as @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social says, we are going to win.

Someone who was at my community disaster preparedness event a few months ago just asked me for the details so they can run the event with another community org that they're a part of. You really can just start doing a thing and it will gain its own momentum!

Explaining 'drafting' to somebody new in the hobby

Technologically advanced a band: Earth Wind and Induction

Great distillation of this point. Calling out fascist hypocrisy is ONLY useful if it's going to sway a fence-sitter. If you're trying to "gotcha" fascists with their own words, you are wasting your time.

Central PA board game designers! I saw this game at a local designer fair and my kids loved the idea of “sheep, but bad.” Glad to see local folks getting coverage!

Resilience playtesting in progress! #🎲✂️

Defending the Wild! @outlandishgames.bsky.social

I got to introduce my game design fundamentals students to Carcassonne this week! A classic game that demonstrates how limited choices can produce strategic depth (that green farmer put in WORK for the green player in endgame scoring).

Tubes have arrived (these are packing for the printed version of my print-and-play game, Resilience, coming to the Indie Night Market at PAX Unplugged!)

nothing we could design in board-game-mechanism vocabulary could hold a candle to the narrative capabilities of our players' imaginations. we designed the systems and the incentives, but not the stories.

TUBE

We are still soliciting corporate sponsorships to send students to PAX Unplugged — if your (likely board-game-related, but we’re not picky) company wants to sponsor travel, lodging, and a PAX badge for one of our student designers, hit me up!

Two very different games played in Tabletop Game Studio (which I co-teach with @am0.bsky.social) today. The students, most of whom are not familiar with hobby board games at all, are exploring the breadth of hobby gaming before diving in and making their own!

I have a lot of games to make, why does it take so long to make a game

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold, greater than the might of armies magnified ten-thousandfold. We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old when the union makes us strong! Happy Labor Day!

Product design brainstorm: I'm working on a game that features laminated US Letter sheets, dry erase markers, and dice. This is the deluxe version of a PNP game. What kind of box/folder/etc would you want if you were buying this game? A standard board game box that can fit it feels too big? #✂️🎲

Thanks for the kind words!

I don't remember writing this but I do stand by it.

Started off the term in my 200-level Game Design class by playing and analyzing @tributarygames.bsky.social’s King of the Castle. Students voted to play one more season rather than leave class 20 minutes early (+1 Stability 🏛️). An auspicious beginning!

RETVRN (to place-based, non-monetized, participatory, analog gaming)

Played Kingmaker today (with the excellent @exeunt.press and another local friend).

Gonna start referring to productivity software like people talk about video games. "Oh yeah Google Docs is a Cloud-bases Word-like." "Trello is a Lanestyle Jiracore Tasklike" "Only weaklings need to use a Pomodoro to get through Sheetstyle work."

Party of One is an incredible show, and if you want to dig in, some of my favorites are First Dig Two Graves (ep408), Till The Last Gasp (ep380), and I Have The High Ground (ep316). I’m realizing I maybe have a type when it comes to this show (funny yet brutal head-to-head conflict).

I’m more partial to this quote! A lesson all game designers need to learn is how to properly ~constrain~ your ideas if you have any hope for players to learn and master your systems!

Pleased to hear my namesake character, Captain Albright, get bamboozled by a shitty ensign in the game of the same name on @partyofonepodcast.bsky.social!

But many people don’t understand how that can be true. The answer: they are essentially B2B. Their main customer base is universities, and other large library systems. They don't care whether you pay the $25 article fee or not. It's a pittance to them. (PS: never pay it! Just email the authors!)

Picked this up on a lark at a thrift shop based solely on the cover and the Newberry award seal. Turns out it rules. Atmospheric YA horror set in Elizabethan England. Fair folk, dark forests, mysterious disappearances, aloof nobles, ancient ballads — this book has it all.

i am done slightly diminishing bands. we must increase bands. the mountain range goats

PAXU attendees, you can express how a well-funded public transit system made your tourist dollars more likely to come to Pennsylvania. #boardgames #🎲✂️ (shoutout to @grandrevans.bsky.social who deployed this formulation for ALA attendees)

Played some Pax Pamir with the brother-in-law.

Happy to finally see this in print!! Dr. Michael Straeubig (whom I never met prior) and I were brought together for a guided discussion by the editors on and around the topic of rules and games. The chapter is our (polished up) conversation -- definitely my favorite kind of scholarship 😊

morning’s harvest (the basil and most of the tomatoes) becoming pasta sauce.

After an amazing Gen Con release, the new expansions for Ahoy: Rivals & Renegades and Fang & Fortune are now available! Find them on our webstore, and ask for them at your Friendly Local Game Store. bit.ly/AhoyDeluxe

I’m doing victory laps in my kitchen right now!!!! 💃🏼 CGE just announced they are going to be giving away 100% of the profit from their Harry Potter game to pro-trans charities!! www.instagram.com/p/DNG48n-IVP...

The ball is in CGE's court. (also, follow @blockcollectives.bsky.social for some excellent, trans-led organizing in the board game space) (@blockcollective.bsky.social is unaffiliated but looks very cool as well)

The BGG post doesn’t mention the horrible Native representation (and honestly, a Slaver as a demonic villain is fine by me) but a commitment to change (at great cost the company) is very encouraging! Pressure campaigns work!

Thanks for the Ahoy shoutout and for stating your commitment to the ongoing actions against Microsoft and CGE!

Check out my design reflection in Gamenvironments! I wrote about Keep the Faith (coming soon from @cmichpress.bsky.social) and I end the piece with some humble suggestions for other designers who are interested in making games at the intersection of #boardgames and #RPGs. 🎲✂️

OK, I'm thinking on this more (thanks to folks who gave advice!) and here's what I'm thinking. Feel free to weigh in on whether or not this seems good, whether you'd buy, at what price, etc. The game is a real-time co-op dice rolling game with non-reusable sheets (you mark them up as you play) ...

We should have more traveling circuses tbh. More weird puppet shows. Jesters and jugglers and troubadours. Et cetera. I don’t wanna watch tv, I wanna watch some actual clowns down by the river doing their funny skits in person. We lost our way with this

Honored to be in such good company! Come find Resilience, my print and play game of community disaster preparedness, at the Indie Games Night Market! Still figuring out exactly what I'm going to be selling (Just a ruleset? A download code? Laminated game sheets) but I'll be there demoing & selling.

Back Marceline up if (when) the BGG trolls come out! CGE made a mistake, and they can listen to trans leaders like Marceline about how to make it right. But until they do, #BlacklistCGE

Read this now, read Moby Dick next, then book a trip to Mystic. You’ll regret none of it (except maybe that middle watch section of the book).

I was in Pittsburgh last month to see my friend's art opening and got to swing by this exhibition. Go check it out!

the republican party hates public goods and wants to force feed you and your family slop produced by its billionaire allies

One more boost for this! Come play a game with me (for research purposes) on Monday night! I'll have snacks! #HarrisburgPA #✂️🎲

Call Me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the board gamey part of the world.

Game 2 of Wednesday at #GenCon AHOY, What a game!! I know, we’ve played it once but we where instantly hooked. 😎 #boardgames @leder.games

(S)WAG