Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
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newmadras.bsky.social
Thomas M, Full-time Rascal
@newmadras.bsky.social
3.2K followers 570 following 1.3K posts
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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newmadras.bsky.social
YouTube thumbnail arrows are their own art form.
YouTube thumbnail of a Wall Street Journal video. Title is "Sopranos Characters' Financed Analysed by a Money Expert" and the thumbnail features an arrow going to Tony saying "no stocks"
October 30, 2025 at 10:30 AM
newmadras.bsky.social
I'm always pitching ideas in the Rascal work discord and my colleagues keep liking them and now I have to actually do them.
A cartoon blob says Oh no from the oft used web comic panel by Alex Norris
October 21, 2025 at 5:55 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
It was a real pleasure to chat with @shannonappelcline.bsky.social about his upcoming new set of books.
"Appelcline: I was delighted to write about the original edition of Palace of the Silver Princess. This is one of the most legendary products ever published by TSR because the first edition of it was destroyed. They printed it, they gave out copies to the people at TSR, they got some out to distributors, and then — this is all hearsay, but that's part of what made it exciting, trying to figure out what happened — management, apparently, got a look at it and said, oh, this is terrible, we can't send it out. They went around, they collected the copies from everyone at TSR, they tried to get whatever copies that they'd sent out back. And then they had one person in charge of bringing them out to the landfill and watch as they were bulldozed under, so that no one else got copies of them."
October 9, 2025 at 1:41 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
new author photo dropped
Me, smiling, sitting on a chair, arms crossed
September 28, 2025 at 3:45 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
Just very clever stuff.
In a very similar sense, many games also fall into a category of 'post-wargame': games where the observation of the world exists in the shadow not only of war but of war's consequences, including how it instructs its survivors about physical power and violence. However, most post-wargames still value violence as a lever of agency just as post-colonial narrative art documents a liberated state still operating under the ideology of its former colonisers. Reevaluating physical violence through the post-wargame lens is still an incredibly valuable way to challenge those assumptions, but I am curious about games that do so fully without, not merely from the outside of, violence. I am asking the question, "is it possible for a game, even when it knows that physical force is real and can be the tool of our enemies, to not only be about actively refusing to choose it, but taking the choice away in favor of other tools?" It is possible, then, that we have a lot of post-wargames and not very many anti-wargames.
September 15, 2025 at 2:11 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
This is my favourite part of @therisingtithes.bsky.social's latest column.

(continued in the thread)
Third, I approach the very notion of the 'anti-wargame’ (that is, a game that is not associated with physical violence as a core resolution mechanic) in a way somewhat similar to the distinction that some theorists see between the 'post-colonial' and the 'anti-colonial'. Whereas post-colonial theory and art is designed to observe the material effects of colonialism on the territories where it once exerted political force (and in some instances still does), anti-colonial work is geared toward confronting the very idea of colonisation as a reality, and moving away from all of the assumed values it imposes.
September 15, 2025 at 2:11 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
I thought this part was particularly cool!
You’re limited to the cards that are available in your hand, making them a representation of your teenage psyche in that particular moment. You might want to do the optimal thing, but your body/mind might not let you. “The way I think about it is that the deck is your character's personality and your hand is your current mood,” said Tait. This makes building your deck the same as building out who you are or who you want to be. You’re deciding what emotions make sense to hold onto and which ones you need to let go off.
August 27, 2025 at 1:47 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
I really like this honest answer about how the OGL was a tool to dominate the market and protect against certain legal risks. There's been a lot of talk about SRDs and where they come from -- and this is basically it, right?
Adkison: I think the biggest example was Microsoft Windows. I mean, if you make your operating system compatible with everybody's and make it easy for everybody's software to be compatible with your operating system, that's how you're the market leader. This is how Microsoft became the market leader. Rules are not easy to protect with intellectual property. Why not just make it legal? It's better that people are acknowledging that they're using your intellectual property, then if people are just using it and you're not giving them permission, right? There are risks to owning intellectual property if you don't enforce the rights you have with that intellectual property. The business case was really strong, and history proves we were right. And we also thought [there was some] legal risk of not doing something like this.
August 4, 2025 at 6:49 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
And the Kala Mandala stall!
The Kala Mandala stall with zines, art prints and postcards
July 11, 2025 at 4:54 AM
newmadras.bsky.social
Wandering around Asian Board Games Festival in Penang!
Aaron and Jeannie in front of their stall showcasing games from RPGSEA
July 11, 2025 at 4:50 AM
newmadras.bsky.social
@jeffstormer.gobirds.online, spotted at Kinokuniya, a Japanese bookstore, in Kuala Lumpur
The Ultimate Fantasy Character Creator book in my hands, D&D stuff in the background.
July 9, 2025 at 7:27 AM
newmadras.bsky.social
Such a huge fan of @bigprawn.bsky.social's ability to just take you on a walk through Singapore and casually explain the history of various neighbourhoods. Aspirational, honestly.

If anyone visits Chennai, I will do this for you but I'll have to discreetly study hard the previous night.
Me and Shao Han in front of colourful wall
July 8, 2025 at 3:38 AM
newmadras.bsky.social
Gaming for Justice Writer - myceliumyouth
June 29, 2025 at 3:44 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
Saw this on Instagram. myceliumyouth hiring someone who knows D&D to write some climate justice related adventures
myceliumyouth on Instagram hiring someone who knows D&D to write some climate justice related adventures
June 29, 2025 at 3:44 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
Finished my prep for Blades in '68 just in time, phew
Scrap of paper with five bullet points in blue colour pencil
June 3, 2025 at 2:56 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
Been thinking about this comment from @juddthelibrarian.bsky.social about how my say-yes-and-end-the-game gambit in Apocalypse World was a kind of move. It's reminding me once again that moves in PbtA is a kind of way of thinking. I keep forgetting that.
Your reaction is pretty much a move. You killed god. It is ten years later. Do you still feel like you have cosmic blood on your hands? Roll + the stat you used to contribute to the deicide. on a miss, say how the world got worse and the MC might pile on. On a 7-9, say one good thing and one bad thing about how the world has changed since the death. On a hit, say one thing about how the word has improved. I might have something about using the hit result to pacify a threat. If you get rid of all of the threats, talk about if you want to keep playing and the MC will either make a new threat sheet or offer the MC seat to someone else and they can write it up while the MC makes a character. When in doubt, ask questions. How was killing god like any other murder? How was it totally different? Did it feel different when it was done? When you have nightmares about it, what do you see?
May 25, 2025 at 12:31 AM
newmadras.bsky.social
Funniest moment of the Tom Bloom AMA on reddit so far
Someone asks, "Hottest take? For all the freaks out there". Bloom replies, "people don't read enough". OP responds, "millions dead".
May 15, 2025 at 1:12 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
This is a bit a conversation with Martha Graham and I don't take it literally but I liked it enough to save long ago
But,” I said, “when I see my work I take for granted what other people value in it. I see only its ineptitude, inorganic flaws, and crudities. I am not pleased or satisfied.” “No artist is pleased.” “But then there is no satisfaction?” “No satisfaction whatever at any time,” she cried out passionately. “There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
April 30, 2025 at 4:42 AM
newmadras.bsky.social
Only received one hatemail about the article from some rando. Genuinely grateful.
Email subject line: get better at your job, tom tom
December 14, 2024 at 6:39 AM
newmadras.bsky.social
Okay, which Aaron commented this and what does it mean?

Whatever it is, the answer is yes. Big Aaron fan over here.
A comment on WordPress: Hey Thomas! As far as suggestions for next year go, do you think Aar
December 13, 2024 at 1:20 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
Conclave
Screenshot of Letterboxd review: 3.5 stars, didn't like how they copied all the costumes from Dune
December 8, 2024 at 7:53 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
On this week's newsletter, the best of the newsletter from 2024!

December is retrospective month and there's some nice writing to look back on!

ttrpg.in/2024/12/08/b...
A bridge painted like a chessboard, which is my logo now
December 8, 2024 at 11:35 AM
newmadras.bsky.social
This is the only reason I'm on reddit
Meme of the office: Michael as Treebeard, Pam as Merry. Treebeard says "we have decided". Merry excitedly says, "We are going to to war?". Pause, pause, image repeats. Treebeard/Michael happily says, "You are not orcs". Pam/Merry isn't amused.
December 1, 2024 at 2:23 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
Prometheus
Screenshot of Letterboxd review: 3 stars, was better when I didn't understand it.
November 19, 2024 at 4:47 PM
newmadras.bsky.social
Look Back
Screenshot of Letterboxd review: 5 stars, what the fuck does five stars even mean in the face of this life, this heartbreak
November 19, 2024 at 4:46 PM