• August Mini-Letter

    I. Dear Reader, Just the links this weeks as I get this one out a little late (again). Next week, it’ll be the 5th anniversary of the newsletter and that’s something, right? I’m thinking about how to mark the occasion here but in the analog world, I’ll be eating cheesecake. Hope you’re having an okay…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Censoring Itch

    I. Dear Reader, There was a big attack on itch and steam this week as payment processors essentially forced the platforms to delist NSFW games or lose the ability to collect money. It’s a bad policy in a number of different ways, including but not limited to the fact that it disproportionately affects queer creators.…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Streaming Bastionland

    I. Dear Reader, I got back from vacation and quickly became overwhelmed, which wasn’t helped by me catching a convention cold. The weekend had too many things happening all at once and hence, the newsletter is coming to you on a Monday. Two of those weekend things was a session zero for a new campaign…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Jubensha in Malaysia

    I. Dear Reader Half a newsletter this week but unlike previously, this time it’s just this section and no links. Because I’m still travelling, I have been (blessedly) less online during that time. I’ve made it from Singapore to Malaysia! It’s not exactly a majestic journey. They’re neighbours. My flight basically started descending almost as…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Dispatch from Singapore

    I. Dear Reader I’m writing this week from Singapore. I’m on break. Well, mostly on break, because I just visited a D&D play studio, which is a place where professional Dungeon Masters run paid games for people, using fancy maps, minis, music, lighting, and stuff like that. They have more than 50 DMs running games…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Looking Up & Down

    I. Dear Reader, Last week, I talked about a technique we’ve been doing while paying the delicious folk horror game, Harvest. Looking back, I was using the word “freeform” to refer to the unstructured nature of the roleplaying as well as the unstructured nature of the game. The scene-planning technique is probably more about the…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Sliding Into Freeform

    I. Dear Reader, I started recently playing Harvest by Luke Jordan and very quickly ran into my usual struggles with Belonging outside Belonging games: they’re basically freeform games. And honestly, if you asked me at the start of the year, I would’ve said I didn’t really enjoy freeform and it wasn’t for me. (Despite the…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Another Quick One

    I. Dear Reader, Been a long week, work-wise, so no preamble from me. Enjoy the links! Yours recoveringly, Thomas II. Media of the Week III. Links of the Week From the archive: IV. Small Ads All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section…

    Thomas Manuel

  • Possible Landscapes

    I. Dear Reader, I’ve had two essays published over at Rascal in the last month that I’m really proud of. The first was a look at Austin Walker’s Realis, which I turned into a history of surrealism. The second was this week’s review of Impossible Landscapes. I mentioned wanting to run Impossible Landscapes back in…

    Thomas Manuel

  • June Mini-Letter

    I. Dear Reader, I was on vacation this week so enjoy another issue with just the links! Yours mountain-ly, Thomas II. Media of the Week No TTRPG stuff this week so I’m going to share something full aware that most people simply don’t have time for it: this six hour review of a Japanese dating-sim…

    Thomas Manuel