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Brandon Leon-Gambetta

@blg.bsky.social
2K followers 349 following 837 posts

Tabletop games designer of Pasión de las Pasiones, RADCrawl, Deadly Kobold Racing, and Chase the H0ll0w. @bleongambetta on Twitter

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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
There's no 🌽 🏈 in this 🏈 🏆 so I'll be ❄️🩰.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
I've joked about playing many off-label things in Pasión de las Pasiones and I was ready to do it again for Neopets. But I can't stand behind that one. I don't think it would work well at all.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Bluesky has decided that I am interested in posts where sport fans say without any context beyond their display names "This game sucks" and "What's even the point of this game?" This combined with an otherwise ttrpg feed makes it look like people with names like PackersFanDad hating on Mörk Borg.
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Brennan Lee Mulligan @brennanleemulligan.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Abolish ICE, prosecute and imprison its leaders, impeach and remove the President from office. This is the only sane reaction to a group of armed men kidnapping and gunning down our neighbors in the street.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Updating some old work on Pommel Ball to hopefully test a minimal 3v3 build this weekend. If that works, I'll probably try to make it web play test ready over the next week. I'm smoothing out the pieces that are time consuming.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Enough time has gone by since I made a layout that I need to relearn how to use affinity. Keeping things basic and trying to find a card template I can slap a csv into is probably my play.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Gonna go to a second hand Lego store because my daughter has gotten extremely interested in very specifically Lego gears and there isn't a Lego 3-in-1 Just A Ton Of Gears set.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
My Kingdom for a System Doesn't Matter thread that doesn't include "of course we all understand system matters" after a couple dozen tweets.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Due to Baby Sleep, I've been playing more retro videogames and that's been very nice. I'm very interested in finding where board games can play out (and sometimes intentionally slow down) some of the moments that feel great on the screen without losing excitement.
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Stan Kelly @kartoonistkelly.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Outlook for the new year ...
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
🌽 🏈 season is over so it's time for me to start thinking about Pommel Ball again.
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Plus One Exp @ 🔜 Metatopia @plusoneexp.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
Oh shit! It's jam time. itch.io/jam/makemoves
itch.io
Make Moves Jam
A game jam from 2025-12-31 to 2026-12-31 hosted by Plus One Exp, Kegan (@Keganexe) & Aaron King. It's time to make Moves. What This Jam Is: This is a jam to create or share singular Moves using Powere...
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
I feel extraordinarily blessed that when I ego search Pasión de las Pasiones i see people looking forward to, playing, and enjoying it. I feel sincerely even more blessed when I get to see Pasión de las Pasiones used as an example of off-genre play (ex: you wouldn't play a dungeon crawl in PdlP)
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Slowly coming to a place that I'm catching up with people but just want to say from the bottom of my heart 🌽 🏈.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
🌽 🏈
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Clear my schedule on October 1st. I'm going to be reading about terrible frogs. #mörktober
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
🌽 🏈
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
A couple of weeks ago I almost hyped that the playable version of Pommel Ball would be available on Nebraska's first football game of the season. Glad I didn't because that's tomorrow and I'm not even close.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Wonder what ttrpg discussion is today! 👀 🫩 😩 Pass.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Happy birthday to my two favorite Jeffs! Past Jeff (@jeffstormer.gobirds.online) GM of the absolute gem of a podcast Party of One. Happy birthday! AND Future Jeff (@jeffstormer.gobirds.online) host of the absolute gem of a podcast Party of One. Happy birthday!
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jay Dragon is unstoppable @jdragsky.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
im publishing prince of hounds with @plusoneexp.bsky.social in the fall!
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
You know those cutouts that you use to measure range in wargames? I'm pretty sure I've come up with one for turning that has reignited Deadly Kobold Racing.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
I've been exploring Homebrew video games (modern indie games for existing consoles) and there's SO much cool stuff going on. I wish a bit that I were better at video content so that I could share some of the awesome stuff going on.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
Okay. Tonight is Pommel Ball Kits, possibly default teams too. Then the dreaded play materials layout. I'm considering just hand drawing the character sheets and scanning them.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
One thing I'm pretty pumped about in Pommel Ball is Formations which are basically ritual-stype spells that cast by getting your team into a specific shape on the field. That's thrown off by how much pushing and movement is inherent to the game.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Getting the rules for Pommel Ball written down, we've got the four Core positions 🏈 Ranger 🛡️ Guard 🎽 Flanker 🗡️ Skirmisher www.notion.so/bleongambett... Those four form the basics with kits (weapon choice or magic ability) rounding out basic players
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
1 Like = 1 Ability Card that you can give one of your Pommel Ball players during game. www.notion.so/bleongambett... #onelikedesign
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
I've seen like 5 posts from people I don't know saying Draw Steel has the 4e vibes that all the 4e sickos crave. Is this true? Can I get a verification from one of my favorite 4e sickos?
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Instead of using little serotonin boosts from likes to power fake Internet points, power a piece of design you need a bunch of little morsels of (AND WRITE THEM DOWN IN YOUR ACTUAL DRAFT) One like = 1 hex or playbook move or magic item or player ability or NPC or location.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Hey Protean City Comics, are you gonna do an Ultimate Universe or what?
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
1 like = oh hell no I've learned my damn lesson my ttrpg takes are tepid and quiet and messaged to a buddy
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Barkeep on the Borderlands is one of my favorite books to leaf through. Highly recommend!
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Greg Loring-Albright (he/him) @gregisonthego.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
👀
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Gila RPGs @gilarpgs.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Clicking the button in just over an hour.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
I'm trying really hard to picture Joel McHale behind me snapping "simplify" while I write the Pommel Ball Print and Play Quick Start, but then I don't get to make things super gamey.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
I keep thinking "if only there was a way to have a portable device bigger than a phone with a legitimate keyboard that I can run design software on" and looking up old kindle fire based solutions before realizing I'm describing a laptop.
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Aaron Catano-Saez🇵🇷🎃- Voice Actor @aaroncatanosaez.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Also! If you have little ones OR just love baller pop songs, catch me on Dora as Pablo, member of “The Bunny Boyz” Ya know, the super famous bunny boy band? Season 3 ep15 (There may be even more Dora to come!)
DoraaaPablooo
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
🦇 PbtA Adjacent Romantasy: Have new core rules I like a lot, but can't find playbook notes 🏑 Pommel Ball (fantasy sports board game): Reworked my rework of my rework. Hoping to test a card based rogue-litey version soon 🐲 Roguelike Arena Dungeon Crawl: VERY happy with core. Needs cards and testing.
media.tenor.com
a man is talking to another man with a caption that says that means you haven 't known the triumphs
Alt: Archie from Riverdale giving an impassioned speech: "That means you've never known the triumphs and defeats, the epics highs and lows of high school football."
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
I'm currently at the "trying to remember which app, program, or physical notebook I wrote something down in a year ago" stage of development.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Thrilled to have Pasión de las Pasiones honored in the #Effies by @aaronmfking.bsky.social on Read the F*cking Manual! One of the very best ttrpg podcasts around and the other winners are absolute killer games that I'm humbled to be in company with.
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Working on a kind of Punxsutawney Phil plus cicada style of social media that my appearance is brief and only traditionally meaningful, and also confounding in pattern.
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ABAC (assigned bottom at chili's) @imaginationarcade.itch.io · 22/04/2025
The TTRPG path to enlightenment
Expanding brain meme:

-I can homebrew and re-skin Dungeons & Dragons 5e, repurposing its core rule set for whatever kind of game I want to run

-Actual universal systems, like GURPS, Fate, Cortex, Savage Worlds, Cypher System, etc. do not require homebrew, as their core books include character options and modular rules for any setting, genre, or time period, making them better system choices for players who want to use a single system for every game that they run

-"Universal" systems where combat is a heavy design focus and/or an integral element of the gameplay loop often compromise on mechanical support of social encounters, making them poorly suited to run drama, diplomacy, "cozy", and other game modes with little to no combat, therefore they are not truly universal

-Setting/genre-specific systems are in many cases better at facilitating the story that a GM wants to tell than universal systems, because they often employ mechanisms and design choices that encourage the players to engage in a style of play that is in line with the setting or genre, creating cohesion between the narrative being created by the players at the table, and the tools that the system gives the players to create that narrative

-Reverse-engineering the process of conceptualizing your game's setting/story before finding a system to run it with, instead opting to read a system's rules with the primary goal in mind of understanding how the designers intended the system to be played and what types of stories they sought to tell with it, both maximizes your ability to pull from the toolkit of mechanisms in the game's design, and expands your storytelling ability beyond your personal inventory of tropes and touchstones you might otherwise default to, sometimes even giving you altogether new ideas for the types of stories you can/want to tell with a TTRPG

-I can homebrew and re-skin Pasión de las Pasiones, repurposing its core rule set for whatever kind of game I want to run
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Select and Start @selectandstart.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
A NEW episode of Select and Start is out NOW! Award-winning podcaster, game designer, and author Jeff Stormer @jeffstormer.gobirds.online comes on to talk about how Marvel vs. Capcom 2 changed his life! Listen now wherever you like to cast your pods: select-and-start.pinecast.co/episode/7b68...
cover art for Marvel vs Capcom 2 depicting Spider-Man, Ryu and Zangief from Street Fighter, and Hulkthe character select menu for Marvel vs Capcom 2gameplay of MVC2 depicting Strider Hiryu and Spider-Man fighting on the Swamp stagelogo for Select and Start
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jeeyon shim 심지연 @jeeyon.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
A friend gifted me a copy of of Pasion de las Pasiones, the acclaimed telenovela ttrpg by @blg.bsky.social, and so far this is one of the best PbtA texts I've seen. Well-written, absolutely charming to read, and the information formatting supports new readers and players. HIGHLY recommend!
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James Malloy @malloyable.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Kelsier, addressing potential members of the Skaa Rebellion:
media.tenor.com
a man is talking into a microphone while a woman looks on .
Alt: a man is talking into a microphone while a woman looks on .
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Brandon Leon-Gambetta @blg.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
Do I know anyone who has printed those small heavy cardboard board game tokens? My kid has started designing a game and I'm wondering if my library's cricket printer could do something like that. I need like... Thick enough cardboard to flick on a board.
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James Malloy @malloyable.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
Put Goldballs in Marvel Rivals you cowards
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The Hearth Magazine 🌈💜🖤🤍 @thehearthmag.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Helena Real (she/her) delivers neck-tingling drama with "Lazos de Sangre", a playset for Pasión de las Pasiones (by @blg.bsky.social). Stay on top of Helena's work at @helenareal.bsky.social!
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Helena Real 🏳️‍⚧️ @helenareal.northsky.social · 14/02/2025
It's about... Vampires! Pure queer telenovela drama with bloodsucking monsters 😁🩸🧛 Coming soon!
media.tenor.com
a couple of men are standing next to each other and looking at each other .
Alt: a couple of men are standing next to each other and looking at each other. They are Tom Cruise as Lestat and Brad Pitt as Louis in Interview with the Vampire (1994)
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jay Dragon is unstoppable @jdragsky.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
your outie abides by each MC principle and agenda equally
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