Brooks Barber

They definitely sell filler foam like this. You could buy it bigger and cut it down to size with an xacto knife or similar

YouTube video by Geoffrey Engelstein Lizzie Component Creation

I've been working on a free, open source (FOSS) virtual tabletop program aimed at designers (using Godot). Over the last few months I've been focusing on component creation.

I'm looking for feedback and collaborators - please consider joining the team!

youtu.be/f3gy7jlzHdk?...

This is GREAT news! Leder made the right choice here. Happy for Liz, Leder Games, and all the people who will get awesome games out of this.

I agree with his pushing back, not that mass is worse by being simpler.

Based on the context of his historical posts, I think Eric is pushing back against the opposite idea, that mass market games are not as good as "true" hobby games because they are simpler. Which I agree with. But the truth is every type of game has an audience, and pushing extremes is a trap.

Basically, players want the complexity of a game to be worth it. They want to be pulled along by the strength of a game's narrative arc as much as by its mechanical arc. This is true across historical and euro games both.

Games like John Company and Molly House have clear narrative structures and pointed arguments. Games like Nucleum and Ark Nova do not. But something like Hansa Teutonica or Nemesis or Spirit Island, while complex, still roots itself in a story players can latch onto.

My hypothesis here is that the real culprit in turning people off from complex games is the lack of reasonable narrative framing for those games. Historical games offer compelling stories, and well-designed games cement themselves in their narratives.

Cole makes a very important point. My only addition here would be that I personally believe what turns people off about the traditionally complex Euro-style games I think Eric is referencing here is not the complexity itself but the lack of connection players feel. Mini 🧵

Dan is making some of the most interesting games in the hobby. You should check this one out!

Very cool!

Looks like something out of Star Wars

I usually make lists in tiers based on what I perceive as fit and my preference, then I’ll just send pitches by tier. A tier could be 3 or 25 publishers.

Whoa, congrats!!

Thanks!!!

Exactly. The fact that he thinks he is doing the right thing doesn't have any bearing whatsoever on whether or not THEY are doing the right thing...

Thanks Zach! Looking forward to playing some games in person

Thank you!!

Thanks Taylor! I’ll surely miss your games and company at San Diego!

Thanks!!

Thanks! I appreciate that. Hoping to still make it to circle dc for one last stateside hoorah!

Never Phil!

Let’s get it going!

Thanks Alyssa!

Big personal update! My little family is going on a massive adventure and relocating to the Netherlands soon. We’re leaving in April or May, and we couldn’t be more excited! There’s a lot to do in a short time, but we wanna gtfoh, ya know?

There’s related professional news, but that’ll come later 😉

Yeahhhhhhhh hobbies will do that!!

We are calling for an immediate stop to all purchases from Upper Deck.

Their total lack of communication is distressing—so we call upon everyone to help us escalate.

No purchases from Upper Deck. No media coverage or posts of their games.

Upper Deck will only respond when it hurts their wallets.

Can destroyed influence ever return? What about spent influence?

In my opinion, despite these feeling mechanically similar, the narrative difference is clear and justifies the difference in terminology.

Any engagement with AI is a tacit endorsement of its value. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t profiting off the images it creates. You’re enriching the companies built on theft and incentivizing them to do it more.

A reminder that anything HP related puts money in the pockets of a billionaire actively working to eradicate trans people from existence. Your money will go straight toward funding bigotry and hate. Please make your voice heard.