First Player Token

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 game design, I think you'll find this interesting.

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In this episode, we save Christmas and a lot of other holidays from potential catastrophe in Holiday Hijinks!

Holiday Hijinks is a line of 18-card holiday-themed escape room games designed and illustrated by Jonathan Chaffer and published by Grand Gamers Guild. Each one offers the cooperative puzzle solving of an escape room in just 18 cards. There are nine games in the series currently, with names like The Cupid Crisis, ...

In this episode, we load up our donkey carts with fruit to deliver around the island in Finca!

In Finca, players take on the role of farmers at harvest time on the Spanish island of Mallorca. Move your farmers around the windmill to generate resources, collect colorful chunky fruit tokens, deliver fruit strategically around the island with your donkey cart... That's Finca in a nutshell. It's easy to teach, has be...

Today we have a FIRST PLAY review of Sirens, a 2024 game for two players designed by Art Casey with illustrations by Gabi Naftaly and published by Envy Born Games. In Sirens, players take on the role of the sirens of Greek myths, those creatures whose beautiful singing lured Odysseus’ sailors into the sea and to their doom. In the game, players draft cards to create musical symphonies, with the best symphonies enthralling those hap...

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 Tír na nÓg, a 2024 game for designed by Isaac Shalev and Jason Slinger...

In this episode, we build the technologies and societies needed to fight climate change in Daybreak!

Daybreak is a 2023 game published by CMYK and designed by Matt Leacock and Matteo Menapace. In this cooperative board game, up to four players take on the role of world powers like the U.S. and China enacting climate action policies. The goal of the game is to cut carbon emissions before the planet gets too hot or too many ...

In this episode, we celebrate four years (and 50 episodes) of the podcast by recommending my top five games to start your board game collection!

I started First Player Token to provide some advice to people who like playing board games with family and friends but maybe get a little overwhelmed when shopping for board games at Target or Barnes & Noble. In the spirit of welcoming new people into the board game hobby, I have five g...

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 Color Field from 25th Century Games. Color Field is a 2024 game designed by Mond...

In this episode, we put on our funny Viking hats and go plundering in Raiders of the North Sea!

Raiders of the North Sea is a two to four player game published in 2015 by Garphill Games. It was designed by Shem Phillips with art by Mihajlo Dimitrievski. The game is about building your Viking crew, raiding settlements, and bringing back plunder for your chieftain. Raiders offers an interesting twist on the worker placement ...

In this episode, we board the Jolly Roger and steal from treasure from a Spanish galleon in Tortuga 1667!

In Tortuga 1667, players take on the role of pirates attacking Spanish ships near the island of Tortuga and stealing their gold. Half of the players are secretly working for the British and half for the French. At the start of the game, you know which team you’re on, but no one else does. As you play the game, triggeri...

In The Wolves, we build our packs and carve out our territory!

The Wolves is a 2022 game designed by Ashwin Kamath and Clarence Simpson with art by Pauliina Linjama and a quality production from publisher Pandasaurus Games. In The Wolves, between two and five players each controls a pack of wolves vying for territory across a wilderness. This game is richly illustrated with tons of wolf tokens to represent your packs sprea...

In this episode, we try to save the planet from a relentless alien invasion in Under Falling Skies!

Under Falling Skies is a 2020 board game designed by designed by Tomáš Uhlíř published by Czech Games Edition with art by Petr Boháček and Kwanchai Moriya. It’s a solo game about repelling an alien invasion that clearly takes some inspiration from the film Independence Day and from the classic arcade game Space Invaders, wit...

In The Blood of an Englishman, we see if Jack can steal the goose that lays golden eggs from the giant at the top of the beanstalk!

In 2016, Renegade Games published a two-player card game inspired by “Jack and the Beanstalk” called The Blood of an Englishman. One player takes on the role of Jack, attempting to steal the giant’s treasure through a series of quick little moves, and the other player is the giant, trying to s...

In this episode, I try out a new format by giving very brief reviews of ten games I played at our local board game convention, Tennessee Game Days, earlier this fall!

Tennessee Game Days is an event held each spring and fall here in Nashville, Tennessee, where people come from around the state and the region to spend a few days in hotel convention rooms playing all kinds of board games with friends and strangers. There’s a library o...

In this episode, we try to figure out if our opponent put the poison in our glass or in his glass in the game In Vino Morte!

In Vino Morte is a 2016 game designed by Chris Anderson with art by Ben Toz and published by Button Shy Games. It’s inspired by that classic scene in The Princess Bride where the Dread Pirate Roberts and the scoundrel Vizzini face off over a couple of glasses of wine, one of which is poisoned. In Vino Morte ta...

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!

That leads me to this bonus episode you’re listening to right now. Instead of a scripted and highly edited review of a family favorite game, I present to you my loosely organized t...

 In this episode, we see what happens when heroes from stories and legends battle it out in Unmatched!

Unmatched is actually a series of games from Restoration Games. That company specializes in taking older games and redesigning them for a modern audience. They have “restored” games like Downforce, Fireball Island, Thunder Road, and Dark Tower. Unmatched is based on a more recent game, Star Wars: Epic Duels, from 2002, with the red...

 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!

That leads me to this bonus episode you’re listening to right now. Instead of a scripted and highly edited review of a family favorite game, I present to you my loosely organized ...

 In this episode, we battle for the honor of hosting the king in our chateaus in Royal Visit!

Royal Visit is a 2021 game designed by Reiner Knizia with art by Karl James Mountford and published by Iello Games. It’s a two-player game, with players occupying opposite ends of a valley hoping to attract the visiting king to their magnificent chateaus. The art and production in this game really is magnificent, with chunky wooden figures,...