Articles, Level One Wonk

Guide for the Perplexed: Scandinavian Game Stores

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As some of you may have noticed, I took two weeks off at the end of September. During that time I was traveling, walking and taking trains in Scandinavia with my parents, my brother, and my partner Emily. We started in Stockholm, then visited Göteborg and Malmö before crossing the Øresund to go to Copenhagen. We also took a day trip to Uppsala in there; my parents were impressed at my initiative in planning to visit the city, but in all honesty 85% of my reasoning was that Vaesen is set there. Nevertheless. We visited some incredible cities, ate some incredible food, saw fantastic bicycle infrastructure, and spent two weeks doing something very different.

Not entirely different, though. Sweden is the home of Free League and Denmark is the origin country of LARP camp, so of course I couldn’t take a trip like this one without visiting some gaming stores. What I experienced was quite a bit different than the norm in the US…and to be honest, better in a lot of ways. Given that I had just gone over the landscape of RPG retail maybe a month before, this seemed like a perfect opportunity to bring the Guide for the Perplexed series to Scandinavia for a little bonus.

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Articles, Crowdfunding Carnival

Crowdfunding Carnival: October, 2024

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Welcome to Crowdfunding Carnival! We’re firmly out of con season and we’re out from under the shadow of Wizards of the Coast trying to release a book. More broadly it seems that the rush to be the next d20 has also abated, which has meant more and more interesting campaigns this month! This was a very full crop with new campaigns shooting in almost by the hour as I was trying to write this thing. That also means there are a few solid campaigns out there I wasn’t able to get to; I’m both sorry I’m not able to cover everything but also glad I didn’t have much dross to read through to get up to ten campaigns this month. We’ll start with a dizzying four different major campaigns, representing The Gauntlet, Renegade Game Studios, Onyx Path, and a Youtube channel.

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Articles, Editorial

We Need to Have Another Talk About AI

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For a lot of people I think talking about the negatives of AI is pretty exhausting and trite. In online bubbles that are primarily dominated by artists, you could be fooled into believing that only massive corporations are behind AI, and that basically anyone who isn’t a heartless CEO or an embarrassed millionaire of some kind is firmly against it.

But that’s not the reality. The big news from last month is that Wizards of the Coast wants to use AI more frequently moving forward. It’s an expected move from a giant evil corporation; nothing new to see here. What will definitely receive less attention is that a new rule banning all AI content in /r/OSR has received a not insignificant amount of backlash. This is much more significant to me, because the OSR community prides itself on having a DIY ethic. So it’s about time we had yet another intervention about AI.

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Articles, Solitaire Storytelling

Solitaire Storytelling: CHVLR

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DATE: 01/17/3728 Time: 1523
DESIGNATION: 09272024
UNIT: Paladin CHX-01

Today marks my first week in the CHVLR program, and is the day of my first deployment to the field. My SCS was installed three days ago, and I’ve run a few training simulations, but it’s the first time I’ve even been in the cockpit.

The Colonel says there is no other choice. The enemy is here and I have to stop them.

Paladin initializing. Systems green. Forrest McCoy, signing off.

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Articles, The Independents

Rom Com Drama Bomb Review – Explosive Three Player Romantic Comedy

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Love is strange. Sometimes it finds you at the office. Sometimes it finds you over a cup of coffee.

Sometimes it finds you with a bomb strapped to your heart and an evil maniac forcing you to perform in a fucked-up romantic comedy.

This is that third kind of love. This is Rom Com Drama Bomb, the explosive romantic comedy roleplaying game for three players by Elliot Davis!

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Articles, Level One Wonk

Guide for the Perplexed: Retail Institutions

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Welcome to the second installment of Guide for the Perplexed! Last time I introduced three of the largest RPGs that aren’t D&D, games with long enough histories and big enough communities that they’re easy to get into and find players. Now I’m going to talk about a different angle for finding games and finding players: The places you go to shop for games.

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s a lot easier to find games online; between DriveThruRPG and itch.io virtually every game imaginable is one click away (and the two publishers that don’t use these sites are huge and have their own). That said, the ‘friendly local gaming store’ can not only give you access to games, but also advice and even networking. Admittedly the reputation of the game store has been pretty negative for a lot of the hobby’s history; game stores were historically seen as unfriendly to women and minorities and the progenitor of many horror stories as a result. Luckily this is changing, and as even D&D itself is aiming to become more welcoming and accessible, few stores are going to stay in business without putting some effort into the ‘friendly’ part of the moniker.

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