Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
@newmadras.bsky.social
He/him. Journalist at Rascal News. Interested in the art, history, and science of games. Makes the Indie RPG Newsletter and the Yes Indied Podcast. notrueindian@outlook.com
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Pinned tweet!
Indie RPG Newsletter: ttrpg.in
Yes Indie'd Podcast: creators.spotify.com/pod/show/yes...
Rascal News: www.rascal.news/author/thoma...
Itch store: newmadras.itch.io
Email in bio!
Indie RPG Newsletter: ttrpg.in
Yes Indie'd Podcast: creators.spotify.com/pod/show/yes...
Rascal News: www.rascal.news/author/thoma...
Itch store: newmadras.itch.io
Email in bio!
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
#TTRPG Designers, players, & related nerds:
@ttrpgcataloging.bsky.social is a group of Library & Information Science MA students are working on a research project focused on improving cataloging for TTRPGs — unbelievably important work!
They’re seeking participants for interviews.
@ttrpgcataloging.bsky.social is a group of Library & Information Science MA students are working on a research project focused on improving cataloging for TTRPGs — unbelievably important work!
They’re seeking participants for interviews.
January 7, 2026 at 3:47 PM
#TTRPG Designers, players, & related nerds:
@ttrpgcataloging.bsky.social is a group of Library & Information Science MA students are working on a research project focused on improving cataloging for TTRPGs — unbelievably important work!
They’re seeking participants for interviews.
@ttrpgcataloging.bsky.social is a group of Library & Information Science MA students are working on a research project focused on improving cataloging for TTRPGs — unbelievably important work!
They’re seeking participants for interviews.
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
One guy tried, unsuccessfully, to blow up a plane with a bomb in his sneakers, and everybody had to take off their shoes at the airport for the next 20 years.
Chatbots have a collective body count equal to Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez, and they're trying to put them in schools.
Chatbots have a collective body count equal to Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez, and they're trying to put them in schools.
30 years ago they were like we have to ban song lyrics for the children but it’s full steam ahead for the here’s how to do drugs until you die machine
“ChatGPT started coaching Sam on how to take drugs, recover from them and plan further binges. It gave him specific doses of illegal substances, and in one chat, it wrote, ‘Hell yes—let’s go full trippy mode’”
www.sfgate.com/tech/article...
www.sfgate.com/tech/article...
January 6, 2026 at 1:37 AM
One guy tried, unsuccessfully, to blow up a plane with a bomb in his sneakers, and everybody had to take off their shoes at the airport for the next 20 years.
Chatbots have a collective body count equal to Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez, and they're trying to put them in schools.
Chatbots have a collective body count equal to Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez, and they're trying to put them in schools.
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
Kicking off 2026 by writing about one of the best books of 2025. Also Walter Benjamin, baroque art, Alejo Carpentier, etc etc. The New Weird is back, baby (the New Weird never left because it's a methodology, not a periodization)
Synesthetic, Uncapturable, Uninterpretable, Irreproducible: @megapolisomancy.bsky.social reviews Hiron Ennes' THE WORKS OF VERMIN (@torbooks.bsky.social)
Synesthetic, Uncapturable, Uninterpretable, Irreproducible: Review of Hiron Ennes’s The Works of Vermin
Zachary Gillan Under Review:The Works of Vermin. Hiron Ennes. Tor Books, October 2025. “In the true work of art”, Walter Benjamin once wrote, “pleasure can be fleeting, it can live in the moment, i…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
January 5, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Kicking off 2026 by writing about one of the best books of 2025. Also Walter Benjamin, baroque art, Alejo Carpentier, etc etc. The New Weird is back, baby (the New Weird never left because it's a methodology, not a periodization)
How many Mothership modules about time loops do you know? I can count 4.
(They're all pretty good.)
(They're all pretty good.)
January 5, 2026 at 8:47 AM
How many Mothership modules about time loops do you know? I can count 4.
(They're all pretty good.)
(They're all pretty good.)
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
Reframing my GM mindset from “challenge comes from threatening the PCs’ lives” to “challenge comes from threatening their goals” has made my experience at the table more fun.
The tension can come from the chance of them completing their goals rather than the possibility of death.
#ttrpg
The tension can come from the chance of them completing their goals rather than the possibility of death.
#ttrpg
January 4, 2026 at 7:26 PM
Reframing my GM mindset from “challenge comes from threatening the PCs’ lives” to “challenge comes from threatening their goals” has made my experience at the table more fun.
The tension can come from the chance of them completing their goals rather than the possibility of death.
#ttrpg
The tension can come from the chance of them completing their goals rather than the possibility of death.
#ttrpg
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
Decolonising the Dungeon Crawl---
Like everything else re: decolonisation and TTRPGs discourse, this is a solved problem. There's only metric that matters:
How many creators from the colonised world are participating in and able to make a living from their games?
That's *it*.
1/
Like everything else re: decolonisation and TTRPGs discourse, this is a solved problem. There's only metric that matters:
How many creators from the colonised world are participating in and able to make a living from their games?
That's *it*.
1/
January 5, 2026 at 3:03 AM
Decolonising the Dungeon Crawl---
Like everything else re: decolonisation and TTRPGs discourse, this is a solved problem. There's only metric that matters:
How many creators from the colonised world are participating in and able to make a living from their games?
That's *it*.
1/
Like everything else re: decolonisation and TTRPGs discourse, this is a solved problem. There's only metric that matters:
How many creators from the colonised world are participating in and able to make a living from their games?
That's *it*.
1/
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
Days after his third dementia screening in six months the president of the United States, who is an open pedophile, abducts a foreign head of state
January 3, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Days after his third dementia screening in six months the president of the United States, who is an open pedophile, abducts a foreign head of state
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
The 2025 Indie Groundbreaker Awards are here! Have you published a LARP, table top RPG, card, board, or other analog game in 2025? We want to see it!
Submit yours today: forms.gle/Jgnu7Ev5BnkU...
Visit www.igdnonline.com/groundbreakers for more details. Submissions close on January 31st.
Submit yours today: forms.gle/Jgnu7Ev5BnkU...
Visit www.igdnonline.com/groundbreakers for more details. Submissions close on January 31st.
January 1, 2026 at 6:03 PM
The 2025 Indie Groundbreaker Awards are here! Have you published a LARP, table top RPG, card, board, or other analog game in 2025? We want to see it!
Submit yours today: forms.gle/Jgnu7Ev5BnkU...
Visit www.igdnonline.com/groundbreakers for more details. Submissions close on January 31st.
Submit yours today: forms.gle/Jgnu7Ev5BnkU...
Visit www.igdnonline.com/groundbreakers for more details. Submissions close on January 31st.
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
Every now and then I see someone asking for recommendations of a GMless game to play.
Well a bunch of us made a list, complete with explanations of why we thought each game was great, so you can decide for yourself.
Don't see your favorite? Add it!
www.reddit.com/r/gmless/com...
Well a bunch of us made a list, complete with explanations of why we thought each game was great, so you can decide for yourself.
Don't see your favorite? Add it!
www.reddit.com/r/gmless/com...
From the gmless community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the gmless community
www.reddit.com
January 3, 2026 at 5:12 PM
Every now and then I see someone asking for recommendations of a GMless game to play.
Well a bunch of us made a list, complete with explanations of why we thought each game was great, so you can decide for yourself.
Don't see your favorite? Add it!
www.reddit.com/r/gmless/com...
Well a bunch of us made a list, complete with explanations of why we thought each game was great, so you can decide for yourself.
Don't see your favorite? Add it!
www.reddit.com/r/gmless/com...
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
i am beyond stoked to share in partnership w/@sandypuggames.bsky.social, i'm releasing 24 illustrations from THE EXQUISITE CORPSE IN MAGGOTS' KEEP under CC by 4.0 licensing!
find them in a folder in my existing CC by 4.0 drive, accompanied by pre-written alt-text for every piece.
jnbutler.art#ccla
find them in a folder in my existing CC by 4.0 drive, accompanied by pre-written alt-text for every piece.
jnbutler.art#ccla
Jaen Nighly Butler Art
Illustrator & Marquise of Shadows
jnbutler.art
January 2, 2026 at 6:56 PM
i am beyond stoked to share in partnership w/@sandypuggames.bsky.social, i'm releasing 24 illustrations from THE EXQUISITE CORPSE IN MAGGOTS' KEEP under CC by 4.0 licensing!
find them in a folder in my existing CC by 4.0 drive, accompanied by pre-written alt-text for every piece.
jnbutler.art#ccla
find them in a folder in my existing CC by 4.0 drive, accompanied by pre-written alt-text for every piece.
jnbutler.art#ccla
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
This is one of my games of the year. One of the best written games of all time imo, with simple but thematically elegant mechanics which help propel this coming-of-age narrative adventure forward. It’s just really properly good!
Hi new followers! If you don't already know I have a new game coming out on January 22nd! It's a narrative adventure set in the year 2003 where you are a young writer trying to make sense of the world:
store.steampowered.com/app/2088810/...
store.steampowered.com/app/2088810/...
Perfect Tides: Station to Station on Steam
A point n' click sequel to Perfect Tides about the momentum and whiplash of young adulthood. Explore the big city through 18-year-old Mara's eyes. Collect items, nurture ideas, and experience complex ...
store.steampowered.com
January 3, 2026 at 5:57 AM
This is one of my games of the year. One of the best written games of all time imo, with simple but thematically elegant mechanics which help propel this coming-of-age narrative adventure forward. It’s just really properly good!
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
Nine Delights 2026
January 1, 2026 at 8:13 PM
Nine Delights 2026
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
The Bloggies 2026 submissions are now open!
Submit your favorite posts, series, and debut blogs via the official Bloggies page between now and Jan 31st!
Please share this around. I'll be making regular Bloggies-themed announcements throughout the month.
www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/
Submit your favorite posts, series, and debut blogs via the official Bloggies page between now and Jan 31st!
Please share this around. I'll be making regular Bloggies-themed announcements throughout the month.
www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/
The Bloggies 2026
A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.
www.explorersdesign.com
January 1, 2026 at 3:19 PM
The Bloggies 2026 submissions are now open!
Submit your favorite posts, series, and debut blogs via the official Bloggies page between now and Jan 31st!
Please share this around. I'll be making regular Bloggies-themed announcements throughout the month.
www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/
Submit your favorite posts, series, and debut blogs via the official Bloggies page between now and Jan 31st!
Please share this around. I'll be making regular Bloggies-themed announcements throughout the month.
www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
The Thunder Perfect Mind is an occult action thriller #ttrpg. If you like the sound of playing powerful undead revenants back from the grave to face the toxic nostalgia for their past, with a focus on breakneck action, interpersonal drama, and occult investigation, follow the KS now!
Coming soon: The Thunder Perfect Mind
An Occult Action Thriller Tabletop RPG
www.kickstarter.com
December 31, 2025 at 10:49 AM
The Thunder Perfect Mind is an occult action thriller #ttrpg. If you like the sound of playing powerful undead revenants back from the grave to face the toxic nostalgia for their past, with a focus on breakneck action, interpersonal drama, and occult investigation, follow the KS now!
will I have to apologise to Malaysia after this
we'll see
we'll see
December 31, 2025 at 7:35 AM
will I have to apologise to Malaysia after this
we'll see
we'll see
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
it's finally FINALLY time: INFINITE REVOLUTION, my star-powered, zodiac-inspired exosuit dogfighter RPG, is finished, crowdfunded, and publicly released!!
Spin up your Revolver Drive, defend the stars, fall in love, burn up, and remember—THE ONLY THING BRIGHTER THAN YOU IS MORE OF YOU🌠
Link ⬇️
Spin up your Revolver Drive, defend the stars, fall in love, burn up, and remember—THE ONLY THING BRIGHTER THAN YOU IS MORE OF YOU🌠
Link ⬇️
December 30, 2025 at 6:48 PM
it's finally FINALLY time: INFINITE REVOLUTION, my star-powered, zodiac-inspired exosuit dogfighter RPG, is finished, crowdfunded, and publicly released!!
Spin up your Revolver Drive, defend the stars, fall in love, burn up, and remember—THE ONLY THING BRIGHTER THAN YOU IS MORE OF YOU🌠
Link ⬇️
Spin up your Revolver Drive, defend the stars, fall in love, burn up, and remember—THE ONLY THING BRIGHTER THAN YOU IS MORE OF YOU🌠
Link ⬇️
Find some piece of media you don't like and communicate why without being aggressive or antagonistic. Ground it in the personal.
Find someone talking about something that they don't like but you do. Listen without feeling judged.
Understand that our media choices do not define us.
Find someone talking about something that they don't like but you do. Listen without feeling judged.
Understand that our media choices do not define us.
I need everyone to make a shitpost game that fits into at most 3 posts on here before the end of the year otherwise thr sun will not rise again
Not enough shitpost games though
December 31, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Find some piece of media you don't like and communicate why without being aggressive or antagonistic. Ground it in the personal.
Find someone talking about something that they don't like but you do. Listen without feeling judged.
Understand that our media choices do not define us.
Find someone talking about something that they don't like but you do. Listen without feeling judged.
Understand that our media choices do not define us.
Say at least one kind thing a day for the next 365 days
I need everyone to make a shitpost game that fits into at most 3 posts on here before the end of the year otherwise thr sun will not rise again
Not enough shitpost games though
December 31, 2025 at 3:48 AM
Say at least one kind thing a day for the next 365 days
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
I need commissions! Lemme paint your character in texturey watercolors please! (For real, pass it along, work is thin on the ground this winter)
December 2, 2025 at 3:16 PM
I need commissions! Lemme paint your character in texturey watercolors please! (For real, pass it along, work is thin on the ground this winter)
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
in 2026 instead of lore-diving whatever giant franchise benefits from your engagement try doing it with any writer/director with a substantial body of work but no “fandom”. Marie Ndiaye. Maryse Conde. Samuel Fuller. See where it gets you. If you gotta have a static setting do Mervyn Peake
December 29, 2025 at 1:57 PM
in 2026 instead of lore-diving whatever giant franchise benefits from your engagement try doing it with any writer/director with a substantial body of work but no “fandom”. Marie Ndiaye. Maryse Conde. Samuel Fuller. See where it gets you. If you gotta have a static setting do Mervyn Peake
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
Dear bluskeeters!
I'm doing research with a friend.
If you're a Black Author with a speculative book publishing in 2026, could you please pitch and link me, please? This a difficult to sus intersection.
Please add your friends' work. Please tag people. Please share
I'm doing research with a friend.
If you're a Black Author with a speculative book publishing in 2026, could you please pitch and link me, please? This a difficult to sus intersection.
Please add your friends' work. Please tag people. Please share
December 29, 2025 at 6:04 AM
Dear bluskeeters!
I'm doing research with a friend.
If you're a Black Author with a speculative book publishing in 2026, could you please pitch and link me, please? This a difficult to sus intersection.
Please add your friends' work. Please tag people. Please share
I'm doing research with a friend.
If you're a Black Author with a speculative book publishing in 2026, could you please pitch and link me, please? This a difficult to sus intersection.
Please add your friends' work. Please tag people. Please share
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
There's an eternal debate on which is more important in play: the rulebook you're using or the habits and practices of the players? Here's my contribution, despite being more on the 'player practices' side: a taxonomy of ways books influence play. baatag.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...
The Verbs of Play
The following is in response to Seraphim Seraphina's excellent post "What do we mean when we say a game “supports” play?" . I want to engage...
baatag.blogspot.com
December 28, 2025 at 8:28 PM
There's an eternal debate on which is more important in play: the rulebook you're using or the habits and practices of the players? Here's my contribution, despite being more on the 'player practices' side: a taxonomy of ways books influence play. baatag.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
Still on time for #TheEndies, here are mini reviews for all twenty-nine games I played in 2025:
In 2025 I played twenty-nine role-playing games
The year is almost over, and I didn't do a lot of blogging here, regrettably. Turns out I can't really juggle a day job, a crowdfunding campaign, and a...
buttondown.com
December 28, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Still on time for #TheEndies, here are mini reviews for all twenty-nine games I played in 2025:
Reposted by Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
Here’s to 2026
December 27, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Here’s to 2026
Love seeing everyone's list of what they want to play in the new year! Makes me excited too!
December 25, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Love seeing everyone's list of what they want to play in the new year! Makes me excited too!