Pretty crazy how important the blockade of a trade route is right now
10.03.2026 21:30
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Pretty crazy how important the blockade of a trade route is right now
"You could have the perfect novel just for you!" That's not how it works. I could never have guided an AI to write Cloud Atlas. Or the Dandelion Dynasty. Or The Salt Grows Heavy. People needed to have thoughts. And needed to express them.
And I as the reader am the richer for that.
Hearing how markets are being flooded by AI doesn't make me go, "Oh wow, two [hundred] cakes!" It makes me not want to engage with those markets. If your book marketplace allows AI-written slop, the AI will outpace an army of human writers, and I will not use that marketplace. Simple as.
Hey, if you back this collection of Trophy scenarios, then one of the dangerous frogs in my incursion, Pentah's Rest, will be named after you.
It won't say so in the book, but you and I will know.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/fir...
Oh my goodness, Matt beat me to the "lol garlic" option.
Open an Italian restaurant.
We've unlocked all our goals for our Trophy TTRPG anthology of one shots! Look forward to incursions written by @lackingceremony.bsky.social, @thebadspot.bsky.social, @lincodega.com, @kierongillen.bsky.social, @quinnblackwell.bsky.social & @premeemohamed.com :D www.kickstarter.com/projects/fir...
I heard a rumor that every follower of this campaign is drafted as an NPC for every game of Public Access going forward.
You're going to exist in the town of Deep Lake, possibly "off-camera," in every campaign: making the rounds, being haunted, living your desert life.
Get drafted!
This play culture is actually so pervasive that books/games have been written *assuming* players are going to do whatever they want anyways and take a "do whatever" stance, further reinforcing this mentality rather than doing anything to break out of it.
Well-written TTRPGs aren't Calvinball.
Poorly-written games are so common and expected that a play culture has become pervasive where GMs approach well-written games and their first instinct is to just slash them apart and slap the bits into their own version of a bad 5E hack rather than try to run a game as it's written.
The real reason Batman can't kill the Joker is because, every time someone does, the timeline resets, and another Bruce must relive the death of his parents. The pieces reset. The cycle begins again.
Gotham is a Domain of Dread.
Static image of a man screaming
Public Access is a horror game about childhood trauma and the treacherous nature of memory. In an industry obsessed with cartoon gloss and chasing mass market appeal, Public Access just wants to scare you.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/gau...
Promo for Public Access, an analog horror ttrpg. Coming to Kickstarter March 17, 2026. Features image of a grotesque puppet named Happy Jack on a vintage television set.
A signal beckons…
www.kickstarter.com/projects/gau...
I vividly remember 7 being a plot point in The Faculty.
I feel like I'm seeing a lot of folks relaying companies reaching out to them with "try out our latest feature, it uses AI to..."
And something about it *feels* like AI (as it's currently majorly marketed) in its death-throes? Like, this reeks of desperation, seeking buyers.
We've hit all our stretch goals for our TTRPG anthology!! 20 new one shot incursions for Trophy! We're not going to be printing a lot of extra books so be sure to get in on it now or you'll be sad later! www.kickstarter.com/projects/fir...
My favorite part of writing for this was saying to my playtesters, "You've faced the bees. Now it's time to meet the birds."
Kieron and Lin! Let's get that stretch goal, people!
It's wild to me that creators might only have a single, often shortened run of their game on Youtube.
Picture of Marjane Satrapi alongside a quote from her. The quote reads: The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same... - Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist
Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.
Enter the Forest…
2 more to 200 following - come join us!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/fir...
In voice acting, there's what's called an A, B, C take. You read the same lines three wildly different ways and the director will go "Give me more of C" (or whichever). I think writing has this, too. Sometimes you need to express an idea 3 ways to find the wording that really lands for you.
I was an actor once, and while I wasn't a very good one, I got enough applause that I kinda got addicted to that feeling.
This is like the writing version of that. Where you've been dancing around 4, 5, 6 ways of expressing a single idea and land on the one that makes you go, "Aw yerss, that rips."
So like, a lot of the writing process sucks. You look at a thing and go, "Ugh, it's just not where I want it."
But every so often you get something that's like 98% of the way there, and you change a sentence and now it's 99% of the way there, just 3 or 4 words that make you go
"Aw hell yesssssss."
Even debates and board room meetings have rules and structure.
I think some people see rules as walls and make them about what you can't do. I see rules (well-written ones) as the game highlighting what you *can* do.
Mechanics are your "stupid yellow paint". Even the most fully-narrativist games like Good Society have reputation tags, which flavor how I look at the world and the choices I make within it.
If you just leave something as "you can do anything", I will wind up doing nothing.
Here is a secret:
I need the stupid yellow paint. I don't hate it. I think your world is pretty and I want to look around but maybe that means I miss a ledge that leads to something cool.
This is actually a post about ttrpgs. But it's true in video games too.
I know there's a lot of eyes on Carved from Brindlewood games right now, but I just wanna say I can't wait for you all to arrive in The Lands Remaining. Holy fuck, honestly.
Alas, I am no Diaochan.
