iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Sometimes I get icky about the entire "social/educational/health/etc benefits of games" field because I have major concerns about who actually benefits - but this is actually my ideal outcome.

Findings The study did not collect enough data to make conclusions about team
effectiveness. Although there may have been an unintended introduction of social
desirability bias, teams unanimously would like to engage with For the Queen and other
collaborative storytelling games again. Qualitatively, the participants did not believe that
gameplay trust, collaboration, and cohesion, all
important attributes of strong teams.

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I'm interviewed by Stephen Shapiro in the latest issue of Analog Game Studies! Always free and open-access: escholarship.org/uc/analoggam...

escholarship.org

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I was just reminded that this exists and that I am curious about it! If you've read it I'd love to hear your thoughts. Sometimes I think I should write something like this? But maybe this makes that unnecessary? barkadagames.itch.io/descendants-...

barkadagames.itch.io

Descendants of the Queen by Barkada Games

How to design for Descended from the Queen games

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Yes! This is the kind of iteration on my work that gets me really interested - from what Chris aptly calls "the useful kind of wanting," not a frustration at lack but a yearning for more.

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Okay apparently I need to pay closer attention to this website

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Briefly alighting on a branch of bluesky to say 1. USA-based fans, For the Queen is back in stock! shop.critrole.com/collections/... 2. Friends at GenCon know that I am with you in spirit <3 <3 <3

shop.critrole.com

For the Queen

Hear ye, hear ye: Your Grace is primed for her voyage, and has chosen you to accompany her! For the Queen is a card-driven collaborative storytelling game that invites you to tell a dramatic narrative...

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Having dental surgery on Thursday and wondering what games I should have ready to play. I have a Switch and a Saturn. I know theoretically I could emulate anything but the LAST thing I want to do after a surgical root canal is fuck around with emulation

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Graham Walmsley 🎲 @grahamwalmsley.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

If you want to know more about Play Unsafe - and lots of other random TTRPG stuff - @benriggs.bsky.social interviewed me and @helloalexroberts.bsky.social . It's a great interview and I love talking to Alex. www.youtube.com/watch?v=68G5...

youtube.com

What is the purpose of horror? A conversation with Graham Walmsley & Alex Roberts- Ep 93

YouTube video by Reading D&D Aloud

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Please check this out, @benriggs.bsky.social was a great moderator to our overexcited tangents and musings

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Graham and I had a real good time talking about horror, romance, and precious slices of rpg history

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Must suck to have to guard a forbidden zone. Or to be forbidden from a particular zone.

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Looking forward to listening to this!

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Today's preoccupation is the strangely empty image on the Chameleon Twist (N64) cartridge. So much negative space. You can almost hear a gentle breeze.

Nintendo 64 cartridge showing the words Chameleon Twist and an empty jungle

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Why have I never before perceived the hideous mouths on the Beamos from Ocarina of Time? Did I refuse to perceive them? Did my brain edit them out of my memory?

Horrid little creature from Zelda 64. It's like a cast iron pot grew an eye stalk? And then a mouth? This is just a relatively low poly model, I refuse to look at the concept art

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Knave of Cups @knaveofcups.com · 22/02/2026

TONS OF FAVES ARE BACK IN STOCK ...including For The Queen by @helloalexroberts.bsky.social 👑 Answer prompts to tell the story. You've spent years in the service of your queen, but one final journey decides her fate. Genre-spanning art means a multitude of tarot-inspired queens can shape the tale

The box cover to For The Queen, decorated like a storybook (the title) and a stained glass window showing roses and five possible queens in different art styles: a regal white-haired queen, a folklore sun-themed queen, a mermaid, a cyberpunk hacker, and a knife-wielding, horror movie beauty queen

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Yo was there ever an official release of the OST for this

90s ass lookin painting instructional video

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Yes this last note is so important! Sometimes a well GMd session is helpful for new players but pick-up-and-play oneshots, in my experience, open even very inexperienced players up to the possibility of *making* a game

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

This is so up my alley it must be taking place in my house

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

This is how I respond when people say you "must be really creative" or "have good improv skills" to play TTRPGs

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

If you like learning and then getting to demo some TTRPGs get your ass to Open Space this Friday, Lino and I are gonna kill it. Pls pls pls bring your friends who are RPG-curious, they are my fav kind of people

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

I went to a party last night where the theme was "diva behaviour." Not usually a vibe I'm working with but I asked the host "Is Ken Penders a diva" and her yes was so immediate and absolute I knew I was in for a good time

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Probably the work I'm most proud of from 2025! Everyone please listen and then tell me your critiques

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

I love this piece, and not just because I'm a theology dork - the reasons why Sonic makes for a popular object of Christian fanart are, I think, similar to the reasons why he is a fetish icon

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

In 2025's last act of utter self-indulgence, I'm going to be ranking all the depictions of Cid from Final Fantasy as seen on Magic: the Gathering cards. Cid is a recurring character in the series, usually a good guy, makes machines and stuff. I haven't played the newer games so I think of him like

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Did you know that I released a new game this year? Going For Broke is a fast-paced, party roleplaying game that tells sitcom stories about a collective house that's scrambling to pay rent. It's cheap, easy to teach, and takes less than an hour to play. Check it out! buriedwithoutceremony.com/gfb

buriedwithoutceremony.com

Going For Broke - Buried Without Ceremony

Going For Broke is a fast-paced sitcom roleplaying game about a collective house scrambling to get enough money together. Choose one of twelve house members, pick an episode, and dive right in.

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

There are fifteen versions of the Cid card in the Final Fantasy MtG set and obviously I want to rank them all BUT I can't figure out if I should go hottest to least hot or least hot to hottest

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

knock on my door if you want a demo on how to play pizza box

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

It was a great time, but for some reason g+ was just us, blues dancers, and birdwatchers

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

After many years, and playing at least some of I-X (sorry XI it's not you it's me) I finally tried to give Final Fantasy XII a shot. Why is any of this like this. How many hours does it take until something fun happens

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

This is the method I use as well, famously with something like 25 different players at DiGRA 2019 ;-)

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Sharang Biswas @sharangbiswas.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Yes, this is the way Kat Jones taught me to run it for large classes and it defo works better! I also sometimes pair people up ton playback single character if the group is truly large

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sam “ludonarrative disinterest” sorensen @samsorensen.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

the way I run it with my students (which I think I got from @sharangbiswas.bsky.social ?) is I have all players choose a name and a job/role/relationship (her bodyguard, cook, sister, etc.), write those down on the board, then do just one or two rounds of questions apiece before the final

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

I've run demos for like ten people at a time, unmodified - but I bet some of you have good advice about how to do this well

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

This is why biblical studies is fun - this is even funnier when you know Jesus' brother's name is Josus

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Topher Florence @topherflorence.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

I know it's been said before but no matter how rational I want to be, in my heart I still do believe killing mr peanut and bringing him back as a baby unlocked some kind of wretched demonic seal on human society

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Roleplay Retcon @roleplayretcon.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

And if you wanna hear it in action... pod.link/1447271428/e...

A pod.link screenshot of Roleplay Retcon's AP of And To All A Good Night

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

I don't find making a game to be a good way to proclaim a statement but I find it an excellent way to ask a question

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

Oh yeah, I made a Christmas themed game a few years ago, because [Werner Herzog voice, with same level of sincerity] the figure of Santa Claus is repulsive to me helloalexroberts.itch.io/andtoallagoo...

helloalexroberts.itch.io

And To All A Good Night by Alex Roberts

A storytelling card game about working for Santa Claus

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

The amount of time I have spent thinking about this game. It's not a sane amount

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

YES! I knew the number could not have been zero. Though now I'm trying to remember the name of those extremely cool Fighting Guys cards that @jeffstormer.gobirds.online had...

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

It seems strange that there aren't more (any?) TTRPGs that use Magic: the Gathering cards in their mechanics

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

This glow-up encapsulates everything good about the movie

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

The vibe going in for your first hormonal iud

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Transformers can feel pain? I mean. Of course they do. And of course I knew that. But someone pointed it out directly and I am unsettled.

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

TTRPG? I'm not sitting down to a game with that little bastard

the horrid little clock man from Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo 64, wearing a smug smile

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