The Culture: Tex Teases Hesperus II Episode

This dropped recently. Looking forward to the full episode.

And remember, the next 'Mech video on deck is The Archer.

The Culture: Tabletop Makers Need To Work Harder To Justify Their Existences

I am thinking of something that should be talked about.

Put away the Theater Kid faggotry and its performative signalling. Put away Braunstein. Put away the Cargo Cult and its stupid norms.

Think like a Normie that isn't in the hobby, but only sees it as the precursor to the Vidya versions. Specifically, think of the single-player adventure game where you control one man, doing things by himself without superpowers or items that emulate those effects. In short, your classic Fighting Man (or a boy growing into one); this is the sort of tale you see in the old days, almost all of which are in the Public Domain now.

What does that game look like?

"That's-"

No, not really. You're not looking at easily scaling things up from man-to-man to mass combat and this isn't a musou so he ain't a one-man army either; if he's facing two on one, he's in trouble, especially if they just pile on like it does in real life- and that's just other men. Monsters can easily be too much to handle even if it's just one of them.

"GURPS?"

No, not really; it, and HERO, are Dev Kit products. They are not games. They are tools to develop ideas into games.

You're looking at a ruleset that gets into the weeds a bit. Like Palladium, this is a circumstance where blow-by-blow matters. Like Traveller, this is a circumstances where you taking a hit is a serious problem. Your Pace of Decision is at the Second level, not the Minute or greater level, because the level of abstraction you're after here is one where what you wear, where your gear it, how hurt/hungry/thirsty/tired you are matters, and all of that factors into your man's performance. This is a level of abstraction that--normally--is anti-thetical to good, satisfying, or proper gameplay.

Yet few products that attempt to get this close to the single man perspective try to be readable technical manuals that Normies can read, comprehend, process, and apply in minutes and in small amounts as required. (Rolemaster being a particular offender here.)

If you're going to insist on publishing adventure game products, the least you can do is justify your existence by getting away from the space utterly consumed by D&D and its Network Effect as well as those already occupied by products/brands with similar status (e.g. HERO, Call of Cthlulhu, Traveller, BattleTech, RIFTS).

You lot need to sit down and think through what justifies your product being independent of those Networks and their Brands. Me doing this think-aloud piece above is that sort of work, because none of them do it well and few of them even comprehend the question- nevermind try to answer it.

Try to answer the question above: "What does the adventure game focused on one adventurer, with no powers, look like?"

Right now, it looks more like Sword World (and that's still a far cry from the answer) than anything else. You need to carve out the niche you claim to champion BECAUSE IT DOES NOT EXIST!

Sandman Dodging Champion For Another Year

My birthday is today.

I know the ritual. Folks in the family want to know what I want for my birthday, and since it's two months before Xmas I might as well put my Wish List in order.

So that's done: Amazon (Appendix N Lit, Concept Art Books, General Anime, Genre Fiction Media, Gundam Media, History Media, Middle-Earth Media, Miscellaneous, Old West Literary Canon), Steam, GOG- all sorted. In addition, the big lists I don't keep online (firearms, transit, services, Things Only (U)HNWIs Can Do For Me) are all also updated and I remind you that gift cards are always appreciated.

Additions this year include: WOW Forever bonus pack (link is to the top tier; Heroic is fine, so is just game time) and WOW sub time, a year of Twitter Premium, upgrading my PC's graphics card (not by much; I'm aiming for the 6GB version of my current card), a Palladium Grab Bag (if live by that point; if not they will before XMas) and this print of the original cover art for A Princess of Mars, a hardcopy of D&D: An American Institution, and someone somehow finding a print copy of the Robotech: Expeditionary Force Marines Sourcebook.

NB: Steam Autumn sale is ongoing, GOG's may not be over yet when you read this, Amazon has Prime Days going on, and some other storefronts may have sales.

The Business: You Still Aren't Escaping The Bots

Your reminder to not discount Super Intelligence in media production. This is a foreigner with a YouTube channel and access to several models.

Quoting the (translated) description:

"Original Sci-Fi Animation Project: *Space Battleship: Cyclops* – Concept Film.

This concept film was created to bring to life the world and story of an original sci-fi work set in deep space. It is not the main series itself, but rather a production designed to explore the project's world-building, visual style, and narrative potential.

Audio: Japanese | Subtitles: English | Opening Theme: "Zankou no Kanata" (Beyond the Afterglow) | Artist: TR1AD | Planning & Production: Taisho Shin.

*Note: Generative AI was used in a portion of the video production process; however, the project—including planning, composition, direction, and editing—was crafted as a cohesive original video work. © Taisho Shin.

Is there some jank? Yep. Still there. Given the consistency of his character and vehicle designs, I expect that those were generated seperately and then reused as references for the composite shots. Voices were nothing I hadn't heard before; machine translation likely used for generating the subtitles too, explaining some of the tonal oddity in the dialog.

And this guy's an Anglophone who did a pilot.

This is what you can currently do.

Also janky, but you can tell this is already comparable with what the studios in Japan pump out season on season; it's already on the verge of making that business case of cheap and fast animation obsolete and forcing those studios back into higher-end work that takes longer due to quality control to continue justifying their existences, much like the OVA boom did decades ago.

Yet here one guy has a complete pitch for a series or film. The other has a pilot. Not some storyboards. Not a manga chapter. Not some concept pieces and a summary of a light novel or webcomcs. A fully animated pitch trailer or pilot episode, ready for throwing at studios, who can then take what he likely has as his production bible and then immediately accelerate to series or film production.

This, right here, demonstrates at least months and likely years of saved production time purely by showing the prospective production committee what the finish work looks like- and those designs are so friendly to merchandising that you know they'd sell if the full series/film is good and satisfies its audience.

You will have to reckon with this totally wrecking the established film/TV/animation industry within a decade, such that the only alternative that will be viable will be considered "artisinal" and thus solely at the sufferance of patronage to finance their production because it's already this good and only getting better. Expect SI to get incorporated into commercial animation workflows deeply at all stages within a few years, and from there what's already happening in books, comics, and games will come in full force for film and TV.

The Culture: We Get New VOTOMS Before GTA 6

Well folks, looks like we're going to be eating good for a while since Hathaway's Flash started a trend in seinan mecha revivals.

Yeah, another female protagonist, but let's seen if this one's a Sue before burning her at the stake. This is a Mamoru Oshi picture, under supervision from the original series' director, so I'm inclined to give it a chance.

And let's be fair about the setting: both states in VOTOMS would not hesitate to throw disagreeable women to the meatgrinder as a form of social control. This is still the Realist of Real Robot mecha, and that includes the sheer amount of Grimdark Fuckery that the powerful get up to. Remember Fyana's position vis-a-vis Chirico is as his distaff counterpart and thus is also prone to being toss into deep shit for various fuckery-related reasons. This looks to be more of the same.

The Business: Dear God, A Glitter Boy Supplement

Uncle Kevin's still making RIFTS books.

TLDR:

It’s time to suit up — the Glitter Boy Codex is coming soon!

This is the first Rifts sourcebook dedicated to the most recognizable power armor in the Megaverse. 128 pages of pure Glitter Boy glory: history, variants, factions, legendary suits, tech — the kind of high-stakes Mega-Damage mayhem only Palladium can deliver.

Whether you’re a wandering Glitter Boy hero, a mercenary pilot living the dream, or a Game Master who wants to drop a chromium legend on your table, this book is for you.

This is being crowdfunded, but the campaign isn't live as of this post.

The Culture: Meet The Wolheim Witch

If you've read JD Cowan's The Last Fanatics, this is independent confirmation.

BTW - here's the poison apple that planted the Upas tree behind "Modern Traditional Publishing" - Betsy Wollheimhttps://t.co/TrqYpUC4cchttps://t.co/KlDS4ds0kJ

Two parts of a fluff article given to her on BlackGate which is the voice of these people - who celebrated the… pic.twitter.com/e5dzCoj9NK

— Maxx Feral (@MaxxFeral) September 24, 2026

Betty Wolheim carried on her father's work, in spirit if nothing else; she's a second generation Fanatic.

She was part of the cohort that began moving into power in the industry in the 1970s, reaching critical mass in the 1990s and seizing power openly from 2000 forward. You can find her successors in the Longhousing of all culture. She was a witch. Her succcessors are witches. Do what is required to deal with this.

Because otherwise this shit keeps happening.