The Thoughtful Gamer Podcast

Ep 90: Card and Dice Poll Discussion

Marc sits down with Erik Twice, Ryan LaFlamme, and Andrew Holmes to ask each of them about their approaching to selecting their 10 greatest board games of all time. 

3:21 - Erik Twice's approach to selecting his top 10
7:41 - Why Netrunner?
12:27 - Why Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective?
17:57 - Erik's predictions
25:08 - Cosmic Encounter as board game comedy
34:48 - Erik's thoughts on the top 10
45:01 - Ryan LaFlamme's approach to selecting his top 10
49:28 - Why Triomphe?
53:42 - Why Agricola?
56:29 - Why Monopoly?
1:00:35 - Ryan's predictions
1:01:59 - Ryan's thoughts on the top 10
1:10:47 - Andrew Holmes' approach to selecting his top 10
1:16:41 - Why Whist?
1:22:37 - Why Gloomhaven?
1:29:32 - Andrew's thoughts on the top 10

Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction

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Ep 89: Dice, Fights, and Dividends: Some First Impressions

Marc and Ben talk about a few of the new games they've been playing. They're...all good? It feels weird to have an episode this positive, but there you go.

0:58 - Dice Command
11:55 - Battle for Biternia
31:37 - Boardgames: The Board Game (The Card Game)
43:03 - Union Station
54:19 - The part where I call out Gil Hova about an extremely unimportant opinion
1:01:57 - Robotech: Reconstruction
1:08:22 - Card and Dice Poll information

Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction

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Ep 88: Tile-Laying Games

Amber and Marc discuss tile-laying games since they've been playing a number of them lately. What makes tile-laying so compelling? Why is it a feature in so many of our favorite games?

1:29 -- Carpe Diem
3:46 -- Is Carpe Diem simpler than Castles of Burgundy?
9:35 -- Tile laying: what is it?
12:12 -- Variables
15:15 -- Growth
21:00 -- Information density
29:14 -- Tangent: What does "abstract" mean anyways?
37:35 -- The importance of graphic design
40:27 -- Puzzling

Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction

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Ep 87: A Conversation with James Naylor

I sit down with James to talk about his excellent debut game, Magnate: The First City, as well as his next project, cleverly titled Boardgames: The Board Game (The Card Game), and his podcast called Producing Fun. Magnate is such a bold and interesting first design and I'm completely on board for whatever he makes down the road. 

1:07 -- James' start in board games
4:57 -- Starting to design
8:19 -- Creating Magnate: The First City
13:20 -- Developing the "crash" mechanism in Magnate
19:21 -- Different styles of eurogame
24:01 -- Advanced vs basic rules in Magnate
31:38 -- First time game publishing experience
35:03 -- Boardgames: The Board Game (The Card Game)
53:32 -- Adapting a theme to a set of mechanisms
56:35 -- Art strategy
1:00:33 -- Future Naylor Games projects
1:07:32 -- The Producing Fun podcast
1:11:38 -- Comparing the state of games to film history
1:22:25 -- Marc once again floats his pet mechanism by a podcast guest

Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction

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Ep 86: Chillcast 3: Revenge of Chill

Marc and Ben have been playing a lot of new games, and you're going to hear about it! Come chill with us.

0:59 -- My City
5:13 -- Coldwater Crown
11:06 -- For Science!
19:51 -- Legends of Andor
27:11 -- Downfall
33:31 -- Exodus Fleet
38:29 -- San Juan
40:57 -- Antike Duellum
45:07 -- The Alpha
49:15 -- Tasty Humans
54:11 -- Glass Road
58:08 -- Anachrony
1:03:44 -- Ranking the games

Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction

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Ep 85: A Conversation with Dan Thurot on Board Game Criticism

Dan Thurot has been reviewing board games for a number of years now, and for my money he's the best in the business. I had the pleasure of sitting down with him to talk about games criticism, and in the course of the discussion we touched on history, economics, literature, and more. Also, lots of Cole Wehrle games.

Find Dan's writing at spacebiff.com 

1:24 -- Dan's start in board game criticism
6:35 -- "Fun"
14:10 -- Changes in board game criticism over the last few years
18:43 -- Misunderstandings about criticism
26:24 -- Board game criticism is still young
29:16 -- Overspecialization of critique
36:18 -- Shared language
48:28 -- The value of historical games
1:00:27 -- Challenges posed by abstraction
1:13:49 -- Civilization games and accidents
1:18:50 -- Playing as the villains

Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction

Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 84: Golf, Disc Golf, and Course Design

Marc and Bubba sit down to discuss two different forms of golf. They're still games, just on a larger scale. What makes them compelling as games, and what kinds of lessons can we learn about board games by looking at the history and development of course design?

1:18 -- Difference between a sport and a game
2:59 -- What is disc golf?
4:27 -- Our histories with the sports
12:19 -- Classifying golf and disc golf as games
15:57 -- The appeal of mastery over a difficult game
20:30 -- How will disc golf change in the near future?
24:02 -- Course design
25:26 -- The penal school of design
29:19 -- The strategic school of design
33:20 -- The strategic nature of par 4's
45:07 -- Designing around unorthodox throws in disc golf
49:15 -- Risk/reward, or push-your-luck
51:53 -- The heroic school of design
56:15 -- How should disc golf course design evolve and improve?
1:08:36 -- Applying these lessons to board game design
1:26:24 -- Which sport is best?

Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction

Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 83: Pain

Straight from the mind of Amber, this is an episode where she and Marc discuss games that are "painful". Marc prefers the word "tense". Regardless of what you call it, there's a reason Agricola is both known as "Misery Farm" and beloved by thousands. What makes a game painful rather than pleasant? What tricks can designers use to adjust the perception of their game? Are all board games simply metaphors about the inevitability of death?

2:15 -- The background
6:23 -- Game actions and the perception of time
15:00 -- Kingmaking tangent
18:53 -- Existentialism
27:02 -- Other games that cause Amber "pain"
29:53 -- Generous and non-generous games
37:17 -- Point floors
42:23 -- Non-gamers and not wanting to feel incompetent
46:22 -- Intermediary goals
49:37 -- Games where you can lose on the first turn
59:52 -- Is pain good?

Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction

Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 82: Reiner Knizia

Amber and Marc are here to talk about perhaps the most prolific board game designer of all time: Reiner Knizia. Going strong since the early 90's, Knizia is a master of making a game no more complex than needed. His games are straightforward and clear--something we see less and less of. Weirdly, this episode is not straightforward, with some truly odd tangents and rants.

1:50 -- Knizia's reputation (and many tangents and rants)
20:24 -- Lost Cities
25:46 -- Battle Line
27:42 -- The Quest for El Dorado
28:49 -- Through the Desert
29:13 -- Medici: The Card Game
30:23 -- Stephenson's Rocket
32:20 -- Babylonia
36:39 -- Abstract isn't the opposite of thematic
39:30 -- My City
43:20 -- Things get...weird
48:02 -- Modern Art

Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction

Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 81: A Conversation with Dan Kazmaier about Chai: Tea For 2

Dan and I chat about game design, his experience as a top-tier chess player, and, of course, tea!

Check out Steeped Games and the Chai Tea For 2 Kickstarter, live now.

0:00 -- Creation of both Chai games
10:16 -- Dan's history with board games
12:25 -- Dan's experience as a Chess Master
35:39 -- Chess influencing modern game design
41:27 -- Tea

Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction

Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.