this is beating a dead horse but the core point from a design perspective is interesting - you cant just deisgnrules around what makes sense in the narrative (this happens during combats irl) but what those mechanics actually do at the table. Mythic Bastionlands combat is the opposite of this.

idk, im referring to how both at the game level and the play culture level, the game presents itself as "wholesome found family adventure with progressive politics" while mechanicly being an omnicide simulator with a legacy of unaddressed racism (just look at everything about radiant citadel)

isn't speech here the way we interact with the medium of ttrpgs (and thus mechanics) the same way "moving a mini" is an interaction in a skirmish game, writing is a form of interaction in solo journaling games, and watching is in movies.

I actually think a big problem that has been endemic to RPG design for decades is simply that designers don't consider their game mechanics ENOUGH, like the story of Greg Stolze asking the oWoD guys "why do you have variable TNs AND variable success thresholds" and getting blank stares in return

whats that quote about fascism being the insertion of aesthetics into politics.
nobody virtue signals as much as the right.

kinda referring to the play culture of dnd (reinforced by its rules) that has blossomed around it - a contrast between "found family everything is safe and cazy but also faux-progressive" that then goes into OP charracters genociding people, in a constant joke fest.

yeh i love mothership personally. It's the game I've run the most