On Wednesday of last week, Dunder Moose not only had Jeffro back on but also several ankle-biters.
This was Rhetorical Combat. Get popcorn. Enjoy the show.
And if you haven't, back Winning Secrets- we are well past the goal, so it's Stretch Goal Time!
Yeah, Jeffro has this effect on his ankle-biters.
This past week, Roll For Combat talked OGL Scandal.
Derik remains the Voice Of Sanity: WOTC Cannot Lose.
Yes, a pile of irrelevant nobodies got ephemeral attention, but--as Josh Strife Hayes explained for MMOs--everyone came back to The Game That Matters as soon as Objective Data told them to do so. As noted, Indie Darling Shadowdark benefited from a Black Swan event that cannot be repeated and several others released at that time have either fizzled or retreated into their own ghetto and thus Do Not Matter.
But the real consequence is the ending of the promise that Ryan Dancey made with the OGL: the ability for Everyone to benefit from Everyone Else publishing material with no friction.
Smug fuck as he is, Derik consistently is correct about everything: Only D&D Matters. Not-D&Ds are not played; they are bought, they are read, they are talked about, but No One Plays Them. D&D--all editions--gets played, gets played everywhere, and gets played consistently. This is why Derik can afford to be a smug prick; he's right, and he brings the receipts.
Derik talks in terms of Network Effects. He explains why D&D matters and nothing else does in those terms. He will also find that Delulu Soup Aisle Suckers will not listen especially when those folks have a monetary incentive to not listen (as Mark does).
And this is why nothing within Tabletop can unseat WOTC. Only something outside of Tabletop, and only if it's bigger than Tabletop. Only a bigger Network Effect can defeat a Network Effect.
This is your periodic reminder that this is a viable 1st Level Human Fighter in AD&D1e.
Hank had no idea how he got here, but he wasn't afraid. Between what his father and grandfather taught him, what he read and saw, and what he learned in Scouting, he dreamed of such as this. Hank was not afraid; Hank, true to the Law, was Prepared. pic.twitter.com/xv0zqQRyco
— Bradford C. Walker (@MrBCWalker) February 22, 2026
Minimum Starting Age for a Human Fighter is 16. That is, typically, a mid-to-high ranking Boy Scout; perfect for a Fighter or (at 18) a Paladin.
Thanks to Appendix N, we know that "Lost Worlds" and "Transported to another world" is A-OK for Play!
And yes, speaking from experience, being a Boy Scout with access to older men who have experience in woodcraft, let boys be boys, and taught the habits that the manuals do not that make being like this practical, this is not at all unbelievable.
And yes, in case you forgot:
This is what the #BROSR's UMBROS celebrates and makes readily playable, focusing on Pellucidar. Get a copy today- it's free!
Last weekend, Iassc Young explained again why the Critical Drinkers, Geeks & Gamers, Doomcocks, etc. are worse than useless.
To be clear, I am well past the point of arguing YouTube critics should stop doing what they’re doing. It’s weak moral scolding that also sucks oxygen out of the room for independent creation. Also, the opportunity for boycotting Hollywood has long passed—had it ever been real to… https://t.co/cusUgYokaZ pic.twitter.com/Hl8wTZzuVo
— Isaac Young (@HariSel57511397) February 22, 2026
This is Network Effects in action.
You can't beat one from the outside, so you have to fight from within it; you also can't offer non-Brand alternatives so long as the Brand that generates the effect is active and functional.
Only Alt-Trek (e.g. The Orville and fanfilms & Old Trek (past series) threatens Current Trek.
Only Alt-D&D and Old D&D threatens Current D&D.
Only Alt-WOW (private servers) and Old D&D (Classic) threatens Current WOW.
The only one who's figured out how to make it work at all is Jon Del Arroz. He pitches in-category alternatives after catching attention by leveraging the Network Effect of a Brand Cult to get eyeballs and use that dissatisfaction to pitch his indie substitution. The least you can do is copy that formula; complain about Brand, then offer alternative to Brand.
Jeffro Johnson, by way of Cirsova Publishing, brings you Winning Secrets now on Kickstarter!
Naturally, the publisher has some words to say about it:
Longtime game blogger Jeffro Johnson earned Hugo nods for his in-depth analysis of AD&D’s Appendix N, in his book Appendix N: The Literary History of Dungeons & Dragons, as well as for the work he did as the editor-in-chief for the Castalia House blog.
During the COVID shutdowns of 2020, Jeffro and a group of friends gathered to explore a unique objective: explore the early D&D rulesets as thoroughly as possible. This was the birth of the nascent BrOSR movement, an effort that would take the implied goal of the Old School Revival (OSR) seriously.
The BrOSR coalesced as a group of Christian men who, through hearty ribbing and memes, encouraged one another to become better at playing Dungeons & Dragons and produce a better experience at the table.
The group’s principles included playing the game Rules As Written, eschewing homebrewing or house ruling, in an attempt to uncover what the game was truly like when taking author Gary Gygax’s prescriptions seriously. The game contained in the rules contrasts starkly with the “folk game” that D&D had become. While the OSR movement had largely been a vibe-based focus on the aesthetics of the older games, sometimes trying to rebuild them from the ground up, the Bros took an approach that centered on gathering a deep understanding and mastery of the foundational games of the hobby.
Members of this group radically changed the online discussion surrounding D&D, with a focus on RAW, use of 1:1 time, and re-incorporation of David Wesely’s Braunstein as seen in D&D co-creator Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor Campaign. In to providing extensive public-facing campaign reports, the Bros created Brozer: Island of War and Winter (out now through Cirsova Publishing), a Braunstein adventure product designed to teach other groups how to incorporate these elements, and offered it for free digitally and at-cost in print, moving nearly 2000 copies.
Cirsova Publishing is proud to present Winning Secrets, by Jeffro Johnson, RuleOfThule, and Bdubs1776. Originally conceived as the follow-up to Jeffro’s monograph, How to Win at D&D, published by Pilum Press in 2023, Winning Secrets collects the receipts for the style of play that Jeffro and the BrOSR championed. The book chronicles the sessions of Jeffro’s Trollopulous campaign, the first campaign of the BrOSR, and contains essays and commentaries offering insightful examinations of the definitive pillars of BrOSR-style play as well as illuminating the guiding values they champion.
In Winning Secrets, you will join the Bros in their journey, uncovering the brilliant lost secrets of great campaigns which gave birth to the D&D game rules. You will see the complete story play out of how this arcane lore was won through Jeffro’s paradigm-shattering Trollopulous campaign.
What does Winning Secrets offer, specifically?
In this landmark work, you will find:
- A persuasive case for why contemporary approaches to RPGs cannot deliver on the game that was promised by the early D&D rule sets.
- A thorough breakdown of the four pillars of Real D&D, lore from the dawn of RPGs that will elevate the excitement and engagement at YOUR table!
- A detailed history of how Jeffro discovered these secrets and how he and his friends developed solutions to the challenges offered by high level play.
- An explanation of why only Christian brotherhood could break down the barriers that were preventing all of us from experiencing the RPG campaign of our dreams.
- The recreation of a lost artform and an entire world of gaming knowhow that Jeffro pulled out of complete oblivion.
This book will change the way you think about D&D forever. More importantly, it will show you how the game was intended to be played.
Back this NOW!
"But why?"
Let's let them tell you.
Praise for Jeffro Johnson’s How to Win at D&D:
"These 30 or so pages of text in this book are the most impactful and important 30 pages I have ever read when it comes to tabletop roleplaying games and wargaming. It has changed the way I approach these games. This book put everything into focus for me, why I wasn’t having fun and didn’t feel good about the games I was running and how to run better games. I've bought five or six copies and have given them to each of my players and I recommend it to anyone I know who plays or wants to play D&D" -- Jon Asharan
"For the scholarly reader interested in the history of RPGs, this book is indispensable. It is thoroughly researched and, in my academic opinion, convincing."-- Gabe Mamola
Praise for Appendix N: The Literary History of Dungeons & Dragons:
"This book may be the most important thing to happen to science fiction, fantasy, and even horror in the past three decades."-- Jim Fear
"An absolute must-read for anyone wanting to rediscover the forgotten literary roots of fantasy in general, and role playing games in particular. I have already been blown away by some of the authors mentioned here, and look forward to a great deal more excitement as I progress."--Sam Hart
You can back Winning Secrets at Kickstarter here.
The original trailer for Ghost In The Shell.
This AI-generated live-action version.
That's Good Enough. Normies will watch it. They will pay to watch it. Folks screaming about how bad AI is now are either performative wankers or grossly overestimate what Normies will accept in media.
Remember that is is Nomies that demand "The Same, But Different" in their media; they absolutely accept AI-generated media that is Good Enough and keeps up the industrial-level production of The Same, But Different in their preferred media.
This is not about going from hand-painted cel animation to near-perfect photorealistic live-action. This is about one or two folks, using AI tools, replacing 80% of the people doing bitchwork in media production with machines and software; human involvement moves up the value chain to Command Decision level by cutting out everyone under that level. As it is now, you can have those folks churning out ads (and they already are, as Corridor Crew noted recently) and trailers.
We have people using it to make political ads, merging Meme Culture with Ad Production to be able to seize the zeitgeist effectively and efficiently; AI-generated ads will be the norm within a year or two because they are 90% or less cheaper to make and easier to produce. With the wide release of AI models able to generate consistent video of longer and longer lengths (again, reference what Seedance 3.0 is already rumored to do) this will eat up the entire business.
Live Action is not safe. Animation is not safe. Nothing in media production of any kind is safe anymore. Commercial pressures will compel widespread adoption, trumping everything else, especially since the Chinese will use it to swamp the world with media that is Good Enough to satsify the Normies and that alone will be enough to force the issue. Holdouts will lose, lose fast, and lose decisively.
Hand-crafted, for lack of a better term, will become an luxury. Luxuries do not generate revenue; they are COSTS, EXPENSES, not GENERATORS. The AI-generated production is what will make the "all-human" stuff possible- not viable, POSSIBLE. Just like mass-produced knives, clothes, guns, etc. are what make the hand-made versions possible because otherwise the skills would be lost due to disincentive to learn and practice them- as we've seen with hand-production of paper, hand-binding of books, etc. vs. machine-produced versions.
You had better believe C-Suites across the media business landscape are paying attention. This turnover is already happening, and now it cannot be stopped.
Boot Hill, Demonlord and a sologame called Kal-Arath.
"Where can you find these things?"
