The Culture: Things We've Done Better Than More Popular Examples

I know a few authors that would like to answer this with multi-volume series of Fantastic Military Adventure.

Or, to put it another way, we've got this playable already and it's smarter than GATE ever was.

(You can buy that here.)

But recently we've seen a fresh take on the other go-to for this sort of thing.

This is how to run Rifts the correct way. pic.twitter.com/YbQ0PSwzof

— JDSauvage 🏴‍☠️🎗🏵⚡️⚡️ (@jd_sauvage) July 10, 2025

Quoting Brain Leakage:

"100% agree.

Five sessions in, and my impression of RECON 1e is that it could be used as a core system to trim the fat off of Palladium/Megaverse.

Only 3 main attributes. Combat uses the same percentile mechanic as the nonweapon proficiencies. Impact grid for area effect weapons.

Minimal tinkering, and it could handle almost anything in the setting."

It's Palladium. Not only is this permissible, it's necessary because Uncle Kevin can't be bothered to make a complete and coherent product- nevermind a real game. Quoting JD:

"Word to the wise, AD&D 1e this is not.

There is 0 support for 0 prep play.

Do your homework."

And yes, this does mean that Tabletop's been doing this scenario better for decades. AD&D1e + Gamma World 1e is a good enough mix to do this premise, and there's plenty of other past products published that address the premise directly. Some of them are even playable.

It also means that, given the same prompt, hobbyists will ROFTstomp the Del Ray Empire flat within weeks and then celebrate.

Harmony looks so happy in that clip, doesn't she?

In the meantime, go read Forgotten Ruin. They even made their own tie-in game.

The Culture: The Old Lords, A Clean Chainmail Clone

Alchemic Raker would like to remind you that he's got a cleaned-up Chainmail for you.

The Old Lords is a clone of Chainmail (as far as OD&D is concerned) with superior layout and 2-page spreads, including clarifications for use with OD&D!
Physical copies are now once again available at DTRPG!
And as always, the PDF is FREE! (see the Description on the store page) pic.twitter.com/8uQDkK4AKD

— AlchemicRaker (@AlchemicRaker) July 11, 2025

You can find it here.

In case you're wondering: "The Old Lords of Wonder and Ruin is a clone of the original rules for medieval miniatures, which looks forward to the 3LBB for rules clarifications and overall compatibility, and can be utilized in "medieval fantasy" TTRPG campaigns of any edition. The Old Lords of Wonder and Ruin pairs notably well with Wight-Box, a 3LBB clone which itself looks back to Chainmail for inspiration."

He continues:

Examples are sprinkled throughout the book, applying the rules in the kinds of scenarios which come up in D&D campaigns.
Chainmail / The Old Lords is great for playing all the sorts of combat scenarios which come up in RPG campaigns: from dungeon skirmishes to large battlefields. pic.twitter.com/G0KMdCbRMt

— AlchemicRaker (@AlchemicRaker) July 11, 2025

The full Twitter thread is here. That price for a POD copy, including the PDF, is CHEAP. Get it.

The Culture: Wight Box Returns!

The Basic Expert has an announcement.

TBE is a solid dude, so take a look at the Kickstarter page to see if you want in or not.

The Business: More On Diamond's Impact On Tabletop

Roll For Combat streamed about this on Wednesday this past week.

First: Confirmation that Wizards of the Coast are moving to a Brand-focused business model.

"Wizards of the Coast has appointed a new “Vice President of Franchise” to lead the Dungeons & Dragons team. The news comes just weeks after the departure of Jess Lanzilo, who had previously served as VP of D&D for the past year. The new position is being filled by Dan Ayoub, who was promoted internally after serving as the Head of Studios for D&D since 2022.

As VP of Franchise, Ayoub will oversee a major internal shift of the Dungeons & Dragons brand, which will be moving to a new model that puts all D&D books, films, TV shows, video games and merchandising elements under a single business structure at Wizards of the Coast.

So just what does this mean for the future of D&D as both a game and a brand? Below, we take a closer look at all the details."

Second: Diamond's collapse is going to screw so many Tabletop publishers and retail stores, some harder than others, and some of those--already reeling from the tariffs--are going to get cored and blown up. Those that survive, like our hosts, will still be seriously or critically damaged and those tariffs are not only not going away they are getting worse for them as China's finding out that they can't dodge those tariffs and others open to fuck over American economic sectors are also getting smacked around now.

So, therefore, are those here being willing accomplices, which includes most Tabletop operations. Not all--some, like WOTC, do everything domestically or moot the issue by only being digital and Print On Demand--

The only viable reaction for most of the Endless Product Slop Conventional Play outfits is to abandon traditional printing for digital/POD only, but that means abandoning all hopes for breeching the Normiesphere and thus getting out from under WOTC and D&D. Some will suck it up and deal with it; most will double-down on their delusions of relevance and still proclaim being able to go where Normies are and get sales. You'll see who sifts where soon enough.

You think I exaggerate? Watch the discourse; you'll see this double-thinking in action.

The retrenchment is real and already happening. Fortunately the Clubhouse makes all of this irrelevant.

The Culture: The Colony Drop Resulted In Multiple Impacts

Conventional Play's demise has taken shape.

The collapse of Diamond screws everyone pushing print products into retail channels. The tariffs--which, I remind you, are still on the table--are screwing everyone printing overseas, especially in China. The bots kill the need for anything done by hand but marketing and editing, and the bots are getting better at the editing on a regular and frequent basis, reducing those costs to ZERO; learn to market and master the workflow now. The overall global economy has been disrupted and is still in realignment, reducing discretionary spending significantly for anyone that isn't a Baby Boomer.

In short, the Colony Drop has hit and there are now multiple impacts rippling across the scene from different directions all impacting in quick succession reducing both capacity for supply and capacity for demand. Commercial viability is now disrupted and destabilized, and collapses are now rising across the board exactly as I have previously specified: the smallest and least-like-D&D are going under first and fastest, either shutting down or reverting to a non-commercial basis for operation.

And yet Wizards of the Coast doesn't even notice or care. The folks who just buy from Wal-Mart don't even know anything happened, or ever will.

No one who just plays D&D--any edition--is going notice or care. They're just plugging along, week on week, rolling mans and looting lairs, without any idea that anything has gone wrong at all.

Those that survive this round will still take damage that they won't recover from in time for the next, and the next is coming sooner than they think.

The retrenchment is real. We're going to revert and rally around The Game That Matters as all others fall away. Maybe a few others almost as Lindy--the D&Ds of their niche--will also survive. Nothing else will.

And certainly not the commercial environment we've had for over 50 years. That's deader than an incinerated corpse. I told you all it was coming. Now I'm cozy behind the gates of the Clubhouse, and the cargo cultists are panicking over emergencies they thought would never happen. The middle's been cored out; either go big or go home, same as it is everywhere else.

The Culture: The #Godstein Breaks Containment

One of the Current Edition channels again talked about what the Bros are doing, albeit by way of the Women's Division Champion.

Credit to the man for crediting Harmony Ginger as the one who (a) coined the term "Godstein" and (b) directing people to read her Substack articles on the matter. That's a step away from what he tried to do previously--stealing credit from the Bros for Braunstein and its mode of play--so the bullying worked. (Keep that in mind; these people are squishy bitches so handle them accordingly when they step out of line.)

But why take his word for it?

Dunder Moose had Harmony on last night to get it straight from the #Godstein table.

The Business: A Game To Surpass Battle Simulator

Alexander Macris has been working on an interesting project.

I'm actually being serious for once. It's in development. We have a playable low-rez alpha for mass combat. pic.twitter.com/hIE0t5ULl6

— Alexander Macris (@archon) July 5, 2025

This is a smart move.

First, you can get more eyeballs on the Tabletop version by showing a digital version. The conversion rates are low, but they are not trivial and it spreads awareness of the Brand outside the Tabletop ghetto. If you are at all interested in seriously competing with The Only Game That Matters as a business enterprise, breaking out of the ghetto is the first objective to achieve and nail down (followed by breeching the Normiespehre and getting your stuff shoved into their faces in Wal-Mart, et. al.).

"But why? You can just go to Amazon/DriveThru."

You vastly overestimate the Normie's willingness to go out of their way for anything, especially entertainment. Now couple that with algorthmic manipulation.

Note, I am not talking about active manipulation towards this or that. I am talking about the baseline function of the engine to remember your past performance requests and use those to curate search results accordingly; this is why (e.g.) if you binge-watch architectural education and critique videos for a weekend, your search results will fill up with more of the same until you change what you watch.

Normies do not know that this is how baseline search works. They will not randomly have ACKS videos served up to them; they have to actively seek it out, which means that they need a living man to get up in their faces (literally or figuratively) to tell them that ACKS exists and it would be of interest to them because otherwise they will never even think to look for it. (This is why all Fantastic Adventure Games are "D&D"; it's all they know.)

If this gets more eyeballs on ACKS, I'm for it. Simple as. Good luck!