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Interrobang Diaries: Action Sequences and Fight Scenes
November 26, 2019
When things start happening in a way that is fast and furious, the tempo of the game changes a bit. When this happens, it's called an action sequence. A...
Firing The Canons
November 23, 2019
A while back, word went around the intertubes that Tad Stones, creator of Darkwing Duck, had gone on record in an interview as saying that his show and...
Nobody Shot JFK
November 20, 2019
The popular story is that at 12:30 PM on November 22nd, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, but I am here today to tell...
The story continues.
November 19, 2019
So, I’ve posted another bit of the Space Hunter story over on my Patreon, for those interested in my fiction. It (like most of my content in both places) is...
The Dream of the Republican Party
November 16, 2019
This is a piece I have been struggling to write for a few days now. It's a struggle because it deals with a truth that is so obvious to me I'm not sure how...
A Tale of Two Calls
November 15, 2019
So, today Trump released a memo of a short, congratulatory call he made to the president-elect of Ukraine, before the man actually held office and had any...
Taking The Long View When History Is Happening
November 14, 2019
You might have noticed I don't have much to say about impeachment proceedings... yet. It's not that I'm not paying attention, but I feel like my kind of...
The Annihilation Game
November 13, 2019
So, I have finally seen the film Annihilation, which only came out last year but has been so widely discussed by so many people whose opinions I value that I...
Interrobang Diaries: Gameplay Basics
November 7, 2019
Hello to all the new readers who are here because of Greg Olear's essay. In addition to political commentary, I also do tabletop game design. One of the...
The Myth of America’s Mayor: Will the Real Rudy Giuliani Please Stand Up?
November 6, 2019
By Greg Olear Luxuriating in the muck at the center of the president’s Ukraine scandal is Rudolph William Louis Giuliani—a man who, not that long ago, was...
Transmissions from a Point in Space
November 6, 2019
As a point of interest — and under the theory that if you're reading this, you like to read things I have written — I have an essay in the latest issue of...
Red Dead Unloaded
November 5, 2019
Back in the days before YouTube, back when Netflix was a small mail-order rental company, back when it could take me all day to load a single streaming MP3...
Telling Stories in a Big Galaxy
November 4, 2019
So, earlier today I posted a short story on my Patreon, with a working title of "Bluffing on a Strong Hand". I think the title's going to change, it's very...
The Interrobang Diaries: Some Reflections
November 3, 2019
I've got another letter with Interrobang rough draft stuff in it coming up, or possibly two... the draft is getting pretty large and I'm seeing a natural...
Florida Man, Florida Man
November 3, 2019
So when it was first reported that Donald Trump and his current wife had filed for residency in Florida, the White House wasted no time in saying it was...
The Investigation Game
November 2, 2019
So, Greg Sargent had a really incisive piece earlier in the week on the big takeaways from former national security adviser Tim Morrison's opening testimony...
The Economics of Sincerity
November 1, 2019
So, there's this very good farewell message that went up on Deadspin a few months back from Megan Greenwell, that's a sort of post-mortem of a model of...
GUEST POST: Universal's Cinematic Marvels
October 31, 2019
Season's shriekings, BOILS, GHOULS, and non-binSCARY fiends! It is I, your humble Stackeeper, Alexandra, here to introduce a brand new creature-feature to my...
The Call That No One Talks About
October 30, 2019
This from Daniel Dale today: Daniel Dale @ddale8It's hard to explain just how comprehensively Trump is lying about the Ukraine scandal. He's being dishonest...
New Story On Patreon
October 30, 2019
Just a quick note to say that my story for the month (a seasonally appropriate offering, to be sure) “Three Stories Without Any Monsters” is available to...
When Donald Trump Has A Point...
October 29, 2019
One of the lines that Donald and his enablers have trotted out again and again is that the Democrats are pressing forward with impeachment because they don't...
When One Good Day Is One Too Many
October 28, 2019
There's a theory about Twitter that is a bit reductive but also instructive: maple cocaine @maplecocaineEach day on twitter there is one main character. The...
Midnight in the Senate of Good and Evil
October 26, 2019
I've seen a variety of theories for what will happen if Trump is impeached and the matter referred to the Senate in the past few days. Almost everyone agrees...
"We Have Secured The Oil"
October 24, 2019
This says it all, doesn't it? Aaron Rupar @atruparTRUMP on Syria's oil: "We've secured the oil and, therefore, a small number of US Troops will remain in the...
The Interrobang Diaries: Character Assets
October 24, 2019
First, a note: a reader pointed out to me that another name for the interrobang punctuation symbol is an exclamaquest, which is a good name for a fantasy...
Kidding Kidders Who Kid (Kiddingly)
October 24, 2019
So, Daniel Dale reported an unusual line from Donald Trump's appearance in Pittsburgh: Daniel Dale @ddale8Alert: The president said a couple minutes ago,...
Newsletter Economics
October 23, 2019
So, in the two days since my introductory sale period ended, I have not sold one new newsletter subscription at full price. During the sale, it was rare to...
Who is going to tell Ian Bogost that the shopping list missions were optional?
October 23, 2019
Well, Ian Bogost had a take… (E-i-e-i-o.)I’m told that Ian Bogost is a respected professor and a very learned expert on the subject of play, perhaps the very...
The Interrobang Diaries: Spheres & Strengths
October 22, 2019
(See the previous diary entry here.) Step two of character creation in Interrobang is to rate your character's general abilities in each of several spheres,...
So, here's where we are.
October 21, 2019
Well, today is the last day of the I Knew You When sale, the introductory offer to my newsletter. It's not really possible to overstate how successful this...
A Chronicle of Capclave: Study Sessions
October 19, 2019
So, in the past at conventions I have livetweeted panels I have attended, with the thoroughness of the report acting as an imperfect but highly suggestive...
The Interrobang Diaries: Identity & Aspects
October 17, 2019
So, I've attempted to write multiple drafts of Interrobang's rules of play and character creation, both in and out of that order, and mostly they've said...
Who Framed Donald Dingbat?
October 17, 2019
"How could Trump possibly think this makes him look good?" is the question. The subject could be just about anything: the White House-edited call transcript,...
Introducing: Interrobang?!
October 17, 2019
So, as I mentioned yesterday, I've restarted development on the tabletop RPG project that I've called A Wilder World. The point of AWW is to support a little...
A Study in Optical Projection
October 16, 2019
So, there are many remarkable things about this document produced by the Trump White House: Trish Regan @trish_reganEXCLUSIVE: I have obtained a copy of...
Heavy-Handed Design Lessons from Zweihänder
October 15, 2019
This past Sunday, we found ourselves with several hours to kill between when we checked out of our hotel and when we had to be at the Tulsa airport even...
Reflections from the Belly of a Blue Whale
October 14, 2019
I never miss my mother half so much as when I'm traveling. Part of this is that for so much of the past five or six years, the vast majority of my air travel...
Discussion Thread: Travel Time
October 13, 2019
Hello, neighbors. Today we are flying back from Tulsa. It’ll be a long travel day, so seems like a good time to try out the discussion feature. We came to...
Killing on the Square
October 11, 2019
I saw a tweet from a journalist whose feed would not make me immediately classify him as a Trump supporter who expressed dismay over Donald's "great and...
Argument from Inaction
October 10, 2019
A few days ago, Donald Trump tweeted this: Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrumpAs I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything...
Catch-45
October 9, 2019
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22. Team Trump has issued their official response to the impeachment inquiry, as summed up here: Jon Favreau...
Constitutional Crisis on Infinite Crises
October 8, 2019
So, it's happened: ABC News @ABCBREAKING: White House sends letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying Trump administration "cannot be expected to participate in"...
17 is the Euphoniest Number
October 7, 2019
So, I've talked about this before in this very newsletter, but I think one of the mistakes people can make in dealing with Trump is assuming there must be...
Subscription Drive Update
October 7, 2019
Hey, all! Today was the day that the introductory sale was set to end and the subscription price (for new subscribers) would go up to $5 a month or $50 a...
Self-Improvement in the Neighborhood
October 6, 2019
You know, I didn't set out to be the woman on Twitter who affectionately calls her audience babies. It wasn't planned. It just sort of happened. It mostly...
The Lesson of the Wolf
October 5, 2019
It never gets any less surreal for me, watching the right-wing fever swamps denounce the FBI and the CIA as hotbeds of radical, liberal, socialist...
Toybox vs. Playground
October 4, 2019
So, I've been thinking a lot about tabletop game design lately, and in particular about the types of roleplaying games that do grab me as a player and...
What's all this, then?
October 3, 2019
You know, I went into this newsletter experiment with no baseline for what success would look like. I just knew that I wasn't spending enough time on Twitter...
Through The Crooking Glass
October 2, 2019
So, Trump today said that he agrees with whistleblower protections but only for real whistleblowers, not people who make up bad things about him. That...
Now That's What I Call Mootin' Around
October 2, 2019
It's no surprise to anyone who follows me long on Twitter that I love etymology. That's the study of words and their origins, by the way. If you get it mixed...
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