The Family Gamers Podcast

Episode 129 –Daniel ZayasTangled Timelines Daniel Zayas is well-known in boardgaming circles, especially on Facebook. We talk to him about snow and football… but then get to the real reason we’re here: his new game! Tangled Timelines Tangled Timelines is a card game, on Kickstarter starting January 22nd. Tangled Timelines is a strongly thematic set-collection game. Start with a hand of 4 cards, representing different heroes, at a variety of skill levels. (Alphabetical set of fantasy characters.) Rescue other heroes by sending your heroes into the “tangled timelines”. Hope you play a strong enough hero to gain initiative and be the first to trade in your hero. Any heroes not rescued are lost to the dimensional abyss. Heroes appear at mutliple skill levels (Apprentice, Novice, Master, Legendary). e.g. If you play an apprentice Assassin, you’ll lose that card, but gain all other apprentice-level characters and all other Assassin characters currently in the abyss. If the next player plays an apprentice Bard, they’ll gain that apprentice Assassin that you lost. You are playing against the other players, assuming what they are going to use against you. End game, build up a large hand and score based on largest chain (A-M) and highest-ranking 4 of a kind. This is where the scoring comes from. “There is a set-collection scoring element, but that’s really to determine how well you played the interesting parts of the game.”Daniel Zayas Abilities You can play as we’ve described above, swapping cards in and out of the abyss, and it makes for a fun game, perfect to play with kids or grandparents. But that’s not all! In the “full” version, every card has a special ability. If you win initiative, you MUST use your special ability. ie. the Assassin makes you give a card to the person with the lowest initiative. The Bard can only rescue one character from the abyss. Special abilities mean you do a lot more analysis, deciding what’s the highest initiative you can play with a special ability that won’t hurt you. Or maybe you’ll decide you don’t want to go first, so you aren’t forced to use that ability! Anitra compares this initiative struggle (“do I really want to go first”) to Gravwell. Daniel recommends that any time you play Tangled Timelines with new players, to play the first round without special abilities. Don’t bog yourself down figuring out all the abilities until you understand the flow of the game. It’s a nice quick game and Andrew looks forward to keeping this handy for those times we want to play in 20 minutes or less. The art that has been released so far looks fantastic. There are 2 artists. Illustragus is doing the character art (diverse cast but dynamic martial arts inspired poses), and Bryce Cook is doing the rest of the graphic design. Alex Williams animated the video promo. More about Daniel: If you have heard of Daniel Zayas before, it’s probably because of the social media groups he manages. As his day job, he works for LongPack Games Manufacturing, helping people with manufacturing, logistics, etc. for their games (especially Kickstarter projects). The community-building he does started before that job,

What We’ve Been Playing Deblockle – abstract strategy for two players. Bad Doctor – tile-laying game to keep patients alive – at least on your turn! Unlock! The Adventurers of Oz – hard but fun. Supertall – build the best “tower” from 4 types of available floors at 6 different values. Very compact (it’s Button Shy after all), but a lot to balance. IceCOOL mega game (combined IceCOOL and IceCOOL 2) – zany fun for our whole family ShutterBug – travel around the country and capture pictures of odd-looking mythical creatures. Not our favorite, but not bad. Fire Tower – big shout out to Gwen and Sam at Runaway Parade! They made sure Asher got his copy in time for his birthday. Discoveries: The Adventures of Lewis and Clark Rocky Road à la Mode – Asher learned his lesson – make sure you’re actually at the front of the pack if you’re going to pass the 9-point threshold that ends the game! Cloud 9 – Andrew’s take: “best rendition of Liar’s Dice” Ricochet Robots – speed logic game; make the low bet to move the robot to the goal in as few moves as possible. Poetry Slam – “a party word game for gamers”. We had two 10-year-olds playing; they did OK but we would not recommend it any younger. In Vino Morte, Get the MacGuffin, Caverna: Cave vs. Cave Boardgame in the Middle Our newest segment: which one has the middle “average rating” on BGG? Two weeks ago was Smallworld (7.31), Jumanji (4.44 / 4.67 depending on version), and Kingdomino (7.40) – SMALLWORLD takes the middle! This week’s picks: IceCOOL (original), Caverna: Cave vs Cave, and Rocky Road à la Mode (Anitra guesses Rocky Road, Andrew guesses Cave vs. Cave for the middle. Find out next time!) Best of 2018 Let’s start with our kids! What were their favorites from 2018? Asher’s favorites were playing Fire Tower (naturally), and Tiny Ninjas. Claire’s favorite new game in 2018 was Fluff (a rendition of Liar’s Dice from Bananagrams), and her favorite game to play was Tokaido. First, the Numbers Would you be surprised to learn that our most-played game in 2018 is one we had never played until December? Drop It was our #1 most-played game of the year, and the first time we ever played it was December 1st. Rounding out our top 3 most-played are Ancestree and Deep Sea Adventure, which should not be a surprise to anyone. Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters also made our top 10 most-played, even though we tried it for the first time in September. Games from 2018 that Impressed Us We had completely forgotten that The Grimm Forest was a 2018 game! It’s fantastic, with light gameplay, but art and organization that set a new standard for what we expect from new boardgames. Drop It is an obvious choice. We gave it a perfect rating because it works for any age range, any skill level,

We’re joined today by Peter McPherson, the creator of Tiny Towns, coming soon from AEG. Tiny Towns was Andrew’s favorite game from PAX Unplugged. Tiny Towns is definitely family-friendly and easy for kids to understand. We can’t wait for our kids to try it! Tell us about Tiny Towns Each player is the mayor of a tiny town, represented by a 4×4 grid to create your forest critter village. There are 7 building types available, different each game. Lay out resources in a specific shape/layout to match a building type; when you’ve matched it, place the building on any one of the spots occupied by the matching resources and discard all the resources used to make the building. Only one building or resource is allowed on each space. When the boards totally fill up with resources and buildings, the game ends. Each building scores in its own way. Each round has a master builder. The master builder picks one of the 5 resource types, everyone must put the same on their board, whether they want it or not. It’s a game of careful planning and resource management. Don’t back yourself into a corner! When will Tiny Towns be available? Tiny Towns will be released April 26 from AEG. Look for it in your friendly local game store for $39.99! What was your inspiration for Tiny Towns? A couple of ideas came together to make the foundation for the game. Peter used to play a word game with his father. Draw an empty 5×5 grid; everyone takes turns picking a letter that all players must add to their own grid, make as many words as possible. Peter wanted to take that tension and translate it into a building game instead. The resource management is inspired by Minecraft. There are only a few basic resources, but can be arranged to make hundreds of different items. It also comes out of a love of games that allow you to build something that you can admire in endgame. Peter wants that same feeling of accomplishment in Tiny Towns. Is this your first game to be published? Yes! It’s been surreal. He saw the “final” (pre-production) version for the first time at PAXU 2018 after pitching it at PAX a year ago. Can you tell us about other games you’re working on? Artistes (formerly Dreadful Drawings) – draw so some but not all players can guess successfully (Dixit style scoring). Other players want to guess in a way that is “popular”, not necessarily correct. Petal Pushers – Run a flower shop, build an engine that pollinates all players’ flowers. Sell bouquets and single stems and try to run the most profitable shop. What’s next for Tiny Towns? Release and see how it goes! Peter is also working on some expansion ideas, co-designing with Josh Woods. He also helped double the number of buildings in the base game. At PAX Unplugged… Andrew mentions the competition that occurred at PAX Unplugged – whoever got the highest score over the course of the three days got a Home Depot gift card. Where can people find you, Peter? Twitter: @peterLMcPherson One last question: Who’s your favorite author? Currently Brandon Sanderson. Love fantasy, and his Stormlight Archives series is fun, colorful, and adventurous. Find The Family Gamers online: Facebook: @familygamersaa Twitter: @familygamersaa Instagram: @familygamersaa Community: thefamilygamers.com/community Or, for the most direct method, email us!

Happy (almost) New Year! We’re back to doing “regular” shows after our PAXU blitz, and it feels good. Games Given and Received for Christmas: IceCOOL (which we had before we received IceCOOL2 from Brain Games for review! Argh!) Mole Rats in Space – a nice cooperative game from Peaceable Kingdom. Draw cards that determine what you’re allowed to do on your turn. Not a lot of room for error, which makes for a good cooperative game. We found it a little easy, but there are additional challenges we’re looking forward to trying. Lots of EXIT and Unlock! boxes. Cosmic Run Regeneration – we mentioned this when we talked to Dr. Finn’s Games at PAX Unplugged. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (for Nintendo Switch) – had a great time playing this on Christmas Day with most of the extended family. LEGO Incredibles (also for our Switch) Kinect RUSH – to replace the old version for the Xbox 360 that our kids liked but had a really tough time with (due to buggy 360 Kinect implementation) Andrew’s favorite moment was making his sister cry. The whole family pooled our money to buy her a nice 3D printer. What We’ve Been Playing: Smallworld – we can see why this is a classic example of an area-control game. We ended up only playing 4 rounds because it ran very long, but we’re willing to try it again. Kingdomino – Anitra played this with our youngest. So cute. Not really about keeping score, but it’s interesting that understanding the strategy does not require understanding the math. Jumanji – we played this after watching the original movie (which holds up surprisingly well! We love Robin Williams). It’s not a great game, but we played semi-cooperatively, as the game was intended, and had a decent time with it. (Don’t play it as a take-that game! Flip The Table tried that and most of the players ended up miserable.) Movie Time (a Slight Digression) We watched A Wrinkle in Time. It was a fantastic theatrical spectacle, but it wasn’t a good representation of the book. There were a lot of decisions that didn’t make sense and took away from the cohesion of the story told in the book. The kid who played Charles Wallace did a wonderful job, though. If you want a movie spectacle… watch Mary Poppins Returns! This was a lot of fun. Emily Blunt was fantastic. Back to the Games! Potions Class – a cute little game from Button Shy which we’ll review soon. Not a favorite, but a decent ultra-portable game for two players. Ticket to Ride New York – we picked this up right before Christmas. We played with the grandparents and Asher. Anitra says it felt very much like the original Ticket to Ride, but shorter. Andrew got destination tickets that were unobtainable and spoiled his experience. We don’t know yet whether that was a fluke or a normal problem in the game. The components (taxi cars and board) did feel rather cheap, but on the other hand, it’s a cheap game. Dinosaur Tea Party – another one played with the grandparents. It brought non-gamer stepmom out of her shell; by the end of the game she was asking questions and using funny accents like everyone else. Something to add to Nick’s review: this is a tough game to approach for a player that gets sensory overload, because there is SO MUCH to look for. Eventually, you can learn what to look for and what to ignore, but that’s a learning process. Get the MacGuffin – a light silly game from Looney Labs. A fun 5-minute filler that works well anywhere from 2 players t...

We welcome back Spencer Williams, formerly of Married with Boardgames, to talk about his new Lighten Up! initiative. What We’ve Been Playing Spencer is loving Forbidden Sky – it uses real electricity! Takes the “Forbidden” games to the next level. Many ways to die – struck by lighting, blown off the platform, etc. while you are trying to build the circuit and launch the rocket. Spencer also picked up Villianous and Magic Labyrinth in a recent sale at Barnes & Noble. Fireball Island is a blast! Not too serious, not terribly innovative. Just a fun romp. Some recent Family Gamers favorites: Drop It – SNAP review is included in this episode. Shadows in Kyoto – “basically Stratego with a Japanese geisha spy theme.” Fire in the Library – Anitra loved this press-your-luck cube drafting game. Andrew enjoyed it, but had some issues since he couldn’t mitigate his bad luck. We comment on how Andrew is insufferable during the process of losing. Maybe he should work on that. Drop It SNAP review (interstitial music: “In Dulci Jubilo” from Barry & Beth Hall) One of our favorites of the year! Find the pictures and summary. Lighten Up Initiative Spencer wants to push to get the board game Internet community to “lighten up”! We play for fun, and boardgames are essentially toys. Remember that it’s about having fun with people! Sometimes funny, sometimes heartfelt. Want to bring that out and keep people from being too serious about their gaming. We’ve noticed sometimes at well-established game conventions that some of the old “crusty” gamers just don’t look like they’re having fun. Criticize others less! Let’s aim for less negativity, and more fun. :) Let’s poke fun at ourselves! Let’s spread light! Battle the “darkness” we can so easily succumb to. Why did you start Lighten Up? Spencer loves creating content related to boardgames, but wasn’t ready to get back into reviewing. There are lots of reviewers out there already, who are great at what they do. There aren’t a lot of people making board game-related content simply for humor’s sake. There are different content types to reflect different kinds of gamers: Lighten Up Intiative is the umbrella that all content will be under. Comedy videos will be under “Lighten Up”. Married with Boardgames is still going to exist, now telling the stories of other married couples. How is boardgaming part of their relationship? Let’s encourage more couples to use boardgaming to strengthen their relationships. Critiquing is important to help people make good game-buying decisions, but Spencer doesn’t want to do that any more. Might we reprise “Hungry Hungry Hippos”? This was the best produced “Board Game Trailer” from Married with Boardgames. Spencer has a ton of ideas – stay tuned for more! Check out their satire video of the game Haven. Expect to see plenty more of Lara as well. She’s busier with her acting career, but still the most available person to help Spencer with his videos. Spencer says he’s been working on this idea since June and finally launched it early in December. People seem to recognize how much this is needed!

We’re here with another hour of interviews from PAX Unplugged. But we’ll also talk about our highlights in gaming from the last few weeks, and a little bit of Backtalk! What We’ve Been Playing We’re only giving you the highlights because there’s a TON of games we’ve played in the past month, and we don’t have time to cover them all. Here’s our favorites: Drop It from KOSMOS – it’s a fantastic spectator game, a lot like Maze Racers (it seems like forever ago that we interviewed Andy Geremia about his “brand new” game). Drop your tangram-style pieces into the vertical board. When your piece lands, try to avoid touching pieces of the same color and shape. Incredibly easy to learn, but with a fair bit of strategy. On top of everything else, it’s a game that can be setup, played, and torn down, without losing our four-year-old’s interest! Palm Island from Portal Dragon Games – Nick previously interviewed the creator at GenCon. This is a solo resource-management game, played with 17 cards, all held in the palm of your hand. There are also 2 player competitive & cooperative modes, that we haven’t tried yet. Warning: not a great game for kids because their hands aren’t big enough to hold on to the deck while also manipulating the cards. We celebrate Hanukkah, so we did play quite a bit of the dreidel game (with gelt, of course). Our kids are really drawn by the lure of cheap chocolate coins. Playing reminds us why we advocate family gaming. Andrew’s favorite game from the past month is Spell Smashers from Renegade Games. A word game with a fantasy, monster-slaying theme – who knew? The fact that the game doesn’t take itself too seriously actually makes it a little easier to suspend disbelief and really get into the theme. Pikoko from Brain Games proves that Andrew and Anitra are still awful at trick-taking games, even when we’re not responsible for our own cards. You can see everyone else’s cards (but not your own) and place bets on how many tricks each person will take in a round. We loved the cute peacock theme. Backtalk A few people have been asking us for gift recommendations – have you checked out our gift guide? There’s still a few days to buy and get games shipped to you before Christmas! Check out last year’s list as well. Our picture of HABA’s Dragon’s Breath garnered several comments. We think the 5+ age range they list is about right, because it involves drafting a “bet” each round on which color gems will fall out of the stack as a ring is lifted off. Is there a HABA game you really want to know more about? Tell us! Giveaway Winners The Mansky Caper: We strongly recommend you look up @manskycaper on Twitter and see the wonderful replies from Big Al Mansky himself. The winner is Vicky McKinley! Her response to Big Al proves she’s a regular Robin Hood. Home Alone Game: Our winner is Dexter Vorce! PAX Unplugged Interviews Labeled with timestamp for your reference. (0:18:35) Thunderworks Games – with Keith Matejka Andrew loves Roll Player, and asks Keith about playing it with kids. Playtesting with kids is an important part of the process. What’s the appropriate age range? What decisions make it too complex for certain kids? Keith tells us how he layers the rule introduction to help kids understand basic play before they need to grasp the m...

Today we have a real NASA scientist on the show! Welcome Dante Lauretta, Professor of Planetary Science at the University of Arizona. Dante is the leader of a NASA mission called OSIRIS-REx, which has just arrived at a near-earth asteroid called Bennu. He tells us about that mission and what is planned for the spacecraft. Dante has created three games, and that’s why we’re talking to him today. Xtronaut Xtronaut was Dante’s first game. Where did it come from? Part of his work is outreach, especially to young kids (B&G club). He was trying to teach them how a rocket works (throw away the different stages of the rocket to get the payload into space). Started with flashcards of different types/parts of rockets, but the kids would stack them up and want to trade them with each other. Originally the plan was a very simple after-school activity, and the more he learned, the more it grew. Was space exploration always a passion? Dante always wanted to be an explorer. Off on his bike in the Arizona desert as a kid. He really wanted to go somewhere no one had been before. Not many places on earth for that! “There’s a whole solar system out there, that’s waiting to be explored.” Working with kids is another passion for Dante, and he’s found that board games can help them get over a fear of science. We’re excited that there’s a movement of science-themed board games, and can’t wait to see what else is coming! In fact, the science club at Dante’s local Boys and Girls Club has become science board game club instead. Biology, oceanography, chemistry, gravity, and planets are all represented in the games they have now. The rulebooks for Dante’s games include a section that delves more heavily into the science, for players who want to learn more. Constellations Constellations was Dante’s second game, in collaboration with Ian Zang. It’s a set-collection game based on placing the constellations into the night sky – and they glow in the dark! Again, all the cards and tiles have additional information about the specific constellations and types of stars. Downlink Downlink is the newest game, currently on Kickstarter. Xtronaut was about assembling the rocket on the launchpad. Originally, Downlink was going to be an expansion, exploring what happens once you get out in space. Eventually, Downlink grew into its own game, and it’s aimed more towards gamer community. It’s more challenging and strategic, involving resource management, and lots of decision making and thinking ahead. We talk about progression in difficulty and complexity; not just in the games, but also in Dante’s game design skills. In Downlink, he worked hard on probability and die rolls, to incorporate the feel of risk management involved in the real world. Playing Games with Kids Dante’s sons have been game players “from the beginning”. “They really enjoy browsing Kickstarter with me…” One of their recent favorites is Vikings Gone Wild, where you build up your clans, explore, and fight off invaders. They’ve also turned LEGO Heroica into a more serious roleplaying game. Of course, they also help a lot with playtesting Xtronaut games! His youngest son is even working on his own game design right now. More on Downlink Mechanics: Start making big decisions right away. Invest your resources. Manage your time. How and when do you want to score your points? Specialize! There are three base types of cards: Technical, Management, and Cost – but half will be discarded to allow you to perform actions. Watch out – other players may take the cards you discarded! Modular: Any player can attach a vehicle to your rocket; anyone can attach instruments to th...

We just returned from this year’s PAX Unplugged. We’re exhausted, but ready to share with you our favorite moments and interviews from the show! Our Favorite Moments Anitra loved going to Flip Florey’s Super Saturday Board Game Serial – LIVE! Laid back but lots of fun. Flip had even made a lot of “20 sided balloons” and the gamification wheel made a real-world appearance. Andrew really enjoyed going to AEG, especially their upcoming game Tiny Towns. Gather resources and align them on the board to “build” various buildings. Make sure you leave enough space open! Wooden resource cubes and cute kid-friendly art. Anitra’s favorite game of the convention was ShipShape, an upcoming game from designer Rob Daviau and Calliope Games. Align punched-out grids over your ship’s “deck” to gain cannons, gold, and contraband. Obtain the grids by bidding high (or low) cards to get the appropriate grid from the stack. Andrew and Claire joined the TWIST gaming Twitch stream (fast forward to 1:23:30) and played Deep Sea Adventure. They had a lot of fun with Matt and Ann, even though Matt won. While they were at TWIST, Anitra and Asher were helping at the PAXU Family Gaming open house. Anitra mostly ended up teaching Sticky Chameleons, which was a blast. Also had a chance to play Rhino Hero Super Battle and see Unicorn Glitterluck. And a quick moment of Internet semi-fame; thank you to the listeners from Connecticut who recognized us! Andrew tried Stuffed from Certifiable Studios. He compares it to Steampunk Rally – except much simpler. Play as a stuffed animal hero; roll and place dice to collect gold, buy helpers, and complete a mission. Kids’ Favorite Moments Asher loved Fireball Island; especially flicking the ember marbles to knock other players down. His second favorite game was Beasts of Balance; stack the animals to build a tower – if it falls down, get 15 seconds to rebuild the tower so the volcano doesn’t explode! There’s also a battle mode for 2-3 players; cooperatively build the tower, but gain points individually and try to get the other player to knock the tower down. He dressed as Link from the Legend of Zelda, and PAX is one of the few places where he would be recognized by almost everyone. Claire also loved Beasts of Balance; especially the unicorn, the dragon, and the whale. She got to play a game that was being pitched to Breaking Games. “It was a cool game about pirates and I’ve never seen a game like it before.” Claire enjoyed her time with TWIST gaming (and the panel with Flip and dad/Andrew). “It’s the most family-friendly convention. I saw a bunch of little kids. It was really nice!” Interviews We’ve included timestamps for reference. (0:28:55) Big Potato Games Weird Things Humans Search For – A great party game, playable with kids down to age 9 or 10 (although there are a handful of cards you might want to remove for under 12). (0:31:00) Dr. Finn’s Games Cosmic Run: Regenerat...

We’re joined again this week by Stephen Duetzmann from Engaged Family Gaming! We are really looking forward to seeing Blume at the Yanaguana Games booth at PAX Unplugged. (Stephen formerly told us about Blume on episode 103.) Stephen is our go-to man for all things video game. “I’m weaponized.” What We’ve Been Playing Spider-Man (both Andrew and Anitra) – Andrew is very close to the end and looking forward to trying some of the additional content. It’s very well put together, even down to what people say on the street as “you” walk by. Stephen is sure there will be sequels. Sounds great to us! Megaman 11 has been a big hit for Stephen. It’s a love letter to the old Megaman games, and it has a casual mode that makes it a little easier (you don’t die if you fall into a pit). Pokémon! Andrew’s sister can’t decide whether to get Let’s Go Pikachu or Let’s Go Evee, so she asked our kids. We ask Stephen for recommendations. Stephen is convinced that Andrew is “allergic to fun” – and Andrew proves him right! But apparently Pokémon is surprisingly deep. Many of the handheld games are structured as RPGs with 40+ hours of content: but Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Evee are streamlined, removing the random encounters (so you can avoid them when you don’t want to fight them). Combat has also been simplified, looking a lot more like Pokémon GO. However, if you like the depth of strategy common to other Pokémon games, there are master trainer fights that require custom teams of powered-up Pokémon. According to Stephen, this is a great time to introduce your kids to Pokémon because there is so much coming out in the next year! PodPledge Introducing a way to support The Family Gamers directly. Check out our PodPledge page, and don’t miss the hilarious video edited together by Joseph Comings (Art of Boardgaming). EFG Recommendations We released our holiday gift guide recently, but did you know that Engaged Family Gaming releases a separate guide for each video game console? Highlights for PS4: Spider-Man, Megaman 11, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, and Valkyria Chronicles 4 (strategy game for all consoles) Highlights for Xbox ONE: Megaman 11, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Valkyria Chronicles 4, and Forza Horizon 4. Xbox GamePass makes a FANTASTIC gift, allowing you to play tons of older games and brand-new games at no additional cost. Highlights for Nintendo Switch: Let’s Go Pikachu/Evee, Super Smash Bros Ultimate (coming December 6), Megaman, Valkyria, etc. If you haven’t already, take another look at the Nintendo LABO kits – Stephen highly recommend the variety kit and vehicle kit, which contain many small projects instead of one or two big ones. The subscription services for any console make a great gift, especially for a kid you don’t know terribly well. It’s a gift that always fits! Board game highlights from Engaged Family Gaming: Azul, Photosynthesis, Funky Chicken, and Monster Match.

Did you know the average family has 1.8 kids? What do you do with the extra .8? Thanksgiving and the winter holidays are upon us. Even if you normally play with 2 or 3 players, you’ll probably want to accommodate more family in your games! After geeking out a little bit about the change in how the kilogram is defined, we get around to our topic: games that support five players, and do it well. [Skip to the five player games]   Last week, we released our holiday gift guide. What We’ve Been Playing Fidelitas – this is a medievally-inspired card game from Green Couch Games. Complete secret goals by playing characters to various locations and moving them around the city. Each character has their own special powers as well, so it makes you work your brain. “The Rube Goldberg machine of game mechanics.” Untold – Anitra and Asher sat down and created a world called “Inventor City”. The scaffolding offered by Untold helped them to tell an interesting story (well, interesting for a seven-year-old), and they’re hoping to revisit it soon. Catch! – from Peaceable Kingdom. We’re really enjoying this elegantly simple co-op. Expect a SNAP review this week. Knot Dice (our review) – Didn’t play quite as much of this as we’d like; Anitra shares a true confession. Mice & Mystics – from Plaid Hat Games. We love (or want to love) this role-playing / combat game. We’ve been playing it every once in a while for the past two years. The mechanics still feel a little too heavy for our kids, and the games tend to run long. Fight for Olympus (our review) – a fantastically balanced two-player game. Every card can be used in multiple ways with wildly different effects. Asher tried it and did OK but it was just a little too complex. Rocky Road A La Mode – Another game with multi-functional cards, also from Green Couch Games. We tried this for the first time with Asher. It’s super-cute and we can’t wait to play again. Adventure Land – not a typical HABA game. We picked this one up on a whim at Barnes & Noble a while ago, and finally tried it this past week (twice!). Each person gets 8-10 adventurer meeples. Every turn, you can move a meeple as far as you want, but only “east” and “south”, never backtracking. Pick up different types of randomly placed tokens, fight monsters, and accumulate points (depending on the scenario). When you run out of “swords” and “companions”, the game ends. Zitternix – a favorite dexterity game from HABA. And now for a quick digression… Hamilton! Andrew’s mom loves entering contests, and entered a contest on LuckySeat.com… She won the right to buy two tickets to Hamilton for $10 each! Anitra got to go with “mom” and they had a great time. What Andrew played while Anitra was gone: Century: Golem Edition – because we love it. Beyond Baker Street – 2-4 detectives cooperate to solve a crime faster than Sherlock Holmes. “A cross between Hanabi and Spy Club.” While holding your hand outwards, play cards to solve 3 aspects of the crime. Sherlock Holmes gets closer to solving the crime every time you share information about someone’s cards. But there’s also a special discard pile called ̶...

You want to be a master painter? In Pigment, from Copper Frog Games, you can be. Send your apprentices out to collect or trade “pigment” cubes (red, yellow, blue). Then spend them in the right combination to paint Renaissance masterpieces. Listen to our review in about 6 minutes, or read on below. In this light game, players take turns sending their apprentice meeples out to the “bazaar” to get pigment cubes, or sometimes trade one pigment cube for two or more. Once you have enough pigment cubes, you can use those pigments and an apprentice to paint one of the available paintings. Pigment combines worker placement with just a little bit of engine building. Each painting gives a special ability, but only while it is the topmost (most recent). Sometimes that’s an exclusive bazaar stall, sometimes it’s a discount on your next painting, and sometimes you’ll receive extra cubes based on an action that another player takes. In the two or three player game, Pigment is a race to be the first to complete 6 paintings. There’s also a solo mode (called “speed painting”), in which you race against an AI who automatically receives 3 random cubes each round. Every round, the last stall rolls off the end of the bazaar and a new stall is added. It’s one way that Pigment adds variety, but it also keeps players from planning out a strategy too far in advance. Impressions We find the theme very interesting, and it has beautiful Renaissance art. We think it could be a good introduction to worker placement and engine building, but more for non-gamer adults than for children. There’s no hidden information, and just a few early decisions will often determine the winner. The tiny meeples look like painters. They are super cute, and they’re each a combination of black, white, and gray. Their small size and difference between front and back makes them hard to tell apart. There’s a lot of nice elements in Pigment, but it leaves us wanting a little bit more. At $15, it is a decent, fast introduction to worker placement, and would also be a good choice for an art lover. The Family Gamers received a complimentary copy of Pigment from Copper Frog Games for this review. You Bred Raptors? provided our end bump music: “Avalanche”.

Our guest this week is Jenn Bartlett, “The Boardgame Librarian”. Jenn works at a public library in Connecticut, and part of her job is to “cultivate a boardgame collection, run a boardgame program, and do a lot of outreach and education too. I get to be an awesome librarian who works with awesome boardgames!” Have you always wanted to be a librarian? “I probably should have known… I always had a book with me.” But Jenn originally studied journalism in college. Graduating in 2008, newspapers and journalism were changing a lot, and jobs were hard to find. Jenn had worked part-time in a library while in school, and figured maybe that could work for a while. “Life is never exactly what we think it’s going to be.” How did you go from librarian to boardgame librarian? Jenn credits her husband for getting her started with games. It’s always been a big part of his life, and now it’s a big part of Jenn’s life too. She made it a component of her job, because she approached her director to talk about the power of different things that can change people. Not just books, but gaming and experiences can also bring people together and make connections. It didn’t start with the collection, it started with running a boardgaming group. Jenn wanted to see if there was any interest in gaming at the library, since her city already has 2 game stores and a large meet-up group. After the group was already quite strong, Jenn and her fellow librarians decided to undertake the task of adding many of the games for general circulation. (Here Jenn encourages us to reach out to our local library and see about doing boardgame meetups there. We discuss the game scene in our local area… or lack thereof.) How did you start the gaming group? About three years ago, Jenn pitched a monthly game group for adults to her boss. “This is happening, and it’s going to be amazing.” Jenn attended GenCon and pitched her library group to several publishers for donations. Rio Grande Games and GMT were the all-stars, donating several games each. The very first meeting of the game group had 18 people! They quickly determined that 2½ hours was not long enough, especially if they wanted to play crunchier games. What does the library gaming group look like now? Attendance now is normally 25-45 people. The group is very friendly; half the attendees are female and many of them are Millennials. The library gaming group runs for 4 hours once a month, and is focused on teaching and demos. People generally don’t bring in their own games, since there’s too much risk of damage. Jenn makes about 5 games available each session, and now she has volunteer teachers to help run games, too. Since all the setup is already done at the library, players don’t have to stress about setup or reading the rulebook. Just sit down and play. How did you get boardgames into circulation? Jenn decided with the game collection they had built for the gaming group, it should really be available to the general public. Besides the processing involved, there were a lot of decisions to be made: how long the games could be checked out, whether they could be returned at other branches, what the fines should be, how many games could a patron check out. The processing also involved lots of bagging and stickers and security procedures. (Security: all the pieces get counted. The circulation staff was not terribly excited at this prospect.) Jenn reveals that one of the most popular games at the library is Dominant Species – an incredibly hard, incredibly complex game. But it has cute dinosaurs!

Essen Game Fair (Internationale Spieltage SPIEL) is the world’s largest boardgame trade show. No one could hope to cover everything (and we won’t try!) We brought Nick on to help us with our top picks from Essen Spiel, accumulated through BoardGameGeek and other media. Did you know that in Germany, 118 is the directory inquiry phone number? We’re going to give you the 1-1-8 on Essen Spiel! What We’ve Been Playing Since Halloween just passed, Nick has been playing lots of Monster Crunch, and a lot of Batman: The Animated Series Dice. They also tried cute ghostly puzzle BOO and they’re still playing a ton of Dinosaur Tea Party, of course. Nick played Camel Up (Camel Cup?) for the first time and really enjoyed it, and finally had a reasonable showing in Small World. Andrew and Anitra have been really busy with Halloween preparations. We finally wore our Voltron costumes, and everyone thought we were Power Rangers (of course).   On their anniversary, Andrew and Anitra finally beat a game of Spy Club! We figured out that a key to solving a case completely is to heavily manage the movement of the suspect pawn to limit the “bad things” that can happen. Now that we’ve won once, we’re ready to start the mosaic campaign mode and write a review! (Spoiler: We really like it.) We got in a few plays of Chupacabra: Survive the Night. Not much strategy here, but it’s a fun “spooky” 10 minutes, stealing other players’ dice. Peaceable Kingdom sent us two games. Gnomes at Night is a vertical two-sided puzzle. Players must move through the maze on their side without going through walls – but may drag the other magnetically-connected pawn through the walls they can’t see. Also a clever turn-taking mechanism that allows for “team” play, extending the game to allow up to 4 players. Catch! is another cooperative game; players move cats to trap a mouse. The mouse’s moves are determined by a die and are unpredictable. Anitra was pleasantly surprised that such a simple game could have the same tension we’d expect from a more complex cooperative game like Pandemic or Forbidden Island. Andrew and Claire played Machi Koro, and it still suffers from the runaway winner problem, exacerbated by the luck of the dice rolls. We might look into Space Base or Valeria Card Kingdoms instead. Tournament of Towers – Draft cards that determine which pieces you can use in your tower. We reviewed this a year and a half ago, and the interview with Donovan and Jeff is one of the most fun we’ve ever done. The pieces in the final version are so solid and fun to build with, that we just couldn’t stop playing with them. VISITOR in Blackwood Grove – Andrew picked this up at Boston FIG a few weeks ago, and had a chance to play it with some friends last week. He made some unfortunate choices, but it was a good learning experience. Steampunk Rally – Race zepplins and don’t take too much damage. Add parts, get dice to activate powers and assist your movement/defense, etc. Remove zepplin pieces to pay for damage; only your cockpit must make it over the finish line! Frenetic feeling, simultaneous play. SNAP Review

Today, we welcome Erin Dean, board game renaissance woman! She tells us about her book, the board game museum she is founding, along with a game or two she’s been working on. “I recently quit my day job to focus on board game related activities full time” – she’s not kidding! Erin is currently doing all of the following: * Social media manager for Lucky Duck Games * Author of “For the Love of Board Games” book * Founder of The National Board Game Museum * Also working on developing some games National Board Game Museum Board games have a robust history, going back thousands of years. Erin and the board of directors think board games and their history are worth preserving. They’re a physical medium. No one else is focusing solely on them. The museum is intended to be very interactive – super-sized games to be played, copies of old games. Board games should be in a “please touch” museum – that’s how they’re intended to be interacted with. Erin has ambitious goals for the museum, including rotating exhibits, tournaments, and awards. How do you start a project like this? * Start with seeing a need * Form a board of directors * Filing for incorporation, 501©3, etc. * Work on finding a location (somewhere in the midwest USA). How can people like us help? * Go to the website: BoardGameMuseum.org – fill out contact form * https://www.facebook.com/museumforgames/ Book: For the Love of Board Games The Kickstarter campaign for Erin’s book was a smashing success (almost 1000% funded). There haven’t been many other books that go behind the scenes on game design without specifically being a how-to book for other game designers. Erin’s book explores the stories behind the games, as well as inspiring tips from over 50 designers. How can we get it now? * Can still pre-order / late pledge on Kickstarter * Eventually on Amazon / bookBaby / ePUB Erin has another book in the works. This one will be a bit heavier on female designers. There’s so many designers that haven’t been asked to tell their stories yet! Game: “Treedles on the Tree” This Christmas-themed, children’s game started with a trip to a psychic! Shortly afterward, Erin’s dad called her up and asked her to help a designer friend who needed help with a children’s game. Concept: A blizzard has hit Treedle Village and knocked apart the star from the top of the Christmas tree. Cooperate to gather the pieces and put them back together so Santa can see the tree & deliver presents! How to play: Roll on your turn, choose where to move, flip discs on the way. Reveal an ornament or a “whackadoo” – a bird who needs to be fed candy, otherwise they will steal the star pieces. Roll dice in real-time to keep the birds fed! Treedles on the Tree is currently planned for Kickstarter in early 2019, for fulfillment in the fall. Want to find more information? Right now, the best way is the Facebook group to get all the updates. Website TheTreedles.com is coming soon. Erin, what are you most excited for? Detective: City of Angels, a noir detective sandbox game, coming early 2019. (We’re super excited for the Sagrada expansions announced at Essen – more on this next week!)

It’s that time of year again! We revisit the best spooky, magical, and weird games to play for Halloween. But first, let’s catch you up on what we’ve been playing over the last month! What We’ve Been Playing: Sparkle*Kitty – a new favorite of Claire’s. Play word cards as “spells” to break down your princess’s tower. Twin Stars – a meaty solo game from Button Shy. Read Anitra’s review. Sprawlopolis – another Button Shy game. Anitra calls it “SimCity, the 15-minute card game.” Unlock! The Nautilus’ Traps – We had a few problems with this one. We compare the Unlock! series with the EXIT series; we like them both and discuss pros and cons of each. Spy Club from Renegade Game Studios. We still haven’t managed to win, but we were so close the last time! We also found out we were playing it wrong – idea tokens are not removed from the game when they are “spent” to gain certain actions. They are only removed from the game when cards explicitly tell you to do so. Roll Player – Anitra finally won! Perfect for anyone who likes dice, D&D, and min/maxing. Movable Type – a really neat word-building game from Robin O’Keefe, with player bonuses that can be gained by meeting certain requirements. The bonus cards picture various famous authors, and tie in to the authors in a wonderfully thematic way. Xtronaut: The Game of Solar System Exploration – a well-themed set collection game. Looking forward to trying it again soon. Dragonwood – it’s been a long time since we reviewed this. Still a great game, and made a nice pre-bedtime treat for the kids a week ago. Inoka – a beautiful game of woodland creatures battling each other, with a rock-paper-scissors mechanic. Nick Martinelli will be reviewing this for us. Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters – of course. Look for the winner of our giveaway! Chronicles of Crime – a really interesting and unique experience from Lucky Duck Games, but not good for most kids or larger groups. Read Andrew’s review for more details. SNAP Review Nick and Izzy review Robots & Rockets.   Halloween Games, Revisited Did you miss last year’s Halloween episode? We recommended: Potion Explosion – there’s a new version coming out with a plastic dispenser! (You can also get the plastic dispenser with the “6th student” expansion.) Voodoo – our kids still like this a lot. Place “curses” on fellow players causing them to do silly things. BOO – an interesting two-person puzzle game in a tiny box. A good “travel” game because it fits easily in a pocket or purse. Zombie Dice – a former Family Gamers favorite, it’s been mostly replaced by Batman: The Animated Series Dice Game in our house. But, zombies are a better choice for Halloween! One of the easiest games for young kids to play. Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters – this was highly recommended to us for the last year or more.