The Culture: Even PHDs Can't Fix Cargo Cultism

This shrink almost gets it.

You can tell that he can't solve the problem because he's a Fake D&D Cargo Cultist, so his Just So priors prevent him from accurately identifying the problem and thus from solving the problem.

He cannot comprehend that Tabletop is about the Fantasy of Agency, about being The Man In Command, as befits this being a form of wargaming.

He's never played Braunstein (and I do mean Weaseley's original here) and it shows. He's been told to catch up, and he'll be dragged kicking and screaming to the truth along with everyone else.

The Culture: Your Game Sucks Because It Is Out Of Order

In case you missed it, friend of the Retreat Jon Mollison is back and he ain't mincing words.

He'll be adding to this going forward; subscribe and enable notifications.

His blog is also showing this pivot.

• Folk Bullets – So Many Bullets
• Lessons From Dirt: Rango and Your Campaign
• Screwtape: The RPG

You miss gems like this if you don't read him.

When the GM’s whim overrides the written rules, the rules stop being a system to engage with and become a set of suggestions that might matter or might not, depending on the GM’s mood. Players learn quickly that deep understanding is wasted effort. Why study the mechanics when the GM can nullify them with a shrug? Why plan a clever strategy when the GM can “adjust” the encounter on the fly? Why worry about how the dice land when the GM can override them at any time? Why question inconsistencies when the answer is always the same: “Because I said so.”

Get your shit in order. Then your game will stop sucking.

The #BROSR blogs and publishes the receipts proving it.

The Culture: Normie-Friendly Dungeon Delving

"Okay Walker, I'll take your hint about other media doing Fake D&D better. Got any suggestions?"

There are TWO go-tos for boardgames: Dungeon! and HeroQuest.

The former is Normie-acceptable in price and difficulty. The latter is pricy as fuck for Normies, but has the depth that most Normies will cap out on. You can go harder, but this will satisfy most of those wanting your bog-standard dungeon crawl kill-loot-powerup experience. The former is more PVP while the latter is PVE.

Yes, your Gloom/Frosthavens and your Descents and your Mordheims (etc.) are all out there. That's more than most Normies will tolerate; these are within Normiesphere expectations for what a game is and is expected to work. The only one I'd even bother with getting out is Orcs and the Gates, if you can find a copy because (again) Normiesphere-ready.

(I should get an affilate link for the amount of linking to Amazon that I do.)

The Culture: Winning Secrets Up For Ebook Preorder

In case you missed out on the Winning Secrets Kickstarter, you now have a chance to buy your own copy.

Click on the image above to preorder a Kindle copy, which will be released on the 17th. Another post will be made when print is available.

The Culture: The Poz Did Not Go Away

Wednesday last week, Diversity & Dragons posted this.

Sensitivity Readers.

That means pushing the poz, which means that Hasbro has begun gutting Wizards of the Coast of its excess capital via laundering it through stunts like this.

Note I said "excess"; Hasbro wants WOTC to be an operational subsidiary, which requires capital, but as a digital publisher using a lot of LLMs you don't need a lot of people (and thus salaries) or machines (thus physical capital); you need a handful of people and some IT infrastructure (because of Beyond), which is a far leaner operation than WOTC is now. (Go look at the Gatcha operations.)

For all the complaining going on, there is only one publisher in the Commercial side of Tabletop constantly in the Top Five that isn't a poz-pusher: Palladium Books. All others are of the Seattle Set, meaning that those publishers depend on WOTC and WOTC's funding sources for their own operations; most of the also-rans, being Death Cult fronts, are also poz-pushers to varying degrees when they are not Pop Cult heretics.

The Clubhouse side, being non-commercial, can push back effectively against this. No commercial operator can due to Network Effects smothering their efforts, coupled with the far more active efforts WOTC made to cut off recruitment of their castoffs and rejects and the continued refusal to actively market and advertise themselves in order to create their own customer acquisition funnel as well as a customer retention strategy- something every business worth a damn actually does.

The Culture: A Modest Macross Proposal

Okay, that Macross campaign proposal.

There's some gap on what goes down on Earth after the First Space War (specifically after the end of the original series). We know that (a) there's been an immediate push to start launching colonies into space to settle and tame Earthlike exoplanets, an effort that would succeed within a generation or so (e.g. Macross Plus).

We also know that the Zentran Fleet was not 100% annihilated, and that remnants did not 100% assimilated into Earth civilization; splinters remained an issue for generations after the First Space War (e.g. Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross Frontier, Macross Delta).

Unfortunately, because of HARMONY FUCK YOU GOLD, Western licensing for play in this period is between shit and fuck-all. Therefore we'll have to make due with Robotech material because Palladium came up with some good asspulls that (with a little massaging) would fit just fine. Behold!

Like I said, there needs be massaging.

As these are long out of print, it would probably be wiser to call upon Captain Harlock to deliver some PDFs instead. You'll also need to make use of sites like MAHQ.net and the Macross Mecha Manual to fill in the gaps (in stat terms) that Palladium's former licenses could not provide for.

The top-level players control the factions vying for control. Other players can come in when Convergence inevitably occurs and combat occurs.

You'll need to change what Palladium published to conform to the Macross timeline, removing the HG RT BS, but otherwise keep 90% of the design structure. This means that you don't need to write up stuff from scratch using HERO, GURPS, or Mekton Zeta.

(You'll be able to replicate this for playing Southern Cross and MOSPEADA.)

The Culture: SIXTH. OF. JUNE. 19. Forty. FOUR!

We take a break from our usual ranting about Tabletop to remind you that it's D-Day.

Sabaton not only has the best song about it ever, but Sabaton's AMVs are the best AMVs.

And yes, I've been thinking about a Macross Grand Campaign proposal.

Tomorrow.