Richard @ R. Rook 🔜 Pax East

There is no such thing as "equality in everything but" any more than there is equality for most people and not others. Anyone who tells you otherwise does not understand the notion of "equality" and probably does not happen to be included in the exceptions to it.

Having Breakout FOMO because now I have to wait a whole year to hang out with my favorite Torontonians.

All of Rory’s complexity emerges from the reaction rolls @sfxprb.bsky.social tosses our way.

Can’t believe I left off Battlebabe.

I’ve got 3 characters, y’all:
- Angry gay socialist with no idea what to do
- Former Jesuit
- Rory, human fighter

Friend: Tell me about your Gumshoe character.
Me: I’m an angry gay socialist with no idea how fight the ancient evil entities threatening my world.
Friend: Sure, but what about your Gumshoe character.

Sometimes writing is just translating information into prose.

Sometimes writing is an oily, bitter demon under your skin that can only be exorcised through a keyboard.

And that, dear ones, is why the Keeper section of Silver Age is now called "The World, The Flesh, and The Devil."

March Gift Horse: The Mothership Review | Zzarchov Kowolski Get more from Zzarchov Kowolski on Patreon

One of my design heroes has written some incredibly wonderful praise of mothership, highlighting things a lot of people don’t talk about. I’ve got the warm butterflies.

www.patreon.com/posts/152467...

We have allowed the very worst of us to have the power they should never have and it has to be stopped.

I'm off to get some smothered in mole!

Evergreen content.

Like maybe, "should I make everything I've written CC-BY-SA?" is really not a tonight sorta decision.

Pretty sure sativa, Yoakam, and enchiladas will fix me, though.

I'm trying to remind myself that crashing from back-to-back cons means I should focus more on doing writing and less on making wild decisions about the future of my personal publishing imprint.

Was this afternoon's nap too long or not long enough?

Because they both sorta feel exactly the same.

Imagine if films were reviewed the way folks review TTRPG adventures.

"The movie's 124 minutes, 5 minutes is credits and 1 minute is an intro, so 118 minutes of movie. There are plenty of characters in there. At the 47 minute mark there's a bird"

But of course this is typo riddled. Should say:

But retailers at GAMA don’t throw down $300 for a membership (plus lodging and travel) because they’d rather sell DC comics.

The retailers who come do so because they love tabletop games and the communities they create.

Your friendly Saturday reminder that you need to treat yourself with kindness

i don't care about any arguments against this. right now the sum total of my political advocacy is: crush the Republicans and make them pay. i don't care what comes after because until we do that nothing better is possible.

The Diana Jones Award For Excellence in Gaming

The nomination period for the Diana Jones Award Emerging Designer Program is open! See our website for details. You can nominate yourself or any worthy tabletop game designers in their first three years of publishing.

Nominations close March 16.

Spread the word! Thanks!

www.dianajonesaward.org

You like fancy covers on your TTRPG 🧐 of course you do!

@brennanrtaylor.bsky.social only needs a thousand bucks to slap a fancier cover on Teenage Ninja Fighting School.

A shōnen anime TTRPG with playing cards ♠️♣️♥️♦️ instead of dice 🎲!

So I’m already looking forward to GAMA Expo in Baltimore next year (and for several years after that).

Meeting so many stores that unreservedly love both tabletop, its creators, and their customers made some big dents in my cynicism and pessimism.

I grew up with one of the most toxic LGS’s in my area of DFW (they had stiff competition). I shopped for RPG books at bookstores because local stores actively despised their customers.

Got to meet queer store owners and staff from all over the south about their on-the-ground realities and their commitment to their communities.

Got to talk to (and hug) staff and owners at Gather & Game and Twenty Sided Store, two of the greatest third-spaces focused stores on the East Coast.

Retailers and librarians are often the front lines of making third spaces in tabletop safe. I got to talk to the incredible team at Misty Mountain in WI about standing up to toxic people in making community spaces.

But retailers at GAMA don’t throw down $300 for a membership (plus lodging and travel), the retailers who come do so because they love tabletop games and the communities they create.

When someone first told me GAMA was a great place to connect with retailers, I thought that sounded painful and dull.

One reason to love GAMA is that it’s a wonderful, chill space to connect with other publishers and creators we never get to really see at bigger cons. But the other reason: retailers.