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Rascal News

@rascal.news
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Independent, Worker-Owned TTRPG Journalism | Subscribe to us at rascal.news

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Rascal News @rascal.news · 29/09/2026
In June a game designer initiated a legal complaint against Dungeons & Dragons, alleging (in a series of logical long leaps) that they stole his monster. But what does it mean to own a game, and what happens when assets are more valuable than experiences?
rascal.news
What does it mean to own part of a game?
Products Of Your Imagination™, owned by everyone.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 28/09/2026
Whoa-ho, a bunch of gorgeous copies of our second annual anthology just arrived at Chase's home. One could arrive at yours, too, by purchasing Rascal Year Two from Heart of the Deernicorn's webstore: heartofthedeernicorn.com/product/rasc... (A limited second printing of Year One is also available!)
Five books splayed out on a wooden table, four of which have a snowy illustration of a massive possum. The title reads "RASCAL".
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 28/09/2026
Reading Club: Eberron www.rascal.news/reading-club...
Reading Club: Eberron
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 25/09/2026
UK Games Expo bans AI-generated work via a new policy www.rascal.news/uk-games-exp...
A crowd of participants entering the UK Games Expo convention.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 24/09/2026
Years-late RPG adventure project embraces AI, is forced to refund angry backers www.rascal.news/years-late-r...
Years-late RPG adventure project embraces AI, is forced to refund angry backers
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 23/09/2026
This review does include spoilers, but there is a spoiler bar that warns you when you're about to get to them. I don't think these spoilers (in my opinion) would take away from the novel. The best tragedies always tell you the end before you get there.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 23/09/2026
The Astarion prequel novel comes out next week, and I got a chance to sit down with @tkingfisher.com to chat about the book, Baldur's Gate 3, working within a massive IP, and how she balanced comedy, tragedy, and whimsy. Also paladins. So... so many paladins.
rascal.news
T. Kingfisher’s Astarion is hilarious, heartbreaking, and utterly tragic
The book perfectly captures Astarion’s voice, and refuses to talk down to the audience through trauma, pain, and the small light of hope.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 21/09/2026
It's not just AI-generated art anymore. Now, Agentic AIs are in our emails, and they really really want us to buy their D&D "module." If AI can so easily subvert spam safeguards, it's the beginning of the end for our inboxes.
rascal.news
An “AI Agent” is begging us to buy their D&D module
iLands has been inundating the inboxes of journalists and publications… and now it’s Rascal’s turn to take out the trash.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 18/09/2026
Dice Exploder’s Sam Dunnewold is running out of things to say about RPGs www.rascal.news/dice-explode...
Logo for the podcast Dice Exploder. Pink dice are placed amidst a yellow background.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 17/09/2026
2 Good 2 Society: Storybrewers do a lot with small changes in the new edition of the beloved Austen-like www.rascal.news/2-good-2-soc...
good society first edition book with an arrow pointing towards the new pastel boxed set featuring a typical regency setting image
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 16/09/2026
Part two of a thread looking at the articles in Rascal: Year Two anthology! In the second half of this collection, we start o get weird. Check out the book on the Heart of the Deernicorn store: heartofthedeernicorn.com/product/rasc...
heartofthedeernicorn.com
Rascal News Year 2
A collection of some of the best independent journalism about tabletop roleplaying games and the people who make them, from Rascal News.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 16/09/2026
If you liked the sound of these articles and want to hold some organic grass-fed games media in your hands, buy our print collection. It's a treat! heartofthedeernicorn.com/product/rasc...
heartofthedeernicorn.com
Rascal News Year 2
A collection of some of the best independent journalism about tabletop roleplaying games and the people who make them, from Rascal News.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 16/09/2026
Finally, Seraphina's essay about Fight Truck, a larp about fighting people in the back of a moving truck, made everyone cry and so we had to include it. We're very proud to have it be the first contributor essay we include.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 16/09/2026
Lin has written a lot about the Mothership megagame, Over/Under, and we wanted to include their meditation on the heavy emotional bleed that flowed out of that experience.
Over/Under was, depending on whether you were involved or not, either the RPG highlight of 2025, or something that elicits a slightly confused shrug. Sam Sorenson’s Discord-based Mothership megagame turned into something nobody expected, morphing into an intensely immersive roleplaying experience. Lin participated in the game, and has documented it extensively on the site, but this piece doesn’t focus on their experiences, instead speaking to several players about the emotional bleed they encountered over the course of the month-long game.

It's a fascinating exploration of the positive and negative aspects of becoming so involved in a game that the line between player and character blur, and how the lack of safeguarding due to the unexpected response to the game enabled both its highs and lows.
Screenshot of the Rascal website. The article headline is: Thirty Days of Bleed. The cover photo is fan art from the campaign showing an older man grieving next to a coffin.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 16/09/2026
Next, we have Thomas combining a preview of Realis with an art history of Surrealism into a lyrical long read.
Thomas’ facility with language is never more on display than in this piece; a combination of critical analysis of a text, a historic dive into an oft-overused and misunderstood art form, and a mimetic exploration of the relationships between games and other media. Realis is a text well chosen for this sort of deep dive into history and inspiration, and as Thomas peels away the layers of the Surrealist movement of the 1800s, its cultural impact and how the work of the artists, writers, and critics of the era have trickled down to Austin Walker’s work. Realis is itself a surrealist text, both in its form (a tabletop roleplaying game; by its very nature a book that is only complete once you play the game enclosed within its covers) and its presentation (Walker goes out of his way to frame Realis as a text in translation) and Thomas’ analysis ties Realis back to the surrealists’ point of view on play, showcasing the game as a longstanding dialogue between past, present, and future. 
Screenshot of the Rascal website. The article headline is: In Realis, Surreal is the New Real. The cover photo is artistic painting of a moon in different shades of blue.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 16/09/2026
Chase writes about Letters to Sandra, a solo game about friendship, trust, and, yes, letters.
This is a short, poignant piece about a small game that you probably haven’t played or even heard about. It is Chase’s documentation of his experience playing a solo game called Letters to Sandra. It’s introspective and thoughtful — quiet in a way that we don’t really associate with games. One of the best parts of being at Rascal is that we can write about the less traditional, weirder, or just more whimsical side of the hobby without having to justify it through clicks, likes, or whatever new metric the internet invents tomorrow. I’m glad that at least one of these made it into this book.
Screenshot of the Rascal website. The article headline is: Am I a terrible friend? And other thoughts while playing letters to Sandra. The cover photo is envelopes and the book, the author's play materials.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 16/09/2026
Then, we have Caelyn's gleeful review of Girl Frame and the mechsploitation genre, as noted by Lin in their introduction.
TTRPGs’ relationship to the mecha genre has been much appreciated by many of its admirers. But it’s a crowded playing field, and that makes it difficult to stand out. What Caelyn makes absolutely clear in this piece is that Girl Frame is playing with mecha expectations and rendering them through a queer and trans lens, using the much newer conventions of mechsploitation to talk about control, gender, and compulsion. Caelyn’s own reflections of her relationship to being transgender deepen this piece, and the acrid stench of a mech’s burning fuel on an ill-kept tarmac suddenly smells like oiled leather, sweat, and sex. The piece cannot be separated from queerness, and, likewise, the article’s own navel-gazing makes the whole thing vibrate like a loose chassis on a freeway. Combining play reporting, interviews, and a very bloody reflection of self and character, this piece is one of the best pieces of queer writing we have ever published — no mean feat.  
Screenshot of the Rascal website. The article headline is: Girl Frame confidently stomps its way into a niche mecha genre. The cover photo is a woman in a cybersuit framed in front of a mech.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 16/09/2026
We kick off the slipstream portion with Thomas' anti-review of Impossible Landscapes, which comes with theatrical interludes. Chase deploys body horror even in the introduction of the article (which are written only for the print collection).
Reviewing Impossible Landscapes is in the name, at least via the traditional approach. Thomas avoids the pitfall entirely by getting appropriately weird in this anti-review. One part response to a Quinns Quest video that dropped a few weeks before, and one part intensely critical look of where and how the self fits into the constellation of egos that make a tabletop RPG actually happen. The piece feels appropriately unsettling, moving between conventional discussions of Detwiller’s adventure for Delta Green and a sardonic aping of stage plays like an automobile caroming off traffic barriers. It’s jarring (complimentary). It feels at points like someone peeling back their own skin in an attempt to better understand themself. Do I know what an anti-review is supposed to do, or even what Impossible Landscapes accomplishes? That was never the point of this deeply self-reflective exercise.
Screenshot of the Rascal website. The article headline is: You, Me, and the King in Yellow. The cover photo is a a masked man in gold against aging paper.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 16/09/2026
Part two of a thread looking at the articles in Rascal: Year Two anthology! In the second half of this collection, we start o get weird. Check out the book on the Heart of the Deernicorn store: heartofthedeernicorn.com/product/rasc...
heartofthedeernicorn.com
Rascal News Year 2
A collection of some of the best independent journalism about tabletop roleplaying games and the people who make them, from Rascal News.
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Heart of the Deernicorn @heartofthedeernicorn.com · 16/09/2026
Rascal News Vol 2 is another collection of the best tabletop gaming news journalism from their second year in publication. It’s available now on our website! #tabletopgames #ttrpg #ttrpgtok #ttrpgcommunity #ttrpgs
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 15/09/2026
The Rascal: Year Two anthology is out! Here's a thread breaking down what's in the in book: 🧵 ⬇️ heartofthedeernicorn.com/product/rasc...
heartofthedeernicorn.com
Rascal News Year 2
A collection of some of the best independent journalism about tabletop roleplaying games and the people who make them, from Rascal News.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 15/09/2026
Ravenloft joins a growing list of yet unrealized tabletop screen adaptations www.rascal.news/ravenloft-jo...
Several fantasy adventurers arrayed, weapons drawn, around a helmed figure with red eyes who holds a cowering goblin in its hands.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 15/09/2026
We'll cover the second half of the book tomorrow. But if these sound good and you want this book on your shelf, head to the Deernicorn store and check it out: heartofthedeernicorn.com/product/rasc...
heartofthedeernicorn.com
Rascal News Year 2
A collection of some of the best independent journalism about tabletop roleplaying games and the people who make them, from Rascal News.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 15/09/2026
Rounding out the first half of the book, Thomas' 5000-word Shadowrun extravaganza, where he talked to fans and designers about why people like to hate the game so much.
I have a long relationship with Shadowrun, having picked up the third edition way back in the ‘90s after playing the SNES video game. I remember the absolute nightmare it was to run, having to juggle multiple complex systems simultaneously. On the other hand, one of my favorite campaigns of all time was a long-term, open-ended game run by a friend of mine who had houseruled the game into a much more manageable state.

Thomas’ investigation captures the duality of Shadowrun perfectly. The depth of the rules contrasted against their impenetrability, the rich setting versus the clumsily problematic representation of Indigenous groups, and the struggles of a dedicated player base that feels their beloved game is being mismanaged by its stewards.
Screenshot of the Rascal website. The article headline is: why do people love to hate shadowrun. The cover photo is the shadowrun logo which is a devil skull with horns.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 15/09/2026
In his report on how Null Signal Games radically reimagines what it takes to publish card games, Chase paints a picture of a whole new model of how games could work.
One of Chase’s standout pieces of reportage last year was this charming portrait of one of the most unique organizations in the world of trading cards and games in general. It’s a great example of how one of the most rewarding things in journalism isn’t necessarily the discovery or propagation of the news but finding people and groups who are doing good work and just telling their story. At a time, when the narratives of profit above all else seem more entrenched than ever, this account of Null Signal Games is a counterpoint. There are different ways of doing things. Community ownership is viable model. We can figure these things out. It’s inspiring.
Screenshot of the Rascal website. The article headline is: Null Signal Games is Keeping Corporations Fictional. The cover photo is a beautiful utopic fantasy city under construction.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 15/09/2026
She had many warm pieces but this one about D&D's starter sets in the '90s was both funny and full of questions about why some of those good ideas were lost.
Caelyn’s best ideas usually start as long posts in the Rascal work channels that reveal some previously unknown font of knowledge about old ass tabletop games, after which I will invariably respond: this should be a blog. Hence came this review of every 1990s boxed RPGs and starter sets produced by TSR for their version of Dungeons & Dragons. It’s illuminating to consider this venerable game through a very specific lens, one that is situated as much in Caelyn’s memory as in product shots and limited archival history. Every one of these were someone’s first brush with D&D, but viewing them in a sequence reveals just how prone it was to “innovation” and novelty. (VHS tapes!) So much has changed under Wizards of the Coast’s stewardship, but other aspects are distressingly, hilariously conspicuous. I want all my retro reviews to be this personal and funny.
Screenshot of the Rascal website. The article headline is: I review every TSR D&D Starter Set from the '90s. The cover photo is a red dragon on a black box.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 15/09/2026
Rowan's piece about how Dimension 20's Titan Takedown got her to enjoy wrestling was one commenter's favorite piece on the site, so it had to be in the book. Lin captures what's so cool about the story:
When Rowan first said she wanted to talk about Titan Takedown – the D20 show that combined D&D with pro wrestling – I was immediately excited and nervous. I was a casual fan, more interested in the cultural value of the keyfabe than the actual sport. Rowan, as she admits in her piece, didn’t like wrestling. But in this article she tracks wrestling as a theatrical phenomenon, immediately cottoning on to the easily-drawn connections between the ring and tabletop roleplaying games. The piece explores wrestling’s cultural history in America, as well as interviewing wrestling fans involved in TTRPGs, getting Brennan Lee Mulligan to weigh in on his connection to wrestling, and all the while Rowan pens an adroitly admiring piece of criticism for actual play. This is exactly the kind of writing that actual play desperately needs.
Screenshot of the Rascal website. The article headline is: Titan Takedown taught me to love professional wrestling. The cover photo is Brennan Lee Mulligan and the cast of Titan Takedown.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 15/09/2026
Then, Lin's wide-ranging and delightful review of Daggerheart and how, if it's goal was to be an alternative to D&D, it's succeeded. Here's how Chase introduced the story:
Fantasy heartbreakers are named thus for a reason. Attempting to steal any of the pie dominated by Dungeons & Dragons usually ends with bitter disappointment — if the only goal is to solve or fix a perceived weakness in the RPG monolith. Many people believed Daggerheart wanted such a slice, but Lin’s earnest and well-referenced defense complicates that oversimplification. They compare Darrington Press’ latest and greatest game to the Big Ampersand as a way to both illustrate the former’s strengths and highlight pervading faults in the latter’s foundation that, over the years, have been papered over or simply accepted. Daggerheart manages to achieve more than the sum of its very generic (and sometimes problematic) parts. That is a success in itself. We must meet games where they’re at, as Lin writes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t bring an experiential lens along for the ride.
Screenshot of the Rascal website. The article headline is: Daggerheart does D&D better than D&D. The cover photo is an illustration of a tiefling casting a cool spell.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 15/09/2026
First up, it's "An RPG community in Iraq takes a first step outside D&D". This is one of our most popular stories about gaming around the world. Here's the introduction from Caelyn (w/ alt text):
Thomas’ dives into local RPG scenes around the globe are, for my money, some of his finest writing, and this piece about the Board & Beyond group in Baghdad is a shining example. It demonstrates how he teases out interesting details from his subjects, ranging from local complications that a primarily Anglophone audience wouldn’t expect — such as the difficulties involved in roleplaying in Arabic — to foibles that transcend national and linguistic boundaries, like Board & Beyond’s fascinating multi-DM approach to bringing new players into the hobby.

It’s a warm piece that introduces a burgeoning community in a locale where RPGs are a relatively new pastime and leaves the reader with a sense of positivity and hope. Screenshot of the Rascal website. The article headline is: an RPG community takes their first steps outside D&D. The cover photo is a group of Iraqi men and women in a trendy cafe playing RPGs.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 15/09/2026
This is the Table of Contents with a list of stories. We chose a mix of timeless pieces that combine big games, small games, reviews, essays, and reportage. It's a window into the site and a way to keep a small piece of it in physical space.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 15/09/2026
The Rascal: Year Two anthology is out! Here's a thread breaking down what's in the in book: 🧵 ⬇️ heartofthedeernicorn.com/product/rasc...
heartofthedeernicorn.com
Rascal News Year 2
A collection of some of the best independent journalism about tabletop roleplaying games and the people who make them, from Rascal News.
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Jeremiah Tolbert @jeremiahtolbert.com · 10/09/2026
This may be the best thing I've ever read on Rascal. This speaks so much to the power of RPGs and what they can do. This is a MUST read if you're interested in TTRPGs.
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Son of Harry @sonofharryh.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Beautiful read!
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Tea Vampire @stras.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
When you write a game you never know who will play it or what it will mean to them. It can be someone's first game. It can be someone's last game. And if you're very very lucky, you'll sometimes get to hear about it.
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Amy Goodenough @goonwuff.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
“It’s not exactly wisdom being passed on, unless you think of joy as wisdom — which I’m starting to think it might be.”
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 14/09/2026
Talkback: Blades in the Dark/Doskvol www.rascal.news/talkback-bla...
Talkback: Blades in the Dark/Doskvol
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 11/09/2026
Steve Jackson Games’ eponymous CEO steps down to focus on designing new games www.rascal.news/steve-jackso...
Steve Jackson Games’ eponymous CEO steps down to focus on designing new games
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 10/09/2026
One Hundred Tales of Solidarity www.rascal.news/one-hundred-...
toy soldiers walking across a bridge, brightly coloured except for the middle strip in black and white
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 10/09/2026
In Australia, a teacher runs Band of Blades every day for more than 30 students. @newmadras.bsky.social tells that story, alongside his personal recollections of the game and what makes it unique. It's not just a single narrative, it's...
rascal.news
One Hundred Tales of Solidarity
The story of the greatest game of Band of Blades ever played and a love letter to the people I played two campaigns with.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 09/09/2026
Blurring the lines between larp and tabletop, Nine Space Games is Jason Morningstar’s best work yet www.rascal.news/blurring-the...
Words "Nine Space Games" in white text on a purple background. A futuristic circular design in the background.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 07/09/2026
Rascal News asked for help, and y’all delivered www.rascal.news/rascal-news-...
Grey dumpster with black lid in front of an orange building. The worlds "PLAY" and "RASCAL" are spray painted on the side in black.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 07/09/2026
Rascal Year 2 anthology is now available www.rascal.news/rascal-year-...
Illustration of a massive screaming possum in a snowy woods. There are black letters in the top left, but the word is obscured by the crop
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 04/09/2026
A game without players can still be played www.rascal.news/a-game-witho...
A frenetic mix of colors and images, mainly focusing on a lamprey that seems to be eating Dungeons & Dragons' first edition brown box.
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Thomas M, Full-time Rascal @newmadras.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This is the Mexico story I was asking around about on this site almost two months ago! It's about games, it's about borders and circumventing them, I mention tequila once, it's neat.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 03/09/2026
In Guadalajara, kids who once photocopied game books now design RPGs and run conventions www.rascal.news/in-guadalaja...
Hugo Hernandez,a mexican man sitting behind a convention table full of games like Cy-Borg, Nuerocity, Deify, Cosmere
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Thomas M, Full-time Rascal @newmadras.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The first episode of season two of Rascal Reading Club is out and we're off to a great start. We're talking about setting in Blades in the Dark and it's already got me thinking about games in new ways. 🧵⬇️ www.rascal.news/reading-club...
rascal.news
Reading Club: Blades in the Dark/Doskvol
This ain't Swords in the Light.
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Brian "Dr." White @androidacademia.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I recently (finally) pulled the trigger on getting a @rascal.news subscription. Really happy I did because pieces like this one from @chasecarter.bsky.social examining the structural elements of the TRPG industry are great. www.rascal.news/finally-a-he...
rascal.news
Finally, a healthy relationship to crowdfunding
Mothership maker Tuesday Knight Games says the team is “exhausted” by crowdfunding initiatives meant to help small publishers.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 01/09/2026
Finally, a healthy relationship to crowdfunding www.rascal.news/finally-a-he...
Dark black-and-white illustration of a massive alien fighting at least eight figures in space suits. It's all fleshy and monstrous, and one person is torn in half.
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 01/09/2026
Reading Club: Blades in the Dark/Doskvol www.rascal.news/reading-c/
blades in the dark's cover feautirng a scoundrel with the title of the show: rascal reading club next to it
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thezuki.bsky.social @thezuki.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I've been a subscriber since day one. A great deal. You won't regret it!
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