Stared my @morecivilized.bsky.social reading and the first page does not inspire confidence.

#GameDesign 🎲✂️

Found some wise advice my library copy of The Silmarillion.

Apparently JSTOR sent out the street team to do some viral marketing

Summer preserves — dill pickles, salsa, pickled cabbage. not pictured: pickled beets, grilled jalapeño hot sauce.

Continuing in the trend of “the kid wants to play games that are beyond his ken because they look so damn cool,” we played X-Wing and started up Armada. See the kid’s additions to the family agenda whiteboard.

The good ship M&M*, our vehicle during my inaugural play of The Road That Knows Your Name. We set out to trade gold for food for our people, evaded the swamp vampires, were blessed by shapeshifting gorilla bees, and sang songs as a crew. *I was playing with my kids & we ate M&Ms after every turn.

Shout out to @spookyghostgames.bsky.social for organizing a great playtesting & networking day and thanks to Lazarus Games for hosting!

Reading about some old-school RPGs this morning and I just learned the tale of Eric and the (dread) Gazebo. Find it here: web.archive.org/web/20080804...

Saw some great @pghgraffiti.bsky.social as I stopped through town today.

The peonies don’t stop (the roses are doing OK too)

Peonies bloomed!

check this out: www.kickstarter.com/projects/for... It’s a story game about a vehicle on the road, and you use Lego (or similar) to build and modify your vehicle! This vehicle is not a result of the gameplay — my kids and I built it a few days ago—but it seems like it would fit right in.

Loving the vibe of this era of children’s fantasy book covers (the book was fun, too — see below)

gardening this morning and accidentally summoned some sort of eldritch organo-metallic horror.

Public library find! Grabbed this yesterday and am already halfway through. Riveting & important work from @letsgomathias.bsky.social

I would pop for a New Games Book inspired vibe. high contrast photos / paintings, big blocky fonts, lots of weird white space.

Love to be seen in good company! (the @akpress.org fall/winter catalog featuring Bloc by Bloc Uprising @outlandishgames.bsky.social among others)

I have accessed the forbidden website

When the topline sponsor hasn’t confirmed but you have a print deadline to meet.

Getting a little zine game ready to go -- proofing on paper before making final PDF exports for singles and spreads. Check out that incredible public domain art! publicdomainreview.org/essay/modern...

Getting ready to hit the streets later today. Thanks to @cbmilstein.bsky.social for the zines!

Got to be a student in my own class today as guest speaker @exeunt.press came by to talk about maps in games. His takeover included some really fun hands-on exercises (pictured here, including this fun little bookmark: exeuntpress.itch.io/massive-damage).

Ran @bastionland.bsky.social's "Sunrise Expansion" matrix-style game with students earlier this week. It's a fun intro to this oft-overlooked style of gaming, with lots of room for betrayals, reversals, and surprises.

Played some @outlandishgames.bsky.social Defenders of the Wild #RPG with the kids this morning. A fire-mage bear and an archer wolverine took out a slasher mech as they made their way north to protect the woodlands. (shoutout to @pandagm.com whose panda pawns served as their character minis)

Got my copy of @adambell.games's Uneasy Lies the Head the other day and am now scheming about a tripartite connected game where you build a city, populate it, then scheme in it.

Preparing to teach game economies to my Monday class! Thanks to Rio Grande for donating games to our program

Lord of the Year, here we come

Incredible sun-dried espresso at Sump in St. Louis. This kind of coffee can often get a little out of control when made as espresso, but this shot was sweet, fruity, and very clean m-finishing.