Drafted #PokemonTCG cubes and played PokeCatch this morning with the LGS friends. Did a Pontoon Draft of my Pick 2 cube. It was surprisingly good. I have new ideas for making the packs to support smaller pods having hotter lines. #Cube is Life!

🌧️ Rain Dance was one of my favorite early decks. 💧 Load up with Water energy, draw like crazy, and just unleash. 💙 It made me feel smart like I wasn’t just playing, I was building something. The art? Meh. But the memory? Undeniable.

That’s near me! Maybe it’s time to sleeve-up? I’d certainly scrub-out for on small, dumb mistakes, but I could also bring other formats for pick-up games! Anyone interested in Pokemon Cube? PokeCatch? Anyone doing a Narode table? Gym Leader Challenge? What if I brought Safari Game?!

I’m gearing up for Safari Game progress, now that my MTG schedule is regulated. I have a @pendragonmtg.com game tomorrow 2pm, but the rest of the weekend will be spent catching up on all my other responsibilities, getting my desks cleared and sorted, so I will be less distraction-prone.

Back home from #MCAtlanta. Great weekend of #PendragonMtG games & cutting promos for @innersleeves.bsky.social. Met cool people, I’ll do a small 🧵 here later this week. I’ll be starting a big 🧵 on my main, @renothevast.bsky.social, today. Moving Safari Game to a front-burner for a few months!

PIka Pika!

Do you have an idea for a game or alternative format that doesn’t exist? You should try it. It might slap. I know a someone who did, and it was not that long ago that they went from less than 100 people in their discord to this:

Game night turned into paint night. I’m pretty happy with Umbreon using Moonbeam to aura farm.

He’s such a comfy sleaze. ‘Laxing to the max.

I don’t have any answers that cut to the core of this problem. As players, I know we’re outnumbered by collector-scalpers, there isn’t much we can do about this. What we can do is apply wallet pressure. What we can do is create new formats that don’t use standard playables or chases, just bulks.

Your daily itinerary for Safari Zone Adventures just dropped. I’m heading to bed, but only to rest-up for more work on this project. Making a sixth Safari Action is easy, but making it fun and a valuable addition to the game could force it out of the game as fast as I add it.

Working through solid feedback from that last session. -Taking dice out of non-catch Actions. -No D4 in catching dice, use standard d10-60 dmg dice. -Print Abilities on Ball Cards, Nug, Dex, Ctchr, Acro, Treks, and Berries. -Explore and Study changes to differentiate them better. -More Throwing!!

They got through a whole day in the Safari Zone! Soooo much work to do with the feedback I’ve gotten, but it was feeling like a real game! #GameDev needs testers. Your work is appreciated!

You’ve never thrown a Poké ball?! It’s a whole new way to play #PokemonTCG! You and three friends become rival trainers, battling, studying, exploring, and shopping in the Safari Zone while CATCHING new WILD Pokemon cards to immediately use while you play. Welcome to Safari Game Adventures!

Great balls are supposed to catch 1.5 times better than Pokeballs, and Ultra ball needs to be 2x better than Pokeball. Achieving this approximately probability scale with only D6’s is possible. Pokeball = 1D6 Great = 2D6+2, drop lowest Ultra = 3D6, drop lowest Special = 2D6, earn +1D6 Avgs:

Taking the D4 out of the game so that the 10-60 damage counters can be used as catching dice. This feels like a good accessibility change that simplifies knowing if you made a catch. It’s a wide probability spread between Poke, Great, and Ultra at 1, 2, and 3D6… this needs more thought.

Tomorrow at 10am, I’ll be at The Collective in Altamonte to discuss and play some alternative #PokemonTCG formats! I’ll have Safari Zone Adventures with me, of course. I’ll also have with me the Tag-Team Duel Decks, their 3v1 boss deck, PokéCatch, and the Blue Version side of the pack draft cube!

We just drafted #PokemonTCG! Very cool format. Each player picked a theme pack of 45 cards, they shuffled them all together and re-separated them into 3 packs of 15. Each theme pack has a roughly equal representation of evo and V Pokémon. Players constructed 40 card decks, four prizes at stake.

“I see you in the LGS discord working on getting Pokemon cubes together. When are you going to so a demo of yours?” - LGS Games Manager I’m hyped, to say the least! Want to help test and refine the rules for the Safari Game? Very cool! I want you!

A new way to play the #PokemonTCG is out. Want to find out about it? Join our discord to help us explore a new way to play! Build-as-you-go by catching with three friends on a Pokemon Safari! We’re looking for Adventurers and recruiting Wardens. Read our primer and become eligible to play test!

I’m getting very anxious about the lack of work I’ve put into this project. Yes, life has been very complicated as compared to how things were when I started. I have plenty of valid excuses, but I can do a little better. Catching Pokemon with friends/rivals on Safari sounds too fun to not do.

I hope y’all didn’t think this project was fading away. I’m just getting energized!

I feel like I could rep a little harder for this discord. The rules primer is out! If you love #PokemonTCG, but wish there was a real multiplayer strategy game for it, I need you to come by and check out the primer. I’m looking for people that want to help make this idea into a real format & game.

Congratulations to @officergranite.bsky.social on his well-deserved, Fan-Favorite Cosplay award at Iron City Comic Con for his Animatronic Pidgeotto!

I’m pretty stoked about getting the Discord and Primer up when I said I would. Feedback is super-important to me, and will shape the game. I’m calling it an alpha release, because I expect things to change and improve before you start sleeving-up a cube-like number of cards and test the game!

I just launched a Discord for this game, and it has the Alpha version of the Rules Primer! Reply to get a DM with the server link! If you have expressed interest before today, you are getting a DM automatically, or an E-mail if that’s how you contacted me.

I’m almost out of rehab, and looking forward to getting this Safari Fast-tram back on rails! Look for me in the coming weeks for the open beta release of Safari Zone Adventures!

I just sent an advance copy of the full rules and primer to the Safari Game to Senator Cory Booker’s office just in case he’s about to run out of material. Finally, looks like we can put a strike through Strom Thurmond’s record, and his bigoted and racist legacy.

Woke up to ANOTHER FLYER RESPONSE!?!?!? I have left that flyer up next to a massive stack of unsorted Pokémon bulk for well over a year now and never got hit. There is restlessness in the Pokémon TCG community. We yearn for a cool multiplayer format that isn’t expensive or commander clone!

I’ve been reworking the primer to be easier to follow. I’m sure I coulda just proofread it and dropped a link. That’s not how I do. You give me 4 hours to axe down a tree, I’ll use the first 3 hours to hone that edge. That said, I’m in that fourth hour and there’s patient, interested people.

Welp. I guess I have zero excuses for my rules primer to be further delayed. This is your golden opportunity to talk with me. I literally have nothing else to do and CAN’T run away. SAFARI GAME AMA THIS WEEKEND STARTING NAO!

I know it says in my profile that my main account is @renothevast.bsky.social and that profile clearly says I am the host of Innersleeves. BUT LET ME BE CLEAR This is me! I’ll be live at 9:30pm est! I’ll be working on the Safari Game primer, so AMA on that!

I just got a hit on one of my rip-tag flyers! Someone fired up an email machine to hand-craft a few packets of genuine interest and support. I’m stoked. It is a small but potent kindness to show interest and support for new and strange ideas.

I’ve been waiting a long time to make this announcement, and it feels great: I’m headed up to the LGS to demo Safari Zone Adventures! They’ll be some of the first people to read the rules primer and give me game-shaping feedback that aren’t friends or relatives! I’m so nervous excited & anxious!

Up super dumb late but I’ve got a primer for the game, WITH board state pics. I won’t make you beg for a link if you want to read, but I’m not posting it publicly just yet. I’m sure it needs more justice than 4am brain can do it. Still, dm me if you want the sneak preview and I’ll link you to it!

I’ve got a real play test coming up Saturday morning ! At an LGS! With real people I don’t know! I’ve got to get these helper cards, proofread and glued together tonight for a dissection by close friends tomorrow. Then, I probably redo them all for Saturday with the feedback…😥😁 Real #gamedev sh*t

Real life has been a little crazy, which is why the announcements for this week haven’t been plentiful. Still, we are on for ‘casting in 12 hours! Server link is below, and if you can read this, you are welcome to groove with us for a single album or all night long!

To design games, your brain must work a bit differently. To create worlds, your brain must work a bit differently. To create stories and adventures, your brain must work a bit differently. You can only be so different. Get help in your #ttrpg creations when needed. Have a great gaming weekend!

Mtg has two-headed dragon and emperor formats. Pokemon has? Max Raid? This is what I mean about wide open design spaces. We should have doubles fights, or team battles, officially. Anyone doing these kinds of micro-formats needs to report them to me for analysis and accolades!

Yes, In spite of some mild illness creeping on me, I am ‘casting tonight at 9:30p, est. I’ve got action cards to print out and glue-up for the Safari Game, just got the red set of 24 UltraPro 15+ mini-boxes for my 16p Pack Draft Pokecube, and I need to re-evaluate the scope of the shared decks!

#PokemonTCG doesn’t have a popular multiplayer format. The Safari name is a nostalgic call-back to an iconic area in the #Gameboy games, in the red, blue and green versions that launched the franchise. I’m taking that Safari theme and catch-focused vibe, and making it into a #deck-building game.

I like games that do these things. I played in two different years-long D&D campaigns that were base-building focused. Loved Overlord, a classic Xbox game of control the bad guys and dominate the land. Sounds like fun to me, which is common goal of any game design.

Yeah, I’m live right now, the channel is wide open, and you are as welcome to talk with me about Pokemon as much as you want! If you can’t find the server address for the tall grass of my posts, I’ll link it upon request!

If you don’t know, this is my main account that I’m reposting. You probably do know I don’t just do MTG; I’m deeeep into my own PokemonTCG things. I’d love to meet you. Don’t let the radio show theme intimidate you. See you tonight?

I joined my LGS’s discord and found some people locally are making Pokemon cubes! I got to briefly meet them, and I’m welcome to bring the Safari Game! Time to tighten up on the details and plan for a Saturday Safari.

TONIGHT, in 78 minutes, we spin whole LP’s while doing #TCG hobby chores! Stop in and say hi anytime between 9:30p - 12:30a! Chill with or check-in on your host, RenoTheVast.bsky.social, in a safe space of good vibes! Thanks again to our “sponsor” discord for their hospitality! @pendragonmtg.com

YAAASSSSS

@officergranite.bsky.social I’m so glad to see you are on here! I happened upon your work via Reddit, had to find you. I adore the animatronics work, bringing Pokemon to life! Also, I LOVE your cosplay! I’ve got a similar costume for playing the TCG in, themed to match my Safari Zone variant game.