Newsletter 22 - July 2026 - Better Than a Poke in the Eye

1. Editorial

It's been a busy month for us here at Better Than HQ and probably a bit quieter than normal in the world. We visited Fantasy Forest at the beginning of July where unlike previous years we just went as attendees and enjoyed the weekend. Normally we run The Portal to Discworld at the event but decided to have a fallow year this year. It was noticed by many people we spoke to that the Portal was missing. We plan to bring it back next year!

We are looking forward to seeing friends at the International Discworld Convention this upcoming weekend. We think we may be spending a lot of time in the bar with friends and if people want it I'll run a few unofficial sessions of the TTRPG game Adventures in Ankh-Morpork for anyone who wants to have a go.

Talking of the TTRPG we have been very jealous seeing some people already getting their pledges from the Kickstarter. We were really hoping that our pledge would arrive before we leave on Thursday but we've not received notification that ours is on its way yet.

I got a bit upset when I saw that non-backers could purchase copies of the rule book already while the vast majority of the backers (bankrollers if you like) still haven't had theirs yet. This is where I feel the Kickstarter model falls apart a bit.

On a personal note its all been very hard for us recently as we've been making daily visits to Rachel's mum who is receiving palliative care in a nursing home in Swansea. Its a slow and horrible process and one that Terry Pratchett tried very hard to fix by trying to change the law to allow assisted dying in the UK. Anyone that tells you that palliative care is a good alternative really needs to spend some time watching a loved one's life slowly come apart and witness the fear, and pain and confusion of not understanding why they can't just die on their own terms. We have nothing but respect for the amazing team of nurses and carers who do their best to keep their residents comfortable as possible. It is just really hard to witness and horrific for the person dying.

Hopefully at some point the assisted dying bill can be revisited. I just can't believe how cruel we are to fellow humans but how humane we are to our pets. Something feels a little off kilter to me.

If you feel different about the concept of assisted dying vs palliative care then we should open the debate. Death and dying shouldn't be a taboo topic of conversation and the sooner we have grown up conversations the sooner people can pass in peace.

Hopefully we'll be able to give you some feed back on both the TTRPG and the Discworld Convention next month.

Until then, stay safe.

Jason and Rachel