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Amabel Holland

@amabel.bsky.social

5K followers 670 following 5.4K posts

She/her. "Widely considered one of today’s most innovative game designers." - The New Yorker Board games: https://hollandspiele.com video essays: youtube.com/@hollandspiele Patreon: patreon.com/amabelholland sidekicking: youtube.com/@SBPlaysGames

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · Jun 16

📌I'm Amabel (she/her), a board game designer. Out of my 80+ games, I'm best known for City of Six Moons and Irish Gauge.

I co-own the publisher Hollandspiele. In my spare time I make video essays about the future & history of games.

I'm a slutty poly trans woman, and I talk about all of the above.

It's me, wearing a black t-shirt with "more teeth" in red lettering encircled by a heart.

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 3h

the idea that I, a trans woman, am unfamiliar with pickles is frankly quite galling lmao

No Pun Included @nopunincluded.com · 5h

Amabel needs to familiarize herself with pickles, kimchi, etc.

whole world of preserves that anyone can decide to make

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Reposted by Amabel Holland

Chris Franklin @errant-signal.com · 5h

The fact that these don’t specify North or South Carolina nor whether they’re mustard or vinegar based makes them incredibly suspect

A picture of a bag of “Carolina style BBQ” flavored Cheetos fries

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 5h

every local girl I know who gets their hrt through Powers either has a horror story, or is a horror story (derogatory)

Sable, Public Universal Momfriend 🏳️‍⚧️ @ghostlysable.bsky.social · 6h

Why go to Will Powers when I'm also a chaser who will give you weird untested HRT advice that WPATH would disapprove of but I'm also kind of hot?

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Reposted by Amabel Holland

Sable, Public Universal Momfriend 🏳️‍⚧️ @ghostlysable.bsky.social · 6h

Why go to Will Powers when I'm also a chaser who will give you weird untested HRT advice that WPATH would disapprove of but I'm also kind of hot?

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 8h

I know that isn't true. I know the "someone needs help, can we help??" comes as much from trauma as it does a genuine desire to be helpful -- that's why it's paired with that "you didn't help, so it's your fault" guilt.

4/4

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 8h

And I can't really parse it, so I haven't done anything. And I feel really guilty about that. Like it's my responsibility to, (1), correctly figure out what her deal is, and, (2), do something about it, and if I don't, (3), it's my fault if things don't go well for her in the dispute.

3/4

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 8h

Maybe she was misrepresenting things on purpose, or maybe she wasn't seeing things clearly (talk to enough people who have disordered thinking & you start to pick up on the vibe).

Or maybe she's just bad at telling the story & explaining herself & is isolated & needs help making it right.

2/4

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 8h

A trans gal, a stranger, reached out to me weeks ago about a rights dispute she was involved in, looking for support? amplification?

the story was really incoherent & hard to follow & the evidence was very... curiously framed. Cropped screenshots that didn't show what she said they did, etc.

1/4

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · Jul 11

I think Squeakcross is the only video game where someone emails your character pictures of rodents, 10/10, GOTY

(obviously if you know of another video game where your character is emailed pictures of rodents you have to tell me)

Cheesemail from Squeakcross Home Squeak Home. The highlighted chesemail has the subject line Rodent Content issue #01, is from Mylo, and has the text, "Consume Rodent Content." Under Mylo's name is the imperative: Must. Consume. Rodent. Content.

There are three attachments showing three gerbils. One is on a hollowed-out coconut, one looks down upon you from a grate, and one is eating a seed while wearing an acorn hat.

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 11h

❤️

Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 11h

woman who is obsessed with me (complimentary)

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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 15h

microsoft product (begging, pleading): save this document to my documents?

me: save to desktop

microsoft (twitching, shaking) this jpeg. save to pictures?

me: save to desktop

microsoft (weeping, throwing up): this email attachment... downloads?

me: desktop

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 14h

I've had almost universally lovely experiences with them myself, there's just been a couple of weird things lately like this

Reposted by Amabel Holland

Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 1d

my dad grew up across the street from Mighty Igor, World's Strongest Wrestler, and mowed Igor's lawn every week; he couldn't hold his arms close enough to comfortably operate the mower

Mrs. Igor was the head lunch lady at my high school

somewhere I have a signed photo she got for me before he died

Public domain photo of Mighty Igor, a muscular bearded man in a wrestling leotard wielding a hammer (because communism). He is wearing a funny little cap and smiling.

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 18h

would really appreciate it if this aftercough from being sick a month ago would go away

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 18h

psst @boardgamegeek.com this has continued to sit. It is deeply, deeply weird to have a game that's currently in-print that has a correct name on the publisher's website & everywhere else, and a different wrong name in your database only

Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 20d

Inexplicably, someone on BGG at some point changed the title of my game "II Grass II Crown" to "The Grass Crown II". I submitted a request for it to be changed back but it's such a bizarre thing to have happened. Like, it's really inscrutable to me tbqh

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 18h

y'know, I include that New Yorker quote about being "one of today's most innovative game designers" in my bio, because it reflects the opinion of my peers (& gaming critics) which they expressed to the author & I'll take it

but honestly I'm not even the most innovative trans gal doing board games

Reposted by Amabel Holland

Just Marcy! @marcille.bsky.social · 1d

someone asked me the other day why "People still use twitter with all the fascism" and example 2: people cannot stop giving the NYT attention or playing their fucking crossword while the paper barrels down the fascism highway.

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 7d

Azeen Ghorayshi at the NYT has moved on from going after trans people and is now pushing the leasing question that autism diagnoses are too common because of its expansion of it to a spectrum.

archive.ph/Whji1

Alt text: A screenshot of a New York Times article titled “Should the Autism Spectrum Be Split Apart?” The image shows a woman with dark hair tied back with an orange patterned ribbon, smiling and leaning forward near a window with sunlight coming in. She is wearing a light orange top with thin straps.

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Dan Thurot @danthurot.bsky.social · 1d

Not many board games are as mysterious as City of Six Moons. Is it a puzzle? A training ground for historical preservation? A grift? To answer those questions and many more, today we’re joined by Amabel Holland to discuss her oddest title yet. Listen here: spacebiff.com/2025/10/07/s...

Space-Cast! #50. City of Six Amabels

Not many board games are as mysterious as City of Six Moons. Is it a puzzle? A working board game? A grift? To answer those questions and many more, today we’re joined by Amabel Holland to di…

spacebiff.com

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 1d

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Reposted by Amabel Holland

David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · 1d

I think there's an extremely valid argument that the wide adoption of sell sheets has only served to discourage innovative design approaches and create barriers to entry for new and marginalized voices in tabletop. And for some publishers, that's probably the point.

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Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 1d

honestly if I have to pin down my apathy toward sell sheets, it's because making art & selling it are different skills and I resent how often they're expected to be bundled together - I resent any trend which *demands* the artist also be conversant in sales & advertising to get published

Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 2d

hollandspiele's "don't send us sell sheets or TTS mods" game submission guidelines continue to make the pile of submissions I still have to go through smaller

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Yo Gabapentin @yogabapentin.bsky.social · 1d

Obligatory Jenny Nicholson Tweet

Jenny Nicholson Tweet:

How come major film studios keep being like Jared Leto may have allegations, but at least he looks weird, stars in box office bombs, and is not a good actor

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FANGORIA @fangoria.bsky.social · 1d

THE TOXIC AVENGER's fundraising theatrical run wiped the floor with medical debt, with Cineverse, Undue Medical Debt and Toxie fans helping to raise $15 million for an amazing cause.

THE TOXIC AVENGER Surpasses Fundraising Goal And Wipes Up $15 Million In Medical Debt

THE TOXIC AVENGER's fundraising theatrical run wiped the floor with medical debt, with Cineverse, Undue Medical Debt and Toxie fans helping to raise $15 million for an amazing cause.

dlvr.it

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Reposted by Amabel Holland

Colin Smith @colinsmith.bsky.social · 1d

June 1941 character sheet featuring intrepid newspaper reporter Lois Lane, for the classic Fleischer Studios’ Superman cartoons.

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