I was there!

Same with writing. Same with game design. The boring, hard work is how you learn.

I keep seeing "all authors use AI, the real issue is they're being forced to be sneaky about it" headlines.

Full stop No. This is a lie peddled for normalization. It's schoolyard-level pressure tactics "C'mon, all the cool kids are already doing it. We won't tell. It's fine. We're on your side."

Reminds me that I’ve been toying with the idea for a Mothership module where you play as a salvage/cleanup crew who have to go in to clean up AFTER other Mothership modules have finished.

My advice to biologists tempted to use AI/LLMs to code their analyses: don't.

(I'm continuing with reviewing the analyses for our article, and it's taken me all morning to figure out what the code is trying to do.)

A black-and-white cartoon. John is behind a stack of games, saying “Games Room”; Alison is behind a stack of printers and paper, saying “Newsletter”; Liz is on a beach reading with sunglasses and a cocktail. In purple, the words “Octothorpe 156 Eastercon Planning:” appear at the top and “questioning our life choices” at the bottom.

Octothorpe 156 is here! We discuss Locus, we discuss the Nebulas, we discuss Eastercon, and then we talk about Liz’s totally SFnal and very genre pick. Listen here! octothorpe.podbean.com/e/156-surpri...

@locusmag.bsky.social @sfwa.org @easterconuk.bsky.social

I’ll be sure to let you know!

I have heard exciting news that someone is scheduled to run OTHERSHIP at a convention shortly, like as an actually arranged thing? They're using the rules from something called 'Mothership' for it, which is very funny.

It me!! At @easterconuk.bsky.social 😁

I’m reading Mothership zines but also have a lot of Cthulhu to work through!

I asked in one metadata request for something to be labelled a game and they labelled it “not a book” so
I had to write and be like “no it’s very definitely a book, it’s just also a game”. Weird blind spot!

These prices are horrific.

By comparison:

-A Magic card (hell, even in 1993), $1,000
-A Delta Green interior full page colour illustration, $500
-A colour cover, $1,000

Way back when a bullpen artist told me; "Trying to break into comics is like tying to break in Auschwitz, kid. Save yourself."

Alright yall, my inbox is full from folks privately reaching out (please always feel free to publicly post if your contract allows) about

CURRENT COVER RATES in 2026

Strap in

@thestorygraph.com Please may we have a tabletop game genre? I just moved to your service from Goodreads, and I’m adding some books that aren’t in your database that I own, but there’s no genre for them that makes sense!

Oh goodness, get better soon!

UPDATE: Australia now joins UK & France in refusing to send naval ships to assist re-opening the Strait of Hormuz.

NOT A SINGLE COUNTRY has signed up for Trump’s suicide mission.

America’s influence on the world stage is being shredded in real time. A Berlin Wall moment for the United States.

I‘ve heard people say the show fell off when she was introduced, but I think they’re all being insincere. It’s just a bad faith argument.

Three homunculi in jars with cork toppers who look reminiscent of John, Alison and Liz. Alison’s has a little stick with a moose head on it and a cup of coffee. The jars are on a shelf. The words “Octothorpe 155” appear at the top and “Small Podcasters” at the bottom.

Well done! You’ve found the contents of Octothorpe 155, perfectly preserved in a jar. The jar was in your basement. The jar was always there. You always had a basement. Don’t run—come back! We talk about Eastercon!

octothorpe.podbean.com/e/155-ed-ed-...

P.S. Vote in GUFF, today is the last day.

@deepcrypt.games is there any chance of your games coming to Switch or PS5?

What’s the link to the fundraiser?

@itsquinns.bsky.social Please could I ask, where did you get those excellent hourglasses you have in the Public Access episode?

I live in Newcastle, everything south of the Wear is south!

🎯
This is very good and it's important to call the BS coming from big investors. The pensioners in Ontario would obviously never consent to having their own water privatised and sold off, so it's hard to see on what grounds they would object to a worthless investment being seized

Cyberpunk cockney rhyming slang:

The cold = the internet. From cold and wet.
Corp/corporate = hacking. From corporate backing.
Smiley = virus. From Miley Cyrus.
Varnishing = Cracking. From varnish and lacquer.
Musket = social engineer. From musketeer.

Trip asked me to repost this, and it sounds mad. I’m imaging Robert Baratheon wearing a feather boa, heels, and nothing else! (If I’m wrong I don’t want to be right.)

Yeah, this is the only explanation that makes a lick of sense to me. It’s too stupid to have been purposeful!

From where I’m sitting, it’s the current Labour leadership that looks pretty extreme. It’s certainly not the party that I had supported for thirty years.

Tablet. Never a computer, I refuse to have computers at my table.

Labour-style sticker that says "fuck you vote Labour"

I can't believe this strategy didn't work

@giantbrain.co.uk Hi Iain! Loving the starter set rundown in March’s TTG, but @cubicle7games.bsky.social aren’t a UK publisher, they’re Irish!

Dear Lucy On the eve of the by-election, your Labour party spokesperson has admitted to the Huffington Post that a Labour party leaflet has been delivered through doors with your imprint recommending a vote for Labour by a tactical voting organisation which does not exist. This is deeply troubling, it is actually lying to voters. Did you approve this? Do you feel the Labour Party in government should be held to different standards in terms of honesty to the British public? In your last letter to me you mentioned your ‘very extensive data’ and ‘having spoken to over a third of eligible voters’ which led you to an understanding that the by election ‘was a contest between labour and Reform’. Clearly this latest development only tells voters one thing - you will employ any type of political deception (or in Urdu “Dhoka” ) to win. You will be very aware that all three real tactical voting organisations are recommending a vote for the Greens as the best way to stop Reform. Lying to the voters, as you have been caught doing, raises the real prospect that Reform will be the beneficiaries, something you have said that you don’t want. As this is such an important issue, for the sake of your own reputation, I would strongly urge you to apologise to the voters of Denton and Gorton before the polls open in the morning.” Kind regards, Zack Polanski Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales

Dear @lucympowell.bsky.social,

Why did you invent a fake tactical voting company to stop the Green Party beating Reform?

I'm starting to think your letters haven't always been in good faith...