First Player Token, a short board game review show

Text us your thoughts about this episode. I met Dylan Kistler when I was working at Vanderbilt University and he was an undergraduate student there. Given our shared interests in games and education, we crossed paths several times, and we've stayed in touch since we both moved on from Vanderbilt. Dylan has launched a game publishing company, Kistler Games, that specializes in games that &quot...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we learn how three is the magic number in Trio! Trio is a card game designed by Kaya Miyano and published by Happy Camper Games. It handles six players, it comes in a super portable small box, it plays in like 15 or 20 minutes, and it's easy to teach. As a result, it's now one of my go-to games to bring to family gatherings. I ha...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. On this episode of the First Player Token podcast, we time travel back a decade and take a look at our most played games of 2016! Which of these favorites from ten years ago still get played? Which ones should I dust off and bring to game night for the first time in forever? Music: "Open Road" and "Summer of Paradise" by Purple Planet ....

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we grab our press passes and hustle to meet our newspaper’s printing deadline in Fit to Print!  In Fit to Print, a 2023 game designed by Peter McPherson with art by Ian O’Toole and published by Flatout Games, players take on the role of reporters and editors at the various newspapers in Thistleville, one of those charming woodland towns wi...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. Usually when I review and recommend a board game here on the podcast, I’ve played that game at least ten times. That way I know the game well and I know it has some staying power. But sometimes, I try a game that's new to me and it really grabs me.  So here’s a FIRST PLAY review of an older game that I think you might like! Today we’ll take a look at...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we spend a weekend in a cabin in the woods and play a whole lot of board games! A few friends and I recently spent a weekend playing board games at a cabin we rented in Cedars of Lebanon State Park. We played the board games that don’t fit into normal game nights! Most ran about three hours long, some longer. These are the crunchy, brain-b...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. Usually when I review and recommend a board game here on the podcast, I’ve played that game at least ten times. That way I know the game well and I know it has some staying power. That means I usually review older games, but I like to play new games, too. So here’s a FIRST PLAY review of a new game that I think you might like! Today we’ll take a look at Cl...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we put the spotlight on the preschooler with twelve games that are fun to play with a three-year-old!  I’ve been on a quest to find board games that the three-year-old can play and enjoy and that don’t drive the rest of us crazy. On this episode, I’m going to share an update about that quest and point listeners to a few games that we’ve fo...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we complete our quest to find out which fictional character is the ultimate fighter in our 2025 Unmatched tournament!  To run the tournament, I identified our 16 most-played Unmatched heroes, then set up some brackets to pit them against each other. A few episodes ago, I reported on the first half of the tournament: the first-round games t...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we travel back to ancient Egypt, build some pyramids, and compete to be the pharaoh’s favorite architect in Imhotep.  Imhotep was said to be the architect of the step pyramid in Djoser, rising 200 feet tall, the earliest colossal stone building in Egypt. Imhotep is also a 2016 game for two to four players designed by Phil Walker-Harding an...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we make some movies while accusing our friends and coworkers of being communists in Hollywood 1947. Hollywood 1947 is the latest entry in the Dark Cities line from Façade Games publisher and designer Travis Hancock and artist Sarah Keele. It takes the Red Scare’s Hollywood blacklist and turns it into a lively and thematic game that’s hit o...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. It just was over two years ago when we covered the game system called Unmatched here on the podcast. In Unmatched by Restoration Games, two players battle, each with a different hero that has their own unique deck of 30 cards for attack and defense. When we covered Unmatched here on the podcast in 2023, we only had six heroes in our collection for our batt...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we work together to find out just how hard it is land an airplane in Sky Team.  Sky Team is a 2023 game designed by Luc Rémond with art by Eric Hibbeler and Adrien Rives published by Montreal-based Scorpion Masqué. Sky Team is a two-player game in which players work together to land a passenger airplane.  Emily and I had the chance to try...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we grab our binoculars and our field guides to go birdwatching in Wingspan.  Wingspan is a 2019 game designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and published by Stonemaier Games. Most days, if you ask me what my favorite board game is, I'll tell you it's Wingspan. It's my most played game, and it's the one that Emily and I are most...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we plant a prize-winning vegetable garden while dodging tedious neighbors in Mr. Cabbagehead’s Garden.  Mr. Cabbagehead's Garden is a solo game designed by Todd Sanders first released in 2016 as a print-and-play and later published by LudiCreations. The game is inspired by the whimsical illustrations of anthropomorphic vegetables foun...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, I play capture the flag with seven of my friends in Challengers!  Challengers! is 2022 game for 2 to 8 players designed by Johannes Krenner and Markus Slawitscheck and published by Z-Man Games with art by Jeff Harvey. It’s a little hard to describe. If I said it’s a deck-building, auto-battler built around a capture-the-flag tournament str...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. Our last episode on second editions of the games Santorini and Tortuga 1667 reminded me about another second edition of a family favorite game that’s out now: Parks designed by Henry Audubon and published by Keymaster Games. We covered the first edition of Parks way back on episode 7 of the podcast, and I thought I would reshare that episode here on the po...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we go back to the island in second editions of podcast favorites Santorini and Tortuga 1667!  Santorini: Pantheon Edition takes the original Santorini and its “Golden Fleece” expansion and presents them in a new package with revised rules and upgraded components. The teenager and I have been playing it regularly since we got it, and we are...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we conspire together to take out one of the worst evils of the 20th century in Black Orchestra!  Black Orchestra is a 2016 cooperative game for 1 to 5 players designed by Phillip duBarry with art by Lucas Soriano published by Tabletop Tycoon. In Black Orchestra, players take on the role of conspirators in Nazi Germany working together to a...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we sail the high seas on our Viking ships to establish trading routes and not pillage in Knarr!  Knarr is a 2023 game designed by Thomas Dupont with art by Antoine Carrion published in the US by Pandasaurus Games. Knarr celebrates the trading life of a Viking. In the game, players take on the role of Viking traders, recruiting crew to your...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we work together to tell the story of how a religion changes over the centuries in… Keep the Faith!  Keep the Faith is a storytelling game for 2 to 5 players about religions in transition. Each player represents a sect within a fictional religion. Players collaboratively make up the story about the religion and how it changes over five hun...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. Today we have a FIRST PLAY review of Everdell Duo, a 2025 game designed by James and Clarissa Wilson with art by Andrew Bosley and Enggar Adirasa, published by Tabletop Tycoon. The game is a two-player version of the popular 2018 game Everdell, a game that launched a trend in board games featuring friendly anthropomorphic forest animals. Both games are set...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we gather around an African watering hole to see who can chase away the most animals in Kariba! Kariba is about animals gathering around an African watering hold, so the cards are all elephants and giraffes and zebras and meerkats and such. Players take turns playing cards from their hands to the watering hole in the middle of the table, w...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we fight zombies and frostbite and maybe stab our friends in the back in Dead of Winter! In Dead of Winter, a 2014 game designed by Isaac Vega and Jonathan Gilmour with art by Fernanda Suarez, players take on the role of survivors of a zombie apocalypse, trying to find the resources they need to fend off zombies and hunger and cold and the...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this bonus episode, I share an extended cut of my recent interview with Jonathan Chaffer, designer of the Holiday Hijinks series of 18-card escape room games. Jonathan had a lot to say about the design constraints he faced in creating these games, more than I could fit in last episode's review of the series. If you're interested in tabletop ga...