Brooks Barber

All the prototypes! Or as many as possible. Your write up of fruit and chalice of poison was great!

Well you just lost a customer then!

A board game laying on a wooden coffee table, slightly askew. The cover shows a dilapidated build on in the South Bronx. In the bottom left corner is written “FALSAS PROMESAS” and in the bottom right “BROKEN PROMISES.” Across the middle of the cover is the title Cross Bronx Expressway. Cross and Expressway are in reserved black and white lettering and the word Bronx is in yellow, blue, and red graffiti style text.

As soon as I found out this game existed, I went to pre-order it. I’m fascinated by the history of urban “development” and NBS has accomplished something important and fascinating here. Can’t wait to get this one to a table soon.

I’ve never bought the “they didn’t know any better” argument. There were anti slavery conversations in Ancient Greece. People like to assume we’re more enlightened because we’re modern/postmodern/whatever, but these moral questions were asked and answered long ago.

Oh no! That’s the worst. I haven’t had this particular nightmare happen to me yet, but I’ve come close. My laptop is running on empty.

I’ve definitely lost notes and ideas though and had to reconsider things. That fresh perspective is always helpful.

I'm focusing in on Painkillers at the moment, my "feel bad game of the year" candidate about the beginning of the opioid crisis in the United States. I got some great feedback from @joedewhurst.bsky.social and @nbsp1618.bsky.social and others, which has been very helpful motivation! Thanks y'all!

Been on a bit of a game design hiatus the past 2-3 months. Life got big and needed tending. Slowly working my way back into things now, and it feels...rusty. But also a bit like getting back on a bicycle. I still love it though. 🎲✂️

Just found a review for Sykes-Picot in @senetmagazine.bsky.social! That was unexpected! Thanks to @meeplelady.bsky.social for the review.

I also think this is the right way to go. If the chart is big enough, no one will memorize it. And my philosophy is usually, "if people are playing this enough to memorize these kinds of things, that's a great problem to have." At that point could release updated alternates for variability, etc.

cross4 Game Design: Amabel HollandHex Number: 90Duration: 30 minutesPlayers: 1-4MSRP: $25.00 Amabel Holland's throwback to the classic crossword dice games of the twentieth century, cross4 is the first of th...

New game day! cross4! Buy it or else. We have not determined what 'else' is yet, but you should buy it to be safe.

A few things:

Nate has an interesting thing going on here. A unique format and approach to be sure.

Can confirm Pyrotechnics is good - check it out when you get the chance!

A lil' nugget at the end about Sykes-Picot and the possibility of serving your conscience through this game. Give a listen!

I feel this too. Why would people want to hear my perspective? It’s nothing special.

Trans people are people. What they do with their very own bodies ain't nobody's business but their own. Trans rights are human rights.

Full stop.

Games are meant to be played! And they deserve to show off the results of all that play. We owe it to them.

This is an appropriate reaction to Kirk’s assassination and legacy. He was not a paragon of civil discourse but a mouthpiece for white Christian nationalism, and all the awful bigotry that entails. He did not deserve to be murdered. Nor does he deserve to be treated like a martyr of American ideals

What a fantastic slate of nominees! Congratulations to @danthurot.bsky.social @amabel.bsky.social @charlietheel.bsky.social and @fredserval.bsky.social for facilitating meaningful discourse about the culture of historical games.

The best storytelling out there folks. Go get some!

Beans!!!

Never understood the appeal of Kerouac. Self-aggrandizing, myopic, and auto-fellatory. There are so many better things from that period with more interesting perspectives!

I’d honestly be wary of 5x at this point. Seems low and doesn’t leave a lot of room for future proofing, especially right now. Are you factoring in volume discounts or looking at small print runs only?

It’s sweeps week!!

Congrats! It looks great! Salt and Pepper will do a great job with it, I’m sure.

Great! Glad they worked out!!

The podcast Wonderful does this and it’s a breath of fresh air.

Pilot board masters. They are bold and crisp and I think they have refillable ink versions.

Congrats!

Circle DC 2026 will be held on April 10-12, 2026 here in lovely Washington, DC. The convention will be capped at 250 attendees and we have opened up badge registration this morning. tabletop.events/conventions/...

In my long ramble last night I had this thread in mind - so many great projects in the works that are pushing gaming boundaries in interesting ways, and asking different things of players than what currently dominates the market. I’m excited to see these emerge over time!

Sure but those don’t suffer from the “can they be art” conversation in the same way, largely because they are thought of as art forms that have become commodified while games are commonly considered (wrongly in my opinion) in the reverse.

I don’t have a grand point. Just these rambles about games and where we are as an industry. I hope for more weird, niche, interesting things to play. I hope to be challenged and pushed and confronted. I look forward to it.