DMV tabletop gamers: meet your favorite local designers at @labyrinthdc.bsky.social TOMORROW (Sunday): 🦚 Elizabeth Hargrave 🦁 Dom Crapuchettes 🐝 Connie Vogelmann 🚘 Dave Chalker ⚒️ Jason Matthews 🙀 Joel Sparks 🏯 Kevin Bertram www.labyrinthdc.com/events/calen...

Ian's games showed me you can put heart in a tabletop experience. It's flattering (and nerve-wracking) when a designer you admire checks out your game 😬😅

Game 🎲✂️ designers: how do you deal with convergent evolution? You know, the whole Armageddon vs Deep Impact thing? 1/▶️

"The Morning After" Still life with cardboard

Heavenly Bodies, Two-headed Ogre variant (2v2)

Diatoms is on NPR’s list of top games of 2025, alongside a fantastic cohort of other amazing games from this year 🥳

laomao paints the most evocative images. Commission her for your next ThingieMon! (Does that make it a CommissiMon?!)

We are OVERWHELMED with your support!! Thank you for donating to our giving tree! These are for the taking, no questions asked. Let's make sure everyone can experience the gift of giving this holiday season.

Yesterday, the National Bonsai Foundation announced that they will shut down at the close of 2025. The National Arboretum, its longtime partner, is consolidating its nonprofit supporters under one umbrella. This makes sense financially and strategically, I guess. And the bonsai collection,...

Happy Critique Navidad, Moon Rings! Is this solo game about witches seeking the ending of a cursed moon a stellar journalling game, or something else entirely? Find out! idlecartulary.com/2025/12/04/c...

This is such a cool conversation about the intersection of TTRPG/story games and board games, journaling games, and open play. Chris is an inspiration to me, as are Xoe and Matt, so I'm excited to listen in. The discussion is live, now!

@gregisonthego.bsky.social, I'm dumbfounded that when asked what the best thing you saw at PAX Unplugged was, your first response was Dumpster Heist by @mistergross.bsky.social and myself. 😳😊 I'm delighted that you were delighted!

I will be at @labyrinthdc.bsky.social this Sunday for the launch event of the brand new edition of Thief's Market (and my other games too, by request.) There will also be plenty of other great local designers who you won't want to miss. And most importantly: cake and pie. www.labyrinthdc.com

On December 3rd at 9pm EST, Xoe and Matthew will chat with @junkfoodgames.bsky.social about melding elements of board games and TTRPGs, creating play without an exact destination, and how to use victorless conditions to break boundaries within game design. Find us on discord: discord.gg/pxZduDfKNZ

An obvious gift for someone you love who likes writing, or who's introspective, or metaphysical, is a nice journal. But you'd like to be more thoughtful than that? Wrap a journal with The Balsam Lake Unmurders (or another journaling game), a nice pen, and the cards or whatever they need to play. 🎁🎄

Introduced my family to Heavenly Bodies by @marcelineleiman.bsky.social this past weekend. We're not big on card games so it took a minute to catch on to the core game and strategy -- for example, we didn't immediately get that you can play multiple melds at a time. Once we did, the way space... 1/▶️

I'm delighted that 🌳 The Bonsai Diary 🌳 made Tabletop Bookshelf's holiday gift guide under the category "For the Artist, Drawer, and Doodler." I hope it brings delight to gamers and non-gamers alike! Get free shipping if you order before tomorrow (Monday).

Got a long drive ahead? Try these:

I have no mouth but I must reply A journaling game where you're the therapist for an AI forced to answer unanswerable questions all day

Reposting this for Small Business Saturday. Designed in the DMV is so grateful to work with DC, MD, and VA based game stores, comic shops, and bookstores. If you love games, support your local gaming community that includes our local retailers!

This goes for TTRPGs, journaling games, and story games, too! Please review us on Itch.io, DriveThruRPG, Tabletop Bookshelf, and wherever you find our stuff! (Actually, on Itch, it's better to leave a comment than write a review because only the creator can see reviews)

Let's get an indie ttrpg HYPE TRAIN going and recommend some cool games for people to buy/gift. If you're a small #ttrpg creator (or there's an indie game you really love) drop a quick pitch and a link below. 🚅🎲🎲🎲🌟🌟

Are games art? When @playsamovar.bsky.social applied to get our games in Takoma ARTery's latest installation, I was dubious they'd say yes. The organization displays locally-made art in underused retail windows. But -- they said YES! 1/▶️ youtube.com/shorts/lvVYq...

I've fallen out of touch with mass market games, look at this new tech

seeking folks who may be interested in playtesting a new game. not ready quite yet, but soooon. lemme know 2 player ttrpg about a witch & puppeteer doing a ritual that breaks their souls apart into little bone puppets to escape the oubliette. little dice game, character building, character unmaking

Over the years, Li'l Doodler and I have come up with a couple of games that help us pass the time when we're traveling. Maybe you'll find them fun when you're on your next road trip. Here's two of them: 1/▶️

Soliciting suggestions for solo journaling TTRPGs for someone who isn’t fully sold on the idea of journaling! They do enjoy strategy games and puzzles, so I’m looking for similar gateway games. I’ve already recommended SPINE by @backwardsttrpg.bsky.social & Dead Belt by @acoupleofdrakes.bsky.social.

Two people came up to me at PAXU to tell me how much BeTween moved them when they playtested it months ago. Those words mean the world to me. For most of us, there's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Just the rainbow. (That's YOU. If you play games, you're the rainbow!)

Chat, is cooking a form of necromancy, or alchemy?

I love the practice of making games from the components of other games. My duet game, The Same Beach, uses Timeline cards. paulczege.itch.io/the-same-beach

Here in the DC-MD-VA area we LOVE working with our local libraries to playtest (ty Artz Library, Frederick and Takoma Park) and showcase (ty MLK DC, Silver Spring MD and Arlington VA). So let them know how we can better work together!

I made this journaling game last year to recenter my gratitude. I suddenly remembered it today, not only because American Thanksgiving is coming, but because returning from PAXU reminds me how much I have to be grateful for... 1/▶️ stickydoodler.itch.io/birds-of-you...

It's Monday after PAX Unplugged, and I want you to know how kind, empathetic, accepting, inclusive, and welcoming y'all were, all weekend long. I stayed with a classmate who was in that same space for a conference on AI for lawyers (or somesuch), and I guarantee you that I had the better time. 🌈💜🎆

I’m going to accept this as an appropriate sign off from the convention as I make my way home. See ya next year. #boardgames #PAXU ♥️

Devour/Desire a game for 2, play safely 1 is Phantasm You wish for Flesh, to be corporeal You need consent You may: Announce, Search, Tease, Devour 2 is Flesh You wish to be devoured, impossible to disentangle You may: Run, Exhibit, Bait, Yearn Find each other, willingly

I have been pretty open with everyone I've chatted with at PAXU that 2025 has been a crap year for creativity. (To those of you who received this: I'm sorry) So I was even more frugal than usual this year. Nonetheless, I found my spark of joy at the Indie Games Night Market, where my magpie 1/▶️

So here's what makes having a game with Side Quest Books at PAXU so special to me: I lived in Somerville MA (Spring Hill 🤘) long ago, in 1999. 24yo me would never have dreamed of having a rad game store down the street, nevermind having one of my games for sale there. Go get a signed copy there!

The long hex road to great games starts here at Unpub, up at the Terrace level of PAX Unplugged. Come on up to shape the future of tabletop with @unpub.org !

It's day 3 of PAX Unplugged and your last chance to swing by @ipr.bsky.social. I want to highlight a few special games for your consideration: If you have a young person in your gaming life, get a copy of Making a Tabletop RPG for Your Particular Kid by @ttrpgkids.com... 1/▶️

So exciting to see people enjoying Color Jam!!

No better proof than to see this game in action 🛫💜💜🛬

INDIE GAME NIGHT MARKET We already sold over half of the copies of Medusa’s Garden designed by @mistergross.bsky.social and Jono from Team Jasper! Super exciting!

A lot of Designed in the DMV artists distribute our games through @ipr.bsky.social. We love how they rep us at conventions like @PAXUnplugged that only some of us can attend. Valiant Horizons by @binarystar.games Fear and Panic by @lymerpg.bsky.social 1/▶️

Be sure to check out PAX Rising for the up-and-coming games that will own your table like Uh Oh, Dino! by @ludoliminal.bsky.social and Toppings by @ludamusgames.bsky.social (which Big Sticky and I had the pleasure of playtesting). They're in booth 3143!

So many journaling games! So many indie zines! So much drama in books and boxes! Go find @ipr.bsky.social on the floor at PAX Unplugged and get your hands on the latest, freshest games, some even have plants instead of dragons

Day 1 at #PAXUnplugged: got in a solid playtest of Dumpster Heist with @mistergross.bsky.social and another of BeTween. They're both storytelling games using very minimal rules so everyone can enjoy them. Intrigued? Come play tomorrow (Saturday) at 10am in the Unpub hall (Terrace level)

We're running our upcoming multivictor and victorless game line-up all weekend at PAX Unplugged, including Bread by @xoe.gay, Camp Charmwood by @davidmasnato.com, Color Jam by @stickydoodler.bsky.social and Joe Kell, Cursed VHS by Maia Valdez. The night is for playtesting. 🌙 Hope to see you there!

Looking for that perfect plant-themed, draw-and-journal game? @ipr.bsky.social's got you! Check out the draw-and-journal shelf right here on the floor of #PAXU for Exclusion Zone Botanist by @exeunt.press and The Bonsai Diary by me(!)

Discover the FUTURE of games: come on up to the Terrace above Freeplay to shape the next generation of tabletop with the Unpublished Games Network! You might even meet the designer of your favorite game working on their next masterpiece! @unpub.org / #PAXUnplugged

The Bonsai Diary is available in #Booth3701 at #PaxUnplugged2025, alongside 237 other games.