Weapons Grade Autism

I think I'd rather a game be specific with its inspirations rather than simply listing off the greats. It's not about giving a broad overview of the genre, it's about pinpointing which snapshot of that genre (and which things outside that genre) your game specifically is taking its influences from.

If you list off inspirations that aren't actually present in your work, that will result in people having a worse understanding of what your game is intended to do.

And, tbh, if I pick up a genre ttrpg and it lists off every notable work in the genre (many of them wildly different to each other) then I'm gonna assume that the design is as unfocussed and generic as the inspo list.

For example, there's a game I put out recently (The Yellow Curtain) that's got elements of magical girl in the mix. So the inspirations page lists the specific shows I was drawing on; revolutionary girl utena and review starlight. Because those shows - with their surrealism, emphasis on performance, structure based around duels, and fun queer readings - are what I made the game about. If I listed, say, card captor sakura then - no matter how beloved ccs is as a magical girl show - i'm doing the reader a disservice, because then they might try to use the game to create a ccs like experience, and that's just not something TYC is equipped to do.

Now, I think there's a sperate issue where people are making ttrpgs about genre fiction where they think that the genre is entirely about the section of that genre thats popular with white nerds in the west. So, you get magical girl games that list sailor moon and madoka magica and nothing else, because that's the entry-level slice of the genre that a basic western nerd knows, right? And this is a problem, particularly when every magical girl ttrpg lists the same two shows and fuck all else.

It's like, if I see a cosmic horror rpg that lists lovecraft and little else as its inspiration, I assume it's some basic shit by somebody with only a surface level knowledge of the genre, mostly filtered through nerd culture. If I see one that only lists Arthur Machen's The White People as its inspiration, I assume that the author is familiar with the wider genre and has chosen this specific deep cut on purpose.

magical girl ttrpgs are just sort of so underdeveloped that i basically never see interesting slices; but i agree that this is generally more ideal than a heaping broad swathe. the work i'm doing for eureka's magical girl supplement ultimately ended up focusing on just a handful of series as core inspiration.

it's just like... i get this is because precure never quite struck it big in the west and other series ended up forming the core of western pop cultural understanding, but it's just so weird to see the moderately influential madoka thought of as the entry level series and not the mammoth yearly seasonal series with massive merchandise pushes that has dominated the space for two decades. it's like if every western mecha ttrpg listed Aldnoah Zero but not Gundam.

was firmly agreeing with

you. In conclusion:

when someone tags your post "#unreality" and you screenshot the tags and say "what are you talking about? this is real" because you consider the post easy to discern as not real and find this joke funny you're actually just causing paranoia for people who now feel like they can't trust the unreality tag. not everyone has the same reality discernment skills as you. what's "obviously" a fictional story to you may not be obvious to other people.

I've been iffy about posting this one, it's not at all like what I would prefer to make. So...obviously this isn't just a trans allegory. I mean I would love to be able to be a nightmarish eldritch creature of flesh and metal, but that's not the main point of these renderings.

I'm tired of insatiable greed dominating the world. I'm tired of being squeezed for more and more while making less and less. I'm tired of not even being able to help everyone I care about, let alone my broader community.

Thanks for reading,

This is the 10th Anniversary Edition of "It's Not A Race." Originally released in August, this version is months late because the prospect of adding pages to what is easily my most read works was particularly daunting.

Here’s HSTHETE, the 24 hour comic I drew this year!  Thanks to everybody who followed along on twitter this weekend as I posted these pages <3

It's been raining almost everyday in Sweden for a month and I haven't seen the sun this whole time either. I feel like Brush Buddy trapped in the water hat 😭😭😭 The only thing I have to look forward to is the Witch Hat Atelier anime coming out in 2026. The trailer is already so amazing! Who else is a fan of the manga?

“If she’s got the temperament for it, she should try her luck inland,” they advise. “No point her starting a temple here if she’d find her people elsewhere, with a little searching.”

At first, your parents are reluctant to send you away. Though you’re well-behaved and diligent in your chores, you’re a sickly child with no God to worship. And besides, you’ve always been the dreamy type–inclined to lose track of time watching the path of rain droplets chasing down the window, or the fronds of an anemone as it sways in a rock pool.

Instead, they send you to the temple of the Storm to learn all you’ll need for your own God. You are happy there, for a time: making up beds and serving food to the castaways who pass through, keeping vigil at the lighthouse, burning incense and praying with the loyal widows and orphans of the drowned.

One such widow, an old, old lady, touches the mark on your forehead. “I recognise those letters. We wrote this way in the town where I grew up, way off past the mountains.”

Your heartbeat quickens. “What does it say!?”

She squints, eyes engulfed by wrinkles and hidden behind smudged glass. “A… Ar… Oh, I can’t remember how to speak it. I left before I learnt my letters properly. There was a war, you know. But I remember,” she says, mistily, “the most beautiful pink and white flowers used to grow, on the borders of the wheat fields…”

You try to ask more questions, but remembering the war distresses her, and so you speak of other things. When she’s drifted off to sleep, you get to your feet, go home and tell your parents: you are leaving in search of your God.