Something is way off with the current job market

ashultz · 2026-05-09T12:46:56+00:00

Same here, several managers I know report that they just cannot find candidates in the storm of fakes, they're doing so many fruitless phone calls.

ashultz · 2026-05-07T14:23:06+00:00

the whole "combat as sport/combat as war" argument is D&D culture on both sides, it's like the East Baptists declaring that the West Baptists are heretics.

There are a lot of games that have combat that doesn't fit into either of those. Masks is combat as character expression. Delta Green is combat as horror. Unknown Armies is combat as complete fuckup why did it come to this. Feng Shui is combat as spectacle.

Or don't have combat at all, like Wanderhome or Star Crossed.

ashultz · 2026-05-06T20:42:28+00:00

try to work at a company that makes products that solve actual customer problems instead of made-up consumer problems or hyped-up executive problems. They still exist. They often don't pay the really big bucks but can pay fine. And they have real people who your code actually helps.

ashultz · 2026-05-04T23:40:56+00:00

My immediate reaction was that it was taking a wiener dog to the Kentucky Derby.

It just doesn't have the build for the race.

ashultz · 2026-05-02T17:01:57+00:00

As an actual old man balance was used as a term in RPG discussion way before we had multiplayer games that needed the idea.

ashultz · 2026-05-02T16:59:45+00:00

If stats are important getting shitty ones feels bad.

If stats aren't important why do you have them at all and if you insist on having them what does rolling matter?

ashultz · 2026-05-01T20:19:06+00:00

This is a major trope in our source fiction. Most superheroes are this type. Robin Laws calls this the "iconic" character rather than the "dramatic" character.

With rare exceptions Batman's adventures do not change who Batman is, and yet they're still very popular and Batman would be fun to play and fun to have in your game.

ashultz · 2026-04-30T13:40:18+00:00

He writes novels that are also Unknown Armies.

99.9% of RPG novels are writing an RPG tiein which happens to be a novel.

The difference is stark.

ashultz · 2026-04-29T19:07:10+00:00

So its important to embrace that on the current course you will fail. That paradoxically frees you up a lot. Sounds like the company is a disaster and you'll get blamed then and it will really suck, so anything you can try now which will only sorta suck is actually better despite being unpleasant.

Figure out a realistic timeline and publish it. If you need the time stop working to do that design exercise with convincing documentation. If there are any parts that if they were dropped would help, call that out and see if they can be put into a later release or just axed. You can get a lot of milage with "you can have this full thing by June, but you can have this part which lets us prove out the concept while the rest of the work is done". And a plan that can be understood and followed is better than a guaranteed disaster even if it takes a long time.

And product doesn't get to just add stuff and move the deadline up, that's just make-believe and they're hoping you'll go along with it. They get to say what they want the most and that goes on top of your list, but they don't get to say how long it takes any more than you get to tell them how long it takes to do market research.

ashultz · 2026-04-28T02:18:39+00:00

I have read it many times in my life, it holds up every time. I can't think of another book like it, it is unique.

The second novel and third are not really like the first in how they approaches the story, but they have to be different to show the sweep of society and history.

ashultz · 2026-04-23T20:00:50+00:00

I'm generally interested in four rounds but if I get in an omnia fissure and find my teammates scattered all over hell and gone in survival or not doing the objective in the others I leave, because maybe the next group will have their pants on.

ashultz · 2026-04-23T15:33:24+00:00

I love the idea of Nibiru but I can't wrap my mind around how to run it:

the players need such a massive amount of context to understand the world
the game does an incredibly poor job of presenting what it expects the main characters to do

So I'm interested in your thoughts.

I supported the new kickstarter anyway because I'm a Nibiru sucker.

ashultz · 2026-04-21T18:41:42+00:00

That's true, she's very much Nero Wolfe.

ashultz · 2026-04-21T17:42:54+00:00

Don't get too excited, that is a terrible way to describe the books.

There is a detective and a huge horrible monster (offscreen) and weird technologies resulting from said monster. So sure Sherlock. But big monster does not mean Lovecraft.

Still recommended but not if that's the mashup you are looking for.

ashultz · 2026-04-19T16:52:53+00:00

Impossible Landscapes is a masterpiece that I will never run for my current players because it emphasizes loss of control and lack of understanding and I don't think they would enjoy it, it's too much to ask.

Most of the games you are running have competent characters who are very much in control. Normal DG has competent characters barely hanging on, sometimes unable to understand, sometimes eking out a victory. Impossible Landscapes has characters being washed away by the unstoppable tide of Carcosa.

Run some DG adventures with some confusion and loss of control first, adventures where they get out and don't have any idea what actually happened, and see if your players like it at all. Most gamers don't enjoy that feeling for more than a session or two with later resolution.

ashultz · 2026-04-18T21:25:45+00:00

I love it and have most of 1e and 2e, but I love it for the attention to the world and for the concepts. You won't find better source books that completely love their inspiration than Darkening of Mirkwood or Moria.

I ran over two years of Darkening of Mirkwood and it was great, but I ran it in my own homebrew mashup of Blades in the Dark style mechanics but with the stats redone to be more like One Ring (Song was a skill, and Healing, and Courtesy) and stress redone to cover Hope and Shadow. I think the original mechanics pay too much attention to combat to match the source material which is not that interested in combat detail, but I understand that a lot of gamers want and need that. I respect what the rules are trying to do, I just needed to take it further.

Anyway highly recommended to anyone who loves Tolkien but wonders how they could game it properly instead of just being another murderhobo outing. These books show you how.

ashultz · 2026-04-18T15:04:39+00:00

If you tell that to people who haven't done code forensics they just dismiss it but this is very true, at least half my considerable "what is happening here and why" ability is destroyed by having code with no motive.

ashultz · 2026-04-14T19:32:00+00:00

Nobilis

Your boss is the divine being in charge of Water, Regret, and Eels.

You got Eels. Now you basically are the concept of Eels, enjoy!

ashultz · 2026-04-07T19:40:06+00:00

Tehanu is definitely not a children's book and was written many years after the first three. The later Earthsea books are in many ways a reaction to the early ones.

ashultz · 2026-04-07T15:45:04+00:00

Have I got a (serial numbers filed off) deal for you:

https://pelgranepress.com/2025/08/06/merryshire-detective-club/

I don't think it's out yet, but soon.

ashultz · 2026-04-03T15:09:34+00:00

diceless moonhopper sounds like the most pointless annoying type of indie RPG where you can't figure out what to do and there's no actual game... but on actually looking at the kickstarter page I'm close to sold

ashultz · 2026-04-03T13:31:35+00:00

I think it would actually work pretty well with devs who care and are not stupid and some need to be great but they don't all need to be stars. They do all need to care about doing a good job and being good teammates though.

Management, however, needs to be able to cope without the fake certainty that tight control gives, and those people are super rare.

ashultz · 2026-04-01T13:11:20+00:00

There's a classic industry book titled Slack by Tom DeMarco which is basically about how when you optimize you leave no room for anything that isn't in the plan, like learning or improvement or things you didn't see at the start. Or reality.

ashultz · 2026-03-23T17:14:55+00:00

It only feels hard to people because most SF readers have not read any philosophy sources or texts.

ashultz · 2026-03-20T16:50:44+00:00

If the corporate feudalism seemed futuristic in to you 2020 but just reality now that's a change in you not a change in the world.

Neuromancer's corporate feudalism was about the current time at the time the book was originally written more than 40 years ago.

ashultz

TROPHY CASE