop's blog!

#Endies2025

ladytabletop.wordpress.com/2025/11/30/t...

Every day my mistrust of our criminal justice system is challenged by a white hot desire to see everyone involved in these lies behind bars

This is true of tabletop games but I was mostly thinking of Wicked: For Good lol

I think one of my weaknesses is that the more i learn how hard someone worked to make something, the more lenient i am with that work’s failings

aaron Do you not wanna be hoisted sexually Leyla Mamedova I BELONG ON THE GROUND

gonna be an extremely normal episode of mortified the friendship quest next week, i'm sure

I've just hit my third month at @rascal.news and am grateful and humbled to be part of this amazing crew. I've learned a lot here as the resident greenhorn, and I would love to share some pieces I've written for the site.

Sometimes, we need to fail in predicted and well-trodden ways to let the lessons of the past seep in, and if we're really lucky, we'll get to fail in new and exciting ways.

You have to be prepared to reinvent wheels, to teach, to mentor, to be annoyed, to be frustrated and bored if you actually want the field to grow and not just your own small patch of grass in it. It's surfing a wave, zigzagging up a hill, not walking a straight track.

At coffee just now with @lumpley.bsky.social, @epidiah.bsky.social, & Emily Care Boss, @acorncircus.bsky.social said “if you want new people coming into the space, you have to be prepared to have all the same conversations you’ve already had, because we haven’t had them yet” & he’s right.

"I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you might nudge the world a little"

I wish I could say I learned through this just through my own insight and wisdom, but the truth is I smashed myself against the rocks several times and had my need for expression and love for design outweigh that need for validation. But I have learned some things i can share...

Bong Joon Ho took a characteristically radical approach when questioned on his thoughts around the rise of Al technology at the jury press conference of the Marrakech Film Festival on Saturday. The Korean director, who is president of the jury, gave two responses, one measured, the other deeply personal. "My official answer is, Al is good because it's the very beginning of the human race finally seriously thinking about what only humans can do. But my personal answer is, I'm going to organize a military squad, and their mission is to destroy AI," he said.

Bong Joon Ho hit me up for the squad you legend deadline.com/2025/11/bong...