Solo Wargames
Does anyone else find it significant that solo miniature wargames have become so popular in recent years? Games like that shown here (which you can get a hard copy of through Lulu), Rangers of Shadowdeep, Five Leagues from the Borderlands, and so on. To say nothing of Mike Lambo’s long-running series...
The Most Important Event In TableTop (You’ve Probably Never Heard Of)
Looking back on 2021, it occurred to me that the most important event in tabletop gaming in decades might have been the PvP death of Bob Dobs (run by Kestutis Kalvitis), who was eaten by cave bears on the command of Chief Fudd of Fug. Cirsova, the man behind...
Towards A New Model of Adventure Gaming
As this post goes live, the IP holders for D&D are doing their darndest to rip conventional play away from the hobby approach of “anything is possible at the table (as long as you adhere to story-arc driven narrative games)” and into a consumerist approach of “gatcha driven subscription...
Mary Shelley Invented RPGs
Thanks in large part to the bros actively re-inventing and reshaping RPGs through experimentation, session reports, analysis, and (sometimes heated) discussion, the hobby has cycled back to the age old question of, “Who invented role playing games?” Other lesser factors contribute, of course. The upper midwest Boomer Crew is...
Red Letter Norms
The RLM guys are experts at one particular species of cultural tree, but have spent so much time looking at the one tree that they can’t see how the health of the forest is killing that tree. Naturally, that tree is cinema and the forest is the wider culture....
GrimDark
Ashe Barker, over at the YouTube Channel Guerilla Miniatures Games, has been running down a long series of thoughts on GrimDark Media. It’s a fun series – one of those hangout and gab sessions with a couple of ersatz friends who share many of the same interests as you. ...
On Lahaina
The one thing we can all agree on in the aftermath of the Lahaina Fire is that the events prove that my pre-conceived political and economic notions are one-hundred percent correct: Vegans suck. They cause the fire by pressuring big corporations and legislatures (but I repeat myself) to enact...
A Love of History
This map has been making the rounds on social media. The white dots represent the locations of battles fought during the last 4,500 years of recorded history. Before we get into a deeper analysis, look at this: The map doesn’t really show the locations of all the earth’s battles....
Hello, Gym
Finally got things re-ordered in life to commit to the fit. A lot of my contemporaries have been losing weight, adding muscle, and generally vocal about their gainz and how they get them. You could say they bullied me into it, though that might be a half truth. For decades...
Pushed Out of the House of Cards
From the “They’re Not Sending Their Best Files” comes today’s general attitude among the moneyed class that all brands must participate in the Holy Modernist Month of June. You know which of the deadly sins we are supposed to celebrate instead of celebrating something good and beautiful and true. ...