Malcolm Craig
@malcolmcraig.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer in US History @ljmuofficial.bsky.social, historian of the nuclear age, researching #ColdWar era post-apocalypse roleplaying games. #TTRPG designer. You may remember me from such games as #astaterpg, #ColdCity, and #HotWar
Psssttttt...
...yes, you!
As of this evening I have completed the text for #HotWar 2nd edition. It's now off for editing, then layout, with the great team at @handiworkgames.bsky.social.
Just wait until your see it!
...yes, you!
As of this evening I have completed the text for #HotWar 2nd edition. It's now off for editing, then layout, with the great team at @handiworkgames.bsky.social.
Just wait until your see it!
November 4, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Psssttttt...
...yes, you!
As of this evening I have completed the text for #HotWar 2nd edition. It's now off for editing, then layout, with the great team at @handiworkgames.bsky.social.
Just wait until your see it!
...yes, you!
As of this evening I have completed the text for #HotWar 2nd edition. It's now off for editing, then layout, with the great team at @handiworkgames.bsky.social.
Just wait until your see it!
Added another hardcopy to my ever expanding research library of post-apocalyptic RPGs from the Cold War era. It's GURPS Autoduel! Only very slightly Mad-Max-y.
November 3, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Added another hardcopy to my ever expanding research library of post-apocalyptic RPGs from the Cold War era. It's GURPS Autoduel! Only very slightly Mad-Max-y.
I'm counting this morning as a resounding success, having convinced @breakfastruins.bsky.social to buy a copy of Sidney J. Bounds meisterwerk The Robot Brains (1956).
October 29, 2025 at 11:36 AM
I'm counting this morning as a resounding success, having convinced @breakfastruins.bsky.social to buy a copy of Sidney J. Bounds meisterwerk The Robot Brains (1956).
Look what arrived today! The amazing FiveEvil, by @fromthemorgue.bsky.social, published by @handiworkgames.bsky.social. It's a genuinely (not kidding in the slightest) innovative & radical take on the 5E ruleset, changing it to meet the needs of the horror genre. It's a brilliant piece of work.
October 17, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Look what arrived today! The amazing FiveEvil, by @fromthemorgue.bsky.social, published by @handiworkgames.bsky.social. It's a genuinely (not kidding in the slightest) innovative & radical take on the 5E ruleset, changing it to meet the needs of the horror genre. It's a brilliant piece of work.
1) In redesigning #HotWar for its 2nd ed w/ @handiworkgames.bsky.social, a lot of work has gone into further embedding the game's themes into the play mechanics. A way this was done in #ColdCity was to introduce 'The Cold'. But in HW, this is replaced with 'Breakdown'. So what's that then?
October 17, 2025 at 11:33 AM
1) In redesigning #HotWar for its 2nd ed w/ @handiworkgames.bsky.social, a lot of work has gone into further embedding the game's themes into the play mechanics. A way this was done in #ColdCity was to introduce 'The Cold'. But in HW, this is replaced with 'Breakdown'. So what's that then?
1) The latest addition to the hardcopy research collection:
Task Force Games' 'Delta Force' from 1986, a game where you play brave, manly special forces taking now cowardly, sneaky terrorists and foreign intelligence organisations.
Task Force Games' 'Delta Force' from 1986, a game where you play brave, manly special forces taking now cowardly, sneaky terrorists and foreign intelligence organisations.
October 8, 2025 at 12:39 PM
1) The latest addition to the hardcopy research collection:
Task Force Games' 'Delta Force' from 1986, a game where you play brave, manly special forces taking now cowardly, sneaky terrorists and foreign intelligence organisations.
Task Force Games' 'Delta Force' from 1986, a game where you play brave, manly special forces taking now cowardly, sneaky terrorists and foreign intelligence organisations.
Au contraire, mon brave!
September 30, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Au contraire, mon brave!
Hilarity in the office as I show colleagues my copy of The Price of Freedom, a key part of my [checks notes] research collection.
September 30, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Hilarity in the office as I show colleagues my copy of The Price of Freedom, a key part of my [checks notes] research collection.
And here we are! The latest, greatest issue of @wyrdscience.bsky.social, incorporating an article on the Cold War and RPGs by...me!
@ljmuimpact.bsky.social
@ljmuhistory.bsky.social
@ljmuimpact.bsky.social
@ljmuhistory.bsky.social
September 29, 2025 at 3:35 PM
And here we are! The latest, greatest issue of @wyrdscience.bsky.social, incorporating an article on the Cold War and RPGs by...me!
@ljmuimpact.bsky.social
@ljmuhistory.bsky.social
@ljmuimpact.bsky.social
@ljmuhistory.bsky.social
Another semester of teaching my favourite module: An International History of the Cold War Era. And one of my favourite exercise with students: what do we mean when we say 'the cold war'?
September 25, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Another semester of teaching my favourite module: An International History of the Cold War Era. And one of my favourite exercise with students: what do we mean when we say 'the cold war'?
All time, 100%, solid gold classic
September 12, 2025 at 6:30 PM
All time, 100%, solid gold classic
Within a 50 mile radius of my office, there are many, many institutions offering history degrees: LJMU, UoLiv, Hope, Manchester, ManMet, Lancaster, Huddersfield, Bradford, Keele, Bangor, and so on. How's that going to work, then?
September 12, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Within a 50 mile radius of my office, there are many, many institutions offering history degrees: LJMU, UoLiv, Hope, Manchester, ManMet, Lancaster, Huddersfield, Bradford, Keele, Bangor, and so on. How's that going to work, then?
That kit wasn't one of the Revell 'Robotech Defenders' ones, based on anime like Dougram, was it? Because I bought some of those from the Menzies in Falkirk.
September 3, 2025 at 5:57 PM
That kit wasn't one of the Revell 'Robotech Defenders' ones, based on anime like Dougram, was it? Because I bought some of those from the Menzies in Falkirk.
Working away on annotating some period-correct maps for the @handiworkgames.bsky.social 2nd edition of Hot War. The graphic design wizardry of Paul and Jon will, of course, make this actually look good, rather than the scrawlings of a fool.
September 3, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Working away on annotating some period-correct maps for the @handiworkgames.bsky.social 2nd edition of Hot War. The graphic design wizardry of Paul and Jon will, of course, make this actually look good, rather than the scrawlings of a fool.
Milo the cat, struck down in his prime. Gone, but not forgotten.
July 31, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Milo the cat, struck down in his prime. Gone, but not forgotten.
My RPG-related research task today has focused on tracing the genealogy of the phrase "the price of freedom" from the 1980s back into the past (and boy, did Reagan use it a lot!). I'm currently in the 1870s! All of this for a short paragraph that will likely be edited out of the book!
July 24, 2025 at 2:24 PM
My RPG-related research task today has focused on tracing the genealogy of the phrase "the price of freedom" from the 1980s back into the past (and boy, did Reagan use it a lot!). I'm currently in the 1870s! All of this for a short paragraph that will likely be edited out of the book!
It's a strange place to be, my research life. The books on the left have come together with the games on the right in rather unexpected ways. I'm pretty certain that many of the authors of those books never imagined their work would be integrated with the historical study of TTRPGs!
June 30, 2025 at 2:11 PM
It's a strange place to be, my research life. The books on the left have come together with the games on the right in rather unexpected ways. I'm pretty certain that many of the authors of those books never imagined their work would be integrated with the historical study of TTRPGs!
A good end to the week: finally have a draft of my edited collection chapter 'War to the Sound of Clattering Dice: Role-playing war in the Cold War', featuring
Aftermath!
Commando
Freedom Fighters
The Morrow Project
Phoenix Command
The Price of Freedom
RECON
Twilight: 2000
and many, many more!
Aftermath!
Commando
Freedom Fighters
The Morrow Project
Phoenix Command
The Price of Freedom
RECON
Twilight: 2000
and many, many more!
June 27, 2025 at 2:11 PM
A good end to the week: finally have a draft of my edited collection chapter 'War to the Sound of Clattering Dice: Role-playing war in the Cold War', featuring
Aftermath!
Commando
Freedom Fighters
The Morrow Project
Phoenix Command
The Price of Freedom
RECON
Twilight: 2000
and many, many more!
Aftermath!
Commando
Freedom Fighters
The Morrow Project
Phoenix Command
The Price of Freedom
RECON
Twilight: 2000
and many, many more!
Currently writing a chapter on war, combat, and 1980s RPGs for an edited collection (on war in modern US history). While I respect all viewpoints, I cannot help but feel that this review of Phoenix Command from 1987 does not align with my experience of the mechanics.
June 26, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Currently writing a chapter on war, combat, and 1980s RPGs for an edited collection (on war in modern US history). While I respect all viewpoints, I cannot help but feel that this review of Phoenix Command from 1987 does not align with my experience of the mechanics.
Way ahead of you there! Slides from my paper.
June 24, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Way ahead of you there! Slides from my paper.
1) Last week was the 2025 @hotcus.bsky.social conference, and a great time was had by all! I presented a narrow slice of my ongoing research into the Cold War and RPGs, specifically and narrowly focusing on The Price of Freedom (1986). I was slightly taken aback by how positively it was received.
June 24, 2025 at 11:29 AM
1) Last week was the 2025 @hotcus.bsky.social conference, and a great time was had by all! I presented a narrow slice of my ongoing research into the Cold War and RPGs, specifically and narrowly focusing on The Price of Freedom (1986). I was slightly taken aback by how positively it was received.
Today sees the first trial run of my paper 'The Price of Freedom is $19.95!: Invasion, apocalypse, and tabletop role-playing games in Ronald Reagan's America'.
It's at our annual internal faculty conference, so god knows what colleagues from other departments are going to make of it.
It's at our annual internal faculty conference, so god knows what colleagues from other departments are going to make of it.
June 4, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Today sees the first trial run of my paper 'The Price of Freedom is $19.95!: Invasion, apocalypse, and tabletop role-playing games in Ronald Reagan's America'.
It's at our annual internal faculty conference, so god knows what colleagues from other departments are going to make of it.
It's at our annual internal faculty conference, so god knows what colleagues from other departments are going to make of it.
Chortling away as I put together the slides to accompany my conference paper for @hotcus.bsky.social 2025, on The Price of Freedom RPG.
May 23, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Chortling away as I put together the slides to accompany my conference paper for @hotcus.bsky.social 2025, on The Price of Freedom RPG.
I have come up with a brilliant new idea for a game mechanic.
May 14, 2025 at 9:28 PM
I have come up with a brilliant new idea for a game mechanic.
Repeating again for latecomers: we do not own a cat.
[For reference, her name is Ivy, she lives next door, is of indeterminate age, was once a stray, and is very small. She now owns two homes, travelling between the two. She's very fond of chicken, sleeping on knees, and the music of Dave Brubeck]
[For reference, her name is Ivy, she lives next door, is of indeterminate age, was once a stray, and is very small. She now owns two homes, travelling between the two. She's very fond of chicken, sleeping on knees, and the music of Dave Brubeck]
May 14, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Repeating again for latecomers: we do not own a cat.
[For reference, her name is Ivy, she lives next door, is of indeterminate age, was once a stray, and is very small. She now owns two homes, travelling between the two. She's very fond of chicken, sleeping on knees, and the music of Dave Brubeck]
[For reference, her name is Ivy, she lives next door, is of indeterminate age, was once a stray, and is very small. She now owns two homes, travelling between the two. She's very fond of chicken, sleeping on knees, and the music of Dave Brubeck]