The Family Gamers Podcast

More PAX interviews! But first… What We’ve Been Playing Santa’s Little Helpers and the Ice Cube Jam – One of the first games we ever reviewed. You can now get it with nicer components than we have, for $20. Bob Ross Happy Little Accidents – a group favorite (which we reviewed a while ago). Spyfall – a hidden identity game great for groups of 6+. Similo – has proved to be good for a large group! Heist – a speed game where you cooperate to follow instructions on a short timer. Skulk Hollow – a really neat asymmetric dueling game. Cities Skylines – cooperative city-building. Intuitive, but with a lot of restrictions. “You’re never really happy with the engine you’ve put together”. There’s an awful lot of pieces to spread out on the table, though. HUE – one of the Pack-O-Games. A tiny abstract game about connecting groups of the same color. Interesting in that your final remaining card determines which colors you will score. Evolution videogame from Northstar Digital. (Free for iOS) The free version is completely playable, with easy AI and a single online multiplayer game per day. The full version (about $6) unlocks a lot of features you’ll want if you enjoy the game. PAX stuff Quirky Circuits (which the kids have been playing). What we wish Robot Turtles had been, mixed with cooperative gameplay like The Mind. “Blind cooperative deck programming.” Unfortunately, we’ve already broken a piece, but at least it’s not a game-changer. Calliope Station Master – a re-release of a classic train-building game. Deep Water had MonsDRAWsity prototype – “sketch artist for monsters”. Party game style, and we loved it. Coming in 2020. MonsDRAWsity Deep Water also had Floor Plan, coming soon. We were excited for Wonderland’s War at Skybound – beautiful but disjointed. We hope they tighten it up before the Kickstarter. Painting minis Not a game: Our kids loved paint-and-take minis (even if it was somewhat torturous for Mom & Dad). Metal Gear Solid – a great board game adaptation from IDW. The Whatnot Cabinet – from Dr. Finn’s Games. Roland Wright (the dice game) from Perplext (better known for Pack-O-Games). Mark down colored bits on your score sheet, but then you can erase bits for special powers. Klask – We’ve seen it at conventions before. Feels a lot like air hockey, but there are several ways to score points. Available in 2- and 4-player versions, and incredibly quick to learn. Interviews We’ve given each interview a timestamp for your convenience. (0:27:50) Bananagrams with Anthony Bananagrams Duel – 2-player version of the classic, with letter cubes. Appletters

Did you know that 172 feet is the world high-diving record? Wow. But we’re here to talk about games! No show last week because we had just returned from PAX Unplugged and went right back into school and work and the holiday season. We’ll tell you about a few games we’ve been playing lately, and then get into interviews we recorded a week ago. What We’ve Been Playing Tussie Mussie from Button Shy – a laid-back I-split-you-choose game for 2-4 players designed by Elizabeth Hargrave (better known for Wingspan). Adults have all enjoyed it, but the kids didn’t love it. Well worth our $10. Spy Master from Calliope Games – also an I-split-you-choose game; choose a hand of “resources” and use them to send your spies around the globe, completing various missions. Very different than Tussie Mussie, but in a good way. Review coming soon. Similo from Horrible Guild and Luma Imports – Our surprise hit from PAX Unplugged. A cooperative card game that feels a bit like Codenames (choose the correct cards to eliminate). The object is to narrow down the field to a single “correct” character. L.L.A.M.A. from Amigo – one of the Spiel des Jahres nominees this past year. It was fine. Funkoverse from Prospero Hall / Funko – a beat-em-up duel between well-known characters from pop culture. Nick talked a lot about these after Gen Con; they’re really good! Skulk Hollow from Pencil First Games – a really neat asymmetric 2-player game. One player is the cute “Foxen” clan defending their home. They’re up against some sort of giant monster (the other player). The Foxen have to first get TO the monster and then leap up ONTO it, damaging it all over so they can win. Art reminds us of the game ROOT or the Disney version of Robin Hood. For Science! Don’t forget about the roasted crickets! Find the videos on our Facebook page. PAX Unplugged Interviews, Day One (0:12:40) AEG with Todd Rowland Tiny Towns Inner Compass Ecos: The First Continent Lost Atlantis – Kickstarter coming next spring. (0:22:55) Deep Water Games with Chris Fantastic Factories – plays up to 5 players, or solo! Welcome To… New Las Vegas Welcome To… will be getting new expansions in 2020 as well. Trial of the Temples is a prequel to Mystery of the Temples and Realm of Sand. Claim 2 adds five new factions and can be played with Claim or on its own. (0:32:30) HABA Games with T. Miyabi – layered tile placement. Mountains – gather the equipment you need to hike up the mountain. Boom Bang Gold – a speedy, silly game about throwing dynamite and grabbing gold. Valley of the Vikings Adventure Land The Hearmees (0:42:30) Oink Games with Toby Nine Tiles Panic – a speedy puzzle game for up to 5 players.

Nick Martinelli went to the Chicago Toy and Game Fair before Thanksgiving, and came back with a gaggle of interviews! We’ll share those with you after the break. What We’ve Been Playing Keeping it Saxxy: The Kenny G Game – a nice entry-level cooperative game from Big G Creative. Fire Tower – Anitra won for her first time ever! Barenpark with the Bad News Bears expansion – the expansion has two separate parts; we tried the monorail expansion, which encourages you to take lots of green park areas and arrange them in particular ways. It changes the trade-offs you have to consider! Brave Rats (from Blue Orange) – a cute, fast card game for two players. Play a higher number to win the hand, but every card has a special power. Adventure Games: The Dungeon (from KOSMOS) – we played the first chapter of this in October, and finished it up this week. A much more powerful narrative than an EXIT box. There are puzzles, but in service of moving forward in the story, and you might not hit every puzzle (and some have multiple ways to solve them). Drop It (also from KOSMOS – we reviewed this last year) – it’s such a great gateway game and it works for any age or ability level. Draftosaurus – always fun. Quacks of Quedlinburg Echidna Shuffle HEIST (One Team, One Mission) – sent to us from University Games. A puzzle/dexterity game that feels like a toy (it’s an electronic, talking box). Our kids cannot get enough of it, it’s really clever! Interviews Big G Creative Shannon Swindle has nothing but good to say about the Young Inventor Challenge at ChiTAG. Big G brought back Home Alone for the holidays again. Look for it at Target! They’re also pushing Trapper Keeper Game, Carpool Karaoke, Keeping it Saxxy (Kenny G), and Happy Little Accidents. Follow Big G Creative on social media @BigGCreativellc (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) Dark Unicorn Games Recently released their first game Super Powered Smash Masters, a family game. A collectible card game with no math. You have a team of heroes and are “smashing each other back and forth”. It’s not limited to only two players; as long as you have a deck, you can play. Find them at DarkUnicornGames.com, or on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. Gray Matters Games Introducing two of their party games to lots of families, WOLF and You-Bet-Cha. WOLF – “choose your pack wisely”. Strategic trivia game; pick your “pack members” based on the category.

At least our number fact is game-related this week: 170 is the maximum “check out” score in a game of darts. This week, we’re going to recap our entire gift recommendation list. We have something for any age, any skill level, and tons of different special interests. What We’ve Been Playing Viral from Arcane Wonders (our review) Paper Tales from Stronghold Games Dreams of Tomorrow from Weird Giraffe Games. Kickstarted about a year ago, now available in retail (review coming soon). Draftosaurus from Ankama/Luma (love it! It’s on the gift list) Sparkle*Kitty from Breaking Games (our review) – We’ll be teaching Sparkle*Kitty at PAX Unplugged on Sunday, December 8. Sushi Go! Party from Gamewright Brainwaves games from KOSMOS (review coming soon) – these are also on the gift recommendation list. The Hearmees from HABA – we like the concept (competitive quietness!) but we need to adjust how points are awarded to keep it fair. Passtally from Pandasaurus Games – An abstract path-building game, so of course Anitra loves it. ShipShape from Calliope Games – we love it, but Andrew also waxes eloquent about the way the box is packed. Paranormal Detectives from Lucky Duck Games – Interesting clue-giving game. Not gory or explicit, and marks more “adult” content easily to be removed, so we feel it could be appropriate for pre-teens. (“If you are OK with your kids watching Star Wars – where lots of people die and there are mystical forces beyond our control” then you’d be OK with this game.) Commissioned from Chara Games – Take on the role of the early church apostles, spreading the gospel and planting churches throughout the “known world”. A cooperative deck-builder, with the opposite of the “spreading evil” mechanic that games like Pandemic and Flashpoint use. SNAP Review – CABO In this sneaky memory game, try to get rid of high number cards and replace them with lower numbers. Use abilities to peek at your own cards, spy on your opponents’ cards, or swap cards with other players. See the transcript and more pictures in the full review. PAX Unplugged is coming! It’s coming up really soon! We’ll have interviews and information on some of the hot new games. But don’t forget to stay tuned for Andrew eating whole roasted crickets (with Stephen Buonocore from Stronghold Games and Brandan from Blue Orange Games), FOR SCIENCE! Holiday Gift Guide See this year’s guide: go to http://www.thefamilygamers.com/holiday2019/ If we missed something or you want to comment on the games we included, you know what to do! Find Us Online: Facebook: @familygamersaa and

This week, our special guest is our oldest child, Claire! We’re going to talk about a theme that is near and dear to her heart: DRAGONS! We recommend dragon games for all ages and abilities. First, Claire tells us about some of her favorite dragon books, especially the Wings of Fire series. If you want to talk dragons, you can send an email directly to Claire: claire@thefamilygamers.com, or come see us at PAX Unplugged in just a few weeks. Find all these games for $25 or less on Amazon (an affiliate link that contributes a small amount to The Family Gamers). Dragon Games for Young Children Let’s start with the youngest audience for dragon games. Incubation – a game where you’re collecting dragon eggs in your “incubator” and the elements needed to hatch them. (Review coming soon.) Incubation Dragon’s Breath – which we reviewed last week. We love the sparkly gems! And this one is a better game for many different ages or skill levels. Don’t forget the Tea Dragon Society – probably the cutest dragons. Best for early readers as an introduction to deck-building. No conflict in this game, it’s all about raising your cute little dragons and taking care of them. SNAP Review – Bermuda Pirates Nick, Izzy, and Jace tell us about Bermuda Pirates, a game of memory and dexterity. Navigate your boat through the Bermuda Triangle and don’t let “whirlpools” (magnets) stop your ship and dump your gems! See our SNAP review for the full transcript and more pictures. Dragon Games for Older Kids and Adults Let’s talk about some dragon games that are better for older kids. We’ve mentioned Dragonwood before (like last week) and we’ve also reviewed it in the past. Fight monsters and gather items to beat the final boss – a dragon! Dragonwood Claire thinks that Dragonwood is easier to learn, but Dragonrealm is easier to play a full game. The art in both games is fantastic, and the mechanics are similar. Collect cards in different sets, then roll dice. Dragonwood is more about defeating monsters, while Dragonrealm lets you split points and work towards finishing an area. Dragonrealm also introduces “goblin” cards, which gradually take over various areas. If the goblins have a majority in an area when it scores, no one will get those points. We like that Dragonrealm is not an all-or-nothing battle. Every time you succeed in your die rolls, you are just putting one more pawn on a given area, rather than immediately taking points. Lastly, we talk about Tsuro, a game with eastern-style dragons. Lay down paths on the board and avoid running your own dragon off the board or into anot...

We have been playing Gamewright games for years, but they’re on our mind because we just participated in a Game Night fundraiser (listen to episode 88 if you’re curious how the fundraisers work). What We’ve Been Playing Brainwaves: The Brilliant Boar – examine a card, then add it to your hand, facing away from you. Play cards from your hand to match other cards on the table. Test your memory! One Night Ultimate Alien – a social deduction game that Andrew enjoyed. He says that games with a “funny” theme (and players ready to embrace the silliness) are a lot easier to take. Dwar7s Duel – a tile-laying game with worker placement. A changing board and the ability to place workers anywhere make it more “thinky” but more intuitive than it looked at first. Mystery of the Temples – read our review. Herbalism – review coming soon Echidna Shuffle Imperial – an area control game set in Eurasia with rondel actions. “The game I wish Diplomacy was.” You’re buying stock in countries, and if you have the most influence, you “own” the country. Dragon’s Breath – Not just for kids, a great way for a group of adults to de-compress. Again, you need to be OK with being silly. Spaceteam ShipShape – a 3D puzzle game designed by Rob Daviau. We love the game, but not a huge fan of the art. It looks much more “serious” than how the game actually plays. It’s a bit of a top-down puzzle, and you’re bidding on the available tiles each turn. Important info: each tile has 3 spaces covered, and the values on the 3 spaces always add up to 8. Dragonrealm – Adds area control to the familiar cards-and-dice gameplay from Dragonwood. Makes us think of a more family-friendly version of Smash Up. Backtalk Dwayna shared with us that the American Library Association has a few more great resources on using games to promote education: https://www.alastore.ala.org/content/libraries-got-game-aligned-learning-through-modern-board-games and https://games.ala.org/ And a nice review on Apple Podcasts from “clintr3551”. And on episode 154 on player interaction, we forgot about bluffing games! Sheriff of Nottingham would be an excellent choice. SNAP Review – Dragon’s Breath Andrew and Anitra explain why this HABA game is delightful for players of all ages. You and your fellow players are little dragons, hoarding sparkling stones. But the stones are all stuck in a column of ice! Dragon Dad can melt the ice with his fiery breath, but who can grab the most stones as they fall? Each member of our family gives Dragon’s Breath a thumbs-up or thumbs-sideways. Find out why and see more pictures. The Family Gamers recommend Gamewright games:

Our guest today is Keating Tufts, owner of Boards & Brews, a board game cafe in Manchester NH. Keating had been playing “serious” board games for a little while when he saw Snakes & Lattes featured on the Dice Tower’s Board Game Breakfast. Could a board game cafe work in New Hampshire? A year and a half later, Keating started working on making it a reality. After two years of “Building relationships and educating the community on what was about to join their lovely downtown,” and eight months of renovating the physical space, Boards & Brews finally opened about 18 months ago. What is a board game cafe? Keating “I’ve been to about 15 different board game cafes, some inside the US, some in Canada, Thailand, and Singapore… Every cafe is a little different.” Overseas (and in Canada), they all have staff on hand to teach board games. It’s a cafe, that has a library of board games available. Anywhere from one hundred or so, up to several thousand. “I think the sweet spot is about a thousand.” There will generally be coffee and light food. Boards & Brews also serves beer, wine, and liquor, so under NH state law they must serve a menu that includes full-size entrees. Most cafes in the US don’t serve hard liquor (because the licensing is more expensive). In short, a board game cafe is simply a space in the community where you can hang out for a few hours and play games! Most have a cover charge (around $5) for unlimited play or a certain number of hours. Some waive the cover charge as long as you get food. One of the best parts is that very few people in a board game cafe will be buried in their phones. Does Boards & Brews do a lot of special events? Keating loves to have special events (tournaments, etc.) But since they’re open seven days a week, he can’t spare the time and manpower to do them very often. There aren’t a lot of people working in the service industry who are passionate about games and you need that to run a games event. “You definitely need the right crew around you.” Keating ends up emceeing and running tournaments for simpler, “classic” games such as Battleship or UNO. Classic games are neat, because you can easily pull in bystanders to join! Would you recommend a board game cafe to families? Yes, but Keating feels they appeal best to teenagers. Teenage birthday parties are really popular, and they can be trusted to find games on their own. Families with younger kids CAN have a lot of fun, but it’s harder for staff to recommend games that younger kids will enjoy with their parents. Keating feels it’s important that Boards & Brews is accessible to all ages. It’s another reason why they operate as a full restaurant rather than a 21+ bar. Across all your customers, what is the most popular game at Boards & Brews? Might be surprising; it’s The Office CLUE. Out of print and hard to find now, but instantly-recognizable branding makes it very popular. (Also popular: Girl Talk Jenga, Family Guy LIFE) What is the longest game anyone has played in the cafe? A couple came in and played Lord of the Rings RISK for over six hours.

We’ve done Halloween games before, concentrating on non-spooky family options. Good news! There continue to be more family-friendly options for Halloween themed gaming. What We’ve Been Playing Horrified – by Ravensburger. We’ll talk more about this later. The Climbers – it looks like a dexterity game, but it’s more about strategy and spatial relations. Meeple Circus – draft characters and add them to your circus. Stack them in specific ways for more points. Fleet: The Dice Game – a roll-and-write that is an engine-building game. Build your fleet of fishing vessels and cascade positive effects. “You always feel powerful.” Anitra has finally played Ganz Shön Clever – and did terribly. But at least now she knows how to play! We’re Doomed! – a semi-cooperative game that plays in exactly 15 minutes. Cooperate, and everyone will get a “seat” on the rocket at the end of the game… or look out only for yourself with limited seating and hope you’ll manage to get on board! No round limit, and don’t forget about the timer. Tobago – a reverse-deduction treasure hunting game. Play clue cards to narrow down the location of each treasure – everyone who places cards will get some treasure once it is “dug up”. CABO – basically Golf with special powers. Quickly becoming Andrew’s favorite short filler game. Incubation – a game about hatching dragon eggs into cute baby dragons. Looked far more complex than it was; great for dragon-obsessed kids, no reading necessary. Dragon’s Breath – HABA is really good at games for all ages. Valley of the Vikings – another one from HABA. Our 5-year-old “taught” Anitra how to play. We disagree whether it’s fundamentally bowling or croquet. It won Kinderspiel last year, and we can see why. Seikatsu opened our most recent Commonheart Game night. Drop It Sagrada – Andrew is loving this game more over time (though never as much as Roll Player). Narwhal Free-For-All – a ridiculous kids’ game – with water! Thankfully, not nearly as messy as we thought it would be. Put enough water into the reservoir so the narwhals float! Then players try to flick rings over their own color narwhal while another player spins a paddlewheel. It solves so many problems inherent in typical kids games, and Anitra gets excited about these little touches. SNAP Review: Carpool Karaoke A friendly karaoke competition, this take on the famous ongoing sketch from the Late Late Show pits players in a one-on-one karaoke showdown. Add movements or impressions to gain points and be the first team to drive your way to victory. But when we sing together, we all win, don’t we? Sing your heart out with the rest of our review. Backtalk Following up to episode 162, Dwayna asked when Imhotep: The Duel is coming out? (It’s out now!

Hi everybody! Because it’s an odd numbered episode, we have a guest. We are celebrating all things KOSMOS with Tom Wetzel. Tom is the Marketing Coordinator for Games at Thames & Kosmos. We love talking to him because he’s enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and simply interested in games in general. But first! We ask Tom about what he’s been playing lately. What We’ve Been Playing Tom played Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective expansions – really tough, because all material from previous cases is still in play! We watched our 5-year-old teach a bunch of adults to play Dirty Pig. Very entertaining. Barenpark and Tiny Towns TAGS – a word game with a twist. Come up with words that meet the restrictions and the categories, in 15-second turns. Tom also played several Halloween-themed games. His favorite of the bunch was Horrified – a cooperative game where players team up to take down classic-movie-monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Each monster has different abilities and feels very thematic. We Tried a New KOSMOS Game or Two Adventure Games We also tried out a new release from KOSMOS: Adventure Games: The Dungeon. If you’ve ever played an EXIT box, the Adventure Games box feels a lot like that to start, but quickly becomes much more like a high-quality point-and-click computer puzzle game. There’s no timer, and it’s more about the story you uncover than the riddles (although there are riddles). Combine “items” together or use them at “locations” to find 4-digit codes. Read the text with that code in the play book, revealing more of the story and open up more options for playing. The Adventure Games box is reusable! Play as different characters or make different decisions… or play with a different group of friends! We loved the lack of time constraint, and can’t wait to play more – but thankfully, could also easily “save” our game and unpack it again at a later time. Brain Waves These are a crossover between the “game” and “educational toy” parts of the company. Originally developed in Germany for brain stimulation for the elderly; a joint effort between neuroscientists and game designers. Once it came over the US, the US company decided to drop the “elderly” branding and market it for all ages. They’re simply “fun memory-based games” and suitable for any age. Each of the three games touches different parts of your working memory. Tom’s favorite is “The Astute Goose”. Partly because it doesn’t look like other games. We like all three, which access your working memory, not just your static memory. And of course, it’s an “educational game” that’s fun without the educational strings attached. Simply play, enjoy, and then realize afterward that your brain is getting stronger! :) EXIT: House of Riddles & The Haunted Roller Coaster We’ve resisted writing reviews of EXIT boxes before because they just didn’t seem very family-friendly. But,

If you’re new to the podcast, you might not know that we release a holiday gift guide every year in November. But maybe you like to get your holiday shopping started earlier, or maybe you’ve got other occasions to buy for. What We’ve Been Playing Brain Waves (Astute Goose & Wise Whale) Trapper Keeper Game Concept Yum Yum Island Batman Fluxx & Family Fluxx Duple Bon Appetit EXIT: The Haunted Rollercoaster Backtalk Steve D tells us the probable plural for “Kallax”. Thanks, Steve! Joe Comings read the newsletter and asked “Doesn’t it seem like everytime you settle into a routine something pops up to pound it like a sledgehammer?” Well, yes. Kind words from Ken Franklin on ep 162. Top 5 Games to Give as Gifts Drop It – for all ages (our review). Anomia – for adults. Easy to get into and not too long. Great “filler” party-style game for gamers and non-gamers alike. Go Away Monster – for very young children (our review). IceCOOL or IceCOOL2 – for kids of all ages (our review). One they’ll have fun playing together, not just with adults. EXIT: House of Riddles – for any family with slightly older children who might not want a “game” but would be happy to try an escape room. Anitra also recommends Unlock: The Adventures of Oz, but realizes that might be a larger stretch for some families. Did we spark your interest? Find the whole list on Amazon. (Purchases made through this Amazon affiliate link support The Family Gamers. Thanks!) Happy gift-giving, and don’t forget to play games with your kids! Find Us Online: Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/communityTwitter: @familygamersaaInstagram: @familygamersaa Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com. PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, Stitcher, and Spotify.

Episode 163Stephen Buonocore It’s an odd numbered episode, and we’re excited to welcome a fantastic guest this week. He is the president of Stronghold Games and spokesperson for Indie Game Studios, the best host of Board Game Insider, fellow Dice Tower Network contributor, sworn enemy of Tom Vasel, and perhaps most importantly, the mild-mannered alter ego of the great Elton Johnocore, Mr. Stephen Buonocore. What’s the story behind “Elton Johnocore”? At GenCon 2019, Stephen ran an event “Rock & Roll & Write” to show off roll & write games. He dressed as Elton John, and even sang some karaoke! Can you tell us about your podcast? Stephen co-hosts the podcast Board Games Insider with Ignacy Trzewiczek (president of Portal Games). They do their best to give a view inside their companies, and the board game industry. In “Event Deck”, they comment on the news. “Strategy & Tactics” is for answering questions posed to them on BGG and others. What we’ve been playing: Stephen: a lot of R&W – That’s Pretty Clever / Twice As Clever / Brikks, all by Wolfgang Warsch. Also: Second Chance, Dizzle, and Encore (also known as Noch Mal) … and another one (unnamed) that will be revolutionary. Anitra played some solo Hex Roller (our review) while waiting during a bowling event. Andrew ran a very successful pop-up game night, with Shobu (our review), Quacks of Quedlinburg, Drop It (our review), Dimension, and Century: Golem Edition. What do you think your favorite family weight game is that Stronghold or Indie Game Studios has published? “We tend toward more gamers’ games”, but some of his top games include: Fabled Fruit, the Fast Forward series (we reviewed Fortune), and Finger Guns at High Noon. Stephen’s absolute top family game, though, is Survive! Escape from Atlantis. It’s 40 years old now! Originally published by Parker Bros/Hasbro, Stephen reached out to the designer shortly after forming Stronghold Games. Work to escape the island and get ahead of your fellow players while they fight off sea creatures! What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten? Andrew talks about our “For Science!” segment and wonders what weird things Stephen has eaten. I’ll eat anything. Anything served in a restaurant can’t kill me!Stephen At The Gathering of Friends (Niagara/Buffalo): Duff’s Wings – he gets “death wings” EVERY YEAR! He now entertains himself with video of his friends trying ONE. Even crazier: some promotion for a Science channel stuff… it was dried grasshoppers! Stephen relates a story of Zev Shlasinger (of Z-man Games) in China, eating deep-fried scorpion. Board Game in the Middle Remember this from last week? In this we list three games, and we have to pick the game out of the three that has the middle BGG Geek Rating. Not complexity, Geek rating.

Apparently, there are 162 games in a season of Major League Baseball. So, we’ve reached that milestone now – yay? We’re going to talk about collecting (kids are natural collectors – or maybe hoarders) and “improving” your collection in various ways. What We’ve Been Playing Brainwaves: The Astute Goose – a memory game that actually improves your memory! Spy Club – the “mosaic” mode (5 games makes a storyline) makes it shine. Arraial – Tetris party. Rotate the “pinwheel” of available pieces and “drop” pieces in to your board space to make “parties” of a single color. Has a very casual look (reminds us of the Curious George picture books) but ends up being a pretty thinky game. CABO – fast moving card game based on “Golf” with a memory element. Jetpack Joyride – remember our very first SNAP review? Kickstarter backers (like us) are now getting their copies, and it’s even better than we expected it to be! We highly recommend taking a look at the unboxing done by One Board Family. Imhotep with the playmat Sparkle*Kitty – silly fun as usual, even with a group of older men. Imhotep – still one of Anitra’s favorites, even though she lost. Draftosaurus – so approachable, so cute! Monopoly Deal – not a great game, but good enough. It distills the back-and-forth nastiness usually associated with Monopoly into a 10-15 minute card game. Andrew confesses that he wishes he had more time to play games. Panic Island – we want to open the “Do Not Open” envelope, but the requirements are really hard. We keep getting closer, though! Rescue Polar Bears: Data & Temperature – we won! This game is so hard, but by playing strategically (and counter-intuitively) we managed to squeak out a win. Board Game in the Middle Play along with us! We picked 3 boardgames. Guess which one falls in the MIDDLE when ordered by “geek rating” on BoardGameGeek. Let’s rank the 3 cooperative games we mentioned: * Spy Club,* Panic Island,* Rescue Polar Bears: Data & Temperature. Andrew predicts Rescue Polar Bears. Anitra predicts Panic Island. Vote in our poll on Facebook! Games as Collection Andrew and our boys attended “Batman Day” at our local game store / “pop culture emporium” (Thanks, That’s Entertainment!) It got Andrew thinking. He doesn’t want to simply collect stuff to have more stuff. It makes us think of the video Rodney Smith did lately: Am I a Collector? Some people are so protective of their games that those games don’t get played or enjoyed. Games that Look Good Get More Play We think it’s really important for a game to look good if it wants to draw kids (and adults) in.

Episode 161 – Boston FIG 2019 We’re here with interviews from this year’s Boston FIG Fest! We’ll tell you about a few of our favorites, have a SNAP review, then get right into the interviews. What surprised us about Boston FIG this year? How much less crowded it felt at the new location. Harvard Athletic Center had a lot more room than MIT. Andrew was surprised by Starport, a tabletop RPG designed for kids. Beautiful art, but gameplay boils down to rolling a D20 and spending tokens (smart, sneaky, strong, and help). We warched Kevin run a short session for our kids, and it was amazing. A game called Zaam used sound waves to move pieces around a board. More of an art installation than a viable game, but really neat. As always, we love talking to people who designed games together with their family, and seeing families support their resident game designer. SNAP Review: Most Wanted Andrew and Anitra review Most Wanted, a poker-inspired game with a Wild West theme. Can you become the most notorious outlaw – or will you get stuck paying bail? Read the transcript and see all the pictures on our SNAP review post. Auction Comics (and Board Game Workshop) with Chris Anderson Auction off comics and sell them to collectors in this game for 2-5 players. But collecting sets of comics is not your goal – show me the money! Sound interesting? Sign up for the Auction Comics email list. Chris is also the brains behind the Board Game Workshop podcast. They’re currently running a game competition, but they’re also running a Design Day. Come to Taunton Massachusetts on October 19, either to get help designing your game, or to come playtest lots of games! Shifting Stones with Evan Raitt Shifting Stones works like a sliding 9-piece puzzle, but you can flip stones over as well as shifting them. Try to shift and flip stones to match at least one of the cards in your hand. Claim patterns from your hand to score points. Shifting Stones should be published with Gamewright sometime next year. Curse of the Pyramid with John and Emerus Herman A cooperative adventure game that promotes literacy, inspired by the pyramid at Giza. Lay out cards to build your Egyptian pyramid. Explore the pyramid by gradually flipping over cards. Collect amulets by spelling/acquiring hieroglyphs. Don’t get thwarted by curses! Unlock the pyramid and stop the Pharaoh’s curse! Emerus liked drawing the cards and researching the spellings for the amulets. But his favorite part to play is collecting the hieroglyphs! We just like games, and we like having fun, and it blows my mind to look at the table and see people playing our little game.John Herman Find out more about the game and get in touch with the designers at JohnHerman.org Gemstones with Garrett Sendlewski

We’re here to talk about games and conflict this week. Do your kids handle conflict well? (skip to the topic) But first, what we’ve been playing this week! What We’ve Been Playing We sorted out all the kids’ LEGO and found the Klutz LEGO Chain Reactions kit. Very cool and something to look into if you’ve got kids interested in making working machines. Carpool Karaoke Game – we’re not big karaoke people, but this was surprisingly fun. Let your inhibitions go! The game does assume that you’ve got a pretty decent knowledge of pop music and pop culture. Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale – a different take on roll-and-write (or flip-and-write) Potion Explosion with the kids (our review). Fun to watch the marbles clink together, fill up your potions, and pretend to drink them. Kemet – “a dudes-on-a-map area control game” from Matagot. Giant D4s! Welcome To… Your Perfect Home. Solo is OK, but multi-player is better. A chill puzzley flip-and-write. Noxford (again) Get the MacGuffin (0ur review) Ingenious (our review) – a classic from Renier Knizia. Anitra is still spending time waiting around at bus stops. Hex Roller (our review) and Palm Island (0ur review) have been helpful. We can’t say enough good about ShipShape from Rob Daviau and Calliope Games. Bid for large pieces to go in your “hold”, picturing cannons, gold, and contraband, each with a different mode of scoring. We’ll have a full review soon, but don’t wait! Panic Island – at only 2 minutes, we’re getting in a lot of plays. Trying hard to win enough games to open up the “locked” cards. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: A Gemstone Mining Game – one of the inspirations for our theme on “conflict” this week. Read our review to find out why we didn’t have a great time with this game. Piratatak – the game we bought at Just Games in Rochester. Mostly luck, but with strategic press-your-luck decisions and the ability to “buy” pieces from other players. Backtalk After episode 158, our older kids DID bring a game to school to play during lunch…. it was Piratatak! Perfect for a very short lunch break (our kids get about 20 minutes). We got some comments on our episode on storytelling. A great newer example: EXIT: The House of Riddles, which we recently played with the kids. It really pulled us in, and there was a definite emphasis on working as a team. Check out the pictures of ...

Our guest today is someone we’ve known for a long time, and a member of the Dice Tower Network. Brandt Sanderson is the host of “The Portal Gaming Podcast”… but Andrew and Anitra have known him since they all went to college together. In fact, Andrew and Brandt were roommates one year. Brandt didn’t play many board games in college, though, and we just lost track of each other. Andrew and Brandt randomly ran into each other at the New York Toy Fair in 2017. The reason Brandt was at Toy Fair: He works part-time for The Portal, a game store in Manchester CT, finding ways to reach out to the community. One of the first ideas he came up with was The Portal Gaming Podcast – no other store was doing a podcast or reviewing games. The podcast used to be twice a month, but now they try to release an episode every week, with a rotation of hosts through the month: 1 solo, 1 with wife Cathy, 1 with Bryan the manager, and 1 grab-bag. Not just the gaming podcast That’s not all Brandt does: by day, he teaches math – at an art school! “The school I’m in is never chill.” He no longer gets a week off in February, and that’s awkward because President’s Day weekend is when NY Toy Fair is held. This leads us to discuss different conventions. Brandt even runs a small convention out of his house in the fall: VannerCon. Listen to his podcast for more information. Do you incorporate board gaming into your math teaching? Sometimes. In fact, leading into this long weekend he taught: Ganz Schön Clever! The kids had fun, but even this light game was not a great fit for all of the class. “It’s basically a color-coded spreadsheet!” In fact, light games are not always great introduction games. e.g. Ancestree, Spaceteam. When Brandt taught a statistics course (at a different school), he incorporated lots of hands-on activities, including games like King of Tokyo. First, they simply learned how to play. Then they tracked data on a later play. Then did single-variable analysis, multi-variable analysis, and probability throughout the year. Let’s talk about some games! Echidna Shuffle – can be family or cutthroat, and we love the equalizing of the die rolls. Horrified – classic monsters have escaped from their movie sets. Track 2-4 of them down & eliminate them! Each monster has a different way to deal with it. Werewolf: mix a potion, give it to him. Creature from the Black Lagoon: play certain color cards, gradually climbing a ladder to reach the creature. Card draws to tell you to lay out items, specials for a monster, actions for all other monsters. Same deck for everything! Villainous – best at 2-3, because with more players, you have to keep track of too many different goals/abilities. Point Salad – draft cards for points, or to build your salad. “It works!” (from AEG) CABO – (from Bezier) Keep your 3 cards face-down. Try to get the lowest score, but you can only peek or change up cards when you draw specials. How does it compare with Silver, also from Bezier? Fewer special powers. Sushi Roll – Brandt is not a fan. Draft your dice, one at a time. More player interaction, but slower. Easier to teach? He prefers Sushi Go. Personally, we think