Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Market *This*

"Having to learn a new system every time you pick up a new role-playing game is like having to learn an entirely new operating system every time you buy a computer."

My strong suggestions for anyone considering creating RPGs for a living are:

1. Don't quit your day job yet (unless you can afford it, and maybe not even then) and

2. Start out by designing a scenario or other supplement for an existing RPG like D&D/d20, GURPS, White Wolf/World of Darkness, or Champions/Hero System.

After all, if you can't sell your scenarios or game-world for a system that people already know and enjoy, what makes you think you can sell them for a system they will have to learn from scratch?

It's perfectly reasonable to add new rules, or change existing rules, to achieve your vision within the basic framework of the games that I listed. For example, there are horror supplements for D&D/d20 that have new rules for fear, insanity, and taint!

Friday, June 22, 2007

I Support the Palestinian Armed Struggle/s/! Twice As Much As Anybody Else!!

As the Socialist Workers' Party has pointed out, Hamas is the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people. As such, I strongly support their revolutionary struggle to take power in both Gaza and the West Bank. Long live the glorious martyrs of Hamas, and death to all the evil, reactionary members of Fatah!

As NewerLabour points out, "Fatah, the social-democratic/nationalist party of Yasser Arafat in Palestine...needs to protect itself and its activists from the murderous clerical fascists of Hamas." Of course I strongly support their efforts to defend themselves and to kill as many murderous clerical fascists as possible!

Update: According to Associated Press,


Electricity in Gaza on Monday became the latest battleground in the struggle between the coastal strip's Islamic Hamas rulers and their Fatah rivals...The losers are hundreds of thousands of Gazans, who have been plunged into darkness as European donors cut off key electricity aid.


I call on both sides to redouble their efforts to slaughter each other in the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful, the Eternal, and in the name of liberation from imperialism and colonialism! Hat tip: Roger L. Simon!

Monday, June 11, 2007

Axe This

I agree that the most important priority is to reduce the total amount of taxation.

The second priority is to replace property taxes with consumption/sales taxes, as much as possible.

The third priority is to make property taxes as fair (equal) as possible, instead of giving exemptions to some people and not to others.