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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

J beat me with the tie-goes-to-the-attacker rule in our first game of Duel of Meloch. I did manage to win one game of Wingspan Pocket, though. (We played a few.) #stonemaiergames #duelofmeloch #wingspanpocket

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

I’m finally going to have a game at an indie night market. My son, Jason, and I designed Red Spiral, and we’re printing a few dozen copies of it to sell at PAX West. www.alwaysawake.games/pnw-tabletop...

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Demoing Finspan with the first expansion in the Geek Dad area of GameStorm last weekend. #gamestorm

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

The Rebels’ desperate gambit to destroy the under construction Death Star failed (in Star Wars Rebellion).

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

One of my favorite movie exchanges. People want to be the thing that doing a thing represents, but they don’t want to actually do the thing.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Man at PAX Unplugged going on and on about board games and fish!

Me, clearly talking too much and too loudly to three attendees at the Finspan demo table at PAX Unplugged

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

A shot from the Stonemaier area at Essen (with the Finspan banner).

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

The greatest photo I've ever taken popped up on my phone. #Kauai. I need to get back out there.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

We played Too Many Bones yesterday. It has great, um...bones, but I think it is hampered, at times, by extra stuff that didn't need to be in there. And there are too many scenarios that seem bent on keeping players from just playing the game. For a day-long campaign, there are few better though.

Too Many Bones set up on the table. So. Many Dice.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

After a long break, we finally got Arydia back to the table. Skellies had a bone to pick. The painted minis in this game are lights out.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

I am not at Essen, but Flossenschlag (Finspan) is apparently being well received.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Stonemaier Design Day. The game boards for my prototype of Primal Dawn are 20% broader in both dimensions than they should be - all so I could use D&D figures as the minis. I did not consider (until it was too late) how I would never be able to fit it on a reasonably sized table.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

We took the lightrail to the airport, and it was packed to the gills with people going to the Ms game. When we hit St. Louis, there was one bar open in the airport, and people were standing around watching the game. It was the bottom of the 15th.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

I signed a copy of Finspan for a friend while out at lunch yesterday. I guess this is just a thing I do now.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

7-player Twilight Imperium, 4th Edition. The little girl was kind of a shark. 🦈

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

J will be demoing Ocean of Fire at PAX West. (DM me if you'd like to playtest it.) I plan to seek publication with this one, which is rare for me (but, hopefully, going to get less so).

Khadija, a woman from an alternate 1930s timeline in Muslim-styled riding garb, mounted atop Makira, a giant leopard ani-mech.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would (I type as I lay here recovering from whatever disease I picked up there). I’ve had terrible anxiety since the pandemic, but I think having a booth to work as a home base helped a lot. I’ve been attending other cons to prepare, and that helped, too.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

I don’t often fanboy out, but my sons and I (and one of their friends) have played several hundred hours Gloomhaven in “the pug room” (before they left me for D&D). And when I met @cephalofair.bsky.social at the MvM after party at Gen Con, I kind of babbled for a bit.

The boys, Gloomhaven, and the tie-died portrait of Ladybug.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

David Gordon and I with the Astra Award for Toy Retailers’ “Geek Game of the Year” (for Finspan).

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

David, Lily and I demoing and talking about Finspan at Gen Con.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

So cool to see all the Finspan materials set up around Gen Con. I’ll be at the Stonemaier booth each day, starting tomorrow. Drop by and say “hi!”

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Apparently, Morningstar has awards for toys and games, and Finspan won one - for “Geek Games.” www.morningstar.com/news/globe-n...

Finspan and the coveted “Geek Games” Astra award

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Getting some serious side-eye from from this baby bunny.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

My mom (80) played Finspan with us! She was a trooper.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Everyone in the cantina looks shocked by my last move. #winning

Life-size Star Wars characters, looking incredulous.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Playing Arcs with the blighted reach expansion and the fancy minis.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

The upgraded components for Tofu Shifu (a KS from Taiwan that fulfilled recently) were 3D printed. They were a stretch goal, I assume. (I rarely back Kickstarters, and I typically don't go for premiums; and so I'm guessing they were just standard.) Several of the pieces are two colors.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Apparently, every Star Wars planet with ice is a haven for Wampas. Also, the paint job on the transdoshan mercenaries was on point.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

It’s Star Wars Imperial Assault. One of the players in my group is a Star Wars fanatic.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

A new campaign, this time on Coruscant. The Jawa looks on. I’m playing a Wolverine-type character with a shooty droid companion.

Imperial Assault with painted minis, a Jawa manikin in the background.

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

@jonathanhliu.bsky.social teaching Finspan at GameStorm. He introduced me and shook my hand. Kind of a surreal moment. geekdad.com/author/jonat...

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Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy @anarchytabletop.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Oh, cool. You’ll have to check out our monster hunting game. That’s my son, J, in the photo, with the beard. He’ll be there tonight, too.

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