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Marx S—

@phophos.bsky.social
2.3K followers 1.8K following 5.4K posts

he/him ttrpg designer/editor/project lead @FarHorizonsCoOp.bsky.social community manager obsessed with the pastoral trans rights matter 🏳️‍⚧️ pfp: @duamn.bsky.social marx-shepherd.carrd.co

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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 10h
IN SOME STATES afaict there's no difference between the UK and US English on this word, i think it's mostly atlantic states that use cider in this sense. my suspicion is that in 17th Century Britain we had the same thing, because non-fermented apple juice was very rare.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 10h
yeah so cider in the US just refers to "apple juice" (in some states), so you get "hard cider" (what we know as cider) and "soft cider" (what we know as apple juice). i /suspect/ this goes back to colonial times.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 12h
if it stopped at slop poetry i might be okay with it, but it seems to just take over their whole damn brain. like black mold spreading through a house, making everyone sicker and sicker.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 12h
these so-called AI promoters must just be incredible dullards. what's the point in existing if you don't live.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 12h
and also i have read some top-rate literature including! Pratchett's The Bromeliad, Tolkien's The Hobbit, and Watership Down (banger novel). i've just started The Lord of the Rings with my 8yo, in what will no doubt be a multi-year project. WHY WOULD YOU GIVE THIS LABOUR TO A MACHINE?
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 12h
i have read books to my kids every day for at least ten years, except when they or i have been away. i cannot understand the joyless mindset that would consider this in any way "a chore". i get to read bloody /kids' books/, which are way better than most adults' books anyway.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 12h
if so-called AI isn't freeing you to spend more time doing nice things with people you love, then actually, what is the bloody point?
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 16h
there is room for compassion and empathy in the justice system. we are supposed to rehabilitate people who commit crimes, not write them off.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 17h
i'm appalled by what has happened - twice - in Tennessee this year! the treatment of these human beings is contemptuous and, to be honest, amounts to sanctioned torture, often in front of an audience. it's absolutely disgusting.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 17h
"but Marx," i hear you cry. "what about the victims and survivors of crime? do they not deserve justice?" well, an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind, as they say.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 19h
that's what the human in me decided you'd said. phew. thanks for clarifying!
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 19h
my human brain is telling me that you're making a joke but my lizard brain is very twitter-pilled so i am now unsure!
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 19h
i mean, to be absolutely frank, executions are completely barbaric and medieval. they achieve nothing. the best justice we can offer as a society is severely lacking, yes, but the state killing people is never the answer.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 20h
there are occasional rumblings here about reinstating the UK's thankfully abolished death penalty, and i am disgusted by it. but i think we're only a few crackpot politicians away from it being a major policy for a political party. so it is important to me.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
call me old-fashioned if you like, but i just don't think that the state - any state - should be in the habit of ending people's lives in the name of justice.
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Reposted by Marx S—
I Liv, I Die, Oliviagain Hill @machineiv.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
So, um, HYPOTHETICALLY if there was an #iHunt movie, it would only make sense for us to revisit the RPG and do a new edition. What would YOU like to see? Any publishers you'd like to see us work with? What if instead of Fate it was... Fate evolved into something more expandable?
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
i like shapefiles! there are things about them that piss me off, but all of the alternatives are worse for my workflows than deleting the occasional spurious sidecar file. only geopackages come close, and unless GDAL has fixed an issue they had three years ago, i can't see myself using them soon.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
actually it's not, KML and file geodatabases need to be nuked from orbit.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
this list is upside down.
GIS File Format Tier List:
S-Tier: GeoPackage. Does everything. Asks for nothing. Underappreciated like a good drummer.
A-Tier: File geodatabase. Reliable, as long as you're okay with a folder pretending to be a file.
B-Tier: GeoJSON. Lightweight, readable, and 400 MB when you least expect it.
C-Tier: KML. Great for showing your boss. Terrible for showing anyone who has to use it.
D-Tier: A CSV with a "Lat" column, a "Long" column, and a third column called "Coords" that disagrees with both.
F-Tier: Shapefile. The cockroach of formats. We will all be gone and somewhere, a .dbf will still be alive, warm, and truncating field names.
Not ranked: An Excel sheet with cells colored to indicate location.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Professor Elemental & The Anarchist Ambassadors (PEatAA, or a long "Peter") is written and designed by Michael Coolwood, with illustration by @carlydraws.bsky.social, layout by @byfrancita.bsky.social, and published by @farhorizonscoop.bsky.social. we'll be crowdfunding to print a lovely book SOON!
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
have you followed along with Professor Elemental & The Anarchist Ambassadors yet? it's a whimsical, cooperation-focused #ttrpg set in the universe of the inimitable chap-hop musician Professor Elemental! complete with talking dinosaurs, smart apes, and airship escapades, check it out today!
kickstarter.com
Coming soon: Professor Elemental & The Anarchist Ambassadors
A whimsical & collaborative steampunk tabletop roleplaying game, based on the music and art of Professor Elemental
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Brummie elves is excellent.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"looks like human's back on the menu!" oh my goddddddd
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
i started doing this and it became very brummy, which is also pretty hilarious.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
i think that's the "Men are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" sequel, isn't it?
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
ohhhhh geez yes this is good, the orcs were going to be scouse but this is much better.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
les elves sont ... francaises?
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
when i read "Gondor as Yorkshire" i immediately jumped to the "GARLIC BREAD?!" accent
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
i was thinking that elves as valley girl might be very very funny, but i'm not sure the 8yo would get the humour.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
hi, I've got 1990s White Dwarf on the phone? they'd like their joke back.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
starting Lord of the Rings with my 8yo. doing voices. all Hobbits are West Country because it's just funnier like that, but, taking suggestions for the other ancestries.
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Reposted by Marx S—
Sam Zimmerman (he/him) @typhosgames.itch.io · 06/10/2026
It’s announced! I’m so excited to start talking about my next project: A Nice Wyrm Brew! It’s a slice-of-life game of tea dragons helping to run a bustling café. Delight your customers and serve tea, while trying your best to resist hoarding the teacups. farhorizonscoop.beehiiv.com/p/missive-20...
A large cafe sign, shaped like a teapot, with the name “A NICE WYRM BREW” in large red letters. A small red dragon is sleeping on top of the sign.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
alright then smarty pants, what about them Greeks
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
damn it i knew there was some canonically correct and frankly boring answer
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
what language did the ancient Romans use to express that something was Really Important
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
i like my haft-and-bit-style weapons like i like my 90s raves, thank you very much - with an 'e'
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
i'm a big proponent of the spelling "magick" over "magic", i dunno if this makes me an absolute freak but like Marge's Potato, i just think it's neat.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
saw a cat about this big earlier take on two dogs at least twice her size, and then attack my partner who stepped in to try and protect her.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
ty ty (for legal reasons this is a joke)
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
in case you wondered, the other controller doesn't have jam in too.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
my kids are calling the PS controller that they dropped a donut on "Bob Marley", because it has jam in.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
although at least you can claim at fifteen minutes! at Cross Country you can't claim until thirty minutes, which says A LOT for the reliability of their service.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
the London-Bristol service is only two hours, but by the time it hits my town it's often 5-10 minutes late, regularly. and with a season ticket the Delay Repay repayment is £1.80 for a fifteen minute delay, almost not worth claiming for.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
i have gotten one on the Oxford line and it's more like the old Pacer trains from my Northern days, commuter-style carriages and usually diesel engines. the mainline is much more luxurious and fairly well-maintained, but they have a reliability issue.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
this must be on their smaller services, i haven't noticed that on the main London connection? they do, however, always prioritise first class services even when they've cut down the train size.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
not to detract from the absolute shitshow of Man City being found guilty of over 100 counts of financial misconduct, but it's hardly a surprise with the obscene amounts of money involved in the Premier League. it's really time for some proper regulation of that whole sector, not just one club.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
and if only i were paying them in toffee, but alas, i am using the traditional currency of the UK.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
train is delayed again this evening. this morning, the normal nine carriage train (7 std and 2 first) was five carriage (3+2). this company cannot manage their railway or rolling stock for toffee.
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
not me, i'll call it Unbrexit (or, and hear me out, Justice)
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Marx S— @phophos.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
but you can say, Ed Davey, Ed Davey, can I hold you tonight?
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