More than anything, I am grateful for the welcoming nature of the community @sdhistcon.bsky.social has built. I am relatively new to the historical gaming space, but I have been greeted with open arms and encouraged to pursue design and included in all kinds of interesting discussions.

And then there are the people! I got to see friends I've made over the past two years, and to spend good time in conversation with them. I got to meet several new folks, and to deepen more casual relationships further. I ate good food and drank good booze and generally had a great time.

The other seminar was a collection of experienced designers discussing how they approach randomness in their historical models, and their general approach to different design problems. It was enlightening to hear them discuss specific examples of design challenges they've solved over the years.

Beyond the games, SDHistCon also offers seminars on various topics. I attended two of them, and both were excellent! One was on co-designing and how various folks approach that kind of collaboration. I have recently started two co-design relationships, so this panel was particularly helpful for me!

I also had the luck to play through the current iteration of An Infamous Traffic 2e. I never played the first edition, so I can't compare, but it is snappy and effective and very streamlined. From what others tell me, it's got the same DNA as the first one, and I'm interested to see it finished!

The designer of this game is understandably hesitant to tie their name to it, or to put it into the world for broad consumption. But I hope they continue to share it further, and I hope people who engage with it treat it with the care it deserves.

Everyone at the table was immediately struck by the power of this game. And despite our attempts to escape the discomfort of it, it kept pulling us back in, forcing us to reckon with it. It's an incredible piece of art and I hope others get to experience it some day.

The most powerful game I played this year was not a prototype and will likely not be published. It was a 4-player trick-taking game about the Holocaust, played only with a standard deck of cards. It is the most affecting and emotionally moving game I've ever played.

Besides my own games, I got to play several others. My favorites are the prototypes. I played Foxes and Lions, a game about the Italian Wars in the vein of Here I Stand. I'm very excited about its potential down the road. An engrossing, complex, and deeply historical game.

I didn't test Spindletop at the con, but I did show it to a publisher, so we played it together. It's still good! There are a couple minor things I want to play around with in the game, but nothing that will require major development. And more news soon on that publisher meeting 😘

The good news is that I know what to do next with Painkillers, and I think I can get it to where I want it within the next few months. Hurray!

The game's model is also largely doing what I want it to do. I consistently hear the kinds of emotions from players that I think is appropriate for the subject matter. But I need the game to punch harder and faster, and I need players to be incentivized to interact more directly.

I'll get my own stuff out of the way first. I got in two playtests of my prototype for Painkillers (about the opioid epidemic). The game is stable, and the systems are mostly the right ones and mostly doing the right things. But they aren't working in concert with each other to deliver what I want.

I think it’s a question of the audience being targeted by that particular product, a consideration which would include questions of distribution, sales venue, and volume. Could this appeal to a broad spectrum of people, even those who might not generally play games?

Good luck everyone!!

The bullshit about “rational decisions” is a big red flag here for me.

Such a good game! Glad you enjoyed it

Can’t wait!

How cool!