Of Dice And Men

Chad, Ryan and Adam talk about what it takes to shepherd casual and non-gamers through the hobby to become the die-hard dice-chucking card-flipping gamers you want/need them to be! How else are you going to get TI4 to the table? After that we talk about games we've played recently, including Tobago (with the Volcano expansion), New Frontiers, Pax Pamir, Vagrantsong, and more! (photo from https://www.geograph.ie/photo/5033503 )

Ryan, Chad and Adam discuss the variance between different rounds of board games - specifically how the first and last round can feel and play differently from the rest of the game. Referencing a few examples we discuss good and bad takes on the issue and what our personal preferences are. After that we discuss some recent plays, including Throw Throw Burrito, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, Welcome To The Moon, Roll Player Adventures, and more!

Chad finally got off his butt and edited last month's El Grande episode! Adam, Ryan and Chad discuss the recently-added-to-board-game-arena game, El Grande! See how this 26 year old area majority game holds up to today's board gaming standards as we discuss before and after playing a full game! Could the nobles on the front cover be any more sour? How many Caballeros did Adam put in the Castillo? Find out now! After that we discuss our recent plays, including Townsfolk Tussle, Samurai, and A Feast for Odin!

Chad, Adam and Ryan discuss production quality! What does it mean? How does it affect gameplay? Are you more or less likely to buy a game because of it? In the second half we discuss our recent plays, including Splendor, The Colonists, What Do You Meme, and Mastermind?

Adam, Chad and Ryan discuss our theoretical new years resolutions when it comes to board gaming in 2022! Also discussed - Disney Sidekicks, Joking Hazard, What Do You Meme, Unlock Kids, MicroMacro: Crime City, Rocky Mountain Man, Sleeping Gods, Gaia Project and Terra Mystica

Adam, Chad and Ryan do a deep dive into Beyond the Sun, the tech-tree-focused space exploration game published by Rio Grande. We share our first impressions followed by a post-game wrap up after playing on BoardGameArena - find out what we thought! Afterwards we discuss a few recent plays, including Dungeon Degenerates and We're Doomed.

The Gang talks about their favourite Horror Board Games

The gang plays Name that Game! and discusses the solo game Thousand Year Old Vampire

The gang talks about board game mechanics that have become distasteful due to over-saturation of the mechanic in modern board game design.

The gang talks about board games that are based video games, and an overly long tangent about super hero movies.

The gang chats about the value, and how to derive the value of board games, and Adam tells us about his family playing "live action Among Us"

The gang talks about the Interruption mechanic in board games and Chad delves into the slightly disappointing Tainted Grail

The gang talks about games we didn't fancy at first, but after a while they grew on us ...like some sort of fungus.

The gang talks about the year 2020, the games they played and the effect the year had on the culture of boardgaming

The gang talks about gameplay tension, what it is, what creates it and what kills it

The gang gets into the Roll & Write genre, discussing what it is and throwing out examples of different variants within said genre.

The gang talk about Role Playing games and the impact the different RPG systems have on the gameplay and theme

The gang plays the Mashup game, where we take 2 games and make a new one out of the combination of them!

The gang talk about redundancy in the board game industry and discusses the redundancy in the board game industry.

The Gang talks about how to run your games online and explores the game Forgotten Waters

The gang shows off some of the board games on their shelves: gems, favourites and sentimental pieces

This fortnight, the gang talks about Board Game Publishers, what they do, what makes a publisher good and of course, what makes a publisher bad. Then we discuss some games including Shadows of Malice and CO2 Second Chance!

The gang welcomes back our guest Chad Boudreau, owner operator of our Friendly Local Game Store Comic Readers, to talk about the effect of the covid-19 pandemic on his business, and if when that get's just too depressing to continue, we'll play one of our awesome podcast games!

The gang returns for a live streamed discussion about our favourite game designers, and how thankful we are for what they've done for the hobby.

Adam, Ryan and Chad discuss how certain global circumstances have affected their gaming and the adjustments that they (and the hobby in general) have made to stay in touch with friends over dice and cards. We also discuss the progress we've made with The King's Dilemma since November, playing an online version via chat. No, YOU'VE been missing for 7 months! We've been here the whole time!

The guys talk about the Voting Mechanic in board games as well as The Book of Mormon, Spires End and talk about other games and nonsense

** NEW CONTEST ALERT! Listen for a chance to win a copy of Ethnos from mrdiceguy.com! ** Chad, Ryan and Adam discuss digital board games! The benefits of being able to play your favourite board games using your phone, tablet, or computer, but also the shortcomings of the digital medium compared to sitting around the table with cardboard. Afterwards we talk about some recent plays, including Mansions of Madness (1st Edition), TIME Stories: Madame, Catan, Defense Grid: The Board Game, and our future plays of Obscurio and John Company. Details on our latest contest sponsored by Mr. Dice Guy contained within!

Ryan, Adam, and Chad reunite after a long cold "ODAMless summer" to talk about games with an emotional attachment, the games they played over the summer, and a unique and mostly undiscovered game Sarah's Vision.

Chad, Ryan and Adam discuss the genre of drawing board games! Starting from Pictionary and moving forward, we discuss the mental block a lot of players have against drawing games and the ways that modern hits like Pictomania and Telestrations help overcome that hurdle and end with a great time for everyone. Also, why aren't there more exploration or dungeon crawlers that use drawing? As per usual we close out the show with some games we've been playing lately, including The 7th Continent, Gloomhaven, Tiny Towns, Dawn of Peacemakers, Unlock: Adventures of Oz, and more!

The gang talks about deception in board games and their experiences in an 8 month long game of Ultimate Werewolf Legacy.

The gang talks about two player games and some games we've played recently

After our short hiatus, Chad, Adam and Ryan return to the airways to discuss Board game burnout, that feeling that can overtake some people in the hobby when you just don't feel like playing, discussing or even thinking about board games. It can happen to anyone. Then we go deep on some games we've played recently including Forbidden Stars, the 40K Epic space combat game that Adam has owned for a while and finally got to play with Chad.

Ryan is your host, Chad your Vanna White, and Adam your lucky contestant as we strap in for another round of Create! That! Game! Chad brings up a random mechanic, theme, and victory condition (thanks to boardgamizer.com) and while Ryan explains the mechanic and a few of its best games, Adam comes up with a sales pitch for the next big board game success! After we've successfully drained Adam of his last ounce of creativity we discuss a few recent plays, including Ultimate Werewolf Legacy, Factory Funner, Sarah's Vision, and more!

Adam, Ryan, and Chad discuss all the various ways players can influence the outcome of a board game _without actually playing the game!_ That's right, it's metagaming time! Inspired by a recent episode of Space Cats Peace Turtles (an excellent TI4-focused show, check 'em out at https://spacecatspeaceturtles.podbean.com/), we go through the list, starting at "kingmaking" and ending at "stealthing". Are any of these legitimate tactics? Or is it all just in good fun? Find out!

Chad and Ryan discuss one versus many games, games where one player leads an overpowered faction or character against the rest of the table. We dissect both Overlord and Cat & Mouse games, reviewing the best and worst of each sub-genre, and discuss why these unique asymmetric games deserve a category of their own. As usual, we close out the show with some recent plays, including Fury of Dracula, Love Letter, A Handful of Stars, Spire's End, and more!

Adam, Ryan and Chad take a few moments to discuss the role of narrative and story in modern board games. Whether it's a static story or a collection of random events, storywriting has taken more of a prominent role in board game design. We discuss if we think the tales written in-between the mechanics actually add anything to a game's value, and highlight a few good and not-so-good examples in the hobby. We close the show with a few games we've been playing lately, including Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Gloomhaven, Treasure Island, Just One, Ultimate Werewolf Legacy, Comanauts, and more!

Ryan, Adam and Chad discuss replayability in the world of board games. What does it mean for a board game to be considered replayable? Are there certain mechanics or genres that produce games that are more replayable than others? Do expansions help or hinder the issue? We also discuss a few of our recent plays, including Samurai, Gizmos, Tyrants of the Underdark, Railroad Ink, Gloomhaven, Ultimate Werewolf Legacy, and more!

Happy 2nd birthday to us! Join Chad, Ryan and Adam as we celebrate our second year of blabbing on about board games, the people who play them, and the culture surrounding the hobby! Most of the episode is spent entertaining questions from you, the audience, and a few of our favourite podcasts chime in! We also draw for our Chronicles of Crime giveaway courtesy of MrDiceGuy.com, and talk about some recent plays including Western Legends, Kremlin, The Mind, and Telestrations. A special thanks to all our podcasting friends who contributed to the episode: Punchboard Paradice - https://soundcloud.com/punchboard-paradise Men On Board - https://www.menonboardpodcast.com/ Playing Rough - https://soundcloud.com/user-2432511 Dice Men Cometh - http://dicemencometh.com/ Pod of Love - http://www.allportsopen.com/Podcast.aspx?ID=3 The Drinking Meeples - http://thedrinkingmeeples.com/ Cardboard Reality - https://www.cardboardrealitypodcast.com/ Forgot My Dice - https://forgotmydice.com/ Bridge City Boardgamers - https://twitter.com/bcboardgamers Mega Meeple - https://themegameeple.com/

CONTEST ALERT: Enter our Chronicles of Crime giveaway care of MrDiceGuy.com - details inside! Ryan, Adam and Chad discuss the highs and lows in our annual Year in Review episode! We give our two cents on the BGG hotness in 2018, discuss this year's Kickstarter success stories, and finally hand pick our best and worst games from the last 365 days. We wrap up the episode as usual with the games we've been playing lately, including Adam and Chad's play of Twilight Imperium 4, the mad rush of 2018 releases Chad breezed through, and Ryan's dive back into Settlers. No, we won't call it Catan. Don't forget about our giveaway of Chronicles of Crime with mrdiceguy.com - details on how to enter inside!

**NEW CONTEST ALERT! Listen to hear how to win Chronicles of Crime from mrdiceguy.com** Chad, Ryan and Adam discuss the various ways a game night can go wrong for the average group, outside of a poorly designed game. Playing with other humans certainly comes with its own array of considerations, but have you ever had a night wrecked by the theme of a game or the gaming environment? We discuss a few things to look for and your best bet to avoid a negative gaming experience. After the contest break we discuss Arkham Horror, both the second and newly released third editions. Both games feature investigators looking to defend the city of Arkham from one or more existential threats, but how each game goes about it is quite different. We list the differences and similarities as well as our likes and dislikes with Fantasy Flight's flagship Arkham Files product. Finally we wrap up the show with some of our recent plays, including Holding On; The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr, El Grande, Chronicles of Crime (our newest giveaway game), and discuss a few new releases!

Adam, Ryan and Chad discuss what to do when players make mistakes while playing boardgames, as well as discussing the ever present classic board game Risk!

Ryan, Chad and Adam have put together their gift recommendations for the 2018 holiday season! Whether you're buying a gift for a work gift exchange, the kids, or perhaps your favourite podcast hosts, we've got you covered with suggestions for any conceivable scenario. Well maybe not for your pets. Forgot that one. After we make our draw for the winner of our Brass: Birmingham contest (sponsored by Mr. Dice Guy Games) we break out our feature game of the episode, Decrypto! This 2018 release takes on the popular Codenames word-guessing genre, with 80% less words and 80% more strategy. Find out why this game may take the cake in the wordplay genre. Finally we wrap up with our usual "what did we play recently" section, featuring Discover: Lands Unknown, Secrets, Space Alert, and Chad has a pity party about Chronicles of Crime.

Chad, Adam and Ryan discuss "big games in small boxes" - those games that surprise you with their strategic complexity relative to the smaller-than-normal packaging. Is it possible to get the same level of satisfaction from a card game as a plastic-filled behemoth? Is replayability proportional to the number of components? Does size really matter? We discuss these topics and more! The second half features A Fake Artist Goes to New York, a big social deduction game in a box the size of your hand. This drawing game gets everyone involved with its approachable theme and ease of play, and doesn't require any artistic skills short of drawing a line for players to contribute. Find out what we think! Finally we wrap up with some games we've played and want to play, including Ultimate Werewolf Legacy, Pandemic Legacy Season 1, Neanderthal, Discover: Lands Unknown, and more! Don't forget to get your entries in for our Brass: Birmingham giveaway! Details buried in the episode somewhere. Photo Credit: https://boardgamegeek.com/image/4251729/fake-artist-goes-new-york

CONTEST ALERT! Listen to hear how you can win your very own copy of Brass: Birmingham! Just in time for Halloween, Adam, Ryan and Chad discuss board games where players take on the role of villains, whether required by the game's theme or mechanics, or where players are just encouraged to become evil masterminds in their own right. We start with the more obvious hidden traitor and one-versus-many board games, and move on to the more obscure as we try to identify which genres are more prone to bring out the evil in their players. Starting the second half of the show we feature Werewolf, a hidden role game where hapless villagers attempt to rid themselves of a hidden population of werewolves embedded within their village's population. Find out why this psychology experiment from the '80s is still one of the most popular party games around, and how Chad hosts his online variant (which Adam and Ryan may prefer to the in-person version?) Finally we wrap up with some games we've played at a local 24-hour convention and a few games we're looking forward to, including Twilight Imperium 4th Edition, Stockpile, Pandemic Legacy Season 1, Tiny Epic Quest, Hunt for the Ring, The Mind, Concept for Kids, and more!

Ryan, Adam and Chad argue for 30 minutes about the meaning of a big word. Really. We take on the topic of "variable player powers" and how that broad categorization applies to games from Cosmic Encounter to Vast: The Crystal Caverns, and everything in-between. Is there a hard line between variable player powers and asymmetric games? We certainly don't have the answer. As you may have guessed, our feature game is also asymmetric - Root. This recent hit has been the talk of the town, and your three hosts had a chance to play it together. Hear about that game (and Chad's subsequent games since) went, our views on asymmetric games, and what our opinions are on this cutesy woodland creature wargame. We close the show with some games we've been playing recently, including Detective: A Modern Crime Story, Gloomhaven, and Chad's 5 hour Through the Ages match. Don't forget to find Mr. Dice Guy's most recent discount code buried within!

Ryan and Chad bring you this episode's topic, Deceptive Cuteness. Starting with a few examples from outside the board game sphere, we demonstrate how games can catch you off guard with their cute themes and/or artwork and follow up with an uppercut of complexity, feelings, or straight up meanness when you least expect it. Our feature game for the episode is Gloomhaven, a game that Ryan's recently started and Chad has been solo'ing for awhile now. This massive release from two years ago is still wowing dungeon crawlers with its massive tomb of quests. Find out what works and doesn't as your two hosts reflect on their recent plays. We wrap up with some games we've been playing lately, including Seal Team Flix, Pax Porfiriana, and Detective: A Modern Crime Story. Speaking of Detective, see if you can find the discount code for Mr. Dice Guy hidden in the show!

Chad, Adam and Ryan discuss the topic they've been tiptoeing around for months - co-operative games! From Pandemic onward this style of board game has taken the world by storm, and is distinctively different from the standard competitive game. We discuss trends in the genre as well as our personal picks from the classification. Afterwards, we discuss a recent co-operative hit, Black Orchestra! This game puts players in the role of German citizens during World War II, attempting to assassinate Hitler from within Germany's ranks. What does this game bring to the standard "4 actions then event" co-op genre? Listen to find out! Finally we wrap up with some recent plays, including Tiny Epic Galaxies, Star Trek Frontiers, and a few roll'n'writes.

Alert! Keep your ears open for a exclusive discount code from our sponsor, Mr. Dice Guy, available until September 9th! Ryan, Adam and Chad take advantage of the recent GenCon released to talk about innovative design in board games. Is the future of board gaming bright, or just full of derivatives? Can't it be both? The feature game for this episode is one of the most innovative and popular releases from 2014 - Dead of Winter. This zombie game stands apart from the others as the first one to really "get it" (according to Adam) - find out what makes it so unique in a sea of flesh-eating clones. Finally we discuss some games we've played/are going to play, including Factory Funner, Dungeon Lords, Black Orchestra, Seal Team Flix, and Pax Porfiriana.

Adam, Chad and Ryan discuss bidding and the auction mechanic in board games, breaking down the different types of auctions and what they add to the games that use the mechanic. They announce the winner of the #OnlyAzul giveaway contest and also discuss some of the things they heard about regarding GenCon 2018. The feature game got the episode is classic game Power Grid, there is a small addition to the segment "Adam Struggles to like Twilight Struggle" and the boys talk about Skip Bo, The Lost Expedition, some of the Graphic Novel Adventures, and what they want to play in the future.

Let Chad, Adam and Ryan take you back to those lazy summer days of gaming with our discussion on Cabin Games; the games of our summer youths and the future of these dusty shelf classics. What common characteristics do these games have? What games from our collections will be the future treasures of the next generation? We discuss this and more! Also featured this episode is Descent: Journeys in the Dark 2nd Edition as well as a touch of Imperial Assault. This one-vs-many board game is the epitome of the dungeon crawling genre, but how does it hold up to today's standard of gaming? We highlight the gameplay of it's close cousin, Star Wars: Imperial Assault and dote on the app integrations recently released for both titles. Finally we wrap up the episode with a summary of some games we're playing and looking forward to play, including one of the newest Unlock entries, Ryan's current obsession with Carl Chudyk, and Adam's newfound love for Through the Ages. Don't forget our Azul Twitter Giveaway is still going on, sponsored by mrdiceguy.com - check our website for more information on how to enter!

**CONTEST ALERT! Listen to the episode to hear how you can win a copy of Azul from MrDiceGuy.com!** Today we'll be talking about a problem near and dear to all of our hearts - shelf toads. The games that do little more than collect dust on your shelves, but you can't bear to part with. What games are more prone to the "shelf toad" status? How can we get them back to the table? We discuss this and more in our mid-July episode. We take a break to announce our newest sponsorship partnership with Mr. Dice Guy, a local Canadian online game store. Check them out at mrdiceguy.com, and listen for details on how to win a copy of Azul in our twitter giveaway! Our feature game of the episode is Through the Ages, where we talk about both the first and second editions, why this is a shelf toad in Chad's collection, and what you can do to get a chance to play this great civilization-building game. Finally we wrap up with some recent plays, including The Big Book of Madness, Twilight Struggle, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, and the latest Terraforming Mars expansions.0 Image credit: https://boardgamegeek.com/image/2725254/through-ages-new-story-civilization