In this episode, we look at Greed, Madame Ching, Rise of Empires, Ninja Dice, Athlas, and Games that Tell Stories. We talk about preparing for Essen, using cell phones during games, and what to do when elminated from a game. Finally, we talk about our top ten favorite ways to resolve conflict in games. (In the game, not between players!)
You just have to play. We celebrate our 200th episode with reviews of Enigma and Doodle City, a segment honoring the meeple, a look back at a gambling game named after a female Pope, plus a super-sized Game Sommelier with three tough challenges.
The group continues our discussion with more on camels (and the inclusion of Through the Desert in the mix), along with some iOS games that have been ported over, Tzolkin, Russian Railroads, and Glass Road. We then delve into the topic of teaching games to others, as well as the need to CHOOSE fun when heading to the gaming table.
Is that true? No, but it's a comment I've heard secondhand more than once! Brian Murray is a great gamer I've met at SoCal Games Days, and through our shared friend Davebo. He's the one who hears me critique a game, or just be completely lukewarm on it, or pick it apart, and thinks that I just don't know how to relax and have a good time with boardgames. Or something like that. I'm probably putting words (the wrong words) in his mouth, but that quote above is 100% from Brian.
So it was time to have him on the podcast. Then his words can come out of his own mouth, and you all can decide what you think about it!
(We recorded this at Dave's house, sitting in his living room during a Sunday in July. Partway through the recording a raven squawks outside, and keeps going for a while. But he eventually stops. Nevermore! Perhaps a more serious concern about the audio is that all three of our voices sound pretty similar. Good luck with that.)
I've never been a Cult of the New guy, but Brian clearly is. Or, as he clarifies, he's a Cult of the New-to-Me guy. Lots of boardgamers are that way. Maybe that's you, too. Not me. I'd much rather play an old favorite. Despite that, I still play a lot of new games. And no matter what Brian says, I love some of them. Lots more are perfectly fine, just ok, but nothing more. I'd probably rate them a 6 on BGG and have no need to play them again. Brian is more likely to enjoy the experience of playing a new game just for its own sake. The excitement of seeing something new, how it's produced, the way it plays, new rules, and all the rest.
The conversation inevitably crosses over into Kickstarter. You can imagine why. If you're excited by the newness of a game, then Kickstarter is heaven. There are so many new games there! But if you're like me, and prefer to wait until a consensus emerges through the community (& marketplace) about the tiny subset of "keeper" games, then Kickstarter doesn't really offer much. Honestly, I'm looking forward to the first "modern classic" that comes out of Kickstarter that even I need to own. It just hasn't happened yet. Call me up in 2016.
It’s the big seven-three and the founders pull out a game that everyone has been chomping at the bits to hear us talk about, Caverna The Cave Farmers. Then we look back at a very similar game, Agricola. Tony T goes wild giving you the best gaming news rundown on the internet. Then we get into two meaty discussions, the first we talk about accommodating a mixed group of players and we round off the episode trying to figure out how to determine the weight of a board game.
Our show is graced by another awesome guest, Chaz Marler from Pair of Dice Paradise. Chaz is known for his YouTube videos on Thrift Store Games, Game Reviews, and most […]
In this show, we look at the games Legendary Encounters, Level 7 Invasion, Diamonds, The Battle of Five Armies, Tragedy Looper, Battle Merchants, Star Realms IOS and Magnum Opus. Geoff talks about game flow, Bill talks about running a convention for profit, and Brian takes a look back at Frank's Zoo. We also talk about our favorie companion apps for board games. Finally, we end the episode with a spoiler-heavy look at Risk: Legacy. The first 51 minutes of the show are spoiler free.
In this show, we talk about Abyss, the Battle at Kemble's Cascade, Jerk, Bang: the Duce Game, Arcadia Quest, and Ten: The Game! We cringe at another tale of horror, and talk about our Essen plans, math trades, how to get a game published, and using timers during games. We end the show with our top ten Milton Bradley games!
Here are #11-20 on the list, counted down in reverse order as we discuss them on the podcast. I thought we'd have nothing but praise for all of these highly-ranked games...but perhaps I should've known that that the three of us would take turns expressing reservations about even these amazing games. (It's going to make my upcoming "Mark Hates Games" episode all the more relevant.) ;)
In my poll associated with the last installment of 100 Great Games, I asked about the theming--or lack thereof--in Knizia's landmark cooperative game, [thing=823][/thing]. The smallest portion felt this was a mechanical, pasted-on theme kind of game. Instead, most felt that the theme does come through from the cooperative gameplay (mechanisms), while several more credited the amazing artwork for evoking the theme.
This time I'm returning to Knizia for the poll. It just worked out that way. We discussed Medici in a previous episode (and I recently played the unfortunately-ugly latest edition), and now Ra has come up. We used to ask ourselves which of Knizia's "auction trilogy" was our favorite (these plus Modern Art). That's what I'm asking here, only Mark Jackson suggested I widen it to include several more of Knizia's excellent auction-based games (including Mark's favorite, as you can hear in the episode). Did I forget to include your favorite? Tell me so in a comment, below.
It's the time you've all been waiting for, the Gen Con 2014 retrospective! In the banter we talk about a ton of new games we purchased and played. THen we review a brand new game released this year, Lords of Xidit. Tony talks about all the gaming news including the upcoming games we got a chance to demo at Gen Con. Then the founders talk about their experiences at the convention this year!
In this episode, we have two special guest stars on our show, Lance Myxter and Lee Shelton. Some of you know Lance from his youTube channel Undead Viking Videos and Lee you have […]
In this episode, we return to our normal schedule. We look at several games, including City Hall, Dead of Winter, Pandemic: Contageon, Cosmic Dominion, Villainous Vikings, Worker Placement, Plucky Pilots, and Golem Arcana. Brian discusses Medici, Greg visits another store, Geoff talks about those who hate to think, we get more legal advice, hear another tale of horror, and discuss some hot news. Finally, we end the show asking what game released at GenCon are we most interested in, and why.
Microgames are hot right now. It all "started" with Love Letter, when it burst onto the scene at Essen two years ago. Here was an game that was so inexpensive as to be an impulse-buy, so small it could fit in your pocket, so simple it was easy to teach anyone, and so quick it invited games whenever you had some spare time & friends onhand, like at a restaurant. Suddenly the game was everywhere, re-themes were ubiquitous, and other small games inevitably followed.The problem with that explanation, of course, is that Love Letter wasn't the first incarnation of a microgame. Far from it. In the days before euros (almost before RPGs), the term "microgame" appeared to describe small format wargames. In fact, I have an early BGTG episode all about those! For some diehards, that term still starts in the late 1970s with pocket-sized hex & counter wargames. Even if that was way before your time, you probably know one example from that era, because Steve Jackson recently republished his landmark title, Ogre. Besides the Kickstarter behemoth, he proudly re-issued the original microgame version of the game, and at the same price! $2.95!But putting aside the history lesson (and soapbox), it's still true that Love Letter got a lot of attention, and has sparked interest in gamers, designers, and publishers, for new boardgames in a small format. Jeff Myers, of the excellent GameGuyThinks blog, joins me to discuss this topic. This time, I try my best to avoid the trap I usually make for myself: definitions. Though we try to define what microgame means in 2014 a little bit, we don't get bogged down or philosophical on that point. It's more fun to talk about some examples we've played, as well as reconsider some earlier games that might now appear to be microgames. Or are they? To be honest, I don't see a big difference between what we've long called Filler Games and this new crop of Microgames. Not unless there's something magical about having only sixteen cards. Also, the ever-increasing field of Print-n-Play games crosses over to this topic, too. (If you really want to discuss/argue about the definition of microgames, go see manchuwok's geeklist.)We talk about the new line of modern micros from Chris Handy (his Pack O Game series) and Rob Bartel (his Famous/World's Smallest Sports Games series). There are some good ones in there (I particularly recommend Famous 500, the car-racing game).
Spencer Reeve discusses a Cool Mini's transition from retailer to publisher including new ventures into card and euro games. We discuss several new releases including Rivet Wars, Kaosball, Arcadia Quest, Dogs of War and Xenoshyft.
Elad Goldsteen from Golden Egg Games chats about Athlas: Duel for Divinity, a two player strategy game. Demigods assemble powerful creatures using cards and then deploy them to a board in order to open a portal and win the game.
Kevin Cook is the owner of the world's largest dice collection. We chat with Kevin about "The Year in Dice," including his 50,000th die! We also discuss dozens of unique and custom dice featured in games released at the con.
Matagot is a French publisher known for games with beautiful and amazingly detailed components. Arnaud chats about the philosophy that drives the company and several upcoming releases including Korrigans and Sun Tzu.