Kathryn Hymes

A character I played for a TTRPG called Dialect! Her name is Oxi Beck and she’s a deep sea diver/smuggler :) been really enjoying painting lately, I think bc painting is no longer my day job lol

Im Sommer neu bei uns: "Dialect", das preisgekrönte Spiel über Sprache und Gemeinschaften. Kreiert eigene Dialekte und erforscht emotionale Geschichten in einem spielleiterlosen Abenteuer! Mehr Infos unter system-matters.de/284134/dialect…. #Dialect #Rollenspiel #Sprache #Gemeinschaft

4年前に蹴っていた、宇宙人とのファースト・コスタクトがテーマの言語TRPG『Xenolanguage』がついに到着。『ダイアレクト』と同デザイナーの作品。 PLは音源を実際に聞き、自分のPCの物語を紡ぎ、小説『コンタクト』『あなたの人生の物語』のように意味を解釈していく。

Xenolanguage: A Game about Alien Language and Human Memory ダイアレクトを出したとこ、Thorney Gamesのファースト・コンタクトを迎えた異星人の言語を理解するゲーが届いた。もうちょい落ち着いたら訳して遊んでみるべ。TRPGは飽きないしいつも刺激的だ。

@ptr Beautiful and brave, Tess! What a triumph. I'm excited for you <3

It has been a busy few months! Somehow, I find myself with one more bit of news: I am transgender, and I'm in the middle of a gender transition. 🏳️‍⚧️ I am changing my name to Tess (she/her). I am out at home and at work and now you know, too. That's the gist. If the story interests you, more below. [If you are having a 🤯 moment, that's totally normal! I'll wait. :)] Alright so... this is news for most people in my life, but it isn't for me. It's something I have struggled with deeply for over 25 years, mostly in denial of what it was and what it meant. As a kid I struggled with shyness and social anxiety. I learned to hide parts of me and fake others so I could fit in. Not just thoughts about gender, but also things like being a nerd, anything I worried made me weird or strange or unlovable. It's a kind of mask that I wore, consciously at first, but increasingly invisible even to me. As I approached 40 last year, I found myself gaining the bravery to interrogate these feelings, educate myself about them, and take steps to be happier, calmer, and more present for the people who matter most in my life, starting with my amazing wife and wonderful kids. I don't know exactly what untangled this web of thoughts for me. My best guess is I got to a point in my life where I could breathe and reflect and for the first time ever, worry less about achieving in the eyes of others. I have gained a lot of strength over the last many months. In spite of all that, the truth is that writing this, and posting it here, is an incredibly scary thing. I've come to see my professional network as a kind of consolation prize for suppressing parts of me I thought the world might judge, things that would prevent me from achieving a career I was proud of or building a family I could love and care for. The thing with consolation prizes is they mean you didn't get what you were hoping for, and I realize now that the thing I missed out on was being myself, openly and without fear, or at least with courage and bravery. In the back of my mind in nearly every social interaction in my life has been this lurking question, "What if they knew?" Would they still like me? Respect me? Want to work with or for me? I hid from the answers to those questions. That path served me for a time, but the healthier path, the one I am choosing, is to say: Be who you are. Let people come into or out of your life of their own accord. These days I don't have to ask "What if they knew?" anymore around the house or at work or with my friends, and by telling you all, I don't have to ask that here, either. It's a special kind of peace I never thought possible. It's going to be hard to believe this, but I promise, it's true: while the news sounds huge and life defining, it's quite the opposite. I carried this inside me and I'm finally setting it down. Yes I look different, and that will play out more over time. Yes I am changing my name. But the thoughts were always there, the secret strain on my life was always there. I'm free of that, now, and with that comes a lightness that far exceeds the awkwardness you might imagine I feel. Truly, and I mean this: things are easier for me now. As complex as this whole thing seems from the outside, it is deeply, profoundly simplifying on the inside. I am at peace. Thanks for listening. If you made it this far, I'm flattered. I write all of this partly for catharsis, but it serves another more important role. Product Management, and especially product leadership, has near zero trans representation. At times I wonder if seeing others like me live openly would have helped me when I was suffering. Perhaps I would have figured myself out a bit sooner. Regardless, I feel compelled to speak up and out and to be that representation for others. Living openly and showing people like me that it is going to be okay helps me forgive myself for many years of confusion, fear, and shame. And if this note resonates with you in any way and you want to talk about it, my DMs are open anytime. Hang in there; it gets better. 💜

@timhwang Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art by Stephen Nachmanovitch. Also, Hands by John Napier.

what is the least-known book that you recommend most enthusiastically?

What class prep looks like for TTRPG course:

Ben Platt writes on @thornygames's multi-award-winning TTRPG Dialect, on failure, and on utopia. A new essay now up on @BSFA Vector vector-bsfa.com/2023/04/13/fin…… #ttrpgs #ttrpgfamily

Reading @the_jennitaur's latest book Saving Time and stumbled on a mention of the article for my ode to/obsession with familects and small group dialects. Featuring @muscularpikachu's delightful language invention. <3

Game design is a kind of conversation design. In this #BigBadOnline session, the co-founders of Thorny Games will talk about their experience designing games that help people talk about hard things together. Don't miss this panel! bigbadcon.com/events/making-…

🤠We're happy to celebrate @bigbadcon Online that's kicking off TODAY! 💬Check out Dialect from @thornygames and explore a game about an isolated community, their language and what it means for language to be lost. 🎉Grab it today and save 30% until 4/3: hubs.li/Q01JM9ZW0

@SharangBiswas @djMalenfant yes! I could talk about animorphs forever, especially with sharang.

Had a blast speaking at @WiDS_Worldwide recently about building data products for humanitarian aid applications at @MSF_USA. There is so much impactful work to be done here - hit me up if you are curious about what product and tech looks like here! youtube.com/watch?v=TVw99x…

@AbigailAKessler @thornygames @jill_dehaan Beautiful!

Pretty excited at how my amaryllis matches my poster from @thornygames and @jill_dehaan !

Next up: Talking at Stanford's Women in Data Science conference on making data products for humanitarian aid applications. widsconference.org/kathrynhymes.h…

Speaking at two data conferences in two weeks! Fresh off a fantastic inaugural data gathering at MSF in Barcelona.

Join @katehymes and @HSeya as they discuss some of their experiences designing games that help people talk about hard things together, be it exploring important ways they disagree or thinking through possible ways to collaborate. #BigBadOnline bigbadcon.com/events/making-…

@kleenestar !!!!! So many congrats!

TENURED.

Auch @strasa, Co-Designer von Band of Blades und Scum and Villainy, ist für eine Ask-me-anything-Session dabei. Die dritte Frag-das-Genie-Runde ist mit @katehymes, Co-Designerin der lingustischen Erzählspiele Dialect, Sign und Xenolanguage.