The Benevolent Society of Angry Misanthropes

Books I Read in June

2026-08-21T16:19:03.392+10:00

I forgot to post these back at the end of June so here they are now. I also read a couple of comics, but they were parts one and two of a trilogy and I'm planning to get to the third one so I'll review those all together when I finish them.

Mapril Books

2026-06-18T12:46:44.407+10:00

I read a lot of things in April and also one thing in March. I found a lot of them disappointing.

The last of last year's books

2026-06-18T12:23:03.425+10:00

I wasn't reading as much and I forgot to keep posting reviews here, so here's a catch-up for the books I read last year, to be followed by a catch-up for the books I read this year, and then hyopefully more regular posts after that.

Neither Gods Nor Genies

2026-01-15T18:17:00.000+11:00

In Game Masters Aren't Gods... They're Genies, Neal Litherland argues that the job of a GM (and it's telling that he calls it a job) is "to create challenges ... decide what treasure the players find, what allies they make, and ... do all these things in service to the players." He sees the game as being akin to a book that the players will want to keep reading. In a related discussion on Discord he made it even plainer, casting the GM in the role of a performer and other players as the audience.

There are a couple of big assumptions at play here and I disagree with both of them.

Books I Read in June - or Didn't

2025-07-01T14:34:00.001+10:00

More book reviews.

April May Read

2025-06-15T22:50:00.002+10:00

Some more book reviews for the stuff I read in April and May.

Bookmarch

2025-04-05T17:46:00.002+11:00

Prince Valiant Volume 3: 1941-1942

Hal Foster & Dan Nadel

More fun adventures. Ogres, giant monsters and several dragons. Introduces some great characters (Boltar, Angor Wrack) and includes a bit of Gawain, which you love to see. And as for Val himself? I'll quote Angor Wrack: I like that hot-headed young idiot. 4/5

Books I Read in February

2025-03-02T23:39:00.001+11:00

Murder in Mendocino

Mary Kittredge

This one was a decent cosy mystery with a solid cast of characters. I enjoyed it. 4/5

Books I Read in January

2025-02-02T18:25:00.001+11:00

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

David Graeber

Does a really good job of explaining the problem and how easily it could be solved but leaves me with little hope that it actually will be. 4/5, would recommend.

Foundations Prerelease

2024-11-09T22:22:00.005+11:00

Today I played Magic: the Gathering with real cards on an actual table for the first time in about twenty years.

I'm not going to make a habit of it, but I did find that I still enjoy prerelease events. This one, anyway. The new set, Foundations, is basically equivalent to a core set, except that it does have some themes and synergies; in this case some obvious one are Landfall effects, effects that trigger when you have creatures of power 4 or greater, and +1/+1 counters. It seemed to lead to a style of play that reminded me of playing with my friends when we were all just learning to play; quick, simple games with big creatures and not really any combos or super efficient strategies.

Foolish Games

2024-10-12T21:17:00.003+11:00

Played a few things I liked this time. And some things I didn't.

All Games are the Same

2024-08-25T23:18:00.004+10:00

I played some games. Several of them were very similar.

A Game by Any Other Game

2024-04-29T21:12:00.002+10:00

Tried out some more games.

What's in a game?

2024-04-29T00:25:00.005+10:00

Played a little bit of few games recently. And one particular game a lot.

"Employment services providers" are literally incompetent

2023-10-05T16:43:00.002+11:00

We all know that the points reporting and compliance testing is bullshit but you'd think that, at the very least, they'd be able to do basic things like write a resume, right? They certainly seem to think they can, because it's one thing they all insist on doing - even if your current resume was written by your last "provider". Every single one of them thinks they know what a resume should look like and no two of them agree, which alone tells you all you need to know about their supposed expertise in the area. But it's worse than that. It's not just that they all assume their own opinions are universal, it's that they are actually terrible at writing resumes. Let me give you an example.

FAQ for TTRPG GMs

2023-09-07T18:41:00.003+10:00

Q: Is it OK to kill off a player character by GM fiat?

Alexandre Dumas

2023-08-31T00:40:00.004+10:00

A short dialogue in the style of:

Games I Played a While Ago

2023-08-29T16:32:00.002+10:00

I played these games way back in October of last year and started writing up these reviews, then forgot to finish and publish them. I think I was maybe planning to try out some other games and add them to the list, but I never did. Anyway, here's some quick reviews of games I played a bit of.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York

2023-08-21T23:51:00.001+10:00

I want to like this game a lot more than I do, and I think I'm actually cutting it more slack than I should. I did enjoy it, but I can't say it's good. And I think that if I had free reign with the assets I could make a better game. I'm not saying you shouldn't buy it (although I am definitely saying that you shouldn't pay almost $30 for - get it when it's on extreme discount like I did) but do be aware that it's more atmosphere than story and more interactive cutscene than game.

Life in plastic? It's OK.

2023-08-14T17:06:00.001+10:00

Movies should be 90 minutes. Even at just under two hours, Barbie feels long. And it's not like there wasn't anything to cut: everything before the return to "Barbieland" could have been drastically condensed. And that's about half the film. There are some funny bits in that first half, but it's not till the second half that the main plot actually begins.

Utopia: Why doesn't Tony quit?

2023-07-28T18:56:00.000+10:00

It's a question I find myself asking while watching the latest season. What possible reason could he have for sticking around, despite the fact that it must be extremely clear to him that he cannot achieve any of his goals. Unless he actually does achieve some things, but we don't see it?

Magic: the Gathering is good?

2023-04-12T22:04:00.000+10:00

Magic: the Gathering is good! If you play it online and don't spend any money.

Routine Inspection

2023-04-04T18:07:00.001+10:00

Hi Property Manager,

On behalf of every tenant who has to put up with this bullshit, I'll be conducting an inspection at your house on 16/04/2023 between 8:00PM - 4:00AM. I realise that window may not be convenient for you, but none of you have ever bothered to ask me what time I'd prefer you to visit so I won't either. I'll take approximately 15 minutes (or however long I feel like); however, as I'm very busy with important matters, I cannot confirm the exact time of inspection. It'll be a fun little surprise for you. But don't try to take a shower or go to the shops or anything because I could arrive at any time.

Fake Bacon

2023-03-16T16:52:00.001+11:00

Tried this plant-based bacon substitute.

I'm playing Magic the Gathering again

2022-11-29T22:17:00.002+11:00

I've been tempted, lately, so I downloaded MTG Arena. I'm not spending any money though. I wouldn't even pay for actual cards any more, so I'm definitely not buying virtual ones. Fortunately you can pretty easily get by without spending any money at all. In fact, there's very little reason to buy anything if you just want to build a deck and play. Within a few hours of pretty casual play (over a number of days) I was able to get all the cards I needed for the deck I was trying to build.