The Daily Worker Placement: Recent Episodes
Sean J.
Table Talk 013: A Chat about Gateway Games
Taylor and Alice discuss games that got them into the hobby and what makes something a “gateway game” anyway.
Games mentioned (so many!):
Agueda https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/317515/agueda-city-of-umbrellas
Chai https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/253185/chai
Nine Tiles Extreme https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/391084/nine-tiles-extreme
Nine Tiles Panic https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/279869/nine-tiles-panic
Shifting Stones https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/302280/shifting-stones
Agricola https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31260/agricola
Caverna https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/102794/caverna-the-cave-farmers
Applejack https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/367662/applejack
Nova Luna https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/284435/nova-luna
Framework https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/353152/framework
Wacky Wacky West https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/19/wacky-wacky-west
Chartae https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269257/chartae
Tigris and Euphrates https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/42/tigris-and-euphrates
Quest for El Dorado https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/217372/the-quest-for-el-dorado
Gardeners https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/361840/gardeners
Paint the Roses https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/253759/paint-the-roses
Decorum https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/344554/decorum
Magic Maze https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/209778/magic-maze
The Mind https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/244992/the-mind
Root https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/237182/root
Ticket to Ride https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9209/ticket-to-ride
Kitchen Rush https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/223953/kitchen-rush
What’s For Dinner https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/327121/whats-for-dinner
Photosynthesis https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/218603/photosynthesis
Railroad Ink https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/245654/railroad-ink-deep-blue-edition
Evergreen https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/363307/evergreen
Dragon Castle https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/232219/dragon-castle
King’s Dilemma https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/245655/the-kings-dilemma
Quacks of Quedlinburg https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/244521/the-quacks-of-quedlinburg
Wingspan https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/266192/wingspan
Patchwork https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/163412/patchwork
Parks https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/266524/parks
Viticulture https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128621/viticulture
Glass Road https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/143693/glass-road
Herbaceous https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/195314/herbaceous
Furnace https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/318084/furnace
Check us out at https://theyrecalledvictorypoints.com/ or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/theyre_called_victory_points/!
An experimental podcast with only one voice about games getting reskinned. What are your favorite reimplementations? What makes them better than the original? Or, alternatively, worse?
Games mentioned in this episode:
Curios
Wonder Woods
Century: Golem Editions
Furnace
Azul: Master Chocolatier
Check us out at https://theyrecalledvictorypoints.com/ or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/theyre_called_victory_points/!
After a hiatus of embarrassing length because of a disastrous attempt to record an actual play podcast of the infuriating and deeply beige game De Vulgari Eloquentia, we return triumphantly for our first double-digit show! Taylor and Alice talk about reorganizing Alice’s collection and both best practices and pitfalls around that.
Games mentioned:
Codex Naturalis
Sagrada: Artisans
Robot Quest Arena
Dominion
Cosmic Frog
Robo Rally
Crash Octopus
Succulent
Mechanical Beast
Gallerist
Gartenbau
Finest Fish
Scrabble
Fearsome Floors
Masterpiece
Queendomino
Kingdomino
Trailer Park Wars
Check us out at https://theyrecalledvictorypoints.com/ or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/theyre_called_victory_points/!
Was GenCon 2023 a dumpster fire? Or just a smoldering waste paper basket? Listen on, friends, as Taylor and Alice wax poetical!
Games mentioned:
Disney Lorcana
Cosmic Frog
Gartenbau
The Finest Fish
Habitats
Framework
Fairy Trails
Nova Luna
Applejack
Ticket to Ride: Europe
Undergrove
Lacuna
Mycelium
Wonder Woods
Curios
Starry Night Sky
Quoridor
Qawale
Pollen
District Noir
Three Sisters
Splito
Cat in the Box
Gardeners
Bear Raid
Ra
Indian Summer
At the Gates of Loyang
Galaxy Trucker
Everdell: Farshore
Read our latest musings on Tabletop games and culture at www.dailyworkerplacement.com.
Taylor G and Alice C talk with RPG superstar designer Cezar Capable about design, feelings, colonization, and, apparently, zombie cows.
Cryptid: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/246784/cryptid
Paint the Roses: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/253759/paint-roses
Century: A New World: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/270970/century-new-world
Furnace: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/318084/furnace
I Guess This Is It: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/346911/i-guess-it
Alice is Missing: https://www.huntersentertainment.com/alice-is-missing
Nexalis: https://capacle.itch.io/nexalis
Read our latest musings on Tabletop games and culture at www.dailyworkerplacement.com.
This week, Alice and Taylor have some strong feelings about house rules for board games.
Games referenced in this episode:
Curious Cargo
New York Zoo
Beer and Bread
Renature
Azul: Queen’s Garden
Glass Road
Patchwork
Monopoly
Viticulture
Parks
Uno
Scrabble
Mahjong
Rummikub
Euchre
Dominoes
Canasta
Rummy
Shanghai
Jenga
Tzolk’in
Founders of Teotihuacan
Catan
Royal Game of Ur
Ticket to Ride
Wingspan
Gizmos
De Vulgari Eloquentia
Caper
Control
Surrealist Dinner Party
Read our latest musings on Tabletop games and culture at www.dailyworkerplacement.com.
The Game Changers podcast on Klaus Teuber and the history of CATAN can be found on iTunes and Spotify.
It took us a while to get our meeply asses in gear, but we (Alice, Bailey, David, Taylor, and Victoria) finally managed to get together in one (virtual) place and pay tribute to Klaus Teuber, designer of CATAN (originally The Settlers of Catan) and one of modern Eurogaming’s OG’s.
After starting off with the usual “what we’ve been playing”, we share our earliest memories of CATAN and other Teuber favorites, discuss CATAN’s role as a gateway game and whether it’s still the gateway game, whether it still stands up design-wise today, and end off by comparing our favorite CATAN variants.
On the way we also talk about the following games:
Ticket to Ride
Hoplomachus: Victorum
Dixit
Kinoko
CATAN Histories: Struggle For Rome
Settlers of the Stone Age
CATAN Histories: Settlers of America: Trails to Rails
Fairy Trails
Wacky Wacky West
Machi Koro
Space Base
Read our latest musings on Tabletop games and culture at www.dailyworkerplacement.com.
The Game Changers podcast on Klaus Teuber and the history of CATAN can be found on iTunes and Spotify.
What makes a game replayable a few times? Many times in a row? Something you long to play again? Taylor and Alice give you the definitive answer.
Caverna
Agricola
Frosthaven
Shifting Stones
Moon Base
Greed
One Night Werewolf
Dominion
Undaunted: Normandy
The Gallerist
Sea Salt and Paper
Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar
Azul: Queen’s Garden
My City
Holding On: The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr
Cascadia
Planet
Ecos: First Continent
Catan
Glass Road
Chess
Ticket to Ride
Power Grid
Check us out at The Daily Worker Placement: www. dailyworkerplacement.com.
Taylor and Alice chat with friend and DWP contributor Bailey D about how she finds off-beat and less popular games. And they’re coming to you live (recorded) from the Edge House’s annual 24-Hour Board Game Marathon fundraiser. Want to support that community? Go to www.edge-uc.org/donate.
Games we discussed:
The Gallerist
Acquire
Moon Base
Moon Adventure
So, You’ve Been Eaten
Charioteer
Conestoga wagon?
Beer and Bread
Tiny Epic…
Codenames
Acts of the Evangelists
Heading Forward
Check us out at The Daily Worker Placement: www. dailyworkerplacement.com.
When you go on vacation, how do you take your game collection? Obviously, you need to take them, you’ll need to play them. But what about all those boxes and bits? What games are good for various situations? Don’t worry, Taylor and Alice have you covered.
Surrealist Dinner Party
Paint the Roses
Exit: The Advent Calendar
The Initiative
Agricola
Azul: Queen’s Garden
Art Robbery
5211
Mint Rails
Travel Carcassonne
Travel Catan
Square Meal
Iota
Set
Quirkle
Point Salad
Sea Salt and Paper
Solitaire
Pass and play apps for specific games you like
Hive
Uno
Codex Naturalis
Just One
Tsuro
Dreamscape
I Guess This is It
Fuji Flush
Tricky Tides
Rage
Wizard
Diamonds
Folk games mentioned:
I’m going for a picnic on the moon…
TCP (Taboo, Charades, Password)
Picture Telephone
Card Games That Don’t Suck
In the grand tradition of annual “best of” lists, Taylor and Alice offer you a list of the best games for extremely specific people. All of which are actually good.
Games Mentioned:
Fairy Trails
The Gallerist
Masterpiece
(also Mastermind)
Taco Bell Party Pack Card Game
A Gentle Rain
Patchwork
SHH
Consentacle
USPS: Great American Mail Race
Down
Palm Island
I Guess This Is It…
The Acts of the Apostles
That Time You Killed Me
RATS: High Tea at Sea
Love Letter
Aroma
Just One
Mint Works
Mint Rails
7 Wonders Duel
Decorum
Battle Sheep
Giant Throw Throw Burrito
Villainous
The Great Dalmuti
Castles of Burgundy
Surrealist Dinner Party
Obsession
Arthur Goes to the Library
Rory’s Story Cubes
Praise
Bus
Taylor and Alice talk about why they love/hate games about feelings in this meandering and contemplative third episode. What is your experience of games about feelings? Do you tolerate them? Try to get all your friends and family to play them with you? Wish you could instead stay in the land of Beige Traders forever?
Games mentioned:
Sea Salt and Paper, yes again
Ticket to Ride
Framework
Color Monster
Holding On: The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr
I Guess This Is It
Zen Tiles Solo
A Mending
Not mentioned, but worthy of your attention: Variations on Your Body by Avery Adler
Table Talk 002: A Chat about First Plays
When you play a game for the first time, what do you look for? How do you play well? What makes a first play fun? Or, for that matter, a second or 50th?
Featured in this episode: new, improved sound quality, two bleeped swears, and the following games:
Sea Salt and Paper
Sushi Go
Azul: Queen’s Garden
Azul: Summer Pavilion
Quirkle
Dreamscape
Jericho
Poker
Neotraditional Ama
Clank
String Railway
7 Wonders
Read more from the Daily Worker Placement team at dailyworkerplacement.com and follow us on Instagram at @dailyworkerplacement.
Welcome to our conversation, featuring unprofessional bag crinkling and table-smacking!
Games talked about in this podcast:
Century: Spice Road
Viticulture
Azul: Queen’s Garden
Shifting Stones
Town 66
Canopy
Great American Mail Race
Miyabi
Suburbia
Quacks of Quedlinburg
Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar
Parks
Settlers of Catan
Fog of Love
Discussion questions:
Has anyone else thought about this? What to you makes a good or horrible box liner? Do you store your games vertically or horizontally? What’s your favorite box liner?
and
Is happiness an illusion?
Thank you to the designers of the game Symposium for their wonderful questions. Rundontwalk to get your own copy.
Read more from Alice, Taylor, and all the rest at www.dailyworkerplacement.com.
In this episode David starts out by looking at what we get out of competing vs cooperating in tabletop games...
...and then things take an unexpected turn.
All music copyright 2022 by David Weiss.
Check out David's writing at The Daily Worker Placement.
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If game design is an artform--and I believe it is--then it deserves an aesthetic framework and a language to discuss it and its potential. Hence FORMAT.
To discover what FORMAT stands for, in all senses, have a listen to Episode 3.
All music copyright 2022 by David Weiss.
Check out David's writing at The Daily Worker Placement.
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If a game is "a machine for telling stories that end with players winning and/or losing", what are its components? And what energy drives it? That's what we're discussing this month. (Which is also a way of saying that new episodes will be dropping monthly.)
All music copyright 2022 by David Weiss.
Check out David's writing at The Daily Worker Placement.
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Welcome back to The Game Changers. In the first episode, David catches you up on his 2021 and then plunges in to the first Big Question of Season Two: just what is a game?
Yes, that's right. It's taken over a year, but Season Two of The Game Changers is coming!
In the epic finale to Season One, David looks back on what he learned by trying to tell the story of Modern Tabletop, and looks forward to Season Two.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
Bach Cello Prelude BWV 1007 performed by Julia Sofia Nagyova - https://archive.org/details/191013-Gregoriana-CC103
Wingspan's status as Tabletop most recent Game Changer stems less from its design than its designer. Elizabeth Hargrave's choice of theme, and her outspoken involvement in Tabletop culture, portends a sea-change in the artform's attitudes and norms.
Check out David's writing at The Daily Worker Placement.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
Who could have ever predicted a game about birds would become the monster hit of 2019? Our final Game Changer is Wingspan, and in Part 1 we look at how Elizabeth Hargrave came to design it.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
In this episode we look at four of the most prominent Teutonic designers and their major works: two Germans (Feld; Cramer) and two Austrians (Pfister and Warsch). While Pfister is expanding the narrative vocabulary of the Euro, it is Warsch who has had the most immediate effect on the industry.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
Looking Back Over the Hill, by David Gwyn Jones - link
A new wave of European designers crashed ashore in the 2010's who had grown up playing first-gen Euros and therefore hungered for something more complex. In Part One, we look at various national "styles" that became embodied by talented designers in Poland, Italy, and Portugal.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
Courtesy of the Internet Sound & Music Archive at archive.org
Star Wars Theme by John Williams
Medley: Funiculi-Funicula/Tarantela by Living Guitars
April in Portugal (Coimbra) by Orquestra De Shegundo Galarza, Monitor Records
Isaac Childres had only one published game under his belt when he began dreaming about an open-world RPG-style game. He never intended to produce the biggest Tabletop game (in all senses) of all time: Gloomhaven.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
In Part 2, we look at how the boundaries between role-playing games and "regular" Tabletop got blurrier as the 2010's wore on.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
This Episode's Game Changer was the product of two trends cresting in the mid 2010's. In Part 1, we look at how Tabletop becoming big(ger) business began to affect both publishers and gamers..
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
Love Letter was not the first microgame--but it spurred the creation of many more, and helped open the door for a new generation of Asian designers.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
As the 2010's dawned, games began to appear by designers from the Far East, who brought different sensibilities and design ideas into the Tabletop mix.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
Pencil Writing, Close, A.wav by InspectorJ (https://www.jshaw.co.uk/)
In Part 2 of this Episode, we examine the party game phenomenon that is Cards Against Humanity. What does it, and its story, say about Tabletop culture?
Check out David's writing at The Daily Worker Placement.
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Links to articles referred to in this episode:
- https://twitter.com/atheresastewart/status/1269310742450393089
- https://medium.com/@anitasarkeesian/ending-my-relationship-with-cards-against-humanity-and-max-temkin-2f25108dfeb4
- https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/45989/cards-against-humanity-partner-departs
- https://medium.com/@nicolas.j.carter/how-to-know-youre-not-insane-and-how-a-cards-against-humanity-staff-writer-was-fired-40fe07fbbfe4
Episode Nine's Game Changer traces its roots back through 1970's game shows and 1950's Golden Age Television all the way back to Edwardian England.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
Incidental music used in this episode in public domain, retrieved from archive.org:
- "The Typewriter", Leroy Anderson and His 'Pops' Concert Orchestra
- "Thunderbird", Ray Anthony and His Orchestra
- "Chicken Fried Steak", Lenny White
Two small games, both released in 1981 by small publishers, were the spiritual parents of the social deduction game that broke through to a wider audience.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
In this episode we trace the history of party games, from ancient drinking games through the boom years of Trivial Pursuit and beyond.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
Donald X. Vaccharino's 2008 game Dominion introduced the deckbuilding genre. In the second half of Episode 7, we look at its wide-ranging influence, both in Tabletop and in videogames.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
In this episode we tell the story of how in 2008 an unknown designer, Donald X. Vaccarino, sprang onto the world Tabletop stage with Dominion, the first deckbuilding game.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
Until 2007, Uwe Rosenberg was known for light card games. Then he changed course and began designing heavy Eurogames, starting with Agricola. In Part 2 we look at how Agricola managed to be both a gateway AND a Kennerspiel, and how it changed Tabletop.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
How did the rise of BoardGameGeek contribute to the success of Uwe Rosenberg's Agricola? Listen in and find out.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
David takes a look at the long are varied history of war games in this episode of the Game Changers.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
David takes a look at the long are varied history of war games in this episode of the Game Changers.
Check out David's writing at The Daily Worker Placement.
Support us on Patreon!
Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
David examines one fo the most impactful genres in the board gaming industry, Train Games. One specific game changed the way we introduce people to the hobby.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
David examines one fo the most impactful genres in the board gaming industry, Train Games. One specific game changed the way we introduce people to the hobby.
Check out David's writing at The Daily Worker Placement.
Support us on Patreon!
Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
David continues his examination of board games that changed the hobby.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
David continues his examination of board games that changed the hobby.
Check out David's writing at The Daily Worker Placement.
Support us on Patreon!
Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
David takes a deep dive into a game that revolutionized card games and the hobby in general. Check out part 1 if you missed it, and listen to the second part here.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
In episode one of Game Changers, David takes a look a card game that was designed almost as an afterthought. It would go on to change the gaming landscape forever and become responsible for some of the single most valuable gaming components ever.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
Netrunner is a game that has had a few different lives. Despite forming a loyal fanbase, it was discontinued for a second time in 2018. Since then, the players have taken matters into their own hands. Check out the episode for all the details.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
Additional Music: Andromeda by Sascha Ende - https://filmmusic.io/song/565-andromeda/
David Weiss has been playing games his entire life. From classics, like Chess and Go, to war games, to modern strategy games. In this season of Game Changers, he's looking at 12 games that changed the hobby.
Check out his writing at The Daily Worker Placement.
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Intro Music: Violet World by Aquartos - https://artlist.io/jp/song/7373/violet-world
Additional Music: Rush of Blood by Lilo Sound - https://filmmusic.io/song/5791-rushofblood/