#pro gm for hire

[sleepyconfusedpotato]

⚔️ Task Force 141 - NFL AU 🏈

by me (sleepyconfusedpotato) and @alypink ! This AU will include some Original Characters made by us both!

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New Hampshire 141s, a new rising american football team whose players dominantly came from the United Kingdom, is ready to face the NFL season!

As the previous Head Coach, Herschel von Shepherd got fired by the General Manager MacMillan, John Price (who has roots in rugby) got chosen by MacMillan to bring the team to victory. Let us see which players caught Coach Price's eyes!

John Price (HC)

John Price was born in Liverpool, England, but moved to America when he was still very young due to his father being deployed from the military to an American base. Although his father retired a couple of years later, they decided to stay in America. He grew up loving sports as a child but American football always piqued his interest more than any other sports. He played safety in middle and high school, but in his junior year, he had Meniscal tears that prevented him from ever playing again. John was heavily depressed after his injury, one day one of his close friends, Nikolai, who was also one of his fellow teammates on his high school team, told him to cheer him up to go watch the team play or to attend the training camps, John agreed and started assisting to the games and eventually started to think about becoming a head coach. He was recommended by his former high school head coach to take the job as a defensive coordinator for the New Hampshire Wildcats, a college football team. His performance and playbook were impressive, leading the Wildcats to reach a bowl and winning it twice. He proved to be fit and ready for a professional football team in the NFL and was hired as a defensive coordinator by the New Hampshire 141’s, by the HC at that time, Herschel von Shepherd. His first two seasons were disastrous as there was friction between the players and their head coach, most of the players disagreed with Shepherd's decisions and playmaking. To add to that, he seemed to never care about the player's input or needs. Although in those seasons they held a record of 4 wins and 12 losses, the General Manager of the team noticed his defense was the best in the league for both points and yards, and also noticed that a good portion of his defense players were selected on the all-pro team of those two seasons. After the owner and GM fired Shepherd as a Head Coach, John took his place.  In his first seasons with the 141s, he restructured the team and went to playoffs and one NFC championship. As he wanted to improve his team, he started attending college football games, he attended once a college game in which he met the offensive coordinator at the time, Aly, and after the game he met her to ask about some players he was interested in on her actual team, for QB and WR positions, they became acquaintance since that day and kept communication for some time, as she sent some prospects his way. She also requested his help every now and then, making him attend her games and inviting her over to watch the 141s too. After spending time together and sharing the same interests and love for football, they started to date but kept it low as two months later, John hired her as his new offensive coordinator.

#26 Kyle Garrick (WR)

the most responsible and reliable player of the team. Kyle’s dad was an ex-WR and a former head coach out of a college football team. His father is a very hardworking man and disciplines his son like a football player, and with that, comes a great expectation for Kyle since his high school years. Kyle is extremely reliable, responsible, and respected on and off the field. He is HC John Price's favorite due to his work ethic. Kyle believes in having discipline in everything he does to be one of the best. He keeps a picture of his girlfriend, Eleanor Graham (Ladybug) everywhere, especially in his locker room as he says she brings him good luck for catching the hail mary’s from Alex.  Kyle and Alex met in Baylor University, where they played together and won many games, including several bowl games. They became best friends in and out of the football field, supporting each other infinitely. “You've got friends nearby.” On Alex’s quote, “I can throw the ball like ‘fuck it, he’s over there somewhere’ and Kyle would magically appear and catch the ball. He’s always at the right place.”

One day during practice Alex was throwing the ball too far to the left, which headed straight towards her head. On instinct and in an attempt to catch the ball, Kyle collided with Eleanor, which bruised her arms. Instead of being upset like how Kyle would expect her to react, she laughed loudly at him, saying that she chose to sit there. She knew the hazard of studying near a football field. Even though Eleanor said she can take care of her bruises, Kyle insisted on nursing her. (Alex SMILED ear to ear). They both met from time to time. Every practice, Kyle always looks for Eleanor on the side of the field. Eleanor’s laid-back personality often bothers Kyle as she's a damn med school student, but through her, Kyle learns how to slow down and live in the moment. Love bloomed between them and they became a couple midway through freshman year. 

When Kyle was drafted to the NFL to be with Alex for New Hampshire 141s, Eleanor was there with him when he received the call from HC Price. Though Eleanor has to stay in Texas to continue her studies, Eleanor travels to New Hampshire often to visit Kyle.

#31 Alex Keller (QB)

Alex is the quarterback of the 141s, second draft pick and first QB of his university. He is very skilled and hard-working, he is in love with water girl Farah Karim and aspires to be like Tom Brady. He and Kyle Garrick (WR) met in their first year of freshman in University and they played since their first year as the duo of QB and WR (Burrow and Chase vibes) and were drafted together in the NFL draft by the same team. Young duo but very effective especially during the regular season. Alex Keller met Farah Karim in his rookie season during training camp in his first year and has been infatuated with her. Since then, he has tried to score ASAP or reach 4th down so he can sit on the bench and talk with her. Whenever he can, he visits and picks her up from University and helps her out whenever he can in anything she would need.

#70 Simon Riley (TE)

Simon Riley used to be a rugby player in England. He joined the rugby team during his college days and met Price as one of his coaches, who trained and guided him to become one of the most dominant flankers in college rugby. Unfortunately, though he’s always dependable whenever he’s on the field, Simon was often riddled with injuries. His quiet personality didn’t help his case either, bearing the pain in his left leg in silence, until one day, he tore his ACL during an important game which cost the team their winning chances. Simon rested for a whole year to heal his knee. Together with his familial struggle, he contemplated quitting being an athlete. That was until Coach Price offered him a fresh start in the USA. As a flanker is equivalent to the Tight End position in American football, Price told him that he would be perfect for the role. Simon was adamant at first as he was still injured and how he’d be able to completely heal from this devastating injury. But when he said that in America they could find him a good physiotherapist to help him heal his knee, he reluctantly accepted the offer.  Simon got into the draft and was a first-round pick due to how much of a good player he was in rugby. On his first day on the team, he met the other players who got drafted, but the most important and the most fateful meeting was when he got introduced to Charlotte Le Jardin (nickname Jade to simplify her last name), a physiotherapist that Laswell had promised help him to heal his ACL and help him regain his top form. It was a rough road, but with every step he took, Jade was there to help him.  Now, every injury he has he doesn’t stay on the sidelines but goes inside the tent or the stadium so he can be checked by her. Whenever Jade’s out watching the game, he scores more than usual or gets distracted. He often carries the team, especially during the conference championship games. 

#71 Johnny MacTavish (RB)

Johnny MacTavish was born and raised in Scotland. After high school, he was offered an academic and sports scholarship to a prominent university in the USA. He began his football career when he was a freshman at University as a very talented runner, which elevated him as the starter RB on his fifth game. In his senior year he was  awarded the Heisman Trophy winner at college, but due to a shoulder injury, he missed being the top pick at the draft. He was later selected by the New Hampshire 141s and got put in as a starter as soon as he got drafted. He has good chemistry with his team but gets injured by overdoing himself or trying to tackle defensive players on the other team. He is also constantly with Jade for treatment and often misses important playoff games. Johnny is a very talented running back and that is why HC Price can’t get rid of him no matter how he misses practices and meetings and how his personal life affects his performance on the field. He always tries to take his friend Simon Riley to social gatherings and social media, but he completely shuts him down every time. That's different on the field though, as whenever Johnny's going to play a run, Simon will always be there in front of him to push the tacklers away, making way for Johnny to score a first down or a touch down. They're an unstoppable duo together. Johnny is very popular among female fans, making his jersey the one with the most sales every year. His dating story is pretty large and his games are always attended by the women he dates (which constantly changes).

some memes I made 😭

Here's the Hereford 141S' Logo and jersey design! The logo is heavily inspired by the Task Force 141's logo, so it's pretty much just a sporty twist of the logo!

More characters underneath the cut!

#11 Alejandro Vargas (MLB) and #22 Rodolfo Parra (OLB)

(Drawing to be posted!)

Alejandro and Rudy both moved to El Paso, Texas when they started high school at the age of 14 years old. They were avid football (soccer) players during their time in Mexico, but when they started High School they began to play football. Both Alejandro and Rodolfo played as Linebackers, Ale being MLB and Rodolfo being OLB. They did amazing in High School then they both received a scholarship to attend the university in Dallas, Texas. Both of them were later selected to do the NFL Pathway program, for both of them. Being together since their childhood years, high school and university they were a packaged deal and were both selected on the same team, same position on the NFL draft.  Alejandro is especially hyped when playing against Philip Graves, QB of the Dallas Shadows. They have had beef with each other on and off the field since they played against each other for the first time. Ale’s average sack during a game against Dallas is approximately 5 per game, he sometimes is way too harsh while tackling making him get a couple of flags whenever he blitzes and sacks. He’s often scolded by his friend Rudy, but he does not care as long as he can sack Graves.

Kate Laswell (Defensive Coordinator)

(Drawing to be posted!)

was raised in Virginia, USA. Both her parents and brothers loved football and so did she. Since elementary, she watched and never missed a game during weekends, she always had a fascination for the Chicago Bears and their ‘85 team. Her father told her about how that defense, without an extraordinary QB or offense made them win the superbowl and also made them the best defense of all time. After witnessing that season and that Superbowl, she fell in love with how the defense scheme in football works. Unfortunately professional football for women wasn’t an option, so she studied a lot to become a defensive coordinator. She studied day and night, memorizing the plays, analyzing games and creating new playbooks since she was young. She struggled a lot to have an opportunity since it was a male-dominated team. One of her childhood friends made it to the roster to become a defensive coordinator for the Colorado Buffaloes College Football Team, he was a good coach but not “impressive”. She supported him by attending his games but couldn't help but try to talk to him whenever she thought he could do better, often interrupting his play callings during his games to make him change the play, and it always worked. She and his friend attended a College Bowl, and met John Price at that game, the three of them watched the game and she started to tell both of them what adjustment she would do for both teams, and that piqued John’s interests as she was awfully right, he was impressed by how well she read offense’s routes and how she was able to change from a 3-4 or 4-3 to a hybrid defense. He decided to give her a chance and hired her as his new defensive coordinator for the 141’s and established a very good partnership and friendship with her ever since.

Farah Karim (Intern Physical Therapy Student - Watergirl)

(Drawing to be posted!)

Farah Karim is a university medical student who got an internship in his junior year of college to be the water girl and help around the New Hampshire  141s team. She comes from an immigrant family and is the pride and joy of her parents. She struggled so much in her younger years to pursue an education and get into a good college in the USA, she managed to get a scholarship due to her great school performance and was given the chance to work with a professional football team. She met Alex Keller after his rookie season and developed a close friendship with them that later turned into a romantic interest. She is grateful for his help and also supports him during games. Her classmates usually bug her by asking Farah to let them meet Alex or to set them up with him, which she dislikes very much.

(OC) Alyssa Martinez (Offensive Coordinator)

Aly was born in Mexico and moved to the USA thanks to a scholarship she received when she graduated from High School and moved to Texas to attend college. As soon as she graduated from Texas A&M holding a Bachelor of Science in Sport Management, she started working as an offensive coordinator at a local highschool. She then escalated to being an offensive coordinator for the College she attended. Aly managed to take the team to a College Bowl where she met 141s Head Coach John Price and became acquaintances after that game, they kept communication after that game, as Aly asked for suggestions for her playbook and she helped Price on suggesting him prospects for the upcoming draft selection and also players on free agency.  She was later hired by Price as his offensive coordinator and they began to have a low key romantic  relationship. She specializes in West Coast offense, having her team play the Air Coryell scheme. She suggested Price to draft Alex Keller as he was the perfect pocket passer that would fit their offense perfectly. She’s an avid Tom Brady fan.

(OC) Charlotte Le Jardin (Physical Therapist)

Originally from England, Jade was adopted by an American couple and moved with them to the United States at an early age. Her parents, Eli and Gracie, worked at Bravo Stadium, home of the 141s, and Jade became a constant presence on the sidelines. As time went by, the Bravo Stadium became her home. Jade started helping around the sidelines bringing water, towels, medical kits, and even helping out in the blue tent, all the while completing her college in biological science and doctor of physical therapy (DPT), and of course, licensing in Physical Therapy. When she got her license, her experience was already on par with the other physiotherapists since she had been jumping from senior to seniors, learning and practicing all she could. Kate Laswell who has been seeing Jade there since she was a teenager, hired Jade as one of the many physiotherapists for 141s, and with that came a fateful challenge: a newcomer Tight End with a torn ACL from his rugby days, who’s trying to get back to his top form in order to play in the NFL.

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PHEW so there you have it! If you've read it this far, oh my LORD me and Aly love you so much! This is a pretty severe brainrot that we had, so hope you like it!

And let's enjoy the 2024 NFL Season 🏈🏈🏈

Hope you like it! 🥰🥰

[level2janitor]

Introduction to the OSR

what's an OSR? it's a game that's kinda like old-school D&D. or is old-school D&D. or is compatible with old-school D&D. an OSR game generally has some or all of the following principles:

low character power with highly lethal combat. in old-school D&D a 1st-level fighter has d8 hit points and a longsword does d8 damage, and you die at 0HP. this is not to ensure characters die all the time but to emphasize the next bullet point:

emphasis on creative problem solving. most situations cannot be solved by straightforward use of your abilities (such as charging into every situation with swords drawn, if a fighter), so the game tests lateral, outside-the-box thinking.

emphasis on diegetic progression. spells are found, not obtained automatically on level-up. you get XP by finding gold more than killing monsters. most of your cool abilities come from magic items. making alliances & hiring followers is encouraged.

focus on managing inventory, resources, risk, and time. the players are constantly faced with meaningful decisions; this is the heart of the game.

very sandbox-oriented. the focus on creative problem solving means the game must be accommodating to players taking a course of action the GM didn't plan for. use lots of random tables to generate emergent story. some elements of new simulationism.

high tactical transparency, i.e., the optimal course of action is rarely system-specific, and ideally very possible for a new player to intuit.

usually semi-compatible with old D&D, but not always. usually rules-lite, but not always.

what does the OSR mostly NOT do?

focus on character builds. these change the focus too much to be on the rules than the fiction, can create situations where stuff everyone should be able to do is an ability locked to one class, and impede tactical transparency.

resolve everything with a die roll. combat uses dice to be scary, unpredictable and most importantly not your default course of action. everything else should bring up dice rarely - dice are your plan B when your plan A fails. the best plans need no dice.

use linear storytelling or put players into a writer/GM role. linear storytelling gets in the way of the decision-making so core to the playstyle; letting players write details into the setting is mutually exclusive with them discovering it.

rules for everything. 400 pages of crunch is worse at simulating a believable world than the GM and players' shared understanding. OSR games rely constantly on GM ruling.

mostly still applies to all the above. making your system a "pure" OSR game comes second to doing what's best for your game.

System recommendations

old D&D or a retroclone

old-school D&D - or old school essentials or basic fantasy or swords & wizardry, which are old D&D's mechanics repackaged with quality-of-life tweaks (and the upside of not giving WOTC your money) - are usually the go-to when recommending someone's first OSR game. they're actually not my first pick, though!

PROS:

very complete, with more robust rules than a lot of the lighter games on this list.

100% compatibility: most OSR adventures are statted for old school essentials. converting them to other OSR systems is usually simple, but not 1-for-1.

easier to find games for. anyone interested in the OSR space knows what old school essentials is.

CONS:

jank. these games largely still have weird saves, level limits for non-humans, some still have descending AC, etc etc. it's not that bad but it is there

i hate thief skills. lots of essential dungeoneering actions are locked to the thief class as abilities, with abysmally low success chances. this is stuff i prefer being handled without a roll. thieves in this system suck and make everyone else worse at dungeon crawling by existing.

there's just lots of really cool shit in other systems i'm about to go into that you just don't get here

Knave 1e and its various hacks

this is a 7-page super-lightweight system that boils everything down to just the essentials.

rolling a character takes like 5 minutes. roll stats, roll gear, roll traits, go. done. it's great.

characters are defined entirely by stats and gear, no classes. wanna be a fighter, have high strength and carry a big sword and armor. wanna be a wizard, have high intelligence and fill your inventory with spells. item slots are elegant and pretty limited.

initiative is instant: roll d6. 1-3, monsters go first. 4-6, PCs go first. swingy, but god it is so smooth and shaves like the most boring 5 minutes off of every combat

monsters are so very elegant. old D&D gives monsters a "hit dice" rating to determine their HP, e.g. a 3HD monster rolls 3d8 for hit points. knave takes this number (HD) and uses it for attack rolls and saves (aside from exceptionally bad/good saves), so a knave statblock looks something like this.

spells are all one or two sentences long & extremely easy to remember.

7 pages is so light. i have the system basically memorized.

DOWNSIDES: there's no dungeon crawling rules (standard for meatier OSR games & something i consider essential) and no real bestiary, though the second point isn't a huge deal cause they're so easy to make. it also kinda assumes you already know how to run OSR games, so there's very little real advice or guidance.

KNAVE HACKS

knave 1e is in creative commons & comes with an editable word doc for you to publish with modifications, so there's a ton of variants (there was a spreadsheet of them somewhere, but i can't find it).

Grave is a favorite - i'm two years into a grave campaign and it's fantastic. it's a dark-souls-y version of knave with some really elegant innovations.

you have a set number of deaths before you for-reals die, as every character plays an undead as is dark souls tradition. makes it good for OSR beginners! being able to tell when you're close to your final death is really good - it lets you emotionally prepare for losing your character & raises the stakes more the more you die. (though honestly you should probably cut the number of extra deaths in half, it's super generous)

XP and gold are combined into one resource, souls. legendary creatures drop big souls you can make into magic items. this has ended up being the coolest thing in my current campaign. my players love finding powerful souls to make into magic items it's so fun

uses preset packages of stats/gear instead of knave's rolled ones, filling the role of more traditional character classes. has the wonderful side effect of not making you get stuck with low stats cause you rolled bad one time.

you have stamina equal to your empty item slots. you spend stamina on spells if you're a caster, or free maneuvers (on top of your attack at no action cost) if you're not. it's super elegant.

there's 3 classes of spells: wizardry for intelligence, holy magic for wisdom, and witch stuff for charisma. nice and intuitive.

there's a page of 50 magic items each a couple sentences long. this PDF is worth it just for the magic items.

DOWNSIDE: see the downsides for knave 1e. all still apply.

i enjoyed grave so much i made a variant of it with the dark souls bits removed (and some dungeon crawl rules added!) to use for my standard fantasy campaigns.

Knave 2e

sadly knave 2e is not purchasable yet (i backed it on kickstarter so i have access, though). but when it comes out i highly recommend it.

much larger and denser than knave 1e. it finally has dungeon crawling rules, it has GM and player guidance, everything is refined and the layout is so so nice and readable.

combat is a bit more interesting than 1e. you can break your weapon against an enemy to deal max damage. you get a free maneuver on high attack rolls.

there's rules for stuff like alchemy, warfare, building a base. it all kicks ass.

there are so many goddamn tables. i rifle through it anytime i need inspiration.

DOWNSIDES: some of the new rules are a little untested & wonky. introducing randomness into how often your rations spoil or your lights go out can cause issues.

Mausritter

you play tiny little mice! in a world full of big dangerous things that want to eat mice. cat = dragon. you get it. what more could you want

the mouse thing is just super intuitive. you get the dynamic between you and the big scary lethal world. fantastic OSR game to introduce kids

nice and robust ruleset; nothing feels missing

tons of super nice GM stuff! faction rules, tools for rolling up hexcrawls and dungeons, plenty of tables

super clean readable layout. font isn't too small to avoid being intimidating. guidance is really nice and clear.

combat is autohit. super fast & lethal.

100% free

look mausritter is just. good. i wanna run it so bad someday

Worlds Without Number

sort of a middle ground between OSR stuff and 5e. paid version here free version here

lots of classes, at least in the paid version. the free version comes with just the warrior, expert and mage. there's feats and more of a focus on builds than most OSR games. if you like more mechanical build variety than a typical OSR game, this is a great game for you!

extremely good multiclassing. y'know how in most games if you just mash together two classes you think are cool you'll end up with a total mess? not here! every combo is viable and works fine! easily the best multiclassing of any game i've touched

an absurd amount of GM stuff and tables. easily more than any of the other stuff i've praised for also having them. but personally i haven't dug into them as much, so i can't really comment on them

skills the way modern D&D has them. you roll dice and try to beat a target number. i don't tend to like rolled skills, but most people do, so if that's your thing WWN has them

DOWNSIDES

the layout is terrible. everything is a huge wall of text with very little use of bold text or bullet points to draw attention to the important bits. the table of contents has like 15 things in it for a 400-page book! i couldn't find any of the paid-version-exclusive classes for like a month after i bought it! looking up rules is a nightmare.

the way the default setting handles "evil races" is like an exaggerated parody of all the problematic aspects of how D&D handles it. like, it wants so bad for you to have an excuse to genocide sentient free-willed people. but at least the default setting is easy to chuck in the trash

Dungeon Crawl Classics

the goal of this system is to take all of the crazy gonzo moments people remember playing old-school D&D in their childhood and turn all of that up to 11 while cutting the stuff that doesn't add to that. i think a lot of its innovations have ended up kind of standard in newer OSR stuff (like fighters getting maneuvers with their attacks), but it still has more to offer.

the funnel: you start the game with four randomly rolled dipshit peasants that you then throw into a meatgrinder to get horribly killed. you pick one of the survivors to be your 1st-level character.

maneuvers: fighters roll an extra die with each attack that gets bigger as you level. if it's a 3 or higher, you get to do a cool thing on top of your attack. pretty standard for OSR games, but this game popularized it!

crit tables: fighters also get more crits and nastier crits as they level. every crit, you roll on the crit table. maybe you chop off a dude's arm. maybe you just knock them over. maybe you shatter their shield. it's very cool

spell tables: i don't really like roll-to-cast mechanics, generally. but DCC goes so all-in on roll-to-cast that it still looks fun as hell to watch. you cast a fireball and maybe it goes how you want. or maybe you explode, or you nuke everything in a half-mile radius, or from now on you permanently ignite flammable materials you touch, or whatever. casters just have to put up with turning into a weird mutated mess across a campaign

there's no dungeon crawl rules, no encumbrance - this game is all about the big over-the-top wacky shit, and is not really interested in the more down-to-earth number crunching. it's more in the you-die-hilariously-all-the-time area of OSR than the you-avoid-death-through-clever-play area. not really my thing but the system knows exactly what it wants to be and i respect it

iron halberd

this one is mine! as the author i'm not qualified to tell you what isn't good about my system, so just assume it's worse than i make it sound, but here's a bunch of the selling points

semi-random character creation where you flip back and forth between rolling dice and getting your own input. roll stats, pick ancestry. pick starting gear kit, roll different dice based on which kit you picked. etc etc. stats are random but all equally viable (no rolling incredibly low or high stats). every time i run this game the character creation is a hit. seriously go roll up a character it'll sell you on the whole thing

you start out a lot stronger than a standard OSR character but grow way more slowly. i don't like 4th-level characters being 4 times as strong as 1st-level ones; HP never gets that high. emphasis is more on diegetic progression instead.

way too many subsystems for alchemy, crafting, strongholds, warfare, renown, rituals, likes 9 pages of magic items, a whole subsystem for becoming a cleric mid-campaign. i couldn't help myself i love this shit

in my current campaign we had a player permanently sacrifice some max HP to become a necromancer after deliberating on whether that's a good idea for like thirty seconds, which instantly made me think my necromancy system is a success

also free

Adventure recommendations

(in rough order of size)

Moonhill Garden (by Emiel Boven): look at this. look at it! this is like the best template for a little dungeon in an OSR game. all of the little factions are tied together. this would be a great oneshot to introduce people to an OSR system with.

A gathering of blades (by Ben Milton): a system-neutral, one-page sandbox. i ran this for an iron halberd game and it went super well. lasted like 7 sessions. highly recommend.

The Waking of Willowby Hall (by Ben Milton): a single dungeon with a million things going on. it's super chaotic with half a dozen different factions crashing into each other and a big angry goose. highly recommend, especially for kids

The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford (by Chance Dudinack): small sandbox with a fun fairytale vibe and a very fleshed-out little town. and a big nasty dragon.

Evils of Illmire (by Zack Wolf): this is a very dense, entire campaign's worth of hexcrawl in a very compact package for like $5. it doesn't do anything particularly new, but the value-for-money is absurd and it's a really good template for how to do a sandbox if you're used to 5e adventures

Ask me anything!

if anything here is unclear or intrigues you, send me asks! i love helping people get into OSR games. i'll link frequently asked questions here if i get any.

[cogitoergofun]

During Trump’s term, the NLRB members he appointed made it more difficult for unions to win representation at nonunion workplaces, extending the time between when a union files for representation to when an election is held, and thus granting management more time to campaign against the union with its employees.

The Biden NLRB has rolled back those rules after they were struck down in court, and it is moving to make it easier for a union to organize.

The Trump Supreme Court also issued a devasting ruling against public sector unions, which represent almost as many union members as found at private businesses. The 2018 decision, with Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, providing the deciding fifth vote, makes it easier for government employees nationwide to not pay union dues even if their workplace is unionized.

Trump was famous for making promises that he would stop businesses from moving operations out of the country or shutting them down. Among his most vocal promises was that he would stop GM from closing the massive assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio.

In a 2017 speech in nearby Youngstown, he promised residents that manufacturing jobs would be returning to the region, telling the crowd: “Don’t move. Don’t sell your house.”

But two years later GM closed the plant, despite Trump’s calls to GM CEO Mary Barra and attacks on the company’s closure plans. The company that bought the plant with plans to to eventually hire thousands of workers, Lordstown Motors, produced more losses than pickup trucks, and has already filed for bankruptcy and halted operations.

Trump promised he would impose steep tariffs on vehicles coming from Mexico, a promise he is making again now on the campaign trail. But his 2020 update of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has long been deeply unpopular with many blue collar workers, imposed no such tariffs on vehicles coming from Mexico, and has done little to change the flow of vehicles across US borders.

While Trump says he created auto jobs and that the Biden administration is destroying them, Michigan lost 1,900 auto manufacturing jobs, or 4% of the total, between February 2017, just after Trump took office in through February 2020, just before the start of the pandemic, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state gained 1,800 auto jobs from February 2021, Biden’s first month in office, through February of this year.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Umar Lee:

Before Mike Brown

Growing up in North St. Louis County, I remember a vibrant community full of churches, bars, VFW halls, Knights of Columbus, shopping malls, movie theatres, and all of the amenities working, and middle-class post-war Americans desired. To be a kid who loved sports, like me, North County offered Khoury League baseball, JFL football, little league wrestling, boxing gyms, soccer clubs, hockey clubs, basketball leagues, and much more. I played plenty of sports growing up in organized leagues (wrestling, baseball, and football); but I played more with kids in the street. When I wasn’t playing sports, I was listening to Jack Buck and Mike Shannon call Cardinals games on KMOX radio, sneaking up late at night to watch pro wrestling, reading wrestling and boxing magazines in the store because I couldn’t afford to buy them, also reading the St. Louis-based The Sporting News to keep track of stats, admiring the photos and articles in Sports Illustrated, of course reading the sports section in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch daily, and watching whatever sports were aired TV on the weekend for households without cable, topped off by sports news coverage from the likes of Jay Randolph, Ron Jacober, and Art Holliday on Channel 5.

Yet, while all of this was going on, which has left me with a life of fond memories, the North County, and my personal story, isn’t complete without looking at other events. The sports sections of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch discussed Whiteyball, our loss of Big Red football, almost losing the Blues to Canada, and the Steamers; but the news and businesses pages were far bleaker. St. Louis had then, and has now, one of the highest rates of violent crime in America, political dysfunction and corruption, and countless municipal fiefdoms. These pages also contained news of factory closings and job losses. Like Michigan, Pennsylvania, northeast Ohio, and other parts of the Rust Belt; working-class St. Louisans were reeling from job losses. North County was built up and populated by factory workers and those in the building trades, the small houses were built for guys like my dad who left high school and walked right onto an assembly line, and when those factories close, and the builders stop building, the economic conditions that underpin the health of families and communities erode. When Combustion Engineering in North St. Louis laid off my dad, uncle, and other relatives in the 80s, it hit like a micro version of the Great Depression. The saving grace would come years later when my dad joined my grandpa at GM, which had moved from North City to St. Charles County, skipping North County in the process, and my uncle getting rewarded for his service loading dead and wounded American bodies into helicopters in Vietnam by getting hired at the federal records center in Overland.

Beneath the changing economic conditions was the issue that defines St. Louis, and in particular, North County. Race. North County was largely farmland before World War II with a sprinkling of small towns mixed in. Old Town Florissant and Sacred Heart Parish in an example of historic North County which was a community of French and German Catholics who later welcomed and embraced Irish and Italian Catholics. Like south St. Louis City, places like Ferguson and Florissant, bonded together at church, in labor unions, and in neighborhoods. The problem is that these tended to be nearly exclusively white, and as the Black population of North City spilled into North County in large numbers beginning in the 1970s, this began to create tension. As a reference point, my dad graduated from Riverview Gardens in 1970 when the first Black student enrolled, today the school is virtually 100% Black. After splitting with my dad, my mother, who lived in North City and North County with us as small kids, took my biracial younger half-siblings to be raised in the Shaw and Dutchtown neighborhoods of South City, because she deemed the Riverview Gardens schools to be too white and racist. I stayed in Black Jack and then Florissant along with my older sisters, dad, stepmom, and grandparents.

As economic conditions became unstable in North County, white families began moving out to St. Charles County, and Black families began settling in areas that had previously been all-white, the existing white establishment relied on police departments, most of them either all-white or close to it, to act as a buffer zone. This frequently was manifested in traffic stops with places like Jennings being the worst. White residents of North County feared crime rates would soon mirror those in north city, and these fears were only heightened after high-profile crimes such as the 1982 kidnapping and murders of Gary and Donna Decker in Bellefontaine Neighbors, the stabbing death of McCluer North student and football player Dan Mckeon (brother of two professional soccer players) at a 1987 party in Florissant, the rape and murders of the Kerry sisters in 1991 at the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, and the rape and murder of freshman student Christine Smetzer by a fellow student in a McCluer North bathroom in 1995.

Meanwhile, Black families arriving in north county for better schools, safer communities, and more amenities, after generations of legalized housing segregation in St. Louis City and County, often faced the brunt force of aggressive north county policing. Instead of harassing criminals and reducing crime, police departments in north county were often harassing students and law-abiding citizens coming home from work, church, or a night out. Before body cameras and smart phones these police interactions often included profane and racially abusive language and frequently beatings. This created a climate of distrust and anger in the Black community in North County. Crime was going up, but police were harassing law-abiding citizens instead of stopping criminals, and Black residents were also disproportionately victims of crimes that received far less media attention. As the racial composition of North County municipalities changed to majority-Black, voter turnout remained higher among longtime and typically older white residents. This meant that the numerous city halls and police departments in places like Ferguson remained nearly all-white even as whites became a minority in those communities.

In 2014, North County was a powder keg waiting to erupt. All it needed was a spark. That’s why I began writing about north county in my Evening-Whirl column and for the Huffington Post. No one was talking about North County and it was ready to explode. Local media focused on stories about bike lanes, hipster neighborhoods, and business as usual. Months before August 9th, I told Paul Fehler, of the Pruitt-Igoe Myth and political fame, that if there was a riot and civil unrest in St. Louis it would be in North County. A week before August 9th, with future mayoral candidate Cara Spencer watching, I had a heated argument with legislative aide Michael Powers at The Royale because he said I talked about problems in North County too much. Everything in the County is fine, I was told, all focus must be on the city.

Then it happened. Mike Brown Jr., a recent graduate of Normandy High School, walked to an immigrant-owned and ran store with a friend (most such stores in the Black communities of St. Louis are owned by Palestinian Muslims), there was an altercation, but nothing out of the ordinary for a St. Louis hood store, and as he walked through the apartments and onto Canfield at the edge of Ferguson, he met up with Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. The encounter was fatal and almost certainly avoidable. Ferguson immediately handled the situation in a reckless and insensitive manner. Allowing the dead body of Mike Brown to lay in the streets for hours, and bringing out police dogs to intimidate family members, neighbors, friends, and those brought out by social media posts and discussions on Black radio. What happened that day, we’ll probably never know the entire truth. What we do know is what happened on August 9th of 2014 permanently changed St. Louis and America.

My Time in Ferguson

People have to remember that what became known as the Ferguson Uprising was not something that was instigated by academics, leftist political organizations and organizers, out of town celebrity activists, intersectional dogmatists, or people with college degrees. The anger at the death of Mike Brown came from the neighborhood. A neighborhood ranging from lower middle-class to generational poverty. People struggling and hustling just to stay above water. The community came out August 9th, but the uprising began August 10th and that was a day when an older generation of pastors, community leaders, and politicians were largely pushed aside, by a younger generation seeking an immediate redress to their grievances. It was leaderless and often without direction. Purely organic and there was a beautiful sense of community in the early days. Elders such as Anthony Bell attempted to provide direction (Bell setting up voter registration tables); but the situation was too fluid and beyond the capabilities of individual organizers.

[...]

From the beginning, I sought to use whatever platform I had to highlight the history of North County and attempt to tell a story of how we arrived at this moment. Having said that, like everyone else, I was caught up in the drama and passion of the Ferguson moment. I made videos, wrote some articles, cowrote a few pieces with Sarah Kendzior, and appeared on many local, national, and international news outlets (Al Jazeera links aren’t working). I was also arrested twice in Ferguson, threatened with arrest many more times, received numerous and graphic death threats, sparred with police supporters, lost my cool, provoked, was provoked, and finally lost my job and shortly thereafter my apartment (and in the middle of all of this, my grandma died and I was in a messy relationship). If you look at photos I didn't have grey hair before Ferguson. A few months later I was buying Just For Men.

I found a way to piss off police supporters and get under their skin, as did guys like Bassem Masri. In my estimation, the reasons for that are twofold. Firstly, we both grew-up in north county, so many of the people responsible for targeting and doxxing us were those we either grew-up with or went to school with. I saw lifelong friendships created in the Ferguson-Florissant School District end over Facebook posts during the Ferguson Unrest. This was mostly along racial lines. Secondly, unlike most activists, or those you see on Ivy League campuses today, we didn't talk and sound like spoiled brats, smart alecky rich kids who'd have to go to therapy for decades after one physical altercation. We'd been in plenty of fistfights, street brawls, and I'd been shot at and stabbed. Twitter trolls, insults, and radio talkshow hosts like Mark Reardon and Bob Romanik weren't gonna hurt my feelings.

[...]

Trump and The 2020 Sham

For the sake of time, and if anyone is still here, I'll fast forward to 2020. I've already previously stated, and Sarah Kendzior noted this in her book discussing St. Louis, that I believe Ferguson is partially responsible for electing Donald Trump as president. As in 1968, when Richard Nixon promised law and order, I knew conditions were ripe for a populist right-wing politician promising to restore law and order. No one saw COVID-19 coming, the shutdowns, the summer of massive protests after the murder of George Floyd, and the crazy presidential election. Four years later, I think we're still all trying to make sense of it.

While I fully embraced vaccines, and I'm happy I'm vaxxed, and I supported shutdowns at the time, I think it's pretty clear they did more harm than good. Most harmed were our children- particularly poor and working-class kids, who fell behind due to the virtual learning sham, and never caught up. I was at the Dallas campaign event where Biden was endorsed by multiple presidential candidates, thus virtually sealing the nomination. The South Side Ballroom was so packed, that I could barely move or breath, and couldn't get in a position to take a good photo, despite being relatively close to Biden. The next week it was too dangerous to publicly campaign, Biden stayed at home, and we elected an elderly man who was not up to the job but has generally been good in office both for American workers and our international allies. Mainstream media, so eager to defeat Trump, played along. Oh, the viable Democratic alternative was another elderly gentleman who honeymooned in the Soviet Union. It was not a year of good choices, but Biden was the best in my estimation.

[...]

The Aftermath: Where We Stand

Where are we today? A decade later, are we in a better place? North County is still in a state of serious decline and seems to be getting worse each year, North City is doing even worse, the population of both St. Louis City and County is declining, and many are opting for more prosperous communities, most notably Texas and Georgia suburbs (both reddish states). Violent crime spiked for a period, the decline in traffic enforcement has made driving and walking our streets far less safe and often deadly, and area police have essentially stopped policing. They don't want to be stars in a viral video or become a hashtag. For many cops, if they couldn't do things the old school way, they aren’t gonna do it at all. This has made our communities more dangerous, less livable for the most vulnerable, and places few people want to live in. This is a negative consequence from the lack of a strategic plan after Ferguson and failures on both the parts of law-enforcement and the community to hear one another.

The good news is that St. Louis now has better prosecutors (Wesley Bell and Gabe Gore) who are committed to public safety, holding those accountable who harm our community, and enacting diversion programs and other positive post-Ferguson reforms. St. Louis has a mayor in Tishaura Jones who wasn't created in a lab by white progressives; but is a genuine leader, reared and educated locally. Without Ferguson, I'm doubtful Mayor Jones would've been elected, nor a new generation of leaders such as Adam Layne and Marty Murray.

So, it must be recognized, that while there have been some unintended negative consequences from Ferguson, there are also positive developments. These aren't just political. What inspires me isn't politics. I'm inspired by faith leaders in our community who took the Ferguson moment and began having serious conversations with their congregations. Fathers and mothers who began having difficult conversations at home with their sons and daughters. Teachers who began listening to their students. Old classmates who reached out to one another to have a beer and talk across the racial divide. Our increased racially diverse families and suburbs who are defying our political discourse on both sides as progressives have adopted a rigid and dogmatic Race Science and MAGA is doubling down on Nativism and Majoritarian racial grievances. By our faithful and intact immigrant families providing needed life to a region desperately in need.

@Umar Lee wrote a solid perspective on the 10-year anniversary of the killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson and North County from a North County POV. #Ferguson

Read the full story at Umar Lee's Substack.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 22, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

Two major stories today seem to bring together both the past and the future of the country to chart a way forward.

The first involves a historic workers’ strike. A week ago, on Friday, September 15, after workers’ four-year contracts expired, the United Auto Workers union declared a limited and targeted work stoppage in which about 13,000 workers walked off the job at three Midwestern auto plants. For the first time in history, those walkouts included all three major automakers: workers left a General Motors plant in Missouri, a Stellantis (which includes Chrysler) plant in Ohio, and a Ford plant in Michigan. 

Workers accepted major concessions in 2007, when it appeared that auto manufacturers would go under. They agreed to accept a two-tier pay system in which workers hired after 2007 would have lower pay and worse benefits than those hired before 2007. But then the industry recovered, and automakers’ profits skyrocketed: Ford, for example, made more than $10 billion in profits in 2022.

Automakers’ chief executive officers’ pay has soared—GM CEO Mary Barra made almost $29 million in 2022—but workers’ wages and benefits have not. Barra, for example, makes 362 times the median GM employee’s paycheck, while autoworkers’ pay has fallen behind inflation by 19%. 

The new UAW president, Shawn Fain, ran on a promise to demand a rollback of the 2007 concessions in this summer’s contract negotiations. He wants a cap on temporary workers, pay increases of more than 40% to match the salary increases of the CEOs, a 32-hour workweek, cost of living adjustments, and an elimination of the tier system. 

But his position is not just about autoworkers; it is about all U.S. workers. “Our fight is not just for ourselves but for every worker who is being undervalued, for every retiree who’s given their all and feels forgotten, and for every future worker who deserves a fair chance at a prosperous life,” Fain said. “[W]e are all fed up of living in a world that values profits over people. We’re all fed up with seeing the rich get richer while the rest of us continue to just scrape by. We’re all fed up with corporate greed. And together, we’re going to fight to change it.”

Fain has withheld an endorsement for President Biden out of concern that the transition to electric vehicles, which are easier to build than gas-powered vehicles, will hurt union jobs, and out of anger that the administration has offered incentives to non-union plants. That criticism created an opening for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to announce he would visit Detroit next week to show autoworkers that he has “always had their back,” in hopes of winning back the support of Rust Belt states.

But for all his talk of being pro-worker, Trump recently attacked Fain, saying “The autoworkers are being sold down the river by their leadership, and their leadership should endorse Trump.” Autoworkers note that Trump and the justices he put on the Supreme Court have been anti-union, and that he packed the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees labor laws and union elections, with officials who reduced the power of workers to organize. Before he left office, Trump tried to burrow ten anti-labor activists into the Federal Service Impasses Panel, the panel in charge of resolving disputes between unions and federal agencies when they cannot resolve issues in negotiations. 

Fain recently said: “Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers.” 

President Biden prides himself on his pro-union credentials, and as soon as he took office, he fired Trump’s burrowed employees, prompting the head of the union representing 700,000 federal employees to thank Biden for his attempt to “restore basic fairness for federal workers.” He said, “The outgoing panel, appointed by the previous administration and stacked with transparently biased union-busters, was notorious for ignoring the law to gut workplace rights and further an extreme political agenda.”

Today, in the absence of a deal, the UAW expanded the strike to dozens more plants, and in a Facebook live stream, Fain invited “everyone who supports our cause to join us on the picket line from our friends and families all the way up to the president of the United States.” Biden has generally expressed support for the UAW, saying that the automakers should share their record profits with their workers, but Fain rebuffed the president’s offer to send Labor Secretary Julie Su and White House senior advisor Gene Sperling to help with negotiations. 

Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and John Fetterman (D-PA) have both visited Michigan to meet with UAW workers, but it was nonetheless a surprise when the White House announced that the president will travel on Tuesday to Michigan, where he will, as he posted on X, “join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create. It’s time for a win-win agreement that keeps American auto manufacturing thriving with well-paid UAW jobs."

If President Biden is showing his support for the strong unions of the past, Vice President Kamala Harris is in charge of the future. The White House today announced the establishment of a National Office of Gun Violence Prevention, to be overseen by the vice president. 

Lately, Harris has been taking the lead in embracing change and appealing to younger voters. On September 9 she hosted a celebration honoring the 50th anniversary of hip hop, and she is currently in the midst of a tour of college campuses to urge young people to vote. She has been the administration’s leading voice on issues of reproductive rights and equality before the law, issues at the top of concerns of young Americans. Now adding gun safety to that list, she is picking up yet another issue crucially important to young people. 

When 26-year-old Representative Maxwell Frost (D-FL) introduced the president today, he said that he got involved in politics because he "didn't want to get shot in school."

If the president and the vice president today seemed to represent the past and the future to carry the country forward, the present was also in the news today, and that story was about corruption and the parties’ different approaches to it.

ProPublica has published yet another piece about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s connections to wealthy donors. Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski reported that Thomas attended at least two donor summits hosted by the Koch family, acting as a fundraising draw for the Koch network, but did not disclose the flights he accepted, which should have been considered gifts, or the hospitality associated with the trips. His appearances were coordinated with the help of Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who has been behind the court’s rightward swing.

The Koch family network funds a wide range of right-wing political causes. It has had interests in a number of cases before the Supreme Court during Thomas’s term, including an upcoming challenge to the government’s ability to regulate businesses—a principle the Koch enterprises oppose. 

Republicans have been defending Thomas’s behavior since these stories began to surface. 

Also in the corruption file today is Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who, along with his wife, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in New York on three counts of conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion in connection with using his influence to advance the interests of Egypt. 

This is Menendez’s second legal go-round: in 2015 he was indicted on unrelated charges of bribery, trading political help for expensive plane flights and luxury vacations. Ten of the twelve members of the jury did not agree with the other two that he was guilty and after the hung jury meant a mistrial, the Department of Justice declined to retry the case. 

That the DOJ has indicted Menendez again on new charges undercuts Republicans’ insistence that the department has been weaponized to operate against them alone. And while Menendez insists he will fight the charges, he has lost his position at the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under the rules of the Democratic Conference, and New Jersey Democratic leaders have already called on him to resign.

“So a Democratic Senator is indicted on serious charges, and no Democrats attacking the Justice Department, no Democrats attacking the prosecutors, no Democrats calling for an investigation of the prosecution, and no Democrats calling to defund the Justice Department,” wrote former Republican representative from Illinois and now anti-Trump activist Joe Walsh. 

“Weird, huh?”

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[consultantdipak]

[paleyshelie]

Franchise Mode in Madden NFL 26 has received its most significant overhaul in years, with EA Sports finally delivering on the long-standing community demand for deeper, more immersive, and more customizable football management. Whether you're a long-time franchise mode veteran or a newcomer hoping to Madden 26 coins build a dynasty, Madden 26 introduces several new features and enhancements that fundamentally change the way you approach the GM chair. Here's a deep dive into the 10 biggest new improvements coming to Madden 26 Franchise Mode.

1. Rebuilt Trade System with Realistic AI Valuation One of the most frustrating aspects of previous Madden Franchise experiences was the inconsistent and easily exploitable trade logic. Madden 26 introduces a completely rebuilt trade engine that takes player age, scheme fit, team needs, and contract size into account. AI teams now actively engage in trade negotiations that reflect their actual goals, whether it’s rebuilding, contending, or clearing cap space. There’s even a rumor mill where trade talks can leak and affect locker room morale.

2. Franchise Stories & Dynamic Career Paths Players, coaches, and even GMs now have evolving story arcs. A rookie quarterback might blossom into a league MVP or flame out due to off-field issues. Franchise mode now includes “Career Path Milestones” and branching storylines influenced by weekly performance, off-field decisions, and injuries. These narratives aren’t just cosmetic — they impact development traits, fan interest, and contract negotiations.

3. Expanded Coaching Staff Tree Franchise Mode now includes a fully realized coaching staff management system. You can hire or fire Offensive Coordinators, Defensive Coordinators, Special Teams Coaches, and even individual Position Coaches. Each brings unique schemes, experience boosts, and developmental traits. There’s also a progression tree for coaches, giving long-term franchise players even more to strategize around.

4. Overhauled Scouting System 2.0 Scouting has been expanded and made more interactive in Madden 26. You now manage a national scouting board, assign scouts to specific regions or positions, and even host private workouts. Players may conceal their true talent level until Combine results reveal key metrics. New tools like “Pro Day Reports” and “Draft Intel” give you more insight — or deception — depending on the quality of your scouts.

5. True Free Agency with Contract Restructures and Holdouts Madden 26 brings a new realism to free agency. Contract negotiations can now include options like bonuses, no-trade clauses, and restructures. Additionally, players may hold out if they feel underpaid or undervalued. Superstar veterans in particular won’t hesitate to demand big paydays or threaten retirement. You’ll need to manage not just cap space, but egos and long-term loyalty.

6. Custom Relocation and Expansion Features Franchise customization has taken a major leap. You can now design your own team from scratch — logos, uniforms, stadium designs, and even crowd chants. Additionally, Madden 26 introduces Franchise Expansion, allowing you to grow the league to 34 teams with a custom expansion draft, relocation cities with deeper identities, and new stadium sponsor mechanics that affect revenue.

7. Advanced Stat Tracking and Legacy Leaderboards Player stats are now tracked across seasons in much greater depth. You’ll find game-by-game breakdowns, career highs, historical milestones, and even comparisons to NFL greats. The new Legacy Leaderboards showcase franchise legends, comparing their records against real-world Hall of Famers. Whether your star WR is chasing Jerry Rice or your QB is threatening Tom Brady’s touchdown mark, every stat tells a story.

8. Enhanced Weekly Game Planning Weekly preparation has been transformed. You’ll now manage practice intensity, install game plans based on opponent tendencies, and deal with practice injuries that can derail your week. The new “Weekly Matchup Focus” lets you target specific players or schemes, with bonuses for execution. A bad week of preparation could see your defense give up 500 yards — or surprise with a game-saving pick-six.

9. Interactive Owner Mode with Business Management Owner Mode returns in a much richer format. From ticket pricing and fan experience to real estate decisions and stadium financing, you’ll have deeper control over the financial and business side of football. Sponsor goals, merchandise analytics, and team brand reputation now play a direct role in your success. New cutscenes and media pressure moments give you that “NFL owner under fire” feeling.

10. Crossplay and Online Franchise Upgrades Finally, online franchise players are being rewarded in Madden 26. Crossplay support across platforms (PlayStation, Xbox, PC) allows more flexibility for league commissioners and friends. Cloud franchise saves now offer better rollback protection, injury history, and commissioner tools such as force wins, rule enforcement, and live scheduling. It’s the best time ever to join or start an online dynasty.

Final Thoughts With Madden 26, EA Sports has shown a serious commitment to reviving the golden age of Franchise Mode. Nearly every system has been either expanded or rebuilt from the ground up. The addition of narrative-driven careers, smarter AI, and deeper customization options should restore faith in one of the most beloved modes in Madden history.

Whether you’re building through the draft, signing marquee free agents, or cheapest Madden 26 coins chasing that elusive undefeated season, Madden 26 Franchise Mode gives you the depth and drama that true football fans crave. From game day to the front office, this year’s iteration feels like the most complete football management simulation in over a decade.

For those who’ve been begging for Franchise Mode love — your time has finally arrived.

[davepatell96]

Top 20 Marketing Agencies in Australia: Who’s Dominating 2025?

In a digital-first world where every click counts, partnering with the right marketing agency can be the game-changer your business needs. As we step into 2025, Australia's marketing landscape is buzzing with innovation, creativity, and results-driven strategies. Whether you're a startup aiming to make your mark or an established brand looking to scale, these agencies are leading the charge. Here's a curated list of the TOP 20 marketing agency in Australia that are setting the standard this year.

Here’s who’s killing it 👇

1. Red Sparrow Digital 🕊️

📍 Bangladesh & Australia | 💰 < $10/hr | 🧠 21–50 Members Red Sparrow is a 360° digital marketing agency offering everything from SEO to video production, media buying, and PR. Based in both Bangladesh and Australia, they bring an international flavor with local results.

🛠️ Specialties: Social Media Marketing, Google Ads, Web & SEO ✨ Vibe: Bold, fast-moving, full-service

2. Earned Media 🔍

📍 Barangaroo, Australia | 💰 $150–$199/hr | 👥 2–10 Members Led by SEO veteran Nick Brogden, Earned Media is all about fast, effective organic marketing. They're keyword-obsessed (in the best way), and their results show it.

🛠️ Specialty: SEO ✨ Vibe: Sharp, data-driven, SEO purist

3. The Quantified Web 📊

📍 Adelaide, Australia | 💰 $50–$99/hr | 👥 2–10 Members If your business is all about selling and scaling, these ROI-focused PPC pros have you covered. High-converting Google Ads are their bread and butter.

🛠️ Specialty: Google Ads / PPC ✨ Vibe: ROI or die, ecommerce growth-focused

4. MediaCast 📣

📍 Eight Mile Plains, Australia | 💰 $200–$300/hr | 👥 2–10 Members This boutique PR agency turned award-winning comms powerhouse is known for bold ideas, thoughtful strategy, and no-fluff storytelling.

🛠️ Specialty: Public Relations ✨ Vibe: Boutique creativity meets enterprise strategy

5. DAIS 🧠

📍 Fortitude Valley, Australia | 💰 $200–$300/hr | 👥 21–50 Members With roots going back to 1989, DAIS has helped shape national and global brands through killer brand strategy, web design, and creative direction.

🛠️ Specialties: Branding, Digital Strategy, Web ✨ Vibe: Classic strategy meets modern storytelling

6. CUT THRU ✂️

📍 Sydney, Australia | 💰 $50–$99/hr | 👥 2–10 Members This isn't your average branding agency. CUT THRU focuses on messaging that drives conversion — because pretty without performance is just… meh.

🛠️ Specialties: eCommerce Dev, Branding, Web ✨ Vibe: Edgy, smart, conversion-obsessed

7. Supple Digital 🌐

📍 Richmond, Australia | 💰 < $5,000/project | 👥 51–100 Members Supple is an award-winning agency offering top-tier SEO, PPC, and social media services at scale. Perfect for businesses ready to grow, fast.

🛠️ Specialties: SEO, Google Ads, Retargeting ✨ Vibe: Scalable, efficient, results-focused

8. Believe Advertising & PR 💼

📍 Bondi Junction, Australia | 💰 $5,000–$10,000/project | 👥 2–10 Members Helping everyone from entrepreneurs to ASX-listed giants get into global media. If you need coverage that converts, they’ve got the plug.

🛠️ Specialties: PR, Advertising ✨ Vibe: Confident, media-savvy, trusted

9. Sixgun 🎯

📍 Melbourne, Australia | 💰 Mid-tier pricing | 👥 11–50 Members SEO, SEM, and conversion rate optimization experts. They’re analytical, creative, and super customer-focused. Big brain energy.

🛠️ Specialties: SEO, SEM, CRO ✨ Vibe: Clean, data-first, very "Melbourne tech"

10. Anchor Digital ⚓

📍 Brisbane, Australia | 💰 Affordable & flexible | 👥 15–20 Members A full-service agency with a down-to-earth team and serious chops in digital design, content, and paid strategy.

🛠️ Specialties: Content Marketing, SEO, UX ✨ Vibe: Creative, calm, conversion-conscious

11. GMS Media Group 🎥

📍 Sydney & Remote | 💰 Flexible budgets | 👥 Boutique team Experts in video production, creative content, and campaign storytelling. Great for brands who want to look as good as they perform.

🛠️ Specialties: Video Marketing, Social Ads ✨ Vibe: Visually stunning, emotionally smart

12. Digital Nomads HQ 🌍

📍 Sunshine Coast, Australia | 💰 Mid-tier | 👥 Remote-savvy team These nomads build strategies that travel — meaning, they work across platforms and continents. They’ve got deep SEO and PPC expertise, plus a killer creative streak.

🛠️ Specialties: SEO, Paid Ads, Creative Strategy ✨ Vibe: Adventurous, adaptable, insight-driven

13. SAVV Digital 🚀

📍 Sydney, Australia | 💰 Project-based | 👥 10–20 Members From AI-driven campaigns to smart CRM integrations, SAVV blends marketing strategy with real tech knowledge. Think next-gen marketing.

🛠️ Specialties: Email Automation, Paid Social, Web ✨ Vibe: Tech-forward, innovation-focused

14. Shout Digital 📢

📍 Melbourne, Australia | 💰 Growth-stage pricing | 👥 25+ Members Results-driven digital with a no-nonsense, “let’s make this work” attitude. These folks are serious about your ROI.

🛠️ Specialties: SEO, Paid Media, Funnels ✨ Vibe: Loud, clear, and focused on the bottom line

15. Emote Digital ❤️

📍 Melbourne, Australia | 💰 Premium-tier | 👥 50+ Team Beautiful branding meets high-performance media buying. They're ideal for ambitious eCommerce and luxury brands ready to level up.

🛠️ Specialties: Branding, Paid Ads, eCommerce ✨ Vibe: Polished, powerful, premium

16. Bright Owl Marketing 🦉

📍 Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane | 💰 SMB-friendly pricing | 👥 Flexible team size Perfect for small to mid-sized businesses looking for real growth without agency bloat. Strategy + execution without the jargon.

🛠️ Specialties: Strategy, Branding, SEO ✨ Vibe: Friendly, flexible, focused

17. Dilate Digital 💡

📍 Perth, Australia | 💰 Mid-high budget | 👥 30+ Experts One of WA’s top digital teams — known for design-forward campaigns and relentless performance. Their track record is 💯.

🛠️ Specialties: SEO, Paid Media, Web ✨ Vibe: Strategic, local, loyal

18. Roosearch 🔍

📍 Sydney, Australia | 💰 Affordable | 👥 Small team Hyper-focused on helping small businesses grow through local SEO and budget-friendly content marketing.

🛠️ Specialties: Local SEO, Content ✨ Vibe: Community-minded, helpful, honest

19. Uplers 🌎

📍 Global & Remote (Australia-supported) | 💰 Scalable pricing | 👥 Huge team Uplers is a powerhouse outsourcing solution for agencies and brands. If you need extra hands or full-service delivery, they plug in fast.

🛠️ Specialties: Development, Email, Performance ✨ Vibe: Fast, flexible, global muscle

20. AndMine 🧬

📍 Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane | 💰 Project or retainer-based | 👥 Full-service crew A full-stack digital agency offering everything from SEO to app development. Perfect if you want one partner to cover everything.

Final Thoughts

Choosing the right marketing agency is crucial for your business's success in 2025. The agencies listed above have demonstrated exceptional expertise, innovative strategies, and a commitment to delivering measurable results. Whether you're looking to enhance your SEO, optimize conversions, or scale your eCommerce operations, these agencies are equipped to help you achieve your goals. Partnering with one of these top agencies can provide the expertise and support needed to navigate the competitive digital landscape and drive your business forward

[consultantdipak]

A sweet interaction on the knitting Reddit

[mayhemproduces]

A sight we haven’t been privy to seeing in MPW as of late, we’re actually starting the show with the self-proclaimed Deathmatch King, Matt Cardona here tonight! Cardona, dressed in a suit and tie tonight, with his arm in a sling, and his neck in a brace, slowly makes his way out to ringside here. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Matt Cardona in MPW regularly due to injury, but we had thought he’d been healed up by the time Mystery Vortex came around, apparently something went wrong in that match with Sam Holloway & Microman, who we’ll see later on tonight challenge The Fallen for the MPW World Tag Team titles.

Cardona gets into the ring and is handed a microphone from Steve Guy, as he waits for the crowd to quiet down so that he can speak.

“A couple weeks ago… here in this very ring, once again, I, Matt Cardona, put my body on the line for you people, who don’t deserve it, and don’t respect me for it. But unlike all those other times, this time, I had no choice in the matter. At Mystery Vortex, I was tricked. I was forced into the ring before I was ready, forced to work with a dangerous, unsafe maniac of a worker like Microman… and I paid the ultimate price for it. Once again, I have torn my pectoral muscle. Once again, I’m forced to go back on the shelf, and once again, I am unable to provide for my family, because of the selfish actions of Paul Heyman, and everyone else here in MPW…”

Well that still doesn’t explain the neck brace…

“But this time! Oh, this time, I came prepared. This time, I hired legal representation, to make sure that I’m compensated what I am owed from MPW. And Paul Heyman realized that if this suit was to go to trial, he’d go broke and MPW would go under… now I’m a reasonable man. I would not deprive Paul Heyman and everyone in the back of their livelyhood, the same way they have done to me. No… so, we settled out of court. And I told Paul he could keep his money. I wanted just one thing…”

“And since I can’t wrestle… You are now looking at the active, operating General Manager of Mayhem Pro Wrestling!”

What?! What the hell?! We don’t even have a general manager?!

“And as the active general manager, I will do my best to lead this company, and make sure everyone in the back is putting their best foot forward as company representatives, and role models for the youth. And with that, I’m proud to announce, my very first decree as MPW General Manager… for both fans and active MPW Talent, smoking Marijuana at an MPW show is strictly prohibited.”

WHAT?! Cardona’s trying to get the pot out of MPW?! Has he ever BEEN here before?

“Winners don’t do drugs, and you should all want better for yourselves!” Is Cardona’s response to the boos from the crowd. “I can smell that a lot of you out there either haven’t showered, or are in violation of this policy, but I am not a cruel man. There will be a one week grace period of the fans of MPW to clean up their act, but starting next week, ABSOLUTELY NO Marijuana here in MPW. You may all be mad now, but you will thank me in the long run. If you just stop smoking the Devil’s lettuce for even one week, I believe each and every fan that comes to MPW CAN get a job, and CAN move out of their parent’s basement. I’m here to make MPW a better place for ALL, including you people, because even if you don’t care, your new GM does! Now let’s have a great show tonight!”

With that, Cardona hands the mic back to Steve Guy and leaves, but we’re all still in shock here.

Matt Cardona is the MPW General Manager?!

[esoutherngolf]

Martin Hall Celebrates 400th “School of Golf” Episode

The Club at Ibis Director of Golf Instruction Martin Hall Celebrates 400th “School of Golf” Episode When Golf Channel hired Martin Hall in 2011 to essentially become America’s Instructor, he didn’t think it would be a long-term gig. Eight shows, perhaps. A second season unlikely. Instead, Hall hit TV golf’s version of the flyer. The Director of Golf Instruction at The Club at Ibis recently hosted his 400th episode of “School of Golf,” making it the longest-running instruction show in TV history. “It’s staggering … mind-blowing … remarkable, really,” Hall said recently at his daytime home on the back of Ibis’ range. “It’s hard to believe we have done 400 shows.” That’s a longer run than some of the greatest shows in TV history, such as Cheers (273) and Seinfeld (180). Hall has produced his share of laughs with his upbeat personality. The 67-year-old Martin admits he wasn’t keen on the idea when originally asked to audition for the role. He thought he was too old to appear on live TV every week. But Hall soon realized he didn’t have to change his style. He just needed to teach in the same manner he’s done since he quit playing on the European PGA Tour in 1977. “I decided when I started doing this that the Martin Hall you will see on “School of Golf” is the Martin Hall you will meet on the range at The Club at Ibis,” Hall said. “I teach the same way on TV as I do in person.” It’s not an easy job trying to teach someone the incredibly difficult task of hitting a golf ball correctly. It’s more difficult trying to teach through a camera. But when Golf Channel moved Hall’s show this year from linear (TV) to digital (GolfPass app), golfers can hear Hall’s words of wisdom halfway across the globe. “I must say I like being on digital better,” Hall said. “I can go longer than 21 minutes (during a 30-minute show) and my producer will allow me to go on rants. But what’s best is you can see me from anywhere, anytime, across the globe on GolfPass.” Hall once counted that he has either played golf with, given lessons to or done TV alongside 47 different major champions. Plus, he worked with teaching legends such as Boca Raton resident Bob Toski, John Jacobs, Peter Kostis and Jim Flick. The wisdom they have given me is something I can pass on to the next generation,” Hall said. “I feel a responsibility to serve as a bridge between the older teachers and the younger golfers. It’s important we preserve this golf knowledge.” Martin Hall, the Director of Golf at The Club at Ibis, with co-host Blair O'Neal celebrate the 400th episode of the "School of Golf". Hall had the credibility before stepping in front of Golf Channel’s cameras. He won the 2008 PGA Teacher of the Year and ranks 14th on Golf Digest’s Best Teachers in America ranking. He has worked with major champions Morgan Pressel, Karrie Webb, Lexi Thompson and Shaun Micheel. Hall has been teaching at Ibis since 1997 from his office at the back end of the range. Any time he invites a pro golfer for a clinic, it’s a must-see event. “Completing his 400th show is an incredible accomplishment that is indicative of his professionalism and overall knowledge of golf instruction,” said Stephen J. LoGiudice, Ibis’ GM/COO. “Martin is synonymous with golf not only at Ibis, but within the industry. “He adds credibility to our golf program and is an extraordinary asset to the membership and staff he teaches. His golf clinics have been some of our most memorable member events and we look forward to having him here for many more years." Jay Berger, Ibis’ Director of Athletics, understands Hall’s role at the high-end private club better than anyone. Berger is a former top-10 tennis player in the world who also served as coach of the U.S. Davis Cup team and the Olympics. “Martin means a great deal to Ibis in so many facets,” Berger said. “He gives massive exposure to our great club through his Golf Channel shows that I constantly watch. He participates in lectures with our members on the mental side of sports. “He has shown incredible dedication to our club and members. Besides being a top 10 coach in the world for many years, he is incredibly approachable and one of the nicest people I have met.” Hall has written all 400 shows. Asked where he gets the material, Hall smiled. It’s because he spends hours a day on the range doing what he loves. “I get them from the students I teach,” he said. “I teach every level player from people who have won major championships to absolute beginners. I get a lot of lessons from my most difficult student – that’s me! I am my most difficult student because I have all this information swirling around.” Thankfully, Hall will continue to pass on this information for years to come. And you don’t have to be a member at Ibis to listen in. “I made a promise to myself and the people that watch “School of Golf” that I will give every show 100 percent and that I’ll treat every show as if it’s my last. Every show I do is important to me, my personal Super Bowl, and I give it everything I can.”   Read the full article

[tald0z]

If you'd like me to GM a system or game of your choice, feel free to book me as the GM in a custom game request! You can book me at the link below! I'm most familiar with Genesys, Star Wars FFG, DnD 5e, Essentials20 Power Rangers, and Spooktacular, but am more than willing to learn a system to help you get the game you want!

https://startplaying.games/gm/taldoz

[disastardly]

After the defeat of Octomus, Chip Thorn tries a lot of things, and he’s pretty good at most of them. Freelance wizard, knight errant, alchemist-for-hire: you name it, he’s tried it, but the one most people don’t expect to stick is actual-play TTRPG content creation.

Given the timing of Mystic Force, he’s in a good position to get in on the ground floor and doesn’t even realize it when he starts. He just likes playing games with his friends, and records them so he can make sure he never misses anything. Putting them out as one of these new ‘podcast’ things makes sense when he’s already got all the audio and Vida offers to edit.

Of course it takes off - he’s creative, high energy, a really involved and thoughtful GM that seems to have an endless well of fantastical ideas to draw on. It’s word of mouth at first, but soon there are articles and blog posts and requests to livestream and the whole thing is spinning out of control too fast for even him to manage. That’s where Xander steps in, takes over production, and helps build an empire.

The Mystics all play, naturally; their entire first campaign is the five of them, nicknamed the Rowdy Rangers for their shenanigans at the table and an inscrutable in-joke about each multiclassing in Ranger. (Their character sheets do not reflect this and it’s a constant point of consternation among the fanbase to this day.)

They develop a bit of a retroactive fandom as their names grow; did you know Palme d’Or considered documentarian Madison Rocca also played D&D? Oh and what about her sister, 2007′s “Best New Artist” Grammy-winner Vida Rocca?

The buzz that really breaks containment stems from how Chip manages to get so many disparate, big-name folks to play at his table: pro motocross rider Dustin Brooks, director and stuntman Dax Lo, the highly entertaining and highly abrasive combo of Air Force Captain Taylor Earhardt and Silver Guardians Commander Eric Myers (they always play together), the list goes on and on. They all seem to get along like a house on fire despite having absolutely nothing in common, and Chip brings out the absolute weirdest, wildest, best in each of them, no matter how uncrackable they seem.

The fandom likes to joke that Chip is secretly a wizard (or maybe a bard) to get all these people to show up and play such incredible, heartfelt games together. A few anonymous posters online enjoy encouraging this rumor, maybe a little too much.

[consultantdipak]

Instagram: @Motliez

[kuraleaping]

You are Don Sweeney, GM of the Boston Bruin and most annoying man in the known world. You were hired to improve this team and GMing is an arduous business. You could use some help within your already signed players.

Where do you turn for it?

Patrice Bergeron

Pros:

- he is Patrice Bergeron

Cons:

- Nil

Brad Marchand

Pros:

- his really good at annoying people

Cons:

- he annoys me

Taylor Hall

Pros:

- is a Boston Bruin

Cons:

- you just traded his wife so he may not like you at the minute

Matt Grzelcyk

Pros:

- is underrated

- is so small

Cons:

- is so small

-his last name is hard to spell and the one vowel is silent

Linus Ullmark

Pros:

- future Vezina winner

Cons:

- once had a minions mask

Derek Forbort

Pros:

- Darla

- Likes laying on the floor

Cons:

- packs a lot of things on road trips

Trent Frederic

Pros:

- he will probably bite someone for you

Cons:

- once he bites once I don’t think he could stop

Charlie McAvoy

Pros:

- is a horse

Cons:

- he hasn’t been given the Norris yet

David Pastrnak

Pros:

- so Elite

Cons:

- you still haven’t paid him to hang around next year