Audio book acquired. Have you ever heard of or read "A Paradise Built in Hell" about disasters bringing communities together and, basically, spontaneous socialist, collective efforts spawning from disorder?
Id also call that one Hella Good along with Humankind: A Hopeful History.

Glad you did. Torchbearer was the perfect pitch for me but in reading it, mostly the burning wheel system, I was going Hmmmmm what the hell is all this and how can I ever convince anyone else to do this???

Reading HMTW it feels like a fun boardgame I would recruit buddies to play, for my taste.

This is literally how we get braindead, do nothing 'liberal' leadership. Liberalism is just fence sitting institutionalized (literally, with their hard on for that word) and lets you feel safe and mentally complete without actually thinking and remaining purely reactionary.

Not even hashtag #ad s either. Just actual 'content' mill, seo bait. At least new years brings retrospectives, but this consumer direction slop is just NON. STOP. all god damn year.

I say my phone is painfully boring anymore to ppl bc if you're not looking to spend, there's NOTHING to do or learn

And FWIW I do think HMTW walks a good line with this. I could see a spellcasting overhaul for a bit higher magic game style still.
I've fantasized about a magic system with just 5 spells and everything you learn to do increases the values. Intensity, movement force, area, etc. HMTW could support it

Yea true. I remember not being too interested in casters in high school with 3.5 bc so much ado was made about evocation vs fighters but I always liked telekinesis as a spell/idea to build an entire character around.

I do wish casters took on a more X-Men / anime special move feel in TTRPG overall

WORM cuts to the heart of the dungeoneering experience. There's no rules for sailing ships (but some folks have made fine ones!) or crafting magic items. There's a City, and underneath it, a DUNGEON. The game gets you right into the action of delving. It's obsessed with that singular goal.

I would love any musings on a topic I think of but rarely come to real conclusions on: Balancing interest and cool ideas with player mental overhead.

IE you can easily track 20 +1's, +2's, but if you have even 5 character sheet entries that read "Negates X bad event", it's really easy to forget.

But I have to be honest, seeing Tate straight up punched in the jaw just about made up for all of that.