Laurence Phillips
@hardyroach.bsky.social
260 followers 140 following 460 posts
Writer/Designer/etc. Worked on Vampire Survivors. Wrote TTRPG stuff for Rowan Rook and Decard, UFO Press, Weird Age Games. Writes about toy soldiers for Goonhammer.com. Working on a new Giallo horror RPG, check my threads. Open for work, DM me.
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hardyroach.bsky.social
My thread of threads!

Design talk, film talk, Giallo talk.
hardyroach.bsky.social
Oh for sure, I think just how you're handling dice, how many you're handling, which you're handling, what you're doing with them - these all add up.

I often try and make it so that the *way* you interact with dice/cards is metaphorically evocative.
hardyroach.bsky.social
For me, I care whether all results do actually introduce narrative and character interest. Once they do, I just vaguely get the ratios of results feeling good. As long as it's all interesting I'm not bothered about deep specifics.

People who are and go deep on stats are also good and cool.
hardyroach.bsky.social
As an extremely vibes based designer who just sort of looks at the general curve and then fiddles with it until it feels alright, I agree! Though I love how deep Josh goes in showing his work, it's good shit.
armadajosh.bsky.social
By the way, my real hot take is, die choice doesn't really matter. It's a tiny, unimportant part of game design that gets massively overfocused on. Calling a game "2d6 based" or whatever is like saying a car is "red paint job based".
Reposted by Laurence Phillips
outonbluesix.bsky.social
How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.
hardyroach.bsky.social
counterpoint: much like bisexuality, bisexual extravaganzas do not need to be gender balanced
Reposted by Laurence Phillips
beckyannison.bsky.social
There is of course an actual campaign in the last few hours... if you were worried about probability curves and @armadajosh.bsky.social has soothed any concerns then you can back the 2d10 game here ;)

#ttrpg #dice #kickstarter #probabilitybellcurves
Reposted by Laurence Phillips
rakshasa.bsky.social
How fucking embarrassing is it for the entire political establishment that they're being outflanked on the left by MICHAEL FUCKING HESSELTINE
bbcnewsnight.bsky.social
“You described Reform and other parties across Europe today as among the 'right wing equivalents of the fascists in the 1930s'. Why?”

“Because that’s what they are”

@vicderbyshire.bsky.social asks Lord Heseltine about remarks he made at Conservative Party Conference.

#Newsnight
hardyroach.bsky.social
The answer, btw, is he changed his previous stance from 2006 that "voluntary" sex with adults would not be damaging to children. Ten years later he made it clear he was wrong about that.

Truly, a great skeptical mind of out era.
hardyroach.bsky.social
Someone on a random discord linked a weird website dedicated to defending software developer Richard Stallman. Honestly extremely funny website, regardless of anything else.

I would love people to guess what topic Stallman changed his mind on that led to this effusive comparison to Socrates.
hardyroach.bsky.social
I have my own version of that, which is "everyone is very stupid". A lot of people have certain things that they are specifically not stupid about, but there is not a single humour that isn't an idiot on some topic or another.

What separates the wise and foolish is the ability to recognise that imo
hardyroach.bsky.social
Honestly if Eva Green had been a bit younger or a bit older at the right time she would have been a perfect choice to play Alia Atreides
Reposted by Laurence Phillips
potatocubed.bsky.social
Further, do it in real life.

Online games are fine and good, but socialising with real human beings -- even in a hired hall with so many games in it that you can barely hear the people at the other end of the table -- has a certain something that online lacks.
rosspayton.bsky.social
START PLAYING ROLE PLAYING GAMES TO MAKE FRIENDS AS AN ADULT
Reposted by Laurence Phillips
lenoongh.bsky.social
… a toddler!

Lovely terrain from bandua wargames
Reposted by Laurence Phillips
adambienkov.bsky.social
The Greens requested an interview on the Laura Kuenssberg Show with Zack Polanski when he was elected leader, but were denied, with a promise to interview him during Green conference instead.

This was then scrapped citing the Manchester synagogue attack. Polanski is both Jewish and from Manchester
BBC Laura Kuenssberg Show Accused of Anti-Green Bias After Cancelling Zack Polanski Interview
The new Green Party leader was the only major party leader not to have been granted a conference interview on the flagship BBC show
bylinetimes.com
hardyroach.bsky.social
does it make you feel good to hurt me
hardyroach.bsky.social
I see people bring up em-dashes a lot in terms of something being an AI text tell, but for me it's this kind of phrasing: the "not X, but Y" structure. As soon as I see this shit happening more than once in a piece of text, that's a sure tell (trash text sourced from AI sentience quackery subreddit)
hardyroach.bsky.social
How many have you had? For me it was the same but it got easier as it went on (though it never really stopped being a bit stressy)
hardyroach.bsky.social
Sad I missed it! I've had vertigo since getting covid a couple of weeks ago, couldn't face another night out.
Reposted by Laurence Phillips
shaunvids.bsky.social
actually our AI programs are like people so its racist to say you don't like them. anyway would you like to buy one
hardyroach.bsky.social
lol dang it, missed the tier 1 deal