The Ascent of Board Games

Welcome back, everyone! This month we're talking about games with a social or political message. It's not JUST because it's Pride Month in the USA, and it's not JUST because tariffs are currently wreaking havoc on the entire board game industry...but it's not NOT because of those things, either. 

Many links follow:

• Amabel Holland's great video about, among other things, the REAL origins of Monopoly
• The games that made Jayson s...

We're back, and so is Brian's voice! And we simply have to tell you about a bunch MORE role-playing games that have interesting mechanics. 

• We talk about games where characters don't trust each other, or perhaps do but shouldn't.
• We give a lot of love to Bully Pulpit Games and Rowan, Rook, & Decard, because they do consistently great work.
• We talk about a bunch of great GMless, no-prep games, and you can see several of the...

I know, I know, we said we weren't going to do the Ascent of Role-Playing Games thing. And we're not! But there ARE a bunch of role-playing games that have some interesting mechanics, and we're going to be talking about those this month and next. (If you don't like it, join our Discord server so you can vote against it the next time we run a poll!)

• Brian's voice is absolutely shot to hell after weeks of coughing - apologies fo...

That's right, folks, it's episode 70! Do I hear 75? No? Episode 70, going once, going twice...sold to the discerning podcast listener!

• IS Jayson actually Agent 47? Probably not. Forget we said anything.
• Frank calling out Reiner Knizia within 4 minutes of the episode start
• "What is fish?" Help us, Jane Austen! 
• Is this the first Eurogame? 
• What happens when you take the auctions out of a game that's all about auctions? 
• What is...

This is episode 69. We're discussing sex games. We're sorry. (Except Joe...Joe isn't sorry at all.) Sandi has joined us to try to provide a little bit of maturity to the topic; we'll let you decide if she succeeded.

This is an adults-only episode (and we mean it this time), but we won't be offended if you decide to give this one a miss. Just come back next month, please? I promise we won't do it again.

• We find a series of weir...

Well, we made it to 2025, technically. What new board games are coming out to give us hope for the future?

• Frank describes one of his choices as "big...sprawling...French..."
• Joe is unhappy with Mike's love/hate relationship with Tales of the Arabian Nights
• Has Joe made The Ultimate Crowdfunding Mistake?
• Will Frank go 3-for-3 on Fantasy Name: Dramatic Subtitle?
• The delightful Deep Regrets teaser trailer that sold Jayson on the...

The end of the year draws nigh, so of course we have to do a year-end countdown. All five of us - even the near-mythical Jayson - have prepared a list of our five favorite games from The Year That Was - enjoy!

• We argue about what a game's name means because of a (missing?) apostrophe
• Frank teaches Jayson the lore of the Mothman
• All of Frank's choices are, for once, board games!
• The same cannot be said for Joe.
• We are definitel...

Happy post-Halloween! Now that everyone's hopped up on sugar (and/or in a sugar crash coma), let's finish our discussion of party games! Come along as we discuss:

• Mike's greatest weakness - a limited knowledge of Campbell's Soup varieties!
• What game company was founded because of a flooded salmon boat?
• "They're Belgian, but that's French enough." (We're sorry.)
• A mercifully brief digression into Marcel Proust's 7-volume À la re...

Hi folks! We're back this month to talk about party games, though the last week or so hasn't been as much fun as we'd like. Between scheduling issues and hurricane-induced power outages, this episode was a bit rushed; as a result, it's ended up a bit on the short side, so we hope you'll forgive us. Also, instead of begging for an iTunes review this month, we'd like to ask that you donate what you can to the American Red Cross or an...

Remember way back in Episode 33, when we talked about two-player games but excluded fighting and war games because there were too many? Now is when we finally talk about the fighty ones! Join us as:

• Brian's tongue stops working.
• We talk about chess - good chess channels on YouTube, weird chess games on forums, and absolutely bonkers chess games on the computer.
• We look back at an early first-person shooter - in book form.
• We ha...

It's time for another deep dive - this time into the collected works of Czech game guru Vlaada Chvátil (whose name we hope we pronounced mostly right most of the time, but no promises). Join us as:

• We examine some of the...questionable design choices of Vlaada's first board game.
• We talk about the metallic composition of these famously flimsy early miniatures.
• We learn that Frank likes Talisman, and Mike dislikes that.
• Brian gr...

Hello all! We have a lot of games to get through this month, so everybody please take your turn promptly. But how do we know whose turn it is? Listen and find out!

• Mike happily admits that he would rather watch crappy anime than good movies and TV.
• Brian explains the original rules to History of the World about four times, and eventually gets them right.
• Frank has many game designer shrines in his house.
• We do our research live...

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 instead.
• Frank tells Joe that he's wrong...

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 on some older episodes, amirite?

Eith...

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 bonkers.
• Mike serves his new AI overlo...

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 inspired The Search for Lost Species
• An...

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, here are some very GOOD component st...

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 (although no one else wants any of Bri...

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 delightful piece of box cover art.
• Mi...