Neuromancer — In Production | Apple TV+

My take on the Rebel Scum molehill

 

I've finally decided to post my thoughts on the molehill that people are turning into an imaginary mountain over the Rebel Scum/DrivethruRPG thing going on. You know where people are raging over a decision from a year ago. But first I'm going to be posting some information via screenshots from the other side of the coin that nobody seems interested in hearing about. That is from the DrivethruRPG side. These are on their official discord server and are from a person employed by OBS. 

Probably going to piss some folks off. But damn, that seems to be my hobby somedays without even trying to do so. 

First Rascal News, the ones who released the news article starting this dirt pile, didn't share all the information they received in their article.

Now this isn't all that unusual. Reporters have to select what information to present and what actually matters to the article. But I'm wondering what they didn't use. I'm not paying for Rascal News so I can't see past their paywall to even have a clue. 

Next up is how they've done this before. Had to ask publishers to change or edit something to meet their guideline. So this isn't anything new at all. They just don't publicize it. 

After that they admit they have mostly had to do this from products that fall on the right side of the political spectrum. Just that this time they had to do it with a product that was from the left side of the political spectrum. But folks don't like equally applied rules on either side of the spectrum, that much anybody with any common sense knows. 

Then finally we have a timeline. That the book was on DrivethruRPG for several years and that the forward in question was added in later. They received complaints about it, reviewed the material and contacted the publisher asking them to change it. The publisher refused and the game was withdrawn from the DrivethruRPG site. 

Then the timeline gets interesting. All that happened a year ago. Nothing was said, nobody raged, nobody cared and for the most part apparently very few folks gave a damn about Rebel Scum. Until they were ready to release their second edition. Then the "banned by DriveThruRPG" bit was added to the cover of their new edition (which I'm wondering if the NEW version was ever submitted to  DrivethruRPG for review) and I would bet money that somebody involved with the game tipped off the folks at Rascal News about what had happened before in hopes of getting some extra publicity. 

So in the end my views of DriveThruRPG remain unchanged. I've been very critical of some of the things they've done over the years, but not in this case. They are attempting to apply rules equally in an atmosphere that is absolute nightmare material. The fact that this occurred a year ago and nothing came of it until now when there is suddenly a new edition available is suspect. I will continue to use DriveThruRPG. 

I'm a very liberal minded person and have never supported a right wing candidate for decades. If there is a Democrat on the ticket they got my vote almost every single time (there have been two occasions where I voted for an independent in the last 20 years, both times in very local elections). If there is no Democrat I either don't leave a vote in that category or write in my own name. 

That being said this entire thing looks like a bunch of left leaning folks clutching their pearls and saying "But you can't do this to US as well" to a company that had to do it to several right leaning folks over the years. Equal means equal and sometimes it sucks when the rules get applied to you. But that is something you have to deal with in life. 

Vaesen acquired

 

Well after giving the game a try at DieCon I knew I was going to pick this one up. So using my gift card money at the shop I work at some purchases were made. So now I have acquired the Vaesen corebook, gm screen and dice. Not sure when I'll get around to running it. Hell I still have to read it. But I'm thinking this one will be a great addition to game night once folks get used to the more rules light nature and overall strangeness. 

DieCon 25 report

 

Just attended a gaming convention called DieCon, they are in their 25th year and, for me, the first time attending. Went with my step son Zack and my friend Larry. I have to say we had a great time.

A lot of tabletop wargaming going on. Some great set ups on the tables. Some really well done scenery and miniatures. Boardgaming was also there in quantity including a free library of games to chose from for those just wanting to set down and play.

For us three though, we were mainly there for the roleplaying. Which there was plenty of. The usual Living DnD, Pathfinder Adventure League stuff and then a lot of others. Surprisingly there was no Cyberpunk RED or Borg products being ran. Those two are runaway popular right now so not seeing them was surprising. 

The first game I got into was Vaesen from Free League Publishing. Nordic supernatural roleplaying, and it was great. The rules, art, lore, just everything impressed me enough that it's going to be the next game I purchase. Had a fun time tracking down a werewolf and learning the difference between our western version of them and the Nordic/Scandinavian version. The group was great to play with as well.

Second was a Call of Cthulhu 7th ed game from Chaosium. Last edition I actually played was probably 2nd ed so I was just curious about the changes. I don't remember there being hard and extreme success levels in the old one. But overall mostly the same. Wanted to strangle one 20 something idiot in our group who kept doing stupid shit over and over. But we still solved the mystery and successfully finished the session with minimal sanity loss.

Last I played a game of Morrow Project. I love Morrow Project, especially the older edition they were doing. Didn't have a full group but we played on anyways. While it was fun I wasn't overly impressed with the way the guy was running the adventure. That and in the end he leaned way into the scifi a bit more than I like. Ah well. 

There weren't many dealers offering up stuff that I wanted to buy. Several 3D print folks which I have zero interest in. Miniature Market put up the most pathetic booth I have ever seen for a company their size. The Troll and Toad folks also didn't do anything beyond just having some books on a table for sale. The artist Brent Chumley was probably the best one there. Ended up buying a new mousepad for me and a T-Shift for my wife from him.

We preregistered for next year. Got a better idea of how to plan our games out better and I may even run a game or two there if I get a chance to playtest out the adventure beforehand. A lot of fun was had buy our little trio and we hope to get a few more locals to show up next year. 

Predator: Badlands (2025) Teaser Trailer: You've Never Seen a Predator M...

TV Animation "THE GHOST IN THE SHELL" 2nd Teaser Trailer｜Scheduled for 2026

Predator: Killer of Killers - Official Trailer (2025) Dan Trachtenberg