The Culture: The Drakonheim Post-Mortem Stream

Dunder did another After Action Report this past week.

These guys did this with Current Edition.

If you want to read the Substack article going into this at length, go here.

Have something to take notes on hand. You're going to learn from this.

The Culture: Uncle Kevin Talks With The Pundit About Erick Wujcik

Last weekend the Pundit got Uncle Kevin on to talk about (among other things) the late Erick Wujcik.

Wujick's the man behind non-D&D games that still command respect. The most notable is Amber Diceless, which remains the only diceless game worth bothering with.

He's also the man behind Palladium's first big licensed product: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness (today, despite the recent anniversary offering, is officially labeled as After The Bomb), which (along with the first Robotech product run) was allowed Palladium to grow to the point where RIFTS became possible- and so many rules and procedures developed for those games got into RIFTS (including Bio-E; see Lemuria).

This is worth the time for the historical context alone, and Pundit's got a certain knack for being a podcast host so he has an option should his PDF Merchant hustle dry up.

The Culture: Tabletop Has a Fanfiction Problem

I am not at all surprised to hear about this.

Players should never be coddled. The game has death on the table. Shit happens. Their preferences are irrelevant. You play the game as it is, not how you wish it was.

This Tourist just wants Fanfiction. What they want is the emotional satisfaction that Fanfiction provides.

That is not what this hobby offers, and whomever keeps saying otherwise is committing fraud.

There is no place for "emotional satisfaction" here. This is a Wargaming medium; we're here to fight and win wars. We are not here for your Theater Kid bullshit.

The Culture: The Random Table Is Back

Double-dose of Dunder this week.

This is The Return Of The Panel.

Lots of talk about what they did, how they did it, and more over two hours.

Throw this on, take notes, learn how to run things.

The Culture: The Clubhouse As The Load-Bearing Pillar Is Validated

Dunder Talks Braunstein again, this time Boot Hill and Livingstone.

This follow the general trend of the #BROSR: Reviving the old model, rediscovering how things properly worked, deducing why things became as they did (TLDR: it's commercialism, not failure of design), figuring out how the Real Game works, and now we're on to mastering the Real Game and moving on to refining it to perfection.

The Real Game is not, under the Conventional Play business model, a viable thing because the Real Game does not need (and does not benefit from) Endless Product Slop. That's why products got lobotomized into the crippleware we're suffering from now.

The rest is now details: what products are Real Games, and which are crippleware; what does it take to sort out unwanted wankers and fasttrack committed hobbyists; what makes Tabletop worth it vs. competing media (already known; now needs to be emphasized), etc.

In short, we are not on the road heretofore untravelled. For all intents and purposes, the Boomers have already left Tabletop and their Boomerisms went with them. What is left is Millenialist bullshit and Gen Y eye-ball deep in Nostalgia copium, and forces greater than anyone or anything in Tabletop will be sufficient end that in due course. As I've said many times now, the future is back underground- back behind the gates of the Clubhouse.

The Culture: Ignore Lester Del Ray, Morons

Last week on Roll For Combat, the legacy of Lester Del Ray makes itself felt.

"Fantasy" is fake. "Science Fiction" is fake.

There is only Fantastic Adventure Fiction, and therefore there is only Fantastic Adventure (War)Gaming.

Also, "Balance" is fake. Competitive Advantage is far more fun than "Balance".

The Culture: Visualize The Fantastic Before Others Do It For You

I have begun generating images of well-known literary characters and posting them to Twitter to illustrate the point.

Burroughs' Big Four: John Carter, Tarzan, Carson Naiper, David Innes pic.twitter.com/eLbn1ZZoZT

— Bradford C. Walker (@MrBCWalker) January 19, 2026

I'm also shitposting.

It's not Space AT&T, but you'd be surprised at how well it works. pic.twitter.com/dg7K7EsQMF

— Bradford C. Walker (@MrBCWalker) January 19, 2026

That's three Druids operating a speedy message network via pigeons gathered, corralled, trained, and deployed via Druid magics and nature lore.

And this is Lavsac the Red, operating with the Wolfen.

Lavsac the Red leading his heavy cavalry in column out to support his Roman ally in the field. Is it true that he can ride three times faster than normal? pic.twitter.com/Y1e2RIpeZM

— Bradford C. Walker (@MrBCWalker) January 19, 2026

There is no need to spend time or money anymore having someone else visualize things for you. The tools allow you to do it yourself. Seize control.