iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

First, long-awaited game of Horror on the Orient Express. We lost! It was great! I GM’d the campaign for Call of Cthulhu and this - like Adam Kwapiński’s design of Nemesis and Frostpunk - was a perfect adaptation. 10/10! @chaosium.bsky.social

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I’ve loved Adam Kwapiński’s games in the past and I’ve been anticipating this adaptation of @chaosium.bsky.social’s “Horror on the Orient Express” for a long time. Now I just need a weekend to sort out all the bits! #boardgames

Unopened boxes of the Horror on the Orient Express boardgame.

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

First family play of Wingspan Pocket was close: 31 to 26 (we played on two teams). We all enjoyed it. It was only after we finished that we realised we had five food bowls (cheese, pretzels, apples, nuts, and popcorn). Thanks, @stonemaiergames.com #boardgames

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Ben Fisher @wordblanket.com · 23/07/2026

Stop bugging me to go see The Odyssey. We have The Odyssey at home.

1977 board game for The Odyssey. Colorful board, filled with danger and adventure. Conan ripoff art in the box. Probably the best thing I own.

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

I feel pretty ambivalent about Ian McEwan these days, but this passage from “What We Can Know” about the state of the humanities in the 2020s struck a chord. Sigh. #booksky

Section of Ian McEwan’s “What we can know.”

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Reading @aptshadow.bsky.social’s “Days of Shattered Faith,” I immediately saw an obvious pangram in today’s Spelling Bee. Illegal, of course … apparently just like HABILITATE. 🙄 #nyt #spellingbee

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Great first game of “World Order.” Russia and the EU tied this two-player game at 106 points! #boardgames

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Just back from “Geekway to the West” with ten new plays over the weekend. Here are my favourites: Up or Down @capstone-games.com, Skara Brae @garphillgames.bsky.social, Finspan @stonemaiergames.com, and Nusfjord @lookoutgames.bsky.social A great convention and community. #boardgames

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Almost too cool to unwrap. I’ve been looking forward to “Even Deeper Regrets” for a while. Thanks @tettix.bsky.social #boardgames

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Hard to get my head around this duology …did I like it? Yes, I think, though I’m not entirely sure it made a lot of sense. #booksky #sff

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

So … Clarke has a great ear for 18thC prose, and skillfully reproduces it in this expansion of the Strange/Norrell universe. But I struggled with the collection. Not anything to do with Clarke, but I remembered how much I dislike 18thC British fiction while I was reading it. #Booksky

The cover of Clarke’s “The Ladies of Grace Adieu.”

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Rachel Armes-McLaughlin @mother-poet.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

😍 🐸 *not my content* #poetry #MaryOliver #poetrymonth

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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 03/04/2026

…ye’ll maybe think it’s a – funny day to be celebrating – well, no, but ye see I wasny working, and I like to celebrate when I’m no working… —Edwin Morgan, “Good Friday” from CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS, @carcanet.bsky.social 2020 #Easter #poem #poetry #GoodFriday www.carcanet.co.uk/978178410996...

Good Friday
Edwin Morgan

Three o’clock. The bus lurches
round into the sun. “D’s this go –”
he flops beside me – “right along Bath Street?
– Oh tha’s, tha’s all right, see I’ve
got to get some Easter eggs for the kiddies.
I’ve had a wee drink, ye understand –
ye’ll maybe think it’s a – funny day
to be celebrating – well, no, but ye see
I wasny working, and I like to celebrate
when I’m no working – I don’t say it’s right
I’m no saying it’s right, ye understand – ye understand?
But anyway tha’s the way I look at it –
I’m no boring you, eh? – ye see today,
take today, I don’t know what today’s in aid of,
whether Christ was – crucified or was he –
rose fae the dead like, see what I mean?
You’re an educatit man, you can tell me –
– Aye, well. There ye are. It’s been seen
time and again, the working man
has nae education, he jist canny – jist
hasny got it, know what I mean,
he’s jist bliddy ignorant – Christ aye,
bliddy ignorant. Well –” The bus brakes violently,
he lunges for the stair, swings down – off,
into the sun for his Easter eggs,
on very‍‍
‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ nearly‍‍
‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ steady‍‍
‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ legs.

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Short but powerful Northern novel, “Seascraper,” by Benjamin Wood. A lovely, slow read that takes place over the span of about a day, about class, small-town stigma, and creativity. #booksky

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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 31/03/2026

A feel fur thon wee Lewis keelies stuck in Lunnon Goggle-e’ed wi chowin the taps aff their shields, Haimseek fur Norroway ower the faem. —Jim Alison, “Ingaunees” originally published as a poster for @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social #poem #poetry #chess #Vikings #medievalsky

Ingaunees
by Jim Alison

This chaumert cairn kists bitties
O oor bricht an battert past—
A things that Scots hae keepit or drappit or lost
Or couldna tak wi them when they deed
Or went awa for guid.

Dootless there’s ither grand ingaunees ootby
In Russia, India an sic fremmit fields
Whaur gangrel skelfs an shards o Scotland skinkle
Or gether stoor on shelves.

A feel fur thon wee Lewis keelies stuck in Lunnon
Goggle-e’ed wi chowin the taps aff their shields,
Haimseek fur Norroway ower the faem.

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

By some odd coincidence, I read two, quite different, “heist” novels at the same time. Comparisons are odorous … but I’ll only say that I LOVED @eddierobson.bsky.social ‘s book from start to finish. I’m going to miss those characters.

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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 08/03/2026

Scotland, you have invoked her name just once too often in your Presbyterian living rooms. She’s heard, yea even unto heathenish Arabia your vixen’s bark of poverty… —Kathleen Jamie, “The Queen of Sheba” from THE QUEEN OF SHEBA, @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social 1994 A #poem for #InternationalWomensDay

KATHLEEN JAMIE
The Queen of Sheba

Scotland, you have invoked her name
just once too often
in your Presbyterian living rooms.
She’s heard, yea
even unto heathenish Arabia
your vixen’s bark of poverty, come down
the family like a lang neb, a thrawn streak,
a wally dug you never liked
but can’t get shot of.

She’s had enough. She’s come.
Whit, tae this dump? Yes!
She rides first camel
of a swaying caravan
from her desert sands
to the peat and bracken
of the Pentland hills
across the fit-ba pitch
to the thin mirage
of the swings and chute; scattered with glass.

Breathe that steamy musk
on the Curriehill Road, not mutton-shanks
boiled for broth, nor the chlorine stink
of the swimming pool where skinny girls
accuse each other of verrucas.
In her bathhouses women bear
warm pot-bellied terracotta pitchers
on their laughing hips.
All that she desires, whatever she asks
She will make the bottled dreams
of your wee lasses look like sweeties.

Spangles scarcely cover
her gorgeous breasts, hanging gardens
jewels, frankincense; more voluptuous
even than Vi-next-door, whose
high-heeled slippers
keeked from dressing gowns
like little hooves, wee tails
of pink fur stuffed in the cleavage of her toes;
more audacious even than Currie Liz
who led the gala floats
through the Wimpey scheme
in a ruby-red Lotus Elan
before the Boys’ Brigade band
and the Brownies’ borrowed coal-truck;
hair piled like candy-floss;
who lifted her hands from the neat wheel
to tinkle her fingers
at her tricks
among the Masons and the elders and the police.

The cool black skin
of the Bible couldn’t hold her,
nor the atlas green
on the kitchen table,
you stuck with thumbs
and split to fruity hemispheres –
yellow Yemen, Red Sea, Ethiopia. Stick in
with the homework and you’ll be

cliver like yer faither.
but no too cliver,
no above yersel.

See her lead those great soft camels
widdershins round the kirk-yaird,
smiling
as she eats
avocados with apostle spoons
she’ll teach us how. But first

she wants to strip the willow
she desires the keys
to the National Library
she is beckoning
the lasses
in the awestruck crowd ...

Yes, we’d like to
clap the camels,
to smell the spice,
admire her hairy legs and
bonny wicked smile, we want to take
PhDs in Persian, be vice
to her president: we want
to help her
ask some Difficult Questions

she’s shouting for our wisest man
to test her mettle:

Scour Scotland for a Solomon!

Sure enough: from the back of the crowd
someone growls:
whae do you think y’ur?

and a thousand laughing girls and she
draw our hot breath
and shout:

THE QUEEN OF SHEBA!

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Quick try-out of a new one-player game, Resist!, which I lost (just had to push it one more round … one too many as it turned out). Nice to have two one-player games about the Maquis, both of them fun and lovely to look at. #boardgames #boardgamesky @25thcentury.games

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Another attempt at Arkham Horror again last night … we almost didn’t lose again this time. But, alas. #boardgames

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Soooooo happy to have backed “Blades ‘68” today. We’ve been playtesting it for a year, and it’s groovy, baby. @olddog.games @evilhat.bsky.social youtu.be/oRlhKBRU8VU

youtu.be

Blades '68 Crowdfunding Trailer

YouTube video by Evil Hat Productions

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Looking through my game archives today and found this from 1981! I suppose I really have been playing this game for more than 40 years. Better get these Call of Cthulhu counters put together before there aren’t any pennies left! #TTRPG @chaosium.bsky.social

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Another bout with Arkham Horror. Another unsuccessful attempt to save the city from destruction! #boardgames

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Evil Hat @evilhat.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

"Oh, and uh, just one more question, Dr. Morcroft... I see a lotta pilots from Blueraker 5 sign into the visitor logs for the Lusk Reform Clinic. I didn't see any of them sign out." The Hound. 1 of 8 Playbooks in Blades '68 Get more info and sign up to follow here: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

An illustration in brown, gray, and orange of a man wearing a suit and a trenchcoat, standing in an alley. He has one hand in the pocket of his suitcoat, the other grasps a snub-nosed revolver. His hair is tousled, a cigarette dangles from his lip and a white bandage covers his broken nose. A long-eared bloodhound stands next to him. Caption: Hound. A hard-bitten fixer who follows their instincts.

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

I’m often not thrilled with Booker winners, and this one took a few chapters before I was hooked. I ended up liking Szalay’s “Flesh” a lot. I know it took a beating from some readers but I thought it was a compelling meditation on trauma and masculinity, and what’s not said. #booksky

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

We unseated Denethor in Minas Tirith and mustered the Elves, but the Eye of Sauron found Frodo and Sam in Mordor and that was the end for Middle Earth. #boardgames

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

C L Polk’s “Witchmark” was an enjoyable read, though mystery novels are not my thing, usually. But a fabulously conceived world. Great Edwardian #SFF #booksky

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Evil Hat @evilhat.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Our next crowdfunder! Blades '68 grabs Blades in the Dark by the lapels of its woolen jacket and launches the game 100 years into the future! New crews, new rules and subversive acts of radical revolution await you under the light of an artificial sun. Sign up here: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

A mockup of the Blades '68 setting book. Colorful characters inspired by the 1960s are illustrated in bright shades of blue, orange, and yellow. Caption: Unruly escapades in a dystopian retro-future. Coming soon to BackerKit.

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Monster Hour Pod @monsterhourpod.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

It’s Echo Chamber Day!! Join the Emissaries of the Echo as they crash Duskvol’s Consensus Day parade and infiltrate the Ministry of Discovery. After all, the Blue Array underpinning the city's new golden era isn't going to destroy itself. Episode 1 - Consensus Day www.patreon.com/posts/echo-c...

Four curving lines (orange, yellow, baby blue, turquoise) arc across an eggshell backdrop with a pale blue ink stain. Text in the top right read “Echo Chamber”. Text in the bottom left reads “A Blades 68 miniseries.”

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

I really wanted to like “The Night Circus,” and started out enjoying its lush prose. But I never connected with its characters. I’m not sure why. By its end I felt like I was reading only to finish it. Never a good feeling. #booksky

Cover of “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Another crack at Frostpunk tonight … and a win! #boardgames

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

… and gin, of course. This from the Isle of Wight Distillery.

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

My Xmas haul, photobombed by my daughter’s pusheen. Games and books. Who could ask for anything more? #booksky @chaosium.bsky.social @atomicmassgames.bsky.social

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Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Techbros seem to love Tolkien, so here's an analogy to help you understand what genAI is. GenAI is The One Ring. You think your use is justified, b/c you don't have evil in your heart. But it came from evil, it is intended for evil purpose, & anything you do with it will be twisted to that end.

Boromir from THE LORD OF THE RINGS, holding The One Ring. He thought he could use it for good, but everything done with the ring turns to evil. He was one of the mightiest warriors of middle earth, and he could not resist its powers. Others even mightier fell to the ring. Do you think you are stronger than them? The One Ring is generative AI.

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Reading round-up for 2025: Best author discoveries were Adrian Tchaikovsky and Malka Older, although they write very different novels. Favourite novel was Carys Davies’ “Clear,” though special mentions for Yangsze Choo’s “The Fox Wife,”Sandra Newman’s “Julia,” and Moore’s “The Great When.” #booksky

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Ah, Zombicide. Nothing says the holidays like playing a Molotov-cocktail throwing kid who drives over zombie hoards in a stolen police car. #boardgames.

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

End of our first game of Getaway Driver. I do love Fowers Games, but this rulebook was a bit challenging. Great two-player game, though. #boardgames www.fowers.games

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Life goals. He Wants a New Start. So He Is Taking the Hardest Driving Test in the World. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/w...

nytimes.com

He Wants a New Start. So He Is Taking the Hardest Driving Test in the World.

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Shout to my wife, Stephannie Gearhart, who has an article on Derek Jarman’s “The Tempest” in this volume. 🌬️

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

First time playing the Epilogue mission of Nemesis’ Aftermath expansion. By a stroke of luck I managed to complete my Psychologist’s “Personal Requirement” in the first turn and squeaked out a win. #boardgames

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Lovely game of Aspens today: our first! We were so excited to calculate the final score that we forgot to take a picture. 🙁 www.ludivore.com #boardgames

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Evil Hat @evilhat.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Look for Blades '68 to crowdfund next year.

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Two games on the table tonight: another bout of “Apiary” and a victory over Ithaqua in “Elder Sign.” #boardgames

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Jason Price @alwayscheckers.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

📣 Notorious: Tales of Hardscrabble Bounty Hunting is now live on Kickstarter! 📣 www.kickstarter.com/projects/alw... 🚀 Forge a sci-fi trilogy in this solo boxed card game 🃏 450+ unique cards with tons of cool art by @turbotorbo.bsky.social 🖊️ A brand new game & system, in collab w/ @mousehole.press

kickstarter.com

Notorious: Tales of Hardscrabble Bounty Hunting

Forge your own sci-fi trilogy in this solo narrative card game.

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Can’t say I’m looking forward to this new season of Doctor Who #DoctorWho

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

I looked forward to this for a long time and I really did my best. But I found it deeply disappointing. Couldn’t finish it. #booksky

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Simon Morgan-Russell @smorgan-russell.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Not sure why it took us so long before we got around to playing Apiary, but it was great! #boardgames @stonemaiergames.com

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