The Ascent of Board Games

Welcome back! This month, we're concluding our deep dive into  Kingdom Death: Monster . This episode focuses more on who should consider KD:M (and who shouldn't), the logistics of getting it to the table, and what impacts it's had on the board game industry. Start playing KD:M so you can look forward to building things like this ! If you prefer miniatures like this , maybe consider Gatefall instea...

Buckle in - we decided to try something a little different this month (and next month, because as usual we can't shut up once we get started). We're doing a deep dive on a single game, and we're starting with the legendary Kingdom Death: Monster . If you're interested in the game, you can look forward to two episodes full of discussion and commentary! If not...well, it's a great time to catch up o...

Let's talk about not talking! This month, we discuss games in which you have to use things other than words to communicate with your teammates. Highlights include: Charades may be older than we thought , but maybe not as old as BGG says it is. Frank's favorite part of Inkognito We delve into the historical era of...2009?...as Frank breaks the rules again to bring us a game that is literally bonker...

We're back with more adorable animals (and some that you may not think of as adorable, but that's just, like, your opinion, man). This month's selection includes: Scythe With Wolves , or, The Dangers of Peer Pressure A lovely, solid game that just feels a little...icky Mike gets to make a picture panorama ! The fox experiment that inspired The Fox Experiment The search for lost species that inspir...

Wildlife games! They're full of adorable meeples, heartwarming themes, and...interesting mechanics (which lead to some differences of opinion between us and the mainstream). Come join us as we talk about:  Big chonky animeeples ! We stump Frank on a Phil Eklund game , which turns out to not belong in this episode at all. Possibly the most useless insert ever to darken a game box. Contrariwise, her...

Happy New Year, everybody! To kick things off right, here's an episode looking at all the cool games we're hoping to play in 2024. It's full of plenty of laughter, largely because of the maniacal giggling of Curtis, our newest cohost! Among the things we're laughing at: This map from The Stifling Dark amuses Joe. There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth as we pre-empt each others' picks (althou...

Happy December, everybody! It's time to conclude our year-end wrap-up episode, during which we each count down our top 5 games or game-related things from the year that was, from #5 to #1. We covered our #4 and #5 entries last month, so here are our top 3 from 2023, including several unexpected entries. You'll also hear: Frank continues to assure us that our opinions are wrong. A subtle but deligh...

Welcome, everybody! It's time once again for our year-end wrap-up episode, during which we each count down our top 5 games or game-related things from the year that was, from #5 to #1. ...or rather, from #5 to #4 this episode, with the rest coming next month, because BOY, do we like to talk about games. Highlights (and/or lowlights) include: Use This One Weird Trick to Diversify Your Damage Portfo...

Happy spooky season, everybody! It's October, which means it's time for a horror game playthrough. This time, Frank brings us Hotel Lovecraft , an audio-powered paragraph-style game from Story Master's Tales . We've trimmed the game down to make for a reasonable episode length - and we got a few rules wrong along the way, to be honest - but hopefully you'll find it entertaining! Frank and Sandi's...

It's time for another game designer interview! Kyle Rowan is the lead game designer at Wyrd Games and the main brain behind last year's smash hit Vagrantsong . In addition to talking about how Vagrantsong came to be and the exciting pair of expansions coming up on Kickstarter , we discuss: The game's esoteric set of inspirations, including the works of Jack Kerouac , the comic book Harrow County ,...

We're back with even more SCIENCE! The nerdery continues as we discuss more recent science-themed board games, and offer such tidbits as: "BoardGameGeek - full of lies." - Joe Streeky, 2023 A brief digression on the interior starship lighting design of Picard season 3. The cards in Space Race mix English and iconography, but for why? The overarching threat of an all- Phil Eklund episode Frank's la...

SCIENCE! It's certainly closer to our areas of expertise than sports. In fact, Mike (a science teacher) says a lot of impressive-sounding science words when discussing various games, which some of you may understand. In addition: Smog plumes ! Didja ever notice that most "evolution" boardgames are actually "intelligent design" boardgames? The most terrifying game board - oh, I'm sorry, "math map"...

WARNING: This episode is cursed. We had to record it (or parts of it) no less than three times, and we still had Frank drop out unexpectedly for a few minutes. (Don't worry, he didn't say anything important.) But it's here now, and it's full of sports games! Rotisserie Baseball! Electric Football!! SO MUCH GOLF!!! Tipp-Kick , still going strong after 100 years! (Here's video of a few professional...

More paragraphs! More stories! More smart-assery! More great quotes like: "Yay for Finns !" "Like Tales of the Arabian Nights , but much better." (!!!) "The story is a lot more...wordful." "I'm not the final boss..." "Frank gets a point for Arc Knight Miniatures , which I don't know if we even talked about on the episode." Welcome to all of our new listeners, and welcome back to our returning frie...

To listen to our new episode, read paragraph 234. To listen to our original paragraph games episode , read paragraph 191. 234: You listen to a podcast in which: Jayson scores 3 points with a single game . Joe's discussion of Awaken Realms games becomes a meditation on time and aging Germany (and KOSMOS , specifically) steal Frank's and Brian's childhoods   We learn about " The Adventures of Robin...

If this is the expansion to our first expansions episode, does that make it an Expansionception? We find Joe's definition of Hell. Mike and Joe dislike the Venus Next expansion for several reasons, but mostly because they're 12 years old. Frank introduces us to The Death Book , an essential expansion which has no effect on the rules or play of the game. As always, we'd love it if you took the time...

Hi folks! Are you enjoying our podcast? Do you want even MORE of our podcast? Good, because here's the first part of our Expansion episode, wherein we talk about the first, worst, and best game expansions in our experience. Discussions include: What was the first expansion? This thread on the Geek suggests that Frank's choice (and thus ours) may be wrong. Joe has trouble remembering the name of a...

Happy New Year! Last month, we took a look back at our favorite gaming things from 2022; this month, we're talking about some of the games we're looking forward to in 2023. Contents include, but are not limited to: Jayson sounds very, very sad post-sinus surgery (but he's doing fine now, promise). Donations of giant mecha or plastic miniatures should be sent to Jayson. Donations of cash should be...

50 episodes? Who'da thunk it??? Regardless, thank you for your support, whether you've been with us since the beginning or are just joining us for the first time. We wouldn't keep doing this without you! This month, we take a look back at our favorite gaming things from 2022 - mostly, but not exclusively, board games. Among them: Jayson says, "I don't know anything about this game , but I'm gonna...

Happy day-after-Halloween! First off, next month will be EPISODE 50, and we'd love to hear about anything you'd like us to cover in that momentous episode. Whether it's a game or a topic you've always wanted us to cover, or something we're all terribly wrong about, email us and let us know! Or, if you like, record a question or comment, send it to us, and we may include it in the episode! This mon...

It's a blast from the past with an eye towards the future, as we look back at the new developments in computer-assisted and app-enabled board games since way back in Episode 3 . In this episode: Frank risks death...possibly by crossbow. Space . What is the minimum that a board game needs to qualify as "app enabled"? (Joe says "a timer with music, but it gets FASTER.") We posit the existence of mir...

More rolling! More moving! More Sandi! Less Careers! It's part two of Roll-and-Move Games, wherein you can hear about: " Ice cream and pizza are OP, plz nerf. " Frank calls this the best roll-and-move ever made. This picture may help you understand Nizza . "German games have to be based on a city" Spreadsheet wars! Art books! One of Mike's former favorites has not aged well...but Sandi still likes...

We've threatened it long enough, so we hope you're prepared for this - it's the Roll-and-Move episode! (Well, the first half of it, anyway...we have a lot to say.) Sandi fills in for the absent Joe as we discuss: Careers Careers for Girls ("Most Condescending Game Ever") Careers for World War II British Military RPG Characters Careers for Dinosaurs (in Cinemascope!) Hexentanz - like Pachisi , but...

Hello again! A lot of what's going on in the world right now is Not Fun, but we're going to soldier on and return to our our look at deck-building games and what's happened in the genre since our first episode ever . This one may, at times, sound like the Renegade Games episode, but we promise we're not sponsored by them. (Not that we'd turn down some money from them, mind you...) In this episode,...

Hi folks! It's time to jump in the Wayback Machine, revisit our very first episode , and see what's changed in the world of deckbuilders since 2018! Don't worry, we still have plenty of ideas for new episodes, but we're going to look back at older episodes occasionally to see what we missed the first time around and what new hotness has been released in the interim. And, as seems to be usual latel...