Shannon Appelcline

Yep! "One of the earliest" is another favorite for me.

The usual caveats apply.

Is a Gen Ship game really SFRPG? Or do we save that for the Space Operas? How about Gamma World?

And, is the John Carter game really an RPG?

A timeline of SFRPGs from 1976 to 1978: 1976: Starfaring, Metamorphosis Alpha 1977: Space Quest, Traveller 1978: Star Trek, Starships & Spacemen, Gamma World, John Carter Warlord of Mars

I've finally gotten back to working on my timeline of RPGs, and I think it'll help people who insist on using the dangerous "first" word.

For SFRPGs, Starfaring and Metamorphosis Alpha were out in 1976. But is there a super small-press release I don't know about? Starfaring is often called first.

I have a box in Designers & Dragons: The Lost Histories that asks "What was the 2nd published RPG?" and it offers four different answers, varied by what your definition of "published" is and what your definition of "RPG" is.

(Empire of the Petal Throne, Game of Dungeon, Tunnels & Trolls, Boot Hill)

And this is why you try to never say *first* in your historic work. Because (a) you don't know what you don't know; (b) things are rarely that cut and dry.

I prefer "popularized" when I talk about something. Traveller isn't the first SFRPG, but it popularized the genre.

AI bullshit is ruining everything.

Must have been after my eyes glazed over. :)

"Could our support for facists be the reason for our stock dropping 30%?" "No, it must be that we're off trend."

And even if the new Target CEO is too stupid to consider those issues, you'd hope that journalists would mention the context. But most journalists aren't journalists any more.

Pretty weird to have a whole article about reinventing Target without talking about their attacks on DEI and LGBT or their support of ICE. Seems like if your stock was down 30%, you'd consider why you're now being boycotted on a national scale.

A mock-up of a bookplate with the cover art from the fourth edition of Mutants & Masterminds with Steve Kenson's signature.

Limbering up my signing hand: As a thank you to our wonderful backers, we will be including a signed book plate with every print edition of the Mutants & Masterminds Hero's Handbook #TTRPG (both standard and special). If you haven't yet backed for a print book, now is the time! Just 48 hours to go!

Apple sued by authors over use of books in AI training Technology giant Apple was accused by authors in a lawsuit on Friday of illegally using their copyrighted books to help train its artificial intelligence systems, part of an expanding legal fight over...

* Like the rest of the AI techbros, Apple is accused of using the huge repo of stolen books called Books3 for training their AI model.

Apple Intelligence & Siri panel from Apple settings, with Apple Intelligence turned off.

If your Mac has been badgering you about "Apple Intelligence" since a secretive midnight upgrade of late, turning their plagiarism center* off is as simple as looking for "Apple Intelligence" in your Settings and flicking a button.

The Supreme Court doesn't care if you want to copyright your AI-generated art The highest court in the US declined to review a case about copyrighting artwork created with the help of AI.

And BOOM goes the dynamite. To all the AI Bros who have slid into my mentions to tell me that you CAN in fact copyright AI materials, the Supreme Court has told you to go suck rocks. A prompt is not authorship. And if there is no author, there is no valid copyright.

www.engadget.com/ai/the-supre...

And just to reiterate that word pretzel of passive voice one more time:

"Earlier on, they were referred to differently."

Thanks, WotC.

Did Wizards previously say the 2024 rules wouldn’t be called 5.5e? Earlier on, they were referred to differently. As D&D Beyond evolved and more players used both versions side by side, it became clear that “5.5e” matched how the community already talks about ...

"Did Wizards previously say the 2024 rules wouldn’t be called 5.5e?"

"Earlier on, they were referred to differently. As D&D Beyond evolved and more players used both versions side by side, it became clear that “5.5e” matched how the community already talks about the game ..."

As I said in my yearly post about roleplaying in 2024: "it’ll probably be called 5.5e in the years to come, though 5.24e and 2024e are also being bandied around at the moment. "

I'm actually slightly surprised that WotC gave up the ghost so quickly.

Calling AI "slop" has been one of the most effective instances of the public rebranding a product and it pisses them off.

Bayt al Azif has been interested in publishing some of my Cthulhu-related history, but it's part of a general trend also including articles like this and on the history of Call of Cthulhu in Sweden.

(There's of course plenty of material directly applicable for your games, but I love this stuff!)

We actually swapped emails on it a couple of years ago, and I'm pretty sure this version should have your comments accommodated.

But I've a few months before Lost Histories goes to press & would love to hear any add'l thoughts, especially on lessons learned; that's great stuff for the histories!

Home | Kauai Path

The first half of today's work done at the outdoor mall at Kukui Grove while my new Kia was worked on.

I now have a trailer hitch so I can mount my bike rack, which means I can take my bike out to the Kauai Path tomorrow. Haven't been riding in over a month.

FRIDAY'S WORDS:
* Answered the last (?) set of questions from my editor before Designers & Dragons Origins goes to print.
* Finalized edits of updates in Grim & Perilous, Arcane Library & Tuesday Knight articles for Lost Histories.
* Edited Second Origins II Ch. 13: Dark Sun — Freedom.

fin feb.

Also, they're clearly lying through their teeth about getting fully booked with paid clients.

Manipulative FOMO bullshit that's likely turning FAFO in their face.

A screenshot of an email from an ad agency to Evil Hat Marketing: Hey Evil Hat team, Promised this is the last time you’ll hear from me. We are wrapping up generating content on the house. The AI studio is starting to get fully booked with our paying clients, and I have strict orders to stop promoting this come the weekend. I figured Evil Hat might as well get some work out of us at no cost while you can. Want in before we close it up? Best, [redacted] And then our reply: Hi [redacted], We will never use AI for our games or for our marketing. It's toxic to our customer audience and it's an ethical violation of the hard work put in by the human artists we hire to illustrate our books and the human writers who design our games. In short, it's not "free work" it's theft. Feel free to take me off your mailing list. Hope you turn around your business model because frankly, your current approach sucks shit. -Tom

sometimes you have to be clear about your values

Usually, writing Designers & Dragons didn't change *my* interest in a game ... but sometimes it did.

I started out writing Designers & Dragons to learn about the games that I loved and I learned that I loved other games in the process.

One of the joys of writing Designers & Dragons has been discovering the wonder in games & even companies that I had no interest in.

From Rifts to Tails of Equestria, I found what other people see in them, and it's amazing.

A preview of Designers & Dragons: The 10s in the excellent Bayt al Azif today!

FIXED IT FOR YOU: "after impersonating police officers to gain entry to the building"

From the numenera community on Reddit: Numenera AMA with Sean Thursday 26th February 2pm CST Explore this post and more from the numenera community

Today I'm doing an AMA on the /Numenera subReddit, starting at about noon PT/3pm ET!
www.reddit.com/r/numenera/c...

I think someone pointed it out around when I was doing all the interviews for Designers & Dragons Origins