The Offline Gamer: Recent Episodes
Matt and Rai
Join Matt and Rai as we discuss what we've been playing every month in the worlds of tabletop and PC gaming, along with looks at what's caught our eye on Kickstarter, yearly coverage of the UK Games Expo, and chats with various figures in the UK board games industry.
In this episode, hosts Matt and Karen dive into their experiences at the recent UK Games Expo. They share highlights from their interactions with other gaming enthusiasts, exhibitors, and designers, and reflect on the community spirit that makes such events special. Join them as they recount memorable moments, offer insights on the latest trends in the board game industry, and provide a glimpse into their gaming haul from the expo.
Join us for Episode 90 of the Offline Gamer as we dive into our eagerly awaited UKGE 2024 preview! We've sifted through spreadsheets and maps to bring you our top picks and must-see games at this year's expo. We'll also share our personal tips on navigating the event and making the most of your visit. Plus, don’t miss our exclusive competition hidden within the episode—listen in for your chance to win! Ready your player boards and sharpen your strategies; it’s going to be an epic weekend at the UK Games Expo 2024!
In Episode 89, Matt and Karen embrace a casual and standard episode format, steering away from interviews to focus on sharing their recent gaming experiences and news. They discuss their latest adventures in board gaming, highlighting games they've played, conventions attended, and their impressions of newly released or upcoming games.
This episode we're joined by the Ever Excitable Adam from Die Rollin, and we talk all about our adventures at AireCon 2024 in Harrogate, UK.
We're back for 2024, and our friend Matty G joins us again to talk about everything he's been up to since we last spoke, travelling the world doing demos for Alley Cat Games.
Karen and Matt discuss the games they played over the past month, including some they tried out at a recent gaming convention as well as old and new favorites. Oh, and Matt's started collecting Pokemon cards.
Games discussed:
- Where Am I? Alive in a Mad Tea Party
- Creature Comforts
- Waters Edge
- Rolling Ranch
- Wok and Roll
- Holi
- Latte Throwdown
- Pioneer Rails
- Smoke & Mirrors
- Moving Pictures
- Tides
- Achroma
- Miskatonic University
- Pilfering Pandas
In this episode, Matt and Karen resume their regular format with a hearty discussion about the various games they've explored since their time at UKGE.
With a conversation stretching almost 2 hours, they share their experiences and thoughts on the various games they've played.
Tune in to hear about their gaming journey over the past few months in this relaxed and candid catch-up episode.
Link to Adam's YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DieRollin
Games Discussed:
The games discussed in this episode include (in no particular order):
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Codex Naturalis
-
Save Snowball
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Damnation: The Gothic Game
-
Waulking in Burano: Roll and Write
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Achroma
-
Wok and Roll
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Hero Master: An Epic Game of Epic Fails
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Funghi
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Wonder -Woods
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Beacon Patrol
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Scout
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Tokaido Duo
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Cadaver
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The Fox in the Forest Duet
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Lizard Wizard
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Five Tribes
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Ether Wars
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Tao Long
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Momiji
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Vadoran Gardens
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Wild: Serengeti
In this latest episode, we're thrilled to welcome our newest roaming reporter, Matty G, fresh from his journey to the US for the iconic GenCon.
Here is the link to the Kickstarter we discussed at the beginning of the show from our friend Matt at Shirts and Merch:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shirtsandmerch/exclusive-limited-edition-heat-t-shirts
We wrap up our experiences at UKGE 2023, including the games we played, people we saw, and things we spent our money on.
Also, Rai has a short announcement to make at the end of the episode.
We got together a few friends at UKGE, and threw a little quiz!
Thanks to the following for taking part:
- Scott - Minerva Tabletop
- Chris - Unfringed Things
- Phil & Kirsty - Ludus Vulpes
- Martin - Paper Boat Games
- Oleta - Ocean City Games
In our annual UKGE preview, we talk about some of the things we're keen to see at the event.
Rai is back this month, and joins Matt and Karen as we chat about our experiences attending our first ever Airecon event.
Matt and Karen share their first-hand experiences from the convention floor, discussing the hottest new board games they got to play, the bustling trade halls, the open gaming areas, and the overall atmosphere that made Airecon 2023 a truly memorable event.
https://www.airecon.co.uk/
Matt is joined by Kirsty and Phil from Ludus Vulpes, for a nice meandering chat about games!
Links:
- https://www.ludusvulpes.com
- https://www.youtube.com/c/ludusvulpes
- https://www.instagram.com/ludusvulpes/
- https://www.facebook.com/ludus.vulpes
- https://twitter.com/ludusvulpes
Normal service will resume soon, but this week we're joined by Mark Cooke to discuss Airecon 2023 in March, as well as his other roles in the board gaming industry.
Links:
- https://www.airecon.co.uk/
- https://www.brighteyegames.com/
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/UKboardgametrade/
Where have we been? What's been going on?
In this special Christmas message we let you all know why things have been a bit quite on the TOG front lately.
In a break from our usual episodes, we bring you this special bonus! Adam from Die Rollin ran a special one-shot adventure of the Shiver RPG, launching on Kickstarter soon. Join us as we investigate.. The Harvest.
Apologies for any audio issues - I've cleaned it up as best as I can!
In another mini episode, we're joined by Andrew Prowse of Rogue Artist Creations. We talk about his history of gaming and design, and his latest game SKÅL! which is coming to Kickstarter soon.
Links:
- https://www.rogueartistcreations.com
- https://www.skalgame.com
- https://www.facebook.com/rogueartistcreations/
- https://twitter.com/rogueacreations
- https://www.instagram.com/rogueartistcreations/
In another mini episode, we're joined by Andrew Prowse of Rogue Artist Creations. We talk about his history of gaming and design, and his latest game SKÅL! which is coming to Kickstarter soon.
Links:
- https://www.rogueartistcreations.com
- https://www.skalgame.com
- https://www.facebook.com/rogueartistcreations/
- https://twitter.com/rogueacreations
- https://www.instagram.com/rogueartistcreations/
This episode we're joined by James Bradley, creator of The Civitas Universe. Check out Civitas 2230 on Kickstarter now!
Links:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thecivitasuniverse/civitas-2230-build-the-cyberpunk-city-of-your-dreams
https://thecivitasuniverse.com/
https://www.instagram.com/civitas.universe
https://www.twitch.tv/civitasuniverse
A bit later than expected, here's our roundup of UKGE 2022! We talk about the games we saw, the people we chatted to, and the amazing food we ate over the weekend.
Here are our games of the show:
- Matt: Grove from WoksOnStudios
- Rai: Meadow from Rebel Studio
- Karen: Meadow from Rebel Studio
It's almost time for UKGE!
We have a chat about the show, our lovely map, and we use the Tabletop SPIRIT preview magazine to see what some of the exhibitors are bringing along.
We have a quick catch-up this month before we start planning for UKGE! Keep your ears open for our preview episode coming in the next couple of weeks.
Unfortunately, there's a small issue with Rai's microphone in this episode so apologies for the audio issues.
Matt is joined in this episode by author Steve Dee, and there's chat about his latest update to his board game book, Ticket to Carcassonne, as well as other projects, and what Steve has been playing recently!
Links:
https://twitter.com/steve_dee_ttc
https://tickettocarcassonne.com
After a short real-life delay, we're back and have a good catch up over what's been going on since the new year. As it's our first show of 2022, it's also time for our Kickstarter Awards!
For our Christmas episode this year we're doing something a little different - Wayne and Jude from the TrekMate podcast join us for a look through lots of Star Trek related games on BoardGameGeek!
You can find out more about TrekMate at www.trekmate.org.uk
It's back to normal this month, and we've got a lot of catching up to do! Matt tells us all about a few months worth of Kickstarters, and Rai details all about their foray into D&D...
This month we briefly chat about what we've been playing, some terrible Kickstarters, and we're joined by Angela from Toonhammer Games to talk about Arkosa - currently on Kickstarter!
It's time for our review of UKGE 2021, and a chat about everything we saw over the course of the weekend!
In this second part of our preview of UKGE 2021, we talk about what we're excited to see at the show.
We hope to see you there!
In this first part of our preview for UKGE 2021, Matt has a good chat with Richard Denning, one of the founders and directors of UKGE. We talk about the events that led up to the postponement and eventual cancellation of the 2020 show, moving to a virtual event, and what we can expect from the show in 2021.
Thanks to Richard for finding an hour in his very busy schedule to have a chat to us!
In a break from our usual format, Matt is joined by artist, designer, and co-founder of DoodleMeeple Jamie Noble Frier to discuss the Hero Master Kickstarter, what DoodleMeeple is all about, and lots of other random topics to do with gaming.
Sorry for the delay this month.. illness and University work for Rai took priority! But we're back, and we talk about our usual topics and are joined by good friends Peter and James from Board Game Hub to talk about the upcoming Kickstarter for Tranquility: The Ascent
We've been in lockdown for a year! We chat about what we've been playing, and Matt shares some exciting news about an oft-mentioned Kickstarter...
Our first 'proper' episode of 2021, and we take a look at Kickstarter #ZineQuest. There's also our usual start of year shenanigans, but without our annual Kickstarter awards due to the fact that we've not played most of what we've received!
It's interviewer turned interviewee this episode, as for a change Matt is the one in the spotlight as Bez asks all the questions.
Audio taken from 'Bezzy Beats & Boardgame Blether' on 23rd Jan 2021.
Back to normal this month, before our review of the year coming up in our next episode. What we've been playing is unsurprisingly a certain newly released PC game...
A short catch-up this week, were we talk about:
- Raise Your Game - We raised £500 for charity!
- Board Game Smackdown - The Offline Gamer Special!
We also welcome back some returning guests, Pete and James from Board Game Hub who talk about (amongst other things) their new game on Kickstarter - Tessera.
It's been a while since we've done a regular episode, so this month we just have a catchup of what we've been playing since last time. Also, Matt is doing a board game Twitch stream at the end of October for the Raise Your Game event run by Dementia UK. For more information see https://justgiving.com/fundraising/qbie
Who'd have thought it, we've been doing this for five years! In this episode we look back over the past five years, as well as borrow a format from another podcast and discuss our top ten board games in our collection.
It's almost here, the first ever virtual UK Games Expo! We take a look at what we can expect over the weekend of the 21st to 23rd August!
Virtually Expo Homepage - https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/virtually-expo/
UKGE Awards Shortlist - https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/whats-on/show/awards-shortlist/
In this episode Matt has a chat with comedian James Cook, probably best known amongst the board game community for his Always Be Rolling, Pandemic Live and Board Game Smackdown shows.
Thank you James for taking the time to chat with us, and for more information about James and his various projects visit the following pages:
www.jamescookcomedian.com www.youtube.com/jamescookcomedian www.twitter.com/jamesecook www.patreon.com/boardgamesmackdown
And to get his Emoji quiz book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Wasting-Emoji-Quizzes-James/dp/B08BW9KJWM
It's time for another episode of Meeple Mail, where we take a dive into our inbox to see what we've been sent over the past few weeks.
Matt's gone a bit crazy backing Kickstarters, and also has around 1700 games to play from the Bundle for Justice and Racial Equality. He's itching to play them... (See what we did there?)
It's been a month since our last Meeple Mail, so we have a bunch of emails to get through. Let's see what people have been sending us this month.
To celebrate our 50th episode, we've decided to put on a quiz! Joining us for this special occasional are some of our friends, but which one of them knows the most about games?
We're still stuck indoors this month, but that's no reason why Matt can't spend lots of cash backing Kickstarter projects he'll be able to play (hopefully) once lockdown is over...
Our inbox is virtually overflowing! Let's take a look inside in our next episode of Meeple Mail.
It's our first episode of Meeple Mail, where we take a look at the emails and press releases we get in our mailbox that we often neglect...
Let us know what you think of this new addition to our podcast!
It's been a few weeks since our last episode, so we catch up on everything that's been going on in the world since, and have our usual chat about games.
It's that time of the year again, we talk about our usual topics but also bring you our top three Kickstarter games of 2019.
In this episode, we take a look at Tabletop Gaming Magazine's Top Games of 2019, and despair about how much we're missing out on.
We're also joined by a special guest for a few minutes...
In this episode, we chat to Steve from Chance and Counters.
Matt also talks for quite a while about what he's been playing during the rainy evenings after work, and we take a look at one of the less 'slapped together' satire games currently on Kickstarter.
In this episode, Matt visits the Great Indoors event in Bromsgrove. In addition to our usual talking points we chat to Peter and James about Tranquility, coming to Kickstarter soon.
We're back, and this month it's a bit of a MattFest as Rai doesn't really have much to talk about...
It's that time of the year again, our round-up of what we saw (and ate...) at the UK Games Expo 2019!
It's almost time for UKGE 2019! Join us as we chat about what we're looking forward to this year.
A return to our usual format this month, but apologies for the quality of Matt's audio... human error!
A lot to get through this month! We bring you our annual Kickstarter awards, and also interviews with some designers from the Birmingham Board Game bash! For links, see https://www.offlinegamer.co.uk
A look ahead to 2019 in both Board and Video games. What are people anticipating? We take a look at some lists to see what we've missed...
This episode we recap our excursion all the way to the NEC in Birmingham for EGX 2018, and get back to some of our usual topics of discussion.
Our good friend Gareth joins us in this episode to give us his thoughts on Essen Spiel 2018.
It's our three year anniversary! This month we're joined by Jamie Noble Frier to talk about his upcoming Kickstarter 'Hero Master: An Epic Game of Epic Fails', as well as our usual topics of discussion.
We come to you live from The Great Indoors 2018! (Well, a small room next door...). We're joined by Peter Hazlewood, Vince from Asgard Games UK, and Richard Denning from UKGE/Medusa Games.
In this episode we talk about our day at the 3rd Birmingham Board Game Bash, and have chats with some of the designers who were showing off their prototype games at the event. We also take a quick look at the latest gaming news from the E3 show a few weeks ago, as well as our usual topics of discussion!
It's that time of the year again! We chat about our experiences at UKGE 2018, along with games we played and some interviews from designers and publishers.
Later than usual, in this shorter episode we bring you our Kickstarter Awards for 2017, as well as discuss some of the projects that have, for whatever reason, not arrived as planned...
It's finally time for Episode 28! We're joined by our old friend Peter Hazlewood to chat about our usual stuff as well as his trip to Airecon, and how things are looking for The Great Indoors 2018.
A brief update from Matt on what's been going on the past few weeks, and why things have been so quiet.
We're stuck in our respective houses this month due to the snow, but we have a chat and bring you an Interview with Simon from Meeple Mayhem in Birmingham.
We're back after a short break (hence the apologies), and because it's been two months we have a lot to catch up on, so we just have a rambling chat about what we've been upto since the last episode.
We're two years old, and this month in addition to our usual talking points we have an interview with some of the people behind the D20 Board Game cafe in Watford.
A slightly shorter episode than usual, but we're back and we chat about our usual topics as well as have an encounter with a rather sneaky and strange feline...
Back to our usual format, in this episode we talk about some of the prototype games we played at UKGE, and also look at some of the big news from E3.
It's that time of the year again! In this episode we're joined by our friend Gareth to discuss the UK Games Expo 2017.
This month we're joined by Peter Hazlewood, and we take a look at the upcoming UK Games Expo and The Great Indoors 2017.
It's time for another TOGCast! This month in addition to our usual sections we take a look at some upcoming PC games we're looking forward to playing.
Join us this month for our usual chatter, some stuff about charity shops, and a look at a rather serious incident that's happened in our community recently.
This month we visit some new board game venues in Birmingham, eat lots of cake, and discuss our usual topics.
This month we take our now traditional look back at the last 12 months by going through some lists from BGG and reddit, chat about Kickstarters as usual and also look at what we're still waiting to arrive.
For a change this month it's just a normal episode with the two of us, as we discuss some news and what's been arriving in our postboxes.
This month we're joined by our Roving Reporter (A.K.A. Pete), and we discuss his visit to Essen Spiel 2016
This episode is a bit more digital than usual, as we discuss our recent visit to EGX in Birmingham.
This month we're joined by Toby Fairclough, and we talk about Fishy Tactics, his latest game which is funding on Kickstarter.
This episode was recorded at the Great Indoors event in Bromsgrove. We have our usual discussion and we're also joined by Richard Denning from UKGE & Medusa Games.
This month we’re joined by Kevin Young from Inspiring Games, where we talk about his latest game and his experiences at UKGE.
Unsurprisingly our show this month is dominated by talk of the UK Games Expo 2016. We talk about what we got up to, and what we saw and played over the course of the two days we attended.
In this episode we chat with Andy Clayton, designer of a new game currently on Kickstarter called '60', as well as our usual topics for discussion.
A episode which is slightly delayed due to illness, but this means we have quite a lot of things to catch up on!
Episode 07, in which we couldn't think of a topic but we decided to talk about the Kickstarters that are currently overdue.
Join us for Episode 6, as we talk about our usual new purchases and arrivals, and look forward to the year ahead.
Episode 05 - 'A Look Back at 2015'
This month we talk about our usual new Kickstarter arrivals, what we've been playing over Christmas, and take a look back at our first year of tabletop gaming in 2015.
Episode 04 - 'All we want for Christmas... is games.'
In this episode we discuss what we want for Christmas, and our usual update on what we've been playing.
Episode 03 - 'Zooombies'
In this episode we discuss some spooky games ready for Halloween, and also our usual segments of what we've been buying and backing.
Episode 02 - 'Battle Sheep'
Rai discusses her recent trip to EGX, along with our usual selection of recent plays and Kickstarter arrivals.