Monday Musings #125 🤬

Musing on Veterans Day and Game prep

Good Monday, Gamer!

Photo by israel palacio on Unsplash

“Work, work, work, work, work” — Rihanna

Veterans Day PSA

Re-sharing an oldie for Veteran’s Day weekend — it still stands.
I’m doing Ok: still kicking the asses of diabetes, PTSD, and high blood pressure. I’ve got games to run, TPKs to do.
But many veterans aren’t doing fine.
If you’ve got a minute, check in with your local VA, veterans’ service organizations, or community outreach centers. A small gesture — a meal, a conversation, a connection — can make a bigger difference than you think.

👉 Here’s the original post

G.I. Jay

---

I’ve been reinvigorated lately — thanks to recent player runs through Mythic Bastionland, Flying Circus, and now Cairn.

Getting to play, not just GM, reminds me what I actually love about these games: how they push character, tone, and world through play. And it’s pulled me back into GM prep mode again. Feels good to have multiple worlds open at once. Here’s what I’ve got cooking.

Apocalypse World 2e

Prepping what might be my farewell run before I dive into the new 3rd Edition.

For the uninitiated: Apocalypse World (by Vincent & Meguey Baker) is the game that launched the “Powered by the Apocalypse” movement — playbooks, moves, and “play to find out what happens.” It’s punk, messy, and brilliant.

This time, I’m taking it to space.
I’ve got two Hard Zones roughed out:

• The Grave Belt — derelict stations and drifting bones of dead colonies.

• The Anadyomene Artifact — a strange, ancient alien megastructure.

Right now, I’m swapping out road hogs and motorbikes for shuttles, freighters, and scavenger rigs, tweaking the AW frames for the Kuiper Belt instead of desert dust. Once I finish some descriptors for the Hard Zone locations, I’ll call prep done until we sit down to make characters.
I’ve been pinning concept art for use in Mad Dice to set the mood, and noodling on a Debt Move inspired by the Psi Harm Move — honestly, funnest game prep ever.

Wild Talents: One Night in Irama

A short 4–6 session series set in Irama, the fictional Brazilian megacity from my Lifted universe — part city of tomorrow, part post-human cold war.

Wild Talents (by Arc Dream Publishing) is a flexible superhero RPG built on the One-Roll Engine (the same system used in Godlike and Monsters and Other Childish Things). It’s all about powered people in a grounded, sometimes brutal world.
Right now, the big question is: do I provide pre-gens, or build from scratch?
Both options shape tone differently — pre-gens lets us get going quickly; player creation gives us ownership and surprises. There might be a middle path here, and I’m toying with that balance.

Ultraviolet Grasslands (sort of…)

This one’s been gnawing at me.

I love the art and the psychedelic “caravan across a dying world” premise — it’s a heavy-metal road trip through myth and entropy. But tone-wise, Ultraviolet Grasslands leans a little too Adventure Time for my taste...what to do, what to do...

So the question: what system delivers the feel I want?

• OSE (Old School Essentials) gives crunchy expedition survival.

• Burning Wheel gives belief-driven drama.

• Cairn keeps it sharp and fast.

Each one shifts the play texture. I don’t need to run UVG as-is — I just want that feeling of slow apocalypse, trade, and mythic travel. Still chewing on it.

📚 Reading + Rebuilding

I’ve been dipping into Wareblades and Sword World, mostly out of curiosity. (If you haven’t heard of Sword World, it’s Japan’s homegrown fantasy RPG — sort of their equivalent of D&D, full of interesting mechanics and cultural takes on adventuring.)

On the tech and media side:

• Rebuilding the Diceology website using Hugo — static, fast, minimal.

• Podcast relaunch is underway, starting with Muses of Play (very soon!) and some superhero APs.

• A copy of Batman: Gotham Chronicles RPG is en route — curious to see what it does.

ICYMI

A few things from the archives and orbit:

• 🎧 Roll for Origin w/ Lowell Francis We’re 56 episodes Strong!!

• 🔥 Apocalypse World: Burned Over Kickstarter** Open those wallets to the Malestrom!!

• 🏰 Played It: Mythic Bastionland

It’s good to feel hungry at the table again.

As always, thanks for reading, sharing, and building strange worlds with me.

Catch ya next week!