The Thoughtful Gamer Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Thoughtful Gamer
Apologies for the sound quality -- Lindsay got a new mic and it... did not work well, to say the least. Anyways, we all went to PAX Unplugged once again and it was the least stressful PAX yet. We found fun in some unexpected games and ate delicious food. What else could you want?
0:35 - General PAX Impressions4:39 - Tether8:44 - Fit to Print12:05 - Block and Key16:12 - Food. Delicious Food
You've got questions and I've got answers! I cover everything from wargames to babies to cooking to economics.
2:43 - #1: Most impactful game of the last 30 years 9:31 - #2: Best game to play while holding a baby 11:27 - #3: Good wargames for kids 13:45 - #4: How to market a game 20:24 - #5: Favorite color 21:48 - #6: Choose between: Root, Bananagrams, Vast 23:45 - #7: Which is more of a game: Candyland or Snakes and Ladders? 24:38 - #8: Solutions to high cost of shipping 32:37 - #9: Which games model economics best? 39:40 - #10: Unpopular opinions 49:28 - #11: Cooking tips 52:31 - #12: Favorite pasta shape 53:38 - #13: Games I'm uncertain about 59:12 - #14: Board game reviewing vs. other media
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Originally posted here: https://thethoughtfulgamer.com/2022/07/18/catch-the-moon-review/
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Originally posted here: https://thethoughtfulgamer.com/2022/07/11/cant-stop-review/
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Because of the holiday, here's a fresh recording of an old review. Originally posted here: https://thethoughtfulgamer.com/2017/09/27/mysterium-review/
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Originally posted here: https://thethoughtfulgamer.com/2022/06/27/spades-and-the-appeal-of-trick-takers/
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Originally posted here: https://thethoughtfulgamer.com/2022/06/21/anno-1800-review/
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I sit down with Jackson Pope and Paul Willcox from Eurydice games to talk about their gaming journey and the design and (handmade!) production of FlickFleet, which is about to launch on Gamefound with its fourth expansion.
Links:
Website: www.eurydicegames.co.uk Gamefound: https://gamefound.com/projects/eurydice-games-ltd/flickfleet-xeno-wars Jack on twitter: twitter.com/jackson_pope Paul on twitter: twitter.com/paulwillcox10
0:45 - Paul and Jackson's history with board games 5:07 - The origins of FlickFleet 9:35 - The perils of trying to get a d10 to roll in a straight line 13:45 - Fun in failure with dexterity games 17:19 - Handmade production 24:33 - The expansions 26:23 - A fiery inferno 29:00 - Transitioning to Gamefound 33:39 - Deluxification 41:29 - Building a community 46:43 - The future for FlickFleet and Eurydice Games
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Originally posted here: https://thethoughtfulgamer.com/2022/06/14/shobu-review/
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See more details here: https://thethoughtfulgamer.com/2022/06/08/i-need-your-help-for-the-thoughtful-gamer-to-continue/
Support The Thoughtful Gamer on Patreon
Originally posted here: https://thethoughtfulgamer.com/2022/06/07/through-the-ages-review/
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Sports are games too, you know. In this episode, Marc, Matt, and Bubba sit down to talk about various sports rules and controversies and analyze them as game design. What are they optimizing for? Whose interests do they serve? What's the role of randomness or human judgement in making a sport great? What even makes sports great?
0:34 - Intro 1:32 - What's the goal when "designing" sports rules? 2:45 - What's the most viewer-friendly board game? 7:12 - Gold Drafting 13:24 - Playoff size 16:18 - Promotion/relegation 21:45 - Eliminating the kick return 24:39 - Conservative play in the NFL and elsewhere 29:18 - The designated hitter 31:50 - Changes to the actual baseball ball 36:03 - 3-point line 42:56 - Dunking on basketball 45:44 - Soccer's relatively simple rules 48:27 - Punishments and penalties in different sports 50:35 - Robots and video 54:22 - Disc golf penalty culture 1:03:10 - The 2 meter rule 1:11:41 - Back to robots 1:26:39 - The shift
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Originally posted here: https://thethoughtfulgamer.com/2022/05/31/two-final-exit-games-forgotten-island-and-house-of-riddles/
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Originally posted here: https://thethoughtfulgamer.com/2022/05/25/babylonia-review/
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Originally posted here: https://thethoughtfulgamer.com/2022/05/17/pan-am-review/
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Originally posted here: https://thethoughtfulgamer.com/2022/05/10/review-blackbrim-1876/
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We're back where it all started for episode 100: Pax East. Marc and Orion discuss a number of heavy euro games they played at the convention (including one surprise hit), and get excited about NISEI.
4:26 - Ark Nova 13:22 - Space Lion 18:22 - Video Games 28:06 - Zapotec 36:48 - Pavlov's Dogs 40:06 - Radlands 44:29 - NISEI 49:46 - Boonlake 54:22 - Golem 1:07:26 - No Thanks 1:08:01 - Unmatched
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Originally posted here: https://thethoughtfulgamer.com/2022/04/27/that-time-you-killed-me-review/
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Here at The Thoughtful Gamer we're no strangers to innovation. We look risk and uncertainty in their faces and say "what, that's all you've got? I am unimpressed." Some may argue that audio is not the medium for board gaming, and to those people I counter with this podcast: a state of the art uni-media experience straight from our thought-labs into your ear canals: a riveting liveplay of Wolfgang Warsch's "The Mind". It's like you're right there in the room. Because there was a mic right there in the room. That's...that's how mics work.
An audio version of my written Codenames Duet review. I heard from some people that they would appreciate my reviews in audio form, so this is going to become a regular thing. Originally posted here: https://thethoughtfulgamer.com/2022/03/28/codenames-duet-review/
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It's finally here, and bigger than ever! Marc, Lindsay, and Orion count down their respective top 25 games of all time for triple the list. Plus there are puns. So, so many puns. I've marked each of them in the show notes. I'm sorry/you're welcome. SPOILERS BELOW.
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1:45 - Marc #25: Battle Line 4:00 - Lindsay #25: One Night Ultimate Werewolf 6:43 - Orion #25: War of the Ring 7:42 - Marc #24: 1862 9:38 - Pun 1 9:39 - Lindsay #24: Boggle 10:53 - Orion #24: The Resistance 11:03 - Pun 2 12:18 - Marc #23: Food Chain Magnate 13:23 - Pun 3 13:41 - Lindsay #23: Ticket to Ride 14:41 - Orion #23: Codenames 15:01 - Marc #22: SpaceCorp 2025-2300AD 16:06 - Lindsay #22: Sidereal Confluence 17:13 - Orion #22: A Distant Plain 17:54 - Marc #21: Codenames 18:08 - Lindsay #21: Viticulture 18:24 - Pun 4 18:26 - Pun 5 18:52 - Orion #21: Food Chain Magnate 18:58 - Pun 6 (a second attempt -- boo) 19:11 - Marc #20: Vinhos 20:01 - Lindsay #20: Concordia 20:07 - Orion #20: Concordia 20:21 - Marc #19: War of the Ring 21:19 - Lindsay #19: Nusfjord 21:30 - Pun 7 22:28 - Orion #19: Terra Mystica 22:48 - Marc #18: Suburbia 23:57 - Lindsay #18: Hanabi 26:16 - Orion #18: Falling Sky 26:35 - Marc #17: Modern Art 27:08 - Pun 8 27:55 - Lindsay #17: Mysterium 28:02 - Orion #17: Netrunner 29:07 - Pun 9 29:19 - Marc #16: Fire in the Lake 30:13 - Lindsay #16: For Sale 31:20 - Orion #16: Space Alert 31:32 - Marc #15: Here I Stand 32:18 - Lindsay #15: Wavelength 33:19 - Orion #15: 1817 33:56 - Marc #14: The Castles of Burgundy 34:30 - Lindsay #14: The Crew 34:52 - Orion #14: 1862 35:41 - Marc #13: Concordia 36:25 - Pun 10 36:33 - Lindsay #13: Codenames 37:18 - Orion #13: Dominion 37:29 - Marc #12: Through The Ages 37:36 - Pun 11 37:52 - Lindsay #12: Nidavellir 38:32 - Orion #12: Lisboa 38:58 - Marc #11: Brass Lancashire 39:18 - Lindsay #11: Pirate Tricks 40:00 - Orion #11: Fire in the Lake 40:12 - Marc #10: Dominion 40:26 - Lindsay #10: Great Western Trail 40:27 - Pun 12 40:54 - Pun 13 40:57 - Orion #10: not Falling Sky because he mistyped things, so honorable mention, #26: Imperial Struggle 41:11 - Marc #9: Space Alert 42:12 - Pun 14 (guest pun from Marc) 42:17 - Pun 15 42:25 - Lindsay recounts her brief musical career 43:21 - Lindsay #9: Roll for the Galaxy 43:34 - Orion #9: Here I Stand 44:19 - Marc #8: Mage Knight 45:17 - Lindsay #8: The Resistance 45:18 - Pun 16 45:30 - Pun 17 45:39 - Pun 18 (Orion takes a stab at the punning) 45:41 - Orion #8: Brass Lancashire 46:10 - Marc #7: The Resistance 46:57 - Lindsay #7: Pictomania 47:04 - Orion #7: Mage Knight 47:17 - Marc #6: Twilight Imperium 48:16 - Lindsay #6: Codenames Duet 50:02 - Orion #6: Through The Ages 50:18 - Marc #5: Gloomhaven 50:50 - Pun 19 51:40 - Lindsay #5: Decrypto 52:14 - Pun 20 52:45 - Orion #5: Dominant Species 52:54 - Pun 21 53:00 - Marc #4: Netrunner 53:56 - Lindsay #4: Dominion 54:59 - Pun 22 55:37 - Orion #4: Twilight Struggle 55:46 - Marc #3: Twilight Struggle 57:08 - Lindsay #3: Secret Hitler 57:42 - Pun 23 58:10 - Pun 24 58:15 - Orion #3: Twilight Imperium 58:44 - Marc #2: Dominant Species 1:00:35 - Lindsay #2: Brass Lancashire 1:00:37 - Pun 25 1:02:27 - Orion #2: Gloomhaven 1:02:37 - Marc/Orion #1: Spirit Island 1:03:27 - Pun 26 1:03:44 - Lindsay #1: Gloomhaven 1:06:06 - Pun 27 1:06:09 - Games that dropped off the list
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Marc, Orion, and Lindsay sit down to go over Marc's top games list, numbers 50-26. There are some big movers on this section of the list, even this high up, and a wide variety of games. Lindsay continues with the puns. Marc acknowledges them less. SPOILERS BELOW.
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1:30 - #50: 7 Wonders Duel 3:08 - #49: Roll for the Galaxy 3:32 - #48: A Distant Plain 6:17 - #47: Tak 7:28 - #46: Dune 9:52 - #45: Sidereal Confluence 10:31 - #44: Falling Sky 11:16 - #43: Sprawlopolis 12:42 - #42: Tzolk'in 13:50 - #41: Lost Cities 14:57 - #40: For Sale 18:18 - #39: Pulsar 2849 18:52 - #38: The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine 20:37 - #37: Stephenson's Rocket 21:19 - #36: Pax Pamir 2e 22:33 - #35: Terra Mystica 23:07 - #34: My City 25:50 - #33: The Field of the Cloth of Gold 28:10 - #32: Battlestar Galactica 28:55 - #31: Lisboa 29:07 - #30: Pipeline 30:23 - #29: Pictomania 31:51 - #28: Nusfjord 31:53 - #27: Agricola 33:30 - #26: 7 Wonders
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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The countdown continues, with Marc, Marc, Lindsay, and Orion! SPOILERS BELOW
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0:42 - A peek behind the curtain 2:10 - #75: London 2e 3:32 - #74: Union Station 5:21 - #73: Empyreal Spells and Steam 8:03 - #72: Battle for Biternia 9:49 - #71: Harvest 11:40 - #70: Great Western Trail 12:24 - #69: Power Grid 12:56 - #68: 1828 16:21 - #67: Magnate: The First City 17:54 - #66: Brass: Birmingham 18:58 - #65: Tiny Towns 19:33 - #64: Pandemic Legacy S1 22:30 - #63: Downforce 23:40 - #62: Mysterium 23:58 - #61: El Grande 25:00 - #60: Nidavellir 26:15 - #59: Fog of Love 28:54 - #58: Robinson Crusoe 29:36 - #57: Catch the Moon 31:12 - #56: 1846 32:16 - #55: Pax Transhumanity 33:44 - #54: Innovation 34:18 - #53: Tokaido 34:41 - #52: Three Kingdoms Redux 35:48 - #51: 1822CA 37:03 - Surprises and reactions and a discussion about hashtags
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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We're back! Marc, Marc, (that's not a typo) Lindsay, and Orion discuss the first quarter of Marc's top 100 games of all time. This segment contains both the newest and the oldest games on the entire list. SPOILERS BELOW.
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0:58 - Lindsay starts us off with a pun. More to come... 2:28 - Themes of this list (starts with "pan" and ends with "demic") 4:13 - #100: The Search For Planet X 6:38 - #99: The Estates 6:49 - #98: Smartphone Inc. 6:51 - #97: Q.E. 6:56 - Methodology 9:42 - #96: Liberty or Death: The American Insurrection 10:36 - #95: Decrypto 13:15 - #94: Forbidden Desert 15:03 - #93: The Gallerist 18:53 - #92: Die Macher 20:24 - #91: Churchill 20:38 - A terrible error! #92 was actually Galaxy Trucker. Die Macher is #91 and Churchill is #90. All responsible for this unprofessional lapse have been sacked. 26:24 - #89: The Crew: Mission Deep Sea 29:02 - #88: Go 29:52 - #87: Let's Make A Bus Route 30:18 - #86: Viticulture 32:27 - #85: Inis 34:16 - #84: For Science! 35:45 - #83: Babylonia 36:36 - #82: Son of Dr. Esker's Notebook 38:13 - #81: Sushi Go! Party 40:15 - #80: Star Wars Armada 41:29 - #79: Friday 42:37 - #78: Carcassonne 43:58 - #77: Imperial Struggle 46:18 - #76: Captain Sonar
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Amber and Marc talk about the best games of 2020. The pandemic slowed down game playing so we've delayed this episode a year to allow for more gaming before we declare what is the "best". We also look at the best games of 5, 10, and 20 years ago, because over-focusing on the new is detrimental for a number of reasons. Remember the great games of the past!
SPOILERS BELOW
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0:39 - Why 2020? 5:20 - Games I wasn't able to get to 6:33 - BGG's favorite games of 2020 11:33 - Honorable Mention: Clinic Deluxe 12:01 - Honorable Mention: Spirit Island: Jagged Earth 12:56 - Honorable Mention: Cat in the Box 14:20 - #5: The Search for Planet X 16:50 - #4: Imperial Struggle 22:01 - #3: Nidavellir 23:41 - #2: My City 28:40 - #1: The Field of the Cloth of Gold 33:28 - Why we're not only going to focus on the new 34:37 - Top games of 2015 34:54 - Honorable Mention: Through the Ages 2e 35:13 - #5: Mysterium 35:45 - #4: Pandemic Legacy Season 1 36:37 - #3: Churchill 39:14 - #2: Food Chain Magnate 40:07 - #1: Codenames 41:24 - Top games of 2010 41:39 - #3: Innovation 42:45 - #2: 7 Wonders 44:32 - #1: Dominant Species 45:29 - Top games of 2000 45:57 - #2: Carcassonne 48:18 - #1: Battle Line
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Just a quick announcement about some changes that'll be happening to the podcast and The Thoughtful Gamer generally going forward.
In short, I'm going to stop trying to force a new episode every 2 weeks and instead record episodes when I have a good topic or a good interview. First impressions stuff will shift towards video. Make sure to subscribe at thethoughtfulgamer.com to not miss any written features and reviews. Long-term I want to work on very in-depth, more formal podcast series. Right now that's a vague 2022 goal.
As always thanks for listening. I'm not going anywhere, just shifting focuses around.
Conventions are sort of back! Marc, Amber, Lindsay, and Orion drove down to Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago to go to one of the best board game conventions around, and they played tons of games! Marc's on the verge of a cold so his voice dropped half an octave and got real nasally. Some might say it's an improvement. Those people would be wrong.
0:26 - Comparing conventions 5:55 - Conspiracy: The Solomon Gambit 10:52 - Rise of the Metro 13:17 - 2Can 18:36 - Murano: Light Masters 21:41 - MicroMacro: Crime City 25:34 - The Estates 35:29 - Dinosaur World 40:50 - Lindsay's pun that no one seemed to notice 41:30 - Another pun attempt, this time more (or less?) successful 43:28 - Furnace 54:09 - Crokinole 57:41 - Salvage 1:03:30 - Nidavellir 1:12:05 - Q.E. 1:19:32 - Smartphone Inc.
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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It's another chillcast, this time with Marc and Amber. It...well, it gets a bit silly. I'm sorry.
1:09 - Literally we talk about the weather 3:52 - Oceans 13:41 - Boardgames: The Board Game (The Card Game) 18:24 - The City 20:52 - Marc explains why Munchkin is no good 22:10 - Pulsar 2849 26:37 - Marc gets really into salad metaphors 29:46 - Dinosauria (but actually there's more talk about Splendor) 32:06 - Yet another food metaphor 33:14 - What is the most chill game? 37:21 - Back to the weather and, like, geography. I'm so sorry 41:34 - Looped right back around to Dinosauria 43:42 - Bat Flip 45:06 - Why the designated hitter rule is an abomination (also I somehow forgot about the existence of Shohei Othani and that one's on me) 53:00 - I mean it's basically a baseball podcast now
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Austin's enthusiasm for Robotech Reconstruction is plain to see (hear?) in this podcast. As one half of the Dr. Wictz design team, he's gone deep into the lore of this classic anime to create a fascinating game exploring its political and military settings. What emerges is a tense 90-120 minute asymmetric game clearly inspired by the COIN series but also distinct from it in service of the setting. Learn how he balanced a number of different tensions to design and sell this under-seen game.
0:56 - What is Robotech Reconstruction? 4:36 - A brief history of Robotech lore 23:26 - Turning the setting into game form 40:34 - Comparing Robotech Reconstruction and the COIN system 58:05 - Biggest design challenge 1:07:45 - The card trading mechanism 1:15:20 - The playtesting/promotion/preorder period 1:17:35 - The art
See more info and preorder here: https://strangemachinegames.com/robotech-reconstruction/
Dr. Wictz site: https://dr.wictz.com/
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Marc sits down with Jason Perez from Shelf Stories to talk about colonialism in board games. Along the way they also touch on social media, moral philosophy, and a couple of tangential rants, as is tradition.
0:30 - Jason's projects 9:25 - Critique of Puerto Rico 25:40 - Endeavor: Age of Sail and the challenge of moral consequences 30:50 - Marc's tangential rant about (and spoiling) The Last Duel 34:39 - Jason gets his own tangential rant in for good measure 38:50 - Recognizing the player's perspectives 41:33 - The way social media distorts our perspective 52:36 - Everyone seems to care more about hypocrisy than the issues 59:16 - What to do as a designer 1:05:16 - Fantasy/Sci-fi colonization games 1:08:24 - Cultivating a better community
Subscribe to Shelf Stories here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnaZ7055IWOdm8XCJfFRDcw
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Marc sits down with Erik Twice, Ryan LaFlamme, and Andrew Holmes to ask each of them about their approaching to selecting their 10 greatest board games of all time.
3:21 - Erik Twice's approach to selecting his top 10 7:41 - Why Netrunner? 12:27 - Why Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective? 17:57 - Erik's predictions 25:08 - Cosmic Encounter as board game comedy 34:48 - Erik's thoughts on the top 10 45:01 - Ryan LaFlamme's approach to selecting his top 10 49:28 - Why Triomphe? 53:42 - Why Agricola? 56:29 - Why Monopoly? 1:00:35 - Ryan's predictions 1:01:59 - Ryan's thoughts on the top 10 1:10:47 - Andrew Holmes' approach to selecting his top 10 1:16:41 - Why Whist? 1:22:37 - Why Gloomhaven? 1:29:32 - Andrew's thoughts on the top 10
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Marc and Ben talk about a few of the new games they've been playing. They're...all good? It feels weird to have an episode this positive, but there you go.
0:58 - Dice Command 11:55 - Battle for Biternia 31:37 - Boardgames: The Board Game (The Card Game) 43:03 - Union Station 54:19 - The part where I call out Gil Hova about an extremely unimportant opinion 1:01:57 - Robotech: Reconstruction 1:08:22 - Card and Dice Poll information
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Amber and Marc discuss tile-laying games since they've been playing a number of them lately. What makes tile-laying so compelling? Why is it a feature in so many of our favorite games?
1:29 -- Carpe Diem 3:46 -- Is Carpe Diem simpler than Castles of Burgundy? 9:35 -- Tile laying: what is it? 12:12 -- Variables 15:15 -- Growth 21:00 -- Information density 29:14 -- Tangent: What does "abstract" mean anyways? 37:35 -- The importance of graphic design 40:27 -- Puzzling
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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I sit down with James to talk about his excellent debut game, Magnate: The First City, as well as his next project, cleverly titled Boardgames: The Board Game (The Card Game), and his podcast called Producing Fun. Magnate is such a bold and interesting first design and I'm completely on board for whatever he makes down the road.
1:07 -- James' start in board games 4:57 -- Starting to design 8:19 -- Creating Magnate: The First City 13:20 -- Developing the "crash" mechanism in Magnate 19:21 -- Different styles of eurogame 24:01 -- Advanced vs basic rules in Magnate 31:38 -- First time game publishing experience 35:03 -- Boardgames: The Board Game (The Card Game) 53:32 -- Adapting a theme to a set of mechanisms 56:35 -- Art strategy 1:00:33 -- Future Naylor Games projects 1:07:32 -- The Producing Fun podcast 1:11:38 -- Comparing the state of games to film history 1:22:25 -- Marc once again floats his pet mechanism by a podcast guest
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Marc and Ben have been playing a lot of new games, and you're going to hear about it! Come chill with us.
0:59 -- My City 5:13 -- Coldwater Crown 11:06 -- For Science! 19:51 -- Legends of Andor 27:11 -- Downfall 33:31 -- Exodus Fleet 38:29 -- San Juan 40:57 -- Antike Duellum 45:07 -- The Alpha 49:15 -- Tasty Humans 54:11 -- Glass Road 58:08 -- Anachrony 1:03:44 -- Ranking the games
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Dan Thurot has been reviewing board games for a number of years now, and for my money he's the best in the business. I had the pleasure of sitting down with him to talk about games criticism, and in the course of the discussion we touched on history, economics, literature, and more. Also, lots of Cole Wehrle games.
Find Dan's writing at spacebiff.com
1:24 -- Dan's start in board game criticism 6:35 -- "Fun" 14:10 -- Changes in board game criticism over the last few years 18:43 -- Misunderstandings about criticism 26:24 -- Board game criticism is still young 29:16 -- Overspecialization of critique 36:18 -- Shared language 48:28 -- The value of historical games 1:00:27 -- Challenges posed by abstraction 1:13:49 -- Civilization games and accidents 1:18:50 -- Playing as the villains
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Marc and Bubba sit down to discuss two different forms of golf. They're still games, just on a larger scale. What makes them compelling as games, and what kinds of lessons can we learn about board games by looking at the history and development of course design?
1:18 -- Difference between a sport and a game 2:59 -- What is disc golf? 4:27 -- Our histories with the sports 12:19 -- Classifying golf and disc golf as games 15:57 -- The appeal of mastery over a difficult game 20:30 -- How will disc golf change in the near future? 24:02 -- Course design 25:26 -- The penal school of design 29:19 -- The strategic school of design 33:20 -- The strategic nature of par 4's 45:07 -- Designing around unorthodox throws in disc golf 49:15 -- Risk/reward, or push-your-luck 51:53 -- The heroic school of design 56:15 -- How should disc golf course design evolve and improve? 1:08:36 -- Applying these lessons to board game design 1:26:24 -- Which sport is best?
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Straight from the mind of Amber, this is an episode where she and Marc discuss games that are "painful". Marc prefers the word "tense". Regardless of what you call it, there's a reason Agricola is both known as "Misery Farm" and beloved by thousands. What makes a game painful rather than pleasant? What tricks can designers use to adjust the perception of their game? Are all board games simply metaphors about the inevitability of death?
2:15 -- The background 6:23 -- Game actions and the perception of time 15:00 -- Kingmaking tangent 18:53 -- Existentialism 27:02 -- Other games that cause Amber "pain" 29:53 -- Generous and non-generous games 37:17 -- Point floors 42:23 -- Non-gamers and not wanting to feel incompetent 46:22 -- Intermediary goals 49:37 -- Games where you can lose on the first turn 59:52 -- Is pain good?
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Amber and Marc are here to talk about perhaps the most prolific board game designer of all time: Reiner Knizia. Going strong since the early 90's, Knizia is a master of making a game no more complex than needed. His games are straightforward and clear--something we see less and less of. Weirdly, this episode is not straightforward, with some truly odd tangents and rants.
1:50 -- Knizia's reputation (and many tangents and rants) 20:24 -- Lost Cities 25:46 -- Battle Line 27:42 -- The Quest for El Dorado 28:49 -- Through the Desert 29:13 -- Medici: The Card Game 30:23 -- Stephenson's Rocket 32:20 -- Babylonia 36:39 -- Abstract isn't the opposite of thematic 39:30 -- My City 43:20 -- Things get...weird 48:02 -- Modern Art
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Dan and I chat about game design, his experience as a top-tier chess player, and, of course, tea!
Check out Steeped Games and the Chai Tea For 2 Kickstarter, live now.
0:00 -- Creation of both Chai games 10:16 -- Dan's history with board games 12:25 -- Dan's experience as a Chess Master 35:39 -- Chess influencing modern game design 41:27 -- Tea
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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I'm by myself talking about solo games. I got a bit experimental with this one. I hope you enjoy.
0:32 -- A note on silence 3:43 -- Solo games 6:10 -- Arraial 7:35 -- My thoughts on the Fantasy Flight Arkham games 15:37 -- Arkham LCG 24:30 -- Unbroken 32:40 -- Nemo's War 44:26 -- Spring emerges, literally and figuratively
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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I was delighted to sit down with one of our most interesting historical and conflict game designers, Cole Wehrle. The discussion starts with talking about the second edition of John Company (on Kickstarter right now) before wandering to the the rest of his designs as we talk about the ways games can portray history or make interesting arguments. One of my favorite conversations yet.
1:00 -- John Company 2nd Edition 10:00 -- Inspiration for John Company 14:06 -- Connections Between John Company, Pax Pamir, and An Infamous Traffic 17:42 -- Handling Tough Themes 28:40 -- John Company's Success 32:29 -- Game Aesthetics and Kickstarter Expectations 44:58 -- Resolving Conflicts Between Simulation and Fun 1:04:56 -- Cole's Future Game Plans
Find more from Cole at https://wehrlegig.com/ and https://ledergames.com
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Marc, Orion, and Ben have been playing all sorts of 18xx games over the past year, and they're here to compare and contrast the five they've played the most. How much variation is there within this sub-sub-genre of game? What kind of dynamics do different rule variations create? Which is the best starter game? What makes 1817 "bananas-insane"? Find out this and more.
If you do not have any experience with 18xx games, we recommend checking out Episode 52 for more of an introduction to the genre.
1:44 -- Plug for 18xx.games 4:41 -- 1846 13:53 -- 18MEX 29:10 -- 1889 and 18Chesapeake 48:35 -- 1817
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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I sat with Sean Chappell from Ramstar Games to talk about their first release: Hivernation. We discuss the design process for this abstract game as well as the challenges of being a first-time designer and publisher. Hivernation will be on Kickstarter April 13th.
1:01 -- A little about Hivernation 3:23 -- Origins of the design 7:20 -- Experience with co-designing and publishing 13:55 -- Constructing a Kickstarter campaign 21:46 -- Development and polishing process 30:31 -- Sean's history with modern board games 33:32 -- The unique joy of playing games in-person 41:47 -- Release info about Hivernation 46:25 -- Future games in the works for Ramstar
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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I sit down with Kimberly, one of the co-organizers of the excellent Granite Game Summit, to talk about how to run a great board game convention. And, now that everything is necessarily virtual, how do you continue to keep that community alive?
1:01 - Origins of the Granite Game Summit 9:10 - Keeping a convention safe and welcoming 14:36 - Going virtual 30:40 - That unique "feeling" of a good convention 34:26 - Scaling up without losing the spirit of the thing 40:04 - Creating convention comfort 46:51 - Improvement hopes for the future
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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We're getting in touch with our feelings with this one. What can board games do to evoke a sense of adventure? Can board games do this, or is it a poor medium for the concept? How is adventure distinct from narrative? Marc, Matt, Ben, and Amber discuss these questions and more.
3:01 - Introducing the idea of adventure 4:33 - Which games evoke adventure best? 12:35 - Above and Below/Near and Far enter the conversation 18:48 - Strategic discovery process as adventure 21:32 - Throwing Pandemic Legacy into the mix 28:10 - It's not like he didn't warn us: Matt talks about MtG 39:25 - How would we design an adventure game? 52:32 - The role of art 57:22 - How digital tools can aid or hinder adventure
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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This is it, the best of the best! Will Gloomhaven retain its top spot? What new entries have catapulted their way into the top 33? Marc and Orion discuss, with only occasional interruptions from the new (very talkative!) kitten. His name is Mouse.
Spoilers below.
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2:28 - #33: Modern Art 5:02 - #32: Nusfjord 6:54 - #31: Food Chain Magnate 8:34 - #30: Agricola 9:12 - #29: The Crew 13:01 - #28: Suburbia 13:35 - #27: Pipeline 18:05 - #26: SpaceCorp 21:38 - #25: Tak 23:43 - #24: Lisboa 26:22 - #23: Terra Mystica 27:36 - #22: War of the Ring 28:25 - #21: Sidereal Confluence 31:25 - #20: Vinhos 33:52 - #19: 7 Wonders 35:09 - #18: Fire in the Lake 35:32 - Brand new kitten interruption! 39:44 - #17: Codenames 39:59 - #16: 1862 47:08 - #15: Concordia 48:04 - #14: Here I Stand 48:26 - #13: Brass Lancashire 50:14 - #12: Castles of Burgundy 51:22 - #11: Space Alert 52:09 - #10: Dominion 52:42 - #9: Through the Ages 54:25 - #8: The Resistance 55:11 - #7: Android: Netrunner 56:14 - #6: Mage Knight 59:12 - #5: Dominant Species 1:00:27 - #4: Twilight Imperium 1:01:52 - #3: Twilight Struggle 1:05:39 - #2: Gloomhaven 1:07:43 - #1: Spirit Island 1:10:59 - Best designer, best publisher, and other random data from the list
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Marc and Orion are back with the second of three installments discussing Marc's top 100 games of all time! This episode brings the most contention and disagreement yet as Marc and Orion's tastes diverge and become more clear. Plus, we get an account of an old Jenga-related trauma, emerging from deep within Orion's memories. Spoilers below
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2:04 - #66: Liberty or Death 5:14 - #65: Fog of Love 5:38 - #64: Mysterium 6:24 - #63: For Sale 8:09 - #62: Downforce 10:30 - #61: Decrypto 12:48 - #60: London (2nd Edition) 15:44 - #59: Catch the Moon 17:42 - Orion relives a Jenga-based trauma 18:14 - #58: Innovation 20:08 - #57: Pictomania 22:08 - #56: Great Western Trail 23:45 - #55: Let's Make A Bus Route 25:01 - #54: Dune 28:08 - #53: Captain Sonar 29:54 - #52: Tiny Towns 31:32 - #51: Go 33:53 - #50: 1822CA 35:47 - #49: 7 Wonders Duel 36:43 - #48: Battle Line 39:44 - #47: Magic: The Gathering 41:12 - #46: The Gallerist 41:30 - #45: Falling Sky 43:17 - #44: Inis 46:07 - #43: Imperial Struggle 48:14 - #42: Tzolk'in 48:33 - #41: Galaxy Trucker 49:37 - #40: Sprawlopolis 50:57 - #39: 1846 53:00 - #38: Pax Transhumanity 54:31 - #37: Stephenson's Rocket 58:39 - #36: Battlestar Galactica 59:49 - #35: Pax Pamir (2nd Edition) 1:04:39 - #34: Pulsar 2849 1:06:08 - Recapping the list
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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WE'RE BACK!
After an unplanned hiatus during the chaos times we're back with a new iteration of the top 100 games of all time! 44 of the games are brand new to the list, so there's lots of movement and surprises. Here's the first third of the list.
Spoilers below!
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0:08 - We're back! 1:12 - Introducing the top 100 7:48 - Boy it's been a weird few months 11:34 - #100: Air, Land, and Sea 14:22 - #99: Star Wars Armada 16:47 - #98: Mechs v. Minions 17:07 - #97: Sushi Go! Party 18:15 - #96: Friday 18:31 - #95: Forbidden Desert 18:45 - #94: 18MEX 22:57 - #93: Die Macher 23:56 - #92: Stay Cool 25:33 - #91: Roll Player 27:40 - #90: Keyflower 27:51 - #89: Three Kingdoms Redux 29:33 - #88: Gaia Project 31:46 - #87: Pandemic Legacy Season 1 34:11 - #86: Goat 'n Goat 35:33 - #85: CO2 37:08 - #84: Irish Gauge 40:42 - #83: Robinson Crusoe 40:53 - #82: Son of Dr. Esker's Notebook 43:41 - #81: Viticulture 44:55 - #80: Triumph and Tragedy 46:08 - #79: Carcassonne 46:19 - #78: Coimbra 49:06 - #77: Magnate 51:32 - #76: Caylus 1303 54:15 - #75: El Grande 54:57 - #74: A Distant Plain 57:52 - #73: Power Grid 58:17 - #72: Tokaido 58:25 - #71: Churchill 58:56 - #70: Brass Birmingham 1:02:12 - #69: Harvest 1:02:58 - #68: Lost Cities 1:03:59 - #67: Roll for the Galaxy
Matt and Marc are back at it with wild speculation about the new Magic set. Since we rambled on forever, making this a very difficult podcast to edit, the set has released already and we're already regretting some of the things we said (black and simic seem much stronger than we gave them credit for, for instance.) Still, I don't think we're wrong about everything. Haven't been able to get an Izzet deck together, though...
4:08 - Set mechanics 6:00 - Companion 13:46 - Cycling 17:25 - Keyword Counters 19:33 - Mutate 23:47 - White 32:57 - Blue 49:58 - Black 1:01:06 - Red 1:15:45 - Green 1:26:33 - Colorless 1:29:14 - Mulicolor 1:54:40 - Rares and Mythics
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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The world's gone crazy! Viruses roam the streets, Matt sounds like he's turning into a robot, and computer gremlins are devouring random bits of podcast. But never fear, we at The Thoughtful Gamer are here to provide a perfectly sane, intelligent conversation about the best games of last year. We rag on a few stinkers too. Come! Escape the madness of the world and find respite with our soothing voices.
And thanks to our sponsor, Engro Games! Their kickstarter was successful and late pledges are open until April 15. Click here to get Reach and Okazaki before it's too late.
Spoilers below.
2:53 - Wavelength Diversion 5:24 - Board gaming in a pandemic 15:55 - Suspense building before the list 16:54 - Honorable "reprint" mention: Dune 22:13 - What is "up"? 23:55 - More grade A suspense 25:22 - #10: Goat n Goat 29:32 - #9: Cooper Island 30:36 - Orion relays a cryptic message regarding a "theory" 31:26 - #8: Stay Cool 35:03 - #7: The Son of Doctor Esker's Notebook 37:40 - A word about our sponsor: Engro Games 38:37 - #6: The Crew 46:30 - Best art of 2019 50:46 - Worst games of 2019 52:52 - Most disappointing game of 2019 54:17 - Most mediocre game of 2019 54:40 - Most ambitious but not quite successful game of 2019 58:50 - #5: Tiny Towns 1:04:14 - #4: Pax Pamir 2nd Edition 1:09:44 - #3: Caylus 1303 1:11:52 - #2: Pipeline 1:18:22 - #1: Pax Transhumanity 1:25:00 - Tragedy strikes and a hero emerges
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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I sat down with Sean to talk to him about designing board games for two beloved IP's: Sonic the Hedgehog and Bomberman. How did he get these gigs, and what are the challenges you face when you need to meet the expectations of publishers, IP-holders, and fans of the original properties?
0:56 - Sean's start with boardgaming 3:53 - First design: Train Heist 8:59 - First IP design: Sonic the Hedgehog: Crash Course 18:00 - Future design: Unnamed Bomberman game 36:08 - Sean's future plans and "dream IP"
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Matt and Marc played a lot of games at PAX East, and you're going to hear about it! We've got a better crop than we had at PAX Unplugged, with nearly all of the games listed below being quite enjoyable. Which are our favorites? You might be surprised.
This podcast is sponsored by Engro Games, who are running a kickstarter right now for two microgames: Reach and Okazaki. Find more information here.
1:09 - Our PAXperience 6:18 - 2-headed giant mystery sealed event 10:31 - Parks 13:51 - Ishtar: Gardens of Babylon 18:49 - Caylus 1303 20:57 - Marc proposes a new classification system for eurogames 25:55 - Point Salad 28:33 - Electropolis 35:18 - Pax Transhumanity 43:33 - Deep Blue 48:06 - Arkham Horror: Final Hour 52:45 - Cooper Island 57:36 - Nova Luna 1:00:29 - Cosmic Frog 1:05:14 - Goat n Goat 1:06:46 - Boba Boss
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Bruno is one of the most prolific modern game designers. In this podcast we sit down to talk about all kinds of tricky topics and how they relate to board gaming. He presents a number of interesting ideas that I'm still mulling over.
This podcast is sponsored by Engro Games, who are running a kickstarter right now for two microgames: Reach and Okazaki. Find more information here.
1:39 - Board games on the global scale 8:51 - Games as a reflection of real life choices 11:00 - Games in education 21:14 - Games and religion 29:46 - Faidutti's designs, and the place of politics/history in games 38:38 - What kind of game do you want to make but haven't yet?
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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In this episode I sit down with Patrick Rauland, designer of Fry Thief and creator of the Indie Board Game Designers podcast to talk about the process of creating games. What are the best practices that successful people use? How do you avoid burnout? What does Patrick have planned for his future designs?
This podcast is sponsored by Engro Games, who are running a kickstarter right now for two microgames: Reach and Okazaki. Find more information here.
1:27 - Fry Thief and creating a game in a year 5:48 - Designing with constraints 9:58 - Lessons learned from the Indie Board Game Designers podcast 14:29 - Iteration and quantity 22:23 - Memory and note-taking 30:13 - Level of industry "literacy" among new game creators 33:57 - Marketing tools and strategies 42:20 - Patrick's future game publishing plans 47:10 - Patrick's design tendencies/patterns 49:18 - Overcoming burnout
See more of Patrick's work at https://indieboardgamedesigners.com/ and https://laidback.games/
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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It's fundraising week, and that means we're going all out! Not only will we talk about the ways (including some new ways) to support The Thoughtful Gamer, but we're answering listener questions and giving 5 games our "Masterpiece Games" honor! Plus it's our biggest podcast group ever, with Marc, Matt, Orion, Bubba, and Lindsay contributing their thoughts. Every once in a while Amber mutters a comment from across the room.
3:01 - Fundraising Week! 4:22 - Q&A: Ban a game? 8:27 - What is a Masterpiece Game? 12:24 - Masterpiece Game #1: The Resistance 15:44 - Q&A: Guilty pleasure games 20:31 - New opportunity: Looking for podcast sponsors! 21:37 - Q&A: First board game "crushes" 25:33 - Masterpiece Game #2: Twilight Imperium 28:32 - Q&A: Games co-hosts should try 34:04 - New Opportunity: Voiceovers 35:04 - Q&A: Gluten-free baking tips from Lindsay! 38:28 - Masterpiece Game #3: Magic the Gathering 44:51 - Q&A: How has our approach to gaming evolved? 47:50 - New Opportunity: "Final Look" Rulebook Checking 49:50 - Q&A: Game progression for new players 54:45 - Masterpiece Game #4: Dominion 1:01:33 - Q&A: Game peripherals 1:05:44 - Masterpiece Game #5: Chess 1:10:27 - Q&A: Group social behavior norms
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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I've never met anyone at passionate about the transformative power of gaming as Ken Franklin. Matt and I caught up with him at PAX Unplugged and chatted about his designs, his faith, and why non zero-sum games can change the world. [Headphones recommended due to some background noise]
0:39 - Ken Franklin's history with board games 2:30 - The Mansky Caper 4:44 - Non zero-sum games 11:44 - Faith, religion, and art 16:50 - Imagineers 18:43 - Working with Chris Leder/Back To The Future 21:57 - The single winner problem 24:13 - Party games 26:30 - Upcoming designs 28:31 - Positive experiences through gaming
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Matt and Marc sit down to discuss the new Magic: The Gathering set, focusing on limited formats (ie the best formats). Which colors looks the best? What kind of new stuff does Theros: Beyond Death bring? Why are there so many enchantments? Let us know what you think about this podcast and maybe we'll continue doing something similar for each new set!
0:39 - Why evaluate a draft set? 4:55 - Set overview 14:48 - "Signpost" uncommons 29:13 - White 37:06 - Blue 45:32 - Black 55:10 - Red 1:00:57 - Green 1:08:39 - Artifacts/Lands 1:10:53 - Marc's top mythics 1:15:05 - Final impressions
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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My conversation with Gil quickly flew by, and before we knew it we were nearly 2 hours in and geeking out about sports. Gil is overflowing with knowledge and enthusiasm about games and design, and our conversation touched on digital games, publishing, Gil's designs, podcasting, and more.
Check out what Gil's doing at Formal Ferret and Ludology.
1:44 - Gil's history with games and game design 8:52 - Digital game inspirations 14:28 - Distinctions between the digital and analog media 20:36 - Prolix/Wordsy 29:09 - Game design groups 33:49 - Battle Merchants 36:37 - Games where you're the villain 56:12 - Bad Medicine and the creation of Formal Ferret 1:00:29 - High Rise 1:03:52 - The Networks 1:08:04 - The Rival Networks 1:11:04 - The Ludology Podcast 1:14:33 - Podcast production 1:25:40 - Podcast prep 1:27:34 - Dream Ludology guests 1:41:00 - Has podcasting helped with your designs?
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Five Games for Doomsday quickly established itself as one of the premier board game podcasts. In it, Ben Maddox interviews people from all parts of the board game world with incisive questions, illuminating who they are as people. I sat down with Ben to talk a bit about his work with the podcast and a lot about board game reviewing. What is the role of the reviewer? What are our approaches to analyzing a game? What does objectivity mean, anyway?
Find more about Ben here: https://fivegamesfordoomsday.com/
2:08 - Ben's history with podcasting 6:00 - Five Games For Doomsday 11:57 - The role of the reviewer 16:15 - Reviewing structure 23:48 - Objectivity 30:23 - Civilization games and value 35:26 - Game reviewers we like 38:43 - Why negative reviews are necessary 49:03 - Ben's approach to writing a review 55:47 - Concluding thoughts
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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It's that magical time of the year when we go to PAX Unplugged and revel in beautiful wonderful games, both new and old! We talk about a lot of them here, and we barely cover half of what we saw. But don't worry, there's time to scrutinize Matt's odd perspectives on Magic drafting and bask in the gastronomical wonder that is barbacoa.
1:26 - Impressions of the convention 9:47 - Expo Hall adventures 10:19 - War Room 14:21 - Frosthaven 17:58 - Overbattle 21:29 - Sniper Elite 24:52 - KLASK 28:03 - Foodies 30:26 - Sabotage 37:57 - Namiji 39:39 - Detective Club 42:02 - For Sale 43:02 - Goat n Goat 46:49 - Crystal Palace 51:07 - Tokyo Highway 54:41 - Irish Gauge 55:40 - Flamme Rouge 56:24 - Stay Cool 57:48 - MtG drafting 1:05:40 - South Philly Barbacoa 1:07:51 - Final Impressions 1:10:01 - Weave! (almost forgot)
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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I sit down with John Zilch, creator of the Clever Kids Mysteries series of puzzle games, to talk about how he creates puzzles for the family gaming experience. We also discuss family gaming in general, and how games can help us all learn and think more critically.
0:56 - Creating the Clever Kids Mysteries games 11:18 - Narrative in puzzle games 29:22 - Family gaming 42:44 - Obligatory sports tangent 48:42 - Using data and feedback to aid puzzle-making 53:48 - Designing puzzles for diverse thinkers
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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We just finished a game of Trade on the Tigris and decided to sit around a microphone and talk about trading games. Marc, Matt, Lindsay, Amber, and Ben lend their thoughts to this exciting, but challenging genre of game. What is a trading game? Why is Matt insane to think Catan isn't one? What kind of challenges face someone trying to design one? Which one do we think does trading best? Find out!
3:26 - Marc tells a story about middle-schoolers and epistemological horror 5:46 - Board games are first mentioned 7:15 - What is a trading game? 14:47 - Characteristics of trade 19:03 - Creating different valuations 27:45 - Double coincidence of wants 32:48 - Deception and risk analysis in Trade on the Tigris 41:48 - The "single winner" problem 49:43 - An aside on economic notions of value and profit 52:52 - The length problem 58:18 - The uncertainty of value problem 1:02:55 - The aggressiveness problem 1:06:38 - The "trade dominates the game" problem 1:12:22 - Pie
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Inspired by a conversation over dinner and the success of Geoff and Ryan doing this on the Ludology podcast, Amber and I work through the initial brainstorm for a game design idea we had about...chili peppers. Amber loves peppers, and despite them now being a staple of Indian and SE Asian cuisine, they were originally an exclusively New World plant. How did this massive shift in cuisine come about? We want to find out and make a game about it.
2:38 - We need questions for a future podcast! 4:55 - Origins of the game idea 8:08 - The brainstorming process 12:08 - The POV 23:19 - Honing in the key ideas 33:31 - Goals for historical research 37:05 - Mechanisms: interesting or discard?
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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For my money Tom Russell is one of the most interesting, thoughtful game designers working. For 90 minutes we go deep into his design process, what he hopes to accomplish with his games, the strategy behind Hollandspiele, and what he considers his best work ever: This Guilty Land.
1:40 - Tom's Introduction to Board Gaming 11:08 - Starting in Design 20:49 - Publishing and Hollandspiele 29:03 - Design Process and How Do You Make So Many Games? 46:36 - Irish Gauge 48:42 - The Soo Line 55:24 - For-Ex 1:06:07 - This Guilty Land 1:15:56 - What is a Wargame? What is Objectivity? 1:27:52 - Hollandspiele Recommendations
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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This is less an episode about party games than it is about the nature of criticism. Marc, Matt, and Ben sit down (around a single mic, old-school style) and talk about what features contribute to the classification of "party game", and Marc throws out some ideas he had while he was laying in bed trying to sleep. If criticism is not about trying to predict what people will generally like, and if being generally likable is a valuable thing for a party game to have, does criticism of a party game look different? There's also some nonsense and buffoonery in there. The usual.
0:00 - Something about prime numbers and hockey 3:35 - What is a party game? 15:06 - The critical dilemma 26:01 - Some ruminations on the party games we've played 32:03 - Marc's response to the critical dilemma
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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I am delighted that I got to speak with one of my favorite designers, and a guy whose games I've been playing almost as long as I've been playing modern board games: Corey Konieczka. We go through his time at Fantasy Flight Games, highlighting many of his most popular designs, before talking about his recent announcement that he'd be heading up his own studio called Unexpected Games.
1:08 - Beginnings at Fantasy Flight 7:04 - The design and development process at Fantasy Flight 8:53 - Battlestar Galactica 15:12 - Descent 2nd Edition 20:52 - The Star Wars Games 26:24 - SW Imperial Assault 33:34 - SW Destiny 36:45 - SW Outer Rim 41:06 - Twilight Imperium 4th Edition 49:26 - The future and Unexpected Games
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Marc, Matt, and Ben are here after a bit of a break to talk about one of our favorite games. In our reviews of all of the Dominion expansions Nocturne and Renaissance had not yet been released. We're now catching up, and these are two very interesting expansions! One fits in with the later, more complex expansion, and the other hearkens back to a simpler time.
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Dan Letzring is back, and he's here to talk about the latest offering from Letiman games: Adventure Tactics. This is a campaign game inspired by Final Fantasy Tactics that promises to offer the adventuring and character growth of a game like Descent or Gloomhaven without the mandatory 3 hour play sessions.
Adventure Tactics will be on Kickstarter July 29th!
See more from Letiman Games here: https://www.letimangames.com/
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Vital Lacerda is one of the most significant eurogame designers of the last decade, delivering consistently high quality complex games others can rarely match. In this episode Orion and Marc go through each of Lacerda's games chronologically, evaluating them individually and as part of a larger body of work. What design aspects stand out as particularly "Lacerdian"? What trends have emerged in recent games, and what do we predict for the future?
2:48 - Vinhos 17:33 - CO2 27:34 - Kanban 33:56 - The Gallerist 48:40 - Lisboa 55:50 - Escape Plan 1:07:56 - Tangent about some sci-fi book 1:13:00 - Design consistencies
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Marc and Matt have started playing Magic again, so they're going to talk about the game itself, its impact in the gaming community, and the new online implementation -- "Arena".
2:15 - MtG as a game 21:18 - MtG as a drafting game 26:42 - Theme 46:28 - MtG as an institution 1:00:59 - MtG Arena
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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We've finally taken the plunge into 18xx train games, and guess what? They're awesome! Marc and Orion talk about what makes a game an 18xx game, what the appeal is, and some of their favorite experiences yet.
1:14 - It's not that intimidating, we promise 3:07 - Overview and history of 18xx 7:04 - Fundamental principles of 18xx 14:24 - Brutal indirect conflict 17:51 - Two design philosophies/emphases in different 18xx games -- operational and financial 27:19 - Why having friends is good 28:32 - Emergent strategic exploration 35:48 - 18xx as narrative-creating experiences 50:08 - Barriers to getting into 18xx 57:16 - Amina the cat voices her opinions
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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I arbitrarily set a deadline for declaring the best games of 2018, and now is that time. I haven't played all of the games from last year that I wanted to, but I did play a good number, and these are my favorites. It's kind of a weird list! I think I was a bit anti-popular opinion this year, so if you want some eclectic choices, here you go. As usual, Matt and Orion join in with their comments and mockery. Don't look at the timestamps if you want to avoid SPOILERS.
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5:58 - Reprints of Note 7:49 - #10: Hardback 8:46 - #9: Dr. Esker's Notebook 9:38 - #8: Teotihuacan 11:14 - #7: Passtally 12:39 - #6: Decrypto 15:32 - #5: Coimbra 19:35 - #4: Gugong 23:58 - #3: Let's Make a Bus Route 27:21 - #2: Sprawlopolis 31:09 - #1: 1822CA 37:29 - Games we played the most in 2018 38:55 - Games of note for Orion and Matt 42:20 - A spectacularly bad idea is developed 44:47 - Most disappointing 2018 games 51:51 - Notable new-to-us games of 2018 55:13 - Memories
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Matryoshka is available on Kickstarter right now!
I sit down with Cassie and Dan to talk about Matryoshka, a trading and bluffing card game about those Russian nesting dolls I didn't know the name of until I heard about this game. It's the first of hopefully many localization projects Cassie is organizing for Letiman Games. Their enthusiasm is infectious as they talk about this project, some of the rad art they've commissioned, and what's in store for the future of Letiman. I even pitch my own idea for a game that needs a North American printing, because I'm shameless like that.
Click to see more about Letiman Games and Cassie.
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We're back talking about books! After navigating schedules, we've finally managed to reconvene to talk about the third and final installment of the Three Body Problem series: Death's End. The scope of this book is truly immense, even as the main themes distill and come to a head. Remember, there are full spoilers here, so we recommend you read these fantastic books first.
1:41 - An unusual beginning 9:22 - The swordholder and the male/female metaphor 16:24 - Post-deterrence and 4D chess 21:42 - Fairy tales 25:44 - c 28:48 - Bunkering down 32:24 - The museum 34:21 - The final decision 42:08 - Circling back to the beginning
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G2S is a great weekend of gaming for those in the New England area. Marc and Orion attended this year and we're here to tell you all about it. We've got ugly games, beautiful games, and aesthetically controversial games. Also, Matt's not here so we get to briefly mention a sport superior to hockey. But mostly games still, don't worry.
2:04 - The Bloody Inn 4:49 - Let's Make A Bus Route 9:54 - Sidereal Confluence 19:29 - Die Macher 35:19 - Glory To Rome 37:27 - Wingspan 45:10 - Gaia Project
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We played a whole bunch of new games at PAX East and you're going to hear about them! Marc, Matt, and a SECOND Marc bring you the lowdown on every single one of them. This is a mega episode with some mega games (but not megagames, sadly). One of them is easily leading GOTY contention for 2019. We've got euros, we've got dexterity games, we've got train games, and one that kinda looks like a children's construction set. Don't even get me started on Trollfjord.
Spoilers below if you don't want to know our rankings.
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3:07 - MtG Sealed 9:50 - Video Game Highlight: Lemnis Gate 11:26 - #17: Blood on the Clocktower 18:45 - #16: Ceylon 21:08 - #15: Solenia 23:47 - #14: Trollfjord 30:36 - Dexterity Game Interlude 37:20 - #13: Majolica (introduction) 38:19 - #12: The Climbers 43:12 - #11: The Quest For El Dorado 49:36 - #10: Passtally 53:50 - #9: Welcome To... 1:01:11 - #8: Noctiluca (and more Majolica) 1:09:17 - #7: Symphony #9 1:16:30 - #6: 1906 San Francisco 1:21:26 - #5: Coimbra 1:30:03 - #4: Arboretum 1:33:18 - #3: Irish Gauge 1:40:15 - #2: Pax Pamir 1:49:45 - #1: Pipeline
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Orion and Marc talk about some of the 2 player games they've been playing recently. There's a good mix of popular and obscure, good and bad here. What makes a great 2 player experience, and what are some of the dynamics created when you make a 2 player game vs. a multiplayer game? Also, Marc rants for a bit.
1:25 - Broader themes with 2p games 7:53 - 7 Wonders Duel 15:50 - Hanamikoji 22:29 - Anthelion 26:29 - Master Of Wills 29:39 - IT'S TANGENT TIME! 36:13 - Targi 46:56 - Innovation 58:24 - 13 Days 1:04:44 - Dual Powers 1:09:37 - Keyforge
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NOTE: The Kickstarter date for Thrive has been pushed back to March 5th instead of February 26th as mentioned in the audio.
I sit down with Adam Rehberg to discuss the upcoming abstract game Thrive where the pieces adapt and grow stronger as the game progresses. I also ask him about his start with modern board gaming and becoming a designer and publisher. Thrive will be up on Kickstarter on March 5th.
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Who could have guessed that birds would be an exciting part of early 2019 among gamers? Elizabeth Hargrave might have been able to predict it, as her new game Wingspan, published by Stonemaier, is both mechanically interesting and lavished with a beautiful production. I sit down with her to talk about her design philosophy, what it's like to see her first published design do so well, and, of course, birds. Because birds are great!
0:44 - Wingspan and birds 21:29 - Tussie-Mussie 26:24 - Elizabeth's history with gaming 30:36 - Different themes and the designing community 39:34 - The pitching and publishing process
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We've been playing abstract games all month and we're here to tell you about it! Marc, Matt, and Orion go in depth about five different abstract games, both classic and new. We've all fallen in love with Go, and Tak was a pleasant surprise. What's so compelling about these games that some have survived for millennia? We've gotten a taste of it.
3:57 - What actually is an abstract game? 10:28 - Go 26:52 - Chess 46:30 - Santorini 55:01 - Onitama 1:01:18 - Tak 1:13:28 - Lines of play 1:16:46 - The unique beauty of abstract games
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Marc, Orion, and Matt continue their discussion of this incredible sci-fi trilogy. This time they're talking about the 2nd book, which is probably the most divisive but also the most tightly constructed. As always, major SPOILER WARNING! We're spoiling it all. If you have any interest, we recommend you read the books first. There's sci-fi concepts in here as good as anything Asimov ever did.
1:36 - Translation differences 3:14 - Cinematic feelings 6:21 - Not for the last time, we bring up scope 8:00 - Wallfacers 17:59 - Cosmic sociology 22:32 - Human sociology 28:00 - Droplet 33:50 - Dead man's switch 35:54 - Matt's gripes 41:21 - The dark forest
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Marc talks with Peter McPherson, designer of the upcoming Tiny Towns from AEG. What was it like working with a publisher for the first time, what was the design process for this family-weight construction euro, and what can we expect from Peter in the future?
1:58 - What was your entry point to modern board games? 4:57 - Designing and developing Tiny Towns 6:51 - Mandatory digression on "The Mind" 10:16 - The part where I remember to actually have Peter describe the game 14:49 - PAX Unplugged experience 15:57 - The publishing experience 26:22 - Other designs Peter is working on
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Join Marc, Matt, and Orion as they discuss a truly wonderful sci-fi series: The Three Body Problem. Here they discuss the first of this trilogy, looking at memorable moments and thematic elements of interest. A lot of what we find here will carry over into the broader second and third installments.
2:15 - Pre-spoilers: should you read this book? 9:14 - Spoilers ahoy! 9:48 - The "three body problem" in physics 12:39 - Cultural revolution and science in society 15:17 - Two great early scenes 21:56 - The VR game 23:03 - Okay, we're spoiling everything, for reals, now 27:35 - Underestimating scope and human scrappiness 32:34 - Tripwires and pessimism
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Marc, Matt, and Orion, three people who typically don't care very much about the look of the games they're playing talk about the games that do have remarkable visuals and design. What games' aesthetics are so good or so bad that they affect our rating of them? What is it about those games that make them truly stand out? Also we talk about buckets.
6:08 - We stop talking about sports 8:43 - Ryan Laukat's games - selling the setting 12:53 - Forbidden Desert/Sky - the toy factor 18:47 - Rising Sun and Lacerda - abundance of detail 25:54 - Wingspan and Stonemaier 27:20 - Fog of Love, Tokaido, and others - clean looks 31:29 - Go and Chess - the look of history and myth 35:35 - Orion talks about buckets 45:18 - Our top games where the aesthetics significantly improve our rating of the game 1:04:47 - The wargame aesthetic 1:06:08 - Games we want to get a deluxe remake 1:10:17 - Lamenting about the lack of tangents in the conversation, which is in and of itself a tangent
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Marc and Amber sit down to talk about their time at PAX Unplugged. We played some new games, some old games, and some that aren't even released yet. What are the highlights? What do we think of Keyforge? Why is Marc such a tough critic of games he playtests? The world may never know. Except you, if you listen to this.
5:10 - Expo Hall 9:58 - Inhuman Conditions 15:06 - Tiny Towns 18:38 - Pirate Tricks 20:16 - Digression on Language 24:38 - Alchemists 28:50 - Spirit Island 32:00 - Prototype Playtesting 35:49 - Megagames 37:53 - Ivion 39:20 - MtG and Keyforge Tournaments
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We're delighted to sit down with game designer Isaac Shalev to talk about a variety of things, from the designs of Ryan Laukat to Isaac's history with board games, to his current project creating an encyclopedia of game mechanisms. Don't miss this one.
2.54 - Empires of the Void II 22:19 - Isaac Shalev: The Man, The Myth 27:10 - Seikatsu 38:57 - Cataloging design patterns and language in a general sense 1:11:40 - Juicy bits about The Mind and Hanabi 1:22:09 - Games criticism
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Marc and Amber talk about their gaming life, from childhood to the present. A trip down memory lane.
1:22 - Childhood 15:28 - Video games 24:08 - College 32:02 - Post-college to present 43:26 - Back to childhood
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I'm looking for your feedback--what interesting board game things should I do while in Philadelphia after PAX Unplugged? What monthly themes should I focus on each month in 2019? Also, I give some first thoughts on three eminently interesting games I've been enjoying recently.
0:22 - PAX Unplugged and Philadelphia
1:37 - Give me monthly theme ideas!
3:15 - Brass
5:41 - SPQF
7:59 - Innovation
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After a bit of a break, we're back! Marc, Matt, and Orion talk about area majority games with an emphasis on their recent play of The Expanse. What separates these games from the more broad category of "area control"? What makes them work or not work?
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We've got a bonus 'cast! Marc, Matt, and Orion are joined by Sam Wolkenhauer, who has built a football analytics algorithm to try to predict games and evaluate teams. You can find all of his stuff at peteratings.wordpress.com. In the podcast, we discuss his model and what kind of cognitive errors he sees football teams and coaches making that are causing their teams to lose more than they should. We cross apply some of that thinking to board games, even. Tune in and find out all sorts of good rational thinking, even if you're not a big fan of American football. Also find out why running backs don't matter.
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Marc and Orion discuss the talk of the boardgaming town these days: Root! But first, we went to the New Hampshire Comicon's board game room and had a wonderful time with great people and great games!
4:16 - Baseball Highlights 2045 13:58 - Roll Player 33:07 - Sticheln 35:45 - Tribe 38:38 - El Grande 41:01 - Root
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Marc and Matt are joined by Orion (who is on a train) to talk about randomness. What is randomness? No, really, what is it? What kinds of randomness work best in board games, and what are some of the most interesting applications of random elements we've seen? Will we finish before Orion's train arrives?! (Spoiler: no)
4:22 - Defining Randomness 17:31 - Input/Output Randomness; Acceptable Amounts of Randomness 40:32 - White and Pink Noise 47:05 - Chaos 59:10 - Games With Interesting Randomness
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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No particular agenda today. I talk about some new TTG developments, a book series recommendation, and some board game stuff.
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How'd we get through 36 episodes without doing a deep-dive into the oeuvre of our favorite designer? This oversight has now been fixed, as Marc and Matt talk about every single game Vlaada Chvatil has ever made.
5:20 - Arena: Morituri te salutant 6:55 - Prophecy 8:27 - Sherwood 10:23 - Through The Ages 25:51 - Graenaland 27:14 - Kámen – Zbraně – Papír 28:05 - Galaxy Trucker 34:16 - Space Alert 36:48 - Dungeon Lords 48:24 - Bunny Bunny Moose Moose 49:50 - Babes In The Wood 50:33 - Travel Blog 51:02 - Sneaks and Snitches 51:41 - Pictomania 56:50 - Dungeon Petz 1:02:18 - Mage Knight 1:05:24 - Tash Kalar 1:08:08 - Codenames 1:11:26 - Codenames: Duet 1:14:29 - Star Trek Frontiers 1:15:28 - That's A Question! 1:17:29 - Design Consistencies: Humor 1:19:52 - Design Consistencies: Complexity As Mechanism 1:22:44 - Design Consistencies: Inelegance 1:26:30 - Design Consistencies: Mean Games 1:28:03 - Design Consistencies: Multiple Success Tiers
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Just some meandering thoughts about the Gen Con announcements I've heard about so far, and a couple other things. Happy Gen Con! Or GenCan't.
0:41 - Button Shy Design Winners 1:33 - Ganz Schon Clever Online 4:34 - Gloomhaven Online 6:30 - New Armada Ship 7:05 - Arkham Horror 3rd Edition 8:35 - Keyforge 11:12 - New Crossroads Game 12:00 - Twilight Struggle Digital On Sale!
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Marc, Orion, and Bubba talk about that most peculiarly-named genre of game: Ameritrash. We talk dice rolling, card pulling, combat-focsed narrative games. What makes some of them some of our favorite games of all time, and what makes others frustrating to the extreme?
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It's fundraising time for The Thoughtful Gamer and I promise it's pretty much going to be limited to this podcast and associated posts/social media postings. Fundraising and self-marketing is weird and awkward, so let's all be awkward together! In all honesty I think there's a lot of cool new rewards lined up for people who support The Thoughtful Gamer, and this will outline them.
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We've got no particular agenda. We're just going to sit back and chat. Marc and Matt are joined by Orion who is all the way across "the pond" in Scotland. We talk about some games, we listen to Scottish restaurant ambient noise, and we make long-term hiking plans. It's all very chill. Mostly. Charterstone incites some anger.
2:06 - Brass 10:39 - Codenames: Duet. Also, Orion turns into a robot 23:27 - The Gallerist 29:06 - Charterstone 30:54 - Charterstone spoilers begin 40:03 - Quidler 42:20 - SET 45:59 - Game Design
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Marc and Orion talk about elegance in games. Is it a simple matter of rules complexity vs. strategic complexity? Or are there additional elements that go into our conception of elegance? What kinds of games tend to be more elegance, and is elegance always a good design goal?
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I give the rundown of three digital card games that I've enjoyed quite a bit: Monster Slayers, Slay The Spire, and Age of Rivals. All three have some unique and interesting interactions only logistically feasible in a digital game. I also preview the most significant change to the Thoughtful Gamer patreon that will be happening in a couple of weeks.
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At long last we've reached the conclusion of the 2018 countdown. Marc, Matt, and Orion talk about the best of the best. The cream of the crop. The best games ever made! Seriously, these games are incredible and I get giddy just thinking about them.
SPOILERS BELOW
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3:44 - 7 Wonders 7:16 - Concordia 14:30 - Pulsar 2849 20:21 - War of the Ring 24:38 - Agricola 29:29 - Lisboa 35:53 - Suburbia 43:36 - The Castles of Burgundy 47:33 - Through The Ages 53:28 - Here I Stand 1:00:20 - Dominion 1:04:09 - Dominant Species 1:08:23 - Space Alert 1:12:51 - The Resistance 1:19:01 - Android: Netrunner 1:22:38 - Mage Knight 1:26:08 - Spirit Island 1:31:13 - Twilight Imperium 1:34:18 - Twilight Struggle 1:38:47 - Gloomhaven
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Marc, Orion, and Matt sit down with Eric Reuss, designer of Spirit Island. This is one of our longest podcasts ever, but it might be our best ever. Eric was a delightful conversationalist, and we learned so much about the design and lore of Spirit Island. We were absolutely amazed to hear about all of the thought and work that went into the design. There's so much going on underneath the surface that you only see glimpses of in the game itself. I think you'll be equally enthralled.
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Marc's fighting off a cold but that won't stop him! Orion and Matt join to count down some truly excellent games and fail to stay on topic. You know how it is.
SPOILERS BELOW
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7:02 - Terra Mystica
11:37 - Fog of Love
17:45 - Robinson Crusoe
22:40 - 7 Wonders Duel
27:30 - Churchill
33:14 - Power Grid
36:54 - Mombassa
43:05 - Scythe
47:40 - Star Wars Armada
53:52 - Pandemic Legacy Season 1
58:14 - Tzolk'in
1:01:57 - Vinhos
1:07:12 - Triumph And Tragedy
1:14:11 - The Gallerist
1:17:55 - Falling Sky
1:22:16 - Viticulture
1:27:30 - Downforce
1:31:47 - Codenames
1:38:06 - Food Chain Magnate
1:41:43 - Battlestar Galactica
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Marc, Matt, and Orion are joined by Trey Chambers, designer of Argent: The Consortium, Harvest, and Empyreal: Spells and Steam (now on kickstarter!). We hit all of the important topics: whether dogs or cats are better podcast mascots, dreams about Stefan Feld, and how long you can ramble on a tanget after the end of the podcast before you inadvertently begin a second podcst.
Also some stuff about Trey's games.
Empyreal is only on kickstarter for a couple more days. It looks wild. Check it out! Also play Harvest because it's seriously legit and seems to have slipped under the radar. Also check out Trey's podcast, which focuses on important topics in the board game community, called Eternally Board.
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Special for our list-aficionado fans out there--another list! The middlest of the best games ever, or something like that. Marc, Matt, and Orion talk about some quality games.
SPOILERS BELOW
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1:53 - Stats
4:47 - El Grande
9:49 - Colonial Twilight
14:48 - Friday
17:55 - Mechs v. Minions
22:49 - Sushi Go Party
25:23 - Secret Hitler
30:12 - Captain Sonar
34:40 - Eclipse
38:50 - Harvest
43:30 - Tokaido
46:29 - Memoir '44
52:48 - Roll For The Galaxy
58:36 - Galaxy Trucker
1:02:42 - Fire In The Lake
1:06:13 - Carcassonne
1:09:31 - Forbidden Desert
1:12:30 - Mysterium
1:15:37 - Keyflower
1:18:21 - Lost Cities
1:20:53 - Nusfjord
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Marc, Orion, and Matt talk about "hindered communication" games, where you're trying to communicate something to another person with an arbitrary barrier in the way. Word association games like Taboo or Codenames are the most well-known types of these games, but we discover that the genre we kind of made up is a lot bigger than that.
Also in this episode, Marc pitches his million dollar invention idea, and everyone marvels over the word "algorithm".
2:11 - Defining Our Terms
3:58 - The Classics
9:55 - The Apples To Apples Continuum
13:45 - Word Association Games
30:23 - Beyond Word Association
35:55 - Idea Association
46:04 - How These Games Succeed
1:03:08 - Oddities And The Hanabi Problem
1:15:31 - Metagaming
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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We're creeping down the list to better and better games. Marc, Matt, Orion, and Ben talk through some of Marc's favorite games ever. This time we hit some serious controversy, the ripples of which are felt all throughtout the rest of the list. Marc stands by his rankings.
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2:35 - Command And Colors: Ancients
5:10 - Wits and Wagers
9:54 - Archipelago
14:11 - Dice Forge
16:40 - Capital
18:44 - Millennium Blades
23:55 - Libertalia
27:18 - Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective
32:14 - Star Wars Rebellion
36:32 - Dungeon Lords
41:48 - Paramedics: Clear!
45:40 - Above and Below
50:12 - Blood In The Fog
54:34 - CrossTalk
1:01:17 - Onitama
1:03:37 - London
1:08:13 - Kemet
1:14:08 - Calimala
1:18:08 - Star Wars Imperial Assault
1:21:52 - Five Tribes
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Prompted by a discussion in the Thoughtful Gamer discord channel, Marc, Orion, and Matt explore the nature of language, games, and aqueousness as they discuss what constitutes a dry game. It's a concept that people seem to understand but can't quite define. Will we be able to do it? Spoiler: I have no idea.
Skip to 5:09 if you don't care about sports.
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The countdown has returned! Marc has expanded the list to 100 games this time, so there's double the fun. In this installment Marc and Orion blast through numbers 100-81. They're all great games you should check out!
SPOILERS BELOW
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5:11 - Seikatsu
7:32 - Sekigahara
9:25 - Terraforming Mars
12:26 - Medici: The Card Game
14:08 - Descent 2nd Edition
18:22 - For-Ex
24:16 - The Shipwreck Arcana
28:53 - Isle Of Skye
30:54 - Time of Crisis
37:12 - Deception: Murder In Hong Kong
39:16 - Evolution: Climate
44:30 - 1960: The Making Of The President
47:09 - Alchemists
50:30 - Scrabble
52:07 - Caverna: The Cave Farmers
57:09 - Exceed
1:01:18 - Riftwalker
1:06:22 - Sagrada
1:07:34 - Ticket To Ride: Europe
1:11:18 - Three Kingdoms Redux
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PAX East expanded to 4 days from 3, and that means we got even more games played this year, including an absolute GEM of a game from CGE. We also rant about Jimmy Johns and, frankly, get extremely silly. Also, the debut podcast appearance from our good friend Lindsay!
3:12 - First Impressions of PAX East 2018
11:15 - Tabletop Tournaments
15:34 - Expo Hall
22:21 - The Grimm Forest
23:24 - High Heavens
27:21 - Wallet Games by Chip Beauvais
32:15 - Downforce Expansion
37:34 - Tokyo Metro
41:48 - Faza
44:15 - Panel On Game Balance
50:48 - Jimmy Johns Sandwiches and Bad Design
56:09 - Merlin
1:01:12 - Munchkin CCG
1:04:15 - Civilization: A New Dawn
1:08:32 - Dice Forge
1:11:27 - I don't even know what to call this. You're just going to have to listen to it.
1:14:00 - The Shipwreck Arcana
1:22:06 - El Grande
1:29:56 - London
1:33:45 - Nusfjord
1:39:28 - Pulsar 2849
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I've got a wide assortment of topics today, from rulebook pet peeves to disappointing card games to an exciting livestream announcement. Happy Friday!
0:29 - Problems With Rulebooks
6:19 - Consider Supporting Meeple Like Us
7:11 - Great Resource: Stonemaier Games' Blog
8:18 - The Mind
9:46 - Deep Sea Adventure
11:37 - Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game
14:44 - Top 100 Games Podcast Livestream Announcement
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Ever feel like you're just not doing as well as you should at games? Want that secret sauce so you can beat your friends? Marc, Orion, Matt, Matt's secret brother Dave, and another Matt who we call Bubba are here to help! We're sometimes not bad at games and we have a variety of tips to help you out.
4:17 - Find The Bottlenecks
9:06 - Understand Resource Values
15:30 - Identify Action Loops
22:23 - Digression - Who Is This Advice For?
23:32 - FOO Strategies
33:34 - Be Aware Of Remaining Time
42:58 - Always Draw First
44:31 - Sports Digression
45:05 - Deck Efficiency
53:22 - Figure Out If You Should Differentiate Or Follow
56:31 - Disguise Your Strength
1:01:35 - In Co-Ops, Maximize Your Offense
1:04:50 - Leave Your Options Open
1:16:16 - Subvert Common Expectations
1:22:34 - Reverse Engineer From The Victory Condition
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Marc and Orion sit down to talk about all they played at the Granite Games Summit in Nashua, NH. It was a wonderful convention and we played some truly awesome games! Except one. Prepare for a good old-fashioned rant.
Paramedics Clear!: 2:31
Clank! In! Space!: 7:04
Dominant Species: 13:38
Rising Sun: 18:57
Deck Construction (prototype): 43:38
Here I Stand: 46:45
Lisboa: 55:32
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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I chat with Matt from Mountaintop Games about his first game design: The Primary, which is a light area control game based around the US primary election system. It launches on Kickstarter tomorrow, right here: https://goo.gl/hcSz79
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Marc, Matt, Orion, and Ben join up to talk about two of their favorite real-time games: Space Alert and Captain Sonar. What makes them so captivating? How do their differences highlight their respective strengths and weaknesses? Will Marc ever be able to end the podcast, or will it forever spiral into more and more increasingly irrelevant tangents? Only one way to find out!
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Greetings! I'm here with another quick update on what games I've been playing recently and what's in store in the next couple of weeks. Get my first impressions on Terraforming Mars, The Gallerist, and the new Netrunner meta.
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This week's podcast is a wonderful discussion with Jason Perez, a psychotherapist from the Every Night Is Game Night podcast, about depression and mental health. We talk about what it means to be depressed, why if you think you might be struggling with depression you should seek help, and Jason talks about 10 things you can to do help break out of a delf-defeating depressed cycle. Board games can play a role in that!
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Longtime listeners will know that Matt frequently tries to sabotage this podcast by talking about hockey. Well, back when me, Orion, and Matt were doing our "listener question" podcast, we got into a very long discussion about sports that I didn't include in that podcast. I then forgot about it for a while but have dug it up for your enjoyment. Spring training is about to start and the hockey season is in full-swing, so hear what we have to say about those games and the games played around them.
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Join Marc, Orion, Matt, and Wes in a hidden movement cage fight! The old Fantasy Flight standard goes up against the new hotness. Which one is better? Only one way to find out.
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Hey, all. This one's me talking about how I've organized my life recently to be more productive. I also discuss some very early first impressions of the odd game Vast: The Crystal Caverns. Finally, I weigh in on the subject of using "they" as a non-gendered singular pronoun in game rulebooks and why that's obviously a good thing. Obviously.
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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This is an odd one. Marc, Orion, Matt, and Wes talk about the differences between board games and video games as media and how their inherent qualities shape how we interact with them, and each other. Included are multiple references to Plato and a 20 minute tangent where we question the premise of the entire podcast. Good times!
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Marc discusses his experience with Twilight Imperium 4th Edition and goes over the news of the day, which includes why bad graphic design led to an entire state going into panic, people counterfeiting board games, and why the talk surrounding HATE illustrates a problem with internet discourse.
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Marc and Orion are on an island. They've also been playing a lot of Spirit Island. Chill with the sounds of the ocean and people barbequeing and hear about three great games.
Harvest - 1:17 Hunt For The Ring - 9:07 Spirit Island - 31:52
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It's a MEGA-PODCAST where Marc, Orion, and Matt look over 2017 and all of the great (and not so great) games we've played. We've had some amazing experiences and we've played some of the best games ever made for the first time this year. Plus, lots of lists! Everyone loves lists.
6:47 - What have we been playing recently?
13:44 - The "Shame List" (games we haven't played yet)
28:06 - Top 5 "New To Us" Games
50:26 - The Thoughtful Gamer 2017 Random "Awards" (most innovative, worst game, biggest disappointment, game we keep playing incorrectly, etc.)
1:13:31 - Best of The Thoughtful Gamer in 2017
1:34:40 - Top 5 2017 Games
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Sometimes weeks are hard. This has been one of those weeks. But I want to try to turn it into something positive. If you want to join me for a quick discussion about mental health, email me at marc@thethoughtfulgamer.com. Also I talk about why I loved Star Wars.
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Marc quizzes his wife Amber on her theory of "social manipulation" in board games, which desperately needs a new name because that sounds really evil. It's not evil. It's how Amber uses psychology to give her a leg up in games. Marc doesn't get it. Amber doesn't get Marc's puns. It's a good time.
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No specific theme this time, just some thoughts on Patreon, Gloomhaven, The Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Terraforming Mars, Hollandspiele, social deduction games, and board game media awards (at thedrinkingmeeples.com).
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Marc and Orion talk about, perhaps, their favorite genre of board game, the illustrious card-driven wargame (CDG). From 1993's We The People to 2016's Star Wars Rebellion (I can feel the anger the purists), there have been a lot of different games with the CDG gameplay shell. What do they have in common, and what did they do differently? What innovations have we seen throughout the years?
Also in this episode: the cat makes an appearance, Marc hates on Blood Rage and the state of Wyoming, and we absolutely fail at the closing remarks. Like, really fail. I don't know how we're going to top it, frankly.
0:44 - Defining the CDG
8:07 - What CDG's do well
25:52 - What CDG's don't do well
33:31 - Washington's War
39:05 - Twilight Struggle
45:45 - Here I Stand
54: 38 - 1960: The Making Of The President
59:02 - Labyrinth: The War On Terror
1:02:57 - Star Wars Rebellion
1:08:32 - COIN Games
1:16:31 - Final Thoughts
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Marc, Matt, Orion, Ben, Wes, and Bubba reminisce about PAX Unplugged and all of the great games they played and great times they had. I promise we didn't record this in a tunnel. There are no technical mistakes, only happy accidents.
3:40 - Star Realms
8:54 - Expo Hall Experiences
22:46 - SEPTA
24:55 - Bushido
29:32 - Ethnos
35:11 - Exceed Card Game
39:33 - Twilight Imperium 4th Edition
49:37 - Keyflower
57:20 - Megagame Funtimes
1:19:03 - Imperial Settlers
1:20:56 - The time I almost said hi to Geoff Engelstien but then didn't
1:24:07 - PAX Unplugged Keynote
1:28:47 - Cheesesteaks
1:33:07 - Fog of Love
1:43:25 - Downforce
1:48:15 - Mechs vs. Minions
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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The Thoughtful Gamer heads off to PAX Unplugged tomorrow morning, and we'd love to see you there. Marc talks about his plans at the convention, a couple of exciting features coming up for The Thoughtful Gamer, and why he thinks that negativity can be a positive force.
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The group finds themselves in a gun and axe fight.
Matt tries to reign in Marc, Ben, Jeff, and JR as they nagivate the difficult terrain of the outer rim during the height of the empire, getting into a lot of messes along the way.
Marc, Orion, Matt, and Wes talk about five different board game themes and ideas that may be impossible to design. Can they be done well? Or are board games inherently limited in such a way as to make them impossible to implement in the medium?
Also in this podcast: Samwise Gamgee becomes a universal metaphor, and Wes conceives of the worst party game ever.
4:14 - Real Market Activity
29:06 - Scaled Conflict
49:23 - Horror/Terror
1:05:39 - Surrealism
1:11:48 - Romance
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Our plans come to fruition! Matt tries to reign in Marc, Ben, Jeff, and JR as they nagivate the difficult terrain of the outer rim during the height of the empire, getting into a lot of messes along the way.
The pinnacle of Dominion week at The Thoughtful Gamer. Join Marc, Matt, Orion, Ben, and Bubba as we count down our collective favorite 10 dominion cards. Listen as we discover that our ranking methodology wasn't the best, and resulted in people hating some of the top 10 cards. Also gain many valuable strategies for how to use the card Crossroads. Lots of other Dominion talk too.
3:08 - Favorite Dominion Memories
11:36 - Top 10 Cards
1:01:28 - Honorable Mentions
1:20:33 - Favorite Expansions
1:23:59 - Favorite Mechanisms
1:30:45 - Most Hated Cards
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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I sit down with Luca from Board To Death to talk about his new 80's cyberpunk racing game - Neon Knights. It's a mid-weight racing game with customizable cars, deadly weapons, and white-knuckle push-your-luck mechanisms, where you're not only trying to win the race, but look the best while doing it.
Neon Knights theme song
Available now on Kickstarter
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Marc, Matt, and Orion answer some questions from listeners. Learn about our favorite movies, how we see The Thoughtful Gamer fitting into the board game media landsape, and if we think we're aquiring new games too quickly. Also, Marc gives a surprise top 10 list!
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Join Marc as he discusses the near future of The Thoughtful Gamer. October and November are shaping up to be a very exciting time. If you have any interest in all with what we're doing, listen in.
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
In this episode, Michael and I confront the age-old question: how much of a podcast can be made up of tangents before the tangents become the subject of the podcast?
Also in this episode we talk about Meeple Like Us and issues of accessibility in board gaming, a bunch of random political things, our favorite games, gender representation, ethical choices in video games, the state of criticism and if it's okay for publishers to pay reviewers for reviews, and....Nazis?
It was a wild ride, but a tremendously fun discussion.
0:00 - Accessibility
3:40 - Controversial parts of Meeple Like Us
9:47 - Limitations of internet platforms like Reddit and Twitter
15:02 - Working with publishers on accessibility
26:24 - Gender representation/random hotbed political topics
54:36 - Some of our favorite games
1:02:44 - Criticism in board gaming and publishers paying for reviews
1:28:57 - Ethical choices within video games and board games
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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A continuation of the last episode!. Matt tries to reign in Marc, Ben, Jeff, and JR as they nagivate the difficult terrain of the outer rim during the height of the empire, getting into a lot of messes along the way.
(Apologies for the audio quality. I'm investigating what went wrong.)
Marc, Matt, and Orion discuss what makes co-op games unique, what problems can show up in the design, and how games overcome those problems.
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
Matt GM's a game of Fantasy Flight's Edge of the Empire Star Wars RPG system. Marc, Ben, Jeff, and JR nagivate the difficult terrain of the outer rim during the height of the empire, getting into a lot of messes along the way.
We've got a beast of an episode today! Inspired by GenCon, the game conference behemoth, Marc, Matt, and Orion discuss some of the games announced there, some of the games they've been playing recently, and their top 10 favorite old games.
4:12 - 1960: The Making Of The President
18:29 - Seikatsu
23:01 - Outpost: Siberia
27:59 - The Bloody Inn
33:55 - 1960 (reprise)
41:00 - Half-Witted Scruffy-Looking Podcast Recap
1:02:04 - GenCon
1:22:23 - Top 10 Games At Least 10 Years Old
1:52:41 - Netrunner
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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Out of nowhere, Fantasy Flight announced earlier this week that Twilight Imperium 4th edition would be released later this year! Obviously I am very excited about this, but it has a very hefty price tag. I take my critical eye to what we know about the game to help out those wondering if they should buy the 3rd edition now or wait for the new one.
Just as I was about to upload this podcast I saw that Fantasy Flight had released the rulebook. I just read through it--here are my thoughts on the new information the rules revealed. Consider this a supplement to the thoughts on the podcast.
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The rulebook is exceptionally clear and a huge improvement over the 3rd edition rulebook, which was decent. Fantasy Flight has really done a fantastic job with their rulebooks over the last couple of years, and they deserve a lot of praise for that. It's a remarkeable acheivement, particularly given how inelegant (I say with all fondness) and complicated their games can be.
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Trade is much more freeform in this edition, with people able to trade both commodities (benign trade goods that don't become active until they're traded) and promissory notes (special powers and benefits on cards) on their turn, Catan-style. The trade strategy card merely refreshes the commodities. I love the idea of promissory notes, and I'm super excited to see what they contain, but I'm skeptical of the more open trading style. As players of Catan know, open trading like that can really slow down a game. I also feel like this weakens the trade strategy card a bit, which is mildly concerning.
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Invading Mecatol Rex costs influence. Very intriguing. I like special rules involving this center planet, and I'm not sure what to think of this particular wrinkle.
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The only listed variant ("advanced rules") just adds the promissory notes. I'm quite saddened by this, though I do understand that they're trying to provide the definitive version of the game. I desperately hope that there will be an expansion with a boatload of optional modules to give back that DIY feel to the game. But given that this version is retailing for over 50% more money, that's a very significant monetary investment.
I said in the podcast that I was cautiously optimistic. After seeing the rulebook I'm a hair more optimistic, though I still have a couple of very mild concerns.
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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We've got a fun one for you today as I talk with Emil Larsen, designer of Burning Rome, a short tactical card game set in ancient times. We discuss the mechanisms of the game, Emil's design philosophy, and how his board game experience helps him with his day job training officers in the military.
0:55 - 1960: The Making Of The President
13:58 - Interview with Emil Larsen
Check out the kickstarter for Burning Rome here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/suntzugames/burning-rome
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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I get a little fired up on this one. Recently I found out that some reviewers are charging money for reviews, and I make the case that this is an inexcusable conflict of interest that needs to stop. Hear me out.
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RAW AND UNEDITED! Some stuff I cut for time and a bunch of irrelevant tangents. We were very tired. Your peek behind the curtain.
Our most heated debate yet! Join Marc, Matt, and Orion as we discuss the merits of Vlaada Chvatil's massive adventure game: Mage Knight. Is it a masterpiece of design or merely "fine"?
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Come hang out with Marc as he chills in the office and talks about what he's been playing lately, what he wants to play soon, and the agonizing decision of what Netrunner deck to run at Regionals. Also, some statistical analysis of the BoardGameGeek.com top 100 list to see if there really is a "cult of the new".
1:51 - Tzolk'in
4:30 - Commands and Colors: Ancients
7:45 - Mage Knight and new games
11:48 - Netrunner
16:44 - BGG Top 100 analysis
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Our friend Bubba stops by and we play two massive games with him! Falling Sky and Twilight Imperium are both great, very long games with a lot of politics and negotiation, and we recount our weekend playing them.
4:30 - Dominion and reminiscing about college
10:23 - Falling Sky
26:09 - Twilight Imperium
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Come, relax, and hang out with Marc as he talks about what he's been playing recently and what's in store for the future of The Thoughtful Gamer. Also he rambles on about some bad opinions on reddit.
0:43 - Near and Far
7:14 - Board game table construction
9:50 - Unsolicited opinions and reddit
23:31 - The future
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Marc and Matt got to play some unpublished and indie games, and they're here to tell you all about them! We've got some good, some bad, and some inbetween, but all of it interesting.
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It's finally here! Our biggest podcast ever, and for good reason. Marc, Matt, Orion, Ben, and Amber discuss Marc's 10 favorite games of all time. As always, there's some disagreement and debate, but mostly Marc ranting and raving about how amazing these games are.
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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In this episode, Marc and Matt discuss one of our most anticipated games of 2017: Near and Far. We give our first impressions of this beautiful campaign game. Halfway through Orion pops in in a villianous role. Then we talk about campaign games in general and what principles designers should consider when designing them. Finally, we end with some of Marc's half-baked campaign game design ideas.
Also in this episode: Matt gets too excited about hockey, we say the word "whimsical" too much, and Matt poorly mixes a drink.
Disclaimer: Very light spoilers for Near and Far.
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Almost to the end! Marc, Orion, Matt, Ben, and Amber discuss Marc's 20th-11th favorite games of all time. It starts with a shocker and ends with some debate. Don't miss it!
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Come on in, take your coat off, and chill for a bit. Listen to Marc, Matt, and Orion talk about the games they've been playing lately, what they have preordered, and what they're looking forward to playing in 2017, all while playing a game of Skull.
Games discussed: Hockey (yes, the sport. I'm sorry), Skull, Riftwalker, Labyrinth, Washington's War, Vinhos, Near and Far, Colonial Twilight, 1960, Gloomhaven, Here I Stand, The 7th Continent, Pandemic Legacy Season 2, Charterstone, First Martians, Rising Sun, Thunderstone Quest, Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage, and BIOS Megafauna, among others.
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
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The journey continues. Soon we will arrive at the peak--those top 10 magnificent games, shrouded in mystery and emblazoned with greatness. For now, join Marc, Matt, Orion, Ben, and Amber as they discuss games 30-21.
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Join Marc and Orion as they discuss the newest deluxe expansion for Netrunner: Terminal Directive. They begin with a discussion of Netrunner itself and why they find it so compelling, then move on to the legacy experience of Terminal Directive itself, before providing some recommendations for what Netrunner players should purchase after the Core Set.
If you wish to avoid Terminal Directive spoilers, please skip the discussion from 34:05-42:25.
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The countdown continues! Marc, Matt, Orion, Ben, and Amber discuss Marc's 40th-31st favorite games of all time. They're all slightly better games than last time.
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Marc, Matt, and Orion dive deep to compare and contrast these two amazing games to find the areas in which they succeed, as well as where they fall a bit short.
In this episode: Matt gets nerd-shamed, Orion proclaims his War of the Ring superiority, and Marc's name remains unchanged.
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Join Marc, Matt, Orion, Ben, and Amber as they discuss Marc's 50th-41st favorite board games of all time. There's some heated disagreement here, but mostly a great discussion about fantastic games.
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Marc and Matt discuss a situation that happened in a recent game of Dominant Species where Matt missed a very obvious play to his detriment. The discussion then morphs into the psychology of analysis paralysis.
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Get Scythe'd!
Marc, Matt, Orion, and Ben discuss three of the hottest board games of the past couple of years. Will we feel the Rage in our Blood? Will Scythe slash our expectations? Will Food Chain Magnate chain us to the table with rapt attention? Only one way to find out!
In this episode, Orion makes cookies, Ben embraces his Loki side, Marc shamelessly tweets at Eric Lang, and Matt breaks rank and acts in generally traitorous ways.
Check our our website at thethoughtfulgamer.com,and reach out to us on facebook or twitter.
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Marc, Orion, Matt, and Wes recount their experiences at PAX East 2017.
In this episode: Matt discovers his true calling as an artist, Orion plays jank decks and has fun, Marc eats some berries, and Wes does laundry.
Also in this episode: We discuss deep existential questions about dice, Marc experiences a moment of genuine terror while perusing indie games, and the cat makes an appearance.
Plus we talk about some games.
Games mentioned in this episode: Android: Netrunner, Mega Catan, Rick and Morty Simulator: Virtual Rick-ality, Blasters of the Universe: VR Bullet Hell, Evolution: Climate, Star Realms, Apochalyptica, and Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island.
Check our our website at thethoughtfulgamer.com,and reach out to us on facebook or twitter
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