Hostile Radishes

Raccoons in my neighborhood, save one, are not spherical. They are big though, off that Seattle trash. They're fat as fuck off Brie rinds and jamón ibérico trimmings. Some of these bad boys can deliver near-cryptid thrills. When I was driving home one night, I saw one that didn't even read as a raccoon visually - my mind told me that it was most likely a toddler that had escaped from some kind of toddler… prison. That's what it gave me! Not helpful.

It's almost exactly what it says on the tin.  Now Sam Altman just said that they were close to inventing a genie that could grant any wish, and that… I mean, that's padded cell type shit. Frankly, it's an SEC intervention at the very minimum. You can't say shit like this - I would say "period," but you absolutely can't say shit like this on the run up to an IPO. But they can say whatever they want, take whatever they want, and do whatever they want. That's the demoralization operation, well underway. It has a shelf-life, though. They can only loan each other money for so long. Then, they'll socialize the losses through nationalization.  

The fan-favorite, canonically 5'3" mutant called Wolverine has been next in line for The Insomniac Treatment for a while, having been announced in September of '21, a year I will admit to not remembering entirely. As it approaches, we've been buffeted by new video clips of Wolverine's clothing being deliciously flensed just this side of mutant homoerotica, and a picture of his face that makes him look like an escapee from Roblox.

If you are a fan of Acquisitions Inc. and or helping sick kids, have I got an auction for you! Over the years we have played D&D on stage with some very cool people and we have done so while wearing some incredibly crazy costumes. Now that we have moved into the world of Daggerheart we’ve created new versions of our characters and some of these old costumes can be retired to greener pastures. The best part is that those greener pastures can be your pastures!

Gorbiriel Of The Moonstone Reaches genuinely enjoys the new Masters of the Universe movie. He enjoys ronically! He did a review for the site and shit. He even has nice things to say about Jared Leto! I prefer my Letos encrusted with sandtrout and ushering Humanity along The Golden Path but, you know, to each his own.

I stopped playing Absolum because I was waiting for cross-platform multiplayer, and I haven't seen The Odyssey yet because I feel like if they went through all the trouble to film it on these big weird cameras I should make the effort to see it on a big, weird screen. Is this edging? Maybe… Maybe I just like rules?

I.

Just before Ronia was leaving for a flight, she addressed me in a serious tone. It's the tone I use when I'm not being serious at all, so I should have clocked it immediately. For example: I might lean my shoulder against her doorframe, and say, hey. I don't know if you heard the recent news alert. But there was an incident at the zoo's Darkfang exhibit, and one or more of these terrifying serpents was inadvertently released.

It's clear by this point that she's not taking the threat seriously, which means I haven't communicated the very real danger such creatures present. "It's like a Ghost Snake," I'll say, my brow knit to stitch the mortal threat into place. "Even an ordinary snake constitutes a wily opponent. Imagine if physicality itself were no object! Imagine if a snake had mastered Death."

"Release me," is her typical response. Anyway, this time, she said, "Dad, if you go to Florida… please. Please," she said. "Make sure that cookie tea."

"Daughter," I replied gravely. "Only one beverage has this power."

We appear to be living in the age of the demo again and I could not be happier. It is especially nice when you can transfer your save data to the full game if you are having a good time. I recently grabbed the demo for Echoes of Aincrad because I like Anime RPG’s and it looked cool. I had no idea it was a Sword Art Online game and for that matter I really didn’t know what Sword Art was all about. 

Sorry about that; two things. One, I get incredibly dumb when there is a time change. And two, a couple of the people I asked for stuff to post no give it to me. V shameful in my opinion, except…. one of them was in a tender place after completing their new company's first game, thought they could write about it, and just… couldn't. It's about a teenaged raccoon who delivers love letters on his sweet-ass BMX. I guess I could just ask him questions. That might get around it. I've been meaning to start interviewing all the weirdos I know, under the monomer "FrieNDA." I'll do that next week.

This is just a quick note to say that the 23rd annual Child’s Play Charity Dinner and Auction is coming up on November 13th and you can get your tickets now!

I hardly know what to say about young Christopher Badell. Maybe I simply know too much to effectively cull it. His Sentinels of the Multiverse shit is brilliant - whether in its original form, an RPG, or a wargame somehow. He's a very generous person and, dare I say it, maybe even a buddy or pal - acting as midwife to games from others like Spirit Island or COMPILE is a completely separate skill which he also possesses. It gets rude after a certain point. Did he get extra points at character creation? Gotta be. That's before we even get into this last couple years, which has certain things in common with the Hero's Journey. Anywho, here he is:

Concerning Comics That Do Not Exist

Through his company Asmadi Games, Chris Cieslik - however you might choose to pronounce it - has either published or designed some of my favorite games. A lot of people might be familiar with We Didn't Playtest This At All, but between Innovation, Red7, and especially One Deck Dungeon he's just associated with a lot of all timers. His next one, which will be at Gen Con, has the potential to be another Uno in my opinion. If you see him there, ask him for The New Shit.

Why Games Need to be Unfair

by Chris Cieslik, 

Owner & Lead Designer, 

Asmadi Games

I really wanted somebody to tell me what videocard to upgrade to, and when I saw that GamersNexus was following me on the Tweetzorz I shuddered with delight. Steve got back to me "weirdly fast" and since then we bother each other on occasion. He starts shit when shit needs to get started, which I appreciate. I asked him if he had anything he wanted to discuss, and luckily a bee was already firmly lodged in his bonnet. Thanks, dude.

The Block Market, or

Bail Me Out: I've Committed a Felony

Every block looks the same to the people voting on video game laws.

I decided I wanted to try and get back to doing some more traditional artwork rather than just digital. It’s been decades since I took drawing with pencil and ink seriously and so I am pretty rusty. I still find myself reaching for the undo button and trying to zoom in constantly. I’m having a lot of fun though and I have given myself the challenge of eventually drawing one of the monthly bonus Club PA comics traditionally. I’m not ready for that yet but I’ve been posting some of my practice/learning drawings over on my Bluesky and I wanted to share them here as well.

Rex Ready continues to unravel a global conspiracy. Will this time-travelling secret agent dinosaur be able to dismantle this dark machinery in time?

I'm going somewhere for a little while, so we looked at our list of quote unquote treasured, underutilized characters from our ancient past and decided to take Rex Ready for a spin. It seems like it ended up being topical.