Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series.

Just a breathtaking setting that begins with the first hundred settlers and traces the intrigue, terraforming, conflicts, and dreams of the colonists. It’s a sweeping epic written on a human scale.

“Our goal in a couple of years is for people to think of Infowars as the funniest and dumbest website that exists,” Ben Collins, the Onion’s CEO, told The Associated Press. “It was previously the dumbest website that exists.”

Sarmatians are different from Samaritans.

Except our fascist orangutan looks much dumber.

Same for MSNBC, really. Cable news is owned by people who have a conflict of interest with the working class.

It started as a fake psychiatry scam, but when Hubbard realized there were laws regulating medicine he switched it over to being a religion where there aren’t any of those pesky regulations or ethical oversight.

Weird, they just let a psycho killer be a cop? I’m sure they’ll prevent that in the future.

Tangentially related, but I just started my first real Morrowind playthrough about a week ago, and it’s great!

When it first came out I borrowed it from my brother, but I didn’t have a computer that could run it; it was just a slideshow. I’d played Daggerfall before, and Oblivion & Skyrim subsequently, but I skipped Morrowind.

It’s a bit disappointing seeing how much Bethesda has trimmed the most interesting systems from their earlier entries. I imagine that if the next TES game had spellcrafting or a deeper dialogue system then it would get a much more engaging reception over Starfield’s bland, watered down experience that has been “polished” so much that there’s nothing compelling that stands out.

Right? They were awesome.

You’re never too rich to enjoy a free turkey dog.

Minestrone or Italian wedding soup are both pretty chunky.

I also don’t see a transmission. I wonder if this thing is direct drive or has some kind of fluid coupling?

That motor looks loud AF.

I love you.

I’m a man and I’d never date a Republican either.

A person’s politics are a reflection of their values: if they’re willing to identify themselves as someone who validates all that fascist shit, then I want nothing to do with them.

It’s crazy to me that this take is even remotely controversial.

Because they’re certain that the people getting punished are heretics to their reactionary ideology.

They see it as inferior people getting what they deserve, and since it’s privatized they imagine they’ll pay less for the privilege.

But why?

Make the fascist fire you.

Yamaha makes the best guitar for the money.

The instrument I probably play the most is a nylon string Yamaha with a great dual pickup/mic that I got for $100 at a pawn shop. It has some cosmetic wear, but that’s a bonus in my opinion.

“You’re not watching your kid enough, so we’re putting you in jail away from the kids you’re supposed to be watching.”

Why are cops such fucking idiots? Even if I agreed with their judgement (which I definitely do not) it would be the wrong solution.

My very favorite system is Apocalypse World; it always plays out as high-drama operatic pulp. It does tend to go PvP in later sessions, so it’s definitely not for every group.

I also enjoy Blades in the Dark, a heist game set in a haunted Victorian London-inspired city. There are a lot of great innovations that mean the players don’t have to meticulously plan out their session (often wasting time on contingencies that are irrelevant), and instead can jump right in and get to the juicy bits.

Mothership is a great sci-fi horror OSR (old school revival) game that is very modular and has a ton of pre-written modules. Normally I prefer a more improvised style, but this is a solid ruleset that works well towards building the tension required for the genre.

If you’re just looking for a one-shot, Fiasco is always a great time: very rules light and more like a writers room exercise than most RPGs, but there’s no better game for hilarious hijinks inspired by films like Fargo or Burn After Reading.

Dogs in the Vineyard is another great one by the same designers as Apocalypse World in which the players are teenage paladin gunslingers in a weird old west populated by demons and heretics. The players come to town with absolute moral authority and may judge whomever they wish, but there’s no guarantee they’re really the good guys even though their characters absolutely see themselves that way.