iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

After reading them online for a good while I've made the plunge into the omnibus editions. Probably some of the best X-Men / superhero stories written. This should keep me busy for a while.

House of X / Powers or X; Dawn or X Omnibus vol 1 & 2

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

The Conversation has stayed with me less as a thriller than as a film about Harry Caul. He makes his living invading privacy while needing almost pathological privacy himself. Gene Hackman makes that contradiction feel painfully human rather than merely ironic. (some spoilers ahead) 1/10

The Conversation starring Gene Hackman, a film by Francis Ford Coppola

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Look what the postie brought! I've reviewed them here: blog.monkeyx.games/2025/10/24/c... And here: blog.monkeyx.games/2026/02/20/h... Plus a write up of our Cold City mini-campaign here: blog.monkeyx.games/2026/05/15/c... blog.monkeyx.games/2026/06/19/c... blog.monkeyx.games/2026/08/10/c...

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Great t-shirt. I'm running an Warhammer Old World tournament in a lovely AC controlled environment

T-shirt with stylised waves and sun design

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

If you see this, post a vampire that isn’t Dracula.

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Post-script - the "board state" at the end

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

A movie couple who would definitely have a podcast

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

This book has got me gripped. A secret war against ideas that erase themselves from memory is such a good hook, and the whole premise feels eerie, clever, and creepy (in the right way).

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

There are two types of LotR readers. Those who skip the songs, and those who go hey dol! merry dol! ring-a-dong-dillo! tumble through every line of fol-de-rol and tum-ti-tarry, glad as midsummer, loud to the rafters Wrong in all the right ways, because the road goes on, yes, the song goes on longer.

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Toying with a return to Mystara (my favourite D&D setting) with Dragonbane. Tried b4 coming back to Mystara w/ various OSR systems but I find expecations of fiddly resource management in e.g. OSE a bit tedious. Also, whilst I like deadly, I also like PC continuity. Dragonbane just hits the spot.

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Today I sorted out my little office to be my little sanctuary of gaming

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

Final awards for WiTOW X Overall - George Getaroth Best General - George Getaroth 1st Runners Up - Pip Hamilton 2nd Runners Up - Reece White Coolest Army - Scott Seckold Best Sport - Thomas Esler Better Dice Next Time - Mathew Lyons

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

It's another War in the Old World, the tenth I've organised @badmooncafe.bsky.social 18 players battling it out. Bretonnia 1 Bretonnia Errantry Crusade 1 Daemons 1 Dwarven Expeditionary Force 2 Empire 2 Orcs & Goblins 3 Tomb Kings 1 Troll Horde 1 Vampires 4 Wood Elves 2

Players at Bad Moon Cafe for War in the Old World X

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

I'm going to tattoo the dates on your arm

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

I had a bit of a commute today for a change, so started listening to the Hobbit, narrated by Andy Serkis. Quite tempted to follow up with the full LotR trilogy. I used to read LotR every year for about 25 years but stopped when I got married. Forgotten how good the writing is.

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

It's funny my first foray into 2-player epistolary games both riff of the same premise: two agents of competing sides of a time-war. Both landed recently in my hands; I've found two different partners to play them out. Both use playing cards but otherwise structurally / mechanically different.

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

And we're done! Another successful event.. and our first using Square Based Comp. Overall Winner - Adam Best General - Malik 1st Runner Up - Alex 2nd Runner Up - Reece Coolest Army - Adam Best Sport - Lewis Better Dice Next Time - Jonathan

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Final round - A Chance Encounter. Current placings and top tables.

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

It's the ninth War in the Old World @badmooncafe.bsky.social - the one day tournament I've had the pleasure to organise for the past 2 years. Lovely full house of happy Old Worlders

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

January is off to a decent start TTRPG wise. Yesterday = Session Zero for the Children of Fear campaign that I've been planning for a few months. Today = GMing Delta Green A Victim of the Art (first of two sessions) Tomorrow = Back to playing in Mythic Bastionland

Children of Fear, Delta Green: A Victim of the Art, Mythic Bastionland

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Watched the last Stranger Things.. I felt emotionally satisfied to bring it to a close. Campaign endings are hard. Now I don't need to read the discourse to know it will skew towards negativity immediately but I think this will age well.

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden or Alice In Chains.

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

It's been a relaxing year of reading. The days of reading on average 2-3 books a week are gone as I relax from the philosophy and into leisurely reading. Top categories were science fiction, historical fiction and non-fiction. I don't track TTRPG books on Goodreads otherwise reckon that'd be win.

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Excited to read this from @ickbat.bsky.social Layout + art are hitting the spot. The theme is derived from one of the best novellas I've read in recent years. Never played an epistolary RPG before (although no stranger to pbp) so going to be interesting finding a collaborator to dive into this.

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

You will be visited by three spirits.

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Sometimes VTTs feel like they’ve taken us backwards. Gorgeous maps, animated tokens, chunky automation… and somehow I’m less in the scene than when we used badly drawn dungeon maps on scrap paper. 1/10

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

On this gray Saturday afternoon, with the kids and misses otherwise occupied, I'm having an enjoyable re-read through @wyrdscience.bsky.social mack catalogue before I get to the latest issue that arrived the other day.

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

What does it say about RPGs that a 2011 game still owns my spare time? Maybe tech moved on, budgets exploded… but design got anxious. Until someone makes “Skyrim but unhinged,” I’ll keep telling myself I’m done… then reinstall. 10/10

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Skyrim’s real secret sauce is jank + mods. It shipped as a meme generator, then the modders turned it into six different games, including “Ultra Hardcore Survival” and “I Live In Riften And Just Fish.” That’s replayability. 8/10

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Other games got close. Witcher 3 nails story but Geralt is Geralt. Elden Ring nails exploration but hates pause menus. Dragon’s Dogma has brilliant combat but a tiny theatre. None quite say: “Live here, break things, it’s fine.” 5/10

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

The tragedy: Skyrim’s freedom eventually runs into Skyrim’s combat scaling. At hour 20 I’m a demigod, but every bandit is too. Power fantasy slowly becomes foam-sword LARP where everything is spongy and nothing is scary. 3/10

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Fourteen years after Skyrim launched and there’s still nothing quite like spending 300+ hours in it, finishing every guild, the DLCs, and sixteen cheese collection side-quests… but somehow never the main quest or the civil war. 1/10

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

I've gone on a TTRPG reading splurge. Come to the conclusion: TTRPG hobby in 2025: we don’t have “a game,” we have a backlog. Steam, but for feelings. We run a campaign, think seriously about a second, & own PDFs for about forty-seven more we “might” play when time and friends stop being finite. 1/8

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Early autumn is the most beautiful time of the year

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Seyed P. Razavi (aka Syd) @monkeyx.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Cold City (2e): first impressions after a quick read. Rules-light chassis with a GM dice economy for pacing: d10 opposed pools, 1950 Berlin pressure cooker, Trust & Hidden Agendas fuel classy spy-betrayal, and fallout is tracked as Consequences. Here’s what jumped out at me: (1/14)

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