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Everlasting, Neverending Game Night

šŸŒˆšŸš€ Reliable wonder engine. I make narrative role-playing games that imagine a weirder, queerer, more connected world.

raccoon with eyes closed, one finger up to shush someone, wearing headphones with a disconnected cord
Featured Post

fulfillment rodeo

Hi Reader, Welcome back. Please, come in, sit down. We have a little brisket left over from Rosh Hashanah if you want some. It's really good. "shhh ... this is my favorite part." Red Raccoon Radio, the podcast for Red Raccoon Games in Bloomington, Illinois, just dropped a new episode, and Iā€™m in it! You can catch it here. We talk about Raccoon Sky Piratesā€”a natural fit for them!ā€”and my next game, Defy the Gods. Hear me in the hot seat, answering "Why should people be excited to hear from...

a smiling man puts on a grim, metal mask

Hi Reader, How are you? Please, come in, sit down. Dry off. Lately, it's like all the rain we missed in the summer has come at once. This summer, I heard from an old friend about a disastrous game she played. Her gaming group had just introduced a buddy of hers to role-playing. After enjoying their first campaign together, her buddy wanted to GM the next one. So he did. For a year. It turns out that in the first campaign, Buddy bristled against its safety toolsā€”lines, veils, a certain amount...

Bert from Mary Poppins playing as a one-man band, covered in raccoons

Hi Reader, How are you? It's been a long time! Two whole months. It was the height of summer, all sun and runaway flowers. Now the locust trees are draping our local park in thousands of tiny golden leaves. I scooped some up on the dog walk, and I've spread them across the table. Blow on them if you need room. This summer, I went to Gen Con. Then I started a new job. After getting to concentrate solely on games for over a year, I went back to owing someone 40 hours a week. It swallowed me...

Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. Have some fizzy water. It's so hot outside. A neighbor gave me a bouquet of zinniasā€”they're in a jam jar on the table. Do you ever check outā€”dissociateā€”when you should be concentrating? Time you urgently need tickscdcr5t by and by. And then you realize you're doing it, and you feel like you're falling into quicksand? No? Just me? Then have you ever felt the opposite? You suddenly find yourself dialed in, not just mentally but emotionally? And something...

Hi Reader, Welcome! Please come in. It's been raining out, and the air smells clean. Here on the table, a tall glass bottle has a stalk of creeping bellflower. Apparently it's a noxious weed, but I admire weeds. They just don't care where you think they're supposed to be. They're irrepressible. Last week, Thursday through Sunday, I exhibited at Origins Game Fair. And I have to say, I love this con so much. The people, the vibe. Everyoneā€™s excited to be there. I met tons of new queer people....

Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. Our dogwood is finally blooming, so I put some of its flowers in a bowl of water. Back in high school, I was a theater kid. Mostly tech, but on stage a few times. I hadn't decided if I was there to hide myself or show it. One day after school, I wandered past the auditoriumā€™s stage door. On the door-glass, someone had taped a sign. In a high school studentā€™s scrawl, the sign said: WE, the Bavarian Illuminatiā€”WHO CONTROL EVERYTHINGā€”issue you this warning:...

Hi Reader, Welcome, please come in. This week, we're meeting a little, sun-baked apartment in Mexico City. A glass tumbler has some purple jacaranda flowers. I came down to Mexico to visit family, but I also bought a ticket to a great games convention here called MegaXP. Ā”Bienvenidos! Although I donā€™t know much Spanish, my phone does get internet, and it was easy enough to take an Uber to the World Trade Center Ciudad de MĆ©xico. Inside, I had to ask the person at the Registration desk if they...

Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. Itā€™s raining a lot lately hereā€”I'll take your coat. I found some white starflowers in the woods, and I put them in a vase on the table. I love science fiction. I especially love ā€œspace operaā€ā€”that is, interstellar adventure. (No actual opera in it.) This genre gives me a sense of possibility that I need. I donā€™t care how realistic it is, so long as the writers sell me on it. And I'm an easy sell. For years, I needed to believe I could be an alien. Or a...

Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. On the table, we have irrepressible daisies, rather hastily stuck in a jam jar. No, donā€™t go in the kitchen. If you want some water, I can get it for you. Just. Stay here. The thing is, in our house, M does all the cooking. I should cook more, but I keep passing up opportunities to learn. So, yesterday evening, when M was headed out for a work-related event, I said, ā€œIā€™m going to step up. Iā€™m not getting take-out. No. Iā€™m going to broil salmon.ā€ I...

Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. Make yourself at home. It's so good to see you. I brought in some wild violets and dandelion flowers from the back yard and put them in a bowl of water. Iā€™ve been reading up on A.I. Itā€™s mind-boggling what it can doā€”and how fast it's changing. It can write and draw things that look like a person made them. But it's not great on factual accuracy or single-point perspective. The thing is, it's always "hallucinating"ā€”fumbling blindly, algorithmically, for...