Exploring Games Podcast – Exploring Games with GamerChris

Welcome to my apparently bi-annual podcast about boardgames!  In this long-overdue episode, I take some time to look back at 2014 and offer my thoughts on the games that stood […]

Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.  While a million things have kept me away from the mic for far too long, I’ve found my way back and hopefully […]

Through much effort and great anguish, I have rescued Exploring Games from the dire threat of oblivion!  After being delayed for way too long as I tried to figure out […]

Today is the 2nd anniversary for the Exploring Games podcast (woo hoo!), so celebrate with me by checking out this huge episode that’s mostly all about the popular Worker Placement mechanic. […]

As I finally make my way back to the mic, I turn my critical eye on the whole “Microgame” fad that has swept over the hobby.  What is a Microgame?  […]

This episode is all about the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.  This is a game that I’ve had a lot of strong and contradictory feelings about ever since I first heard […]

Once again, it's been a while, so a huge portion of this show is dedicated to just talking about games that I've been able to play recently. But I also do a couple of other things, like call some more attention to my ongoing contest to win copies of Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia and Nanuk. And speaking of Nanuk, I then go on to do a detailed review of it and hopefully stoke your desire to enter the contest! Lastly, my voice gives up the ghost before I can get around to reviewing Trains, so we'll have to save that for next show...

In finally getting back to the mic after the holidays, this episode is all about wrapping up 2013. I start off with a little bookkeeping (and announce the winner of the Bruges contest) and discuss (okay, brag) about all the games I got for Christmas. Then I spend quite a bit of time catching up on all of the games I've managed to play over the last 3 weeks or so. And finally, I round out the show by looking back over 2013 and giving my "awards" for the year, including the official Exploring Games Game of the Year!

I've been wanting to do this show for a while. Stefan Feld is one of my favorite designers, and he's been on a crazy run over the last couple of years. So in this episode, I'm going to take his two middle-weight games from the last year, Bruges and Rialto, and compare them to each other. It's hot Feld-on-Feld action, and best of all, I'm going to give away my copy of the game I like least!

In this episode, my friend Ken Coble and I sit down to discuss our experience with MACE, a semi-local gaming convention in Charlotte, NC. This was my 11th straight year going to MACE, Ken's 3rd, and the convention's 2nd year in Charlotte. While we do spend a little time talking some about the con itself and some of the people we met, the bulk of our comments here are about the games we played throughout the weekend, so hopefully this show will be useful even to those of you who will never have the chance to come to MACE...

In the first of my new "shorter format" shows, I make it all about Kickstarter. First off, I talk about 5 current Kickstarter projects that have gotten my attention (and some of my money). Then, I get into an in-depth review of Kings of Israel, a fully cooperative game about ancient Israel, that's also currently active on Kickstarter...

Once again, I finally found my way back to the mic to record another episode of Exploring Games! In this installment, I start off with some announcements about plans for the future and the progress of my own game (Acute Care). I then go through a hefty list of "recently" (a term that I use a little lightly here) played games. Next are the main segments of the show, with first getting into a little exploration about what is a good definition for what is or is not a game, and then finishing with an in-depth review of Suburbia...

This is an episode I've been wanting to do for a while, where I do pretty in depth about playing solo boardgames. After a quick introduction, I get right into a discussion about the role that playing boardgames alone serves and answer some challenges and questions about it. Then I launch into a list of boardgames I've played solo before, and finish with reviews of six solitaire boardgames: Levee en Masse, We Must Tell the Emperor, Zulus on the Ramparts!, If I'm Going Down..., Nemo's War, and Friday.

Geezaloo! It's been way too long since my last podcast. Between taking two vacations, helping with Vacation Bible School, being crazy busy at work, and then all of other normal stuff that I still needed to get done, I haven't had any time lately to write or record anything. But finally, I was able to finish up this podcast (that I've recorded over 3 different sessions in the last 3 weeks) over the weekend. So, in this podcast, I start off by running down my recently played games (there's a bunch of them from the last month or more, including Bruges and old-school basic D&D), then get into a discussion about boardgame awards and their relevance both to us as hobbyists and to the greater public, and finish up with a review of Terra Mystica.

This episode is one I've been wanting to do for a while, where I think and talk a lot about iOS and other digital avenues to play boardgames...