Thomas M, Full-time Rascal

@newmadras

He/him. Journalist at Rascal News. Interested in the art, history, and science of games. Makes the Indie RPG Newsletter and the Yes Indied Podcast. notrueindian@outlook.com

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Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir newmadras.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· 17d

@nopunincluded.com, you're mentioned in a truly amazing context

In a critical review that dissects Gygax’s oeuvre, board game reviewer
Efka Bladukas refers to Gygax as the “Egg Wizard.” He chose that moniker not only because of the aggressive, punitive, and biologically essentialist mechanics that Gygax built into Dungeons & Dragons.

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· 18d

"Everyone disliked that" meme from Fallout

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Jul 6

Something for the larpers

Screenshot from anime, probably One Piece: A giraffe in a hat and suit says "I like being a larper. I love larping."

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· May 23

And done!

Lego orchids! White petals, green leaves, grey base, plastic but pretty

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· May 20

it just gets sadder

screenshot of the page that says "this is not another safe fantasy" and "death is real"

screenshot that says the first two times you die, you get stronger

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Apr 27

not sure if I shared that this paper we wrote came out but looking at it again, it's sort of cool that we could cite so many podcasts and blogs from folks like @phophos.bsky.social @thirdfloorwars.bsky.social and @aavoigt.bsky.social in an academic setting

Playing and Publishing
the Apocalypse in Southeast Asia
An Interdependence of Hope and Necessity
Kellynn Wee and Thomas Manuel

Shepherd, M. (Host), & Canoza, B. (Guest). (2021, April 11). Yes In RPGSEA’d—Moma-
toes [Audio podcast episode]. In Yes Indie’ d. https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/
yes-indied-pod-997310/episodes/yes-in-rpgsead-momatoes-89089649.
Shepherd, M. (Host), & Posadas, S. (Guest). (2021, May 23). Yes In RPGSEA’d—Sin
[Audio podcast episode]. In Yes Indie’d Pod. https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/
yesindied/episodes/ Yes-In-RPGSEAd---Sin-e2dmr41.
Shipman, C. (Host), & Nedjadi, R. (Guest). (2022, November 16). Rae Nedjadi (Apoc-
alypse Keys, Our Haunt, Oathbreakers) Interview: Ep. 182 [Audio podcast epi-
sode]. In TABLETOP TALK - Third Floor Wars. https://podcasts.apple.com/th/podcast/
rae-nedjadi-apocalypse-keys-our-haunt-oathbreakers/id1454922964?i=1000579688809.
Tanaka, M. (2014). Apocalypse in contemporary Japanese science fiction. Palgrave Macmil-
lan US. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137373557_1.
Trammell, A. (2020). Indie in the underground. In M.J. Clarke & C. Wang (Eds.), Indie
games in the digital age (pp. 184–198). Bloomsbury.
Voigt, A.A. (2022, November 30). Navathem’s End: Looking to the past to preserve
the future. A.A. Voigt. https://aavoigt.com/f/navathems-end-looking-to-the-past-to-
preserve-the-future.
Wee, K. (2024). Defamiliarizing Dungeons & Dragons: Playing out Western fantasy in Sin-
gapore. In P. Sidhu, M. Carter, & J.P. Zagal (Eds.), Fifty years of Dungeons & Dragons (pp.
283–300). MIT Press.
White, W.J. (2020). Tabletop RPG design in theory and practice at the Forge, 2001–2012.
Palgrave Macmillan. https:// link-springer-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/chapter/10.100
7/978-3-030-52819-5_6.

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Apr 22

it's nice to feel included

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Apr 9

Anyway this is my day

Severe and excessive heat reading that says the "feels like" temtparature is 48 degrees Celsius

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Apr 9

People on reddit know how to have fun www.reddit.com/r/rpg/s/zs7M...

Has D&DBeyond created players allergic to reading?

No, at least here in the US, we're becoming increasingly functionally illiterate

Nah, players have been allergic to reading since at least 1974

Nah, the whole design of 5e is all about putting everything on the DM and letting players show up with crayons in their nose.

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Mar 20

Training this AI and it's working

a screenshot of "you ai slop bores me" where I ask for "a 7/10 soup" and someone draws a pink and yellow steaming bowl

a screenshot of "you ai slop bores me" where I ask for "a 2/10 soup" and someone draws a can and writes "broccoli soup from can"

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Mar 13

Everyone share your favorite Churchill quote!

‘I do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to those people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, or, at any rate, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.’

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Mar 1

In case you thought I only play bad games of Chess:

A screenshot from Chess.com showing me beat a bot with 90% accuracy and the bot having 87%.

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Feb 25

Screenshot from a "I think you should leave" sketch where an old man says "oh my god he admit it"

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Feb 25

This is very close to how most PbtA and Forged in the Dark games handle things. Apocalypse World didn't call them lore blocks but the threat structure is very similar. If you want to see an iteration of the AW threat, check out the factions in Blades in the Dark. Looks similar to me!

a screenshot of the threat block in apocalypse world

a screenshot of the Bluecoats faction description in Blades in the Dark

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Feb 13

I haven't watched Tenet but it's nice to hear maybe it's not as bad as all that! Here's mine:

Perfect Days: 4 stars
The Secret Agent: 5 stars
Anaconda: 3 stars
The Rip: 3.5 stars

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Feb 10

itch.io/b/3484/no-ic... The NO ICE IN MINNESOTA bundle is up. There's a lifetime's worth of good games in this! If you submitted something or just want to shout something out, reply here and let's reshare it and spread the word on this thing.

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Feb 8

Now That Is Chess

Chess.com screenshot showing a game against a bot where I've won with 58.9% accuracy

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Jan 31

Describe your Bluesky account in one image

Tumblr screenshot: DILF discourse I'd like to forget

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Jan 24

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Jan 24

I enjoyed this joke so much I made this

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Jan 23

this headline choice is normally used for things that are annoying to do?

Bob World Builder Youtube thumbnail. Video is titled: I Played 40 RPGs So You Don't Have To

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Dec 31

will I have to apologise to Malaysia after this we'll see

Sign that says Kopitiam Lah, Malaysian eatery and coffee shop

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Dec 11

Same playbook since 1924 at least

Efforts to regulate child labor aroused particularly fierce opposition. With the candor and transparency that would characterize all their subsequent efforts, leading businessmen formed a group named the Committee for the Protection of Child, Family, School, and Church to oppose the Child Labor Amendment, which had passed Congress in 1924. The Committee took out newspaper advertisements claiming, absurdly, that "the amendment would prevent boys from doing chores around the farm and girls from doing the dishes." The Committee induced the president of Columbia, Nicholas Butler, to oppose the amendment because "liberty is more precious than equality," and a Methodist bishop to warn that the amendment would fatally undermine parental authority. The amendment was defeated.

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Dec 4

Lovely prose, unique overgrown, acidic, insectile world, and very fancy narrative structure. So glad I found this through reviews and other chatter online. For those wanting a high weird fantasy city to add to your collection, check this out.

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Nov 17

excerpts from the latest discourse newsletter from rascal

Powered by the Apocalypse: A lot of people don't like these games and I think I know why: the name sucks. It sounds cool but it doesn't mean anything. I understand that phrases like "Powered by GURPS" existed before but those make sense. You can't be powered by an apocalypse, I'm sorry, you just can't. Also, it's a four-letter acronym, that's just clunky. There are maybe two good four-letter acronyms: lmao and yolo. That's it. This original disaster also led to further branding abominations down the road. Forged in the Dark? Again, it sounds cool but I've heard people pronounce the acronym as "fit-dee" and I think we can all agree that's a criminal charge at least. These games should be called something that makes sense. I obviously have the perfect idea and have published it on the website but only for the subscribers who pay us a million dollars. All of them agreed it was Very Good and Smart.

Fiction-first: Okay, who did this? Ignore the crossbow I'm holding in my hand, I just want to talk. I had to do one million push-ups and meditate under a waterfall before I figured out what this meant. It's not a literal phrase. It's more like a friend saying "girl, you've got to put yourself first" or an airline announcement that says "zone one passengers will board first". None of this is literally true. It's more a state of mind. When a game is described as fiction-first, it means that you need to prioritize a healthier relationship with your sense of self-worth but business class passengers are still more important than you.

Storygame: The last time I talked about this, a portal through time opened and I became my own grandmother so we'll ignore this one for now.

Player Skill: This is easy. Any time anyone ever says this, they mean "I'm very good at games". The only correct response is "I too am very good at games" and to tip your hat. If you don't have a hat, I'm sorry, you'll just have to hold your tongue. Please procure a hat as soon as you are able.

Metagaming: There are two kinds of meaning to this word. The first, and simpler one, is "cheating". If you're fighting a monster named Donut Dan in a fantasy game and you look up Donut Dan's weaknesses in the book secretly, some people don't like that. But is it my fault that Donut Dan evokes complicated feelings in my heart? Is it wrong that my fingers linger on the page where its stat block is laid out? Is it cheating if I only look at it from afar? Only honest and open communication with your table can answer that. Which is actually the second, and more complicated, meaning of a metagaming. See what I did there? That's Player Skill.

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Nov 17

sure sure, hmmmm

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Oct 30

YouTube thumbnail arrows are their own art form.

YouTube thumbnail of a Wall Street Journal video. Title is "Sopranos Characters' Financed Analysed by a Money Expert" and the thumbnail features an arrow going to Tony saying "no stocks"

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Oct 21

I'm always pitching ideas in the Rascal work discord and my colleagues keep liking them and now I have to actually do them.

A cartoon blob says Oh no from the oft used web comic panel by Alex Norris

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Oct 9

It was a real pleasure to chat with @shannonappelcline.bsky.social about his upcoming new set of books.

"Appelcline: I was delighted to write about the original edition of Palace of the Silver Princess. This is one of the most legendary products ever published by TSR because the first edition of it was destroyed. They printed it, they gave out copies to the people at TSR, they got some out to distributors, and then — this is all hearsay, but that's part of what made it exciting, trying to figure out what happened — management, apparently, got a look at it and said, oh, this is terrible, we can't send it out. They went around, they collected the copies from everyone at TSR, they tried to get whatever copies that they'd sent out back. And then they had one person in charge of bringing them out to the landfill and watch as they were bulldozed under, so that no one else got copies of them."

Thomas M, Full-time Rascal@newmadras· Sep 28

new author photo dropped