ben_rosenbaum - Network

So this happened.(Congrats also to @jdragsky, @nassos, @KellyLink, @stewartcbaker, and anyone else I don't know is on here. Also Sofia...

So this happened.

(Congrats also to @jdragsky, @nassos, @KellyLink, @stewartcbaker, and anyone else I don't know is on here. Also Sofia Samatar's novella was kick-ass, and I rather liked that Omelas hole story too...)

Oh and Choice of Games has a 40% off sale for the next week on all the Nebula finalists including https://www.choiceofgames.com/ghost-and-the-golem/ !

If you have friends who would like to try out roleplaying games but are daunted by hefty rules & dice & a 3-4 hour time commitment,...

If you have friends who would like to try out roleplaying games but are daunted by hefty rules & dice & a 3-4 hour time commitment, maybe go back Avery Alder's Going For Broke (https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/buried-without-ceremony/going-for-broke-a-sitcom-game-about-making-rent), a punk house sitcom game based on a deck of cards that takes a half hour to play and barely any time to explain. You can read the rules for free here: https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/gfb

Ep. 66 of @mrahpodcast, in which we attempt to interview Sofia Samatar about her transcendent & gripping novella "The Practice, The...

Ep. 66 of @mrahpodcast, in which we attempt to interview Sofia Samatar about her transcendent & gripping novella "The Practice, The Horizon & The Chain" but are too excited gushing & arguing about it to focus!

youtu.be/RWnQaOVwVJU

Jake Casella Brookins and I discuss one of my very very very favorite series of books, Laurie Marks' Elemental Logic, on the A Meal of...

Jake Casella Brookins and I discuss one of my very very very favorite series of books, Laurie Marks' Elemental Logic, on the A Meal of Thorns podcast

https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/02/10/a-meal-of-thorns-17-fire-logic-with-benjamin-rosenbaum/

Wow, I stumbled upon this lovely review of The Unraveling by the marvelous Jo...

Wow, I stumbled upon this lovely review of The Unraveling by the marvelous Jo Walton!

https://reactormag.com/jo-waltons-reading-list-december-2024/

"I should have read this book instantly, and you should read it now if you have so far passed over it." 😄

I love the mix of humor, deadly seriousness, resilience, long view, & hope, in this essay-posing-as-a-roleplaying-game on resisting...

I love the mix of humor, deadly seriousness, resilience, long view, & hope, in this essay-posing-as-a-roleplaying-game on resisting tyranny.

I think it has lots of wisdom for surviving what may come.

https://survivethetyrant.infy.uk/

Not "what WILL come": assuming the worst case can be a kind of submission. But so can pretending it's not heading our way.

The US has never been fully free, but differences of degree can be decisive. And this here is a hell of a difference of degree.

Nonetheless.

We talk about AI in three parts -- first, about the science fictional dream of making a self you could talk to; second, about the...

We talk about AI in three parts -- first, about the science fictional dream of making a self you could talk to; second, about the interesting math boxes we just built, which aren't that (or even in that direction) but are really interesting nonetheless. Part three -- the ethical and economic impacts -- is in the next episode.

Our podcast has been off the packety air for a bit, but we have a bunch of episodes in the can now and are rolling out season 3.In this one,...

Our podcast has been off the packety air for a bit, but we have a bunch of episodes in the can now and are rolling out season 3.

In this one, @maryannemohanraj & I try to think of the next thing to say about LLMs, by integrating all of the things said so far, and producing the next token! Or not? Because we're human, supposedly?

https://speculativeliterature.org/ep-64-show-notes/

Marty Hench fights the dawn of enshittification, to the squeak and whirr of a dial-up connection in @pluralistic's...

Marty Hench fights the dawn of enshittification, to the squeak and whirr of a dial-up connection in @pluralistic's latest:

https://wandering.shop/@pluralistic@mamot.fr/113787417146464497

Obligatory 2024 Awards eligibility post!* Best Game Writing/Best Game or Interactive Work: The Ghost and the Golem, August 2024 ...

Obligatory 2024 Awards eligibility post!

* Best Game Writing/Best Game or Interactive Work:
The Ghost and the Golem, August 2024

https://www.choiceofgames.com/ghost-and-the-golem/

"Rooted in Jewishness....full of wit, bubbling with life..." — Hey Alma

You should play it in good health, bubbeleh.

* Best Fancast, I guess, though eps will be more frequent in 2025 I promise:

Mohanraj and Rosenbaum are Humans, a podcast of the Speculative Literature Foundation.

https://speculativeliterature.org/mrah/

Today I said "ten-four" to my son and then had to explain the 1970s CB subculture, & how it presaged internet subcultures,...

Today I said "ten-four" to my son and then had to explain the 1970s CB subculture, & how it presaged internet subcultures, & the film "Smokey and the Bandit," & how it has essentially a Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic) plot ("helpful strangers who share a fandom defy authority via new communications tech")

If you woke up this morning and said "I really want to hear Ben do an Actual Play of that game he wrote. In German." I can hook...

If you woke up this morning and said "I really want to hear Ben do an Actual Play of that game he wrote. In German." I can hook you up!

(Ow, hearing my accent in recorded form is really painful lol.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5UXnbbZk4Y

Für die Deutschsprachigen unter euch -- plotbunnygames@pnpde.social's German translation of Avery Alder's Dream Askew and my Dream...

Für die Deutschsprachigen unter euch -- plotbunnygames@pnpde.social's German translation of Avery Alder's Dream Askew and my Dream Apart is crowdfunding now!

https://www.gameontabletop.com/cf4441/dream-askew-dream-apart.html

A lovely writeup of "The Ghost and the Golem" in the New Jersey Jewish...

A lovely writeup of "The Ghost and the Golem" in the New Jersey Jewish News:

https://njjewishnews.timesofisrael.com/a-game-of-magical-shtetl-realism/

I woke up to the loveliest review of my game!https://www.heyalma.com/the-interactive-jewish-fantasy-game-that-feels-like-home/

I woke up to the loveliest review of my game!

https://www.heyalma.com/the-interactive-jewish-fantasy-game-that-feels-like-home/

In an interactive tale, some characterization only shows up across playthroughs. Here the joke is that if, instead, the peasants attack you,...

In an interactive tale, some characterization only shows up across playthroughs.

Here the joke is that if, instead, the peasants attack you, Gittel will loudly declare that she never trusted them.

It's like: how well do you really know someone, if you've only seen them in the one timeline?

As of today, Steam players have gotten every single achievement in my Jewish historical fantasy game "The Ghost and the Golem"......

As of today, Steam players have gotten every single achievement in my Jewish historical fantasy game "The Ghost and the Golem"... even ones like "Four Weddings and No Funeral" and "Dynamic Duo," which I wasn't sure anyone would ever manage!

Whee!

I hope y'all are arguing with Mamma in chapter 4 of "The Ghost and the Golem," because she has plenty to...

I hope y'all are arguing with Mamma in chapter 4 of "The Ghost and the Golem," because she has plenty to say.

https://www.choiceofgames.com/ghost-and-the-golem/

Two days left for the introductory sale of The Ghost and the Golem, my 480,000-word Jewish historical fantasy...

Two days left for the introductory sale of The Ghost and the Golem, my 480,000-word Jewish historical fantasy game!

https://www.choiceofgames.com/ghost-and-the-golem/

(I've been saying 450,000 words, but I just went & recounted. It's now a full novella-length longer than the Lord of the Rings trilogy.)

I know this is a tiny bit spoilery, but I just love the part where the demon complains about how anarchist klezmers are hard to mind...

I know this is a tiny bit spoilery, but I just love the part where the demon complains about how anarchist klezmers are hard to mind control.

From "The Ghost and the Golem"
https://www.choiceofgames.com/ghost-and-the-golem/