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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU

@stickydoodler.bsky.social

1.2K followers 750 following 4.1K posts

I make games that spark imagination and empathy. I also promote tabletop game designers based in the DMV ♦️🎲 (DC-MD-VA). 爸爸 to Big Sticky and Li'l Doodler. He/他/any. 🌳✂️ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stickydoodler/the-bonsai-diary

www.kickstarter.com

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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · Oct 23

Hello friends new & old! I'm Gene, and I design games that evoke empathy and imagination. I enjoy exploring the uncanny valley between board and role-playing games, where one day I will discover Shangri-La. Until then, I post about my design journey and theories and avoid engagement farming.

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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 1h

The Oct-Nov ♦️🎲 Designed in the DMV email is out with upcoming events featuring your favorite local game designers. All info, no fluff -- sign up to get it delivered straight to your inbox:
dmv-designed-games.beehiiv.com/p/tabletop-g...

Tabletop Games in the DMV

October & November events in your backyard

dmv-designed-games.beehiiv.com

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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 6h

No previous experience with plants, drawing, painting, journaling, or gaming required. (But if you have a favorite pen, brush, or brush pen, bring it!). We'll grow a happy - or not-so-happy -- li'l tree, imagine the world it will grow up in, and just chill.

Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 6h

Let's admit it: the last few months have been heavy, especially here in the DC area. Find a moment of peace and come grow a little tree with me as we play a special version of The Bonsai Diary!

📅 Tue, Nov 11
🕡 6:30 pm
📍 @fantomcomics.bsky.social, 2010 P St NW, 2nd Floor
💵 FREE

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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 9h

I love playtesting so I see the heart of a game before it's been sanded down. Yes, making a game more accessible to the intended audience is a virtue, but that often comes at a cost.

Reposted by Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU

Exeunt Press 💀 @exeunt.press · 1d

Come see the Exeunt Press Head Skeleton In Charge (me) in person at the People's Book Indie & Local Tabletop Games Fair this weekend in Takoma Park, MD.

Details here: omnes.exeunt.press/p/peoples-bo...

#boardgames #ttrpg #solorpg #gamedesign 🎲✂️

Indie & Local Tabletop Games Fair 2025

Rain or shine at People's Book in Takoma Park, MD this weekend (10/18). Featuring Angela Bell, Dave Chalker, and Andy Looney of Looney Labs (Fluxx). And Exeunt Press too!

omnes.exeunt.press

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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 1d

You made me look up your 2017 review of March of the Ants, and it makes me sad that I've passed it up several times as it might be exactly the game I'm looking for. How does it hold up?

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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 1d

...happens to hold its annual convention right here in the BWI region of Maryland.

(Check it out! www.unpub.org/upcoming-eve...)

You can meet Dave face-to-face and find out what a great guy he is:

Indie & Local Tabletop Games Fair
📆 Sat, Oct 18
🕛 12-5pm
📍 @peoplesbooktakoma.com

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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 1d

@davethegame.bsky.social is a big reason why the DMV is such a vibrant place for tabletop game design. He's the award-winning designer of Get Bit!, Thunder Road: Vendetta, and other titles. He's ALSO on the board of @unpub.bsky.social, a global nonprofit supporting tabletop design that...
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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 2d

Meet Ben and check out "We All Take From the River" will be at our upcoming DMV event:

Indie & Local Tabletop Games Fair
📆 Sat, Oct 18
🕛 12-5pm
📍 @peoplesbooktakoma.com
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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 2d

It's an example of a "multi-victor" system that we should think more about not only in our tabletop games but in our politics.

What would our world be like if my condition for "winning" was not predicated on your "losing"?

(Follow @lunarpunk.games / @xoe.gay for more on these ideas)
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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 2d

There are so very few games that accurately capture the challenges of self-governance because they take either extreme of total conflict or total cooperation. By contrast, Ben Hammer's "We All Take From the River" gives each player agendas that create conflict and collaboration organically.
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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 3d

Imagine folk arcana rituals for the modern-day witches and hedge mages. Imagine the inevitable end of the universe. Jump into the imagination of @tomahawkbunny.bsky.social at

Indie & Local Tabletop Games Fair
📆 Sat, Oct 18
🕛 12-5pm
📍 @peoplesbooktakoma.com

Indie & Local Tabletop Games Fair ft McCricket Publishing Co. Covers of Magica Mechanica and Sometimes We Were Infinite

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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 4d

We once visited Amsterdam and stayed at a friend's flat that was provided for her as a cellist. I was flabbergasted that such a thing existed.

Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 4d

If you're at Congress of Gamers tomorrow, you've got to check out Period Party by ThunderDay Games. The team has been polishing the heck out of this "period positive trick-taking game" for some time now (I playtested it almost a year ago at PAX Unpub):
www.instagram.com/p/DPoM5DqDmpi/

playperiodparty on Instagram: "Try Period Party in Rockville, MD this Saturday (Oct 11, 10–4:30 PM)! 🎉We’re so excited to kick off our third round of blind playt…"

Try Period Party in Rockville, MD this Saturday (Oct 11, 10–4:30 PM)! 🎉We’re so excited to kick off our third round of blind playtesting at Congress of Gamers! Come find us in the Unpublished Games section and help us shape the final version of our chaotic, period-positive trick-taking game ❤️🩸#playperiodparty #congressofgamers #playtest #rockville #maryland #boardgame #boardgameaddict #menstruation #periodactionday #periodpositive #tricktaking #periodparty #endperiodstigma #cardgame #boardgamedesigners #kickstarterView all comments

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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 4d

Meet Deb and other artists at the Indie & Local Tabletop Games Fair
📆 Sat, Oct 18
🕛 12-5pm
📍 @peoplesbooktakoma.com

Learn more and RSVP for the panel discussion:
peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/indie-...

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Indie & Local Tabletop Games Fair 2025

The DMV is home to some of the world’s leading tabletop game designers! Come meet your neighbors whose games are available at hobby shops, online, and even your local bookstore. Designed in t…

peoplesbooktakoma.com

Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 4d

... especially this one, which hits hard right now as so many of our friends, colleagues, and neighbors are suffering from the government shutdown -- deprived of both income and the honor of serving our country.

stori-lundi.itch.io/alone-among-...

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Alone Among a Government Furlough by Big Puffin Games

A solo journaling RPG about biding your time during a furlough. Congress didn't do their job so now you can't do yours.

stori-lundi.itch.io

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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 4d

IRL, Deb Fuller has a dream job: game-based learning designer for K-12 education. But if "learning" isn't your thing, @bigpuffingames.bsky.social's journaling games and zines are full of heart and compassion...
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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 4d

The media portray politics as a spectrum between left and right, but that spectrum exists in a square where the bigger divide is between political and apolitical. Techniques like what you describe sharpen that line and convince apolitical normies to stay out of politics altogether

Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 4d

Thank you!!

Reposted by Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU

Fort Circle @fortcircle.bsky.social · 5d

If you want to register for Circle DC, now is the time to do it. We are going to send an email to our entire customer list (14000+ folks) that will include, among other discussions, a link to the registration at circledc.com. The dates are April 10-12, 2026. We only have 102 badges left.

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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 4d

That's a purty li'l sapling! I hope it's given you some peace. 💚

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Reposted by Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU

Deb Fuller @bigpuffingames.bsky.social · 5d

Trying to deal with the horrors of the universe through a little solo journaling with Bonsai Diary by @stickydoodler.bsky.social

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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 5d

at the Indie & Local Tabletop Games Fair
📆 Sat, Oct 18
🕛 12-5pm
📍@peoplesbooktakoma.com

Learn more and RSVP for the panel discussion:
peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/indie-...
2/⏹️

Indie & Local Tabletop Games Fair 2025

The DMV is home to some of the world’s leading tabletop game designers! Come meet your neighbors whose games are available at hobby shops, online, and even your local bookstore. Designed in t…

peoplesbooktakoma.com

Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 5d

@games.mothspire.com creates games for transformation. I love "The Old Ways Must Go," which asks us to reexamine our rituals, refresh those that still matter, and to let go of those that do harm. And "The Optimist's Guide to Tarot" just speaks for itself!

Meet the Samphire half of this team...
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Sticky Doodler ▶️ PAXU @stickydoodler.bsky.social · 6d

Is your ideal heist potentially an engine-builder board game?