Robert StartPlayer

I don’t remove stickers usually. I use a sharp kitchen knife to gently cut along the opening. This way i can open the box leaving a sticker in place.

A game that best played with 2 players is getting a 2 player version?

I love citadels but every extra player makes it worse.

Alowly. I just don’t have as much time to design these days! Its at the ‘trying lots of different stuff’ stage. Yesterday it was described as ‘playable’. So that makes me happy as I’m making progress. Im still finding myself simplifying and taking bits out. Should be good enough for Airecon

Playtested ‘In Bocca Al Lupo’ today. Having a soft toy wolf as a game component is working. I’m on a mission with this game to see if i can make it without using a computer at all. Scrawling in sharpie and making something that looks terrible is more than fun that trying to make it pretty.

I’m working on a prototype now where I’m trying to be 100% computer free*

Being able to to scrawl with a sharpie is so much quicker and is making iterating so much quicker.

Also having a 2ft toy wolf as a component wouldn’t work digitally!

*unless you count photocopying

Absolutely. Working this way I’m able ti change things really quickly. Even in middle of playtest group and i can quickly create changes. Im hoping to make this good enough for Airecon testing. Does mean carrying a giant wolf around.

For my current project I’m try to not use a computer at all. It looks unbelievably scrappy. But I’m having more fun doing this then spending wasted tome on computer files and editing them every iteration.

I relate a lot!

The semi regular gripe that getting home from Manchester Airport to where i am in Leeds takes longer than it does to fly from Rome To Manchester.

I get that a play has a limited length and cuts will happen. But that ending was completely different!

Well I’m glad i studied it so i knew the story as dialog quite different from the book. Some very odd cuts were made though. Missing out the garden of roses and the serpent feels like cutting hugely significant parts if the story out!

But i managed to follow enough to enjoy it.

Tonight after 19 months of learning Italian i will be attempting to follow a show at the Theatre. No idea who this will go, I think I know the story and the vocab from The Little Prince well enough to follow it in general. Let see how this goes…..

More reasons i love being in Italy. The size of the vegetables. Yogurt comes in Stracciatella flavour. And an entire too shelf of a supermarket is just different varieties of pesto and pasta sauces. Ill be having pistacchio pesto tonight!

Good work. The problem of scammers is a grave situation.

I am so happy with this ending the #TheTraitors

Ive played so many social deciction hames and the classic Diplomacy over the years and this weirdly upside down honest moral victory is so lovely to see.

Depends what social media comments you read!

What worries me is the public/faithful perception of morality. If i play a game and get a secret card that says have more red cubes than other players then I’m not a bad person. I hare the hate people try to cast traitors as ‘bad people’. They are just playing the hand they get.

The title is an italian phrase which directly translates as ‘into the mouth of the wolf’. But really means ‘good luck’ in same way in English uses ‘break a leg’. So a push your luck game about the stone age domestication of wolves to dogs needs a players to put there hand in a wolfs mouth right?!

I’m working on ‘In Bocca Al Lupo’, a kids push your luck game.

The game needed a bag to be a wolf. So I ordered a large soft you wolf and my mum did some sewing magic so this wolf now functions as bag you pull tokens from its mouth.

I will be spending most of #Airecon carrying this with me.

“You are marvellous” “and you are amazing” With ‘bear’ and ‘panda’ emphasised

“Types of legume” Lentichie = lentils Lenti - slow (adj, plural) Veloci - fast (adj, plural) So in English maybe “Slow…lentils” “fast…lentils”

This translates well into English. Octopus - “Do you want to navigate the internet on my phone?” Fish - “no thank you” Octopus - “how come?” Fish - “because i am scare of The Net” “La rete” means ‘the net’ in a physical sense but also internet, similar to english, Italians explains to me that this is a ‘boomer’ term and not really used anymore

Mild swearing… Tooth brush “i have a crap job” Toilet roll “and you say that to me”

Ive now been learning Italian for about 18 months. Im mostly practising listening skill at the moment as that seems weakest skill.

But I’m very happy when i saw this joke book at the airport that i was able to understand much of the word play inside. Explanation in alt text.

I met a friend in Rome from a language exchange app and visited the museum on musical instruments.

Here are some photos in case anyone needs to see a piano cross with a harp, or a bassoon that looks like a dragon.

Im back from Italy, 8th visit in the last 12 months! This time i visited Viterbo which had very Knightmare type vibes walking around.

Playing Brass: Birmingham is how everyone spends New Years Eve right? #boardgames

Is this likely the only date or should i wait for somewhere further North?

Ive passed my Italian exam i took in October! I now have CILS A2!

If your unfamiliar with CEF levels, A2 means pre intermediate/good beginier. So i know enough to get around and have single conversations but I’m not good enough to live there.

Ive not made these in a while but @nigella.bsky.social triple chocolate buckwheat cookies are always delicious and quick to make. Its good to have to a quick and simple #GlutenFree recipe in the repertoire.

Im finally trying to learn boardgames vocab in Italian.

In English we ‘draw a card’. In Italian “Pesco una carta” or “i fish a card”

Suddenly the name of the game ‘Go Fish’ makes much more sense.

Whilst a die is nice for a product does it need to be for play test. Im currently doing a thing with sort of custom dice but iterating with tokens in a bag. The same probably much quicker to switch things around for iterations.

Ive just baked this amazing #glutenFree quiche that looks exactly like picture in book. Im normally critical of my own work but these really was amazing.

As I’ve had coeliac diagnosis almost 3 years I’ve got the hand of much of baking now.

This probably isn’t exactly what you mean but I’ve lost count of how many time i come last in my own playtest!

I love it when someone comes along and tried something very different. In my playtest group now we often asked people to play in particular ways to see what breaks.