The Thoughtful Gamer Podcast

We're creeping down the list to better and better games. Marc, Matt, Orion, and Ben talk through some of Marc's favorite games ever. This time we hit some serious controversy, the ripples of which are felt all throughtout the rest of the list. Marc stands by his rankings. SPOILERS BELOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:35 - Command And Colors: Ancients 5:10 - Wits and Wagers 9:54 - Archipelago 14:11 - Dice Forge 16:40 - Capital 18:44 - Millennium Blades 23:55 - Libertalia 27:18 - Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective 32:14 - Star Wars Rebellion 36:32 - Dungeon Lords 41:48 - Paramedics: Clear! 45:40 - Above and Below 50:12 - Blood In The Fog 54:34 - CrossTalk 1:01:17 - Onitama 1:03:37 - London 1:08:13 - Kemet 1:14:08 - Calimala 1:18:08 - Star Wars Imperial Assault 1:21:52 - Five Tribes   Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Prompted by a discussion in the Thoughtful Gamer discord channel, Marc, Orion, and Matt explore the nature of language, games, and aqueousness as they discuss what constitutes a dry game. It's a concept that people seem to understand but can't quite define. Will we be able to do it? Spoiler: I have no idea. Skip to 5:09 if you don't care about sports. Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.  

The countdown has returned! Marc has expanded the list to 100 games this time, so there's double the fun. In this installment Marc and Orion blast through numbers 100-81. They're all great games you should check out! SPOILERS BELOW . . . . . . . . . 5:11 - Seikatsu 7:32 - Sekigahara 9:25 - Terraforming Mars 12:26 - Medici: The Card Game 14:08 - Descent 2nd Edition 18:22 - For-Ex 24:16 - The Shipwreck Arcana 28:53 - Isle Of Skye 30:54 - Time of Crisis 37:12 - Deception: Murder In Hong Kong 39:16 - Evolution: Climate 44:30 - 1960: The Making Of The President 47:09 - Alchemists 50:30 - Scrabble 52:07 - Caverna: The Cave Farmers 57:09 - Exceed 1:01:18 - Riftwalker 1:06:22 - Sagrada 1:07:34 - Ticket To Ride: Europe 1:11:18 - Three Kingdoms Redux Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

PAX East expanded to 4 days from 3, and that means we got even more games played this year, including an absolute GEM of a game from CGE. We also rant about Jimmy Johns and, frankly, get extremely silly. Also, the debut podcast appearance from our good friend Lindsay! 3:12 - First Impressions of PAX East 2018 11:15 - Tabletop Tournaments 15:34 - Expo Hall 22:21 - The Grimm Forest 23:24 - High Heavens 27:21 - Wallet Games by Chip Beauvais 32:15 - Downforce Expansion 37:34 - Tokyo Metro 41:48 - Faza 44:15 - Panel On Game Balance 50:48 - Jimmy Johns Sandwiches and Bad Design 56:09 - Merlin 1:01:12 - Munchkin CCG 1:04:15 - Civilization: A New Dawn 1:08:32 - Dice Forge 1:11:27 - I don't even know what to call this. You're just going to have to listen to it. 1:14:00 - The Shipwreck Arcana 1:22:06 - El Grande 1:29:56 - London 1:33:45 - Nusfjord 1:39:28 - Pulsar 2849 Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.  

I've got a wide assortment of topics today, from rulebook pet peeves to disappointing card games to an exciting livestream announcement. Happy Friday! 0:29 - Problems With Rulebooks 6:19 - Consider Supporting Meeple Like Us 7:11 - Great Resource: Stonemaier Games' Blog 8:18 - The Mind 9:46 - Deep Sea Adventure 11:37 - Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game 14:44 - Top 100 Games Podcast Livestream Announcement Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ever feel like you're just not doing as well as you should at games? Want that secret sauce so you can beat your friends? Marc, Orion, Matt, Matt's secret brother Dave, and another Matt who we call Bubba are here to help! We're sometimes not bad at games and we have a variety of tips to help you out. 4:17 - Find The Bottlenecks 9:06 - Understand Resource Values 15:30 - Identify Action Loops 22:23 - Digression - Who Is This Advice For? 23:32 - FOO Strategies 33:34 - Be Aware Of Remaining Time 42:58 - Always Draw First 44:31 - Sports Digression 45:05 - Deck Efficiency 53:22 - Figure Out If You Should Differentiate Or Follow 56:31 - Disguise Your Strength 1:01:35 - In Co-Ops, Maximize Your Offense 1:04:50 - Leave Your Options Open 1:16:16 - Subvert Common Expectations 1:22:34 - Reverse Engineer From The Victory Condition Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Marc and Orion sit down to talk about all they played at the Granite Games Summit in Nashua, NH. It was a wonderful convention and we played some truly awesome games! Except one. Prepare for a good old-fashioned rant. Paramedics Clear!: 2:31 Clank! In! Space!: 7:04 Dominant Species: 13:38 Rising Sun: 18:57 Deck Construction (prototype): 43:38 Here I Stand: 46:45 Lisboa: 55:32 Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.  

I chat with Matt from Mountaintop Games about his first game design: The Primary, which is a light area control game based around the US primary election system. It launches on Kickstarter tomorrow, right here: https://goo.gl/hcSz79 Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Marc, Matt, Orion, and Ben join up to talk about two of their favorite real-time games: Space Alert and Captain Sonar. What makes them so captivating? How do their differences highlight their respective strengths and weaknesses? Will Marc ever be able to end the podcast, or will it forever spiral into more and more increasingly irrelevant tangents? Only one way to find out! Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Greetings! I'm here with another quick update on what games I've been playing recently and what's in store in the next couple of weeks. Get my first impressions on Terraforming Mars, The Gallerist, and the new Netrunner meta. Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

This week's podcast is a wonderful discussion with Jason Perez, a psychotherapist from the Every Night Is Game Night podcast, about depression and mental health. We talk about what it means to be depressed, why if you think you might be struggling with depression you should seek help, and Jason talks about 10 things you can to do help break out of a delf-defeating depressed cycle. Board games can play a role in that! Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Longtime listeners will know that Matt frequently tries to sabotage this podcast by talking about hockey. Well, back when me, Orion, and Matt were doing our "listener question" podcast, we got into a very long discussion about sports that I didn't include in that podcast. I then forgot about it for a while but have dug it up for your enjoyment. Spring training is about to start and the hockey season is in full-swing, so hear what we have to say about those games and the games played around them. Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Join Marc, Orion, Matt, and Wes in a hidden movement cage fight! The old Fantasy Flight standard goes up against the new hotness. Which one is better? Only one way to find out. Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Hey, all. This one's me talking about how I've organized my life recently to be more productive. I also discuss some very early first impressions of the odd game Vast: The Crystal Caverns. Finally, I weigh in on the subject of using "they" as a non-gendered singular pronoun in game rulebooks and why that's obviously a good thing. Obviously. Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

This is an odd one. Marc, Orion, Matt, and Wes talk about the differences between board games and video games as media and how their inherent qualities shape how we interact with them, and each other. Included are multiple references to Plato and a 20 minute tangent where we question the premise of the entire podcast. Good times! Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.