We also all knew that Dream Askew/Dream Apart is a big fucking deal, but until Austin told me what it was doing to and for its players it felt like magic.

Now it feels like something I can more easily be inspired by.

We all knew that Austin Walker was articulate, but damn, he and Sam Dunnewold uncorked it on S8 E8 of Dice Exploder talking about Dream Askew/Dream Apart.

@austinwalker.bsky.social
@diceexploder.com
@lackingceremony.bsky.social
@benjaminrosenbaum.com

A male figure in an inner tube, floating down a river. The figure has been altered. He now has a zombie's head, and his skin has been tinted green, with large, suppurating sores oozing out of his skin. Image: marsupium photography (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2.8_hours_later_-_Zombie_Apocalypse_(14315382305).jpg CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

If there's one FAQ I get Q'ed most F'ly, it's this: "How do you get so much done?" The short answer is, "I write when I'm anxious (which is how I came to write nine books during lockdown)." The long answer is more complicated.

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Austin Walker is one of the coolest people in games and I felt so joyful getting to listen to this interview, where he dug into one of my games and put it in dialogue with one of his own. ✨

Transcript: Weak, Strong, and Regular Moves (Dream Askew / Dream Apart) with Austin Walker - Dice Exploder Listen to this episode here. Austin Walker's new game Realis is on Kickstarter now, and it's been making splashes in the indie rpg scene since last year when the ashcan...

This week on Dice Exploder I've got @austinwalker.bsky.social on to talk Dream Askew / Dream Apart's weak, strong, and regular moves and how they influenced Realis. Diceless games are good! Randomness is overrated! Precise word choice is good game design!

[Wikipedia entry] List of Assassination Attempts on Presidents ------------------------------------------------- This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

A draft deck for Magic: the Gathering Online featuring golgari cards with a spider theme, relying on a Rotwidow Pack, a Webweaver Changeling, and four Twin-Silk Spiders.

cw: spiders, arachnophobia

Trophy number four in the Modern Horizons draft queue was also a very successful exposure therapy session. The next time I see a spider, instead of freaking out, maybe I'll just start thinking about recursive graveyard value engines that also stall out the board.

New favourite moment while playing magic: casting Goatnap on my own Changeling Outcast to give it haste and swing for my opponent's remaining 4 life (because Changeling Outcast is, among many things, a goat).

Also Goatnap is generally bad in this format, but with both Bogardan Dragonheart and Yawgmoth as free sac outlets with a solid payoff, they were amazing in this deck.

A magic the gathering draft deck for the Modern Horizons format, featuring rakdos good cards.

Third trophy of the Modern Horizons flashback draft that went up this week, with this utterly ludicrous deck. I started with Endling and was immediately passed Mob into Yawgmoth, got passed a Plague Engineer in pack two, and put together so many goblin and zombie sacrifice synergies. Bananas.

We've mostly developed three things in the twenty-first century: an app that erases labour, a digital wallet that evades taxes, and an algorithm that abuses your attention. But we've developed each of them over and over again.

personsonable me holding a gun to a mushroom: tell me the name of god you fungal piece of shit mushroom: can you feel your heart burning? can you feel the struggle within? the fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. you cannot kill me in a way that matters me cocking the gun, tears streaming down my face: I’M NOT FUCKING SCARED OF YOU miaislying Hey OP? What the FUCK does this mean? personsonable decay exists as an extant form of life miaislying That’s a terrifying answer, have a nice day

Don't know about Twitter, but this is my favorite Tumblr post

Judas with the ultimate forehead-slapping doofus blunder.

Ruin: An Anthology of One Shot Incursions for Trophy A collection of 20 new incursions for Trophy Gold and Trophy Dark.

We have some great #YEG representation in our TTRPG anthology, as well! Me, @orthopraxy.bsky.social, @lackingceremony.bsky.social, @premeemohamed.com are all writing for this!

Only 2 hours left to back! Don't miss out, because we aren't printing many extras!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/fir...

Super Shredder always overperforms in these decks. The fact that he triggers off your opponent's fetch lands and clue tokens, any time anything gets blinked or bounced... there are so many triggers beyond the obvious sac ones.

If your opponent cracks two clues to flip their Tamiyo, that's +3/+3.

A Vintage Cube deck for Magic: the Gathering, featuring Mardu cards including a Mox Ruby, Ajani, Goblin Bombardment, Mayhem Devil, and Forth Eorlingas!

Trophy #16 for this vintage cube run, bringing me back into the top dozen spots on the leaderboard! Rakdos Plus Ajani has been consistently fun to pilot in this cube - lots of little decision points that can make or break a game.

See, that's my assumption too! But they claim it uses a gen AI tool. But maybe that's a not-really-true marketing claim?

So, I'm opposed to the use of generative AI on an ethical and moral level. Zoom now bills their transcription features as "AI-first" and generative AI-powered. I've been asked how I feel about having transcription turned on for a hybrid-model lecture I'm giving later this week. What do I say?

Screenshot from the Atlantic covering yesterday’s protest, showing a woman dressed as lady liberty being arrested. The caption reads Etienne Laurent / AFP / Getty LAPD officers arrest a protester dressed as Lady Liberty in chains, following clashes near the Metropolitan Detention Center during the "No Kings" national day of protest in Los Angeles on March 28, 2026.

Her grin knowing how this arrest looks

(Published in The Atlantic today)

Tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 Mountain, I'm on a panel of local game designers - part of @pemetawe.bsky.social's 5 year anniversary. The panel is going to be livestreamed and recorded. I'm really excited about this opportunity to celebrate my favourite local game store! Check it out!

Are you going to PAX East?

Stop by Pandemonium Games (Booth 12109) to buy Dream Askew, Monsterhearts, Going For Broke, and more!

And visit Ludic Lemur to demo their new Monsterhearts: Welcome to Drowned Lake narrative deckbuilder videogame!

A screenshot of Magic: the Gathering showing green creatures with many counters on them.

Despite myself, I like the new green cards from the TMNT set. This is turn four after having one of my lands strip mined on turn two.

Yeah, I shoulda said! That although I couldn't make it to a meetup tonight, I *did* have a commander deck with me just in case.

Likewise!

Bishop was great! I'm glad they got out while they could.

👩🏼‍🎤 Meeting so many friendly people, including a bunch of cool indie game designers and queer games luminaries.

💰 Making enough in sales through the con's Indie Games Store to justify the trip.

📔 Bringing home a stack of strange, beautiful new games to read (I'll share the list some day soon!).

Breakout Con highlights:

🔮 A beautiful game of Dream Askew that explored whether violence and control have necessary uses within a community.

🎤 Getting to be part of two panels with brilliant collaborators and engaged audiences.

🃏 Picking apart a commander table with my beloved Ghyrson Starn.

Magic is a game where the point is to try to eliminate your opponent's lands.

The start to a Vintage Cube draft. The cards chosen so far are Strip Mine, Wasteland, Prismatic Vista, Badgermole Cub.

I used to think that the perfect start to a cube draft didn't exist.

I have nothing scheduled for my final day of Breakout Con, so please say hey if you want an extra player for a quick game or something! No guarantees I'll have the energy to say yes to any specific invite, but maybe!