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Sasha's idea of the game that you operate instead of play has been so integral to my development as a designer. It's really pivotal. You should check read this! It contains an incredibly sweet and sharp write up Of one of my favorite games I've ever written: Hollerith Communications Manual.

Machine Games | Sasha Reneau Get more from Sasha Reneau on Patreon

What's a machine game? Is a book a machine game? It's certainly more machinic than a movie is. But is interpreting a movie through a certain lens machinic? Is this post machinic? Maybe not, but is reading this post machinic? Is asking "is this machinic?" machinic?

Spindlewheel: https://www.machinefolly.com/2025/10/22/spindlewheel.html

this was fabulous!! i loved these characters and was so delighted by your card draws 😊🃏

I guested on this special little episode, and brought my Spindlewheel (@teacabbage.bsky.social) cards with me!

Really, really proud of my own performance in this and super thankful to Jason for letting me add my own splash of dramatic Autumn heartbreak and moral complexity to Memester's universe 🖤

Spindlewheel is Dixit by way of Oulipo. Spindlewheel is Oblique Strategies if Brian Eno got wrung through the ATU folklore index. Spindlewheel is tarot for the queers who think that Rorschach tests should have more verse poetry, and Grapefruit for the aesthetes who like it when their solitaire bullies them. Spindlewheel is as much a tool as it is a lens, as it is an engine, as it is a game.

at last, a @seaexcursion.itch.io review with the answer to "What is Spindlewheel?"

Spindlewheel Forever by Sasha Reneau a companion for tarot campaigns

find the full decks and expanded campaign system in Spindlewheel Forever:

DOUSING ROD Some myths are fireside tales at best - Leading the lost further away from rescue

OLEANDER LAKE Dense ice all summer long, winter dragonflies buzzing - Algae swirling around mangrove roots, sinking into soft mud

SPIRE Built with the master’s tools - Loadbearing stones straining against their own destruction

TRANSCRIBE The fine art of translation - It’s science when you write it down

Wizard: your research is never complete.

AUNTIE L. A nosy meddler with the best intentions - Fabulously wealthy, morally indistinct, hauntingly unfamiliar

CURSE Mincing an oath, all bark and no bite - Hate with nowhere to go

HOUSEHOLD GOD Little tyrant, Hoarder of treats and petty blessings - Grandfather’s religion, an altar crowded with dust

PERSONAL DEMON For intimate gatherings, serious inquiries only - Widespread calamity traceable to a single vendetta

Warlock: you struck a deal.

CRYSTAL Bent light shattered into color, speaking kaleidoscopic - Platonic formations of happenstance

ECSTASY Sickly-sweet desires curling hot and hollow - Satisfaction brought it back

SORROWS Wading through flooded streets, gently pushing floaters - Agony without end, sublimating into an ocean

THUNDER Electric hum above skin, harrowing roar - Lightning’s applause, footfalls rolling across the plain

Sorceror: for you, there is no distance between feeling and acting.

CASSANDRA Lucky liar thwarted at every turn - Omniscient and ineffectual, discredited and ignored

FUGUE Forever waking in freefall, vibrant details slipping past - Time unmarked by memory, autonomous movement

PSYCHOSOMATIC The mind’s death grip on the body - The fantastical made concrete

VEIL A permeable boundary, concealing without protecting - A delicate but unmistakable refusal

Seer: you watch the possibilities bloom endlessly.

BLUE BLOOD Gagging on a silver spoon, life is so hard - Loan after loan against the reputation of a name

DOG EAT DOG Chewed up young and spat out rough - No one is coming to save you

LEGITIMATE OPERATOR The lion’s share for the pleasure of doing business - Nice work if you can get it

TABULA RASA Springing fully formed out of nowhereville - Sweet summer child, won’t last long

Rogue: you know what you want, and you take what you need.

GREEN FLASH A glimpse of another world - Primordial flinch, acting purely on instinct

HUNTING BLIND A predator’s camouflage - Waiting for the birds to sing

ROOT A larger conversation beneath the surface - Tangling soil, cracking open stone, stretching as above so below

TRADER a stony gaze and a hard bargain, Skinning knife at the hip - Years of building trust, a slowly strengthening network

Ranger: stay focused on the reality you can touch.

ALCOVE Even here, nestled between stones, secrets still echo - Not the highest place of honor, But an altar nonetheless

BELLY BREATH A balancing act, an anchor in the squall - bellows for resounding laughter

HERMITAGE A pause in the downpour, dry straw and dim candles - An outdoor kennel for a pet sage

MASTER What you have to learn you already know - Founding principles disappearing into effortless form

Monastic: your vows make an open book of your heart, and a roadmap for those beyond it.

FAIRGROUND Light and sound in the dark, impossible spectacle - An empty field in the light of day, like nothing ever happened

HARUSPEX What does your gut tell you? - Cut it open and watch it writhe: That’s where the little god lives

STAGE NAME Elevated honesty, fully clothed in just a winning smile - An alias for every occasion, no true name underneath

SWORD SWALLOWER playfighting with live steel - Beats digging ditches

Fortune Teller: the cards have a voice, for those who listen.

LOOT Trading boots with the dead, measuring sole to sole - The finest prize, proof of valor

RUST A blunt instrument, a sore left to fester - Inevitable decline, debts coming due

SPIT Defiance till the end - Close enough to catch the scent of their last meal

TRENCH Kicking in the dirt like an animal - Pinned down in a temporary shelter

Fighter: your reputation precedes you.

BLADE OF GRASS One of many, missing the trees for the forest - Trampled, buffeted, burned, and yet unfazed

CARYATID The weight of the firmament rests on her crown - Choosing humanity over home

GRAFT I will bet my life on your survival - A quilt of mannerisms, their blood in your veins

HARVEST The sweep of scythe and sickle, rhythm’s reward - Take only what you can carry; let others do the same

Druid: all things have names.

APRON Flour-streaked and tear-blotted, names embroidered on the hem - Stiff with bleached stains, weary of all the red

BLACK DIRT Gathered under fingernails clawing up from the broken coffin - Fertile ground, clay packed around the poultice

UNDERTAKER Psychopomp’s understudy, preparing each for their big day - tailor’s tape, stylist’s powder, carpenter’s nails

WEEPING HONEY A divine distress, A sweet sorrow - Signs of infection, a tacky yellow ooze

Cleric: the chef always eats last.

EMBOUCHURE Taking the shape an instrument requires - Absolute control, though it may look a little funny

GUTSTRING Reach deep and strum well, let it hum in the ribs - Transform horror into beauty, plant flowers in the gore

HOLLOW BODY A warm round resonance, a voice lifting high - Peer down the mouth and find there’s nothing inside

JESTER Aiming right between the eyes - Makes a funny noise when kicked

Bard: the power is in the telling.

GODKING Seizing legacy bare handed, uncontested in battle, a living legend - Inhuman brutality over mortal weakness

HOPLITE Fighting for your conqueror in a foreign land, no memory of home - Better to be the boot than the snake

LEATHERWORK Hide tanned in strips, scars soft against skin - May it serve you better than its last owner

RIVERBEND A blind corner, a hairpin turn - A wandering cartography, the bane of empires

Barbarian: you never do anything in halves.

A photo of the 200+ card print and play deck next to the spindlewheel box.

A preview thread of cards in the new Spindlewheel Forever playbook expansions: ☸️♾️🧵

Oracles After Hours by Sasha Reneau a poker tarot reading for 3 and an audience

if you saw the Oracles After Hours stream and thought "pff, I could do that," do it. I triple dog dare you 😈

thank you everyone who came by!! my wallet is a few coins heavier >:) (and a few png's lighter, listen, it all balances out)

it's todayyy!!!! come through <3 <3 <3

Sooooooo excited for this!!!

September September September | Sasha Reneau Get more from Sasha Reneau on Patreon

solving my math problems by writing a massive amount of poetry:

kind of an absurd update for Spindlewheel Forever coming up. >:)

Oracles After Hours Featuring: Rae Nedjadi, Sasha Reneau, Maria Mison, Produced by: Paddington @QGCON2025

Oracles After Hours will debut next Friday, Sept 26th starting at 12:30pm EST on QGCon's Discord Stage! Come ask your questions to @22to22.bsky.social @mariabumby.bsky.social and @temporalhiccup.bsky.social and help one of them win tarot poker by rewarding your favorite answer! discord.gg/m7ZCath623

i love you hand limits. i love you irreplicable miracles. i love you sub-optimal moves. i love you end of the rope actions. i love you imperfect tools. i love you bad cards. i love you characterization arising from doing the best you can with what you have

this game. goddamn.