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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU

@davidmasnato.com

600 followers 390 following 510 posts

🎲 Game Designer - #CampCharmwood 🎨 Art/Graphic Design - #Turncoats #PaxPenning 💛 I try my best - He/Him

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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · Oct 12

Looks like pinned posts are live now so how about a re-intro?

I'm David! I make non-violent tabletop games with unconventional and thematic player dynamics. My main two projects are "Spell Week" and "Tiers of Joy". Sometimes I do graphic design for Matilda Simonsson.

A digital render of a slightly outdated version of Spell week. Various colorful tokens and cards cover a central playing area. Player boards and cards for each player surround the central playing area.

A digital rendering of Tiers of Joy. Colorful tokens are clustered in a central area with small stacks resembling layer cakes placed around the outer edge.

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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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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · 2d

I'm feeling so good about my lil trick taker/shedder that I've decided to pitch it at #PAXU!

Oar Deal is a game about going on a canoeing trip and trying your best to not fall out of the canoe. It plays 3-5 players in about 25 mins with just 54 cards.

DMs open to anyone interested!

A digital rendering of Oar Deal. Four colorful cards surround three piles arranged in a central area.

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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · 2d

Possibly flour beetles? If you haven't already, you should probably check any bags of flour, rice, or grains you have lying around. Toss any foods they got into and thoroughly clean any appliances or cupboards where you found them. That should be enough.

David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · 5d

The Shut Up & Sit Down review of The Old Kings Crown is excellent. No surprises there.

But can we talk about the cameo appearance of High Tide by @marcelineleiman.bsky.social hiding on the bookshelf? Review incoming?

A screenshot from the Shut Up & Sit Down review of The Old Kings Crown. Tom is seated at a table, mid explanation. Behind him is a bookshelf holding a few board games. One of them is High Tide.

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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · 11d

Absolutely. The thing I'm working on definitely leans more Hearts than Bridge. I really need to check out Fishing.

David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · 11d

Sounds like a pass for me tbh.

David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · 11d

Are you going to any playtesting conventions soon?

David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · 11d

That would be awesome! Aurum and Crisps are both on my list of games I need to check out because the one I'm designing combines trick taking and shedding. I'd love to see what you're currently working on as well!

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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · 11d

A few weeks ago, I made a comment about how I often find trick takers difficult to internalize. I figured there's no better way to learn about games you don't understand than to just jump in and see how they work from the inside out.

So now I've made a trick taker and I think it's pretty fun!

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Reposted by David Masnato 🔜 PAXU

Unpub @unpub.bsky.social · 14d

🫨 We announced it in our September newsletter:

Unpub Festival Badge sales and reserved tables will open on October 1st at 12pm ET!

More info:
https://www.unpub.org/upcoming-events/unpub-festival-2026

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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · 14d

Apologies if this isn't useful intel, but I got mine at a CVS in Philly last week. It was the 2025-26 Spikevax.

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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · 24d

Once sentence. Six words. Three proper nouns, each one a plot twist.

A screenshot of a photo and headline from Stereogum posted on September 13, 2025.

The headline reads "Clipse Played Vatican City On Disney+". The photo is of Clipse performing.

Reposted by David Masnato 🔜 PAXU

jay Dragon has firmware updates @jdragsky.bsky.social · Sep 8

good morning, i wrote a manifesto about a new direction for game design / play
possumcreek.medium.com/the-expressi...

The Expressionist Games Manifesto

“Work! Intoxication! Brain-racking! Chewing, eating, gorging, rooting up! Rapturous birth pangs! Jabbing of the brush, preferably right…

possumcreek.medium.com

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Reposted by David Masnato 🔜 PAXU

Greg Loring-Albright, PhD (he/him) @gregisonthego.bsky.social · Jun 27

I put down some thoughts about game design, what it’s good for, and what it isn’t good for in this zine!

Plus, a short guide to help get you started making a game if you’ve never done that before: gregisonthego.itch.io/rulebooks-fo...

✂️ 🎲 ✊ 🔥

A photo of the cover of the zine, featuring a black protest sign with an icon of rolling dice on it. In the background are some board game boxes, including Bloc by Bloc: Uprising and Fog of Love

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Reposted by David Masnato 🔜 PAXU

Elizabeth Hargrave @elizhargrave.bsky.social · Sep 4

Update to this chart that I share a lot. Not breaking news: Game design teams are still OVERWHELMINGLY all men. About 7% of the top 500 games have a woman or non-binary person credited as a designer. A 🧵of related charts: (1/6)
🎲✂️

Gender of Game Designers: Board Game Geek Top 500, January 2025

A pie chart:
92% of the pie is Designed only by men. They made 461 of the top 500 games.
6% of the pie is Designed by a mixed-gender group. They made 28 of the top 500 games.
1% of the pie is Designed only by women or non-binary people. They made 5 of the top 500 games.

Data are for January 1, 2025, using the names in the Designer field on BGG. Not shown are 6 games in the top 500 that have uncredited designers.

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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · Aug 30

I haven't played Signs of the Sojourner yet so I couldn't tell you for sure. I think there's definitely some adjacency though.

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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · Aug 28

How do you learn more about these games, get involved in their development, or sign one?

Follow @lunarpunk.games. Join the @breakmygame.com Discord. Attend a @protospielo.bsky.social event. Talk to designers who hang out in those places. You're missing the games because you're in the wrong place!

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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · Aug 28

And y'all thats just three games. There's WAY more in the works. The only reason why I'm leaving a bunch out is because I don't know if the designers are ready to talk about them yet.

The best games you've never played are on the way!

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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · Aug 28

Cursed VHS by Maia Valdez is a summoning circle in the form of a card game. A little bluffing. A little prisoners dilemma. A lot of awesome. It's just really really good. Similar to Hollow, it could easily be an opener or party game for a group that wants to try something fresh.

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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · Aug 28

I could say "Anything by @xoe.gay" and call it a day, but I'll instead mention Conviction, a deck-building simulation of a couple's argument. The clever gameplay and thoughtfully produced narrative make Conviction a meaningful journey that I'm always excited to jump back into.

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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · Aug 28

Hollow by @coo.games is probably the strongest argument against the claim that multi-victor games are high brow snobbery. It seamlessly blends humor, horror, strategy, and storytelling into an always fun and often poignant experience that easily fills the shoes of Coup, Skull, or Cockroach Poker.

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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · Aug 28

If you're following along with today's board game/TTRPG discourse, the "genuinely cool stuff brewing behind the scenes" quote posted here is the incredible variety of games in development right now that blur the boundaries of RPGs and board games.

How about a thread of some of my favorites?

David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · Aug 9

As much as the last few weeks of board game and tabletop events have sucked (with sprinklings of wins scattered between), there's genuinely cool stuff brewing behind the scenes!

I know it's hard to get excited when the news is terrible, but good things are happening as well! I promise!

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Reposted by David Masnato 🔜 PAXU

Lunarpunk Games @lunarpunk.games · Aug 28

If you want to explore design territory that moves away from this focus on colonialist domination or capitalist productivity, start at the end: the game's outcome. What are players trying to accomplish and why? Do they really need to have the most, or is it reasonable to have enough?

Xo3 (it/its) 🐰🔪 @xoe.gay · Aug 28

Hey, if you found me because of the recent discourse about board games and their place in political/artistic expression, check out my video about how competitive games and victory points funnel the human experience through a colonialist/capitalist lens.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTKf...

🎲✂️

The Emperor's High Score

YouTube video by Knife Bunny

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by David Masnato 🔜 PAXU

Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · Aug 28

this is about how some ttrpg designers see board game designers but is also, depressingly, about how many board game designers see board game designers

it's changing, albeit slowly, and gosh I'm glad for that

jay Dragon has firmware updates @jdragsky.bsky.social · Aug 28

i have a lot of empathy for my sisters in board games who struggle to have their artistic vision appreciated in a substantially more publisher-strangled world while simultaneously being dismissed by other designers who dont engage w the scope of their creative practixe

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David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · Aug 28

I'm listening.