Chase Taylor-Carter

Read about my latest game, In the Pines! It was a pleasure to talk to @newmadras.bsky.social .

In The Pines is funny, scary, and a little bit fucked up www.rascal.news/in-the-pines...

What Is The OSR, or How Discourse Would Be Better If You Tried Googling It www.rascal.news/what-is-the-...

Mark Diaz Truman explains how Magpie Games changed over the last decade www.rascal.news/mark-diaz-tr...

Radio Hour: A Grab is Better Than a Click, and a Treat is better than a Trick, feat. Eryk Sawicki (@peregrinecoast.press )

The second is an interview with the designer of the ultra bespoke Inscryption board game, for @rascal.news www.rascal.news/inscryptions...

Hey there! I’m writing about Spiel Essen for Rascal News and am looking to chat with TTRPG folks who are exhibiting at the convention in October. Let me know if you’re willing to chat with me about your experiences! Hit me up please: kheehoon(at)rascal.news

Returned home from a lovely weekend away to a leak in my apartment's ceiling. Frankly quite rude it couldn't wait a week to break apart, after I'd moved out.

The One Where I Give An Interview 🍋‍🟩

For @jank.cool, I wrote about how Penguin Colony employs the proximity and distance of horror in a truly exceptional manner www.jank.cool/penguin-colo...

World of Styria turns a 39-year home campaign into a Pathfinder 2e setting book www.rascal.news/world-of-sty...

You could feel these final paragraphs coming like a premonition.

My report on the above:

Rockstar has repeatedly alleged that a games journalist was a member of the union Discord, posing a significant threat to the company's security. This is something we've covered in our earlier reporting, but there's some interesting context that just got brought up in the tribunal regarding timing.

"Too bad, make it work": Unionizing staff describe crunch culture and creative oppression within Wizards of the Coast www.rascal.news/too-bad-make...

AI protections, RTO mandates, inadequate wages -- all corporate-owned creative workplaces are facing the same existential threats. Sure seems as though companies tolerate workers' human needs and requests for dignity only because it's cheaper. For now.

With Call of Duty release near and no union contract in sight, Activision workers authorize strike aftermath.site/activision-qa-...

I spoke with two members of @uwotc-official.bsky.social's newest unions just after the publisher declined voluntary recognition. The workers are confident in the election's outcome but describe a culture of crunch and empty promises where those billions in revenue are never reinvested in people.

So psyched to have another share from @leadergrev.bsky.social on the site today! It's always a treat to get to work with him again!

I know, I know. The Repository might sound too good to be true, but I promise you it's EXTREMELY REAL! Free (downloadable) pitch decks and design docs submitted by some of the best to ever do it!

Are you an Epic Games employee with thoughts on the company's pivot towards GenAI and how it's handling that messaging? I would be extremely interested in hearing them. Happy to chat confidentially. Email: chris.kerr@verticalslice.news Signal: kerrblimey.43

Question for the few dozen people that buy the digital version of Wyrd Science, what do you read it on? Tablet? Phone? Desktop? Apart from adding hyperlinks it’s basically just the print version as a smaller PDF, but was thinking from the next issue completely redoing it to read nicer on smaller

Thanks to @aarontram.bsky.social for speaking to me about his new book! We talk about when numbers are bad, when graphs are cool, and anxiety about civil rights and nuclear warfare.

How quantification and Midwestern culture shaped  D&D’s problematic legacies www.rascal.news/how-quantifi...

Yesterday, Wizards informed us that it doesn’t intend to voluntarily recognize the D&D or Studio X units of our union ahead of a vote. We remain committed to creating a workplace focused on wellness, transparency, and collaboration by winning our coming election.

EN World remains calm amidst a plague of AI bot swarms www.rascal.news/en-world-rem...

Talkback: Eberron www.rascal.news/talkback-ebe...

@duamn.bsky.social comes on to the show to talk about what's cool about Eberron, resisting the siren song of Lore, and more.

Seeing as this is a day for exciting announcements, I should also mention that I've commissioned @nicolecarpenter.bsky.social to bring some of her intrepid reporting to Vertical Slice. Look out for those in the coming months (and subscribe to make sure you don't miss out)!

🎉 HUGE CAREER ANNOUNCEMENT 🎉 Today, I'm launching Vertical Slice, a new independent trade outlet committed to producing quality video game journalism that inspires, informs, and interrogates. That means daily news, incisive interviews, vital investigative work, and more. www.verticalslice.news

MTG Arena prepare Wizards of the Coast's latest unions for renewed resistance www.rascal.news/mtg-arena-pr...

@valentineirl.bsky.social popping off with an EXCELLENT quote as usual! Every day I admire their eloquence 💖 Huge shoutout and thank you to @chasecarter.bsky.social for continuing to report on the unionization effort at wizards!

Spoke with two members of @uwotc-official.bsky.social's MTG Arena team who told me what supporting the D&D and MTG unions will look like: education, collaboration, and innoculation against propaganda. Also, apparently the union-avoidant messaging within WotC never really stopped.

"Is Playtest Material also an attempt to legitimize role-playing game-related things as art? Maybe. RPG people at the moment do struggle to access funding sources and spaces that are open to other writers and performers, [and] one hopes that we can begin to open some of those doors."

The editing team for @playtestmaterial.bsky.social spoke to us about their guiding principles and goals for cultivating analog RPG criticism. A big hell yeah for more print media!

I’m looking to speak confidentially with WB Games workers to corroborate some information that has come across my news desk. If you’d be open to chatting, please reach out via Signal (kerrblimey.43) or email (chris.kerr@verticalslice.news). DMs also open.

It's actually insane that people who work for these big companies cant own the work they make while they're not on the clock. An imagination-based company town

Whats the cool local game store in your town that might be interested in carrying a fun little anthology of indie RPG criticism (It's Rascal Year One and Two)

The folks who create Dungeons & Dragons and Magic The Gathering are unionizing with @uwotc-official.bsky.social and they have identified a new pain point -- the inability to own the work they create off the clock.

Francesca Baerald’s new book celebrates a decade of mapping some of gaming’s most beloved worlds www.rascal.news/francesca-ba...

Very lovely to have fellow tabletop reporter @newsnerd.bsky.social on this week's podcast episode to discuss, among other things, the end of Renegade's stewardship of V:TM and whether a Houston-based PAX Unplugged expansion makes sense.