Randy Flynn 🔜 PAX Unplugged

And oddly, it's the easiest rule to forget! 😀

The how-to-play video for Cascadia: Alpine Lakes from @kovray.bsky.social is live! Learn the game in about 10 minutes and see what's similar to Cascadia and what is different.

There's just over a week until the Kickstarter campaign starts on October 14.

@flatoutgames.bsky.social

@fanfactories.bsky.social @boardgameghee.bsky.social @bethsobel.bsky.social @dylanmangini.bsky.social

The how-to-play video for Cascadia: Alpine Lakes from @kovray.bsky.social is live! Learn the game in about 10 minutes and see what's similar to Cascadia and what is different.

There's just over a week until the Kickstarter campaign starts on October 14.

@flatoutgames.bsky.social

YouTube video by kovray Cascadia: Alpine Lakes | How to Play | Learn to Play in 10 Minutes!

Cascadia: Alpine Lakes

youtu.be/M3Blt5ly4l4

A new standalone Cascadia game that takes to higher elevation! Learn to play this lovely game from @rf-seattle.bsky.social , @bethsobel.bsky.social and the lovely folks from @flatoutgames.bsky.social

The cover for Fold & Fly! printed on fancy gloss paper. It shows many paper airplane flying in a circle around the game's title in the center. In the background are many unique paper airplanes with differently colored trails of color behind them. At the bottom is a checkerboard flag waving in the wind. The cover is on a bench in a park, which green grass and a blue sky in the background. It is the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen, and if you stare at it deeply enough you feel a strange connection you've never felt before. As if it is beckoning you to come to its side, to be near to it at it's release in November of this year (2025). You find yourself in a trance - mentally craving more of it's beauty & mystique. You know deep down this is becoming a problem - you (likely) have a partner and you cannot betray their trust. Not after all you've been through. But Fold & Fly's cover, releasing in November at the Indie Game Night Market, is teasing you so. You turn away and try to go about your day - performing some busywork here and there. Start some mild innocuous conversation with a stranger, but the craving continues to burn deep inside. Like an addiction that keeps you coming back for more of its addicting addictioness. You know the game isn't available yet. It doesn't release until PAX Unplugged, located in Philadelphia. You still have plenty of time to get badges and solve travel plans - and maybe this will be what convinces you to finally make the trek. It's been on your radar but now that this game exists the convention seems tantalizing in a way no event has ever felt before. But what about your (likely) partner? You can't leave them out in the cold? It becomes obvious - blindly so! You must go to PAX U this November, attend the Indie Game Night Market and buy them a copy as well! Surely they'll love it! And not suspect you of having a para-social affair with this small print-run dexterity game. How ridiculous! How absurd! They never need to know...

This is the cover for my IGNM release - Fold & Fly! 🌈🛫

Syd Weiler did the illustrations for the game, and they totally nailed the vibe I was aiming for! Plus I am always excited to have vibrant colors accompanying my games.

Let me know what you think!

Gorgeous!!!

Cascadia Digital is on sale for the next week on all platforms (25-30% off).

Kickstarter United Seattle Strike Rally Our union has voted to STRIKE! We are fighting for a 32 hour work, livable wage for all workers, and protections against AI. Join us! Thursday, 10/2 @ 6

Kickstarter United has voted to STRIKE! We are fighting for a 32 hour work week, livable wage for all workers, and protections against AI. Our Seattle members are organizing a rally alongside OPEIU 8. Join us on Thursday in Cal Anderson Park! forms.gle/udwphKvnZDVG...

YouTube video by The Dice Tower Tabriz Review: Carpet Cubed

I was not expecting a Dice Tower review of Tabriz today!

@craftygames.bsky.social #TabrizGame

Harrell's response is pretty awful.

<< Instead of joining Wilson, he called her advocacy of the First Amendment "situational" and "opportunistic."

"Authentic civil rights leaders stand firm and demand change-- not flip flop for political gain," Harrell said. >>

Love those chips! 😉

A man in a red t-shirt stands on a stage with a woman wearing a long black dress and grey jacket. The man holds a large black and red certificate with a yellow star on, and a small golden trophy. The man is Thinh LeHuu, winner of the inaugural Road to Essen competition for best Vietnamese board game design.

Long green and red cardboard tokens showing stylised cartoon versions of Vietnamese dishes, with their names printed in the centre of the card. A wooden die showing a 5 on top is visible in the top right.

A brown cardboard player board for the board game Au Lac, with red, blue and green wooden cubes and meeples on. The board has spaces which show various resources such as wheat and wood. In front of the board a hand holds up five cards with Vietnamese writing at the top, each showing resources. The front card also has a picture of a boat. Standing behind the player board is the box for the game, beige with Au Lac written in gold and orange, and an image of an old city underneath.

Head and shoulders of a woman with brown hair to her chin, parted in the centre, smiles at the camera. She is wearing a pink sleeveless top with what appears to be a yellow flower design on, and wears pink/red lipstick. Global Everjoy co-founder and CEO Ionah Nguyen.

“There’s no shortage of creativity in Vietnam. What we lack are bridges”: Vietnam’s blossoming board game design scene goes global via first Road to Essen competition:

boardgamewire.com/index.php/20...

@rf-seattle.bsky.social @spielessen.bsky.social

He's surpassed a few now to join the 60 club! And HR #59 was a goddamn beast. 4 games to go.

And oh yeah -- go Blue Jays!

I love this game! I just can't get enough people to play it with me. Not sure I'm any good at winning it either.

@peersylvester.bsky.social

Cascadia cards, tokens, & tiles on the table. Includes a habitat to wildlife guide.

Cascadia (nee Lands & Creatures) being playtested on this day in 2019 - 6 years ago! Note the habitat/wildlife guide - this mapping never changed!

And the 'sequel', Cascadia: Alpine Lakes will launch on Kickstarter soon! Sign up at the link below to be notified.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/fla...

Tabriz prototype game components setup for play on the dinner table.

Prototype card game components setup on a playmat.

Tabriz playtesting at home in 2017.
tabrizgame.com

Tabriz: The Card Game playtesting at home 2 days ago.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/cra...

@craftygames.bsky.social

Coming soon: Cascadia: Alpine Lakes A standalone puzzly tile-layering follow-up to the award-winning game Cascadia, with beautiful artwork from Beth Sobel!

The pre-launch page for Cascadia: Alpine Lakes is up! Click that button to be notified when it goes live.

@flatoutgames.bsky.social @fanfactories.bsky.social @boardgameghee.bsky.social @bethsobel.bsky.social @dylanmangini.bsky.social

Coming soon: Cascadia: Alpine Lakes A standalone puzzly tile-layering follow-up to the award-winning game Cascadia, with beautiful artwork from Beth Sobel!

The pre-launch page for Cascadia: Alpine Lakes is up! Click that button to be notified when it goes live.

@flatoutgames.bsky.social @fanfactories.bsky.social @boardgameghee.bsky.social @bethsobel.bsky.social @dylanmangini.bsky.social

At the same time, mergers among media companies exploded in frequency. Disney purchased ABC and ESPN. Westinghouse merged with Viacom, combining CBS with UPN, MTV and Nickelodeon. Comcast merged with NBCUniversal (MSNBC’s parent company). In 1983, 90% of American media was owned by 50 media companies. By 2012, that number was 6. Today, after the Paramount-Viacom merger in 2019, that number is just 5. Consolidation in the technology sector means that most of the major digital media platforms are also in the hands of a few major corporations, from Youtube (owned by Google) to Twitch (Amazon) to X (Elon Musk). “When the government has allowed for decades of consolidation of media and technology companies,” says Gigi Sohn, former nominee to the FCC during the Biden administration, “it becomes a lot easier for authoritarian government to exercise control because there are just fewer entities to pressure.”

This consolidation is only getting worse. Earlier this year, Paramount, the owner of CBS, was purchased by Skydance Media, whose founder and CEO David Ellison is the son of pro-Trump billionaire Larry Ellison. Now, CNBC reports, the younger Ellison is planning a bid for one of the other four remaining media titans, Warner Brothers Discovery, which owns CNN and HBO Max. And the Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the matter,” reports that the elder Ellison, through his company Oracle, would be a lead investor in a consortium that will receive an 80% share in TikTok’s new U.S. business. If these moves come to fruition, pro-Trump (or at least Trump-friendly) billionaires will control TikTok, X, Facebook, CBS, CNN, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.

In 1983, 90% of U.S. media was owned by 50 companies. By 2012, that number was 6. Today, it's just 5.

Decades of media consolidation made it "a lot easier for authoritarian government to exercise control," consumer advocate Gigi Sohn says.

Much more in my new piece: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Counterpoint Classical musicians cooperatively perform chamber music through trick-taking

When life is busy, it’s nice to recognize some small incremental progress. Earlier this week I finally got Counterpoint up onto BGG and I’d say it looks pretty good there. 😍🎻

Lots more testing needed, so if you love trick takers and playtesting online, DM me! ✂️🎲

boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/45...

Tweet From Obama mentioning my firing from the Washington post. Wirh a photo of me

The last political column I was allowed to write in the @washingtonpost.com was a criticism of Obama.

His people took issue with my piece, but we were respectful.

Now he is tweeting in support of me.

This is how free political speech and respect for debate *actually works*.

Or used to work.

WGA Statement on ABC's Decision to Pull ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ The right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other - to disturb, even - is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people. It is not to be denied. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice. As a Guild, we stand united in opposition to anyone who uses their power and influence to silence the voices of writers, or anyone who speaks in dissent. If free speech applied only to ideas we like, we needn't have bothered to write it into the Constitution. What we have signed on to - painful as it may be at times - is the freeing agreement to disagree. Shame on those in government who forget this founding truth. As for our employers, our words have made you rich. Silencing us impoverishes the whole world. The WGA stands with Jimmy Kimmel and his writers.

The following is a statement from the WGA on ABC’s decision to pull ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’

Every major talent that works for ABC and Disney should refuse to show up for work until Jimmy Kimmel is reinstated.

Marvel movies need to shutdown. Ditto the sitcoms.

Collective boycott.

Corporations love money more than anything,& this will harm them and force them to do the right thing.

Overgrown: A Tricky Tile-Laying Game of Nature Reclamation Combine sunlight, water, and earth to help nature overtake an abandoned city!

I just backed Overgrown: A Tricky Tile-Laying Game of Nature Reclamation on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/goo...

Makes me wonder about the most home runs hit in a game by a pair of players. I see the MLB record by a team is 10. I'm guessing the record for a pair of players happened in one of those 19 games where a single player hit 4.

I love that Raleigh hits two home runs tonight to break one MLB record and tie one Mariners record but his teammate shows him up by hitting three home runs in the same game.

A nice "how to play" and review video for Tabriz which does a good job explaining the kind of game it is. Most games that look this lush are actually more complex. Given the combination of worker movement and resource management, Tabriz is pretty straightforward and easy to teach.

A hand of birds in the game Trickadee, mid-found. In the background are several flocks of birds cards which meet the scoring conditions shown on the player aid. A couple of sunflower seeds tokens, used for special abilities are also seen.

Managed to get a copy of Trickadee by @coinflip.games, played first game tonight, and gotta say I think I'm in love with this inventive trick-taker in which you build flocks of birds. Winning can be good to get first pick, but losing gets you seeds to spend on abilities, a fun dilemma #boardgames

But one frustrating thing is that I've been trying to get people who actually have resources to fund progressive media and no one's writing checks. So a few of us with platforms say these things and get brigaded because there aren't enough of us and we have to absorb more threats as a result.