iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

"hello, i'm calling from Acme Family Law Services, has your boyfriend ignored you to look at a hot blonde girl in the street?"

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

It is my birthday! I rate birthdays by mathematical interestingness; this one is a multiple of 17, which is pretty cool. Here is a photo of my pretty new earring.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

bonus round, when he responded to the arrest of a school teacher for abducting a 15-year-old student by explaining that he, Rod Liddle, couldn't be a teacher since he couldn't imagine not trying to have sex with schoolchildren

Screencap of a Rod Liddle column in the Spectator in which he explains that "the one thing stopping [him] from being a teacher" was that he "could not remotely conceive of not trying to shag the kids," and that he would "be right in there on day one."

He then clarifies that he "wouldn't dabble much below year ten," i.e. fifteen-year-old girls.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I note the many memorials to Rod Liddle today pretty much all call him "controversial," so just a brief reminder of what that's a euphemism for

A screencap of a Spectator column by Rod Liddle in which he suggests elections be set on days when "Muslims are forbidden to do anything on pain of hell, or something."

Screencap from a Rod Liddle column in which he suggests that British Islamists "blow themselves up," preferably in Tower Hamlets.

Column by Rod Liddle where he complains that it's "bloody difficult" to draw a cartoon of a black person without it being racist, because of the need to depict them with "big red lips and very white teeth."

Screenshot from an article in the Independent about a Rod Liddle column in the Spectator (sadly unable to screencap the Spectator column, which was taken down not long after publication) in which he refers to the killers of Lee Rigby as "black savages" and later attempted to deflect criticism by explaining that he was actually trying to describe them as being "of Muslim appearance."

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

every now and then I remember that these are real actual books you can buy with your actual money

Front cover of a book entitled "Self-Esteem for Dummies."

Front cover of a book entitled "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Enhancing Self-Esteem."

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

not gonna QP this dude as he has a smaller account than me, but-- this is suck a weirdly pervasive belief everywhere that doesn't have nationalised health, by people who have clearly not even *tried* to confirm if there's any truth to it

"Like if you want to get healthcare in the UK chances are you are stuck in an endless waiting list, unless you pay for private health care."

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

call-back to the time I wrote a fake first page of a book, formatted it, printed it out and photographed it to make it look like an advance copy

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

i need everyone to stop immediately and look at my NEW SHOES

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

that odyssey trailer looks crap, they're missing the most important character from the original

An image of Nono from the classic anime Ulysses 31, a small red robot with a wide, happy smile.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

And he said that Samwise Gamgee, Frodo's former gardener, devoted servant and fiercely loyal friend, was "indeed a reflexion of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I knew in the 1914 war, and recognised as so far superior to myself."

An illustration of Sam Gamgee, a hobbit with curly brown hair and a heavy woollen cloak, admiring a flower in a garden.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

He said that the descriptions of both the Dead Marshes, where Frodo and Sam waded through stagnant pools full of dead bodies, and the blasted land of Mordor itself, "owed something" to his experiences fighting in the Battle of the Somme.

A black-and-white photo of a group of soldiers from the Lancashire Fusiliers in a sandbag lined trench during the Battle of Somme, 1916.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

That's far from saying he was unaware of the parallels in the books! He said that Faramir, Boromi's younger, more scholarly brother, resembled him, with his "reverence for the old histories and sacred values that helps him through a bitter war."

An old sepia-tone photo of the class of army cadets from King Edward's School in Birmingham to which Tolkien belonged.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Tolkien's distaste came not from the way an allegory would draw on or parallel real-world events, but from the presumption that it had one true interpretation, as intended by the author. He preferred "applicability," in which a story from which each reader might take whatever meaning they wished.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Tolkien, whatever else may be said about him, was very careful about word choice. When he spoke about allegory, he was talking specifically about those stories that serve as a deliberate metaphor or parable (like how Orwell's Animal Farm was a metaphor for the early years of the Soviet Union).

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

What Tolkien denied - including in his introduction to later editions of Fellowship of the Ring - was that The Lord of the Rings was an "allegory" (in fact, he said, he "cordially dislike[d] allegory in all its manifestations").

Screen cap of a block of text:

“But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse ‘applicability’ with ‘allegory’; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author”

(Fellowship xv).

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Alright, I've come across it again, and seem to see it more and more often, so: a brief thread on the widely repeated wisdom that Tolkien "denied that The Lord of the Rings was influenced by WWI."

An old sepia-tone photograph of JRR Tolkien, a young man with a neat moustache and side-parted hair, in military uniform in 1916.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

my twelve year old designed and made a fucken FUNCTIONAL LOCK out of LEGO it doesn't open without the key, and specifically needs the RIGHT key, because it has FUCKEN TUMBLERS MFERS

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

me: [touching the soil] There was... a battle... here...

Screen capture of the bottom of a Facebook post showing a box with the text "An admin turned off commenting for this post."

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

if you're not familiar with them, galahs -- or "rose-breasted cockatoos" -- are grey-and-pink parrots found in vast numbers all over Australia. galahs are famous for four things: their lovely plumage, their chirruping song, for being apparently indestructible and for being dumb as a rock.

A galah - a parrot with variable-shaded grey feathers over its wings, deep rose-pink feathers over its chest and all around its head, and a dusty white crest - standing on a grassy lawn.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

I've left Eclectic with a bunch of fliers, and with a double handful of copies of the Quick Start Guide if you want one and you're quick (I've also still got a few Quick Starts myself).

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Everyone had a great time, and came away excited to share the game with others. Highlights: - The dumb-as-a-brick berserker doing a fake "scrying" to send the rival adventuring party the wrong way.

Two players posing at the game table with copies of the Tunnels & Trolls Quick Start Guide and broadly smiling.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Daughter (not pictured) and I ran three demos in the end, one of them with a couple of random customers we lured down from the shop floor (they'd never roleplayed before!).

A gaming table set up to play Tunnels & Trolls, with Quick Start Guides and character sheets laid out and a troll-shaped dice tower in the middle.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Well, that's the day done. Huge thanks to @eclecticgames.bsky.social for hosting me, and to the folks who came by to try out @rebellionunplugged.bsky.social's Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age!

Me (a white man with close-cropped white hair and beard) standing in front of a shop window. A Tunnels & Trolls banner is visible in the window.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

And I'm here! All set up at @eclecticgames.bsky.social, having my coffee and ready to run some games!

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Then in 2019 Elliott Investment Management (who'd already bought Waterstones off Mamut) bought Barnes & Noble in the US and appointed Daunt to run both chains, and he promptly did the same there. Battle scarred UK editors had to try and reassure our US counterparts.

A still from a period movie set in the early 20th century, with a man standing on the gallows with a noose around his neck addressing the camera, over the caption "First time?"

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

The solo adventures featured places and sometimes repeated characters, but little in the way of a persistent, fleshed out setting to serve as a backdrop for games.

A map of the fictional city of Khazan, which features in some of the Tunnels and Trolls adventures.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Forgot to say my favourite thing! The setting was always kinda vague. St. Andre described it as "The Lord of The Rings as it would have been done by Marvel Comics in 1974 with Conan, Elric, the Gray Mouser and a host of badguys thrown in." Later editions included a setting called Trollworld:

A map of Trollworld, showing animal-shaped continents.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

And yes, I understand the spell Take That, You Fiend will be in the new edition...

A gobliny-looking wizard in a red robe casting a spell from a spellbook.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

At the same time, the game is fully updated, learning from fifty years of advances in game design. It is, if anything, quicker and easier than ever, but with collaborative and narrative game mechanics building on some of the latest ideas in the current hobby.

A promotional slide for the new Tunnels & Trolls game, with an armoured skeleton cheerfully pointing to a distant castle with his sword.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

The new edition has preserved that, making for an engaging, lighthearted new game. Which, to my mind, makes it pretty much perfect for the current crop of roleplayers, who are mostly younger players interested in more narrative/roleplay-driven play with bards seducing dragons and related silliness.

An image from the new Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age roleplaying game, with a group of heroes fighting a troll, which has just punched one of the heroes, sending them flying.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Tunnels & Trolls is sometimes, rather unfairly, characterised as a cynical cash-in on the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons, but heck, you could say the same about any fantasy RPG. St. Andre's objective was always to make a faster, simpler, more fun game.

A Tunnels & Trolls 5th Edition reissue with a colour image showing a party of adventurers fighting a monster. The tagline reads "The Complete and Easy Fantasy Role-Playing Game."

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

2005 saw a bid to refresh the brand, with a 5.5 edition and a 30th Anniversary Edition (also known as 7th edition, because this fucking hobby, man). In 2015 they produced the Deluxe Edition (known as 9th, because the French reissue was the 8th, obvy).

The cover of the Deluxe (9th) edition of Tunnels & Trolls, with a plate-armoured hero with a hammer, a leather-armoured hero with a bow and a robed wizard fighting a host of enemies.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

It declined in popularity during the '90s #ttrpg renaissance (as did D&D itself), when darker gothic and cyberpunk games with modular rules and more narrative-driven systems dominated the hobby, but always had supporters; in 1999 Pyramid magazine called it one of the world's "most underrated games."

A 5th edition Tunnels & Trolls box set, with an image of two adventurers venturing into a tunnel.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

But the game's most notable feature, for the next thirty years or so, was its trademark "solo adventures" -- Fighting Fantasy-style adventure gamebooks designed to accommodate your existing T&T character, which you could therefore carry over from one adventure to the next.

Three omnibus reissues of classic T&T solo adventures.

A pile of old Tunnels & Trolls solo adventures.

A larger pile of Tunnels & Trolls solo adventures.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

The 3rd, 4th and 5th editions came out in 1976, 1977 and 1979, expanding and tweaking the rules, during which time T&T became a major competitor with D&D. The 5th edition was republished in the UK and (translated) in Germany, France, Italy and Japan.

The 5th edition Tunnels & Trolls box set, opened up with various booklets and character sheets laid out.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

The game was picked up and re-published by Flying Buffalo Inc. (yes, the acronym is FBI) the same year the self-pub edition came out, establishing a public relationship that would continue for 48 years.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

T&T was designed to be fast, easy and *fun*. The game is famed for an impish irreverence, including spells with slightly silly names (which players are expected to shout out at the table), most famously the basic magic-missile-ish spell "Take That You Fiend!"

A sketch of a wizard casting a spell by Robin Carver, waving a wand and shouting "Take that you, fiend!!!"

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Tunnels & Trolls featured a simplified, streamlined system that allowed character creation in a few minutes, required no miniatures and only six-sided dice to play. St. Andre said he "just wanted something I could play with my friends at a reasonable price, with reasonable equipment.”

A humorous sketch from an early edition of Tunnels & Trolls by Robin Carver, featuring an ogreish looking monster with an arrow straight through his head, smiling and taunting his enemy, "Ha-ha! Yah missed all my vital spots!!"

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Inspired by this experience, St. Andre wrote his own game with support from a few friends, which they self-published (literally a photocopied, stapled book) a few months later.

A cover image from the very first edition of Tunnels & Trolls, featuring a burly unicorn looking down at a woman bathing in a pool. Beneath the image is the text ".....perpetrated on an unsuspecting world by Ken St. Andre, Robin Carver, James Peters, et al. of the Phoenix Cosmic Circle."

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Tunnels & Trolls was the brainchild of Ken St. Andre, a public librarian in Phoenix, Arizona. St. Andre had read a friend's copy of the Dungeons & Dragons rulebook and liked the idea, but found the rules too involved and too dependent on miniatures.

A photo of Ken St. Andre, a thin, middle aged white man with white stubble, thick-rimmed glasses and a brown hat, beaming happily in front of a banner advertising Buffalo Inc.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

So what the heck is Tunnels & Trolls? Known as "the world's second ever roleplaying game," Tunnels & Trolls was first published in April 1975 -- less than a year after the publication of Dungeons & Dragons.

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David Thomas MooahahahAHAHA! @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

I'm running demo games of the new Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age roleplaying game next Saturday, 11th April, at @eclecticgames.bsky.social in Reading! Sessions are at 11am, 12.30pm, 2pm and 3.30pm and last about an hour. Tickets are free, and available here: www.eclecticgames.co.uk/c/event-tick...

The cover of the core rulebook for the new Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age roleplaying game, currently on Kickstarter. It depicts a large, monstrous, stony or crystalline figure holding an adventurer in the palm of its hand. The adventurer is casting some sort of spell, represented by glowing blue light at the end of their staff.

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