The Family Gamers Podcast

You may know Joe from his blog – ArtOfBoardGaming.com. He’s also one of our Podpledge supporters – Thanks, Joe! Joe has “professional podcast guest” as a part of his Twitter bio, and we’re helping to make that a reality instead of wishful thinking. We think he does a lot of really cool stuff, so let’s learn about some of that! Joe started his Art of BoardGaming website roughly 3 years ago, although it’s been on pause lately. Why is that? Because about 8 months ago, Joe and his wife sold his house and bought an RV. Now they’re traveling the country! Makes board game blogging a bit more challenging though. He’s hoping to get back into a new “season” of content soon. Joe really loves taking artsy board game photos for Instagram, and has been doing more of that lately. His website is mostly topical pieces, since “there’s a lot of great reviewers out there”. Here’s a sampling: * Let’s Make Boardgaming Great Again (one of his most controversial, regarding politics and boardgaming)* Why my Wife Hates Board Games* 2 Reasons Dice Don’t Ever Belong in Strategy Board Games (ie. “why I hate dice”) followed a year later by A Mitigated Opinion on Dice* The Importance of Being a Good Loser (We referenced this one in our own blog post on how to teach your kids to lose well.)* Is it Time to Ban Cell Phones from Game Night? Joe has occasionally received promotional copies of games, even though he rarely reviews games. In particular, Stonemaier Games sent him Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig. Since he couldn’t get a review out in a timely way, he used it instead for a topical essay about how expectations are changing for board game box inserts. We geek out about inserts for a while. It’s great to have a designated space for each item, but that doesn’t always make it easier to set up or store. Andrew highly recommends Dice Throne (especially season 2) for a fantastic included insert. Each character/player has their own tray with a lid containing all their components. Based on that game and a few others, we are migrating to a model where “starting equipment” packs become an integral part of our storage for many games. Dice Throne: “Like Yahtzee and Magic: The Gathering had a baby.”Andrew Tell us about your RV experience. Joe and his wife Kalyn decided “we wanted to do what a lot of people talk about doing”. Since they both work from home, they figured out the details and pricing things out. They sold their house and bought a truck and an RV last November. They spent until March fixing it up to be exactly what they wanted (mostly decor). Now they’re on the road. “I’m looking forward to being able to m...

Abstract strategy (or abstract puzzle) games are Anitra’s favorite! Let’s talk about what makes these games great for family game night. But first… What We’ve Been Playing ShutterBug – a set collection game from Calliope Games (review coming this week) Palm Island – because it’s a great game to play while the boys are at baseball practice. Looking forward to a small wallet to carry the deck, available to backers of the Planetoid Kickstarter. Go Nuts for Donuts – a family favorite. Tiny Towns – still loving this and finding as many opportunities to play as possible. Look for it at your FLGS within the next two weeks! The Bridges of Shangri-La – an interesting area control game where you burn your bridges after you cross from one town to another. (Find out more on BoardGameGeek.) Silly Street – simply silly and fun. Sometimes that’s all you need. Pyramid of Pengqueen – Andrew hasn’t played this yet. We need to fix that. Mole Rats in Space – turns out this is really hard with the challenge cards added. Surprisingly challenging, given how approachable it is. The mechanics are easy to understand and fun for kids, even when the game is punishingly hard. Abstract Games According to Board Game Geek, Abstract Strategy games are often (but not always): * theme-less (without storyline)* built on simple and/or straightforward design and mechanics* perfect information games (no hidden information)* little to no elements of luck, chance, or random occurrence (Aside: this rules out games like Yahtzee and Can’t Stop)* games that promote one player overtaking their opponent(s) (We decide this means games that end when a player wins, rather than games that have a set end point, and then you calculate a winner.) Seen at Old Sturbridge Village: a homemade board for Nine Men’s Morris We asked our Facebook group. They’re not always the first choice, but they have some real strengths when playing as a family. They suggested their favorites, including Santorini, Epigo, and Hive. We get excited to realize that most abstract strategy games require little to no reading- making them easy to internationalize, and easy to explain to kids. Andrew wonders if Catch! is basically an abstract cooperative game. Nearly every game that we would think of as a true “classic” game (over 100 years old) is an abstract strategy game, unless it’s a card game. Think about games like checkers, chess, Go, Nine Men’s Morris, Mancala, Backgammon, Chinese Checkers, tic-tac-toe (also known as Noughts and Crosses). If you wanted to teach your kids about a lot of these games, we think the best resource is The Book of Classic Board Games that Klutz published in the 1990s. We found our copy of The Book of Classic Board Games at a thrift store,

Let’s talk to Joe Hopkins, the designer of Endangered. Endangered is on Kickstarter right now. Published by Grand Gamers Guild, with art by Beth Sobel and Ben Flores, we think it looks great! In keeping with the theme of the game, the Grand Gamers Guild is partnering with the Center for Biological Diversity. One of the pledge levels allows you to donate a copy for educational purposes. They’re also raising money based on “thumbs” on BoardGameGeek. The Center is also helping them ensure the game scenarios fit with real life conservation. Marc Specter did an interview on Grand Rapids local news. As of air time, the Kickstarter is not fully funded yet, although it’s close. The core game is $50 plus shipping. $55 with all the Kickstarter exclusives, and more from there. Endangered uses worker placement & dice placement. It’s got a similar complexity to Pandemic. HOWEVER – one of the stretch goals is a family version, which simplifies and shortens the game to make it suitable for kids ages 6-10. Although the primary mechanic is dice placement, there are a lot of other decisions going on. Endangered addresses real world threats that a specific species faces. You must convince the UN to pass a resolution that will protect the species (specific to the scenario). If you run out of habitat, or all the animals die, or run out of time, you’ll lose. Keep managing all of those issues while continuing to move toward getting the species protected! Roll your dice and put them onto a space to do that action. Since this is a cooperative game, multiple people CAN use the same action, but only if they can place dice with a higher value than the dice already placed. The core game is two scenarios: protect the tigers, or protect the sea otters. Characters: Zoologist, Philanthropist, Lobbyist, TV Wildlife Host. We love the educational opportunities presented by this game. It shows the multi-faceted approach to actually preserving species. Not a simple task! Each card gives flavor text that talks about how the concepts work in real life. We particularly love the country cards – done by graphic designer Josh Cappel (of Kids Table Board Gaming). The country conditions are not particularly thematic, though. What kinds of games do you like to play with your son? Cooperative and meaty euro games. “Long and arduous”. Together, play Memoir ’44, Ticket to Ride, Smallworld, and a flicking game called Pew-Pew that Joe designed. Find Joe online: @avgjoegames on TwitterEmail: joehopkinsgames@gmail.comJoeMagicMan on BoardGameGeek 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.

Episode 140Build Me Up, Buttercup!(Building Games) We just got Tiny Towns in the mail, and it is rekindling our love for games where you build something. We talked with Peter McPherson a few months ago and Andrew has been hyped to play his game! We did a live unboxing video the day we received it, and immediately played a few rounds after the kids went to bed that night. What We’ve Been Playing Besides just Tiny Towns – although we’re already trying variations here. Can’t wait to play it with the kids! Fire in the Library – Andrew had a much better time than his previous play. Press-your-luck games can be tough because they can swing wildly. It helps to realize that in this game, your odds get progressively worse as the game goes on. Discoveries: The Journals of Lewis and Clark – Andrew has played it several times now, and we haven’t even opened our own copy yet (oops!) Shadows in Kyoto – a 2 player game of hidden information. Move your spies across the board and try to capture your opponent’s “real” intelligence or force them to take your “fake” intelligence. Pyramid of Pengqueen – feels a little different as a 2 player game. The “treasure hunter” gets two penguins to move, to keep the mummy from being able to lock down on a single area. Deblockle – we played several times in a row one night. It’s quick and thinky. Wisdom of Solomon – a worker-placement / area control / resource management game with classic euro art (very utilitarian). Theme: Israel during the reign of Solomon. We started with trepidation (Bible-based games aren’t always good) but really enjoyed it. Unlock: The Formula – Anitra feels the secret is to just play for fun and don’t be stingy with hints. Anitra played some Rolling America with her special tray in the car. Looking forward to spending less time waiting in the car when summer comes. Asher beat Anitra in her favorite, Imhotep. We couldn’t be more proud. Elliot (4) is getting the hang of Kingdomino. With a little help, he beat Anitra too! Banagrams is good with kids who are fluent readers. “Everything that Scrabble should be – just about fitting words together well.” SNAP Review: Tiny Ninjas Let Anitra and Asher tell you about this two-player battle of cards and dice. Check out the post for pictures and full text. Building Games We like building things! We’re taking a lot of liberty with this idea, but centering around creating a “structure” you can see throughout the game. We asked for input and got some confusion from our listeners – we’re not really looking at engine building or deck building. Although “Engine Building: the engine builder” sounds like a fantastic idea – somebody make it! * Tiny Towns,

We last had James on exactly 100 episodes ago! Then, we talked about The Grimm Forest. Now it has been nominated for a Golden Geek award for Artwork & Presentation. Tidal Blades James tells us a story about Tidal Blades -it actually resulted from the Mr. Cuddington artists wanting to take a break from specific commissioned art. James asked them, “what if I strip the theme off a game I have and let you do whatever you want with it?” Tidal Blades has had an amazing reception, and there will be an RPG in that same world! Recent Skybound projects: Valor & Villainy – tabletop RPG. The Kickstarter recently wrapped up. Sorceror City – “the project that will never die” – this has ended up being a very complicated project. Complicated components, manufacturing issues, and everything is taking longer than they’d like. James has to make decisions that (thankfully!) most of us don’t have to think about. Was supposed to deliver in January, but they’re still working hard on making it all work. The Grimm Masquerade is coming – It’s a standalone follow up to The Grimm Forest. Social deduction, card-driven strategy game. More deduction, less “social”. (coming to retail in June) Walking Dead: Something to Fear. This has a “co-op-etition” feel. Easy to learn, but enough “teeth” to be enjoyable for seasoned gamers. Artist Justin Chan also did Century: Golem Edition. Gave the comic book characters a new spin. (coming to retail in July) Guardian’s Call was recently released; they spent a lot of work just on the tray, making sure nothing will fall out! Design: At the Skybound “retreat”, they worked on 31 projects. That’s several years’ worth. James has advice for would-be game designers: “get it on paper and start trying to play it.” James’s first design: Bloodstone. He actually started with art before many mechanics were fleshed out. But that worked to propel the project forward! Find whatever motivates you to keep working on the design and making it better! Giveaway! James picks the winner of our Guardian’s Call giveaway. Get in touch with James: Twitter: @DruidCityGamesFacebook: @DruidCityGamesInstagram: @JamesMatthewHudson and email: support@druidcitygames.com Find Us Online: Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/communityTwitter: @familygamersaaInstagram: @familygamersaa Or,

We talk about the use of time in boardgames, both in theme and in mechanisms. What We’ve Been Playing The Stars Align – thanks to our sponsor, Breaking Games! Fallout: The Board Game – had a similar storytelling mechanic to Above & Below. CABO – a hand management / memory game from Bezier Games. Aim for the lowest score, but you start with a hand of face-down cards. Chicken Cha Cha Cha has become a favorite of Elliot (4), and is no longer requested by Asher (8). Triplock – puzzle game from Chip Theory Games. A little hard to figure out the rules, but once we got it, we had a great time with it. Pyramid of Pengqueen – from Brain Games. Asymmetric treasure-hunting game with a vertical board. The mummy cannot see the treasure hunters, but they can see the mummy. Mummy is trying to catch enough penguins, but the penguins are trying to collect a set of treasures without being caught. Quacks of Quedlinburg – A bag-building game from North Star Games. Now that we’ve played it, we can see why it is so popular. Pure press-your-luck with very little player interaction. Pantone: The Game – worth trying, but not our favorite. Baseball Highlights 2045 – now Andrew can play it with Asher! Dice Throne – another “bro” game for Andrew & Asher to play. Kodama: The Tree Spirits – build a branching tree with contiguous lines of icons. Don’t bump the table, though! Fluff – a new version of Liar’s Dice from Bananagrams, and one of Claire’s favorites. Expect a SNAP review soon. Among the Stars – draft a hand of cards to build a space station. Sprawlopolis – a favorite for Anitra. Played 15 times, only won once. SNAP Review: Shikoku A game all about taking the middle path. See the full text and more pictures in our SNAP reviews. Game Time! Time in Games Let’s talk about the use of time in boardgames. Time and time travel can make for an interesting theme, and some games use interesting time mechanics to push gameplay along. Let’s talk about some of our favorites! * Real time games: cooperative – Gnomes at Night, Spaceteam, Magic Maze* Real time games: competitive * use a timer that can be stopped (Kero, In the Time of Dragons – was “Time Cross Arena” when we interviewed David Wilkinson)* simlutaneous puzzle-solving games (Q*bitz, Match Madness, Maze Racers, etc)* Tempus series by Chris Anderson – a pen-and-paper game where the randomized setup and actions are determined by the day and time that you start playing. Tempus Imperium and Tempus Fumus are freely available. Tempus Quest is being released in monthly installments from Button Shy.* Representing rounds with seasons: Keyflower, Seasons, Tzolk’in, Photosynthesis, Tea Dragon Society Card Game,

Episode 137 –Super Saturday Super Showdown This episode is special! It’s our combined show with Flip Florey at Granite Game Summit, with special guests Gil Hova, Jason Lees, and “Your Moderator” Chris Michaud. We’re calling it the Super Saturday Family Gamers Super Showdown. Don’t forget about the Guardian’s Call giveaway – there’s still a few days left to enter. If you want to support The Family Gamers so we can give away more games, check out our Podpledge. We drew straws to see which team would go first. What do you think? We played games you know and love:Boardgame in the MiddleSniffing Spiel Battle of… Wits? Thanks to all the contributors to this show:Asher, Claire, ElliotJason LeesGil Hova (High Rise Kickstarter, Ludology podcast)Flip Florey (Flip Florey’s Super Saturday Board Game Serial)Chris Michaud (Flip the Table) We’ll see you next week. Until then – PLAY GAMES WITH YOUR KIDS!

Let’s talk purging! Sometimes you need to get rid of boardgames. In our case, we do it as part of our spring cleaning. What We’ve Been Playing * Order of Invention* Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: A Gemstone Mining Game* Rolling America* Battleship* The Scrambled States of America – we played the gentler version where everyone who has a match may score their state.* Go Away Monster (with all 3 kids)* Kokoro: Avenue of the Kodama* Ancestree* Circle the Wagons* Sparkle*Kitty* EXIT: The Polar Station (creepy!)* Tempus Quest episode 0 – get this and future Tempus Quest episodes by joining the Button Shy Board Game of the Month club at any level.* EXIT: The Pharoah’s Tomb – we crushed it!* Shikoku – (P)review coming soon, but you can pre-order it from Grand Gamers Guild now.* Campaign Trail* Visitor in Blackwood Grove* call out to Asher for actually making it through a game of Fire in the Library.* Get the MacGuffin SNAP Review: Get the MacGuffin A silly, fast-moving game of player elimination for 2-11 players. See more pictures and read the summary. Live Podcast We’ve been doing more things! Next week’s episode will be our live taping with Flip Florey, Chris Michaud, and friends, at Granite Game Summit. Spring Cleaning, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Get Rid of Boardgames Not just because of Marie Kondo. When your shelves are overflowing, it’s time to take a hard look at what you’ve got. How can you decide to get rid of boardgames? Listener Highlights “You have to be STRONG and SAVAGE” Katie @katiesgamecrner “If I asked you to play this right now, would you? …It was hard for me on some because I really like the game, but if nobody wants to play it with me, then it isn’t fun – and that is what games are supposed to be.”Jeremy Dwayna: Donates games that didn’t make the cut to her local library “where we can still visit them”. Joe Comings: “If the game’s not coming off the shelf and I don’t LOVE it…it’s kind of just taking up space. …I sold off a lot of great games… But in hindsight, I don’t really miss any of them because I still have plenty of great games to play.” Also check out his article on how to cull on ArtOfBoardGaming.com How We’ve Been Making the Hard Decisions It’s not 100% about “do we play this game, and if not, let’s toss it”. There’s a bit of subtlety involved. * Emptied the “kids games” shelves. Had each kid pick a few (3-6) that they “own”. Not really about ownership, though, but about how much they want to keep them around. Also set aside about the same amount of games as “shared” games. Even this wasn’t foolproof: Andrew couldn’t bear to let them get rid of Purrrlock Holmes (yet).* If we love a game, but our copy isn’t getting played, why are we keeping it? We have a few that always get played at a friend’s house. So why not just play it with them and get rid of our “dup...

On this week’s episode, we are joined by Jon Mietling, of Portal Dragon Games, to talk about the Kickstarter for his game Planetoid, his other games, and how games have helped him connect with his foster kids. Let’s talk about Planetoid. We’ve been playing a prototype of Planetoid and can’t stop talking about how much we enjoy it. It’s a set collection and memory game for 1-4 players. You are interstellar miners trying to get the most valuable resources. You can play heavily on memory, or rely more on luck and strategy. When you drill, reveal all surrounding tiles; or you can scan to peek at tiles that are still hidden. “Ship” resources and earn a bonus if they match a certain set. The advanced mode uses action point system, so you can make more decisions about what actions to do on your turn: one big powerful action, lots of cheap actions, or somewhere in between? Jon specifically designed Planetoid to grow from Basic to Advanced depending on what your players are like. Check out the kickstarter: thefamilygamers.com/planetoid Planetoid isn’t the only Portal Dragon game we’ve fallen for! Next we address Palm Island. It’s fundamentally a solo game, that you play simply manipulating a deck of cards in your hands. Where did you come up with the idea for Palm Island? It comes from working in two categories: starter ideas and goals. “What kinds of games do I like to play, what kind of games would I like to see?” Both Palm Island and Planetoid came from a game design “sprint”, during a season where Jon had a very long drive to work. Specific idea: “table-less game”. Originally he called it “Palm Springs”, and the pun launched the whole idea. To achieve table-less, what was needed… Palm Island is not the first game to do this, but Jon had not looked at any of the others first. Amazingly, once Jon hit on the full idea, Palm Island needed very little editing to the gameplay. Especially with Feats and other optional abilities, Palm Island encourages players to try many different strategies. At first glance, it appears very luck-based, but it’s actually less about luck and more about learning different kinds of strategy. Get the basic version for about $15 on Portal Dragon’s website, but you can get the plastic card version with free shipping if you back the Planetoid Kickstarter! Tell us about Zephyr: Winds of Change. Cooperative, modular adventure for 1-5 players. You’re a steampunk airship captain! Asymmetric – everyone has their own ship. Tries to address the issue common to many other cooperative games; every player should feel valuable, with their own decisions to make. Players can fly apart and pick new sub-missions. Scales to different player counts and time restrictions. For this game, Jon wanted to make something “hefty, but that my wife would play with me.” Since there are different rules for different situations, it is pretty fiddly, unlike other Portal Dragon games. However, turn-to-turn, it feels like a basic deckbuilder. Use your captain’s special abilities and gain crew with their *own* special abilities and personalities (this is where the transparent cards come in,

Corey and Ian review this game of keeping patients alive… at least, during your turn. It’s actually good for you when (not if) patients die on another doctor’s turn! Listen to their thoughts in under 4 minutes, or read on below. Bad Doctor was designed by Eric Magnan and Dan Germain and published by Mayday Games. It’s suitable for 2-4 players ages 10+, and plays in less than 40 minutes. Setup Put the four starting patients out on the table, and separate the other tiles into patients and treatments. Don’t forget to take your own doctor board and matching name tags! How to Play Patients have two areas that can be filled: treatments and complications. On your turn, take two actions: either draw a new treatment tile, or “treat” a patient with one of the treatment tiles from your hand. To “treat” a patient, match the symbol on a patient’s malady (open edge) with one of your own treatment tiles, then place a name tag on the match. Treatment applied! If all maladies are closed on a patient, they are cured! But any patient you didn’t visit this turn gets a complication cube, making them one step closer to dying. Add a complication cube If a patient dies on someone else’s turn, you receive your name tags back from that patient and add them to your score pile. If you cure a patient completely on your turn, only your name tags from that patient get to score. Strategy: place treatments on patients about to die, so you get the reward on someone else’s turn, but don’t forget to look for patients who have very few open maladies to see if you can cure them on your turn. Nearly every treatment tile has a special action, so plan out your turn carefully to maximize your two actions each turn. Impressions Finally cured! Now, can you find the patient? Bad Doctor is our prescription for a fast and fun tile-laying game with easy-to-learn rules. “I really really like it and love to play it with my family.”Ian The humor is slightly coarse, so you might want to stick with the recommended age of 10 and up. Kids that age will have no problem keeping up with the grown-ups. The short play time makes it easy to play Bad Doctor multiple times every time you take out the box. We highly recommend Bad Doctor. For about $30, it’s a prescription for pandemonium and laughter. The Family Gamers received a review copy of Bad Doctor from Mayday Games.

Episode 134 – Cons and Pros of Cons Mostly a catching-up show this week, but we do spend a few minutes at the end talking about different approaches to gaming conventions. It should surprise no one that Andrew and Anitra get very different things out of the conventions we attend. This episode is sponsored by Breaking Games and their new game The Stars Align – which we played on an airplane tray table. Very neat. First, some news! We’ve been in Alaska, and it was great. Anitra and Nick made a bunch of punny valentines – one of our new yearly traditions. Anitra finally explained in full why she hates Candy Land. We’ll have a giveaway coming up in two weeks, when we’ll be talking about “spring cleaning”. We’re asking you, our listeners: Do you ever thin out your board game collection? If so, how do you do evaluate whether or not to keep a game? What We’ve Been Playing Order of Invention – one of the games from our sponsor, Breaking Games. Gaming in Alaska! * Palm Island* Drop It – we played a ton of this with all kinds of people.* Ethnos* Century: Golem Edition* Mysterium – a crowded, loud hall was not the right place to play this. Nevertheless, we still had fun.* Q-bitz* Get the MacGuffin (review coming soon) – “Feels like Fluxx, but shorter.”* The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire* Poetry Slam (review coming soon)* Supertall – we like it better with 3 players.* Tiny Ninjas – super portable. Then we came back! * 10 Days in the USA (since we were fresh back from AK, lots of questions about how you’d get there and what it’s like there.)* My First Castle Panic* Campaign Trail is here! We’re really looking forward to playing it with all the new bits.* Planetoid – on Kickstarter now. We are definitely backing this one, especially given the low price. Then Andrew went to TotalCon… * Forbidden Desert* Played a prototype and talked with Emerson Matsuuchi, the designer of Century: Spice Road, and all its descendants.* Shikoku, coming soon to the USA thanks to Grand Gamers Guild. Preorders are available now! SNAP Review: Sparkle*Kitty Hear our thoughts on Claire’s favorite game. Can you escape the cursed “no-cursing” towers using adorably cute spells? There are princesses here for everyone. Read the summary on our website. Approaches to Cons Andrew and Anitra agree that conventions are about socializing with other gamers and getting an experience you can’t get at home. Anitra likes using the vehicle of “play games” to meet people and try things she can’t find elsewhere. Andrew likes to bounce around and talk to people,

This week, we’re talking to Trevor Muller-Hegel about his project Split Perspective Studios. Split Perspective Studios is creating variations & print-n-plays using classic games (Chess, Checkers, playing cards) as a starting point. As low as $1 for new variations every month. Almost every household already has chess or checkers. This project is a way to introduce “gamer-y stuff” without a big investment of money or time. The main goal is to get more people playing games, without being intimidated by a game like chess. “I don’t know the right strategy” doesn’t have to be an excuse. When it’s a brand new game, no one knows the best strategy. We also see this as a great resource for people who want to expand a chess club like Liz did without spending a lot of money. Trevor says he’s currently working on at least 6 new games using a chess set. One of them is even a campaign-style game, similar to Final Fantasy Tactics. We find these classic games to be elegant in a way that modern games usually aren’t. You can’t picture people sitting in Central Park playing Gloomhaven, but having a way to make new games using these classic pieces expands what you can do. Trevor realized one day that a chess set is like having a set of miniatures that he could use in designing a game! The first variation available to patrons is Sacrificial Chess. This one follows similar rules to chess, but with income. You start with a king and 5 pawns. Every turn, you gain another pawn, but you have to sacrifice the pawns to gain the better units. Knights and bishops have slightly altered movement as well, in order to provide better support. He’s also working on designs that allow for different player counts (up to 4 players) and asymmetric player powers. How long have you been designing games? Trevor started with a tabletop RPG in 2012. He started looking into boardgames about a year later, and realized he wanted to design them too. How did you come up with the idea for this monthly subscription? Trevor already support an RPG maker on Patreon. It’s a nice, simple, enjoyable way to publish games “like putting it on layaway”. Putting that together with the idea of only publishing rule sets rather than manufactured games seemed like a perfect fit. Why should people subscribe? You can pay just $1 for 1-2 variations on chess/checkers/cards every month. For $4 also get a print-and-play every other month, plus videos on how to play. $9 for a “super enthusiast” which also includes monthly video on a game mechanic. Tell us about some your upcoming projects. Engine-builder/hand programming game “Archmagus” – a response to Hero Realms & Star Realms. Rather than based on battling to reduce health points, in Archmagus, you play cards to mess with your opponent’s deck. A color-matching game with deck-building aspect. Currently known as “Colormatch Pro”. A super-hero area control game. “Heroes Born of Darkness”. Find Trevor and Split Perspective Online: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/splitperspectivestudios

Gaming with American History in Mind This episode is sponsored by Breaking Games, whose new game Order of Invention got us thinking about American history! What We’ve Been Playing We’ve been playing a lot, and looking forward to playing even more games on our no-children vacation! * Tokyo Jutaku – build within the borders specified by your card. Use exactly the number of wooden pieces specified to achieve the number of floors specified. The wooden pieces are oddly shaped and don’t fit together nicely, making for a very challenging game. Good for a group, not great for kids because frustration seems to be a major element to the game. * Some favorite children’s games:* Silly Street (our review)* Gnomes at Night (our review)* Chicken Cha Cha Cha* Tiny Ninjas (review coming soon)* Planetoid (a prototype from Portal Dragon) – planetoid exploration. Drill into the surface to gain resources; but drilling reveals resources around the drill site. Advanced mode gives extra goals and upgrades for the drilling skills. We can’t wait to play this one more!* Scarabya (our review) – our favorite part is the simultaneous play.* Dice Throne (from Roxley Games) – feels a bit like Magic: The Gathering with less up-front investment. Each character has some unique player powers. Most actions are based around achieving a specific dice roll. We do like the balance offered by enforcing a “stack limit” on the special powers.* Moveable Type (trying the solo mode) – neat word-building game themed with a famous authors.* Drop It – because we love it. (our review)* Fluff from Bananagrams – It’s just a really nice implementation of Liar’s Dice or “Bluff”.* The Grimm Forest – by request of the 4-year-old. One of the best “toy” games we have, so it’s no surprise he wants to play with it.* Most Wanted from North Star Games – It was a really good time with 7 players! Gain notoriety by committing a robbery, but other players can join in. The player with the best hand (pair, 2 pair, 3 of a kind, etc.) wins the robbery, but any others have to pay bail. You can also “duel” to take down a higher player or do “honest labor” to gain money to be able to pay bail later.* Magic Maze – also fun with 7 players. Silently chaotic.* Get the MacGuffin – a short game from Looney Labs. The more we play it the more we like it. “Feels like Fluxx” but guaranteed to be 10 minutes or less. (review coming soon) Gaming with American History in Mind “Those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it.” Games are one of the best ways to get facts to stick. We appreciate both games that teach history, and games with a historical setting or theme that will get you and your kids talking. A few games from our personal collection that we recommend: Colt Express (or Boomtown Bandits). These aren’t going to teach you about history, but are a great way to get your kids interested in WHY this setting exists. Why were trains so important in the 1800s? Why did it make sense to rob them? Worlds Fair 1893 – this one is chock full of facts. You don’t need the facts to play the game, but there’s so much data there you’re bound to remember some of it. Tesla vs. Edison – all about the war of currents! Both the setting and the gameplay will encourage learning about this important perio...

This week, we’re talking to Tom Clare, founder of Big Imagination Games, and designer of the game The Champion of the Wild. The Champion of the Wild happens in a world where some people can communicate with animals. If we could talk to animals, we’d probably choreograph animals for live shows or become interpreters. The idea behind the game is that someone discovered that many animals wanted to compete in elite sports leagues. Kind of like the Olympics… but including such events as “Zoolovision” (singing/dancing), Supermarket Sweep, and Egg-and-Spoon race. You, the players, are the coaches, trying to maximize your animal(s) performance in the selected events. Choose 3 events, each from a different category (Speed, Power, Team, Endurance, Technical). Then each player picks a single animal from their hand to try to be competitive in all events. Reveal your animal, and start negotiating! Convince the other players why your animal has a shot at first place in each event. We relate our stories of choosing a hummingbird and a bald eagle. Once all players have had their say, everyone ranks the other players for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, (etc) place. After all 3 events, you tally up your votes for all events and determine the overall winner. Andrew asks, “Is cheese rolling a real thing?” Yes! It’s one of the most dangerous “sports” in the UK, and fits the theme of the game well – ridiculous and hilarious. The Champion of the Wild was originally Kickstarted in September 2017 and released to backers in October 2018. It’s going back on Kickstarter now for a second edition. The second edition has lots of new cards; 8 new animals, event randomizer cards (pick your events for you). If you have the first edition, there is a low pledge level to upgrade your existing copy to match the new one. There are 4 new variants on how to play (2 pentathalons, another triathalon, and a decathalon), all of which use drafting to create a hand of animals before events are chosen. We want to highlight the new “Junior Pentathalon” – for younger children who have more difficulty in reading & in predictive skills. Draft 5 animal cards, and end up with 1 animal for each event. Tom resisted this version at first, because it takes away the cleverness from the original idea. But it is much easier this way. Orca and Rhino jousting. Sure. Check out this live play of the junior pentathalon from Shut Up and Sit Down at PAX Unplugged. In the end, there are 2 distinct experiences of The Champion of the Wild: as an adult party game (very serious discussions but ignore fallacies completely), or as a family game (pick different animals for each event). Much credit to Kevin Chapman, the artist for The Champion of the Wild. We love the realism, bringing you to the world of the game, and bringing the tongue-in-cheek ridiculousness to life. A big credit to the feel of the game. This is NOT a serious gamer’s convention-worthy game; it’s not a great game to play with a group of strangers. But the distorted, comic-book-esque logic makes for a great party-style game. Find The Champion of the Wild online: Email: tc@bigimaginationgames.com Twitter: TeeceBIG

Let’s talk about all the stuff coming in 2019 that we’re looking forward to! What We’ve Been Playing We think that setting up challenges in the BG Stats app has pushed us a little towards playing certain games – but not too much! We have a lot of variety this week. Imhotep (Anitra’s favorite) Roll Player Monsters & Minions – we both like it, but Andrew misses the struggle to balance all the goals that was present in the original Roll Player. Anitra liked this “easier” version better. Deblockle – quickly becoming a favorite short/light game. Anitra thinks it feels like a more thinky version of checkers. Caverna: Cave vs. Cave Champion of the Wild – we’ll talk more about this next week! Fire in the Library – used sore losing as an opportunity to learn the solo game. And we like that the publisher was very engaged in our feedback. (If you backed the Kickstarter for Fire in the Library and haven’t received it yet, you will soon!)Discoveries – which Andrew talked about two weeks ago. A neat dice-manipulation game Bärenpark – it’s been a while since we played. Still love it. We compare it briefly to Patchwork, which Anitra has been playing on her phone. Poetry Slam – “this is a word game that involves a lot of staring at the table and trying to think”. It’s got a lot of fiddly pieces, especially for a word game. We discuss how it could be streamlined. But we do really enjoy it! Mastermind Kingdomino – in which we allowed Elliot (4) a handicap… which allowed him to get a higher score than Asher! Onitama – love this game. Mole Rats in Space – really enjoying this family-friendly co-op. Tiny Ninjas Board Game in the Middle Two weeks ago, we picked three games and guessed which one was in the middle, based on BoardGameGeek ratings. In the end, Anitra and Andrew were both wrong: IceCOOL was the one neither of us picked. Average BGG scores: IceCOOL (6.88), Caverna Cave vs Cave (7.33), Rocky Road à la Mode (6.79). We’ll take a break from Board Game in the Middle for now. If you want it back, let us know! SNAP Review: The Potion Hear Nick and Izzy’s thoughts on this ultra-portable game. Read the summary on our website. Coming for The Family Gamers in 2019 What we’re looking forward to this year: Kickstarters Games we’ve backed on Kickstarter in the past that we should be receiving this year: Campaign Trail (being fulfilled!), Jetpack Joyride, ReChord, The Perfect Moment, and