Culture Quest – “The Power of Fun” by Catherine Price

I picked this book out at the library as part of my blind research floundering process. I was hoping it would be a book about how people interact with games. And it was, sort of, but not in the way that I was hoping. As I realized that the book was not going to be particularly helpful towards my research endeavors, I moved from deep reading to more of a skim, so there are a lot of specifics of the book that I didn’t delve into, so my report suffers related shallowness. But I think there are useful concepts in what I did read, and I can see it altering how I interact with the world in the future as I apply some of what I gleaned.

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Matt’s Mind for May 24 2025

Hello! This is episode 1 of a new blog idea I’ve had. Long story short, I start a lot of projects, and may of them go nowhere. But my wheels spin on those and it’s hard for people to see my thoughts. And I do like people being able to see me being clever. So, as an accountability journal, Imma gonna blog! And you can find this on my website, on Deviantart, or on my Patreon. Maybe other places? Idk, we’ll see how much traction these get. Please comment if I have a project that you’re interested in. That helps me keep it alive.

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DM Devlog: The Gauntlet of Evolution Part 1

Advanced D&D. Confusingly named, confusingly built, and yet, as I study through these hallowed pages, I can really see the potential for the game this would become. I can see parts of genius, some of which I wish was still in D&D today, and some of which really really had some serious problems. Continue reading “DM Devlog: The Gauntlet of Evolution Part 1”

DM Devlog: The Gauntlet of Evolution Part 0

So I had a crazy idea. I was watching WotC’s video hyping up the History of D&D book they’ll be putting out this year, and I started jonesin’ to play Original D&D. And the idea suddenly grew like a mystical tree in a cutscene- what if I ran a session that was ALL the D&D?

I name this idea “The Gauntlet of Evolution.” A D&D session that is probably pretty long (10 hours?), where every hour and a half or so, we advance editions. From OD&D, all the way through 5th edition. Continue reading “DM Devlog: The Gauntlet of Evolution Part 0”

Matt Reads a Thing: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

So in preparation for a project I’m doing (See the Patreon), I decided I needed to (re)read the Secret of NIMH. I’m not sure if I’d read it before, but I had seen the movie a lot, and figured that might count. And I think it does. While the movie went to some random, mystic place, the book did not. The book was really short, actually, with only a few twists. I think it was written to be a really good book for early readers, and that my bafflement at its simplicity is because I was expecting something a bit more, idk, involved.

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Matt Watches a Thing: Macgyver S1E01

Armed with a new Paramount Plus subscription, I’ve started watching Macgyver. And my thought is, “Hey, I should blog my watch through. Get content and all of that. (and get into the habit of quick, pointless blogs, and of writing thing on the daily.

General summary: It was really enjoyable!

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A Week of GameOn: Thoughts from suddenly running 20 hours of Transformers

Man, I need to tell you about my week. On Sunday, I committed to running 20 hours of RPGs for middle school and highschool kids. Boy howdy, did I learn a lot. And here is my attempt to capture my week’s activities, lessons, and reflections. Continue reading “A Week of GameOn: Thoughts from suddenly running 20 hours of Transformers”