The Family Gamers Podcast

As always, we’re here to talk about gaming as a family. Our kids start school this week, and we are really looking forward to having a regular schedule again. However, it means less time for playing games! We are thinking about games that our kids could bring to school to play with their friends. Younger kids should check with the teacher first, of course. What We’ve Been Playing A ton of Panic Island – although every game only takes 2 minutes, plus about half a minute of set up time. Every time we play, we want to play again and do better. We visited family in Rochester, NY. While we were there, we visited TWO excellent local game stores that were recommended to us. Millennium Games Board games, Warhammer, and… disc golf? Apparently there’s a crossover there. We got to try Just One with an in-store demo. Easy to see how it refines the concepts from other word/guessing games. This is a lot of game in a small package. Highly recommended! Cat Lady – fun but a bit long to try to demo in the store. Similar set-collection mechanics to the Trapper Keeper Game – take a whole row or column, but then place a marker so the next player cannot make the same choice. We picked up Kero and played it a few times after we traveled back home. Two players, rolling dice to get resources while your sand timer runs down. There’s a lot of luck, and it’s not as tight as we’d expect from a two-player-only game. (Two player games that are really tight: Expedition Altiplano, Hanamikoji, and Caverna: Cave vs. Cave) Unlock! Heroic Adventures Rocky Road a la Mode – a way to end a night of gaming on a high note. Lives up to the Green Couch Games style: filler with some bite. Just Games A very different feel than Millennium Games. This one had a large LEGO section at the front and a very large play area at the back. They had a card-catalog-style organizer for individual Magic cards. The open play area had an option to rent board games! And there were a bunch of family-weight games from publishers we had never heard of – we picked one up and will report back. Back At Home SHOBU and even more Panic Island – not very similar except their both short. Draftosaurus Ancestree Quacks of Quedlinburg Ticket to Ride: New York – this might end up replacing the classic Ticket to Ride for us. It faithfully keeps the feel of the original, but plays in 20 minutes. Backtalk Thanks to Chrissy who has been sharing about the games they’ve been playing while camping. Aaron shared about The Fairy Game from Peaceable Kingdom. SNAP Review: Guess It, Get It, Gumballs Elliot helps Anitra explain this memory game “of faces and feelings” from Peaceable Kingdom. Read the summary and see more pictures here: Guess It, Get It, Gumballs.

Episode 157Gen Con Wrap Up with Izzy, Jace, and Nick We’re back with even more Gen Con coverage! Let’s wrap up our con season with the Martinellis’ impressions of Gen Con. Isabelle and Jace both attended with their parents. What’s Gen Con like from 3 feet off the ground? Jace liked “playing games”. His favorite was Rhino Hero Super Battle. Izzy’s favorite was Food Fighters from Kids Table Board Gaming (with 3 expansions!) Jace also really liked a spitting Alpaca game called Hackin’ Packin’ Alpaca at the Mattel booth. Inquiring minds want to know- dragon bracelet for Izzy? NO!? Dragonrealm from Gamewright was also a big hit. Nick got Sushi Roll & Sushi Go Party (need more players!) The food trucks are cool, even if Izzy only ate from the same pizza truck every time. SNAP Review: Go Cuckoo! Elliot tells us about this all-ages dexterity game from HABA. Find out if your family should Go Cuckoo! Read the transcript and see more images. So Nick, what was Gen Con like this year? Nick got in Wednesday, and waited in will-call line for Izzy’s wristband. Thursday morning was great: grabbed press badge right at 7:30 and went for breakfast. They couldn’t access their hotel room easily to go dump off purchases and grab snacks, so they tried to plan better than they had in past years. Nick and his friend usually stay right in the convention from 10am (open) until close, trying to make the most of every moment. Nick says that the convention felt less crowded Thursday and Friday than it has in the past. Not sure why, since more tickets were sold. One of their most memorable moments: “launch party” for Terror Below (Renegade) – since they had backed the Kickstarter, they got to pick up their copy and get a tutorial on the spot. And artist & designers signed the box! They also got to meet Becca Scott from Geek & Sundry. Let’s talk about some of the games! Starting with Big G Creative: * Trapper Keeper* Keepin it Saxy – entry level coop game themed to keep Kenny G in his ...

12 times 12 plus 12! It’s going to be another great episode. This is our second episode of Gen Con interviews recorded by Nick Martinelli. What We’ve Been Playing Trogdor!! The Board Game – Anitra was not as impressed as Andrew had been. Trapper Keeper Game – Another game with a silly theme. Set collection with a few interesting twists and a huge nostalgia factor. Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist – we’ve already talked about this, but we knew as soon as we saw it that we needed a copy. Played Act 1 with our son, but played the whole game with friends, and it came down to the wire at the very end. A lucky card draw swayed the day in favor of the thieves. Go Cuckoo! – SNAP review coming Friday, this is a fun and fairly simple dexterity game from HABA. Panic Island from Blue Orange – this is a speed memory game we first saw at Origins; our kid who loves speed games liked it, our kid who loves memory games liked it, and so did everyone else. Very well done and we can’t wait to tell you more! Backtalk! A nice note from Mike, who ran a huge minis game at TotalCon. We also got a very nice piece of “real mail” from long-time fan Gordon. Kids! Ask your parents to help email us (see below) and we’ll have our kids read it! What kind of games do you like to play (with parents, aunts and uncles, friends, siblings)? Interviews Let’s hop right in! We’ve got about 50 minutes of interviews in this show. Timestamps included for your convenience. (0:12:00) Mattel with Emmorie Jossie Silicon Valley Startups adaptions of UNO and Lowdown – a new dice game Maury Povich “Not the Father” game Pictionary Air Follow them on Twitter @Mattel, of course. (0:16:05) Good Games with Jamie Lawrence Fairy Season – You are a goblin, going out into the forest and shaking down fairies to collect their fairy dust. Lots of tricks and traps, setting it apart from other trick taking games. Fluttering Souls – collect butterflies and make sets. Unfair – build a theme park tableau. As many themed decks as there are players. The new expansion is titled Unfair Expansion: Alien B-movie Dinosaur Western introducing cards for those respective themes… more will be coming until they have one for each letter of the alphabet. Find Good Games online at

Much like last year, we went camping and then did Gen Can’t, while Nick and Izzy were able to attend Gen Con 2019. So, instead of having a special guest, we’ve got some of the interviews that Nick recorded. What We’ve Been Playing Camping was fun! We played a few family games we are already loving, like Draftosaurus, Cinco Linko, Toasted or Roasted, and Dirty Pig. Res Publica was new to us, and pretty enjoyable. Desert Island was not great. Each player has a person they want to survive and one they want to die. There are fragile alliances and lots of disasters, but the player powers, location powers, and random draws make it very swingy. more Penny Rails! Anitra is loving this tiny taste of 18XX style games. Expedition Altiplano – apparently, this game only comes out when we’re camping? Ex Libris – now that we’ve gotten over the hurdle of learning the rules, we really enjoyed this. It was a bit lighter than we expected, and that’s a good thing! Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle did not go well. We’re going to try it again soon. Dice Fishing: Roll and Catch Trogdor the Board Game Backtalk Our listener Wyeth requested that we repeat the name of a game after talking about it. We’ll try to do that more often from now on! Don’t forget that you can also look up show notes for every single episode on TheFamilyGamers.com with links and game info. Apologies for using some offensive language. Interviews from Gen Con 2019 Thanks Nick! Timestamped for your reference. (0:21:00) Calliope Games with Chris Leder Spy Master by Seth Johnson – an I-split-you-choose game Everyone Loves a Parade by Mike Mulvihill Ship Shape by Rob Daviau Tsuro: Phoenix Rising – coming in September to a store near you! (0:24:40) The OP with Ross Thompson Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist – recreate the broad flow of the movie! (We talked about this) Harry Potter: Defense against the Dark Arts – deck-building and dueling. Furry Foodies Furry Foodies – cats pushing items/food off the kitchen counter. Slide tiles, collect sets. Astro Trash – Get all the trash off your planet. Simultaneous play, frantic dice rolling. Toy Story: Obstacles and Adventures. A cooperative deck building game in the same vein as Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle. Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising. Cooperative dice / engine-building game.

Episode 154Player Interaction We talk about player interaction this week. What games will encourage your family to really connect or collaborate? Andrew (and Anitra) also try Mexican hawthorne pulp, “for science!” What We’ve Been Playing We’re going camping with a large group of people. Lots of opportunity for games! We’re looking forward to using Order of Invention for a larger group, from our sponsor, Breaking Games. Draftosaurus – we are big fans, and we’ll have a review for you very soon. Ticket to Ride New York Mystery of the Temples Animo – recently rediscovered by our kids (remember when we talked to the creators?) Mystery of the Temples from Deepwater Games. Slide Quest Drop It Kingdomino Get the MacGuffin Most Wanted Dogs of War – do you want to be a mercenary? Senshi The Hearmees – listen to infer what shape was drawn! Tough for a 5-year-old but doable. I Have a Train to Catch – train race with pickup & delivery Penny Rails Spaceteam Bang! The Dice Game (with one of the same guys Andrew played with at Dice Tower Con) Backtalk Doug asks us about teachers using boardgames in the classroom. We have some anecdotal evidence (like our interview with Liz), but we’d also be interested to find more hard data. Our guess? Boardgames are moving in a similar direction to videogames, so hopefully there will be more research soon. Also check out the forum called Games in the Classroom on Board Game Geek. Thanks for the Apple Podcasts review, too! For Science! Andrew (and Anitra! and even Claire!) eat Mexican hawthorn pulp coated with chili powder. Want more gross/weird foods “for science”? Send your weird food to: The Family GamersPO Box 528Auburn MA 01501 Interaction Don Aranda asks: “What are some family games that really demand a lot of interaction between players (not necessarily in a take that way)?” Interacting with our family members is a big part of why we play games! Let’s start with categories and work our way down to more unique games that encourage interaction. Trick Taking Trick-taking games (like Pikoko). You’re limited by what’s in your hand, but you need to play a mind game of what other people (might) have. Guessing Games Guessing games require you to talk to each other or give clues in specific ways (examples: Concept, Dixit, Hearmees, Mysterium, Detective Club) Codenames would fall into this arena, although you’re only interacting with your ...

Our special guest for this episode is Ann Losito. She runs the TWIST Gaming channel with her c0-hosts Matt and Josh. TWIST was the first ever Twitch partnered channel that is focused on board games. Andrew met Ann at last year’s PAX Unplugged. They played Deep Sea Adventure together, with Claire, and had a great time. TWIST is best known for their “Play With Us” campaigns, pulling the viewers into the game. While playing games like Kingdom Death Monster and Middara, they encourage audience members to control characters in the game. TWIST has a Kickstarter up right now to help support their next season. Support them and get some awesome promos for some of the crew’s favorite games – pick Team Ann, Team Josh, or Team Matt… or Team TWIST to get everything. Ann refuses to tell us her favorite convention, but she gives us reasons she likes each one differently. Ann and Andrew discuss the child room at Dice Tower Con. Not her proudest moment, Ann shares how she and Matt ended up getting in a kiddie pool with 40 pounds of peanut butter. And somehow this leads into a discussion of homemade peanut butter? (It’s easier than you’d think!) Ann’s favorite moments in streaming have been the large events they’re able to run at conventions. “We had the tables running the game with us in the room, and people at home… playing along as well.” Find TWIST Gaming Online: Twitch: twitch.tv/twistgamingFacebook: @TwistGaming.tvTwitter: @Gaming_TWISTDiscord: Look for TWIST Most of the TWIST streams are uploaded to Youtube after the fact. So check them out there, too! 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.

We are finally back into the normal routine (more or less) after a month of con-related craziness. We’ll talk about highlights from Anitra’s trip to Origins and Andrew’s trip to Dice Tower Con. What We’ve Been Playing Ticket to Ride New York Suspend Junior Constellations – check out our review and check out the glowing stars! For Independence Day, we played Rolling America, and Battle Sheep (with red, white, and blue sheep) Quacks of Quedlinburg The Grimm Masquerade Dirty Pig – which we’ve already reviewed – enjoyed it at an outdoor concert. Backtalk! Michael S. met Andrew at Dice Tower Con. He emailed us to tell us about Brain Chase – an interesting 5-week online adventure for kids to solve a mystery and locate a real hidden treasure! Find out more at https://brainchase.com/the-treasure-hunt/ Seth Overdeer, a new fan, is excited for this episode – we met him at Origins and shared to our FB group that Origins is the “best convention of them all!” And of course, Andrew ran into a fan at IKEA when looking at shelving units. Giveaway Winners Barnyard Roundup playmat: Kelly VanAuken Sagrada promo winners: Joseph Reninger, Amala Anand, Kristin Troska Munchkin CCG pack: Alexi Dikos Congratulations to all our winners. Contact us with your address, please! Convention Wrapup We talked in episode 148 about FOMO and how that affects our individual relationships with conventions. Ironically, Anitra went to a convention much more about the business side and meeting people, and Andrew went to a convention primarily about playing games. Origins Highlights with Anitra Anitra got to meet Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon and be a book nerd in addition to lots of games at Origins. SHOBU, Lanterns Dice, UNDO, Die Hard: Nakatomi Heist, Dungeon Academy, Spy Master, Ship Shape (so excited!) The Climbers (from Capstone Games) The 3 Laws of Robotics (party game from Floodgate) Arch Ravelry (coming to Kickstarter this fall from XYZ Games) The Alwaysgreen Garden (coming to Kickstarter soon from Splattered Ink – check it out!) Honga (action selection from HABA) Smash City (from WizKids) – perfect if you like giant monsters and attacking each other. Kibble Scuffle (from WizKids) Brain Waves (from KOSMOS) Dice Tower Con Highlights with Andrew Started right off by making new friends. Koryŏ – card game where abilities are assigned based on who has the most cards of a particular type. Bang! The Dice Game – roll dice to gain life or shoot people. Village Pillage – from Jellybean Games Brikks – Tetris-inspired roll-and-write from Stronghold Games (mentioned in

Join us for interviews from Anitra’s trip to the Origins Game Fair. 0:00:40 Play to Beat Brain Cancer Derek Miller and Jake Miller show us there’s more than one way to be family gamers. Find and support them at PTBBC.org. 0:02:45 Blue Orange – Once Upon a Castle, Panic Island Brandan tells us about Once Upon a Castle (roll-and-draw) and Panic Island (cooperative memory race). Find out more at BlueOrangeGames.com. 0:09:47 Mayday Games – Isle of Monsters Jondi shares how to play their new game, Isle of Monsters. It serves as an introduction to deck-building and card drafting game. Capture monsters, feed them, and pit them against other monsters in the annual “scare fest”. Find it at MaydayGames.com. 0:13:00 The OP – Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Sean Fletcher, one of the designers, tells us about this one-vs-many game that recreates the classic action movie. Die Hard; The Nakatomi Heist plays over three acts, and should be available in July. 0:15:45 Wattsalpoag Games – Echidna Shuffle Kris Gould tells us about his game Echidna Shuffle, the cutest game at Origins. It also happens to be this year’s winner of the Origins Award for “Fan Favorite” Family Game. Find it at the Wattsalpoag website, or ask at your local game store! 0:17:50 Social Sloth – Gem Hens Pat Marino tells us about his game Gem Hens – what if chickens actually laid decorated, jeweled eggs? Roll the dice, and use them to move your chicken, pick up jewels, and place them onto your egg board. Find it at the Social Sloth Games website. 0:21:00 Intex Entertainment – King of the Castle, Pirate’s Plunder Ken Tinner tells us about a few family games available from Intex Entertainment. In King of the Castle, race your knights up the castle wall and drop them inside the castle. Move the knights based on the number on their card. Pirates’ Plunder, which Ken and his brother designed, is a press-your-luck game of treasure collection. Jump overboard with your treasure before you get exploded! 0:25:25 Luma Games – Draftosaurus Billy Chandler (from Into the Meepleverse) tells us about Draftosaurus. Choose one dinosaur meeple out of a handful, then pass them to the next player. Place dinosaurs on your boards and choose how they’ll score. Quick to play and easy to learn. Look for it soon from

Welcome Nick Martinelli! We played Order of Invention together with Nick just prior to the show, and we’re surprised at how well it worked when playing over Skype. Thanks to our sponsor Breaking Games for providing the game and sponsoring this episode! What We’ve Been Playing Nick tells us about a few of his family’s recent favorites: Wingspan: “I have a friend that’s a huge Magic: The Gathering fan… he said ‘this is amazing, we need to play it every time I come over.'” Tussie Mussie: Like Wingspan, also designed by Elizabeth Hargrave. A beautiful and quick split-and-choose game. Fantasy Ranch: raise horses and show them. Many different difficulty levels, appropriate for all ages and abilities. Looking forward to Nick’s review! Andrew tells us a few he’s played recently as well: Gunkimono: We’ve talked about this before. It looks like a complex Japanese combat game, but it’s actually a domino-style area control with two point systems that have to be balanced. Surprisingly easy to teach. Sagrada and Tiny Towns were big hits at our latest cafe game night. SHOBU: A surprise hit from Smirk & Dagger that Anitra found at Origins. A thinky abstract with perfect information; easy to learn and we had a lot of fun with it. We’re not ready to write a review yet; until we are, check out this review from One Board Family. Rescue Polar Bears: still ridiculously hard. Quacks of Quedlinburg: we love the simultaneous play and the choices still available when you “bust”. Looking forward to introducing the kids and trying the different books. Anitra’s top games from Origins: The Grimm Masquerade: beautiful art (same as The Grimm Forest) “everything you want in a social deduction, but it’s logical/strategic deduction” – our favorite kind of deduction! Players can be revealed, but aren’t knocked out from the round. Echidna Shuffle: a kids’ game that’s fun for everyone. Your bugs will hitch ride on the echidnas’ backs, and you’ll shuffle the echidnas along various paths to try to get your bugs home. Deny your fellow players by moving their bugs onto the wrong paths, too. Lots of roll & write games (also flip & writes): reviews for Hex Roller and Lanterns Dice will be coming soon. Anitra remembers why she doesn’t play Puerto Rico anymore, even though she enjoys it – it’s just too long. Maybe this will motivate us to try San Juan? Dragon’s Breath from HABA was everything Anitra dreamed it would be. Choose a cardboard token representing the color of gem you’d like to take this round. Once everyone has chosen, “dragon dad” takes the top ring off the “ice” stack, dropping gems onto the box. You’ve got to love a game that cleans itself up as you play. Ship Shape from Calliope (we mentioned this in both parts of our two part podcast on PAX Unplugged). It’s coming out in August, and we had a great time playing it. Can’t wait! Cartographers: a roll-and-write (flip and write) set in the Roll Player universe.

Our special guests are Ellen and Randy Kirby, of We Game Together. They do 2-3 minute mini-reviews for the Dice Tower as part of Board Game Breakfast, as well as streaming live playthroughs. The live streams are a little challenging with kids running around, and they tell us a story of one of their first streams. How do they afford so many board games? “We don’t spend money on much of anything else.” Board games is how they spend time together – sounds good to us! Randy and Andrew relate about how hard it is to cull games that they don’t play any more. We think it’s mentally easier to trade games than to sell them. Ellen Kirby shares some wisdom for “content creators” – don’t let your hobby turn into a chore. We all share how we love seeing our kids play games. So awesome when they choose to do it instead of screen time! Awesome themes and short play times are key to getting kids (or adults!) interested in games. Ellen shares her love for Castles of Burgundy – and the deluxe edition will be available at Origins! What We’ve Been Playing The Kirbys recently picked up Cat Lady, Res Arcana, Gates of Lojang, and Tiny Towns. Ellen has been pushing to revisit games they already have, like Istanbul, Castles of Burgundy, and Downforce. Res Arcana leads us into a conversation about digital game play vs physical game play, especially with heavier games. Andrew’s hoping to play Teotihuacan when he goes to Dice Tower Con next month. The Smiths recently played A Fake Artist Goes to New York – think Spyfall combined with Pictionary. Everyone is trying to figure out who’s faking while you’re collectively drawing a picture that everyone else knows. We had a great time playing this at a restaurant with extended family. Only downside? You need a minimum of 5 people to play. Ellen recommends Just One as a similar restaurant-friendly party game. One person covers their eyes, everyone else writes down a clue to the common word. But if two (or more) people write the same clue, those have to be erased before the guesser opens their eyes. Andrew tells us about Gunkimono (which we mentioned last week). Randy tells us more about Cat Lady – 3×3 grid, pick a row or column. Put out cats as you acquire them, but you have to feed them (with other cards). Collect sets of costumes and toys for your cats too! Andrew tells us about War Chest (played for the first time this week) – bag building with tiles that can also be played out onto the board to control various areas of the board. Origins Who’s going to Origins? Anitra and Randy. The Kirbys both wanted to go, but prioritized some other conventions instead… and then Randy got invited by a friend. Andrew shares his sob story – maybe we should have planned this trip better. What We’re Excited For Anitra: new roll-and-writes from Renegade Games: Hex Roller & Lanterns Dice Family game with a super long name: The Little Monster that Came for Lunch and Stayed for Tea – from Strawberry Studio (they also published Strawberry Ninja and What’s Up) Randy has a crisis over how to best use his time,...

We all have experiences in life we don’t want to miss. FOMO, or fear of missing out, seems to hit particularly hard when it comes to hot new boardgames. Between Kickstarter and conventions constantly hyped on social media, how can we deal with this irrational response? What We’ve Been Playing Life has been really busy, but we’re finally making a bit of time to play games again. Filler – mostly at 2 players and solo (which feels just like 2 players!) Best Treehouse Ever: Forest of Fun – another great one from Green Couch Games. We feel it improves on the original without significantly changing it. Dice Throne – we finally tried a 3-way free-for-all. Not thrilled about the very random “targeting roll”. We discuss why direct-combat games like this don’t seem as frustrating as “take-that” games. Theory: it doesn’t feel as vindictive when the stated goal is to take down your opponents. Tiny Towns – you know we’re big fans. Monopoly Junior Kintsugi – one of our favorites from Button Shy. A perfect restaurant game for 2-3 players. Gunkimono – seemed more complex than it was. Some area-control, some abstract tile laying, and balancing two different point tracks. Lay down domino-style tiles to create large groups of armies of the same color. Choose whether to score a contiguous section or go up on the “honor track”, which will give you bonus points and ways to permanently claim existing formations. SNAP Review: Shadows in Kyoto Anitra and Andrew enjoy this strategic game of hidden identities, based on Japanese history. Pictures and full text available in our SNAP reviews. SNAP review music is Magellan, provided courtesy of You Bred Raptors? FOMO We go to several conventions and events in our role as podcasters and reviewers, where there’s an expectation that other media types will go to every event. We’ve talked before about con planning and the importance of taking regular breaks to keep from burning out. Kickstarter and deals Kickstarter is a big driver of FOMO. You’ve only got a short window of time to commit your money towards a potentially really cool game. Generally speaking, our family tries to be realistic – is this the kind of game our family would really love? If not, let’s set a good example for our children by NOT buying it. We want them to think through how they spend their limited allowance money, and one of the ways they’ll learn that is by seeing us say “no” to our own desires. Great deals can drive quick decision making, too. We’re still learning to not buy a cool game just because it’s a good deal. (See our stack of Mice & Mystics with all the expansions… we’ve only played about 4 chapters of the original game.) We will still buy games that are “great deals”, as long as we know what’s going to happen with it – it’s actually more common for us to pick up Barnes & Noble deals as gifts for our friends.

Episode 147:Isaac VillaGaming with Sidekicks This week we’re happy to welcome Isaac Villa. He runs a site similar to ours, called Gaming with Sidekicks. We first met at PAX Unplugged, and we’re always happy to talk with other family-focused gamers. Gaming with Sidekicks branched off from a different website; the founders met while playing Dice Masters competitively. At one point, they had four different podcasts! While going to Origins to play competitively, Isaac realized he was making a circle of boardgaming friends. “Origins is kind of our big summer camp.”Isaac Villa, on making friends in the board gaming world Isaac got together with friends JT, Randy, and Stuart to start a new site that would still be in the boardgaming world but with a wider focus. They’re all dads with kids of various ages, from babies to teenagers. When Isaac is playing with his 15 year old daughter, games are an excellent social lubricant. Put down the phone and spend time together as a family! Gaming can also bring different kinds of people together, as with his wife who loves many games but doesn’t like conventions. Games we like with the people we love.Gaming with Sidekicks motto “Sidekicks” are our families, and our kids – people that we bring alongside to game with. But the “Sidekicks” idea also came from Dice Masters‘ “sidekick dice” with the pawn logo. Isaac tells us what he enjoyed about Dice Masters, although now he gets a similar feel from Dice Throne, but with less head-to-head combat. We talk a bit about dice and cooperative games, including Pandemic, Legendary, and Rescue Polar Bears. Cooperative games are our favorite way to teach logical deduction or looking ahead in games. Talking with Isaac also reveals to us how a person’s career and/or aptitude effect the way you play games. Playing with your kids reveals their strengths and weaknesses. Isaac’s son was a top-level player in Dice Masters at a young age, but still had a hugely hard time with losing. And that’s a teachable moment (as we’ve discussed in the past), whether on the soccer field or in a boardgame. Know your audience! Isaac played with a group of teenage boys that made every game incredibly agressive. He loved playing Kung Fu Zoo with them (a dexterity dice-flicking game). What was your favorite game from 2018? His most played, and probably favorite: Drop It. (Ours too! – check our review) Much like Ingenious, we think it will be a modern classic. Another of our favorites was Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters (as listeners will probably remember). Isaac recommends a few from Grandpa Beck’s Games, including Cover Your Assets and SkullKing (trick-taking). How about 2019? We’re almost halfway through the year. Our favorite so far this year is Tiny Towns, again to no one’s surprise (especially if you’ve read our review). One of the best parts is that it’s relatively independent,

Who doesn’t like food? In this episode of the podcast, we’ll talk about our favorite food games to play as a family. Thanks to our sponsor, Breaking Games. We play a little Order of Invention on the show, and you can play along at home. Which came first? * Espresso machine (piston-driven)* Instant coffee* Pop-up toaster* Tea bags The answer might surprise you! What We’ve Been Playing! Shadows in Kyoto (review coming Friday) – we’ve enjoyed this two-player game of strategy and deception, as well as learning a bit of the historical background. Pyramid of Pengqueen – this is a great asymmetric game to play with kids, but it hasn’t been great for our family, due to our resident agent of chaos. Imhotep: Das Duel – The German was a little tricky to get around, but you can now get it in English as Imhotep: The Duel. It flips some of the strategy of Imhotep around. Place workers in a 3×3 grid. Each turn, decide whether to place a worker or unload a boat (each worker in that boat’s row/column unloads a resource in order). Use the tiles to create building types on your individual board. Enjoyable, but we prefer the original Imhotep. Rescue Polar Bears: Data and Temperature – don’t let these cute polar bears fool you! This is a very challenging cooperative game. The name is deceptive: your goal is not actually to rescue the bears, but instead to capture data tokens while preventing the existing bears from drowning. Spy Club – It’s been quite a while since we’d last played this cooperative game, but we were able to pick up our campaign right where we left off. Now that we understand the mechanics of the game, it feels like riding a bicycle – easy to pick back up. The “mosaic” campaign adds a lot. My First Castle Panic – still a big hit with our preschooler. It’s appropriately easy, but winning is not guaranteed. (Read our review.) Food, Glorious Food! Such a great theme. Who doesn’t like food? There are tons of great food games, and we can’t play them all. However, we’ve reviewed several in the past (just look for the “food” tag), and we’ll tell you our favorite food games to play as a family. We asked the Family Gamers community, and we also asked the Dice Tower community. Some games (Sushi Go & New York Slice) came up over and over again. A few other notables though: Wasabi, Stir Fry 18, Pie Town, At the Gates of Loyang, Food Chain Magnate, Kitchen Rush, Fabled Fruit, and a brand-new game called Consumption. Andrew suggests a game called “Gluttony”. Maybe we’ll suggest this to One Board Family for their next “Will it Game?” terrible game idea. Top Food Games for Family Play Honorable mention to Filler, but we haven’t played it enough yet to make a judgement call. Our top food games, ranked by complexity. We’ll start with the most preschooler-friendly and work our way up to adults-only. Mmm! – a great cooperative press-your-luck game with no reading. Good for 3 year olds, but your older kids won’t get tired of it right away.

Our guest this week is Linda Wrobel. In addition to mothering two young boys, she also has a day job as a teacher and covers board games for Engaged Family Gaming. Hi Linda! Linda is the Managing Editor of Board Games for Engaged Family Gaming – she’s the primary board game review writer & spearheads any other tabletop coverage. She’s also writing a few parent resources, like her Educator’s Perspective on Nintendo Labo. Linda has been teaching first graders for seventeen years! She tells us it’s a lot of fun. It’s so important at this level to use games and resources that don’t require (much) reading. Most kids this age are still learning to read and are not yet “reading to learn”. In her teaching, she likes to do gamification of “centers” (using dice to do math, etc.). She also enjoys a few Gamewright games for indoor recess, such as Too Many Monkeys – it only has numbers 1-6, and no reading, so it’s perfect for this age range. At home, favorites for her boys (ages 7 & 10) include Exploding Kittens (minimal reading, quick start, portable) and Taco vs Burrito (get the most points in your hand – disgusting food is worth the most points). Anitra and Linda both appreciate ridiculous games, like Hoagie and Sparkle*Kitty. A more “adult” silly game is Unspeakable Words – a Cthulu-themed word-creation game. The more sanity you lose, the less your words need to make sense. A few games Linda enjoys that are less silly but more relaxing: * Seikatsu – we love this one too, of course. Linda recently played with her mother in law, but also suggests: try playing it outside!* Photosynthesis – pretty and not too complicated. (Anitra is a little jealous that Andrew has gotten to play.)* Skyjo – a card game. Each player gets a field of 16 cards face down. Take turns drawing cards and trading for a card still on the table, aiming for the lowest score. Light, great for kids or for sitting around chatting. Skyjo was first recommended by Sarah Reed on the “Our Turn: Gaming for Everyone” podcast – hosted by Kathy Ford. Neither Linda nor Anitra have ever felt unwelcome, but it’s nice sometimes to see and hear a few more women in the boardgaming community. Mother’s Day Linda and Anitra are both at the ages where we are trying to celebrate our own mothers on this day. It makes the day a little crazy, but we’re both blessed to have our mothers (and mothers-in-law) nearby. It was nice to see our kids enjoying their family, but didn’t have much time for gaming. We discuss our efforts to make allowances when playing games with “grandma”. Linda tells us “I got into gaming backwards” – after getting married, got into LARPing (thanks to Stephen and Jenna Duetzmann), then moved to tabletop RPG, then finally into boardgaming. What’s Next? Linda: looking forward to ConnectiCon and CTFIG (in July), a sort of preview of the indie games we’ll see at BostonFIG (September). Anitra: Looking forward to

We’ve got a top 10 today – yes, actually 10! Inspired by some filler games we recently received in the mail, and looking forward to hanging out with One Board Family (because we talked filler games when we had them on the podcast), we decided we’d talk about our favorite filler games today. First we thank Breaking Games, whose game The Stars Align is a nicely portable filler for two players. It’s quickly becoming one of our go-to games. What We’ve Been Playing Pyramix came down off the shelf in a whim, since we haven’t played it in a long time. All kids enjoyed it and it still holds up very well. FUSE – a crazy real-time dice game. Cooperate to roll & place dice to complete cards and “defuse” the bomb in 10 minutes. Even our friend who dislikes cooperative games and dislikes dice-heavy games enjoyed it overall. Fresh Fish – weird but fun from Friedemann Friese. Try to get your food stalls the closest to the supply trucks, through a combination of reserving spots, placing blocking spots, and bidding on stalls when they are revealed. Supertall – feels just a little too short. See our SNAP review (or keep listening). Tiny Towns – Here’s our review! It’s available in local game stores now, and coming to Amazon at the end of the week. Santa’s Little Helpers and the Ice Cube Jam – one of the very first games we ever reviewed. My First Stone Age – demolished by the 4 year old. Filler – one of the games that inspired this episode. Expect to hear more about it soon. Red Scare Redux – teams work together to complete goals in this spy-themed game. Once any team has completed 5 goals, the game ends and points are scored. In our case, the team with only 3 goals scored higher than the team that had finished 5. Visitor in Blackwood Grove – which we recently reviewed. Surprisingly family-friendly once we grasped the rules. Photosynthesis – grow trees and spread seeds, using “sun points” gathered by your existing trees. Grow trees to their full height and then chop them down for victory points. Important detail: trees closest to the middle are worth the most points when they’re chopped down. Dungeon Draft – set collection drafting game with a fantasy theme. No Thanks! – aim for the lowest score possible in this drafting game. Say “no thanks” to an available card by placing a token on it – and tokens help lower your score at the end of the game. We find out that Andrew is a crokinole shark. He and his teammate flicked their caroms to victory in an impromptu tournament in an unexpected scoring frenzy. SNAP Review: Supertall Anitra explains this compact city-building game for 2 or 3 players.