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A conversation about tabletop games
Episodes
Wednesday Sep 26, 2018
Wednesday Sep 26, 2018
We've got a bonus 'cast! Marc, Matt, and Orion are joined by Sam Wolkenhauer, who has built a football analytics algorithm to try to predict games and evaluate teams. You can find all of his stuff at peteratings.wordpress.com. In the podcast, we discuss his model and what kind of cognitive errors he sees football teams and coaches making that are causing their teams to lose more than they should. We cross apply some of that thinking to board games, even. Tune in and find out all sorts of good rational thinking, even if you're not a big fan of American football. Also find out why running backs don't matter.
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.
Sunday Sep 16, 2018
Sunday Sep 16, 2018
Marc and Orion discuss the talk of the boardgaming town these days: Root! But first, we went to the New Hampshire Comicon's board game room and had a wonderful time with great people and great games!
4:16 - Baseball Highlights 2045
13:58 - Roll Player
33:07 - Sticheln
35:45 - Tribe
38:38 - El Grande
41:01 - Root
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.
Thursday Aug 30, 2018
Thursday Aug 30, 2018
Marc and Matt are joined by Orion (who is on a train) to talk about randomness. What is randomness? No, really, what is it? What kinds of randomness work best in board games, and what are some of the most interesting applications of random elements we've seen? Will we finish before Orion's train arrives?! (Spoiler: no)
4:22 - Defining Randomness
17:31 - Input/Output Randomness; Acceptable Amounts of Randomness
40:32 - White and Pink Noise
47:05 - Chaos
59:10 - Games With Interesting Randomness
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.
Thursday Aug 23, 2018
Thursday Aug 23, 2018
No particular agenda today. I talk about some new TTG developments, a book series recommendation, and some board game stuff.
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.
Saturday Aug 18, 2018
Saturday Aug 18, 2018
How'd we get through 36 episodes without doing a deep-dive into the oeuvre of our favorite designer? This oversight has now been fixed, as Marc and Matt talk about every single game Vlaada Chvatil has ever made.
5:20 - Arena: Morituri te salutant
6:55 - Prophecy
8:27 - Sherwood
10:23 - Through The Ages
25:51 - Graenaland
27:14 - Kámen – Zbraně – Papír
28:05 - Galaxy Trucker
34:16 - Space Alert
36:48 - Dungeon Lords
48:24 - Bunny Bunny Moose Moose
49:50 - Babes In The Wood
50:33 - Travel Blog
51:02 - Sneaks and Snitches
51:41 - Pictomania
56:50 - Dungeon Petz
1:02:18 - Mage Knight
1:05:24 - Tash Kalar
1:08:08 - Codenames
1:11:26 - Codenames: Duet
1:14:29 - Star Trek Frontiers
1:15:28 - That's A Question!
1:17:29 - Design Consistencies: Humor
1:19:52 - Design Consistencies: Complexity As Mechanism
1:22:44 - Design Consistencies: Inelegance
1:26:30 - Design Consistencies: Mean Games
1:28:03 - Design Consistencies: Multiple Success Tiers
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.
Thursday Aug 02, 2018
Thursday Aug 02, 2018
Just some meandering thoughts about the Gen Con announcements I've heard about so far, and a couple other things. Happy Gen Con! Or GenCan't.
0:41 - Button Shy Design Winners
1:33 - Ganz Schon Clever Online
4:34 - Gloomhaven Online
6:30 - New Armada Ship
7:05 - Arkham Horror 3rd Edition
8:35 - Keyforge
11:12 - New Crossroads Game
12:00 - Twilight Struggle Digital On Sale!
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.
Saturday Jul 28, 2018
Saturday Jul 28, 2018
Marc, Orion, and Bubba talk about that most peculiarly-named genre of game: Ameritrash. We talk dice rolling, card pulling, combat-focsed narrative games. What makes some of them some of our favorite games of all time, and what makes others frustrating to the extreme?
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.
Wednesday Jul 18, 2018
Wednesday Jul 18, 2018
It's fundraising time for The Thoughtful Gamer and I promise it's pretty much going to be limited to this podcast and associated posts/social media postings. Fundraising and self-marketing is weird and awkward, so let's all be awkward together! In all honesty I think there's a lot of cool new rewards lined up for people who support The Thoughtful Gamer, and this will outline them.
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.
Tuesday Jul 17, 2018
Tuesday Jul 17, 2018
We've got no particular agenda. We're just going to sit back and chat. Marc and Matt are joined by Orion who is all the way across "the pond" in Scotland. We talk about some games, we listen to Scottish restaurant ambient noise, and we make long-term hiking plans. It's all very chill. Mostly. Charterstone incites some anger.
2:06 - Brass
10:39 - Codenames: Duet. Also, Orion turns into a robot
23:27 - The Gallerist
29:06 - Charterstone
30:54 - Charterstone spoilers begin
40:03 - Quidler
42:20 - SET
45:59 - Game Design
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.
Friday Jul 06, 2018
Friday Jul 06, 2018
Marc and Orion talk about elegance in games. Is it a simple matter of rules complexity vs. strategic complexity? Or are there additional elements that go into our conception of elegance? What kinds of games tend to be more elegance, and is elegance always a good design goal?
Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction
Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.