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Mike Balles 🔜 Playtesting Crows 🔜 FIL Guadalajara 2026

@themikeballes.bsky.social
1.3K followers 575 following 60 posts

MEX Born and raised. Writer, Game Designer, CON Panelist & Event Organizer for the Latine Lounge. 🇲🇽 TTRPGs Advocate. ENG ESP. He/Him/Él Husband to @Cymorgan.bsky.social #LATAM #RolORollo #LatineLounge #RolEnTuIdioma #TTRPGNoticias

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Reposted by Mike Balles 🔜 Playtesting Crows 🔜 FIL Guadalajara 2026
Dan Dillon @dandillon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The Cornell Seven are exactly why appointing rapists to the Supreme Court and electing them to the presidency is a complete abdication of responsibility and humanity. Essays. Are you serious.
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Reposted by Mike Balles 🔜 Playtesting Crows 🔜 FIL Guadalajara 2026
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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Reposted by Mike Balles 🔜 Playtesting Crows 🔜 FIL Guadalajara 2026
Marcello the Valiant DM🔜Nuke-Con @mdvaliant573.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Caw!Caw!!! These CROWs pre-RPG materials are hitting at the domicile! I like everything about it-especially the transparency about how its not DRAW STEEL and not for everybody. I made a Hydromancer character. Can’t wait to see the equipment and spell lists!
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Owen K.C. Stephens (He/Him) @owenkcstephens.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
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Reposted by Mike Balles 🔜 Playtesting Crows 🔜 FIL Guadalajara 2026
Scott Fitzgerald Gray @scottfgray.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
(Repost with alt text.)
An exchange from a social media site that reads:

magicmooshka: recently my friend's comics professor told her that it's acceptable to use gen Al for script-writing but not for art, since a machine can't generate meaningful artistic work. meanwhile, my sister's screenwriting professor said that they can use gen Al for concept art and visualization, but that it won't be able to generate a script that's any good, and at my job, it seems like each department says that Al can be useful in every field except the one that they know best.

It's only ever the jobs we're unfamiliar with that we assume can be replaced with automation. The more attuned we are with certain processes, crafts, and occupations, the more we realize that gen Al will never be able to provide a suitable replacement. The case for its existence lies on our ignorance of the work and skill required to do everything we don’t.

animatedamerican: Hey OP? Thank you for articulating something I've been trying to get clear in my own mind for a while now.
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Reposted by Mike Balles 🔜 Playtesting Crows 🔜 FIL Guadalajara 2026
momatoes @momatoes.com · 19/09/2026
my partner is very cool and is doing a presentation right now on Philippine mythology
A Filipino man points to a projector screen which is showing a slide titled "The Philippines is a Social (Political) Construct"
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Reposted by Mike Balles 🔜 Playtesting Crows 🔜 FIL Guadalajara 2026
Carlos Salazar ➡️ Gen Con @carlosmakesgames.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Okay Hispanic Heritage Month, I’m going to go back and forth between parts of Latin history in the USA that stick in my mind and highlighting great things in #TTRPGs that Latin folks in TTRPGs are doing today
static.klipy.com
Celebramos La Herencia Hispana
Alt: A gif that says Celebramos la Herencia Hispana with a rose in the center and leaves that grow off each part. Confetti falls in the background
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Reposted by Mike Balles 🔜 Playtesting Crows 🔜 FIL Guadalajara 2026
Ross Cowman @rosscowman.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
soft launching UK-based shipping on heartofthedeernicorn.com right now. Free shipping on orders over $200 to the UK and Republic of Ireland. Duty paid shipments to most EU countries. If you want to do me a solid, try ordering something DM me to let me know how it goes.
heartofthedeernicorn.com
Heart of the Deernicorn
Publisher, distributor, and manufacturer of tabletop games including RPGs, Solo RPGs, and Story Games.
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Reposted by Mike Balles 🔜 Playtesting Crows 🔜 FIL Guadalajara 2026
Robo 🦀 @ttrpgifs.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Happy Hispanic Heritage Month to all the Latinos, Latinas and Latines! May our celebrations be as beautiful and amazing as we are. It's been incredibly hard for us but even after everything, we're still here. ¡Los quiero mucho amigos! ¡Dense el permiso para celebrar y que la pasen muy feliz!
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Reposted by Mike Balles 🔜 Playtesting Crows 🔜 FIL Guadalajara 2026
Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This is not what slop refers to. I'm not being purely academic about this. The conflation does matter. Because this is a type of conglation that people do to make any reasonable critique of "A.I." seem overwrought. "Oh they said the same thing about the internet!" And it is not true.
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PJ Holden @pauljholden.com · 10/09/2026
Using SLOP to define low quality human made stuff is a great example of how the ai bros and right wingers have taken up Microsoft's old Embrace, Extend and Extinguish methodology. Embrace a phrase, Extend its definition and Extinguish its usefulness as a tool to point out how much of AI is slop
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James Introcaso @jamesintrocaso.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
We've only got a few days left of the Crows BackerKit campaign! mcdm.gg/crows-rpg art by Joseba Alexander
A hulking undead creature made of several corpses has multiple mouths and wields two bone weapons
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James Introcaso @jamesintrocaso.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I am stream! It's the last week of the Crows crowdfunder! www.twitch.tv/jamesintrocaso
twitch.tv
JamesIntrocaso - Live on Twitch
Crows Q&A | Streaming just chatting.
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Reposted by Mike Balles 🔜 Playtesting Crows 🔜 FIL Guadalajara 2026
Colin Smith @colinsmith.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
“Knight and Dragon", by Bernie Wrightson, c.1987.
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Reposted by Mike Balles 🔜 Playtesting Crows 🔜 FIL Guadalajara 2026
Andrew B. @swordcompass.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Gencon continues: playing a Mexico-inspired game of Daggerheart at the Latine Lounge. Fire googlymentals! #ttrpg
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Aaron Lim 林家丰 @ehronlime.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
The Play Play Asia store is ready for our opening weekend!
A photo of the Play Play Asia store in GMBB. A photo of the Play Play Asia store in GMBB. A photo of the Play Play Asia store in GMBB. A photo of the Play Play Asia store in GMBB.
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Studio Trinket MX @studiotrinketmx.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
We participated in 2026 One-Page RPG Jam with our latest game: I Shall Die Here, a journaling game about fig wasps and mortality. studiotrinketmx.itch.io/i-shall-die-... #Journaling #RPG #OnePageRPG
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Tabletop Bookshelf🔜Gamehole Con @tabletopbookshelf.com · 09/08/2026
GAMEHOLE CON ATTENDEES: Gamehole Con is hosting a POC (people of color) Industry Dinner! This dinner is an opportunity to meet other amazing creators, find mentorship, and grow our diverse industry.
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Cam Banks 🇳🇿 ❌👑 @rustysellsword.com · 10/08/2026
(Yes this is related to some TTRPG discourse that’s going around about the OSR and rulings not rules and thinking outside the character sheet, which is still a conversation in desire of nuance)
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Cam Banks 🇳🇿 ❌👑 @rustysellsword.com · 10/08/2026
It doesn’t matter how clever my RP is or my ideas are, if the GM is final arbiter of failure or success, none of that matters. The only “skill” is persuading them. In my games the GM is another player with some different rules but not the omniscient arbiter of the game. Sic semper tyrannis.
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Cam Banks 🇳🇿 ❌👑 @rustysellsword.com · 10/08/2026
Years and years of running older editions of D&D and Amber Diceless Roleplaying especially taught me that own thing I really don’t like in TTRPGs is GM fiat.
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Derek Laufman @laufman.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
HELLBOY Arists Edition Vol 2. A thing of beauty.
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Seeker @seeker8998.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
If one sheet's all you need But the text's hard to read that's a Mork Borg
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James Hanna @bullfrogjam.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
When it’s the end of the world All will blacken and burn That’s a Mörk Borg
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Mike 🥞 Rieman @twopancakes.com · 31/07/2026
If your book or your tome’s filled with skulls, blood, and bones that’s a Mork Borg
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Johan Nohr @nohr.se · 31/07/2026
If your game or your hack got that yellow and black that’s a Mork Borg
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ʟᴜɪs ʜᴇʀɴᴀɴᴅᴇᴢ ⚡ @beetlenaut.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
this is why we cant have nice things pay your artists, pay your craftsmen
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Tomas Gimenez Rioja @ Crypt of the Nekrolych 💀 @tgimenezrgm.itch.io · 08/08/2026
Looking for new Adversaries for your #Daggerheart campaign? By backing this Villain Frame, you get: * Immediate access to 8 all-new Adversaries with exciting new mechanics * Each additional sale adds one additional Adversary Go grab your copy 👇👇 tgimenezrgm.itch.io/crypt-of-the...
tgimenezrgm.itch.io
Crypt of the NekroLych by Tomas Gimenez Rioja
A Daggerheart Villain Frame with optional rules and 30+ Adversaries
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Aaron Lim 林家丰 @ehronlime.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Set up at Asian Board Games Festival Malaysia for the weekend, selling and showcasing tabletop roleplaying games and storygames form local designers (including me), and hopefully meeting people interested in playing them in Penang!
Our booth for tabletop RPGs and storygames at ABGF Malaysia.Entrance to ABGF Malaysia at 1st Avenue Mall in Penang.
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Jason Scott @textfiles.com · 07/08/2026
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RossyDoesDrawings (commissions open) @rossydoesdrawings.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Everyone can be a goblin and goblins are for every person who chooses to be goblin.
drawings of lots of different goblins with the text goblins are varied all goblins are equal
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Reposted by Mike Balles 🔜 Playtesting Crows 🔜 FIL Guadalajara 2026
Indie Press Revolution @ipr.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Exciting news! Kotodama Heavy Industries has told us that Ryuutama: Natural Fantasy is reprinting and should be back in stock by the end of the year. THIS year!
The cover to Ryuutama: natural fantasy role play shows two travellers resting with their faithful be-ribboned dog.
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Aaron Lim 林家丰 @ehronlime.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
What Should We Have Tomorrow? and Ithaca in the Cards in grand company at Gen Con!
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NPR @npr.org · 31/07/2026
Journalists, human rights advocates and open source analysts recoiled in horror at the move: "The opportunities for abuse and disinfo are literally boundless," said one. n.pr/4c7L91d
n.pr
Google pauses AI satellite images, after fears of deepfakes in the sky
Journalists, human rights advocates and open source analysts recoiled in horror at the initial decision: "The opportunities for abuse and disinfo are literally boundless," said one.
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404 Media @404media.co · 31/07/2026
UPDATE: After the publication of this piece, Google sent 404 Media a statement saying it was “rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails.” www.404media.co/google-earth...
404media.co
Google Earth’s New AI Lets Anyone Fabricate Completely Bullshit Satellite Images
"Tonight I typed just one sentence into Google Earth and put refugees near the Mexican border. Then I planted a nuclear plant in Iran. Then I put a fatal crash on a street in Amsterdam."
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Emily | Odds & Ents @oddsandents.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Booth 449 at Gen con!
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Ethan @glyphtide.games · 30/07/2026
We are ready, folks. Come find us at Booth Y!
Booth of M L Wang with stacks of books on a table and banner in the back.
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Mike Balles 🔜 Playtesting Crows 🔜 FIL Guadalajara 2026 @themikeballes.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
You are at #Gencon? Be sure to swing by Indie Press Revolution 499, & pick up the amazing work of mexican peeps building international cool vibes. Pair up, get in your feelings as you take on the role of dastardly villains ranting about your procedurally weaved tragedy! @studiotrinketmx.bsky.social
A picture of the cover of big bad evil rant colorfully showing potential villains you will embody as you rant about your day to day shenanigans. Available at gencon boot 449 at the Indie press revolution booth :)
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Binary @binarystar.games · 30/07/2026
If you're at GenCon...well, I'm not. But NULL_SPACE is! Come get my hard sci-fi game about freelancing in the solar system of the 24th century at @ipr.bsky.social's table, Booth #449!
A lot of books on a table, with Null Space prominently in front
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Exeunt Press 💀🎲 @exeunt.press · 30/07/2026
Struggling to find art for your One-Page RPG Jam entry? Help is here... in the form of dead people: www.skeletoncodemachine.com/p/public-dom... (Part 1 of 2) #ttrpg #publicdomain #art #rpg #onepagerpg
skeletoncodemachine.com
Public domain art resources
Using public domain art in tabletop game design
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 29/07/2026
"Helping working people to afford lives of joy” This is absolutely why Mamdani is succeeding in New York and is so beloved.
As Mamdani said on his ninth day in office, his agenda is not simply about curbing the city's most urgent crises, but also includes helping "working people to afford lives of joy." That includes an intentional, visible effort to make many smaller-scale improvements to quality of life in the city. And it also includes efforts by the mayor himself to show up in the places where New Yorkers let loose and celebrate side-by-side with them.
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Tim Millard @thetimmillard.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
It looks like ISBNdb did a 180 on the “let’s sell books to AI companies to scan and destroy.”
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Sacrifice! At the Harvest Festival @theharvestmaid.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
These fuckers have enough self-awareness to know that what they're doing is shameful. That makes it worse.
As an added bonus, it also promises Al companies that it'll keep their purchases under wraps - nobody wants to end up in the spotlight like Anthropic and Meta, obviously - while clearly sounding aware about how incredibly shady the practice sounds.
"The optics problem is real," ISBNdb's site says. "Al company destroys two million books' is not a headline that generates sympathy."
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Sacrifice! At the Harvest Festival @theharvestmaid.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
AI Companies Are Buying Antique Books, Ingesting Their Contents to Train Models, and Then Destroying Them at Incredible Scale, Even If Almost No Copies Remain
AI companies are quietly obtaining rare books, ingesting their contents, and then destroying them -- even if they're exceedingly rare.
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Sacrifice! At the Harvest Festival @theharvestmaid.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Why is everything so transparently evil now?
"Print books from the pre-LLM era are structurally guaranteed to be free of this contamination. That alone is a significant advantage," it explains in an article on its website, as quoted by
404. "Physical books published before this date [pre-2022] are structurally clean of modern poisoning tools."
Once focused on helping libraries, distributors, and book shops find and sell books, ISBNdb now helps Al companies bulk-buy anywhere between 1,000 to one million books per order, according to 404.
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Joseph R. Lewis @josephrlewis.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
My Shadowdark Triple Feature is live now on Kickstarter! #osr #dnd #ttrpg #one-shot www.kickstarter.com/projects/jos...
kickstarter.com
Shadowdark Triple Feature
Three one-shot adventure zines by Joseph R. Lewis
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Dungeon Mother Kir @dungeonmotherkir.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
🇲🇾 A Malaysian-made game has been nominated for Best Adventure (short-form) at the ENNIES 2026!! 🤩 The biggest congrats to our very own @munkao.bsky.social who made the wonderful world of Kala Mandala, bringing Southeast Asian Fantasy to the world! ✨
A selfie holding a TTRPG adventure book: Tragedy At Zaya’s Theatre by Munkao. Overlayed are the writing credits which include Kir as an additional consultant. Picture is taken at Areca Books.
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Lucas Falk @ceruleanfive.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Finally got my hands on physical copies! Some things I enjoyed: • Effective presentation. • Gorgeous art. • Character s̶h̶e̶e̶t̶s̶ pamphlets. • Evocative character creation. • Advancement through learning skills from people you help. • Creative adventure concepts. Great work, @munkao.bsky.social !
Photo of four books on a table: "Kala Mandala Playbook", "Stirring the Hornet's Nest at Het Thamsya", "Deluge at Drizzle Distillery", and "Tragedy at Zaya's Theatre".
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Munkao @munkao.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I finally made some new art! "The Porcelain Tyrant of Mount Anhtong" I am not a fan of how "iconic" tigers look and am always looking for ways to make it look less tiger.
Southeast Asian Fantasy: 
A masked tiger (unclear if it is a statue or a living thing),walks menacingly towards the viewer.
Below "The Porcelain Tyrant of Mount Anhtong"
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Aaron Lim 林家丰 @ehronlime.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Hey so I haven’t really talked about it much but I finally started a new job! I’ll be running a tabletop game store called Play Play Asia at GMBB KL (GM1-13 on level 1) We focus exclusively on Asian tabletop games, including TTRPGs! More details as we get closer to opening.
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