Celebrate Minnesota Game and Toy Community on Friday, July 10th Kicking off the AGPI 2026 Conference!   The Association of Games and Puzzles International (AGPI), Games by James, and People of Play invite you to attend a social celebration of Minnesota Board Games & Puzzles: Past and Present. People of Play is well know for their pub events around the world and is excited to host their first in the greater Minneapolis area. Everyone in the toy and game industry is welcome to attend! Register HERE!   This event kicks of the 2026 AGPI Annual Convention. A complete schedule can be found at www.gamesandpuzzles.org.   Who is invited? Board Game & Puzzle publishers, designers, industry folk, collectors and  enthusiasts When? Friday, July 10th  5:00 – 6:00 Social Hour  6:00 – 7:00 Buffet Dinner  7:00 – 8:00 Facilitated Discussion  8:00 - ?? Open gaming and puzzling and mingling Where? DoubleTree by Hilton Minneapolis Airport, 2020 American Boulevard East  Bloomington, Minnesota 55425 Cost $75 Register HERE!   Sponsorship Opportunities $250 We are looking for companies to sponsor our event. Sponsorship includes your name/logo on all promotional materials, including website, program and marketing flyers. To become a sponsor, please contact Nadine Sehnert at games@nadinesehnert.com.   The Association for Games & Puzzles International (AGPI) Founded in 1985 by Bruce Whitehill, is the world’s foremost organization dedicated to the collection and preservation of games and puzzles.   As an international association, the AGPI is chartered to conduct research and explore the history of games and puzzles from ancient times to the present, and to disseminate information about games and puzzles to the broadest audience possible, including the general public, the media, libraries, museums, scholars, and others. Games and puzzles offer a remarkable view of our cultural past and future!   Games by James Founded in 1979 by Glenn McKee and now led by son Logan McKee. A local leader in the retail market game and puzzle market, Games by James has six locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin.   People of Play\CHITAG  People of Play (POP), a division of The Toy Association, supports the global toy and game industry by fostering innovation, creativity, and connection. Founded by Mary Couzin in 2003 as the Chicago Toy & Game Group and rebranded as POP in 2020, the organization has grown into a leading community and resource hub for industry professionals, inventors, and play enthusiasts of all ages. Through its dynamic platform and events—including the Chicago Toy & Game (CHITAG) Fair, the Toy & Game International Excellence (TAGIE) Awards, the Young Inventor Challenge, the Toy & Game Inventor Pitch & Innovation Conference, and POP Pub networking events held worldwide since 2018—POP connects and celebrates the people and ideas shaping the future of play.
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Legendary: Game of Thrones   Gameplay Objective Earn the most Victory Points! Defeat enemy allies, support friendly allies, and capture bystanders to earn Victory points. When one player has lost three of their masterminds or a total of six masterminds have been defeated, the game ends. The player with the most Victory Points wins.   Set Up (2-player) You need the main playing board (the one that has a map on it) and two personal playing boards. Choose one player to be the Starks and one player to be the Lannisters and insert the representative house crest into your personal playing board.   Decks: Personal Decks Each player’s personal deck is made up of 6 Merchants, 4 Soldiers, and two minor hero cards, selected randomly. Hero Deck There are 18 different Heroes that each come with a deck of 14 cards: 2 Uncommon cards each with 5 copies, 1 Uncommon card with 3 copies, and a Rare card. Each player gets 4 Heroes and their corresponding 14-card decks Starks: Kingdom of the North; Lord Eddard Stark; Winter is Coming; Young Arya Lannisters: Hound & Mountain; Jaime Lannister; Queen Cersei; Tyrion Lannister Ally Deck Each house has a few different Allies & Henchmen. To make up the Ally Deck, each House sends in an Ally group and a Henchman group. In a two-player game, you also add in one ally or henchmen group from each of the other two houses Starks: The North and Stark Bannermen Lannisters: Siblings & Comrades and Redcloaks From other houses: King’s Law and King’s Guard Also add: 12 random cards from the Event deck, 8 master strike cards, and 4 bystanders (drawn from the Bystander deck) Bystander Deck Shuffle together the Bystander cards and the remaining minor hero cards   Main Playing Board The Bystander Deck, Wound Deck, and Maester deck go face up in their respective spots. The Event Deck is face down, as well as the ally deck   Personal Playing Board The 5 Mastermind cards go face up in the Mastermind spot The bottom two Defender cards should be face down, with the remaining three face up directly on top. The Hero deck goes in the Protagonist pile spot Flip the top 5 cards from your hero deck and place them face up in House spots   Draw six cards from your 12-card personal deck to make up your starting hand. Each player starts with three Victory Point Tokens. You are now ready to play.   On Your Turn: On your turn, you can use the cards in your hand to attack and/or recruit.   Take stock of your hand. Initially, it will consist of merchants (which offer recruit points), soldiers (which offer attack points), and minor heroes (which can offer both recruit and attack points, and usually a special ability as well). As the game goes on, you will have heroes, Maester cards, event cards, and wound cards in your hand as well.   Flip over the top card from the Ally deck and place it in the Bow section of the battlefield. It will be one of the following cards: friendly ally, neutral ally, enemy ally, master strike, bystander or minor hero, or event. If it is a friendly ally, you can spend attack points to move it down the battlefield towards the escape. If it is a neutral or enemy ally, you can spend attack points to defeat the ally and add it to your victory pile, earning a Victory token. If it is a master strike, move the top Mastermind card of the player whose turn it is to the bottom of their Mastermind stack. Then read the “Master Strike” effect of the Mastermind that is now on top. Do what it says and put the Master Strike card in the KO pile (general discard pile, which is separate from your personal discard pile) If it is a bystander or minor hero, it gets captured by an ally. Put it under the ally in the range space that is closest to the ally deck. If there are no allies in play, then the bystander goes into the victory pile of the player whose turn it is. If it is an event, you must first address the lineup cycling effect. Each event has a number (1-5) which correspond with the lineup spaces on a player’s personal board. Each player must cycle the corresponding card out (put it at the bottom of your hero deck) and replace it with the top card from the hero deck. Then, follow the instructions of the event.   You can spend your attack points as you see fit: Attack a neutral and enemy ally and add it to your victory pile. You also earn a Victory token. Attack a friendly ally to support it, moving it one space down the battlefield Attack your opponent’s defenders. These cards defend masterminds, which cannot be attacked unless all defenders have been defeated. If you have enough points and defenders have been defeated, you may attack your opponent’s mastermind. If you have 5 attack points and it costs 3 points to attack an enemy ally and 2 points to attack a defender, you can do both.   You can spend recruit points to purchase heroes to add to your discard pile, which will then be cycled into your hand for future rounds.   As the game goes on, you will have more complex cards cycled into your hand. By more complex, I mean the text on each card will instruct you to do different things, which can advance your gameplay.   If you attack an ally on the battlefield, you remove it from the battlefield and add it to your victory pile. You also must do what the “Fight” instruction says. The ally will also indicate how many victory tokens you earn for defeating it.   If you flip over an ally card and it is not from the same house as what’s already in the Bow space, move the card that’s in the Bow space over to the Spear space. If it’s from the same house, both cards can exist in the space. However, each space can only hold three cards of the same house.   If all five battlefield spaces are full and you flip over the top card from the ally deck and it can’t be added to the card already in the Bow space, battlefield positions shift, meaning the card(s) in the Claw space move into the Escape space. If the ally that escapes belongs to one of the players, that player gains one victory token If the ally had one or more bystanders captured, they go into the victory pile of the ally’s owner. Bystanders captured by an escaped neutral ally go into the KO pile. If the ally was not from your house and you have six or more cards in your hand, you must discard a card. If it’s a neutral ally, all players with six or more cards in their hand must discard a card. If the ally has an escape effect on its card, do what it says   The new ally card may have an “Ambush” effect. After moving cards down the battlefield (if necessary), immediately do what the Ambush effect says. If the battlefield movement resulted in an ally escaping, do the escape effect first.   Maester, Wound, Event, and Bystander cards will come into play as the game goes on, so you don’t have to worry about them initially.   History Legendary: Game of Thrones is brought to you by Upper Deck. Upper Deck is a trading card company that’s been around since 1989, when they launched their first baseball trading card set. While the business was built on sports trading cards, it’s since evolved into the world of entertainment, too. Upper Deck was an idea first thought of by Paul Sumner back in 1987. He worked in printing sales at the time and came up with the idea for a premium card. The rest is history!   This is an extensive and very in-depth game, so I want to shout out everyone involved in its production: Game Design and Card Set Design: Rob Heinsoo Associate Designer: Chris VanMeter Director of Entertainment Brands: Travis Rhea Brand Manager: Corrine Deng Director of Game Development: Bubby Johanson Sr. Game Developer: Mark Shaunessy Product Manager: Rob Ford Game Developer: Case Lopez Game Development Coordinator: Zack Stevens Graphic Design: Krista Timberlake Art Direction: Andrew Ballestros, Erika Klock, Emily Mazza Card art: Andrea Adiletto, Federico Bertoni, Katherine Lobo, Matteo Meloni, Jaka Prawira, Riccardo Robaldo Project Managers: Keli Lewis, Danny Montejo VP of Production and Logistics: Suzanne Lombardi President, Upper Deck Company: Jason Masherah Playtesters: Chad Brown, Bobby Coovert, Sean Dawson, Maximillian Dennis, Lisa Eschenbach, Miguel Friginal, Trevor Harron, Paul Hughes, Silas Hughes, Rob Lightner, Ryan Martin, Dan Moen, Karen Ressler, Keith Richmond, Jonathan Tweet, Vito Munoz, Rob Watkins Original Legendary ® Game Engine Design: Devin Low   Variations Legendary: Game of Thrones is one of many trading card games created by Upper Deck. On their website, you can also find: Legendary: 007 Legendary: Marvel Legendary Encounters: The X-Files Legendary: What If…? Legendary Encounters: The Matrix
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Lava Crossing   Gameplay In Lava Crossing, Bunny and Lamb need to escape the lava flowing from an active volcano and get back to their village. From where they are at the base of the volcano, they need to cross four lava pits—and you can help them by building rock bridges across them!   To begin, player 1 rolls the die: if you roll a 1, 2 or a 3, you have that many tries to land the blue ball (A.K.A the cooling water) into the appropriate pit by carefully opening and closing the blue rods (A.K.A. the water pipes). If you land the ball into the correct pit, you earn a rock to add to your rock bridge—and your animal is one step closer to home.   However, if you roll a +1, the very first rock you placed (rock #1) is taken from your bridge—the lava is starting to catch up to you! The next time you roll a +1, you lose rock #2, and so on. If the lava catches up to you, you must start over at the base of the volcano! If you roll a -1, you’re in luck. You can lay down the next rock in your rock bridge—no strings attached!   There are four different pits to cross, and they get smaller as you get further from the volcano, which means they can be harder to drop the ball into. The first person to get their animal back to their village wins a star badge. Three star badges earns you a trophy, which gives you an advantage for the next time you play: you can place a rock at any number position at the start of the game.   History Hape was first established in Germany in 1986 by Peter Handstein. They’re a very sustainability-focused company—many of their toys are made out of bamboo and sugarcane-based plastic, and their packaging is made of recycled cardboard, organic inks, and water-based colors. Lava Crossing was designed and created by their creative team.
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Very useful article! It’s important to stay consistent with healthy habits. I’ve also been checking out similar wellness information on med meds.
About the job TLC for Kids Essendon Fields, Melbourne VIC Full time, Office based Help tell the stories that help sick children when they need it most. TLC for Kids is one of Australia’s most respected children’s charities, providing immediate practical support to children and families facing serious illness and medical trauma. For more than 27 years, our programs have helped families navigate some of the most challenging moments of their lives, providing relief, comfort and support when it matters most. Our services are used in hundreds of hospitals, medical clinics and ambulances across Australia, helping reduce fear, stress and anxiety for children during medical procedures and other difficult moments. We are looking for a Digital Content & Marketing Coordinator who can help bring these moments to life through powerful digital storytelling. This is an exciting opportunity for someone who enjoys creating engaging content, capturing real stories, and using digital platforms to build awareness, community support and fundraising outcomes. About the Role The Digital Content & Marketing Coordinator is responsible for capturing and sharing the stories of TLC for Kids programs across digital channels. This is a hands-on, content-driven role. We are looking for someone who can capture real moments and turn them into engaging digital content that connects with people. You don’t need to be perfect, but you do need to be comfortable filming, editing and thinking about what makes people stop, watch and engage. This role combines content creation, social media management, email communications and digital campaign support, helping ensure the impact of TLC for Kids programs is communicated clearly, professionally and consistently. You will work closely with the Program Director, Partnerships Manager and Programs team to showcase the real impact of our services. Each story you help capture and share contributes to growing awareness and support for TLC for Kids, enabling more children and families to receive help when they need it most. Key Responsibilities Campaign Content Creation • Capture photos, video and stories from TLC for Kids programs, events and partner activities • Produce authentic and engaging content including short form video, reels, behind the scenes updates and live coverage of key moments • Write captions and stories that communicate the real impact of TLC for Kids services • Create digital content assets to support fundraising campaigns, partnerships and program promotion Social Media • Manage and grow TLC for Kids social media channels • Plan and schedule content using a content calendar • Create engaging content for Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and other platforms • Edit short form video and visual storytelling content • Monitor engagement and respond to comments and messages appropriately • Track reach, engagement and audience growth metrics Content Performance and Growth • Identify what content performs well and build on it • Test different formats and approaches to improve engagement • Contribute ideas to grow reach, awareness and supporter engagement Email Marketing (EDM) • Creation and scheduling of email campaigns to supporters, donors and partners • Prepare visual and written content for EDM communications including fundraising appeals, event promotions and program updates • Support the growth and engagement of TLC for Kids supporter database through digital communications • Track email campaign performance including open rates, click rates and conversions Digital Tools & Platforms • Use project management systems such as Monday.com to track content production and campaigns • Work confidently on Mac computers and creative software • Maintain organised digital archives for photos and video content • Manage publishing and engagement through platforms such as Meta Business Suite • Use analytics platforms such as Google Analytics to review website traffic and campaign performance • Update website content and digital assets using WordPress Skills and Experience • Experience managing social media accounts for an organisation or brand • Strong photography and video content creation skills • Experience editing short form video content for social media • Graphic design capability for digital assets • Strong writing skills and attention to detail • Experience with EDM platforms such as Mailchimp or similar • Excellent organisational skills and ability to manage multiple projects • Comfortable working with digital platforms and content management systems • Experience with paid digital advertising is advantageous • Full driver licence Personal Attributes • Compassion and sensitivity when working with families and hospitals • Strong attention to detail • Ability to work in a fast moving small team environment • A genuine commitment to the mission of TLC for Kids • Comfortable working respectfully in sensitive environments including hospitals and family settings Employment Details Location: Essendon Fields, Melbourne VIC Position: Full time, office based Salary: $60,000 to $73,000 depending on experience, plus superannuation Additional benefits: Salary packaging available Why Work With TLC for Kids Working at TLC for Kids means your work directly contributes to helping children and families through some of the most difficult moments they face. Your storytelling and digital content will help inspire community support and enable more children to receive the help they need. You will be part of a passionate and collaborative team committed to delivering meaningful impact. What Will Make You Stand Out Applicants who include the following will be prioritised: • Links to social media accounts, campaigns or digital content you have created or managed • Examples of short form video or visual storytelling content • A short note outlining one content idea you would try to increase engagement or awareness for TLC for Kids How to Apply Please include: • Your resume • A short cover letter • Links to social media accounts, campaigns or digital content you have created • Any examples of video or visual storytelling work Applications without examples of previous work may not be considered. We are particularly interested in candidates who enjoy capturing real moments and transforming them into engaging digital stories that connect with audiences. … more Requirements added by the job poster • 1+ years of work experience with Social Media • 1+ years of work experience with Graphic Design • Valid driver’s license • Authorized to work in Australia • 1+ years of work experience with Email Marketing
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POP Pub July Event: Celebrating Minnesota’s Game and Toy Community and Kicking off the AGPI Conference
Game Review: Legendary: Game of Thrones
Game Review: Lava Crossing
Terri Hitchcock: Can a Holiday Story Universe Direct $100 Million to Charities?
Alex Hochstrasser Talks Bilibo at 25: The Long Game of Play
Game Review: Legendary: Game of Thrones
Game Review: Lava Crossing
Terri Hitchcock: Can a Holiday Story Universe Direct $100 Million to Charities?
Alex Hochstrasser Talks Bilibo at 25: The Long Game of Play
Say Goodbye to Boredom, Hello to 15 Minute Fun & Done
Randy Klimpert Shares his Ukulele Collection
Steve Casino Peanut Art
Everyone's Talking about POP!
Princess Etch - a Multi-Talented Etch A Sketch Artist
Joseph Herscher of Joseph' s Machines.
Brent Bushnell talks Two Bit Circus, VR, & STEAM (Part 1)
Tim Walsh Celebrates the 30th Anniversary of Blurt!
Connie Vogelmann designed Apiary & Wyrmspan!
Bob Fuhrer... Is THE Crocodile Dentist!
Tom Dusenberry... Bought Atari, Wizards of the Coast, and Avalon Hill!
POPDuo: Richard Dickson, Mattel’s President & COO, and Kedar Narayan, Young Inventor Challenge AMB
POPDuo: Will Shortz and Josh Wardle
POP Duo: Elan Lee, Co-Founder, Exploding Kittens.and Jeff Probst, Host and Exec Producer, Survivor
POP Duo: David Fuhrer, MNG Director, Blue Sq Innovations & Shawn Green, past Dodgers & Mets MLB Star
POP Duo: Bob Fuhrer, Founder, Nextoy and Tom Fazio, Golf Course Designer
When someone asks if you are attending Nuremberg, they are referring to Spielwarenmesse or the Nuremberg International Toy Fair. It is held annually since 1949 and is the largest international trade fair for toys and games in world.
Submitted by People Of Play