I do not know how to write short, it turns out. Here's nearly 5,000 words on the trick-taking games I played last weekend. www.donteatthemeeples.com/33-trick-tak...

I love a good cooperative game, and 2025 produced some great ones.

Great write up on recent trick taking and climbing games (many of which are available from newmillindustries.com)! www.donteatthemeeples.com/10-great-tri...

I wrote about some of my favorite trick-taking and climbing games from 2025. The genre remains such fertile ground for interesting ideas. www.donteatthemeeples.com/10-great-tri...

I published my annual board game gift guide earlier this week — a little later than past years, what with a new baby entering the mix. It's also far too long, but I guess that's not unusual. www.donteatthemeeples.com/a-2025-board... #boardgames

Thanks so much @matthew-montgomery.com !!! Was reading through the holiday gift guide—and I was delighted to see my game High Tide included in the “small-box games” category! 🌊🐚 www.donteatthemeeples.com/a-2025-board...

Forgot to post yesterday, so we didn’t make any headway, but I’m still collecting money for the Utah Food Bank! The good news is that you can still donate! The bad news is that I can’t promise something bad won’t happen to you if you don’t. Be warned.. www.justgiving.com/page/colin-y...

Hey, another reminder that I am raising money for the Utah Food Bank to help those in need during this government shutdown. Please donate if you are able 🙏🙏 www.justgiving.com/page/colin-y...

I don't write about my favorite games often enough, so I think I'll be starting to do that monthly. These five games sit as my favorite roll-and-write games — at least for now. #boardgames

I wrote this week about word games (and word-spelling games, more specifically), what I love about them, and what I don't love. #boardgames

I don’t really use this site much, but I wanted to share something that I wrote for @wasatchsentinel.bsky.social about some bad stuff that happened after last week’s game. www.wasatch.soccer/post/2025-09...

I wrote about one of the most interesting designers in the trick-taking and climbing scene, Taiki Shinzawa. He's got some fascinating games in his catalog, some of which I really love. www.donteatthemeeples.com/taiki-shinza... #boardgames

So, this sent me down a little bit of a rabbit hole. A lot of data parsing later, and I've whittled it down to 438. It's not definitive, but it's something. donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/understand...

So many great games — Enemy Anemone, Gachapon Trick, Greasy Spoon, Dickory all in good rotation for me right now. And there are even more too

We caught up with @mmontgomery.bsky.social of @wasatchsentinel.bsky.social to get the latest on Real Salt Lake before their match in Nashville this weekend.

Well, that #RSL match wasn't fun. www.wasatch.soccer/post/2025-02...

Back to writing about painful #RSL losses, I guess www.wasatch.soccer/post/2025-02...

A second half worth revisiting plus Eternal Decks solo. Fun.

Dropping in to share my annual board game gift guide — one of my favorite things to write, and hopefully it's a useful thing. donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/a-2024-boa... #boardgames

Anyway, since so many new folks are here, a little reintroduction. I write a newsletter about board games (donteatthemeeples.substack.com) that's sent weekly and usually is far too long. (Sorry?) I'm also the editor of Wasatch Soccer Sentinel, where we write about Real Salt Lake. (turn over)

It was so quiet here. I'll miss that, but I guess I'll always have Mastodon (to check once a week to see if there's anything new). Hmm.

Wilmot’s Warehouse is an unusual game. It looks from the outside a bit like a lightweight game that won’t engage experienced gamers. That wasn’t true: This is a highly unusual game that will get you telling the weirdest stories. donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/the-weird-... #boardgames

Polyominoes: it's not just Uwe Rosenberg (but also, he's designed so many great games with polyominoes!) #boardgames donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/11-great-p...

I played 25 different trick-taking games in one weekend and wrote a little bit about each of them. The bulk came at the inaugural TTUTCON — such a great time. I'll thread some favorites here. #boardgames

It's been a bit since I wrote about Real Salt Lake — which is too bad, really, because in 2024, it looks like they might actually be good — and the statistics are telling us how. www.wasatch.soccer/post/2024-04...

I've been playing a ton of games on BGA lately, and I've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't — at least for me. Turns out, trick-taking games, asynchronous, playing a card a day? Not ideal. (That doesn't stop me.) But abstract games, low-context games are fantastic options.

Believe it or not, MLS apparently kicks off tonight with RSL against Messi and Inter Miami. I wrote a preview of the season ahead for RSL https://www.wasatch.soccer/post/2024-02-21/276/real-salt-lake-2024-season-preview

My latest newsletter — great board games for two players. (Also, I’ve published nearly 100 issues. That’s so unreal to me.) donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/ten-great-... #boardgames

Baby update.

This kid.

my 2023 spotify wrapped: Beach House, over and over, because that’s what my baby will calm down listening to

My annual board game gift guide went out last week, and I forgot to post about it. So here you go. I'm posting about it. donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/a-2023-boa...

I love a real-time game — I couldn't fit everything I wanted to on this list, but I thought it might be worth it to keep it under 2,000 words (this time...) #boardgames

Scrabble's great, but there are some truly great word-building games out there. I wrote about seven of my favorite in my newsletter this week. #boardgames

I wrote about four games for this nascent spooky season in my newsletter this week, but it occurs to me that very few board and card games invoke fear in the the way other forms of media are capable. Intensity? Absolutely. Urgency? Yep. Fear's a tricky thing.

In this week's newsletter, I talked with one of the hosts of the Trick Talkers podcast, Ryan, about imported trick-taking games, TRICKTALKERs, and much more: donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/the-rise-o... #boardgames

I wrote about some of my favorite games to replace Monopoly in your game library, with a particular focus on auctions and negotiations. #boardgames donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/seven-game...

@mattthr.bsky.social hi, quite liked your Knizia profile in Senet issue 12!

The latest edition of Don't Eat the Meeples went out to readers this morning. It's an interview with @peterlmcpherson.bsky.social, designer of the lovely tile-layer Fit to Print. We talked about a variety of topics — from how theme influenced mechanics in his design to "fake stress." #boardgames

Had a great time playing a few games of Sail last night. Nice two-player cooperative trick-taking. I did have to hold the cards for this kid, though …. #boardgames

I wrote about some of my favorite board games from 2018, which saw some extremely good games released. Hard to find a more impactful year. donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/16-great-g... #boardgames

this kid’s not a very good editor yet, but he’s definitely trying

I wrote about why it's so fun finding the little niches in my hobbies through the lens of board games — small-run trick-taking games, Japanese dexterity games, that sort of thing — and why it's been such an engaging thing. Plus, I recommend four great Japanese-published games. #boardgames

Five games for your Friday: a quick thread. - Fit to Print, designed by @peterlmcpherson.bsky.social, is a fast-paced game of newspaper layout. Fun and a little frenetic. I'm real bad at planning, too! (My college newspaper advisor is shaking his head at this, I'm sure.) #boardgames

I wrote about games that provide a nice replacement for Risk — mechanically, thematically, conceptually. #boardgames donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/seven-game...

Here's my IGN review of this year's Spiel des Jahres winner Dorfromantik: the Board Game https://www.ign.com/articles/dorfromantik-the-board-game-review

cute baby alert

Wrote this week about my strategies for teaching board games and why I don't just put on a rules explanation video https://donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/nine-tips-for-teaching-board-games #boardgames

Wrote this week about why I don't mind being bad at board games. Got a little sappy. whoops https://donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/its-fun-being-bad-at-games #boardgames