In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’d like to express my gratitude for various types of people who have had a positive impact on me and Stonemaier Games this year. Perhaps some of these people will be good resources for you as well.

I’m incredibly thankful for…

1. Supporters, Fans, and Followers (Facebook, enewsletter, YouTube, Instagram, Discord, Bluesky): None of this would be possible without you. I truly hope our games, content, and interactions have brought you joy this year. Thank you for supporting our games, and thank you for sharing them with others. Our 2025 releases were Vantage, Origin Story, Finspan, Tokaido (and expansions), Tokaido Duo, Smitten 2, Between Two Castles Essential, Wyrmspan: Dragon Academy, and the Wingspan promo birds, plus various accessories, disc golf discs, and new Rolling Realms promos.
   

2. 

   Stonemaier Champions: I’m incredibly grateful for the 15,000+ Champions who support the 100+ blog entries and 250+ YouTube videos we film each year for creators and designers, and having Champions use their 20% discount on every order (among other perks) to buy directly from us has been a huge help in stabilizing the sustainability of Stonemaier Games.

3. Coworkers (Alan Stone, Joe Aubrey, Alex Schmidt, Susannah Eisenbraun, Dave Deenik, Christine Santana, and Erica Sanders): It’s so helpful for me to always have people who know the business as well as I do to bounce ideas off of, playtest with, be accountable to, and delegate to, especially in areas where I am weak and they are strong.
4. Independent Contractors Who Feel Like Coworkers (Morten Monrad Pedersen, Dave Hewer, Shannon Lentz, Karel Titeca): These are people who have other clients and jobs, but they do a lot of amazing work for Stonemaier Games, and I’m incredibly grateful for them.
5. Retailers and Distributors (see retailers who sell our products): You are the backbone of our supply chain. Thank you for being the bridge between Stonemaier and customers.
6. Shareholders: We’re fortunate to have a few dozen investors who believe in what we’re building at Stonemaier Games and who share excellent advice, questions, idea, and insights. I’m really grateful for our shareholders.
7. Independent Contractors and Freelancers: Notable artists for 2025 releases were Clementine Campardou (Origin Story and Wyrmspan: Dragon Academy); Emilien Rotival, Soren Meding, and Valentina Filic (Vantage); Naïade (Tokaido); Ana María Martínez, Catalina Martínez, & Mesa Schumacher (Finspan); the Mico (Smitten 2); along with ongoing support in the form disc golf art (Miles Bensky), realm art (Marius Petrescu), 3D sculpts (Heriberto Martinez), videos (JC Trombley, Pixel Potion Creative, and Emmanuel Ho), voiceovers (Megan Selke), music composition (Joel Winbigler), photos (Tim Chuon and Erica Sanders), Henry Seymour (game teaching), and Andrew Cook (advertising). I’m so grateful that these people communicate quickly and effectively–-I highly value that.
8. Lawyers, Accountants, Bookkeepers, Advisors, and Payroll (Michael Hargis, Zachary Strebeck, Justin Marty, Leigh Reiter, & Brandi Ruhland at Anders Accounting, Stephanie at Timely Totals, Drea at Execupay, Chris Fleming and Tara Blunt at our bank, Tony Aiazzi and Brian Hires at Moneta, and Benjamin Arana covering insurance): I’m very grateful to have these lawyers to help us create tight contracts, secure solid trademarks, and protect our IP, as well as a great accounting, bookkeeping, and financial advisors.
9. International Production Partners (Igromag, Feuerland, Maldito, Phalanx, Matagot, Delta Vision, Arclight, Surfin’ Meeple, Ludofy, ALBI, Ghenos, 999 Games, Rebel, and many others): Thanks to these partners, we’ve been able to reach tens of thousands of gamers who wouldn’t otherwise have access to our products.
10. Replacement Part Helpers (Helen, Mark, Devon, Christian, Dave, Austyn, Xander, Mark, and Yannis): To date, we have received and responded to over 40,000 replacement parts requests. I’m incredibly grateful to have these diligent helpers positioned around the world to take care of lost, missing, and broken components from our products.
11. Automa: The inclusion of robust solo variants in our games thanks to Morten, David, Lines, and other members of their team has been instrumental in extending our reach to solo gamers. I’m constantly amazed by how well Automa Factory is able to capture the feeling of a sentient opponent without requiring much upkeep or rules overheard.
12. The Mill and Positively Board Gaming: I really appreciate that Carol and Molly maintain a sponsored YouTube channel specifically to talk about Stonemaier Games from a fan perspective. Our Facebook groups are great for those conversations, but they really breathe life to our fanbase through The Mill, and we’re proud to support it. I’ve also really enjoyed the conversations I’ve had this year with Mitchell on our co-hosted podcast, Positively Board Gaming.
13. Digital Platforms (Tabletopia, Monster Couch, The Knights of Unity, Acram Digital, Digidiced, Board Game Arena, and Boardspace.net): The skill to take a tabletop game and translate it to the digital space for more people to discover, enjoy, and learn from is astonishing to me. I’m so impressed by and grateful for these folks. I’m also really grateful for Paul Hart, the developer of the free Stonemaier Scores app and Jans Carton, creator of Rulepop.
14. Shipping and Fulfillment Companies (ARC Global, Spiral Galaxy, Let’s Play Games, Miniature Market, and Asmodee Canada): While most of our games are shipped in bulk to distributors, we offer more direct shipping to those who order on our webstore thanks to these fulfillment companies. We also offer local pickup in St. Louis!
15. Co-Designers and Game Designers (Ben Rosset, Matthew O’Malley, Hoby Chou, Kai Starck, Ryan Lopez, Elizabeth Hargrave, Morten Monrad Pedersen, David Studley, Travis Jones, Alexander Schmidt, Mike Young, Paolo Mori, Francesco Testini, Mihir Shah, Chris Scaffidi, Connie Vogelmann, Paul Salomon, David Gordon, Michael O’Connell, Antoine Bauza, Ryan Davis, Pete Wissinger, and others to be revealed next year): The talent and dedication of these designers is astounding, and they are integral to our ability to bring joy to tabletops.
16. Manufacturers (Shannon at Panda Game Manufacturing and Chris at Innova): It’s a true blessing to work with a manufacturer like Panda. Their communication, quality, care, and willingness to work with us on things like making our games more eco-friendly makes them the only manufacturer I ever want to work with. It’s also been fun to continue to make custom discs with Innova this year!
17. Proofreaders: Using our proofreading and oversight process, a dedicated group of proofreaders can see every step of a product’s evolution during the proofreading process. I’m incredibly grateful for the time and effort that Dana, Michael, Josh, Ian, Brian, Inga, Justin, Crystal, and others have put into our products this year.
18. Ambassadors: Our ambassadors have made our community and games so much better by answering questions on forums, playtesting our games, making suggestions for my top 10 lists (Aryn, Skiler, Abagail, Kari, Kaitlyn, and Dillon), and welcoming people into our games at game stores, events, and conventions. We currently have around 750 active ambassadors–I love that I can trust this group with ideas while they’re still being formed to get their feedback. A few ambassadors are particularly helpful on an ongoing basis are Josh Ward, Travis Willse, Garrett Feiner, and Julie Bode (though I should really stress that there are many, many active ambassadors who offer their time and talent in incredible ways).
19. Reviewers, Journalists, Podcasters, and Video Bloggers: I can’t play every game, but thanks to the variety of perspectives from other content creators, I’m able to listen a variety of perspectives from the comfort of my office. I’m also truly grateful for all of the reviewers who create compelling content to help people decide if our games are a good fit for them, and I appreciate reviewer who understanding that we can’t send every product to all 550 reviewers on our list. Also this year I’m grateful for the YouTubers who accepted our sponsorship for playthroughs.
20. Convention and Event Coordinators/Volunteers (Geekway to the West, Gen Con, Essen, TantrumCon, any convention that uses the play-and-win system, BGG@SEA, etc): It takes a lot of work to put together a convention, and I’m grateful for my coworker, Dave, for coordinating our convention presence (and with the support of the wonderful people at Meeplesource and Inside Up Games). I’m so grateful for the people who create such welcoming environments for old and new gamers to commune with each other, as well as the volunteers who help us at those events. You can always check here to see if we’ll have a presence at a convention. I had fun briefly attending Gen Con this year, at Geekway, Design Day, and the Finspan event, and going on the BGG@SEA cruise to Norway.
21. Blog Readers, Video Viewers, and Commenters (full KS Lesson list and game design YouTube channel): I hope this blog, my weekly livestream, Instagram feed, my monthly Rolling Realms liveplays, and our YouTube channel added value to you this year, and I really appreciate when you join in the conversation.
22. Design Day Attendees: The creative energy and generosity of time and talent at our annual Design Day is always inspiring for me. Thank you to all of the designers and playtesters who attended in 2025, and especially to Pieces Board Game & Cafe for being awesome hosts.
23. Fellow Creators: I love that there are so many brilliant, innovative creators and game designers. You all truly inspire me to be a better creator and a more interesting game designer. I’m particularly grateful for fellow publishers who share their advice, insights, and insights (publicly and privately)–I learn so much from you!
24. My Gaming Groups: Gaming is my main social outlet, and I’m really grateful to have a few consistent game groups filled with people who love a wide variety of games (including disc golf). I like that these people try to win but focus on having fun, and it’s been fun to play every other week with local friends in person and every other week on Board Game Arena with friends outside of St. Louis.
25. Charity Auction Participants: The extremely generous donors (along with other contributors like Fulfillrite and participating content creators) who placed winning bids on our annual charity auction enabled us to donate $22,354 to 10 different charities, putting our total donation amount over all charity auctions at $211,216. We also donated hundreds of games this year to organizations that feature tabletop games to serve communities who can’t buy games.
26. Third-Party Creators: This year we added a showcase for third-party creators to feature their Stonemaier-related accessories. We also released 6 official promo packs that add 150 completely new birds to Wingspan.
27. Friends and Family: I’m very grateful for the many ways my friends and family support me in my passion for gaming, for Stonemaier Games, and for serving you.

What are you grateful for in the tabletop gaming community/industry this year?

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