Football Games -- On-Screen & Tabletop!

Hello, friends! I am still in the throes of World Cup fever, which is probably what led me to answer a late-night ad on Instagram this past weekend to playtest and tape some promo on Monday for Good Idea Games’ upcoming Footy Dice, coming soon to Kickstarter! This flavorful two-player strategy game brings the excitement of football to the gaming table, using different dice and cards to help you manage your team to victory. As the target audience for this kind of game, I especially loved how you assign different dice to different players, a thought shared by other sports and board game lovers I know.

As part payment for my participation, the lovely Hannah Forrest of GIG gave me a copy of their first game Dragon Tricks, which I’m super looking forward to playing soon. We subsequently spent the rest of the evening playing Bryan Burgoyne’s Seaside while watching the Iran-New Zealand game with a bunch of enthusiastic Iranians. It was a great time!

Of course, I’d already gotten to watch the Scotland-Haiti game this past Saturday with a bunch of Scots (who got me temporarily tattooed, lol,) after watching Brazil play Morocco to a standstill. Prior to that, I’d skipped the Qatar-Switzerland game to watch Marty Supreme with the Steve(n)s. I’m still not sure which would have been the better use of time, but it’s good to keep up with all the pop culture, especially with friends. Some of our favorite takeaways from the movie is that the Gwyneth Paltrow role definitely looked like it was written for Cate Blanchett, and that there was both a lot more ping pong in total than we’d expected and a lot less as a percentage of the actual movie.

If you’re also looking for some great role-playing games to grab, check out Humble Bundle’s very cool Roll Big Or Go Home 2 deal benefiting Tabletop Gaymers (and Happy Pride, while we’re at it!) For only USD40, you can snag 54 terrific role-playing items, with smaller bundles for lower rates. The full bundle features great games and expansions, including my beloved Fabula Ultima, Star Trek Adventures, Warhammer 40k: Wrath & Glory and so many more.

Speaking of beloveds, you can now pre-order an overview of Arsenal’s championship-winning season from one of my favorite artists, Poorly Drawn Arsenal! His After Review: The 25-26 Arsenal Season Zine is available for pre-order now, and is just the perfect way to commemorate our magnificent season.

Reading-wise this week, I really enjoyed Freya Marske’s Cinder House, the third of the six Hugo Award 2026 nominated novellas I’ve read so far this year. A queer Gothic retelling of Cinderella, it really examines what it means to be house-bound, as Ella tries desperately to escape the constraints of her (after)life.

I also had a lot of fun reading Lai Sanders’ The Plans I Have For You. Two East Asian American women meet and plot vengeance on the people who did at least one of them wrong. With both wry social commentary and more than a touch of the supernatural, this was an absorbing page-turner of a read, even if I don’t think it quite stuck the landing. And while I may not have agreed completely with either Shelly or Sophia, the duo at the heart of the book, I definitely understood the various situations they found themselves in, especially as a Muslim Southeast Asian who grew up on the continent. Bonus points as well for messy queer representation.

Alright, I need to go get a ton of rest before a busy weekend, so see you in seven, friends!

Currently Playing (Music): Haydn’s 99th Symphony; my Declan Rice and 2026 Energy playlists; The Magnus Archives; BTS’ Arirang; Olivia Rodrigo’s you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love.

Currently Playing (Games): The Light In The Mist puzzletale; Metazooa by Trainwreck Labs; Learned League trivia; NYT Connections & Wordle; Gremco Industries’ Parseword; Irox Games’ Bongo Cat; Greg Stafford’s Pendragon.

Currently Reading/Writing (Games): Ghosts Of Saltmarsh.

Currently Reading or Just Read (Books): Cinder House by Freya Marske; Gay Mormon Dad by Chad Anderson & Remy Burke; The Plans I Have For You by Lai Sanders; Heiress Of Nowhere by Stacey Lee.