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Instability as RPG pillar
In a conversation with the Roll for Topic podcast community, I suggested that instability is a key ingredient for an interesting role-playing game setting, something that offers a central thematic Problem that can’t be solved or avoided. [That was close to a year ago, when I initially drafted this post and didn’t post it…] In… Continue reading
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Dungeon23, a declaration of intent
With the camaraderie of several members of the Roll For Topic community, I’m planning to undertake the #Dungeon23 project: Megadungeon for 2023. 12 levels. 365 rooms. One room a day. Keep it all in a journal. Sean McCoy, #Dungeon23 We’ll see how far I get with it–after all, the state of this here blog shows… Continue reading
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High fantasy, GNP style
Peter Jackson’s footage of New Zealand may have defined epic fantasy visuals for a generation, but Montana had imprinted on my heart years before that. I’ve been to Glacier National Park every few years throughout my life, as the largest part of my steady childhood diet of lengthy road trips. (I’m fortunate to have family… Continue reading
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A year of online Pathfindering
While I apparently did not take advantage of Covid to increase my blogging activity, I certainly did a good job of getting some role-playing games in. (Both facts backed up by my last post being 8 months ago on this very same topic.) Almost exactly a year ago, I emailed some folks to set up… Continue reading
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Achievement unlocked: a year of gaming in six months
One of my goals for 2020 was to get 20 sessions of roleplaying games in over the course of the year. This would be probably twice what I managed in 2019, and more than any year since my kids were born. Two factors led to my being able to hit that goal only halfway through… Continue reading
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Ann Arbor to Glacier, car-free
Sam’s post on desiring an option for getting to and around Yellowstone National Park without private cars (uh, six months ago!) reminded me how much I take for granted in my favorite destination further north, Glacier National Park. Even without my personal advantage of having family in the area, Glacier is a relatively friendly park for visiting… Continue reading
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Reading 2019
I read a bunch of books in 2019, and actually did some tracking of what I read. Omitting a number of kid-oriented books and graphic novels, which would put the numbers much higher, and probably missing some things, here’s a list and some notes. This list doesn’t include many books that I actively did not… Continue reading
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Michigan’s poverty rate did not “soar 17%” from 2009 to 2014. (In fact, it was exactly the same.)
Edit 2, 12:30pm 12/5/15: lots of traffic to this post–welcome! You should also check out the comment thread on MarkMaynard.com’s discussion of this post; his readers offer a lot of good thoughts on what good reporting of these data *could* look like, and questions that could be asked. And, to be clear, my point in this post is not… Continue reading
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Parenting Playlist, Year 1
In the first six months of parenting, these are the categories of music that one listens to: Music that makes your colicky, refluxy, teething little monster(s) fall asleep Nope, that’s it This is mostly either whatever happens to be playing on shuffle at the moment when your midnight dancing around the living room finally works, or whatever lyrics… Continue reading
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Violent Crime: Is Ypsi up or down from the 70s? (The data suggest down.)
With 3 days left to the election, Ypsilanti’s claws are out over on The Facebook, with one resident’s question of how conflicts of interest are defined and dealt with diverging into an argument about whether or not Ypsi is better today than in the ’70s. (“Are you better off than 4 years ago?” is for the… Continue reading
About Me
Michigander, parent of twins, urban planner, role-playing game nerd.
Common Monkeyflower 