February Update

The above photo was taken by Laura at GallifreyOne, the Los Angeles Doctor Who convention, which we attended during the first weekend of this month. We found out last year that the convention was going to be ending in 2028, and we hadn’t attended in over a decade (we used to rep the Doctor Who RPG for Cubicle 7 back then), so we made the decision to try to go and enjoy some respite from [gestures broadly at everything].

We had a great time — simultaneously energizing and exhausting. Got to meet some very cool people (some of whom I’d followed for years on social media), participated in a few panels (including one where my co-authoring of the Eighth Doctor Sourcebook for the RPG actually seemed to impress the attendees!), and generally loved the opportunity to nerd out without the trip being for work in any way, shape or form.

Now we’re back at home, and I’m up to my eyeballs in work. As mentioned in the previous post, we’re running a BackerKit campaign for the remaining copies of FAR WEST, along with some extras, and it’s going well. Part of the campaign is a PDF “Designer’s Diary,” where I go into detail about the trials and tribulations of bringing the game to fruition, which I haven’t discussed in detail publicly, so writing that has been an interesting experience. When I look at it dispassionately for the first time, I am struck by just how hard it really was, and how lucky I am to have been able to get help in dragging myself across the finish line.

Aside from the BackerKit, I’m also putting the finishing touches on the core rulebook for THRILLING TALES Third Edition, Adamant Entertainment’s 1930s Pulp Adventure RPG, which I hope to be releasing in another few weeks. Gods willing, this will be the beginning of a much-expanded release schedule for Adamant–maybe not the weekly product releases of the heyday of the early 2000s, but a more robust schedule than has been in evidence for the past decade..

Here’s hoping!

I Don’t Know How We Vote Ourselves Out Of This.

The above photo on the left is Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old mother who was murdered on January 7th in Minneapolis by ICE Agent Jonathan Ross. The photo on the right is bystander video at the scene, when she was shot in the face point blank.

Today, JD Vance shared a video, claiming that it proves that Ross was in fear for his life, and that Good was trying to run him down. The video shows nothing of the sort. It shows her turning the vehicle away from Ross (who is the one filming), and saying what turned out to be her final words: “I’m not mad at you, dude.” Ross then shoots repeatedly into her head. Afterward, he can be heard saying “fucking bitch.”

I’m not going to share the video. It can easily be found, if you so choose. But I’ve got to say this: in what world could anyone watch that and think it justified what happened? And it’s not just Vance (and other members of the Trump regime). It’s regular American citizens as well. I’ve seen comments posted to news stories where Americans are claiming it was justified, that she “fucked around and found out”, that she was “asking for it”, and even worse, mocking her death with glee that an ideological “enemy” was slaughtered.

I can’t see a way out of this. The only real power we have is our vote…11 months from now. God only knows what further horrific outrage will occur during those 11 long months… but even with a vote forthcoming, how do we vote ourselves out of this, when millions of our fellow citizens are eager to excuse the murder of their opponents… if not outright celebrate it? How the hell does voting fix that?

Dark times are ahead, folks. I wish I was more optimistic, but I’m not. All I see coming is violence and pain, and what might be the total collapse of a nation… and a not-small part of me worries that the collapse has already happened, and we’re all too shell-shocked to realize it.

It’s fucking hard to keep doing what I do, making distractions to entertain people with fantasy worlds. I know that in the broader scope of things, it doesn’t matter in the slightest. But it’s what I know how to do, and so I keep doing it — like a zombie going through the motions because it doesn’t realize it’s already dead.

Tell your loved ones that they matter. Hold them close. Right now, it may be all we have left.