2026-01-23 03:56:58
There's this idea I've noticed over my past few years in this corner of the hobby that I want to talk about at a length a little longer than a discord post. While the blogpost under discussion (here) is a pretty good example of what I'm talking about, it's by no means the origin or the genesis of this train of thought.
We'll start with an excerpt from the blogpost, towards the end of the review. The adventure being reviewed is Gromb's Mandog, which you can find here. Anyway, here's the excerpt:
But [Mandog is] almost completely unplayable; there’s nowhere to start, there are few clues to find out what’s going on; it’s difficult to navigate to a fault. This is not a playground, and that’s a mistake for a module, because nothing works together. There’s very little level design here. I would never run this, because the preparation just to get started is way more than I can justify when there are so many other modules out there; I’d need to mark everything up, develop hooks, and figure out what the characters know so that the investigation will lead somewhere.
Issues with the reviewer's reading comprehension aside (the author misses basic information about the context of the adventure that is available as early as the first page of the module) this attitude is a pretty foreign viewpoint to me as a gamer in the ruins of the OSR/Thinking Adventure space.
Mandog is pretty undeniably one of the most fully-realized neighborhoods you can find in tabletop games. There are over 40 houses filled with people who live in them, and probably 2 in every 6 have enough sauce contained therein to fill out a whole Delta Green module.
"Where is the level design?" at least one person who barely read the module asks. Does your neighborhood have level design? Mandog succeeds and is so compelling in part because there isn't obvious level design; Gromb doesn't give two halves of a sloppy fuck if you Experience What The Designer Intended, because it's not written for a hyper-specific experience in mind. This is pretty bog-standard OSR-adjacent platitude stuff. Play to see what happens, prepare the world and not a plot, all those things that you read in Principia Apocrypha or whatever goofy onboarding text some Gen Xer with too much time on his hands and no gaming group wrote up to explain his gaming subgenre to others of his class.
I really loathe this idea that there needs to be some sort of grand and illuminated Design behind adventures and especially adventure-running aids like systems. Certainly, there is some amount of skill and foresight involved in making good adventures. This doesn't mean that we should all be panning in Itch River for the Well-Designed Adventure so we can shower it in Pay What You Want money and fellate it in our blog reviews.
I'm a hobbyist first and foremost and what I look for in an adventure more than Design or Layout is something I can bring to my friends and have a unique and emergent experience with through the childlike wonder of play. Newsflash, chucklefuck, you can do this with anything, regardless of what some puffy guy on Bluesky says. Last winter I saw Touch of Evil and then turned the setup of that movie into an adventure for Mausritter in time for my game the next day. It rocked, my players were almost too busy pogging to play the game.
Adventures are nice in that they're expressly made to be played this way, but that doesn't mean they should be friction-free. I resent the idea that adventure products need to be made in such a way as to reduce all friction between the text and the referee. Sometimes struggling to adapt, explain, or justify the vagaries of a text can create something wholly unique. I've been running 1000 Statues on the Gay Beholder OSR Server and I think it's a good example of what I mean. There are no hooks, there are no rumor tables, the pdf is not hyperlinked, the grid on the notebook 1000 Statues is written in is missing due to water damage. Making that text work at the table has been one of my favorite parts of playing in the hobby in the past few months. in part because of the effort I have to put into understanding the text and also in part because its laid bare just how much Hype Moments and Aura you can generate from what is ostensibly a group of gamers, a dungeon floor with 8 rooms, and a staircase that goes down.
Part of the attraction in my mind to the DIY Space is being around people who aren't afraid to put in work like this for products that deserve it. If there's enough useful Legwork in something and the text lights your brain on fire, you should do everything in your power to bend, break, sever and stuff the corpse of what you read into your game.
"It's so much work!" I hear you say, and while I empathize with this, the work is the fun kind of work that you sign up for as a referee. If you choose wisely, this work will be fun and inspiring and will return to you in the form of engagement and connection from your players. There are many texts out there to steal and cut into bloody pieces that will leave you better as a referee and a person for playing with them, and ignoring them because its too much work is like refusing to lift weights because it makes you sore.
I'm not interested in the module that slides like a greased hog down the meatchute-throat of the average tabletop gamer, easily digested and utterly forgettable because of it. I want something that sticks with you and chokes you on the way down. Chew your own damn food.
2026-01-23 02:00:00
take what resonates, leave what doesn’t.
2026-01-23 01:35:07
Ahoy there and holy hell...
The shit I'm reading today in discover is... interesting to say the least. So, let's break some shit down, shall we?
I won't be linking these posts directly as I don't want to throw even more engagement their way.
First off, some dude on here's "first" blog post on here. Basically the premise of the article was finger pointing at the political left for trump getting elected. The title even insinuating that they're as much to blame for Trump winning. They cite a few things, I agree with some of it.
Many of the people that did not vote for trump hold as much blame as people that did vote for him. Bear with me.
K.
The absolute failure of the democratic party. Kamala Harris was widely disliked well before the elections by democrats too. Despite this fact, she was picked artificially, without a primary vote within the party.
Yeah, I would agree that the Democrat's incompetence and insistence on platforming establishment Democrats is kicking them in the ass, but we knew this since 2016 when they kneecapped Bernie.
By polarising the discussion, by dehumanising MAGA, promoting woke policies and by just going along with Kamala Harris being their candidate not only allowed trump to succeed but pushed otherwise center leaning people to vote for Trump too.
Fucking huh? Woke policies? Dehumanizing MAGA? What the fuck are you even talking about? Was it not MAGA that was harassing Haitians because "they're eating the dogs". Was it not MAGA calling the "radical left" (which is just anyone to the left of Ronald Reagan at this point) "vermin" or "the enemy within". Get fucked. Also, people keep throwing around "woke" and then don't elaborate what the fuck they are even talking about.
The only things I could consider being "woke" that was part of Kamala's campaign promises would be restoring Roe v. Wade, the Equality act which would amend the Civil Rights act to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, and federalizing recreational marijuana. If you have a problem with ANY of those, you aren't "center" you're a conservative who knows full well how unpopular your opinions are.
If you have called people idiots over their political views, you are part of the problem
If your moral compass was so flimsy you voted for a dementia-riddled, racist, adjudicated rapist (not to mention his ties with Epstein), you deserve to be called an idiot.
People on the left that are still screaming obscenities and cheering at people getting shot are even more to blame for this mess.
If this is referring to the late CEO of ToiletPaperUSA's assassination, the only people cheering for it were chronically-online teenagers. Most of the response was fear of the uncertainty, apathy, and/or complete denouncement of the assassination, so some citation is gonna be needed here, champ. A couple of edgy teenagers on twitter isn't reality.
okay... who's next. Fuckin aging millennial giving out-of-touch or obvious life advice... sure why not.
I can't really argue against most of these, as they are just kinda "no duh"s imo. But there are a few that I have some words about. The biggest one that caused me to reel back was this one:
If you're a man, one of your hardest battles may be not giving in to sexual urges that cause harm to others. History is littered with otherwise entirely brilliant men who succeeded at everything but this. You must succeed
Huh? Okay, maybe he elaborates better in his response...
"The smartest, most talented and otherwise kind men throughout history – who have overcome hurdles beyond imagining to save lives, get rich and get us the moon – still totally failed when it came to not giving in to their sexual desires. They cheated on the partners they love. Some even groped and raped.
It’s not discussed enough, but many mens hardest battle is simply not giving into sexual appetites that cause harm – cheating, sexual assault, or any other form of harm (you could argue simply buying and consuming porn is immoral). These acts can spread misery through multiple generations. And yet many men do it. If you happen to have these urges (and it's not all men), you must not give in to them.
Nope. Not any better. What a weird way to say "hey men, if you feel like you wanna cheat or rape, just don't!" No shit, what's your next sage advice? "Don't stick your dick in a toaster"?
No, one of my hardest battles isn't not giving into sexually assaulting someone or cheating on my wife. What kind of fuckass point is this?
There is a discussion to be had about the objectification of women and how that plays a role in how we see women on a day-to-day, but I don't think Spunky here has got the eloquence to have that talk.
Leading a healthy life is simple: sleep well, exercise three times a week, have an active social life, eat a variety of vegetables and whole foods, avoid sugar, processed foods, alcohol and drugs. That's 90%. Everything else is optimisation.
Ava would disagree with that...
Start contributing as much as you can possibly afford to your pension – even if you're 16. At the very least contribute what your employer matches. More if you can – 10% is good. This is likely the best financial decision you'll make.
This is one of the many points in this article that reeks of finance-bro privilege. There is a growing number of people who literally do not have spare money to add to a pension, certainly not enough to keep up with ever-inflating cost of living. This is how you get those old people working in retail because their pension dried up because the money dried up quicker than any of them could have predicted. Not to mention not every employer offers a pension or even a 401k match.
The wealthy utilise debt to make more money. The poor abuse debt to lose money. Taking on debt can be a useful tool, but outside of large essential purchases like homes and cars or for sensible business investing, it’s best avoided.
What is this shit. Mfer obviously hasn't been poor a day in his life or has forgotten what it's like to be poor. Poor people aren't "abusing debt", whatever the fuck that means. Majority of them are in debt because it's the only way for them to survive. When cost to just exist is creeping higher than your bank account can afford because your jackass landlord raised rent an additional 10% which can often mean the difference between dinner and not for many households. There's also medical debt, student loans (because you got told this lie if you went into this high-paying field you'd for sure get a high-income job) with interest rates that are so nauseatingly absurd, parents fucking die which cripples their income. Poor people aren't poor by choice, they are poor because they got fucked over by the system that profits off of their suffering and gives people no safety nets.
The whole article just kinda reads like a guy trying way too hard to sound like a self-help guru and it comes off as disingenuous and out-of-touch.
Anyway, that's about all I care to talk about today.
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I'm fucking tired. Not energy-wise. People wise. Just gonna relax for a bit and enjoy some family time when I get home from work.
2026-01-22 19:33:00
People communicate most honestly through jokes. Pay attention to them.
If you can't refuse something, it owns you.
Fear of being cringe will stop you living fully. Get over it.
Don't take criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from.
Expect no applause for telling the truth. Sometimes doing the right thing costs you – friendships, comfort, peace. But always pay the price without question.
Whatever scenario you're in, just act like you belong.
The lazy person works twice as hard.
Curiosity is a superpower.
Honesty without kindness is brutality. Default to kindness. Though know when to be firm.
Life never meets your youthful expectations. As an adult, you need to learn to find joy nonetheless.
Death can come any day. Every day is a gift.
Adults make a lot more sense when you realise they're just children in big bodies.
Bears don't need motivation to hunt salmon for 12 hours straight. But put them in a circus and they need constant prodding to wave at an audience once. Motivation is a human problem – because we don't fit our 21st century environment. You must not be a circus bear.
Humans struggle to mentally combine their "now" self and their "future" self. So treat your future self as someone you love and want to see thrive. Today's laziness is tomorrow's burden. Do them a favour.
The obstacle is the way. Get used to it. Learn to love it.
Books are a cheat code – many of life's problems were solved and written down long before you were born. But reading is half the equation. Without action in the real world you get limited results. Action backed by theory is a potent mix.
The opinion of the person who rarely offers it is listened to more closely.
A free-thinker's beliefs are unlikely to align neatly with any political party. If your beliefs align 75% with your political party, you're not free-thinking – you're just trying to fit in with your tribe. Super-forecasters – the people who predict events better than anyone else – change their minds constantly. They update their views the moment new information appears. Do the same with every belief you hold.
Make your own religion. List your strongest principles. Become a devout worshipper. Update the doctrine when you learn better.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Be wary of ideologies that require buying into the absurd.
The hunt is the whole point. The kill is just bait. If you're chasing money, status, or objects, you'll be disappointed when you catch them. Chase family, growth, love – and the catch might actually be sweeter than the chase.
If you're a man, one of your hardest battles may be not giving in to sexual urges that cause harm to others. History is littered with otherwise entirely brilliant men who succeeded at everything but this. You must succeed. Edit: This one seems controversial. I will write a follow-up post explaining it with more nuance. For now, I'll just say: I am NOT on the side of cheaters and rapists – quite the opposite. Nor am I saying all men cheat and sexually assault. I think my original draft of this entry had more nuance. You can read it here.
There are parts of ourselves that are changeable and parts that are unchangeable. So much unhappiness comes from not knowing which is which.
One day your parents' names will be spoken more often in memories than in conversations. Every word shared with them now is a gift. Don't wait. Create a recurring calendar entry for coffee with your Dad. Visit your Mum every Friday. Force it. Squeeze it in. It will become one of your biggest regrets if you don't.
Keep notes on everyone you love. Their likes, dislikes, how their brain works. When they mention something they want, write it down. You'll never struggle with a gift again.
Sex is overrated. Sex with someone you love is underrated.
You can get more done in 5 minutes and 1 year than you think. That dirty kitchen? That work task you've been avoiding? Set a timer for 5 minutes and try. You'll surprise yourself. And that massive project or body transformation you've been putting off? Just write out a plan and go for it. Again, you'll surprise yourself.
Some people are profoundly broken – usually from life's harsh trials. Give yourself permission to remove them from your orbit. Their healing requires years of professional help, more than well-meaning friends and family can achieve.
Your health is the most important thing. It's a mind-numbing cliché because it's undeniably true. One day – probably somewhere between 28 and 38 – you'll wake up and just feel 'off'. A bit sore. A bit tired. That feeling will never leave you. Be grateful for your youth while you have it.
Leading a healthy life is simple: sleep well, exercise three times a week, have an active social life, eat a variety of vegetables and whole foods, avoid sugar, processed foods, alcohol and drugs. That's 90%. Everything else is optimisation.
The world is always on the brink. At any given moment, you can point to dozens of reasons the world is 'messed up'. It always is. It always has been. Don't use that as an excuse for despair.
War is always potentially around the corner. Doesn't matter how "advanced" your society is. And remember if a war does break out, take the consensus on how long it will last and multiply it by 20.
Start contributing as much as you can possibly afford to your pension – even if you're 16. At the very least contribute what your employer matches. More if you can – 10% is good. This is likely the best financial decision you'll make.
Getting a great deal on something you don't need costs more than overpaying for something you do.
Reading history teaches you that events are cyclical. Most problems, confusion, and fear come from people who haven't learnt this yet.
The days, weeks and even months go by slowly. But the years go by fast. Before you know it you'll be dead or 60.
Humans are almost as impulsive as dogs. Don't keep a cupboard full of snacks.
If you're a non-conformist in thought, be a conformist in dress. Offset one with the other.
Listen to your favourite music regularly. Your soul needs it.
Bathrooms are more dangerous than you think. They're slippery and full of hard surfaces – be careful.
The time is going to pass anyway, so why not live well and be happy?
There’s a reason most religions and cultures built fasting and renunciation into their traditions: the power isn’t in avoiding bad things, but in the exercise of restraint itself. Willpower is a muscle, and abstinence is the gym.
Seek not just knowledge, but the wisdom to question it. Challenge what you read; think, debate, and write to refine your beliefs. Learn to recognise biases and errors in thinking. Opt for reasoned understanding over mere information consumption.
Stock picking is gambling light. Do it in small amounts, for fun, knowing you'll eventually lose.
The wealthy utilise debt to make more money. The poor abuse debt to lose money. Taking on debt can be a useful tool, but outside of large essential purchases like homes and cars or for sensible business investing, it’s best avoided.
Don’t be tricked or sucked in by the fact that “candidates for political for office with obvious character flaws seen more real than bureaucrats with impeccable credentials” ("Skin in the Game"). People will vote for awful politicians with big mouths because they “tell it like it is” and “at least they’re honest”. Don’t be fooled — boring, considerate politicians are a good thing.
People are naturally peculiar and often their actions defy explanation. Unless they're harming themselves or others, learn to accept their inherent oddities. Trying to get to the bottom of quirks is a maddening exercise. Avoid it.
Eating meat is quite clearly immoral. Unless it will be detrimental to your health, eat as little as possible.
Any well-functioning society should have optimistic young people, and cynical old people. If it’s the other way around, something’s wrong.
2026-01-22 04:23:00
Today, I spent nearly 5hrs house-building in Sims 4. I don't actually enjoy the main game that much, but I absolutely love designing buildings, furnishing them, and landscaping. When I get an idea in my head, I have to build it and yes I will easily spend an entire day (sometimes two!) finishing it.
I started playing Sims back when it was first released. Oh the graphics look awful now, and the isometric viewing angles were really limiting, but it was just so much fun! The little sims with their funny little attitudes were charming, but what hooked me was build mode right from the very start.
I played Sims 2 for several years and had pretty much every expansion pack released. I submitted my creations to a fan site called The Sims Resource (it's still going!) and was one of their Select Artists for a while. I eventually left as I felt pressured to continually create new content which kind of ruined the experience for me.
Don't remember much about Sims 3 weirdly. Jumped to Sims 4 as soon as it came out and that's what I now use most of the time, though I only purchased a couple of expansions - I find them too expensive to justify as I don't play very often these days.
I also still have my Sims 2: Super Collection installed - for a while it didn't look like it would be updated to work with the M-series Macs, but thankfully it was. Though it's not visually as nice as Sims 4, I like all the expansions it comes with and it's the version I'm most skilled at using.
I briefly tried a couple of dedicated home design apps for my ideas, but they feel overwhelming. I don't want to deal with wall thicknesses or size every window down to the millimetre thanks. In fact Sims 4 sometimes verges on offering too much choice.
There's also the occasional frustration, such as not being able to place an object because gasp there's a door opposite. I couldn't put a combo shower/bath where I wanted to today because I dared have a sink next to it!
Still, these issues aren't enough to prevent me having a jolly good time building another dream house.
I'll leave you with a few screenshots from today. My little 1-bed barn conversion with cottage garden. When do I move in?
2026-01-21 23:43:23
In general and all else equal, peaceful U.S. territorial expansion in the western hemisphere would be a good thing. Good for the United States on balance and good for the acquired territories on balance. Obvious security and/or economic benefits for all involved.
I see a lot of people denying #1, but if Greenland were up for sale, it would be a no-brainer to consider buying it. We are a wealthy nation and it is hard to imagine a scenario where paying market price for Greenland would not be worth it.
Greenland is not currently up for sale.
That alone does not mean we shouldn’t test the market. At some price, Greenland probably is for sale. It can’t hurt to offer a price and/or make it known that we are a motivated buyer. See #1 and #2 above.
We have essentially done this, and Denmark is still not currently interested in selling.
That should mostly be the end of the story. There’s nothing inherently wrong with leaning on them a little—we drive hard bargains and leverage hard/soft power all the time with even the closest of our allies (e.g. Canada, UK)—but shifting from market transactions to coercive diplomacy implicates a much wider cost/benefit analysis.
Denmark is a close democratic ally, a highly cooperative security partner and, to a somewhat lesser degree, a highly cooperative economic partner. There is no reason to believe any of those things are likely to change in the short or medium term.
Consequently, most of the benefits of acquiring Greenland—and nearly all of the security benefits—can pretty easily be obtained without actually purchasing it. This isn’t the Danes rejecting U.S. military planning or strategic leadership in Greenland. It’s closer to the opposite. If there are strategic reasons to increase US or NATO presence in Greenland, we can just do it.
Could that change? Sure. Is there any reason to believe it will? No.
The costs of acquiring Denmark coercively are anything but small. A trade war with Western Europe isn’t good for us in the short-term, and pushing our closest allies into tighter economic alliances with our major rivals is a huge medium/long term mistake. Just dumb.
And blowing up NATO over Greenland is so unthinkably dumb, it makes a trade war look appealing. NATO is the basis of the western security system, and that makes it the basis of the western economic alliance. Acquiring Greenland at the cost of NATO makes absolutely no sense; it would be a huge blow against our security and against our economic interests.
The Trump administration has never been fond of NATO, and there are problems with it. But many of those problems are creatures of its success. NATO is like a vaccine; it has worked so well at its core purpose that people now have trouble understanding why it is necessary to continue it. It’s insanely cheap at the price we pay; no one in 1935 would even believe it possible.
We could survive without NATO. But if we were to militarily take Greenland, it might not just be the end of NATO, it might also jeopardize our security/economic relationship with Canada. That is beyond unthinkable. The military alliance for the strategic defense of North America is so valuable that even a modest crack in it would be a huge blow to our entire global position.
I doubt the Trump administration has any intention of a military invasion of Greenland. It would be an existential threat to Trump’s presidency and an earthquake in the global markets, two things Trump is keenly protective about. But they have already taken the coercive diplomacy to a level that is destabilizing NATO and the corresponding economic alliances.
I also doubt that Trump has any intention of a serious trade war over this. It almost seems like the perfect time to go long on a TACO trade. What I think Trump never accounts for is the cost of bluffs. This isn’t poker, where you play hard at the table and when you get up everyone is friends. The whole thing is endogenous, and every action colors every future relationship.
But Trump also seems unhinged about this, and unhinged in general lately, even conditional on his usual behavior. Undoubtedly, that has some benefits in coercive diplomacy. And he plays the madman well. But the downside risk of this is enormous, and the upside gain so little.
It’s absurd how much this is obviously a vanity/spite project for Trump, and how anti-modern his understanding of international relations is. The whole Nobel Prize thing is like a deleted scene from Idiocracy and the imperial desires of Trump recall the world of the 19th century, before 20th century economics de-linked national wealth from territorial expansion and great leaders were still often judged by such conquests. That Trump can’t even stay on script about the Arctic security situation for 2 minutes without going back to his Nobel slight is darkly comical.
The endgame here seems obvious. Trump will cut a face-saver “deal” that we could have had wideout all this nonsense. The administration will crow about it. Partisans will view it through their partisan lenses. Our short-term situation will not be much affected. But our medium-term economic and security relationship with Europe/NATO will be further eroded.