Nathaniel Tapley
@thatnatt
Terrible news, chums. Head writer on Netflix's Bad Dinosaurs. Jokemonger for shows you hate. Maker of historical podcasts. Chief Sparkle Enthusiast at Sparklegoose!
Saw this big boy today. Also, holidays FUCK YEAH! (And crawling inside a 6,500 year old grave was pretty exciting)
This reminds me of when I used to do Ian Bowler videos, & couldn't be bothered to put on the bottom half of the suit (can you guess which ones I was semi-nude in?). If any of you go on telly after my death to give a moving tribute about how much I meant to you, please put on trousers first.
Each and every one of these men has personally arranged for the murder of tens of thousands of people. Still. Looks fun.
This is Fudge, yesterday. He just likes strokes. And doesn't like it when strikes stop.
Okay, I just realised that Alexander Skarsgard was one of Derek Zoolander's housemates who dies in a freak petrol-fight accident.
"Hey, what's that middle-aged comedian who spent his whole career making fun of politicians up to now?...oh."
Found them! And Equity, so that's all my union bases covered... #togetheralliance
Okay, I found BECTU. The Writers' Guild must be around here somewhere... #togetheralliance
Fuck you, Google Photos. Fuck you a billion. Fuck your machine-synthesised simulacra of emotions, designed only to make me engage with your app. Machines can't experience time. I am ACTUALLY 20 years closer to death. Fuck you into outer space.
Dear Select magazine from 1993, The Future here, and I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you...
Okay, rail replacement bus from Snowdonia to Edinburgh. Do your worst! (Please do not do your worst)
"What shall we call our in-wash scent booster?" "Well, nothing says long-lasting freshness like Frank Wedekind's late-19th century psychosexual meditation on suicide, child abuse, repression, and death!"
PHWOAR! Look at how beautiful this is. Look at how beautiful the things we used to give our children were. The care put into every disposable object. Smallfilms. Orson Welles as Omicron. Willo The Wisp. Oink! was a satirical comic for kids, with puppets made by Fluck and Law.
Yep. Yep, that's pretty much the only stuff World War I is known for...
25 - HANSA TEUTONICA (Pegasus Spiele) - My favourite game of all time. An aggressively beige battle over trade routes in mediaeval MittelEurope. It's so simple, so mean, and so satisfying at every turn. And when you get good at it you can swap in the British map that's even nastier. So Hanseatic!
24 - JOHN COMPANY (Wehrelegig Games) - A monster. A beautiful, slavering, satirical monster that takes on the operation of the East India Company. You'll need a bunch of friends who won't mind simulating the brutalisation of a continent for self-enrichment and shouting at each other. Spectacular.
23 - PAOLO MORI'S BLITZKRIEG! WORLD WAR II IN 20 MINUTES (PSC Games) - This was my favourite little war in a box game until General Orders came along. Tugs of war in every theatre, and all you can do is pull mysterious things from your bag, and decide where they will be most useful. War with no map!
22 - IMPERIAL SETTLERS (Portal Games) - It's fallen out of favour a bit - after all the title does lean a bit on IMPERIAL. But it's still a fun game of building your unique civilisation (Romans, Egyptians, Atlanteans... oh), and watching buildings pop up and turns expand. I sold this and I regret it
21 - THE KING'S DILEMMA (Horrible Guild) - This is another game about the practice of history rather than a period. Set in a fantastical kingdom, you become all of the members of a wealthy dynasty trying to control the kingdom and write its history. You sign stickers & attach them to the board! FUN!
20 - RA (25th Century Games) - Is this just Egyptian set dressing on an otherwise abstract auction game? (Quiet, you, or I'll add Huang to the list) Collect tiles, hope the Nile floods, build pyramids. And what Egyptian set dressing! Wield an enormous piece of wood and shout I NVOKE RA! Chonky.
19 - LEWIS & CLARK (Ludonaute) - This one's for me. Intensely brain-burny race up a river and over some rapids THAT YOU JUST CAN'T GET OVER. Bound to cause shouts of AAUGH! as you slightly miscount the number of things you need to save to do the thing you want to do. It's a hateful game that I love
18 - FREEDOM (Academy Games) - A co-operative game where you become someone involved in the Underground Railroad, trying to help enslaved people escape to Canada. Packed with information and difficult decisions, it's a thoughtful work that raises questions about what we can and should gamify.