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After 10 years I got a board game piece removed from my ear.

So many questions…

“After 10 years I got a board game piece removed from my ear.”

Lizzie: Templating Dice YouTube video by Geoffrey Engelstein

Update on Lizzie Studio, the upcoming free open source virtual tabletop tool for designers.

You can now create dice templates and dynamically generate dice based on a spreadsheet! Great for games with different dice types like Quarriors.

youtu.be/ruOhhbZh9fg?...

Enjoy!

Team in Poland made a prototype of a deck of cards made with e-ink displays. Pretty neat!

What creative stuff could a designer do with this? E-ink only uses power when the image changes.

dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

Feeling grumpy this morning.

What’s your least favorite post structure?

I’ll start - I hate “I’ll start” posts. If you want to say something, just say it, and own that you want to say it. I never find them genuine.

A picture of the covers for three games (Compania, Break Out Arkham Asylum, and Flip 7 With a Vengeance) and at the top the title of the show is “Rolling Dice & Taking Names Episode 374: Kung Fu Fighting”. At the bottom the Sponsors are listed as Miniature Market and Portal Games.

The most recent rolldicetakenames.com podcast talks about DC Breakout: Arkham Asylum and the fun they had rolling, moving and racing! Enjoy listening to what they had to say in Episode 374: rolldicetakenames.com/episode374/

DC Breakout Arkham Asylum Review YouTube video by How Lou Sees It

DC Breakout Arkham Asylum Video Review
youtu.be/I3nJdKHd71M
Can anything really be more magical, athletic, or fun than pairs of iconic Batman villains teaming up to see who can escape the asylum first?! Check out this amazing new game from @wizkidsgames.bsky.social and @gengelstein.bsky.social

Always does.

Why has nobody from the game industry protested the imprisonment of this brave and innovative game designer

The art of game design: the spark of creation, to find play between the confines of rules and the expression of agency, to marry the beauty of systems and aesthetic expression,

The discipline of game design: fucking finish the thing

Do you have any publicly available lists? I’m in a rut.

A Quick Comparison: Magical Athlete and DC Breakout | DC Breakout: Arkham Asylum I've played Magical Athlete and DC Breakout multiple times now and would like to provide a helpful comparison. Differences: 1. Magical Athlete takes place over 4 races, while DC Breakout takes place over two races. 2. Magical Athlete gives you opportunities to earn points; whoever has the most wins

DC Breakout vs Magical Athlete

boardgamegeek.com/thread/36912...

Probably (almost certainly maybe). But it’s hard to compare knock on effects decades from now at this point.

This is possibly the worst foreign policy disaster in my lifetime. Only the post 9-11 Iraq war might compete. At least then GWB got Americans and allies on board first.

(Image from the Economist)

Mr Trump warned Iran not to charge ships for passage through the Strait of Hormuz. The president criticised the Islamic Republic for doing a “poor job” of keeping oil supplies flowing and for violating the terms of the ceasefire. Earlier Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, announced that management of the strait would enter a “new phase”.

The main things accomplished by this attack on Iran: thousands of civilians killed, and Iran is now in charge of the strait or Hormuz.

And most likely China will step in and help the non-regime-changed Iranian government rebuild.

Schoolhouse Rock! The Preamble YouTube video by Illinois Policy

This just popped up on my random music playlist, and I actually teared up.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_Nz...

Great review of DC Breakout! "I love games that surprise me - this surprised me... If you have kids, they will freaking love this... I would pull this one out over Magical Athlete"

rolldicetakenames.com/episode374/

Meeple Vacation: Waterpark Board Game Preview YouTube video by Tantrum House

Happy Tuesday everyone! We're super excited to share Tantrum House's review of Meeple Vacation: Water Park! youtu.be/-cotx89IzHI?...

Make sure to tune into their channel on April 9th to watch a play-through livestream!

I just called my (R) congressman and spoke to a staffer. Please do the same if you can.

"A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again."

If you still support Trump, you are evil. Full stop.

I don't use that term loosely. I always try to understand other viewpoints. But this is beyond the pale.

Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design: An Encyclopedia of Mechanisms… Un titre un peu long. Coucou mes p’tites patates game-designées! Bon, ça y’est, j’ai enfin « terminé » Building blocks of tabletop game design: An encyclopedia of mechanisms&#8230…

Pas seulement pour les game designers, une sorte d'incontournable, proposé par les expérimentés @gengelstein.bsky.social et Isaac Shalev. C'est particulièrement stimulant, et un peu coûteux également, mais ça vaut vraiment son pesant de cacahouètes!

patatedestenebres.wordpress.com/2026/04/07/b...

Geoff’s Law: Your game is more complicated than you think, even when you take into account Geoff’s Law.

Happy Easter.

And the final pre-wedding ‘twist’ in the office (trying to be spoiler free) came from left field and felt contrived.

Tonally it was just all over the place.

I saw it last night and was frustrated that the Emma character never advocated for herself. She had a clear story she could’ve told that first night and didn’t - from bullying to realization to catharsis to activism. It was dribbled out in service of the plot.

If you'd like to join the coding team, please reach out and I'll get you the discord link.

Lizzie Multiplayer Roundtrip YouTube video by Geoffrey Engelstein

Latest in-progress video for the open source Lizzie Studio, for designing and testing games! Multiplayer is really taking shape, and you can now change datasets, templates, and prototypes on the fly, and have them propagate during play.

🎲✂️

youtu.be/osSlUJcI4gI

Yeah, but they also said this.