iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Riding in @tettix.bsky.social's boat up to #2 on the hotness!

An image of the Hotness list on BGG, with Deep Regrets #1, and Shallow Regrets #2. Shallow Regrets is the pocket-sized version that Judson Cowan designed for Button Shy.

Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

When I first started playing I thought, "Is there enough here to make it interesting?" Then on about turn three we both said "Ohhhhh, ok yeah, I get it." I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Jason Tagmire placing a tile on the Rebirth board.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

"Did you play basketball today?" "Yeah, how did you know?"

My knees, both of which have electrodes connected to a TENS unit (electrical stimulation for pain relief) and an iced knee sleeve.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Very pleased to have finished #LOKdigital, even if I am sad there's not more to discover. Luckily, there are daily puzzles!

Mostly black and white illustration with 5 of the characters from LOK in front of a metal structure. The text reads "Congratulations for 100% completing LOK Digital! We hope you had a good time with our game and we hope you stay curious on your path forward. - Letibus designs, Icedrop Games, Draknek & Friends"

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

The secret behind my solo modes has been laid bare: pacts with demons.

Screenshot of a BGG blog post. The text above reads, "I thought I was doing well 2 rounds in. The additional bouquet cards Demon received in round 3 though... they combined beautifully and a 6 point swing meant I lost by 4."

The image shows a stuffed demon serving as the opponent in a solo game of Tussie Mussie, with beautifully illustrated flower cards distributed on the table.

The text below reads, "Demon smug with his 6 card hand that did for me in round 3. The forces of darkness don't play by the rules. Or rather they do, thanks to a pact with Mike Mullins."

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

The last winter #BoardGame before some holiday traveling is Jokkmokk, the Winter Market. I tend to like drafting games, and this one was fun. I played with the suggested card sets for my first game, and I look forward to trying more.

The box cover of Jokkmokk, featuring colorful storybook art of a winter scene in Sweden. The bottom left corner says Designed by Henrik Larsson, Illustrated by Christina Hägerfors, and Visit the famous Swedish folk market!

The rectangular central board contains another colorful winter scene. A score track surrounds the board. Two decks of cards (day and night) have been set in the center of the board. Several meeples form a queue around the board, and in each other open space around the board are cards to be drafted by the players, including Hot Dog, Patchwork, Antique, and Dalecarlian Horse. The reminder cards in a row below the board describe how each type of card scores.

An angled view of the board during the game, with some meeples on spaces formerly occupied by cards, and a cardboard standee skater indicating the active player (the one at the back of the queue).

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Next winter #boardgame? Keystone North America. I grabbed the snowy player board, and surprisingly the winter migration scenario was next on my list!

Player board is a 4x4 grid of squares, with a snowy alpine scene covering the entire thing. Beneath the board are several of the square species cards: snowy owl, emperor goose, Canada lynx, woodland caribou, snowshoe hare and northwestern gray wolf. The animals are beautifully illustrated, with icons indicating their habitats and additional details.

The solo campaign is formatted like a journal, and Assignment 14 is "Flight of the Raptors." The left page is a faux journal entry with a story providing background, and the right page has setup instructions and special rules for the scenario. Sketches of geese, a colored drawing of an eagle, and a feather "taped" to the page adorn the journal.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

I like to play through my winter-themed games this month, and holiday games next week (looking at you @hokiestone.bsky.social and @mattriddlegames.bsky.social). I got a convincing win in the Winter is Coming scenario of Empires of the North. What are your go-to winter #boardgames?

5 action tiles surround a Yeti tile, and two are flipped to their yellow solo-only side. Two blue player cylinders are on the tiles. The scenario book is open to the scenario I'm playing. Several cards fill my player area, and the backs show my clan. Fish tokens, the famous tomato/apple tokens, and some meeples are placed on the cards.

The sea themed score track board sits above the Sailing board. Two decks, nearby and distant islands, are placed on the board, with whimsical nautical art (whales, sea monsters, viking ships). Two sailboat tokens are on the board.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Solani is based upon Diné stories of the cosmos that are only to be shared in the winter. I managed to beat the impatient Coyote tonight for a solo victory.

The game box, with a bright moon overhead shining on a circular tablet with Diné paintings in front of a fire. Rocky buttes line the background. Red and green cloth draw bags containing pieces for the game are next to the box.

My player mat at the end of the game. Circular star, constellation and planet tokens are interspersed with cross-shaped branch tokens, forming a mosaic. Diné artwork decorates the edges of the mat. 4 constellation cards detailing the scoring rules are next to the mat.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

I tried Snowcrest tonight. The solo mode is really an efficiency puzzle, but the various card decks do a good job of making each game feel different. I'm looking forward to playing the higher difficulty levels and trying for the perfect score of 20 (achieving inner peace in the process). #BoardGames

The cloth central mat has a row of achievement cards (two face up for solo), a common villager deck, a guardian card deck, a forest spirit deck with three wooden juniper tokens on it, and a row of 5 face up common villagers. There is a supply of square building tiles (3 types: farm, forge, shrine), and a supply of resources (scrolls, barley, offering bowls, prayer bells, and gold).

The cloth player mat has a snowy mountain temple background, 4 starting villagers on the corners of a 3x3 grid, and one additional villager in the center space (purchased during setup). An omen track from 5 to -5 is under the grid, with a skull token on 0. A row of 8 building spaces is at the bottom, with a farm in the far left space. Four solo rest tokens numbered 1-4 are on the top left of the grid. The reminder card and player deck are to the right if the mat, as well as the two cards that would be in my hand. The Snowcrest rulebook is nearby.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Sometimes a road trip provides amusements that you didn't expect.

Photo taken from a car window of a large beaver statue

View of the beaver statue from the front. It's white painted eye and crooked teeth make a really goofy expression. A green and yellow Beaver Storage sign is in the foreground.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Set up Explorers of Navoria for later tonight. Time to increase the difficulty level and play through the solo scenarios. #boardgames

The full setup: 6 rows of 3 cards each, next to their respective decks on the left edge of the board. A colorful map board with scoring objectives, three exploration tracks with a player piece and several solo tokens on each, and many towns (action spaces) with the relevant resources stacked nearby. Below the main board is a small player board with three sections to place resources and 3 house tokens that unlock abilities once placed. A white draw bag contains the action tokens.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

About 8 snowflakes fell today, and Duke is inconsolable.

View of my legs from the waist down as I lie on the couch with a blanket over my legs. A black and brindled Plott hound is tucked behind my knees, with his chin resting on my legs. He's probably thinking dog thoughts like, "The snow makes my toe beans cold and now I can never go outside again."

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

I needed a break from prototypes, so I played #JuicyFruits with the expansion modules. It uses a sliding block puzzle mechanism, made more interesting by unlocking space (finishing boats) and cluttering your board (purchasing buildings for points/effects).

Home board is a square island. 3 ship tiles (contracts to be fulfilled) line each coast. 4 boulder tiles (obstacles/scoring goals) are in each corner. 5 basket tiles (that you slide to collect resources) form a quincunx in the center.

The buildings board has five rows of square tiles, each costing fruit, that award points and sometimes additional abilities. To the left of the board are several larger tiles, which are granted by purchasing the correct building. Two whale meeples come in to play if you purchase the whale watching boat tiles. The bottom of the board has ice cream that you can make in exchange for fruit. The right side is a progress tracker with a black disc on it. It advances when buildings are purchased.

This board has a large winding score track on the bottom 2/3 which goes to 100. The top has a somewhat complicated looking track with lots of arrows and some colored discs. You can spend fruit to make juice, which is a way to make some quick points. Next to the board is a pile of the colorful fruit shaped wooden pieces that you collect by moving your basket each turn.

In the foreground is the board for the mystic Island expansion, dotted with square statue tiles. Red and blue explorer meeples share one space. On your turn, instead of collecting fruit, you can move your explorer the same direction and distance that you moved your basket, hopefully landing on and collecting a statue. Behind that is a small square board with four boulder-shaped spaces. When you meet the conditions and remove a boulder from your home board, you place it here to score points. Slightly blurred in the background is the Juicy Fruits box.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Putting some #boardgame salve on a meh day, with Oak by Wim Goossens. I openly admit that the toy-factor makes me like this game even more. Look at those druids!

The box cover is upright on the game table, with shelves filled with games in the background. The box is black with a silver Celtic knot style circle and Oak written in the center. Very minimalist but striking.

The main Oak board has a large tree depicted on it, as well as several "temples," which are action spaces for druids. Orange, purple, and teal druid-shaped Meeples fill the board, including the branches of the tree. Each branch offers points and increased income.

Closer view of the board, highlighting that there are rubber pieces that can be added to the Meeples. One druid has a satchel over his shoulder. Another has a good with deer antlers. Towards the back can be seen another druid with a cloak, and one with an instrument.

The personal board is dual layered, with trackers for each of the game's resources (feathers, mistletoe, and runestones). The druids are placed in their home spaces, each adorned with the rubber upgrade pieces. Above the board are the player cards used to take actions, some chunky resources tokens used to brew potions, and one of the punchboard organizers used to hold player pieces. The art is lush green, with a thatched hut and other thematic touches.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

Went to Euroquest in Annapolis this weekend, and got to play a bunch of new and new to me #boardgames, plus some favorites. - Peacemakers, Horrors of War - Rep•Tiles - The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game - Wondrous Creatures - Path of Civilization - Stephens - Windmill Valley - Opus Dei

Closeup of the map of Peacemakers, Horrors or War. Orange ocelot meeples in rubber bases are facing off against one remaining red bird. Three Adventurers (player pieces) are also on the map. Several pink discs represent damage taken by the units.

The rulebook for Rep•Tiles with a snake and a lizard on the cover, and a drawbag with a scaled pattern spilling out colorful scale tiles.

Luke Peterschmidt seated in front of a banner reading The Fellowship of the Ring Trick Taking Game at a table with three other players, learning the card game.

A closeup of three sea serpent meeples, with a character meeple seated on top of one. These are player pieces for Wondrous Creatures

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 01/11/2024

I'd like to make it very clear: my kiddo is amazing.

Hannah as Vi from Arcane/League of Legends, with red hair, a neck tattoo, red leather jacket & black hoodie, plus handmade Vander's Gauntlets.

Hannah as Vi from Arcane/League of Legends, with red hair, a neck tattoo, red leather jacket & black hoodie, plus handmade Vander's Gauntlets (slightly different angle)

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 31/10/2024

Halloween at my house. Because she can't just dress up as Vi, she's also got to build Vander's Gauntlets. Yes, I'll post the whole look later. Right now there's red hair dye everywhere... #Arcane

Handmade gauntlets and various tools used to craft them, including tin snips and a drill.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 31/10/2024

I usually get #ArkhamHorror 2.0 out around Halloween. It was the first #boardgame I ever bought at my FLGS, and I still enjoy playing. My Miskatonic University team (Professor, Astronomer, Researcher, Scientist) saved the world. So, you're welcome.

Part of the Arkham Horror board, showing locations like Rivertown, Graveyard, Black Cave and General Store. Two locations have an Elder Sign token meaning they are sealed (protected). Two cardboard standees (both white bearded academics) and a handful of custom dice are on the board.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 25/10/2024

I like to play thematic games this time of year, and the #UnconsciousMind Nightmares expansion fits perfectly. Creepy new patients, metamorphosis grief layers (thanks Kafka!), nightmares to analyze, the Treatise of the Dead publication, a cracked insight wheel with dark insight tokens, and pets!

A picture of the components described in the post. A tray of iridescent blue swirl tokens represent madness, black beads are added to the clear and blue (player color) beads to track insights on a circular board with three sections. The nightmare cards are tarot sized cards, and the patients are poker sized. Two cards have translucent plastic overlays that add features to the cards. There is a square token that looks like it's straight out of Evil Dead, with two mini-euro cards tucked under it as the required publication materials. Finally, there's the pet board with the illustration of a sleeping dog, several rows of abilities, and a dog-shaped wooden tracker piece. You need something to keep you sane when facing all this darkness!

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 23/10/2024

Harnessing the power of the sun!

This is a phone screenshot of the ShinePhone app. There is a picture of a solar panel array and many statistics describing the power generation of the solar panels. The installation date is listed as 2024-10-22.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 22/10/2024

I played the first 2 #solo scenarios of #ExplorersOfNavoria tonight, and set up scenario 3 for tomorrow. It's much shorter than I thought it would be, but you do take 24 turns (4x Recruit, 4x Gather, in each of 3 rounds) and have lots of bonus actions. #boardgames

4 silicone bit trays with sword, apple and mineral cardboard tokens, and wooden scroll tokens. Two reminder cards about the phases of the game, two cards used for solo, and the player board. It's got pink, yellow, and blue regions corresponding to paths on the board, each with 3 trading houses that can be built to grant abilities. 4 favor tokens in the player colors are next to the board.

The center of the image has the central map board for the game, with 4 colorful continents and a seascape. There are paths on three of the continents for travel, and the central continent has a town with action spaces. 4 cardboard tokens on the upper right can be claimed with the player's favor tokens. Several brown tokens that say "solo" are distributed on the board according to the scenario setup instructions. At the top of the image are the rulebooks and the box.

Townsfolk cards available to be recruited are arranged in rows next to the board. Magenta adventurers, blue merchants, red soldiers, green artisans, and yellow builders have three cards face up next to the decks which are face down on the board. Beneath those is another row of grey collector cards, expansion content required for solo.

A closeup of two white player pieces (a 5th color available in the expansion). The explorer is a figure with a large triangular hat and screen printed features. The turn order marker looks like a bird-shaped hot air balloon. You can see a bit of the board, including a section of the score track and the starting space of one of the paths on the continent.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 21/10/2024

I'm realizing that a lot of the folks I followed on Twitter I'd actually met at game conventions, etc. I'm still not sure how I'm going to end up using this account, but I thought a proper hello might be in order. Hi! I'm Mike, a tabletop game designer and developer (mostly solo).

I am wearing a Boston Celtics hat, black hoodie and blue T-shirt (with art by Ali Martin), and my wife Sarah is wearing a blue windbreaker. We're sitting in front of a bed of pink flowers.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 18/10/2024

I like #Stephens by Rôla & Costa quite a bit, though I've got lots of room to improve. The "reverse" resource gathering (taking a cube triggers an action), the investment cards that allow you to stock the factories with resources, and the way you unlock bonuses via professions all feel fresh.

The main board of Stephens, with a row of professions cards at the top, several professions with player tokens around the edges, a row of contract cards on the left of the board, and a row of investment cards on the right. The board itself features 4 small factories (spaces for cubes), 4 Stephens factories (spaces for translucent glassworks cubes), and a scoring track that doubles as a time tracker.

Player board styled as a desk. The open book illustration has many spaces for player tokens. Some have been removed, revealing icons that grant player abilities. Fulfilled contracts are arranged in rows on the left, and investments are on the right. One unfulfilled contract is on the bottom of the board in an area with envelope illustrations.

The box cover for Stephens features artisans around a glass working oven in the foreground, and the town of Marinha Grande, Portugal in the background.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 16/10/2024

Some Euros still really hit for me. Uwe's #BlackForest swaps the card play of #GlassRoad for worker placement, and changes one of the resource wheels to a cooking wheel. You need provisions for your pawn to travel to new locations and access the various actions. I really enjoyed my first play.

Large and medium barn-shaped boards filled with small building tiles, a cottage-shaped board filled with large building tiles, a resource board with two wheels and several resources tokens, and the estate board where you place your buildings.

The map board with five different towns, each filled with tradesperson tiles. There are worker placement circles between the tiles - you can activate both tiles you place your pawn in between.

Closeup of the blue player pawn on the board inbetween two tradesperson tiles.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 02/08/2024

I feel like my FLGS is just showing off.

Wooden shelf with four boxes copies of Hanabi Deluxe II and one copy of the Hanabi card game.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 30/07/2024

Hiked in a cloud today. Zero visibility, but oddly great views.

Sarah and Hannah walking over rocky terrain towards a wooden sign marking the summit. Fog obscures almost everything else.

Sarah and Hannah sitting on a rocky ledge. A few pine trees are visible on the left and right, but fog covers everything else.

The foreground has several large pine trees, and as you move towards the background, more and more is lost in the fog.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 08/07/2024

Played a few more games of Opus Dei with Sarah, and my favorite card (and one of the best in any game ever) came up. #BoardGames

Card title: Determinism
Card effect: This card has no function and can neither be played nor discarded.
Flavor text: The proposition that every event, including human cognition and behavior, decision and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences i.e we have no free will.
"A man can do what he wants, but not what he wants." (Schopenhauer)

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 07/07/2024

I got in a game of Boon Lake tonight, and beat the medium solo bot. The picture is from just a few turns into the game. Tomorrow I'll add the artifacts expansion and increase the difficulty. #BoardGames

The Boon Lake game board is on the table, depicting a winding river through lots of hex territories, scoring and income tracks around the outside edge, and a handful of tokens on the board.

The dual-layered individual player board for Boon Lake has recesses to fit many wooden pieces, including inhabitants, houses, settlements, and cattle. The other half of the board has recesses that look like rounded windows where you play lever tokens that can be slid up and down.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 07/07/2024

Played a game of Opus Dei tonight. It's a Guillotine-like game with a line of cards. You try to manipulate the order, then draft the first one in line at the end of the round. The difference is that you're creating the best possible world with philosophers and scientists (and no fools). #BoardGames

I'm sitting at a table on the deck with a game of Opus Dei set up. There are cards representing scientists and philosophers laid out waiting to be drafted. My shirt is one of my favorites, a stylized version of an animal cell.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 02/07/2024

My daughter is in the basement running a wonderfully chaotic #D&D campaign for 6 (!) of her friends. Since we'll be away on her birthday, we added a cake to today's proceedings. #boardgames #tabletopgames

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 15/06/2024

Wonky accidental zoom on the first pic, fixed.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 15/06/2024

The wall of Cult Classic Brewery in Kent Island MD is amazing. Writing the alt text for these was an adventure!

The left 1/3 of a mural covering the outer wall of the brewery, featuring a meteor speeding towards a T-Rex, a War of the Worlds style robot, UFO's abducting turtles and a heron, a giant crab with a fisherman in it's claw, and a sea monster attacking boats.

Middle of the mural, featuring Attack of the 50 foot Woman art, a depiction of a red velvet stage curtain that says "Taproom Cult Classic Brewery" with a plant-creature playing drums and an octopus (of sorts) playing a triangle.

Right 1/3 of the mural: another UFO in front of dark storm clouds, a majestic sea creature, a leather-clad guitarist painted on the back door, reaching her hand out towards the handle as lightning strikes, plus the Kent Island volunteer fire department fighting King Kong (atop a water tower) and massive tentacles holding a lighthouse and a firetruck. A prop plane with rainbows trailing from the wings flies overhead.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 25/05/2024

Who else has a solid weekend plan?

Photo from a balcony, the beach in the background . Mike's feet up on a table, plus crackers, cheese & beer.

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Mike Mullins @bluedevilduke.bsky.social · 29/10/2023

While the French Revolution isn't exactly Halloween material, the bodies piling up in a game of The Gods Will Have Blood certainly fit the macabre season.