![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
As is often the case, RPG Review is late - even given that this issue is a double-issue (51-52) covering the more prosaic aspects of life; food, buildings, and clothing, which of course is often overlooked in RPG games or worse still, with Anglo-American contemporary styles transplanted to a quasi-medieval fantasy setting. I will admit being inspired by "histoire vue d'en bas et non d'en haut" ("history seen from below and not from above", Lucien Febvre) in putting together this issue. As a result of what needs to be written, I have a small mountain of gaming products from the very old to the relatively new on my "to review" pile, which I am working through this weekend: The Free City of Haven, Thieves' World, Night City, Chicago Arcology, The Lost City of Gaxmoor, and Pantopican, all of which will find themselves on rpg.net as well, of course. This will certainly occupy the rest of the weekend of course, albeit with some time out for "actual play" with Tim R's "Mage: The Ascension" game.
Apart from that I have been a little unsettled this week which really has taken a hit on my usual productive self. I wonder whether it has been a vicarious effect of a close friend, or whether it is even in part due to the onset of daylight saving time. This is actually a serious matter with health studies, including higher blood pressure, increased heart rate, interrupted sleep, and mood changes. As with so many things we look towards ourselves for the causes of malaise, when in reality it is often circumstances and the environment. As these are outside our control, adaption is the more sensible strategy, even if we are more prone to distraction instead. It is fortunate that, by the end of the week, I realised how distracted I had become and have since pulled my finger out with a return to normal levels of progress.
As an example of distraction, I have been engaging over the past few days in an AnCap vs AnCom debate group, which I know I shouldn't. Several years ago I abandoned engagement in the said group when, after a poll of members, something like 90% of AnCaps said that they would not change their ideology even if it was provably and objectively wrong. I considered this remarkable enough, but an even more convincing moment was when a fellow traveller posted a quote questioning the legitimacy of poverty and attributed it to Emma Goldman. With one single exception, the AnCaps were infuriated. It was never revealed to them (until now) that the quote was actually from Ayn Rand. Naturally enough, none of them had the humility of intellect to even check. The problem, of course, comes from the two types of anarchism, and the translation is ambiguous. On the one hand, it can the absence of rulers (the anti-State, anti-ruling class, libertarian left), on the other the absence of rules (the anti-governance, pro-private property, libertarian right).
Apart from that I have been a little unsettled this week which really has taken a hit on my usual productive self. I wonder whether it has been a vicarious effect of a close friend, or whether it is even in part due to the onset of daylight saving time. This is actually a serious matter with health studies, including higher blood pressure, increased heart rate, interrupted sleep, and mood changes. As with so many things we look towards ourselves for the causes of malaise, when in reality it is often circumstances and the environment. As these are outside our control, adaption is the more sensible strategy, even if we are more prone to distraction instead. It is fortunate that, by the end of the week, I realised how distracted I had become and have since pulled my finger out with a return to normal levels of progress.
As an example of distraction, I have been engaging over the past few days in an AnCap vs AnCom debate group, which I know I shouldn't. Several years ago I abandoned engagement in the said group when, after a poll of members, something like 90% of AnCaps said that they would not change their ideology even if it was provably and objectively wrong. I considered this remarkable enough, but an even more convincing moment was when a fellow traveller posted a quote questioning the legitimacy of poverty and attributed it to Emma Goldman. With one single exception, the AnCaps were infuriated. It was never revealed to them (until now) that the quote was actually from Ayn Rand. Naturally enough, none of them had the humility of intellect to even check. The problem, of course, comes from the two types of anarchism, and the translation is ambiguous. On the one hand, it can the absence of rulers (the anti-State, anti-ruling class, libertarian left), on the other the absence of rules (the anti-governance, pro-private property, libertarian right).
