Catherine Stippell
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catstip.bsky.social
Catherine Stippell
@catstip.bsky.social
620 followers 250 following 180 posts
Super awkward board game designer. Nyctophobia! It’s All Connected? Back to the Present? I like hats. Earthbender. (playnyctophobia on Twitter)
(she/her)
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catstip.bsky.social
Oh hey! I legitimately just had YouTube recommend me a video (which looks like published 7 months ago)... that mentioned The Portal at Hill House.
I don’t watch rpg videos normally but I did click b/c I spotted Portal in the thumbnail. Maybe some YouTube algorithm magic?
YouTube listing of a video titled "Solo Journaling rpgs, writing, and you! they're awesome" by the channel Michael Regina. The thumbnail includes Michael holding a fan of solo rpg books. You can just make out one of them as The Portal at Hill House.
September 21, 2025 at 11:07 PM
catstip.bsky.social
My grandma passed away earlier this week.
If you ever wanted to know where my creativity for my weird board games comes from, look no further than Grandma Pat. She was a zany lady and a skilled artist who made her own urn.
A porcelain urn, painted with pink and purple-y flowers and green leaves.
September 6, 2025 at 3:25 PM
catstip.bsky.social
We've had these old vacuum poster ads in our house for ages. And I just noticed how weird these "E"'s are. Why are the middle arms so long??
The bottom of a framed vacuum bag advert. The text reads "Troublesome - Unhealthful, Fills the lungs with germ laden dust" the middle arm of the E extends farther than the top and bottom ones. It's very weird typography.
July 6, 2025 at 10:04 PM
catstip.bsky.social
I visited the US Holocaust Museum in DC, maybe 10+ years ago. And while there I bought a small coin that simply said “What you do matters.” I’d lost it at some point and, fittingly, found it again recently.
A nickel sized silver coin in palm. Imprinted on the coin is the phrase “What you do matters.”
June 12, 2025 at 2:15 AM
catstip.bsky.social
Happy Pride
A 4 panel comic by Chris Hallbeck. 1: A stick figure mom holds a hand of cards. They show one to the other stick figure. She says “Is this your card?” The child says “Mom, stop trying to distract me.” 2: the mom holds another card and asks again, “Is this your card?” The child says “No, put the cards down, I’m trying to tell you something important.” 3: A close up of the face of another card. The ace of spades. The spade is striped in the asexual flag, black-grey-white-purple. The mom says “ is this you?” 4: the mom and child share big smiles. The child looks teary eyed.
June 2, 2025 at 5:46 PM
catstip.bsky.social
Cleaning my room and found $8….
Four $2 bills fanned out.
May 25, 2025 at 3:17 PM
catstip.bsky.social
There were perfect droplets of rain on my windshield today.
A slightly cracked cement wall, a white light gray color. In front of it is my car windshield, covered in rain drops everywhere. They’re all relatively the same size and very circular.
May 23, 2025 at 1:17 AM
catstip.bsky.social
I am good at pokemon
The victory screen for Pokemon TCGP app. It shows I won, going second with only 2 turns played. I scored 1 point and dealt 60 damage. The card of the game is an Eevee. The cards ability says, “Flip a coin until it lands on tails. This attack does 20 damage for each heads.”
May 16, 2025 at 3:36 AM
catstip.bsky.social
I don’t know what the cross over is between Leverage & AtLA fans, but this idea came to me in the middle of the night.
Hitter. Hacker. Grifter. Thief. Long ago, these four people worked alone. Then, everything changed when they got a job from Dubenich. Only Nathan Ford, a drunk ex-insurance guy, could wrangle them into a team. But after they finished the job, they split and vanished. A couple months passed and the team got back together under a new alias, Leverage Consulting & Associates. Although the rich and powerful take what they want…I believe, Leverage can steal it back for you.
April 8, 2025 at 5:47 PM
catstip.bsky.social
All I’m doing is making a game that has to be played in extremely specific circumstances that probably isn’t possible. I just like making things that tickle my brain.
A paper restaurant placemat with paths drawn on it formed of circles and lines. Each circle has a shape in it. The 2 paths connect. Various hole punch bits are scattered on the placemat. Two cards are laid on the top corner of the placemat. The cards show a gird of shapes, some spaces on the grid are punched out. A small single hole puncher is below the placemat.
March 19, 2025 at 3:52 AM
catstip.bsky.social
Okay got a prototype of “unnamed & untested thing to bring to Unpub”.
A top down shot of two pieces of printer paper placed next to each other forming one big sheet. At the top is a metal single hole puncher. There are some hole punch bits spread across the paper. A pen is off to the side. There are some drawn circles connected by lines drawn on each paper forming a path. There are 2 cards, each with holes punched out and grids of colorful shapes.
March 16, 2025 at 6:07 PM
catstip.bsky.social
I changed the screen time limits on my phone and totally forgot it registers Board Game Geek as a “game”
Screen shot of the Time Limit notification on iPhone Time Limit You’ve reached your limit on boardgamegeek.com
January 5, 2025 at 11:59 PM
catstip.bsky.social
Yeaaaahhhh Avatar in Concert
A shot of a theater stage from the mezzanine section toward the left of stage. The stage has a small orchestra and a screen background with the Avatar Studios logo.
November 23, 2024 at 11:44 PM
catstip.bsky.social
I learned horseshoe crabs swim upside down and I hate whoever drew this picture of it. Look at those arm legs! (From Wikipedia)
A drawing of a horseshoe crab upside down, at an angle of 30 degrees. Its little legs are poking up out of the shell for swimming. The legs are very long and vaguely look like mannequin arms.
November 17, 2024 at 9:01 PM
catstip.bsky.social
One of the things I’d done back early in the pandemic was make some board game rebus puzzles. I liked them.

So in case you missed it originally, here’s one of them.

Can you name all 12 of these gateway games?
A 3x4 grid. 1. A bug, a clown head and 2 red balloons, a hand doing a peace sign, grain and the letter D. 2. A stoplight, the green light is on with a sushi inside it 3. A camel at the top of the box 4. Word “LAN” repeating around a right corner. An arrow follows the corner 5. A suntanned person. The letters CA are pale on their chest 6. A rhino head. Sound waves are coming from its ear. A letter O 7. The best of a horse, the male symbol on it. A clicking hand with an X on it. 8.a baseball mitt, a crescent moon is inside it. 9. A person with a paint tray, an arrow points to a city skyline, a TF with the F circled 10. A tank with the letter H, a crossed out circle over it. 11.OLCROKE 12. 5 clocks in a row
November 15, 2024 at 6:48 PM
catstip.bsky.social
I don’t always dress up, but when I do it’s because I was the Maid of Honor in my sister’s wedding.
A full length mirror selfie of Catherine with one hand in her pocket. She is in an all black suit; the shirt a solid black satiny blouse tucked into ankle length pants. The black jacket is open, unbuttoned. Shoes are flat black loafers with a decorative silver buckle type thing. She has some soft natural looking makeup on and her shoulder length hair has a bit of a subtle wave to it around her ears down.
November 3, 2024 at 1:54 PM
catstip.bsky.social
Cleaning up my computer and found this little set of animals I did a while back. I’m quite enamored by them.
A purple silhouette of a simple swan. There are things white lines peaking underneath the silhouette. The swan is over a free handed light blueish green circle A grey simple rabbit silhouette with thin white swirling lines cutting through underneath it. The rabbit is on top of a hand drawn hot pink circle. A rough-edged yellow simple fish silhouette. Crunchy swirling dark yellow lines cut through the fish. The fish is placed over a rough hand drawn light blue circle. “FISH” is handwritten in caps following the circle on the top right A simple green snail with an olive spotted shell. Rough dark lines swirl and cut through the snail. The snail is over an oblong purple shape with rough edges.
October 13, 2024 at 4:33 PM
catstip.bsky.social
I hope they make so much money
A large white paper sign on a telephone pole. The sign reads in all capital letters: Saturday Sept 21st 8am - 2pm TAKE MY EX’s STUFF YARD SALE IT’S ALL GOTTA GO! JUST LIKE HIM! The address is redacted at the bottom.
September 21, 2024 at 6:07 PM
catstip.bsky.social
It’s me
A picture of Catherine, in an open blue button down with a white shirt tucked into grey pants, laughing and standing in front of a green and white flower wall with a white neon sign that says “Love” in script.
September 20, 2024 at 1:34 AM
catstip.bsky.social
2,438,568, my favorite number, How did they know 🤣
A virtual certificate with text "Celebrating 10M users on Bluesky, #2,438,568, Catherine Stippell ‪@catstip.bsky.social‬, joined on Dec 8, 2023"
September 19, 2024 at 5:47 PM
catstip.bsky.social
There is something nice about the ancient art of rifling through the envelopes of developed pictures.
A full box of packages of developed pictures. The pack envelopes as on their side making two tightly packed rows. A CVS branded package is laid flat on top of the two rows.
September 14, 2024 at 6:38 PM
catstip.bsky.social
Who knew The Princes Diaries 2 went so hard
A script excerpt. Joe: [pause] if you hurt my girl, you will answer directly to me, and whatever crimes I commit against you, remember, I have diplomatic immunity in 46 countries, including Puerto Rico. Viscount Mabrey: Sir, you will find that the word “fear” is not in my vocabulary Joe: Perhaps… but it’s in your eyes.
September 8, 2024 at 4:46 AM
catstip.bsky.social
Reminds me of the game Flow. They give you the end points and you have to fill the grid.
A black grid filled with uniquely colored lines that start and end with a large circle of their color. The grid is full and no lines overlap.
August 26, 2024 at 5:34 PM
catstip.bsky.social
I think this may be interesting
August 25, 2024 at 12:41 AM
catstip.bsky.social
I think I’m going to revive an old game design. I have vague memories of working on it early in the pandemic and I do not seem to have kept any notes or rules for it. I had always liked the idea more than the game I was fiddling with, so we’ll see what happens!
A screenshot from twitter posted October 19, 2019. Text reads “And started up a new design, “Raindrop Race” You race to have your 3 raindrops (needles) reach the bottom of the car window before your opponents.” Below that is a picture, top down overhead view of a table. There is a tall white grid, 5x10 spaces. Some spaces have little shiny stones of the different player colors. Some spaces have hand drawn tiles with raindrops and a number inside them. Some other spaces have road like segments drawings on them.
August 21, 2024 at 5:43 PM