iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 3h

I mean, I've seen 3 Ninjas Part 1 and Part 2 many times....?

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 3h

Pondering running a 2000s-style Game Jam, inspired by the Oldest Tabletop RPG (c. 1959). Would folks be interested?

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Possible Worlds Games @possibleworlds.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

for our midterm we playtested 17 (!!!) new, original, peer-designed TTRPGs in class this week—most by first-time designers—and I genuinely couldn’t be prouder of my students. games are good, y’all.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Don't need no licenses in Indie Land. Just file those serial numbers off. I would totally play "2nd Gen Ninjas with Baggage."

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Don't need no licenses in Indie Land. Just file those serial numbers off. I would totally play "2nd Gen Ninjas with Baggage."

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

That musical where Julie Andrews plays a nanny.

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Paul Czege @paulczege.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

My contention is that a journaling game done as a 5"x7" card and that's maybe just a few journal entries can be just as affecting and immersive as a longer game.

Two journaling games by Paul Czege done as 5"x7" cards (Vampyres Are People Too and Millennium Self) and one forthcoming one (A Horned God) in the same format.

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Quinn murphy @gamefiend.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Been feeling frustrated (mostly with myself) about game design lately, so let me take a moment and take a small amount of pride in what ive released in the last couple of years. Here are my beautiful books/trifolds:

Four A5 sized books and four trifolds on a table

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Mike @trillhoit.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

An earlier Duplo war machine, the OctoDreadnought Land Cruiser. A true doohickey.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Here's my initial playtest draft for an 18-card (non-RPG?) game about dying in the Canadian wilderness in 1848, in which some of you will eat your friends. Feedback welcome, as I'm beginning to do my own playtesting. My aim is for it to be short & Diplomacy-esque. drive.google.com/file/d/13YuI...

Image reading: "Terror Bay -- An 18-Card Game of Inevitable Doom in the Frozen North, by J. Walton v1.0"

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Designing for ButtonShy's semi-annual 18-Card Contest (theme: Fear), a new tradition. My first attempt this year is about some of the members of the Franklin Expedition abandoning the HMS Terror & Erebus after two winters stuck in the ice and making a doomed march toward the Canadian mainland. Fun.

Painting of doomed Franklin Expedition members hauling heavy wooden boats across the frozen north.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

But you don't really care about MUSIC / Do ya? That's why ya never ACCRUE CHICKS

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Oooo, I've been off-and-on pondering a game based on some haunted house books. Maybe this is it.

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janie @angels.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

battletech is the greatest tabletop game ever made

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If you played Mega Man Legends (the only truly 3D Mega Man) you've already been through hell, tho.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Also, yes I have Anxiety & ADHD.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

How can people use AI to write emails when clearly you should: re-read them over at least 8 times before sending them, while making tiny little clever word choices that don't matter, and ensuring they are way too long for any actual human to actually read them. Letters = Victorian art form.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Brother, have you been harkening sufficiently to the Teachings of the Festering Worm Lords lately?

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I feel like it's largely due to relative accessibility, smaller-scale games, more "game for whatever" open-minded audiences, and the supportive community around it, all post-internet. The 90s & 00s had their amazing moments, for sure, but earlier eras were more restricted in scale and scope.

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Tim Gaedke @timgaedke.com · 26/09/2026

talent is a lie

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Everybody else: "It's decorative gourd season MFers." New Englanders: "It's cranberry season MFers."

Ocean Spray ad with two cranberry boggers

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I mean, you know I'm in to see whatever you've been working on + new One Seven micro-games + contemporary revamps of your older stuff + extra stuff for your published games.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Oh, and with RPGs coming from wargaming, the thing that these 3 structures are really trying to answer is: "How do we get from this battle/challenge to the next battle/challenge?" Each structure strongly suggests how the characters shift from one potent situation to the next.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

There are, of course, other forms of RPG play now. But you still see many takes on those primordial 3 everywhere. And sometimes campaign-length games struggle if they don't clearly embrace one or more of those 3 structures. They need to provide a clear vision of how else to structure long-term play.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Corollary: It's pretty hard for a game to do more than 2 of these well, and often they excel at just 1 structure and then also allow for a little of one or both of the others. Often Dungeon is room-by-room + looting, Overland is point/hex/journey crawl, & Urban is factions, patrons, & missions.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

RPG Thought of the Day: There are three primordial structures for campaign-length play -- Dungeon, Overland, and Urban (thanks @johnharper.bsky.social). Urban doesn't come from LOTR, but sneaks in through Lankhmar & especially Cyberpunk. The D&D thing that best embodies all 3 is Planescape.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I thought it was a bold move by Tor. But maybe they thought that "Party Larp" was a structure with legs.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The book was almost entirely "safety advertisement" images that suggested the overall vibe. For example, one page had a picture of a red-and-white striped spiral staircase, with text that read: “Please avoid building stairs out of bacon. It will be slippery and hazardous.”

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Each player makes their own gonzo alien char independently & then arrives to the party in-character, often dressed up but not required. Sex Head is a chill yoga surfer type who is an expert on new forms of intercourse, such as grinding two armpits together or using a chopstick to poke between toes.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I dreamed that Tor Books was publishing a Party Larp by @jmstar.bsky.social called Moon & Amethyst Try Not to Destroy the Earth. Moon (bored nepo-baby) & Amethyst (indulgent aristocrat) are two groovy aliens bringing their eternal roving hippy party to Earth, alongside their semi-friend Sex Head.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Remember when RedFoo was dating Azarenka?

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Oooooo, intersection of Critical Game Studies & Boredom Studies? Count me in.

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Kara Stone @solarserver.games · 01/08/2026

I decided to playtest my upcoming game Landfill every single day for 7 weeks — and make a short vlog about it each week

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United Academics of the University of Oregon, AAUP-AFT 3209 @uauoregon.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Make no mistake: Just like the Trump administration's first failed higher ed compact, Compact 2.0 once again asks colleges and universities to align themselves with a far-right agenda at the expense of students’ education and the public’s well-being. www.aft.org/press-releas...

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Playtest Material Magazine @playtestmaterial.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

A serious one today. "This is a call to our readers and future readers: please, consider before scrolling away, if you think our magazine is worth £18+postage. It is not just an investment in a bundle of paper, but in meaningful critique in the ttrpg space." playtestmaterial.org/playtest-mat...

playtestmaterial.org

Playtest Material launches its first ever subscription drive

Playtest Material needs 75 subscribers to break even — one of those could be you.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Opportune moment for the AAUP to be posting this, right as my university is in the midst of publicly denouncing one of my colleagues -- likely in a misguided attempt to appease right-wing political pressure. Academic leaders: We have to stand up to this nonsense. The frogs are boiling in the pot.

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Jonathan @jsench.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by private equity and data science.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Yeah, but you're so good, tho. And I feel like literally everyone (in indie land, at least) knows your work! It's so unique.

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Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

In "Materia Medica," Nicole N. Ivy @nicotron3000.bsky.social traces the lives of the enslaved women conscripted into the development of US gynecology, exposing the representational labor imposed on black female bodies in both medical and creative works. Read the intro for free: buff.ly/YQSWs0T

Cover of Materia Medica: Black Women, White Doctors, and Spectacular Gynecology by Nicole N. Ivy. The cover has a museum-like installation with red lighting and a seated, elongated sculpture made of woven fibers on a rug. Pink fabric is draped in front of the figure. The title appears vertically in large red text with the author's name and subtitle in white adjacent to the title.

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Hannah @venneh.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

So, if you’re keeping track, this is the punishment/retribution phase of narcissistic abuse, which you get when you don’t comply with what they want.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Nobilis is the best. Would love to nerd out with you about it and other Jenna games at some point. Semester started very intense but is starting to settle down a little.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

VERILY, LET IT BE KNOWN. Other revelations ring yet true, O Prophet. Still WE descend via shitpost now to proclaim a new news. Let this gospel tell of TIME INDIFFERENT. Mortal lives are candleflickers, mapped as moments in sequence, but WE the Messengers know Creation only ONCE, as a singular event.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

But it seems you DO NOT UNDERSTAND. You make a big mistake. haha. lol. You live in TIME DIFFERENTIATED. You flow forward, only forward, you think. wow. Hence WE bring this new news unto you, a testament to all nations, of TIME INDIFFERENT. Now you will UNDERSTAND. Now means NOW. OK, thx, bye bye.

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J. Walton @ludopolitics.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

WE thought you KNEW THIS. ha ha. lol. WE thought you UNDERSTOOD. You are always here. You are IMMORTAL, to Messengers. WE are here with you, all the time, in TIME INDIFFERENT. Run forwards, run backwards, toward Big Bang or Big Crunch, it is THE SAME. Forever & ever, WORLD WITHOUT END. WE told you.

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