it's always like

>TTRPG creators complain that TTRPG journalists never cover smaller games

>TTRPG journalists say their job is to report the news not be advertisers

>”the news” is always at least two headlines for every D&D5e release or whatever movie-budget D&D5e "actual play" podcast is coming out next

The TTRPG industry and hobby weren't exactly highly newsworthy before D&D 5e resulted in a (D&D) boom. The thing is, there were and still are sites that reported on TTRPG industry issues (even though those sites were becoming largely supplanted by blogs and social media) but once D&D 5e hit the market and suddenly became a Big Thing it suddenly caused a surge of interest in TTRPGs, if by TTRPGs you meant D&D and like maybe a couple of other games worthy of mainstream recognition.

The unfortunate side effect of this is that while it did bring a lot of new eyes towards TTRPGs they were almost singularly focused on D&D. While those old sites for TTRPG news that actually cover the hobby and industry beyond D&D still exist they have been pushed out of the spotlight by a number of other publications that had the benefit of exposure. Thus, in a relatively short time what most people see as TTRPG news became D&D news.

And like I do think it's unfair to expect this new crop of prospective TTRPG journalists to immediately know what's up with a hobby that's been around for fifty years by now but like sometimes I feel like I'm spouting the Deep Lore or some shit when I mention names like Fred Hicks or Avery Alder or Robin D. Laws.

If TTRPG journalists want us to take them seriously and not just as an advertising arm of WotC D&D they need to be willing to demonstrate a bit of curiosity about the hobby beyond the entry level stuff. We would absolutely make fun of film critics as a class if most of them didn't bother to cover anything besides the MCU, and I think we should in fact call out RPG journalism that only serves to advertise for the biggest game in the hobby while failing to account for the sheer amount of variety out there.

I'll take this a step further in that the journalists who pride themselves on covering things outside D&D still aren't going FAR ENOUGH. They're still coving mostly people who have sufficient cultural capital to maintain their own success. If you're capable of pulling off a 25-50k Kickstarter you already have enough visibility.

We need more journalists covering the fringe. The ones willing to go exploring and cover, like, literally anything that captures their own attention that hasn't captured anyone else's attention.

Hi, my podcast turned 10 years old this week, and has spotlighted more individual, unique RPGs than any show in the history of actual play, at around 375ish different systems played at time of reblogging

we should globally ban the introduction of more powerful computer hardware for 10-20 years, not as an AI safety thing (though we could frame it as that), but to force programmers to optimize their shit better

I reblogged this like 9 times kinda jokingly, but software should be able to run on older and less powerful hardware, and consume less power on newer hardware. Like, this is a real problem imo

I completely agree with this but I do need you to understand that the image above is 32 times the size of the lunar mission’s memory

This is what the image looked like compressed to 4 kb

really mean minecraft mod idea: rituals that work but in a very vague and hard to understand ways

at the start of a world, a set of actions are randomly chosen which have some positive effect. walking counterclockwise around a tree or throwing an item into a fire or killing an animal with an axe. there has to be a very large number of possible actions such that they won't seem to repeat.

when doing a ritual, you get a buff that's clearly there but kind of subtle. maybe ores drop more, or monsters don't hurt as much. it's never communicated that you have a buff, the idea is that you accidentally do a ritual and notice "oh shit I'm getting really lucky, maybe I should do that more"

there's also a set of attributes which can greatly increase the effectiveness of your rituals, completely randomized per world of course. sometimes it's additional steps, drawn from the same set as before. sometimes it's decorating the ritual site in a particular way, with skulls or candles or flowers. maybe it's more effective at a certain time of day or phase of the moon. maybe it's more effective on the top of a mountain or in a cave.

because the magnitude and duration of the buff is randomized, you can't really know if stuff you're doing is helping, but you'll be always trying shit out and modifying your rituals. the buffs get really impactful, and you can hardly play the game without them.

after a while you'll build up elaborate rituals and intricate temples housing them, and importantly

half the shit you're doing does absolutely nothing

if you get lucky a few times with a modification to the ritual you'll adopt it even if it actually does nothing. depending on how succeptible to confirmation bias you are, you might develop whole rituals that literally do nothing but you're entirely convinced that they do. you'll be dancing around trees and putting pumpkins on your head for literally no measurable benefit.

will this be actually fun? probably not. will I actually make this? absolutely not. i just think it would be an interesting case study in behavior. if someone wants to steal my idea, please do and tell me so I can play it.

@linearmoss

If anyone is more interested in the work behind the Gävle goat there is apparently a documentary here, mostly in swedish, but what I found most charming is that you can climb into the goat through a door in it's behind.

And if you ever wondered: yes, according to rumors a couple have fucked in the Gävle goat. In 1966 in fact, the first year it was up and before any kind of arson. I don't know why they threw that into the documentary but this goat has layers is all I'm saying.

Uppdate: The link seems dead, here is a drive link with the documentary, now with both swedish and english subtitles :)

Like for the goat to burn. Reblog for people to fuck inside the goat.

Hopefully not at the same time.

Like for the goat to

burn. Reblog for people to

fuck inside the goat.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

they should invent a searching for jobs that doesn't open a miles-deep pit of despair and rage within me that gets deeper and wider with every scroll because it's all shit that is impossible for me to do because I am not a real human like other people

worst part about the Internet is knowing that there are finally people who both match and complement your freak. the nearest one is 2,318.4 miles away and your time zones are awkward

HEAD IN MY HANDS

how to survive a felony trial: keeping your head up through the worst of it

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ files / pdfs / links ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PRINT FORMAT: crimethinc

SCREEN FORMAT: crimethinc

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ topics ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ notes from the distroist ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ suggested reading ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ from the zine ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ end ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My beloved retired Triangle Agent Nell for the TA Fanzine Retired Agents Catalogue!

Agent name: Eleanor “Nell” Jackson ARC: Manifold / Pursued / R&D Date of retirement: 4/22/25 Type of retirement: Over the Rainbow Field Team Name: First Quarter / “Conflict Resolution” Branch name: The Hearth

A little reminder that "rust world" is a fan-name for the other dimension and canonically it's just "the other world". The rust infected the machine world, calling it "rust world" like calling our world somthin like "rot world"

I know I haven't posted regularly on this blog in years but I'm not seeing a whole lot of posts on this site about what's happening in Minneapolis right now. And the posts I am seeing are not covering the scope of it. I'm genuinely surprised because tumblr is usually where I find out about things organically through my feed. So I'm making a post about it.

A brief summary of events, from someone who pays attention and also lives here, best taken with a grain of salt and some fact checking:

2020: George Floyd is murdered by Minneapolis police. There are weeks of protests about it. It makes national news. Protests happen in DC. The infamous Trump and his bible photo shoot happens.

2024: Gov. Tim Walz is Kamala Harris' running mate in the presidential election. He starts the "they're just weird" thing. Is folksy, Trump personally hates him.

November 2025: ICE starts showing up to "crack down" on "illegal immigrants" in our Somali community. I may remember the numbers wrong, but something like 90% of our Somali neighbors are either naturalized or were born here. People distribute ICE whistles and are on high alert. Localized to the twin cities.

December 2025: Nick Shirley is paid by a bunch of MN Republicans to do an exposé on daycare fraud. I didn't hear much about this. All I really know is this was an ongoing investigation that MN officials were already taking care of and some of the guilty parties have already gone to court from a COVID era food assistance program. Mostly, if not all, legal US citizens. He did a really bad job at doing journalism and just showed up to day cares with a camera crew and went "YUP nobody's here" as if they weren't in lock-down procedure because some fuck ass white men showed up with camera equipment that could easily be mistaken for guns. I believe. I will fact check all of this and will correct myself in a reblog if necessary. (source but not all the details that I remember hearing about but they said there was no recorded evidence of fraud)

Conservative internet explodes. Kristi Noem sends a mess of agents. I know it's more than a thousand more. They call it Operation Metro Surge. They are going everywhere. There are protests. People try to interrupt the arrests. It's a lot.

1/7/2026: Renee Nicole Good is shot by an ICE agent in the middle of a protest. A few blocks away from where George Floyd was killed. Broad daylight. In front of a crowd. While she was following instructions to turn her vehicle around. Jonathan Ross, the piece of shit Nazi who did it, was recording on his phone the whole time, switched his phone to his non dominant hand so he could more effectively shoot her in the face from 2 feet away. Claims self defense, several angles immediately disprove him. He releases his video, he calls her a "fucking bitch" as her corpse drives away. Does not help him at all. (source) He has not been seen since. Some photos/reports exist of a bunch of agents showing up to his house and taking some tubs and art away. His wife is an immigrant. (source but it's the daily mail so grain of salt.)

Not hours later they go raid a school and tear gas a bunch of kids. (source). Minneapolis has switched to distance learning. I'm not sure about St. Paul.

The last week: There are up to 3,000 ICE agents here. Keep in mind Minneapolis and St. Paul only have 600 or fewer police officers each. So these dudes are roaming in packs. It's 2-4 dudes to a car and 2-5 cars per pack. People are "commuting with" ICE agents to honk and alert people that they're there. People are going on patrols with their neighbors.

ICE is no longer asking "are you a citizen." They are simply walking up to you and taking you into custody. They are going door to door. They have started just breaking the door down if you don't comply. They are driving recklessly to just grab pedestrians and drivers alike (source). People are afraid to go get groceries. It's all over the state. I am learning names of cities in places I thought were just factory farm land and I've lived here my whole life because they're doing raids there. I had to text my family in the suburbs because I saw reports of my small little hometown an hour away getting door knocks today.

It's insane and I am not doing it justice. There are thousands of masked federal agents roaming around all of Minnesota with no warrant or specific goal. They are just trolling around looking for people. They are detaining anyone and everyone. They are beating people. They are pepper spraying people. They are kidnapping people. They are acting unconstitutionally, aggressively, and unpredictably. They are creating situations that are dangerous so that they can try to justify beating or shooting their way out. I will run an errand and then get fed a tiktok that was shot from the Cub Foods that I just left and there's 20+ ICE vehicles parked there now. They're taking people from work, from day care, from schools, from shopping centers.

Iceout.org tracks ice sightings. This is a screen shot with the date set to 12/1/2025.

And from today.

They have cut off SNAP and WIC benefits. Just for us. Not any other state, just Minnesota. They're saying it's because of fraud but I think it's because they hate that we use federal funds to give free breakfast and lunch to every public school student.

And this is breaking just now, 1/13/2026: the DOJ is trying to investigate Renee Good's widow. 4 people have resigned about it. (source). I don't even want to read the article to see what they're saying.

So that's a brief history.

Unicorn Riot is doing a lot of good reporting and they don't seem to have the spin that a lot of local news stations will have where they downplay everything. This article specifically goes into a lot of the specific instances of brutality.

It's also a rumor on TikTok that all of the videos of ICE and protests and the such and the like are being geo locked. So my feed is all footage of people being detained and talking about the "commuting" they're doing and what they're seeing but people outside of the state are not seeing it. So if you're also on that infernal app, try searching for Minneapolis or Minnesota and see what you see. I'm kind of curious if this is true. Because I've been living and breathing ICE and doomsday prepping content for a week. I'm sure those two topics aren't connected.

I don't really know what my goal with this post is. I'm tired. I'm in the first ring of suburbs, so it's been pretty quiet. But I have friends in south Minneapolis. And I'm worried for them. And I know it's a matter of time before my quiet pocket is affected. Because they're coming door to door.

Pay attention to Minnesota, I think an example is being made of us.

Update- Minnesota republicans are taking this opportunity to try to impeach Govt Waltz, who has already declared that he will not seek re-election in November because of Republican death threats against him and his family. Because of the "fraud". But actually because Waltz is speaking very plainly about what is happening here.

St Paul has gone to partial virtual learning for anyone who doesn't feel safe sending their kids to school.

Every school I know now has safety patrols.

The school districts are not mincing words about the clear and present threat. Everyone in the area is completely clear that we are under violent occupation.

Most of the white people ICE grab, are released within days, because ICE can't even keep track of who was grabbed by who over what. However, they are still subjected to beatings, gassing, having their home and car windows smashes, etc.

Local police are advising compliance with the blatant human rights violations and total lack of due process, because they are cowards.

Even conservative Minnesotans are balking at the total lack of due process and open violence against unresisting people for doing things like taking videos. I know a guy who was in his house recording ICE, and they smashed his home window, dragged him out over the broken glass, beat him while screaming slurs, smashed his phone, and detained for three days.

We need your help to spread the truth about what is going on. Find the videos and share them on any platform you have. Make noise about what's happening. Get your "don't tread on me" relatives whipped up about it if you can.

We need republicans to be afraid, otherwise ICE plans to be here for half a year attacking us.

If human rights can be revoked because Trump doesn't like your state, then they aren't rights anymore, they are favors dispensed by your king.

i like when you meet a couple that's a fun bisexual and her nerdy boyfriend and then you check in a few years later and now they're a fun bisexual and her nerdy wife. hit with the transgenderism beam yet largely unaffected in the romance department. really living the dream.

Has anyone figured out what’s so viscerally wrong with this woman yet

She’s so one dimensionally evil you guys 😭😭 how is she real

read this and remember it. read this and remember that she is going to use the profits of her fucking ego-stroking reboot to decimate trans rights. read this and remember that every time you pay into her IP, you are emboldening her to hurt us more.

our lives matter more than your fucking nostalgia.

trans lives matter more than your fucking nostalgia.

Just got a chatgpt ad where the use case was "can't decide a new years resolution". I can't think of anything more sad than needing a robot to tell you what your own ambitions are. Loser shit.

Five thousand people have reblogged this and only like three people have opted into the human experience and told me their ambitions for the year. I will be sword fighting 100 different people.

Legendary

playing trivia games as a nonamerican introduces a real element of chaos because sometimes the super easy beginner questions are like what was the top selling brand of toilet paper in texarkana in 1972 and sometimes the hardest questions will be like oh no a super tricky one for you: what country are dutch people from?