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Oh, here's a P.S. at least. My great grandmother, Ethel Myrl, 8 months old when Frands left them, was Frands' mother Maren's favorite. Maren's name for her was Bitty Etly, which I find just adorable. Maren died when Ethel was 10, and they were best friends until the very end. <3

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Anyhow, come 1900, my great-great grandpa Frands Peter Peterson dies in Mexico of stomach cancer. Presumably stress-induced. He was 49 years old. He and Stena never saw each other again after he married Louise and fled to Denmark in early 1888. And that's the story. I dunno. The end, I guess.

An old, old photograph of my great-great grandmother, Stena Peterson, looking sober and sad in a dark Victorian dress.

An old photo of the Peterson store and home in Koosharem, Utah, showing timber buildings and a rail fence, with figures in shadow standing out front. It looks just like the Old West, which it was.

An old, old photo of my great-great grandfather, Frands Peter Peterson, bearded, sober-looking, in a dark suit with a hat, a walking cane, and a traveling purse on a strap around his neck.

—because, in part, it might someday lead to legalized polygamy— you should have seen my dad's lip curl. My dad was a kind and generous person. I'd seen him angry, but I'd never seen him despise someone before.

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Incidentally, the congregation of polygamists-on-the-lam in Mexico, as I understand it, Mitt Romney had great grandparents there too. My guy and Mitt's lived there together. When Mitt Romney stood in front of cameras and God to say that he opposed Massachusetts' legalization of same sex marriage—

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Louise moves up to Manti to work while she waits for Frands to come back. Instead, he writes both wives to say that he's going to Mexico, and will they join him? Louise meets him in New York City and travels to Mexico with him. Stena washes her hands of him and stops answering his letters.

Meanwhile, Stena and Louise have had their very predictable falling out. Stena's personal history says that she'd've happily welcomed Louise as an adopted teenage daughter, but accepting her as a 16-year-old equal partner in her household was just not gonna happen.

Then six months later: so Frands, look, maybe you better not go home. We've got a congregation of polygamists-on-the-lam in Mexico, you'll be safe there, and they could use a stalwart saint like you in the ward. How about you go there instead. Okay, I guess.

Things didn't cool off. Stena and Louise were called into court to testify against Frands while he was in Denmark, and everyone figured that the feds would be waiting for him when he returned. At the end of his two years, his mission prez is all, so Frands, yeah, you better stay another 6 months.

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But I guess they are. You gotta get out of here. We're sending you on a mission back to Denmark, okay? Uh oh, says Frands. Okay, I guess. They did this when they could, sent polygamists on missions overseas, hoping things would cool off before they came back.

Frands and a local girl named Louise are married, and she moves into their home with them. But before they can even make the trip to Manti to be sealed, here comes the stake prez again. Hey so Frands, he's all. You know how polygamy's a felony? We didn't think they were serious about that...

A real up and comer, Mormonly speaking. Don't you think it's about time you lived the principle? Uh oh, says Frands. Okay, I guess. It's going to be a hard sell with Stena. It is indeed, but they make the choice to obey.

But he's been away, serving a mission in "the Western States," meaning Minnesota and them. Stena and the older children have been running the store without him. Now in 1887 he comes home, and his stake prez is all, well, Brother Frands, you're a store owner, a postmaster, a mission leader...

They have 6 children, including my great grandmother Ethel Myrl Peterson, just born. Stena's mother Karen and Frands' mother Maren, both now twice-widowed, live with them as well. Frands owns Koosharem's only store and is the settlement's postmaster...

So Stena arrived in Salt Lake City, 13 years old, in 1870. We're going to skip ahead to 1887, just passing over all that there is to tell in between. She's living in Koosharem in southern Utah with her husband, my great-great grandfather Frands Peter Peterson.

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Etaoin Shrdlu @filamena.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

More of the story of my great-great grandmother Stena (short for Kjerstina). For some reason right now I'm intent upon finding out about my polygamous ancestors. I have 4 sets, 2 sets of great-great grandparents and 2 sets of great-great-greats. #familyhistory #Mormonhistory #polygamyquest

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Reposted by lumpley

UNION UNION UNION UNION

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Reposted by lumpley

thoughtcrimegames @thoughtcrimegames.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Your town has deep secrets, terrifying monsters, unspeakable evils, a clandestine city council...and a public radio station! Tell the tales of your own strange town in Community Radio. #ttrpg Itch: thoughtcrimegames.it... IPR: www.indiepressrevolu... TBS: tabletopbookshelf.co...

Community Radio from Thoughtcrime Games.

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Most of my games since Apocalypse World have been based on going further than Apocalypse World did, in various ways. Burned Over (AW 3rd Ed) is a rare conservatively-designed game from me. I'm just starting to work on new games that aren't PbtA again, alongside all my PbtA games in progress.

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For other creators' games, I'd just give you kind of a who's who of storygames. Dread, Agon, the Romance Trilogy, For the Queen, Swords Without Master, Spione, Misspent Youth...

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Maybe Murderous Ghosts is my least-like Apocalypse World PbtA game.

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My own game design since Apocalypse World is mostly based on going further than Apocalypse World did, in various directions, not really going opposite. I'm just starting to make games that I don't consider to be PbtA again now, alongside the many PbtA games I'm still making.

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Thank you for asking, Markus! Does this answer?

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For Apocalypse World I wanted the specificity and thus the escalatory momentum, and I was willing to give up the tidiness, both conceptual and procedural. (Why? Dissatisfaction, but now we're getting toward, it's just where I was at as a creator.)

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This isn't absurd or anything! Just, as an approach to game design, it has strengths and weaknesses. The counterapproach, handling different arenas of conflict materially differently, has different strengths and weaknesses.

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Throwing a punch, as this school of design conceives it, is crucially identical to serving someone legal papers. Getting a concussion and a broken nose is fundamentally similar to receiving a citation and paying a fine.

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Why is Apocalypse World designed to bring different arenas of conflict materially into play? It comes from, and takes a counterposition to, a school of rpg design that treats conflict as materially unitary, all arenas of conflict as structurally analogous.

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(Also different advances and reactions, which Apocalypse World's moves also reflect, but the different scales of the moves are about the different risks and stakes.)

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Why do different arenas of conflict have different risks and stakes? It's literally part of what makes them different arenas, not the same arena. A fistfight has different risks and stakes than taking someone to court, obviously, that's all.

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YES This is THE question. It's because different arenas of conflict have different risks and stakes, and Apocalypse World's moves are designed to bring its different arenas of conflict materially into play.

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(I can see her future, though, and I think that if she'd known what was ahead of her in Utah, she would have renounced and stayed too.)

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When they emigrated, Inger's oldest brother stayed behind, and he and they all knew that it meant he'd renounce his faith. They spoke frankly together about how there was no possibility for life for him in Denmark as a Mormon.

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It tells how, when her family converted, all of her widowed mother's friends turned their backs on them. Hated them even. They were already desperately poor and their life became untenable.

Yeah. Inger's personal history (written by her daughter, I believe) tells about how Mormons were technically allowed to be there, but worshiped and especially proselytized in secret, because it wasn't actually tolerated, legally or socially.

She was in the last handcart company into Salt Lake City, Stoddard's Company, in 1860. She was 13 or 14.

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