The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast
Tune in every Wednesday to immerse yourself in The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast, dedicated to board games, card games, role-playing, and the miniatures hobby. Join The Secret Cabal Founders: Jamie, Chris, Steve, Don, and Tony T, as they present a captivating array of perspectives on board games, all delivered with a generous dose of irreverent nonsense. Explore the world of role-playing games with The Lord of the Dungeon, and accompany the Filthy Casuals as they delve into the miniatures gaming hobby in Battletome. The Founders and Lords are devoted to providing you with irreverent entertainment, thought-provoking commentary, and an enthusiastic experience centered around the hobbies we love.
Episodes
July 30, 2025 • 60 mins
In Express Episode 110, Don, Chris, and Jamie get together to talk about the end game - goals, objectives, and victory in board games. They discuss competitiveness, process-oriented players, winning and losing streaks, imperative and contingent goals, and what it really means to feel like you’ve won a game. Enjoy!
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July 23, 2025 • 73 mins
Hey Now Cabalists! In episode 109 of The Secret Cabal Express Don and Jamie put together all of the games that they're frothing at the mouth and jumping outta their pants to get at from Gen Con 2025 coming up in a few weeks. Head over to TheSecretCabal.com and click on the link to this episode to get links to all the games we discussed on the show today. Enjoy!
Mark as Played
July 16, 2025 • 193 mins
Tony's back from Ireland and Steve's shot out of a cannon! Get ready for a wild ride. Today the gang runs down a bunch of games they've been playing including Transgalactica, Sekigahara The Unification of Japan, The White Castle, Steam Power, Shackleton Base, and a feature review of Galileo Galilei by new designer Tomas Holek. Then after Tony T wrestles the News hosting duties away from Steve, the gang reads and discusses some spic...
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July 9, 2025 • 61 mins
Hark, noble Cabalists, and well met! Gather ye ‘round, for thou art most welcome to yet another enchanted convening of the Lords of the Dungeon! This day, our bold and steadfast adventurers doth recount the wondrous tales of their voyage through the strange and many-layer’d realms of Planescape, with the wise and venerable Archmage AC guiding their path. Thereafter, the Lords dost heed the call of the arcane scrolls sent forth by o...
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July 2, 2025 • 193 mins
We're back from Origins, and we've got stories to tell! AC from Lords of the Dungeon joins us to spin some yarns from our trip to Columbus, Ohio. Then we dive into the games we've been playing, including Friedrich, Euphoria, Coffee Traders, Wroth, Mystery of the Abbey, The Quest for El Dorado, and a featured review of Stupor Mundi by Nestore Mangone. Stevie S takes the helm for the News segment while Tony's away, and the Gang answe...
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June 25, 2025 • 85 mins
In our previous episode, we explored what makes a board game a true masterpiece—a creation that showcases a designer’s greatest achievement, marked by exceptional craftsmanship, originality, and lasting impact. This time, we’re taking the conversation even deeper. In Masterpieces 2, the Founders shift the spotlight to the brilliant minds behind the games themselves. We’ll be celebrating the visionary game designers whose work has s...
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June 17, 2025 • 173 mins
Hey now, and welcome to a special early release of The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast! The gang is on their way to Origins Game Fair, and we figured it’d be nice to give everyone something to listen to if you're driving to Columbus, Ohio today. In this episode, the Founders talk about the games they've been playing, including The Quest for El Dorado, Stupor Mundi, Earth, Heat: Pedal to the Metal, and Terraforming Mars with the Colonie...
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June 11, 2025 • 57 mins
Hark and hearken, good folk, to a tale most joyous! Lo, after many a season spent in patient longing, bold AC doth at last return to the noble realm of tabletop role-playing! With great fanfare and mirth, he unveil’th his much-anticipated Planescapes campaign, and his fellowship of players taketh up the dice once more. As the Lords do revel and wax rhapsodic o'er the delights of their newfound quest, they dost turn back the wheel o...
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June 4, 2025 • 213 mins
Hey now, and welcome to episode 322! Today, the gang kicks things off with a call to action for all you Cabalists -- we need your help coming up with ideas for The Best of The Cabal! Check out the Discord for all the details. Then it’s on to all the games we've been playing lately, including The Breach, Unmatched Adventures, Last Light, A.D.E.L.E., and our feature review of Galactic Cruise. After that, Tony T delivers another incre...
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May 28, 2025 • 57 mins
A masterpiece in relation to a creative work is a creation, such as a painting, book, film, musical composition, or other artistic or intellectual work, that is considered to be an artist’s or creator’s greatest and most outstanding achievement, demonstrating exceptional skill, craftsmanship, originality, and impact. Today the Founders discuss game design Masterpieces and the Master Game Designers that created them.
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May 21, 2025 • 197 mins
Hey Now Cabalists! The Founders are back at it again with another episode jam-packed with tabletop gaming mayhem! The gang kicks things off by talking about their plans for Origins and how they’re using Chaz Marler’s new website, GameNightPicks.com. Then it's on to the games they’ve been playing including Corps of Discovery, Tales of the Arthurian Knights, Galileo Galilei, House of Fado, Agemonia, and a feature review of the epic C...
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May 7, 2025 • 176 mins
Hey now Cabalists and welcome to episode 320 of The Secret Cabal! Origins Game Fair 2025 is nearly here and we're all fired up. If you're going to be there you got to join us for our meetup at the Whistle and Keg on June 20th. Then the gang gets into some of the games they've been playing including Praga Caput Regni, YRO, Obsession Upstairs Downstairs, Space Empires 4x, Biblios and a feature review of Septima from Mind Clash games!...
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April 30, 2025 • 65 mins
In this, the first interview special from The Secret Cabal, Jamie welcomes Honorary Founder and President of Restoration Games Justin Jacobson to discuss a very important issue impacting the board game industry right now - tariffs. The goal of this discussion is to understand what the tariffs are and how they work, how they're impacting the board game industry, how the industry is reacting, and what we can do to weather the storm.
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April 23, 2025 • 59 mins
Hey Now Cabalists! In Express 106, Tony, Don, and Jamie get together to discuss who they would carve into the side of a mountain to represent the tabletop gaming industry and community. Each of the Founders have very different criteria they used to make their list and each provide their own lineup of four iconic personalities who they feel should be immortalized in stone.
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April 16, 2025 • 183 mins
Good morning and happy Wednesday, Cabalists! Today the gang kicks things off by spotlighting Erik the Cabalist's homebrew Runebound scenario, packed with Secret Cabal references. Then they dive into the games they've been playing, including Baseball Highlights 2045, Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game, Obsession, Explorers of Navoria, Trick Shot, and a featured review of Moon from Haakon Gaarder. After Tony T's award-winning news segm...
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April 9, 2025 • 55 mins
Hark, and well met, weary travelers! Come, rest thyselves and lend thine ears to the grand tales woven by the Lords of the Dungeon. Lady Jess shall regale thee with the chronicles of thy city upon the bridge, a place of wonder and enigma. Thereafter, the council doth gather to speak on the matter of adventures - those drawn from dusty tomes of old, and those forged anew by the hands of mortal minds. At journey’s end, they delve dee...
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April 2, 2025 • 170 mins
Hey now Cabalists and welcome to episode 318! Today don and Jamie lament how well are South County Brewing Company game night is growing and invite all the local caballos to join us. Then the gang dives into a bunch of games they've been playing including Rise and Fall, The Manhattan Project Energy Empire, Expeditions with Gears of Corruption, Massive Darkness 2 Hellscape, Tower Up and feature Beyond the Horizon by Dennis K. Chan. ...
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March 26, 2025 • 61 mins
Hey Now Cabalists! In this month's Secret Cabal Express, Don and Jamie discuss the Three Bears of board gaming. Everybody knows the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and how everything in that house was either too big or too small or too hot or too cold... Well, Don and Jamie talk about some of the board games they love that have one weird little flaw. Maybe they're too complex, or too fancy, or maybe just a little too short....
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March 19, 2025 • 170 mins
Hey now and welcome, Cabalists! Today, Steve gives an awesome movie recommendation based on the popular social deduction game Werewolves of Miller's Hollow! Then we cruise right into some of the great games we've been playing, including Finspan, Guards of Atlantis II, On Mars, Teotihuacan, Bloodstones, and a feature review of Brass Birmingham from the great Martin Wallace. Then, after Tony T's world-famous news segment, the gang ta...
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March 12, 2025 • 57 mins
A fell plague hath beset the Cabal, striking hard and laying low good Jesko and noble AC! Yet fear not, for steadfast Jamie, valiant Jess, and bold Bender do take up the mantle, helming Lords of the Dungeon in their absence. These last Lords standing embark upon three grand tales this day: the shifting tides and lengths of campaigns through the ages, the folly of players who craft their own hardships, and the perils and delights th...
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