Sat, 1 October 2022 Boardgames To Go 206 - The Personality of a Boardgame Collection   Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. Opener: Taverns of Tiefenthal. Plus someone finally got Wingspan online multiplayer right, and it was the BGA team. I've gone through a few waves of downsizing my game collection. The latest was just a month ago, inspired by a friend's visit to organize my collection. In the process, I felt the ability to let several games go. They haven't been sold off yet, but they're stacked up elsewhere in a for-sale pile, letting me consolidate the games I'm sticking with into fewer shelves. When I stepped back, I saw that several of the games on the shelf were ones that anyone might have in their collection, while others were more personal choices, oddballs for one reason or another. At least they are less popular, I think. I've collected ten of those titles to talk about in this episode. (That includes one of the games that comes from my spillover collection in a credenza at work.) I've been thinking about a new top ten of more recent games, but I'm not ready with that. Perhaps that will be in a future show, because there ARE plenty of modern titles that I really enjoy. It would be fun to talk about them, in part to contrast them against the "hotness" on BGG and Kickstarter that I often can't connect with. Again...that's a future show. In THIS episode I thought my original top ten was worth discussing all over. In some cases they are games I love just as much as ever. Others are more sentimental favorites, not really making it to the table any longer. In a few cases I think the games represented of a type of game that I still enjoy, and there are newer examples. Closer: The outcome of our Discord polling about “evergreen” games. In contrast, I almost completely forgot about the “Essen anticipation” shows I used to do! -Mark Direct download: BGTG_206_-_The_Personality_of_a_Boardgame_Collection.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT

Thu, 1 September 2022 Boardgames To Go 205 - Convention Season (with David Thompson) Opener: Royals Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. For boardgame publishers, I believe there's such as thing as "convention season." Of course game conventions happen all over the world, all across the calendar, but for the industry there's a special significance to Gencon in the US, and Spiel in Europe. Add in Origins, UK Games Expo, the Nuremberg Int'l Toy Fair, events in France or Japan...the list goes on & on. Especially for the domestic North American market, however, the summer season of Gencon and Origins means something for sales & product launches. Both events are located in the middle of the US. Designer (and friend!) David Thompson is also located in the middle of the US. I had the great fortune to stay with him for a weekend recently, and besides playing a bunch of games together, we also recorded a podcast. He'd recently been to Gencon & Origins, as well as Ohio's own Buckeye Game Fest. We sat on his back porch during a summer evening and recorded this podcast together. I hope you enjoy the discussion. https://discord.io/BoardgamesToGo Closers: I sat next to a guy on the plane who played a lot of Catan...but only on the app on his smartphone. He told me how the original game has too much luck, how certain Seafarers maps turn it into more of a game of "pure strategy." I showed him Azul on BGA, Iberian Gauge in a photo, and A Few Acres of Snow on Yucata. It's like we were speaking the same language, but different dialects that could barely understand each other! -Mark Direct download: BGTG_205_-_Convention_Season_with_David_Thompson.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am PDT

Mon, 1 August 2022 Boardgames To Go 204 - Where Are They Now? A Decade of Spiel & Kennerspiel des Jahres Winners (with Greg Pettit) Openers: Root, My Gold Mine, and LAMA Dice Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. The Spiel des Jahres and Kennerspiel des Jahres awards were announced last month. Congratulations to the designers and publishers of Cascadia and Living Forest. These are still the awards with the most worldwide influence and importance, despite coming from just one corner of it--Germany. However, in this episode I’m not talking very much about those recent winners. Instead, my friend and frequent podcast guest Greg Pettit joins me on the mic to talk about the previous ten years of winners. If these awards are as big of a deal as I say, then shouldn’t the winners from the previous decade still be popular & relevant? Still on the table in our game groups? Let’s talk about that. The yardstick to compare them against is Catan. Actually, you can add [thing=9209]Ticket to Ride[/ticket], too. Both of those games won the Spiel des Jahres many years ago. We’ll be coming to the 30th anniversary of Catan in just a few more years, and Ticket To Ride is approaching its 20th anniversary. In a hobby that bemoans the short shelf life of new titles, these two continue to be everywhere. If you run into a new person at school or work that has played “our games,” there’s a good chance they’ve played Catan and Ticket To Ride. THAT’S influence & importance. Do any of the latest decade's Spiel des Jahres winners have that kind of impact? I’m not sure if any of them do, though a few may have some staying power. Greg & I talk about that, combining our own opinions & observations with “data” from BGG Rankings and what’s on mass market retail shelves at Target or Barnes & Noble. In the US (and maybe Canada?) those are a good litmus test of staying power with the larger public of game-players. The Kennerspiel winners are a little different. Whether these are more for “gamers” or not is up for debate. Here the BGG ranking is probably a better measure. Interestingly enough, the SdJ’s have a more constant “decay” in their popularity and ranking, while the Kenners have more highs & lows: titles that have done a better job sticking around, and others that are dropping off. The nature of this award has been shifting, too. I hope you enjoy the discussion. https://discord.io/BoardgamesToGo Closers: Greg says games need to be introduced & taught more than simply given as gifts. Then Mark mentions the enduring power of Dungeons & Dragons. Somehow they both talk about giving games away. -Mark Direct download: BGTG_204_-_Where_Are_They_Now_A_Decade_of_Spiel_and_Kennerspiel_des_Jahres_Winners_with_Greg_Pettit.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT

Fri, 1 July 2022 Boardgames To Go 203 - What We're Playing Online (with Dave Arnott) Direct download: BGTG_203_-_What_Were_Playing_Online_with_Dave_Arnott.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am PDT

Wed, 1 June 2022 Boardgames To Go 202 - SdJ and Kenner Predictions June 1, 2022 Please join my Discord server https://discord.io/BoardgamesToGo There you can find other BGTG (and WargamesToGo) listeners, introduce yourself, share some current gaming thoughts, find online opponents, and maybe even meet someone who lives within driving distance of you in the real world. It's happened! Opener: Lisbon Tram 28 Year in, year out, I care about the Spiel des Jahres...even though gamers here on BGG grumble about these awards. These are simpler games meant as ambassadors from our hobby to the general population. They're a significant part of the growth of boardgaming that we enjoy & appreciate. Then when those newbies want to take the next step in boardgaming, the Kenners are good for that. All in all, I think it's a great system. I'm not concerned about the heavy gamers--they can look to the DSP, the Golden Geeks, or other awards. While the SdJs are meant to be lighter, more family-targeted games, the very best ones are capable of being played in two modes: friendly and shark-y. Or family-style and gamer-style. I think Carcassonne, Settlers, and Ticket to Ride are great examples of that, and there are others. The nominations and recommendations for the Spiel des Jahres and Kennerspiel des Jahres awards were announced last week...but not before I recorded an episode! Every year some number of other hobbyists who care about the SdJs make their guesses about what games will be on those lists. I like to follow along on those, sometimes making my own guesses. There was some speculation about these games on the BGTG Discord server, too (come join us!). So this episode is kind of foolish, but I did it anyway. I recorded my rundown and commentary about the games people thought MIGHT be nominated for the SdJ and Kenner awards. Then I went back and recorded a shorter addendum since the actual nominees and other recommended titles had been announced after my first recording. You'll hear that the guesses managed to include all of the final nominees, though there were several other contenders that weren't named by the jury. Closer: Games should accelerate to the end. Or, at the very least, they shouldn't slow down! -Mark Direct download: BGTG_202_-_SdJ_and_Kenner_Predictions.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am PDT

Sun, 1 May 2022 Boardgames To Go 201 - Top Ten "New" Games (with Brian Murray) May 1, 2022 Please join my Discord server https://discord.io/BoardgamesToGo There you can find other BGTG (and WargamesToGo) listeners, introduce yourself, share some current gaming thoughts, find online opponents, and maybe even meet someone who lives within driving distance of you in the real world. It's happened! Opener: Playing games with the "correct" player count (e.g. Disney Villainous) The last two episodes have been a look back. Back at my entire time in the hobby, and also back at the first Top Ten list of favorite games I ever made. It was fun for me to reflect on those titles, finding how many of them I still enjoy. But admittedly, it featured a lot of old games. I think the NEWEST game on that list was twenty years old! Now I wanted to make more of an effort to talk about some recent games I enjoy. Because the truth is that I play new games all the time. I'm not a Cult of the New guy, but between my own purchases and those of my buddies, we still fill most game nights with one or more titles that are new to us. I've long maintained that encountering a new game is a significant aspect to the hobby--especially among the most avid hobbyists. I'm not so different. In theory I'd also like to be part of "the conversation" about whatever is topical in our hobby, but in practice I'm usually behind that curve. When I set out to make a list of these recent games I like, I first thought in terms of the past decade. Or just take it back to 2010, to use a round number. Fortunately, everyone around me laughed me out of the room, saying that a dozen years ago isn't anyone's idea of "recent." So I tried harder, limiting myself to games released in the past five years. So that's 2017. It's the best I could do. Then I heard the recommendation to include another gamer friend who's much more focused on the latest releases. Brian Murray has been on my podcast before, but it's been a while. Now I was super glad to have him onhand to share his top five recent games, and he went MUCH more contemporary than I did. We wrapped up by sharing our honorable mentions. Brian mentioned Lost Ruins of Arnak, Cataclysm, Res Arcana, Faiyum, and Viscounts of the West Kingdom, while I also included Just One, War Chest, The Mind, Belratti, Little Town, and The Adventures of Robin Hood. Closer: Not relocating, and vaccines are working, so I'm looking forward to some gaming events. -Mark Direct download: BGTG_201_-_Top_Ten_New_Games_with_Brian_Murray.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT

Fri, 1 April 2022 Boardgames To Go 200 - A Quarter-Century of Boardgaming (with Dave Arnott) Opener: Please join my Discord server https://discord.io/BoardgamesToGo ! There you can find other BGTG listeners, introduce yourself, share some current gaming thoughts, find online opponents, and maybe even meet someone who lives within driving distance of you in the real world. I almost can't believe I've made it to episode 200! Even though my boardgame podcast has been around a long time (the longest!), contemporaries like The Dice Tower and Garrett's Games and Geekiness are closer to a thousand episodes. "Newcomes" like Shut Up & Sit Down will be passing me very quickly in terms of episodes...they all passed me in terms of audience long ago. But that's ok--I remind myself that I do this podcast largely to make a contribution to the hobby and get my voice out there. That a loyal handful of you listen & enjoy it is icing on the cake. I should've asked my wife to take a photo of Dave Arnott and I recording this episode. There's a photo of us recording one long ago, perhaps the earlier retrospective we did about the hobby. That was episode 75, back in 2007, now 15 years ago! At that time we were reflecting on how things were different, mostly better, than when we both entered the hobby after Settlers and Siggins. We were looking back on a decade or so, feeling that we were "old men" in the hobby. Now we can look back on a quarter-century of boardgaming, and we're REALLY the old men now. A lot has already been written about how the hobby is different now than it was in the past. Everything from Kickstarter to under-represented folks to co-op games to social media to "mainstreaming" our games with distribution in Target or Barnes & Noble. Dave & I touch on some of that, but we don't try to analyze the industry or the hobby so much as our changing experience. To some degree, I think all of us go through an "arc" in this hobby: discovery, enthusiasm, purchasing, missing old favorites, downsizing, and a "settling in" for years of enjoyment with old friends. Is that right? What do you suppose is next for me? Whatever you think about that, thank you for helping me get to 200 episodes, no matter how long it took. I still think about games all the time, play them almost as much as ever, am interested in new trends as well as old favorites...and feel compelled to share my opinions. It's how I came up in this hobby--hearing others' opinions. Boardgames are inherently social and communal. Perhaps it only makes sense that talking about them is a related activity. -Mark Direct download: BGTG_200_-_A_Quarter-Century_of_Boardgaming_with_Dave_Arnott.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT

Tue, 1 March 2022 Boardgames To Go 199 - Top Ten Revisited Opener: 7 Wonders: Architects, France's Game of the Year winner (the As D'Or) Do you have a Top 100 list? How about just a Top Ten, and do you update it every year? I have a sort of list, but it's the same one I've had for over twenty years. In fact, I ran through it very quickly on the first episode of this podcast back in 2005! (No need to dig up that old fossil, but my show had to start somewhere. ) I've been thinking about a new top ten of more recent games, but I'm not ready with that. Perhaps that will be in a future show, because there ARE plenty of modern titles that I really enjoy. It would be fun to talk about them, in part to contrast them against the "hotness" on BGG and Kickstarter that I often can't connect with. Again...that's a future show. In THIS episode I thought my original top ten was worth discussing all over. In some cases they are games I love just as much as ever. Others are more sentimental favorites, not really making it to the table any longer. In a few cases I think the games represented of a type of game that I still enjoy, and there are newer examples. Closer: Fragility in boardgame mechanics -Mark Direct download: BGTG_199_-_Top_Ten_Revisited.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 4:00am PDT

Tue, 1 February 2022 Boardgames To Go 198 - Getting Back Into The Swing Of Things? February 1, 2022 Let me see about keeping this going. It's been a long while since I had anything approaching a regular posting schedule. No promises, but for my own sake I'd like to (re)start boardgaming and podcasting a little more often... Opener: Five Games For Doomsday podcast As I explained in the previous episode, I'm not yet living in a post-pandemic world. None of us are. Things have not gone back to normal. Not even "the new normal." At least, I hope not--I hope things can get a bit better, more stable, and more social than they are for me at the moment. My boardgaming hobby is therefore in a hybrid state. Sort of like how we talk about "hybrid meetings" at my work where some people are in the office, but most are at home on their screens--my boardgaming is a mix. Much of it is still with friends (and some random people) on sites like BoardgameArena, Yucata.de, and Brettspielwelt. Other times just two or three of us manage to meet in-person for a real game night over a table, with drinks & snacks. I want the latter to take over my hobby again, but we aren't quite there yet. Consequently, the games I discuss are a blend of ones played with friends across a table, and others played with friends on a screen. As always, I have thoughts, opinions, and questions about the games regardless of the medium. My main thoughts are about The Adventures of Robin Hood, the Spiel des Jahres nominee from last year (in the podcast I mistakenly say Kennerspiel nominee). The story of Robin Hood is ok, I suppose, but what impresses me is the physical gameplay design of this one. I'm sure there are many great examples of this concept, but I struggled to find a good description or list anywhere. I don't just mean the bits, and I definitely don't mean sculpted miniatures (thankfully, this game doesn't have those). No, I mean gameplay that relates to the physical act of manipulating the boardgame as an object. Dexterity games do this, but they're in a different category. I mean strategy games that do this. I'd love to find more examples. Images by Tobias Franke & Henk Rolleman Surprising to me, thoughts about this game leaked over into thoughts about solo boardgaming in general--why I don't like it, even though I love solo wargaming. Next I play pop psychologist on myself to connect this feeling about solo boardgames to my waning interest in fiction...if I'm consuming it alone. Nonfiction is my solo experience, while I want to enjoy fictional stories/shows/games with friends & family. Other games discussed are Isle of Cats, Bosk, So Clover!, and LaCorsa. Closer: The game design of Wordle -Mark Direct download: BGTG_198_-_Getting_back_into_the_swing_of_things.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT

Thu, 30 December 2021 Boardgames To Go 197 - Boardgaming during the Pandemic Year 2021 December 30, 2021 There were enough good feelings about the previous episode (both my own directly, plus your feedback) that I felt compelled to squeeze in one more episode before the year is out. So this podcast "season" can claim multiple episodes! It's just me this time, rambling on about the year that's just passed. It's not exactly a recap of my games played, though there's some of that. Nor is it about the pandemic we're still living through, though there's some of that, too. It's just what my own 2021 was like for boardgaming. A lot of online gaming before the vaccinations meant we could game together, in-person again...but then some disappointment that we still aren't gaming across a real table as often as before. Perhaps 2022 will be better yet. We shall see. Nonetheless, between online and in-person plays again, I really did get in some good totals this year. My quick numbers are 80 different titles a total of 126 times...and that's only counting in-person plays. I used to include online plays, which would bump that up to 135 & 291, very similar to the 100/300 numbers I would typically get in the years before the pandemic. So while it feels to me like I did less gaming in 2021 than I'd like, the numbers say that I'm doing as well as ever. -Mark Direct download: BGTG_197_Boardgaming_during_2021.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 5:18pm PDT

Tue, 14 December 2021 Boardgames To Go 196 Post-BGGcon 2021 (with Greg Pettit) We all know last year's event was cancelled due to covid, but late in 2021 BGGcon was back on! I ended up having to cancel my own plans to attend, but "every-timer" Greg Pettit was there. And he's back on my podcast to discuss. What a good reason to finally issue another episode! Direct download: BGTG_196_Post-BGGcon_2021_with_Greg_Pettit.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 5:06am PDT

Sun, 10 May 2020 Boardgames To Go 195 - Boardgaming during the Coronavirus A small, solo episode for me to talk about the boardgaming I'm doing during the coronavirus safe-at-home quarantine that so many of us are under. Mostly that means online gaming of one form another, whether a dedicated website or via videochat. My face-to-face gaming has been extremely limited, almost non-existent. I really miss it, as I miss hanging out with my friends. Fortunately we have this technology to keep us in connection and camaraderie, even during this difficult times. I didn't do an opener & closure in this small episode, but I did wrap up with some anticipation for the upcoming Spiel des Jahres nominations, especially the curve-ball surprises we sometimes get. The announcement comes later this month in May. Looking forward to it! There's a great geeklist where you can read everyone's guesses for games that could be nominated, adding your own ideas or giving thumbs/comments to ones you agree with. Online boardgaming sites BoardgameArena Yucata.de Boardgames Online MabiWeb SpielByWeb -Mark P.S. Just played JackBox (Drawful2) with my kids long-distance! Direct download: BGTG_195_-_Boardgaming_during_the_Coronavirus.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 3:59pm PDT

Sun, 5 April 2020 Boardgames To Go 194 - 2019 Year in Review (with Martin Griffiths) 2019 "Best of" Geeklist   Martin G (qwertymartin) Patron Badge for 2009 through 2019 Martin returns to the podcast after five years to talk with me again about the year just passed. This episode we spend less time talking about the raw statistics for our games played, instead having more fun discussing a bunch of "best of" categories for the past year. Best artwork, party game, component, 2-player game, and so on. Fun to reflect on the past year in that way, and there's a special follow-along/participation geeklist for you all to use, as well. -Mark Direct download: BGTG_194_-_2019_Year_in_Review_with_Martin_Griffiths.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 4:51pm PDT

Wed, 18 December 2019 Boardgames To Go 193 - Post-BGGcon 2019 (with Greg Pettit) Opener: Skipped this part since all we're doing is talking about (mostly new) games played! Closers: Skipped this, too, but you can think that my suggestion that listeners subscribe & participate in the Boardgames To Go guild as my unofficial closer Geeklist: Post-BGGcon 2019 (with Greg Pettit)   (Gregarius)   [/floatright]Another year that I didn't make it to BGGcon, but of course Greg Pettit did...he's an "every timer"! Since 2010 (a decade, hmm...) Greg and I have been recording this episode after the event, whether I was able to join him or not. Greg tells us about the event, its new location, and then about a whole lot of games played. Even oldtimers like Greg & I find ourselves playing new games as well as some old favorites at an event like this. Since these are often first plays of a new game, I like to solicit "1-5 star ratings" instead of BGG ratings. What's the difference? Maybe nothing, but in my mind, stars are more of a gut feel after an early play that measures excitement to play again, as well as (or maybe more than) an analysis of a game's long-term evaluation. As Greg says, it's easier to give 5 stars to a game you just had fun with than to say it's a 10. -Mark Direct download: BGTG_193_-_Post-BGGcon_2019_with_Greg_Pettit.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 7:52pm PDT

Fri, 23 August 2019 Boardgames To Go 192 - Origins Game Fair 2019 Opener: Bukiet (Bloom) Closer: BGG's new look This isn't the first time I've attended the Origins Game Fair, one of the United States' larger national game conventions. But my previous times were once in the 1990s...and once in the 1980s! As far as we're concerned, that's a completely different era. It was before the current wave of boardgames, even before CCGs had their wave. Now in 2019 the event was dominated by our style of boardgaming, with a subset of CCGs, RPGs, and wargaming around the edges. Those other times I attended Origins was back when it moved around--different cities in different years. I went when it was local to me, and I only went for a day or two. Now, of course, the event has its permanent home at the Columbus, Ohio convention center. To get there I had to fly cross-country, staying with friends in a rented apartment for an extended weekend. In fact, these were friends I barely knew before Origins. I knew David already, and his other two buddies I met over Skype. It's another example of what's so great about this hobby, the good people. Partway through our time at Origins, these newfound friends & I gathered around my iPad to record our thoughts. The audio is good enough, I think. Like I always enjoy, we had some meta conversation about the convention itself, the venue, people, and overall experience. Then we dive into the games themselves. The funny thing is that we played a bunch of older games, not all new stuff. I swear I'm not responsible for this (not entirely)! These guys were as excited to play some older titles as the new hotness. We had some of both, as you'll hear (or see below). Wednesday (travel day): Red7, Wildlands, Blood Red Skies, El Grande, Imhotep, The King is Dead, Railroad Ink, The Mind, No Thanks Thursday: Tigris & Euphrates, Silver & Gold, Ringmaster, Museum, Exit (Catacombs of Horror), Cockroach Poker, LAMA Friday: War Chest, Keltis Way of the Stones, Musketeers, Piepmatz, Wingspan Saturday: Gnomopolis, Undaunted: Normandy, unpublished prototype, Shifty Eyed Spies -Mark Direct download: BGTG_192_-_Origins_Game_Fair_2019.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 12:05pm PDT

Sat, 8 June 2019 Boardgames To Go 191 - Spiel des Jahres Top 40 I'll be attending Origins Game Fair this year (June 2019) in Columbus. I've been there before, but only in the 80s & 90s, so I'm sure it's substantially different now. I'll be there Thursday-Sunday, including participating on a panel of wargame podcasters/YouTubers/bloggers Sunday morning. That's listed in the program as shown below. I think it's free, and although it's about wargaming you may want to stop by anyway. The topic is the current "golden age" of the hobby, and part of what I have to say is how there are more euro-wargame crossover titles now. Some good aspects of euro design & production have made their way into wargames. I'm thinking of titles like Memoir '44, Twilight Struggle, Academy Games' 1754/1775/1812 series, A Few Acres of Snow, and so on. Whether you attend the panel or not, I'm happy to hand out my little BoardgamesToGo and WargamesToGo buttons to listeners. Just track me down and I should have some onhand to give away. I'll mostly be doing open gaming, I think. Drop me a note on Twitter or geekmail if you like. Armchair Dragoons Presents Wargaming Media: State of Play This panel featuring wargaming media personalities will discuss the current “Golden Age” of board wargaming and what can be done to ensure its survival. Location: GCCC - Apods - A210 Date: Sunday 6/16/2019 10am (2 hours) Opener: Silver & Gold Closer: SdJ jury comments • Dale Yu's 2009 interview with Tom Werneck at Opinionated Gamers • Harald Schrapers and other jury members It's Spiel des Jahres season. That means the speculation has happened, the actual nominees & recommended titles have been announced, and now we're just waiting on the final prizewinning selection. This doesn't matter to many people--in fact many gamers don't think it's a big deal. But it's a big deal to me and here's why: I'm a hobby gamer from way, way back. Like four decades. If you think hobby gaming is niche now, you have no recollection of what an odd corner it was in back then. Stereotyped as being full of nerdy boys and grumpy old men, that was kind of true. Game shops did not smell good. Mature romances and stable careers were hard to find. Now, those people are still around--and they deserve their hobby, too--but I find it FAR better today that we have more diverse game groups filled with everyday people doing everyday jobs. Interesting games are on sale in bookstores, at Target, and of course online. Not everything has to have an orc in it. I don't know if the hobby IS bigger & broader, but it sure feels that way. True, these improvements may have come around on their own. After all, formerly geeky entertainments like Game of Thrones and Marvel comics now dominate our cultural landscape. Perhaps hobby games would've developed on their own. I don't think so, however. Or, at least, it all happened much faster (and--importantly--across a broader audience) because a group of game reviewers in Germany took artistic criticism of gaming as an artform seriously. They drove their publishers to do better, and in turn the publishers were rewarded with increased business. It was a positive cycle, and we are some of its lucky recipients. There are a lot of awards thought up & given out by all sorts of organizations. There have been some in America for decades. Yet they didn't have this impact. In fact, there were other awards in Germany, too. The Spiel des Jahres has worked like no others because it has been cultivated & maintained by a dedicated, revolving collection of game critics. Even if the lighter, more family-focused games aren't your favorites, you still benefit from their polishing of the games business. For someone like me, it's even better because I honestly love many of the titles that have won the Spiel des Jahres. I don't love ALL of them, though. Not even close. As you'll hear, I'd say I love about a third, like another third, and don't like the final third. Close to that. This episode is a ranking of all 40 of the SdJ winners, and (briefly) what I think of them. -Mark ============================================================ ============================================================ ============================================================ Direct download: BGTG_191_-_SdJ_Top_40.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 5:03pm PDT

Sun, 14 April 2019 Boardgames To Go 190 - Grail Games (with David Harding) Openers: KeyForge and Lost Cities Rivals Closers: "It's light but and I liked it" / Fillers fill me up; Do gaming statistics add or subtract from your enjoyment? Over the many years on this podcast I've interviewed plenty of gamers, and a few designers. Apparently I'd missed talking to a publisher, however. I first encountered David Harding as an online gamer-friend, whether through Yucata.de, Twitter, or just email. We played some games together and traded messages. Somewhere along the way he became a game designer, and then a game publisher. David designed & produced Elevenses, One Zero One, and Matcha, then broadened into publishing other designers' titles. Most notably, he has produced new editions and new games from Reiner Knizia himself. Besides the well-known Medici, David and Grail Games brought us Knizia's most substantial new game in many years, Yellow & Yangtze. In fact, Grail Game has published quite a number of amazing Knizia titles. Have you ever been dissatisfied in your day job and fantasized about being a game designer or publisher? David's story will resonate with you. Clearly it isn't easy, and it doesn't make you rich. In fact, you probably still need to stick with that day job. But there's a joy & pride in bringing thee games to the public, too, and you can hear that in David's voice and story. Towards the end, David describes the current state of the hobby in a way that will resonate with anyone who takes a longer view. Although he's super careful to allow any gamer their own way of enjoying the hobby, personally he's the sort that appreciates repeated plays and games we can all stick with. Or even just games that he likes personally. "Like the games you like." Good advice for all of us. -Mark P.S. You can tell from this podcast that David is unique, fun, and self-deprecating personality. If you want to see & hear more of his charming quirkiness, check out his Grail Games channel on YouTube. Direct download: BGTG_190_-_Grail_Games_with_David_Harding.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 4:08pm PDT

Sun, 10 March 2019 Boardgames To Go 189 - Welcome to Season 15 I pushed back an interview show I have coming next* in order to open the 15th year(!) of this podcast with a solo episode. In it, I reflect a little on the podcast and (re)tell some stories about it. Then I launch into a LONG list of games I've managed to play at three recent events: EsCon 2019, SoCal Games Day #76, and an extended weekend boardgame cruise with some buddies. In those events I played a mix of old favorites, some new-to-me superfillers like I prefer, a few longer games, and some that have some hype/hotness about them. See? Even I play those trendy titles sometimes, kickstarted or not. As you'll hear, I sometimes like them! Opener: Stories about the podcast Closer: I always say, "Thanks for listening," and today I mean that more than ever. I wouldn't keep doing the podcast if not for the positive feedback I receive from my audience. You all make it worth the labor of love. -Mark * Spoiler alert! It's with David Harding, the designer/publisher behind Grail Games. Direct download: BGTG_189_Welcome_to_Season_15.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 5:06pm PDT

Sun, 16 December 2018 Boardgames To Go 188 - Essen 2018 (with Chris Marling) Openers: • Orbital • Pikoko   Chris Marling (hairyarsenal)   Game designer, blogger, and real-life journalist Chris Marling joins me once again to talk about Essen. As he did two years ago, he had a new game launching at Spiel, so we get to hear about that. But he's also an enthusiastic game hobbyist like the rest of us, and he also talks about the event itself from that point of view. Chris loves the game fair, and has been going for quite a number of years. From that perspective, he's able to notice some shifts & changes in the hobby that affect the world's largest boardgame event itself. We talk about those, too. Chris was there, in part, to help launch his new game, Witless Wizards. If you were there, perhaps you saw him, played a demo with him, or got your copy signed. He came home with a lot of new games, as always, and by now he's had a chance to play most of them. (Remember, Essen itself is more of a game buying event than one with lots of opportunities for actually playing your purchases.) Chris gathered up ten titles he wanted to talk about for one reason or another. Sometimes because they're great games, sometimes for other reasons. Besides the two games mentioned in our Openers (above), Chris discusses Underwater Cities, Trapwords, Narabi, Orbis, Fool, Discover: Lands Unknown, Crown of Emara, Showtime, Gnomopolis, and The Color Monster. Closers: • Downsizing a collection...mission accomplished! • How does journalism tackle the current game saturation situation? -Mark Direct download: BGTG_188_-_Essen_2018_with_Chris_Marling.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 2:50pm PDT

Tue, 11 December 2018 Boardgames To Go 187 - Post-BGGcon 2018 (with Ryan Wheeler and Greg Pettit) No Openers or Closers this time, as we have so many games from the event to discuss! Games discussed: Spring Meadow, Bärenpark, Gingerbread House, Trade on the Tigris, Age of Civilization, PitchCar, Weird Things Humans Search For, The Brady Bunch Party Game, Onitama, Sakura, Indigo, Blue Lagoon, The Arabian Pots, LYNGK, Yellow & Yangtze, Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra, Treasure Island, Northern Pacific, Micropolis, Voodoo Prince, Ticket to Ride: New York, Pantone: The Game, Tower of Madness, Dune, KeyForge, Poker, Exxtra, Passing Through Petra, Carpe Diem, Streaming, The Quacks of Quedlinburg, Trendy, The Mind, First Contact, Star Trek Panic, 1st & Roll Geeklist: Post-BGGcon 2018     (Gregarius)   Ryan Wheeler (Ryan Wheeler)   Just about every year, my friend & frequent podcast guest Greg Pettit joins me to talk about BGGcon. In recent years I've enjoyed the event with him, but I missed 2018. However, another friend, Ryan Wheeler, does that job this year. Greg, Ryan, and I met around 15 years ago when we all lived nearby and played regularly in our little group, the Santa Clarita Boardgamers. Of those three, I'm the only one still in Santa Clarita, California. Greg's in Texas, and Ryan's in South Dakota. While it's too bad I couldn't join them this year, I'm so happy that BGGcon is around to draw old gamer friends together like a magnet. Greg & Ryan gave me their combined list of games played at BGGcon, and then gave each game a 1-5 star rating. That's sort of like half of a BGG rating, but really it's a measure of the eagerness for playing the games again, as well as a reflection of the experience at the time. Know what I mean? It's enthusiasm, as much as it's a measure of artistic/entertainment merit according to some "standardized" scale. Think of it this way--it's easier to enthusiastically give a game 5 stars and be excited to play again, even if you're not yet sure the game is a "10." Whatever the stars are, the real value in the podcast is listening to these guys describe the games and their experiences with them. They played most of them together, though you'll also hear when they split up & tried different things. Along the way you'll also hear about some happenings at BGGcon that aren't strictly boardgaming--stuff like the puzzle hunt, virtual flea market, and bazaar. (No BBQ commentary this time, but I trust they enjoyed Texas' contribution to fine dining. I know I would've.) -Mark Direct download: BGTG_187_-_Post-BGGcon_2018_with_Ryan_Wheeler_and_Greg_Pettit.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 9:54pm PDT

Mon, 26 November 2018 Boardgames To Go 186 - Kniziathon (with Doug Adams) Openers: Root and Krass Kariert Closers: Playing boardgames solo; Stephen Glenn's tweet about Phase 1 & 2 in our hobby: [/floatright] Doug Adams (dougadamsau)   Doug and I have "known" each other via the internet for over twenty years. He, Joe Huber, and I were the three that started emailing each other to form the Desert Island Gamers (DIGers) mailing list that was a main source of boardgaming information before sites like BGG were around. Heck, we go back far enough that we knew each other from IRC chat sessions. Although the distance between California (me) and Australia (Doug) has prevented us from meeting in-person, we've kept up an irregular correspondence for all of those years. Doug was on my wargames podcast a couple years ago, and at that time I knew I had to get him on Boardgames To Go, too. He maintains his wargaming days are mostly behind him, and he's almost exclusively a eurogamer now. When he dove into his own private, Knizia boardgaming marathon challenge, I knew straight away that this was the topic we'd discuss. Being gamers from way back, I knew he'd be exploring lots of classic Knizia titles from the 1990s. He didn't stop there, though. He played every kind of Knizia game he could, from those early titles that impressed so many of us, through some recent years when Knizia was less visible, all the way up to the present day's "Reinerssance." Though this challenge was big enough to begin with, Doug kept adding to it as the year went on. Then he managed to actually complete this gargantuan challenge by the end of September. Amazing! I invited him on the podcast to talk about that entire experience, both the Knizia games he enjoyed, and the very nature of personal boardgaming challenges. With the new year coming soon, I bet some other gamers will be inspired to try their own challenges. More power to you. Be sure to also check out Doug's excellent blog here on BGG, full of great photos and tidbits about the games he plays. It's called Reducing Doug's To Play List, which gives some sense of its general purpose. He posted monthly recaps of his progress through his "Great Knizia Challenge." A fitting reward for Doug from Dr. Knizia -Mark Direct download: BGTG_186_-_Kniziathon_with_Doug_Adams.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 9:59pm PDT

Sun, 21 October 2018 Boardgames To Go 185 - Essen Anticipation 2018 Opener: Reef Closers: Games with Heidelberg, such as Thurn & Taxis, Web of Power, or Wallenstein (what did I forget?) The famous Spiel game fair in Essen, Germany starts later this week. I won't be there, but that's nothing new. Like most of us, I window-shop this gathering from afar, and participate vicariously via blogs, videos, and (maybe most of all) getting excited for its arrival. Just over a week ago I commented on Twitter that I hadn't looked at the list of games at all. That was echoed by some who thought I might be "over" the buzz and hype of Essen. I'm not. Not really. True, I don't get quite as deep into the research and anticipation of the many games coming out. But that's mostly because it's impossible to sort through that much information about so many new games. The dynamic listing here on BGG tops a thousand titles in the database for Essen 2018. I used everyone else's anticipating (i.e. thumbs) as a guide to look through over a hundred games myself, whittling that down to about 25 that catch my eye in some way. Those are the games depicted above, and the ones I discuss in the podcast. -Mark Direct download: BGTG_185_-_Essen_Anticipation_2018.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 9:36pm PDT

Wed, 17 October 2018 Boardgames To Go 184 - Conventions for Boardgame Players & Designers   Openers: Ethnos and Ganz Schön Clever (app) Game designer David Thompson joins me to talk about most of the big game conventions in our hobby, and what they mean when you're testing or pitching designs. Of course, most of us will encounter those conventions as a player, and David talks about that experience, too. We talk about Essen (Spiel), UK Games Expo, Nuremberg, Origins, and Gencon. Have you been to any of these? Some may be on the other side of the world from you, and would be an incredible expense (and adventure). Others could be within driving range, or at least a reasonably priced plane ticket. Maybe you want to go just to experience one of these events. Perhaps you're a real Cult of the New junkie, and you want to buy games when they are first available. Do you just want to play a bunch of boardgames? Some of these are better for that than others. Or, heck, maybe you're an aspiring game designer, and you want to pitch some games like David does. That makes some of these working events, even business trips for you. There are some interesting differences between them for that purpose, too. David mentions several other big cons that he hasn't attended yet: Dice Tower Con, BGGcon, WBC, PAX Unplugged (and GAMA Trade Show). Of course I've talked about BGGcon a number of times, but I'm not going to make it this year. WBC is on my list for a convention I want to attend, too. And then...he goes on to say that his favorite convention was a regional con, Tennessee Game Days. Sounds great! Closers: Moving to a new place (as a gamer & designer) and Freedom:The Underground Railroad and Uwe Eickert interview on Harold On Games podcast #10 -Mark Direct download: BGTG_184_-_Conventions_for_Boardgame_Players__Designers.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 10:21pm PDT

Sun, 22 July 2018 Boardgames To Go 183 - Spiel des Jahres 2018 Opener: Nothing specific, since I discuss so many titles during the episode Closer: Check out the Gravity Assist podcast that includes an interview with the project scientist for "my" spacecraft heading for Mars right now. Perhaps foolishly, I'm posting my thoughts about the Spiel des Jahres nominees just a few hours before the actual winner in announced in Germany. Well, no matter. You may have already heard some of my thoughts about these games (as well as the Kennerspiel nominees) on a recent episode of the video series Game Night! here on BGG. On my own podcast I get to say a bit more about all of them. I've always liked retrospective analysis of games, and here I do a little near the end, looking back five years to the Spiel and Kenner nominees for 2013. Do you remember what those were? What do you think of those picks now? Direct download: BGTG_183_Spiel_des_Jahres_183.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 9:25pm PDT

Mon, 25 June 2018 Boardgames To Go 182 - Downsizing a Collection David G. (davebo)   Greg Wilzbach (gawilz)   Mike Mayer (Mike Mayer)   You haven't heard from me lately (unless you subscribe to my wargames podcast), but I'm still here, still gaming. However, there HAS been a transformation in my engagement with the hobby. For the past half-year I've firmly been in the mode of downsizing my collection. Why, and why now? Well, that's some of what this podcast is about. I'm joined by three of my local gaming buddies, Dave, Greg, and Mike. Dave isn't exactly downsizing, but he's disciplined about NOT letting his collection grow. So as he gets new games, he sells off others. I'm actually shrinking my collection. The other two guys are in a different frame of mind. Greg is running out of storage space, but still wants all of his games (and more). Mike thinks anyone who wants to get rid of games is crazy. It all adds up to a variety of interesting opinions about downsizing a collection. Direct download: BGTG_182_Downsizing_a_Collection.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 11:14pm PDT

Sat, 10 March 2018 Boardgames To Go 181 - Brewery Roundtable BGGcon 2017 Bigger & better than a couple years ago, a bunch of my BGGcon buddies joined me around the microphone at an outdoor brewery table. We'd been to the Hard 8 bbq place frequented by gamers, then headed over to the Grapevine Craft Brewery. There we relaxed with a few beers and recorded some thoughts about games we'd been playing. (We even played a few games of Insider.) You'll hear Zak, Brian, Steve #1, Steve #2, Marcin, DaveO, Eryn, Travis, Greg, Rick, Ryan, and me talk about Magic Maze, Civilization: A New Dawn, Heaven & Ale, Majesty:For The Realm, TransAtlantic, Santa Maria, Calimala, Nusfjord, Merlin, Istanbul Dice Game, Mountains of Madness, and Azul.  -Mark                       Direct download: BGTG_181_-_Brewery_Roundtable_BGGcon_2017.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 12:03pm PDT

Tue, 6 February 2018 Boardgames To Go 180 - Post-BGGcon 2017 (with Greg Pettit) Opener: Welcome to Season 14 of my podcast! (Also family gathering gaming with Take Your Pick, Raj, and Codenames) Closers: Pimping out Wits & Wagers with the Vegas Mat; "Mansplaining" boardgames Geeklist: Post-BGGcon 2017 Back in November I returned to BGGcon, played a ton of games, and recorded TWO podcasts. Then the holidays, work, and family events took over. Now I'm finally getting the first one out, and I won't make you wait as long for the next one, either. This is a LOOONNNNGGGG episode, too. Not my normal approach, but this time there were lots of games to discuss with Greg. Be sure to check out the accompanying geeklist. There's dad in summer 2016, grinning as he watches his family play a game together -Mark Direct download: BGTG_180_Post-BGGcon_2017_with_Greg_Pettit.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 9:37pm PDT

Sun, 22 October 2017 Boardgames To Go 179 - Essen Anticipation 2017 Opener: Startups Closers: Wargames To Go (French & Indian War) Geeklist: Essen Anticipation 2017 It's mid-October, which means it's time for my annual "Essen Anticipation" episode. I may have missed a year or two along the way, but mostly I've been doing these since I started the podcast in 2005. Along the way I think I've learned more about my own preferences, and have gotten better at homing in on just those games that will end up being some of my favorites or keepers for the year. But I'm not THAT good. I still get excited and list a lot more games than will end up being my hits of the year. Even more than I will get a chance to play soon. That's ok--this is part of the fun of the hobby, at least for me: getting excited about new games, new ideas, new (and old!) designers/publishers. -Mark Direct download: BGTG_179_Essen_Anticipation_2017.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 6:18pm PDT

Sat, 30 September 2017 Boardgames To Go 178 - One Year After the One Year Purge (with Greg Pettit) Openers: Innovation Deluxe and Ethnos Closers: Can a designer be their own developer? and How to leave feedback for this podcast. One Year Purge (blog) Regular guest of the podcast, Greg Pettit, set out to reduce his collection size. Just about all boardgamers can relate--running out of storage space, and not getting your old favorites to the table. Unlike most of us, though, he put this downsizing under a microscope, writing about it each month for a blog/geeklists that tracked his progress. More than that, they contemplated the progress. In this way, did he "murder his hope," or did he refocus on the joy this hobby can bring? That's what we talk about. -Mark Direct download: BGTG_178_One_Year_After_the_One_Year_Purge.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 4:31pm PDT

Sun, 13 August 2017 Boardgames To Go 177 - Spiel des Jahres 2017 Opener: Pack O Game (especially BOO and DIG from Set #2) Closer: Tabletopia As you might have seen, I was lucky enough to participate in a few recent episodes of Game Night! when the gang discussed the recent game awards: Spiel des Jahres, Kinderspiel des Jahres, and Kennerspiel des Jahres. Although I was able to share some of my opinions & experiences with the games on those videos, I have more to say on my own podcast...and here it is. Kennerspiel des Jahres Raiders of the North Sea nominee Exit: The Game winner! Terraforming Mars nominee (and my favorite) Kinderspiel des Jahres Captain Silver nominee Ice Cool winner! The Mysterious Forest nominee (and my favorite) Spiel des Jahres Magic Maze nominee The Quest for El Dorado nominee Kingdomino winner! (and my favorite) -Mark Direct download: BGTG_177_Spiel_des_Jahres_2017.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 9:06pm PDT

Mon, 29 May 2017 Boardgames To Go 176 - Nos Amis à Paris (with Melissa, Olivier, and Candy) Opener: Aton I'm back in California now, since my work in France is done. All told, we were there about nine months. That's a little shorter than the year originally planned, but clearly we enjoyed a wonderful experience. I was there for my job, and the job changed a bit (for the better), which is why we came home "early." All of that time was spent in Paris. It was the move to Toulouse that didn't happen. As my wife Candy says, we'll just have to go there on vacation some day. Before we left France, however, we recorded a podcast with our good friends Melissa & Olivier. They were the first people who responded to my invitation for a Light/Short group. Not only did they become our most reliable boardgamers in the group, they also became our best friends in France. It was difficult to say goodbye, but I'm confident we'll see them again. As you'll hear, they're new to the hobby, very enthusiastic, and are starting to attend big events in the hobby. They'll return to the UK Games Expo at the end of this week, may go to Essen later, and will no doubt start attending the game events in France. If their careers bring them back to New York, then I expect we'll see them at the American game events, too. I enjoy hearing how my friends got into the hobby, and this interview has the added benefit of Olivier's international perspective. Anyone who wishes their spouse played more boardgames will be green with envy when you hear how these two enjoy the hobby together. Wow! Other mentions: New York 1901 with its artwork like bande dessinée London Notre Dame Risk (which originated as the French game, La Conquête du Monde) Ticket to Ride: USA, Europe, and UK Paris Connection TransEuropa (Polish edition) First Class: All Aboard the Orient Express! French game groups & meeting places: English Speaking Boardgamers of Paris Cafe Meisia Anticafé Beaubourg Joueurs Anonymes   Say hi to Melissa & Olivier if you see them at the UK Games Expo Closer: Our international hobby -Mark Direct download: BGTG_176_2017-04-14.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 9:21pm PDT

Fri, 17 March 2017 BGTG 175 - Curious about Wargames? (with Dave O'Connor) Opener: A light wargame! Miracle on the Loire: Joan of Arc   My buddy DaveO has been on the podcast before, talking about euro gaming at Essen, or if any games are good for five players. Like most of us, he's played an overwhelming number of strategy boardgames over the years. The didn't include wargames, though he was kind of curious about them. In 2016 he was "tricked" into going to GMT Games' Warehouse at the Weekend, and found himself first horrified by and later part of the wargaming going on there. This makes him a good ambassador to regular boardgamers who don't think in terms of hexagons, Combat Results Tables, and lines of supply. He still remembers watching "pipe-smoking history professors" stick their noses in rulebooks while little happened on their gameboards, an activity that didn't look fun at all. That's not exactly the kind of wargaming he's doing now, but DaveO definitely HAS become a wargamer. Are you wondering what all the fuss is about Falling Sky, Churchill, or W1815? Whether you are looking to dive into the deep end of wargaming, or just want to see what a smaller/shorter wargame can be like, I hope this conversation between DaveO and I can give you some answers. Definitely also look at Jim Cote's excellent blog post, Wargames: Barriers to Entry. I agree with all but two points of it. Which two points? Let's discuss in the comments. Closer: Heading back to California Direct download: BGTG_175_2017-03-10.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 12:32pm PDT

Tue, 21 February 2017 Boardgames To Go 174 - Vive la France! Opener: Paris Connection A quick, solo show to catch up on some things. If you've been following my (sort of) weekly session report geeklists, or on social media (twitter, facebook), you'll know that I've been boardgaming with a group I created for Monday nights in Paris. It focuses on light/short games, and has an ulterior motive--it's a good outing for couples. My mostly non-gamer wife even goes with me to these! We're having a good time, and meeting good people. Besides that, I also want to share some of my other observations about being a gamer in France, now that I'm at or past the half-way point of my time over here. Links English-Speaking Boardgamers of Paris (Meetup, Facebook) Okkazeo (French used boardgame marketplace) TricTrac Festival International des Jeux-Cannes Closer: (Finally) figuring out the right kind of games for the players you've got -Mark   Direct download: BGTG_174_2017-02-18.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 4:38am PDT

Wed, 25 January 2017 Boardgames To Go 173 - Post-Essen 2016 (with Chris Marling & David Thompson)   David Thompson (Skirmish_Tactics)   Chris Marling (hairyarsenal)   Opener: Mansions of Madness (2nd edition), TIME Stories, Terraforming Mars, Great Western Trail This is really a double-episode. In the second half we talk about more Essen titles, and the experience of my two guests who attended from England. However, these aren't just any two guests--they are collaborative game designers. Their big release at Essen 2016 was Armageddon, and they tell about the experiences designing, pitching, and launching the game. Along the way there are other stories about the collaborative design process, and how those designer-publisher pitch meetings go behind-the-scenes at Essen. It's a fascinating discussion.     Then I asked them to share just a handful of particular titles they acquired and enjoyed from the event. More good stuff. Closer: The pitfalls of looking at BGG ratings without context; the Splendor app...and its achievement system; does a game become classic when people forget the rules? -Mark Direct download: BGTG_173_2017-01-04.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 3:40am PDT

Mon, 19 December 2016 Boardgames To Go 172 - Post-BGGcon 2016 Part 2 (with Brian Murray & David Gullett) Opener: skipped this time, because we cover so many games in the main show My last episode of 2016 is going to (pretty much!) wrap up my coverage of BGGcon. Two more SoCal friends join me across many miles & timezones to share their experiences at the convention. It's a very game-specific episode, with many titles discussed. They're pictured below, but you really should follow along with their geeklists (linked below). This brings another year and season of Boardgames To Go to a close. I'll definitely be back in January to kick off the next season. When I moved to France for my job mid-year, I really wasn't sure what would happen with the podcast. I knew I WANTED to keep it going, but could I? Yes! It may even be possible that I've put out more episodes than I would've at home (especially if you include Wargames To Go, which is on a roll.) Thanks to all of my listeners who stuck with me another year.   Brian's Geeklist of the following games & star ratings Dave's Geeklist of the following games & star ratings Closer: skipped this, too, because we talk about "meta" stuff throughout the episode -Mark Direct download: BGTG_172_2016-12-03.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 6:14am PDT

Thu, 1 December 2016 Boardgames To Go 171 - Post BGGcon 2016 Part 1 (with Greg Pettit)     (Gregarius)   Opener: skipped this time, because we cover so many games in the main show As before 2014, I was not able to attend BGGcon myself, so lived vicariously through my friends there. Greg is an "every timer" at BGGcon, and many of those years we've talked over Skype afterward about the games he played there. I know Greg--he keeps a pocket notebook with him to at least record the titles he plays, and maybe a thought or two about them. Later that helps him construct a geeklist with all of those games, and a simple, first-impression 5-star rating for how he felt about the play. You can follow along to that geeklist while listening, or refer to it later if you need it. Closer: Improving AI in boardgame apps, and the BGGcon Puzzle Hunt -Mark Direct download: BGTG_171_2016-12-01.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 2:36am PDT

Wed, 23 November 2016 Boardgames To Go 170 - BGGcon 2016 Opener: Saint Malo The gig in France that allowed me to go to Essen last month has a downside--I had to cancel my plans to attend BGGcon. I'd attended the big event in Dallas last two years and was eager to make a third year in a row. Instead, I had to skip it this time, and follow remotely like so many others in the hobby.   (Gregarius)   Dave OConnor (daveo1234)   Ryan Wheeler (Ryan Wheeler)   Spielgeek.com (elschmear)   Rick Byrens (civplayer)     Luckily, my buddies were willing to take a break from their fun to record a long-distance podcast with me. While they were being night owls at BGGcon's Saturday night, I woke up early in France to dial in. Several of them gathered around an iPhone and told me about their time at the event. Greg Pettit always does this with me (and that's still an upcoming episode), and he took the reins to direct a meta-conversation about BGGcon itself. Later we wrapped up with some specific game recommendations. Closer: Light/Short/Couples Game Group in Paris, combined with Joueurs Anonymes at the Anticafé Beaubourg -Mark Direct download: BGTG_170_2016-11-19.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 6:24am PDT

Mon, 7 November 2016 Boardgames To Go 169 - Post-Essen 3016 Opener: Bohnanza Das Duell A solo episode where I get to tell stories about Essen 2016 and reflect on my own experiences there. If you followed my Twitter feed during or after the event (on my blog), you may already know what I'm going to say. If you've listened to my podcast for a while, you know that I like taking the long view of our hobby, looking back a decade or more to gain more context about what's happening now. In this case, I have my own personal long view to take, since I was at Essen once before, back in 2003. That was before I had a podcast, yet I still reflected on my experience in an online magazine article. I've recently re-posted that article on my blog here at BGG. I don't think it's the best aspect of our hobby, but it's undeniable that "show us the loot" photos and lists are part of the Essen experience. There's more buying than playing at this event, as far as I can tell. Ok, here are mine: Land in Zicht! (Dutch version of Entdecker), Saint Malo, Mont Saint Michel, Airborne Commander, Evolution The Beginning, Hanabi promo, Happy Salmon, Astronuts, Visby, Fünf Gurken, Romans Go Home!, misc game bits, Port Royal Unterwegs!, Jolly & Roger, Camel Up Cards, Las Vegas Card Game, X Nimmt!, Bohnanza Das Duell, Futschikato, Twins, Honshu, HMS Dolores, and my Spiel coffee mug! Closer: Light/Short/Couples Game Group in Paris -Mark Direct download: BGTG_169_2016-11-04.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 6:42am PDT

Sun, 16 October 2016 Boardgames To Go 168 - Essen 2016 Against my own expectations, I ended up recording a podcast WHILE I was at Spiel 2016 in Essen. My buddies DaveO and Steve joined me just outside the Messe convention hall for an open-air recording this afternoon. Now I'm editing it and posting it while on on wifi with the train back "home" to Paris. This is a seat-of-the-pants episode, just giving you a feel for what the impressions are DURING the actual event, when general impressions and incomplete information are the name of the game! (Shoot, I forgot about my opener/closer framework AGAIN! This was MY idea! I'll get better at that.) By the way, I also recorded a segment with Doug Garrett for HIS longstanding podcast, Garrett's Games & Geekiness. I'm just one of a few people he talks to for that upcoming episode. Check it out. Games mentioned: Papà Paolo, Key to the City - London, Great Western Trail, Railroad Revolution, Qwixx Das Duel, Life is Life, Take That,Kuhhandel Das Brettspiel, GLÜX, World Monuments, Checkpoint Charlie, 13 Clues, HMS Dolores, Camel Up Cards, X Nimmt!, Bohnanza Das Duell,Twins, Port Royal Unterwegs!, Fuji Flush, 23, Mea Culpa, Area 51: Top Secret -Mark P.S. Maybe later I'll upload some of the photos I sent out over social media while I was there. In them meantime, you can see them all here. http://twitter.com/BoardgamesToGo     Direct download: BGTG_168_2016-10-16.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 11:59am PDT

Mon, 10 October 2016 Boardgames To Go 167 - Pre-Essen 2016 Opener: I should've made it more clear in the audio, but the obvious opener is that I will be going Essen this year, and you can find me on Saturday afternoon at the NorthStarGames booth, Hall 3 P-103. It’s near a corner by a restaurant, and the same hall where Amigo, Z-Man, Pegasus, Stronghold, and others are. Please stop by and tell me if you listen to the podcast. I'll also be around on Saturday morning and all of Sunday, just taking it all in myself. I'm not wearing a BGTG shirt or anything, so just try to keep a lookout for this guy. Woo-hoo! After work on Friday I hop a train to Essen! I'll arrive after Spiel closes for the evening, but hope to see some folks that evening. Then on Saturday & Sunday I get to take it all in. I'm buying a few things, but mostly I just want to experience the spectacle of it all. I was last there (my only other time) for a single day in 2003. I wrote an article about that experience for an online magazine of the time, The Games Journal. It's still there, with a photo of a younger me. Now it's over a dozen years later, and I have the opportunity to go back. What am I excited to see? Everything, really, but for podcast purposes I made a list of a "baker's dozen" games that most pique my interest. These lists are typically personal--lists by others feature different games, and you may find some of my choices curious. You can just listen along, of course, but I've also recorded these in a geeklist. Check it out. Here's what I wrote on that list about my "process" for picking games. Quote: By now we know the drill... Look through BGG's Spiel (and Gencon) Previews, and flag too many titles that catch my attention. How do they grab me? Theme/setting matters, but hints about the gameplay/mechanisms (especially playing time) matter more. So does the designer and publisher. Anything that has its roots in Kickstarter makes me instantly wary. It's not an automatic NO, but I'm so skeptical of that platform as a development tool (as opposed to merely funding), that I'll let others take the plunge first. Wait & see. Expansions rarely grab my attention. I'm just not an expansion guy, expect for a few rare favorites (e.g. Port Royal). Similarly with abstracts--not my thing, but there are rare exceptions. In general, my ranking of factors is 1. Publisher (which goes to development process & production quality) 2. Gameplay/mechanisms (looking for the types of games I know I like, though sometimes something unique & new. I steer clear of games rated at over 60 minutes--wait & see only, for those) 3. Designer (I'll let someone else take a flyer on a new, unproven designer...in most cases) 4. Theme/setting (I have distinct preferences toward real-world, historic subjects, and away from zombies/elves/spaceships. But I've learned from long experience that this is the least reliable indicator of whether a game will be a hit with me, alas)              Full list including many more Honorable Mentions, and some additional comments on my geeklist. Closer: It's too long to call my honorable mentions the closer, so I guess that means it's the part where I talk about how Mars games aren't automatically on my list. Almost the opposite, really. Does it work that way for you? Is your day job uninteresting as a game subject? I think it's because we know too much about our own jobs, and any game about them falls short...but if they include all of that detail, it's too much! (Plus, it becomes work again.) -Mark Direct download: BGTG_167_2016-10-10.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 12:18pm PDT

Tue, 4 October 2016 Boardgames To Go 166 - Catching Up Before Essen Opener: Whoops! I recorded this little episode so quickly that I completely forgot about my new Opener/Closer framework! Ok, let's say that the opener was my intro en français. Vive la France! The shortest episode I've done in a while, this is to "clear the decks" of boardgame session reporting before I do my traditional Essen Anticipation episode in a week or so. This year I'm going to the event, at least for the most crowded part of the weekend, and I'll be doing both Pre-Essen and Post-Essen episodes. That's the plan. In the meantime, what have I been playing lately? Not as much in France as I'd hoped, but a special opportunity let me try one new game. Add to that the games I played at my last visit home to California for a long while. Closer: Actually, I kind of had a closer, I just forgot to set it aside as such. At the end I mention how new Essen titles can sometimes show up in online versions, contemporary or soon after the Spiel event itself. Are there any of these for 2016? I haven't noticed, but should look harder. -Mark Direct download: BGTG_166_2016-10-02.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 6:09am PDT

Wed, 24 August 2016 Boardgames To Go 165 - The Times They Area A-Changin' Opener: Geeklists for the podcast Season 12, my Extra appearances, and Session Reports     Just a solo show this time, something like the old "Session Report & Feedback" episodes I used to do. I wanted to get something out relatively quickly, before I make my move to France. This fit the bill, and it also let me get a show out with better sound quality. (My switch to a Mac has presented me with some challenges to the multi-person shows, whether over Skype or in the same room. I'll figure it out.)     It didn't take too much thought to come up with a unifying idea for this episode: changes. Of course my big change is the temporary relocation to France, which will have unknown impacts to my hobby. The other changes are to this podcast, which happened already--new shows are posted to the same old audio feed, but on the web they're at a slightly different location, in my Season 12 geeklist. You should subscribe to that. Also my "Extras" geeklist, which is where you'll find my guest spots on other podcasts and video shows. Finally, if you like this session report episode, then you really should be subscribing to my (mostly) weekly session reports that I post in geeklist form on BGG. Got all of that? Good! The other changes I note are to the hobby itself. While those things can be a consternation to old farts like me, who still think in terms of email lists and 1990s German Games, these are clearly changes for the better. We sure seem to have more people playing games than ever. If Kickstarter products and mini-filled "thematic" games aren't my favorite things, I can at least agree that this rising tide is lifting all of our boats. I think so, anyway. Kickstarter produced a nice Medici reprint, and you can get more 1990s German than that! My local Barnes & Noble already had a decent game section, and now hosts a monthly public game night. The other day I went to Target to buy a game for my brother's family, and while there I was amazed at that the second-largest retailer in the US has Hanabi, Magic Labyrinth, Rolling America, Ticket to Ride, Spyfall, Qwixx, Codenames, Evolution, Catan, Machi Koro, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Forbidden Island, Dixit, Sheriff of Nottingham, King of Tokyo, and Pandemic. Probably even a few more of "our games" that I missed. Wow! Closer: The mainstreaming of our hobby at places like Target and Barnes & Noble. -Mark Direct download: BGTG_165_2016-08-08.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 5:16am PDT

Sun, 24 July 2016 Boardgames To Go 164 - Managing the Hoard (with Greg Wilzbach) Openers: Evolution, Bruges/The Last Spike/Treasure Hunter (also EsCon) I know this is a subject that resonates with many gamers--having too many games. How many is too many? It differs for everyone. Even the reason to think about "too many" games differs for many people. In my case, it's a physical limitation of storage space. For other folks, it's about saving money (or using proceeds from game sales to buy new stuff). For still others, they want to focus on playing old favorites more & more, less focus on the latest new thing. I guess for most of us, it's a combination. Greg adds to his "degree of difficulty" for this effort by wanting to have an attractive visual library of games. Greg Wilzbach (gawilz) I've got a medium-sized collection (a few hundred)...but I've run out of room. Greg's got a pretty enormous collection (a few thousand)...and he's also out of room. How do we decide what to downsize? Greg approaches it in terms of series, versions, or expansions, finding clusters of games he wants to keep, and how that allows him to (theoretically) release a bunch of similar series, versions, or expansions. Closers: Getting active in the hobby community, Finding gamers after a (temporary) relocation -Mark Direct download: BGTG_164_2016-06-26.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 3:49pm PDT

Wed, 22 June 2016 Boardgames To Go 163 - Long Games (with Eric Brosius) Openers: Trambahn, Animals on Board As long as I've been in the hobby, I've never taken a liking to long games. Even though I'll play for hours & hours on a Saturday, I always want that time to be spent playing many different games. Why is that?      The truth is, I've been asked that question many times and have never been able to answer it. I know what I like, sure, but on my podcast I try to analyze my own opinions & preferences. That's what I'm doing here, with the help of Eric Brosius. Eric's an interesting guy who's been gaming even longer than I have. He likes short games like I do...but he also appreciates long games. I sought Eric out to work through this topic. He told me he thought of this topic through his own life experience in the hobby, encountering different games (long & short) over the decades. His story matches my recollection that the history of the hobby had a lot of long games before Catan came along. There are long games after Catan (and some short games before it), but 1995 was a landmark year when our hobby changed. By the second half, I have a few different ideas about why I avoid long games. Some of it is complexity or length for its own sake, without a corresponding increase in narrative depth or strategic interest. I hate that, and those games feel like a waste to me. I get more fun out of 2-4 shorter games that play in the same time. Another consideration is the mental reset that happens between games, which is nice. Still another is the "arc" of a game, with its own beginning, middle, and end. I inherently have more interest in multiple games that will have multiple strategic milestones in them. Closers: Game design efficiency, Packing games for a family weekend -Mark Direct download: BGTG_163_2016-06-07.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 8:18pm PDT

Fri, 27 May 2016 Boardgames To Go 162 - Return of the Podcast I'm back! I'd said that my time off (the "sabbatical") was only temporary, and that I planned to return to the microphone to continue Boardgames To Go. And that's just what happened. During the year that I've been away from this podcast, I've still been playing plenty of games, which you can read about. I've been doing more wargaming, which you can hear about. And perhaps you've seen or heard me at BGGcon or on other podcasts & videocasts. Which means I was never really gone. Nonetheless, those things are different from producing my own boardgame podcast, and I'm happy to be doing that again. To kick off my return, I'm featuring a roundtable discussion with a bunch of friends after we played a full day of Star Wars-themed boardgames. You may recall that I once grumbled about boardgame themes that were for kids (including kids that never grew up), not grown-ups. I have to admit I still feel that way about most games involving goblins, zombies, or spaceships. BUT...you're all welcome to call me a hypocrite when it comes to Star Wars. Here is where I cave. I was in 5th grade when A New Hope was released, and it may not be an exaggeration to say it changed my life. I'd decided to be a "spacecraft architect" the year before, and that's sort of what really happened in my life, but Star Wars probably sealed the deal. I remember talking with a college classmate who had a similar experience, and she grew up in Singapore. What an influence! Back in 1977 I was everything Star Wars. My brother & I saw the film many times in the theater. I had the LED watch, the belt buckle (this was the 70s), the t-shirt, the action figures, the X-wing, the LP records... When the prequels came around my kids were the perfect age to enjoy them with me. Now that the new movies are upon us, I'm loving the fact that they're December releases, so even though they're away to college (& beyond), we can still enjoy them as a family over the holidays. Star Wars has always been an important part of my life. What about Star Wars games? Well, yes, kind of. It took a long while for some really good games about these favorite movies to arrive on the table. I had the vintage Escape from the Death Star game, but it's not good. We played some Star Wars RPG when it came out in the 1980s, and a couple of the associated wargames. (Star Warriors was tedious, but Assault on Hoth was good.) Though I'm only a casual computer and videogamer, in the 2000s I definitely had wonderful times playing Rebel Assault, Rogue Squadron, Battlefrontand others with my son. Anything we could play co-op was our favorite. More recent years have produced quite a few family strategy games with a Star Wars subject. Oddly enough, the prequels have some of the best games, probably because that's just when Craig Van Ness and Rob Daviau at Hasbro were doing incredible things with the production capability of that mainstream publisher. Other publishers, too, however. Now we're seeing a resurgence in Star Wars boardgames, like an awakening in the Force... I invited some friends over to play several of these titles for a Star Wars-themed game day, and then flipped on the recorder to have a roundtable discussion of them. Enjoy! -Mark P.S. AFTER the Star Wars game day we learned about the Black Series (aka deluxe) edition of the Risk game. It addresses most of our grumbling about the production shortcuts in the mass market edition we played...but not all of them. I'm not sure if it's worth the extra money. And I've already bought a couple MicroMachines to get figs for the Falcon and Executor in my game.     Direct download: BGTG_162_2016-05-27.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 11:04am PDT

Sun, 22 November 2015 BGTG_161f_2015-11-22 Last daily podcast of BGGcon, this one a live recording with Greg in the main hall as it was closing down. Direct download: BGTG_161f_2015-11-22.mp3 Category: -- posted at: 9:25pm PDT

Sat, 21 November 2015 BGTG_161e_2015-11-21 This daily podcast from BGGcon has my buddy Brian on to talk with me about wargames! Triumph and Tragedy, Wings of War, and Down in Flames Direct download: BGTG_161e_2015-11-21.mp3 Category: -- posted at: 5:49pm PDT

Fri, 20 November 2015 BGTG_161d_2015-11-20 Outdoor, impromptu recording of a bunch of BGGcon friends at a local beer garden. Talks about games played & looking forward to. Direct download: BGTG_161d_2015-11-20.mp3 Category: -- posted at: 2:54pm PDT

Thu, 19 November 2015 BGTG_161c_2015-11-19 Direct download: BGTG_161c_2015-11-19.mp3 Category: -- posted at: 8:37pm PDT

Thu, 19 November 2015 BGTG_161test Test recording to make sure I got the intro/outro music. Direct download: BGTG_161test.mp3 Category: -- posted at: 6:33pm PDT

Wed, 18 November 2015 BGTG_161b_2015-11-18 Direct download: BGTG_161b_2015-11-18.mp3 Category: -- posted at: 10:35pm PDT

Tue, 17 November 2015 BGTG_161a_2015-11-17 Am I back from my break? Not entirely, but I DO plan to post daily mini-podcasts from BGG.con 2015, where I'm headed tomorrow. This podcast is the first in that series, sort of a test of my new, minimalist podcasting process that I'll attempt throughout the convention. / / I also talk about two recent games, The Grizzled and Brass (the new app for iOS/Android). / / Comments on BGG are always encouraged, and look for me on Twitter & Facebook, too. If you're also attending BGG.con, please say hi if you see me & get a show button. / / -Mark (@BoardgamesToGo) Direct download: BGTG_161a_2015-11-17.mp3 Category: -- posted at: 2:51pm PDT

Tue, 9 June 2015 BGTG 160 - Reflections on my Podcast (with Greg Pettit) Ok, now I'm finally on my break from the podcast. I wanted this one last, odd episode as a chance to reflect on the 10 years I've been doing the show. (And as longtime listeners remember, I never really think of it as a "show." I like to think of it more as an "audioblog.") To answer the question that keeps coming up, my break/hiatus/sabbatical won't last forever. I'm not quitting, I'm just taking a year off. Maybe it won't be that long, but the point is to take a significant break while I recharge my batteries and think about some other things. Also, I'll still be boardgaming the whole time I'm on this break, and I'll keep posting to BGG. I've enjoyed posting my Recent Gaming geeklists, and hope some of my listeners read & respond to those. I've also been having fun talking with the boardgame community on Twitter (@BoardgamesToGo). Come join us! You may even spy on the occasional episode of Game Night! On this episode you'll hear me talk about envying the way other podcasts and videocasts have taken the idea of "seasons" from television and used it to frame their broadcasts. That never occurred to me in the old days, but I wish it had. Well, I've decided to retroactively apply annual seasons to all of my episodes, and put them all up on BGG in a series of geeklists. I'm really happy with how it all came out. Whether new listeners discover my old episodes, or you go back and re-listen to part of one you remember, it should now be easier. They were always on the podcast feed, but now they've got an easy place to find on the web. Also, the geeklist format has proved useful and robust for so many purposes. They're easier to subscribe to, and they're a good place for comments. I even cut & pasted my accompanying blog entries for those old episodes, putting them in the geeklist entries. I may even look into porting over some of the notable comments/discussion from those old episodes. Yes, this may mean that the focus for writing & feedback shifts to these geeklists instead of this blog. That's ok. Blogs on BGG are nice, but they're just not as convenient for everyone as geeklists. I think this will work better for everyone. As I've said many times, my original impetus for creating Boardgames To Go was demonstrating how do-able an amateur podcast could be. I hoped there would be more boardgame podcasts available for me to listen to on my drive, run, or whatever. It worked! Well, I know for a fact that these podcasts would've come along anyway. But if I did my small part to create some to arrive a few months earlier than they otherwise would've, then I take some small pride in that. Geekspeak/Boardgamespeak was first (Aldie is always on the leading edge!), but I'm pleased to be the Avis of boardgame podcasts. Although Aldie let Boardgamespeak lapse as he moved on to other projects, there are other podcasts besides mine that have been chugging along for years & years. Tom Vasel & Doug Garrett have each racked up over 400 hundred episodes, and Dave & Stephen have recorded over one million hours.  Congrats to all! I'm happy to be in this club. -Mark P.S. When you listen to the end of the show, mentally replace my answer of "Pergamon" with "Tigris & Euphrates." Much better choice.  Direct download: BGTG_160_2015-05-03.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 9:21pm PDT

Sun, 3 May 2015 BGTG 159 - 100 Great Games, Epilogue (with Stephen Glenn and Mark Jackson) As you may recall, Stephen, Mark, and I already finished our countdown of 100 Great Games in an earlier episode. However, for a long while we'd planned to do one more episode together--this one--where we talk about our own picks, surprises, disappointments, trends, and so on. I foolishly thought this would be posted before Christmas! Will I never learn?! :-)   -Mark Direct download: BGTG_159_2015-03-09.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 10:50pm PDT

Mon, 20 April 2015 BGTG 158 - Boardgame Road Trip 2 (with Dave Arnott) Just as we did a couple years ago, Dave & I recorded a podcast on the way back during our boardgame road trip to play with friends in Fresno. Recorded on a smartphone in the car, there's more background noise in this one, but listeners were ok with it back in 2013, so here we go again. We talk about some of the games played, but also some behind-the-scenes stories from GameNight!, as well as Dave's work on a couple word game apps, Noodle Doodle and Tuklu.   -Mark Direct download: BGTG_158_2015-03-08.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 10:55am PDT

Tue, 24 February 2015 BGTG 157 - Games Played in 2014 (with Martin Griffiths) Like a lot of you, I keep track of the games I play, mostly to look back on and contemplate. The end of the year is the perfect time to do that, and I've been doing it since 1996. I don't track wins or much else--mere reflecting on the games played last year (total plays & unique titles) is what I enjoy. Even though I'd like to focus on my favorites, there are just so many new, interesting games that make their way to the table. You know I'm not a Cult of the New guy, but that's not true of all of my friends.  However, this year I'm joined by someone who really DOES rack up a lot of plays of his favorites. Martin Griffiths, better known here on BGG by his username qwertymartin, plays a LOT of short card games and quite a few of his meatier favorites, too. In fact, he flat-out plays a TON of games. Unlike me, he's not including online plays, either--these are all face-to-face plays (like Davebo will respect!). That's not the only reason I asked Martin to join me, though. He thinks deeply about games, and writes in-depth analyses of them. Besides the conversations he & his insightful buddies have on their GameChat League, Martin keeps a blog you should be reading, QWERTYUIOP, and has recently re-launched his contest for the best written game reviews, Voice of Experience. If that's not enough, check out the Cult of the Critical guild, where I believe he's a charter member. It comes through in his writing, and Martin's own user profile has several key elements that resonate with me. Knizian elegance, Chicago Express over Le Havre, and shorter card games? Sign me up! When you get to his mini-editorial about his dissatisfaction with recent 'mainstream' euros, I feel I've found a kindred spirit! Too bad he lives halfway around the world from me.  Direct download: BGTG_157_2015-02-08.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 10:18pm PDT

Thu, 29 January 2015 BGTG 156 - Games of BGG.con 2014 (with Greg Pettit) ANOTHER episode related to BGG.con?! Well...yeah. But really, this is about a bunch of new games. In fact, this is as close as I get to joining the Cult of the New! Listeners know that's not really my style or preference, yet every year after Essen I would interview Greg Pettit about the new titles he played at BGG.con. This time, of course, I get to contribute to the conversation, too. (Actually I always do--we've been doing these shows for years--this year I just to say more.) With both of us having plenty to say, this is a longer episode. Lots of very topical games to discuss. At the very end, though, we also do one of my favorite segments, a "where are they now?" look back at the games discussed 12 months ago. Are we still excited about them? Are you?   -Mark Direct download: BGTG_156_2015-01-20.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 10:10pm PDT

Tue, 23 December 2014 BGTG 155 - BGG.con 2014 Planning For NEXT Year I'm glad I've received good feedback about all of these BGG.con episodes, because I have TWO more. There's this one with Davebo, a look back on the con after I'd been home for a while (which also serves as a look forward to next year--I hope to return). Then a little later I'll record my traditional post-BGG.con episode with Greg Pettit where we talk about the new Essen titles we played. We kind of did that already in the daily episodes during the con, but we've each had more time to play other titles, refine our opinions, and also look back a year to consider what happened to the 2013 titles. In this one, Dave & I reflect on what we enjoyed, what we want to do again next year, and what we would wish to do differently. Some of those I have a clear idea about, and others I'm still not sure about. In particular, I can't quite figure out what I want to do about meeting new, random people and playing new games with them. Perhaps old games with new people can be a good combo (like the Entdecker-with-BGTG-listeners idea), and new games with old friends (who can do the teaching) can also be good. I'm not sure I'll do new games with new people again. Maybe. Hey! I'm really asking for feedback this time. Dave & I asked several questions, and we want your feedback. I'm giving away podcast buttons as little prizes. If you win, you get a Boardgames To Go button, a Wargames To Go button, or both if you want! Button contests!! 1. Best answer: What game SHOULD I have played (geeklist) 2. Best answer: Suggestions for the upcoming (March!) BGTG 10-year anniversary (geeklist) 3. Randomly chosen: A commenter on this blog (below) 4. Randomly chosen: A commenter on Facebook (facebook.com/BoardgamesToGo) 5. Randomly chosen: A commenter on Twitter (@BoardgamesToGo) Plus a couple more for Dave's questions: a. Best answer: How did you make the convention shuttle work for you? (comment below) b. Randomly chosen: When did you listen to the daily episodes? Right away or later? (geekmail to Dave) Direct download: BGTG_155_2014-12-09.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 1:27pm PDT

Sun, 23 November 2014 BGTG 154f - BGG.con 2014 (Sunday) Today isn't even really a "day" at BGG.con. Most people sleep in (after late nights), then wake up, check out, and are heading home. That might have been me, too. The thing is, I'm not really a late night/sleep in kind of person. Definitely not the up-til-5am, sleep-til-noon variety. Not even the 2am/9am type of gamer, which was my pattern for most of the week. This time, on the last day, I wanted to try two new things, as a trial run for how I'd try to do more of BGG.con next year, if I'm lucky enough to return. First, I got up "early." At a convention, that means 8am. I was in the main game room by 8:30, where a small subset of gamers were already playing games. (Some guessed they were STILL playing games, but this didn't look like the allnighter crowd.) Second, I sat down at a table, set my game up (Hellweg westfalicus), and put up one of those "players wanted" flags the convention provides to help you get a game started. Within 5 minutes I had one player, and before I'd even really started the rules explanation we had a third. That was a good number, so off we went. I'm sure we could've gotten a fourth to fill out the game if we'd wanted to, but three is usually a good number for Schacht's games. Neither guy knew me or my podcast, we just sat down to learn a game together. I liked it quite a bit, another liked it, too, while our third player was less enthused. I think of it as a cousin to Hansa, overland in theme, and with a little more going on. (I really love Hansa, but understand how it can be pretty spare for some folks.) In this last episode from the actual BGG.con, Greg prompted me to write down five things that I felt were highlights of the event. My own personal highlights. If you've been listening over the past few days, they probably won't surprise you. Thinking about it (and in no particular order), I thought mine were 1. The friends 2. The library 3. The BBQ 4. The Flea Markets (both kinds) 5. The Spiel des Jahres seminar I hope to go back again! Thanks to all who told me they enjoyed my podcasts. That really meant a lot to me. It's no exaggeration to say that feedback like that is the reason I'm still doing it. :) Direct download: BGTG_154f_2014-11-23.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 3:26pm PDT

Sat, 22 November 2014 BGTG 154e - BGG.con 2014 (Saturday) Last full day of BGG.con. Last day at all, really, since tomorrow I check out of the hotel & head to my airport terminal/gate around noon. Apparently the Library will be closed. Though I have a few games of my own on-hand, it may not work out for me to play any games. Might just be saying my goodbyes and having last conversations with friends. Today, though, started & ended (for me) with big events. At the start of the day was the Flea Market. Greg had 4+ tubs of games to sell there, and I got to be his assistant. We were up relatively early (alarm clock required) in order to set up in the hour before the doors were opened to buyers. Then THEY have one hour to shop, haggle, and purchase before everything has to be closed up again. The end of the day had the "closing ceremonies" for BGG.con, including lots of well-earned thank-yous, prize giveaways, and some announcements for BGG.con's future. You've probably seen this already. In addition to BGG.con (which will continue unchanged for next year & beyond, when I hope to return), they've now added BGG<3FAM--meaning something like BGG Loves Families)--a family-friendly (spouses & kids) version of the convention. The first one of these is next Memorial Day Weekend. This is in addition to the previously announced BGG game cruise, BGG@SEA. The empire grows... In between, I got to play some more games and go out for BBQ one more time. Greg & I were finally able to successfully play Isaribi. Still thinking about it, but I think I like it quite a bit. I already like Hayashi's Sail to India, so he's definitely a designer for me to watch. Also, I wanted to get some recent Knizia titles to the table, which we did with both Orongo andRondo. I think the latter is a pleasant pastime or family game (for two), while Orongo is an unfortunate miss for me. We also played the older (but still good!) title, Yspahan.  Direct download: BGTG_154e_2014-11-22.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 9:51pm PDT

Sat, 22 November 2014 BGTG 154d - BGG.con 2014 (Friday) Today was a full day where I'd planned almost nothing ahead of time. A full day of gaming, right? Actually, it turned out that I played very FEW games today, but had a whole day of fun nonetheless. We had our little BGTG/WGTG lunch at the hotel, I watched Artemis, went out for Texas BBQ dinner, watched the "World Series," and spent some time relaxing with friends at the hotel bar. Oh, and I also got to play Deus, Doodle City, Port Royal, and almost a game of Isaribi. (Hope to get in a real of game of that last one tomorrow.) Direct download: BGTG_154d_2014-11-20.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 12:36am PDT

Thu, 20 November 2014 BGTG 154c - BGG.con 2014 (Thursday) My first full day at BGG.con, and it was a good one. This was the only day I had several scheduled activities, some wargame-ish titles early in the day (Gunslinger, then Pax Porfiriana), as well as the Virtual Flea Market, a Spiel des Jahres seminar by jury chairman Tom Felber, and finally (for me) a game of Panamax. Greg & I recorded this episode, and I'm about to collapse at 1am. I am not a late-night gamer. Meanwhile, Greg headed back down to the convention for the Werewolf games... For anyone here at the con who wants to join us for lunch tomorrow, we'll just go to the hotel restaurant right around noon. Hope to meet more listeners and hand out more buttons. Direct download: BGTG_154c_2014-11-20.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 11:16pm PDT

Thu, 20 November 2014 BGTG 154b - BGG.con 2014 (Wednesday) A long day, starting with a 4am alarm clock in Santa Clarita, California, ending with a 2am bedtime in Dallas, Texas. I'm here, and taking it in. My roommate is Gregarius, the same Greg Pettit you've heard on the podcast. He's a native Texan (Houston), and has made it to EVERY BGG.con. Besides my roommate, he's also my able guide for this event. On my plane I saw Dave Arnott, Mike Schwerdtfeger, and met some other SoCal gamers. Maybe next year(!) I'll plan to sit by someone. I thought about playing a game on the flight, but decided I'd have more than enough when I go to DFW. I got registered, Greg toured me around the various ballrooms, library, and other venues. Today I played La Granja, Rolling Japan, Pandemic: The Cure, Spinball, and Port Royal. Direct download: BGTG_154b_2014-11-19.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 12:02am PDT

Tue, 18 November 2014 BGTG 154a - BGG.con 2014 (Tuesday) Just a test recording, really, to see if I can make a passable podcast with just the mobile devices (not a laptop) I'll have with me at BGG.con this week. Today (Tuesday) I'm still at home, but tomorrow I'm on the early flight out of LAX to go to Dallas. I've got a full schedule of events, people, and games to take in during my time there, and I'm very excited about it all. I was at the first BGG.con, but that was 10 years ago, and now the show has grown tenfold.   -Mark Direct download: BGTG_154a_2014-11-18.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 11:13am PDT

Thu, 13 November 2014 BGTG 153 - 100 Great Games, the Top Ten (with Stephen Glenn & Mark Jackson) At long last, here are the Top Ten! As we count them down in reverse order, we stay true to form--having a few personal grumbles about these amazing titles. At the same time, we're honestly respectful and enthusiastic for all of these games. Several of them are in our personal top ten lists, too.  Though this is the end of the list of 100 Great Games, it's not quite the end of this podcast series. We promise to come back one more time for an epilogue episode, one that shares some analysis of the overall list, considers what games only missed the list because they were released post-2012, and what our own votes were. Remember, this list is a compilation of many experienced gamers' input. By now it's pretty obvious that we each have our own personal tastes that differ somewhat. If you have topics you'd like us to cover in the epilogue, let us know. In my poll associated with the last installment of 100 Great Games, I asked for your favorite Knizia auction game. Of the many options available Ra came out as the clear favorite. As you may have heard last time, Stephen preferred Ra, I went with Medici, and Jackson picked Traumfabrik. Now that we've reached the top of the list of 100 Great Games, are there ones you thought we missed? Of course that will be true--everyone has different tastes. However, any game released after 2012 didn't even get a chance to be on this list because that's when the project started. Below I've put together a poll of notable titles less than two years old that might have made it onto the 100 Great Games list. It's a tough choice, but which one do you think would've made it on the list? As always, if you've got a good suggestion that's not included in the poll, write it in the comments below. Thanks. Direct download: BGTG_153_2014-10-22.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 1:39pm PDT

Mon, 13 October 2014 BGTG 152 - Essen (and BGGcon) Anticipation 2014 I don't even know how long I've been doing this. My window-shopping the Essen lists predates this podcast of nine years. Who else fondly remembers Mik Svellov's Brett'n'Board], Ken Tidwell's Game Cabinet, or all the other places we learned about Essen before, during, and after the fair? Now, of course Eric Martin does an amazing job here at BGG with the annual Essen Preview. It has nearly six hundred items when I finally stopped looking on Friday. Wow!   It took me two passes to get through these lists. For some reason, I found a LOT more games that interest me this year. Is that because there are more of the shorter, family strategy games that I like? That might be true. Not that there were a lot of the 45-minute "superfillers," but I think there were more filler/microgames at the low end--under 20 euros, under 30 minutes. The ones that are still Love Letter derivatives about bluffing & hidden identity don't interest me, but there several others. As before, we see more and more offerings from other countries, especially Japan, Korea, and Poland.   My first pass through that megalist came up with 30 I was really excited/curious about, and another 50 that had something that sparked my interest. Though that's 80 games (waaaay too many to discuss on the podcast), that's culling out more than 80% of the titles in the full preview. Then I squeezed it down to ten I put in my companion geeklist, and discuss on this episode, plus several other titles that work their way into the discussion. Wow!   Also, I can't resist some meta-analysis of the entire list, and how well my previous years' anticipation lists matched what became my keepers from those years.   Finally, this episode anticipates something else, too--my return to BGG.con! I'm so excited about this. I went to the first BGG.con a decade ago, but it's grown & changed quite a bit since that time. I'm coming up to speed with what to expect, doing some planning, but not TOO much. Hopefully I'll meet some listeners and play some games with them when I'm there next month.   -Mark Direct download: BGTG_152_2014-10-13.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 9:58pm PDT

Thu, 18 September 2014 BGTG 151 - Mark Hates Games (with Brian Murray & David Gullett) "Mark hates games." Is that true? No, but it's a comment I've heard secondhand more than once! Brian Murray is a great gamer I've met at SoCal Games Days, and through our shared friend Davebo. He's the one who hears me critique a game, or just be completely lukewarm on it, or pick it apart, and thinks that I just don't know how to relax and have a good time with boardgames. Or something like that. I'm probably putting words (the wrong words) in his mouth, but that quote above is 100% from Brian. So it was time to have him on the podcast. Then his words can come out of his own mouth, and you all can decide what you think about it! (We recorded this at Dave's house, sitting in his living room during a Sunday in July. Partway through the recording a raven squawks outside, and keeps going for a while. But he eventually stops. Nevermore! Perhaps a more serious concern about the audio is that all three of our voices sound pretty similar. Good luck with that.) I've never been a Cult of the New guy, but Brian clearly is. Or, as he clarifies, he's a Cult of the New-to-Me guy. Lots of boardgamers are that way. Maybe that's you, too. Not me. I'd much rather play an old favorite. Despite that, I still play a lot of new games. And no matter what Brian says, I love some of them. Lots more are perfectly fine, just ok, but nothing more. I'd probably rate them a 6 on BGG and have no need to play them again. Brian is more likely to enjoy the experience of playing a new game just for its own sake. The excitement of seeing something new, how it's produced, the way it plays, new rules, and all the rest. The conversation inevitably crosses over into Kickstarter. You can imagine why. If you're excited by the newness of a game, then Kickstarter is heaven. There are so many new games there! But if you're like me, and prefer to wait until a consensus emerges through the community (& marketplace) about the tiny subset of "keeper" games, then Kickstarter doesn't really offer much. Honestly, I'm looking forward to the first "modern classic" that comes out of Kickstarter that even I need to own. It just hasn't happened yet. Call me up in 2016. :) -Mark Direct download: BGTG_151_2014-07-06.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 5:51pm PDT

Wed, 3 September 2014 BGTG 150 - 100 Great Games, part 7 (with Stephen Glenn & Mark Jackson) Here are #11-20 on the list, counted down in reverse order as we discuss them on the podcast. I thought we'd have nothing but praise for all of these highly-ranked games...but perhaps I should've known that that the three of us would take turns expressing reservations about even these amazing games. (It's going to make my upcoming "Mark Hates Games" episode all the more relevant.) ;)   In my poll associated with the last installment of 100 Great Games, I asked about the theming--or lack thereof--in Knizia's landmark cooperative game, [thing=823][/thing]. The smallest portion felt this was a mechanical, pasted-on theme kind of game. Instead, most felt that the theme does come through from the cooperative gameplay (mechanisms), while several more credited the amazing artwork for evoking the theme.   This time I'm returning to Knizia for the poll. It just worked out that way. We discussed Medici in a previous episode (and I recently played the unfortunately-ugly latest edition), and now Ra has come up. We used to ask ourselves which of Knizia's "auction trilogy" was our favorite (these plus Modern Art). That's what I'm asking here, only Mark Jackson suggested I widen it to include several more of Knizia's excellent auction-based games (including Mark's favorite, as you can hear in the episode). Did I forget to include your favorite? Tell me so in a comment, below. Direct download: BGTG_150_2014-08-26.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 2:53pm PDT

Tue, 26 August 2014 BGTG 149 - Modern Microgames (with Jeff Myers) Microgames are hot right now. It all "started" with Love Letter, when it burst onto the scene at Essen two years ago. Here was an game that was so inexpensive as to be an impulse-buy, so small it could fit in your pocket, so simple it was easy to teach anyone, and so quick it invited games whenever you had some spare time & friends onhand, like at a restaurant. Suddenly the game was everywhere, re-themes were ubiquitous, and other small games inevitably followed. The problem with that explanation, of course, is that Love Letter wasn't the first incarnation of a microgame. Far from it. In the days before euros (almost before RPGs), the term "microgame" appeared to describe small format wargames. In fact, I have an early BGTG episode all about those! For some diehards, that term still starts in the late 1970s with pocket-sized hex & counter wargames. Even if that was way before your time, you probably know one example from that era, because Steve Jackson recently republished his landmark title, Ogre. Besides the Kickstarter behemoth, he proudly re-issued the original microgame version of the game, and at the same price! $2.95! But putting aside the history lesson (and soapbox), it's still true that Love Letter got a lot of attention, and has sparked interest in gamers, designers, and publishers, for new boardgames in a small format. Jeff Myers, of the excellent GameGuyThinks blog, joins me to discuss this topic. This time, I try my best to avoid the trap I usually make for myself: definitions. Though we try to define what microgame means in 2014 a little bit, we don't get bogged down or philosophical on that point. It's more fun to talk about some examples we've played, as well as reconsider some earlier games that might now appear to be microgames. Or are they? To be honest, I don't see a big difference between what we've long called Filler Games and this new crop of Microgames. Not unless there's something magical about having only sixteen cards. Also, the ever-increasing field of Print-n-Play games crosses over to this topic, too. (If you really want to discuss/argue about the definition of microgames, go see manchuwok's geeklist.) We talk about the new line of modern micros from Chris Handy (his Pack O Game series) and Rob Bartel (his Famous/World's Smallest Sports Games series). There are some good ones in there (I particularly recommend Famous 500, the car-racing game). Direct download: BGTG_149_2014-08-17.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 10:09pm PDT

Fri, 15 August 2014 BGTG 148 - 100 Great Games, part 6 (with Stephen Glenn & Mark Jackson) Here are #21-30 on the list, counted down in reverse order as we discuss them on the podcast. After the previous episode of 100 Great Games, we received some (ahem) feedback regarding the games we didn’t like (I’m looking at you, Taj Majal), or didn’t know much about (such as War of the Ring). I’m pleased to say we don’t have that issue this time. I get to look over the still-secret list going all the way to Number One, and I can safely say that we’re familiar with all of the remaining games. Which is as you’d expect, right? As we get near the top we’re getting into even more of the modern classics that every self-respecting gamer should seek out & play. But, since you’re only hearing three voices from a survey of many more people, we may not all LOVE the remaining games. But we certainly respect them. (And as you’ll hear, in many cases we do love them!) We’re nearing the end, only two shows left after this one to finish the countdown! We’ve already had suggestion for a supplemental episode, and it’s under consideration. Other ideas are welcome.  Finally, taking a page from Geek Weekly, I’m going to try adding a poll to each of my podcast episodes. I’d like folks to check out the blog (perhaps comment below), and there’s always a good question to pose after a podcast. Be sure to listen to the episode first, to get the context for the question. In this case, it’s about the theming (or not) in Knizia’s Lord of the Rings. Direct download: BGTG_148_2014-08-04.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 3:29pm PDT

Tue, 8 July 2014 BGTG 147 - A Look Back at 2013 (with David Gullett) It's a little crazy to finally publish this long-delayed episode, but I'm doing it nonetheless. A look back at 2013 is kind of ridiculous in July of 2014, but I think it's interesting nonetheless because we also talk about broader topics like gaming statistics (personal & community), gaming trends, and looks forward into the "new" year (that's now half-over!). Year-end stats often start with number of plays, and number of games. In my case, those numbers include online plays--which aggravates Dave!--but we're both beyond actually arguing about that. My numbers have remained remarkably consistent for many years: right around 300 plays, 150 titles. The actual numbers were 342 plays, 155 titles, 60 new-to-me. Dave's are somewhat higher (325 plays, 126 titles), but NOTABLY higher when you realize he's a purist that only includes face-to-face plays. However, I prove my point with a story about a game of Timeline: Music & Cinema that the two of us played online just prior to recording the podcast.  Another well-worn statistic within our hobby are the "Fives & Dimes," which even predate BGG and Mark Jackson's tally of this data. Sure, it always skews toward the shorter games, but even I get a good feeling when I see a beefier title like Brass show up. Direct download: BGTG_147_2014-03-20.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 1:59pm PDT

Thu, 1 May 2014 BGTG 146 - SR & Feedback (AbluXXen, Walking Dead Card Games, Where's Bob's Hat) Remember when I used to do "Session Report & Feedback" episodes? Me neither. These are when I'd just talk about some games I've played recently (not part of a meta topic, just a session report), and tack a segment on the end where I read & respond to some listener feedback. In theory these should be a show that's easy for me bang out every once in a while. They also have the [i]potential[/i] of being shorter episodes. At any rate, this time I stitched together some accounts of recent card games I've had on the table. The coincidence of a couple euro card games on the table recently sparked an idea for a future game group session that focuses on traditional card games. We haven't done that yet, but we're excited to try some titles like Euchre, Spades, 1000 (the marriage game), Cribbage, Pinochle, and so on. (I've also just joined an Up & Down the River card game group at lunch.) But that's for later. In this episode I'm still talking about modern, euro card games with their unique decks, rules, and mechanisms... Direct download: BGTG_146_2014-03-29.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 10:14pm PDT

Thu, 30 January 2014 BGTG 145 - 100 Great Games, part 5 (with Stephen Glenn and Mark Jackson) Stephen Glenn and Mark Jackson rejoin me (Mark JOHNson) to continue this series. In 2012, these two guys polled a number of experienced gamers (a few designers, many reviewers, all enthusiasts) for their top games, consolidated their answers, and asked to come on my podcast to count down the results. I was pleased to be part of the poll, and doubly pleased to have them on Boardgames To Go. I really like how Stephen describes this:  "a fun list to discuss over coffee & pie." The poll was for our favorite games, not necessarily the best games. We even got to submit a top fifteen, which took the usual tough request for a top ten and gave us more breathing room for five more titles. I know in my case, it made it easier to add some very recent games to my longstanding favorites.  On each podcast we're counting down a bunch of titles  until we get to a final show with the Top Ten. I'll be interspersing 100 Great Games countdown episodes with my other podcast episodes. Here are #31-40 on the list, counted down in reverse order as we discuss them on the podcast. This show was especially fun because BGG had gone down for maintenance when we did our recording! That meant that we had to go on our own knowledge and memories of the games' designers, publishers, and years, in addition to usual opinions about how they play. Fortunately, we're getting so high up in the list now that the games are very notable. I think we did pretty well without our normal reference material...but you tell me! Note: we had a little audio problem with Mark Jackson halfway through the podcast, but stick with us! I edited around it as best I could, and it gets better after the Ave Caesar/Ausgebremst/Q-Jet discussion. Direct download: BGTG_145_2013_12_12.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 8:44pm PDT

Sun, 12 January 2014 BGTG 144 - Gaming with Regular People (with David Gullett) Have you ever played Bunco? I'm now in a couples Bunco group, a new thing for me. It goes without saying that this is not the kind of gaming group I normally have, and talk about on the show. These are not hobby gamers. They aren't even party gamers. They're just regular folks, all empty nest-ers (or close to it, like me), who get together to talk, have dinner & drinks. That we play a game or two at the end of the night for a few bucks' stakes is purely a social activity, absolutely not intended to be competitive. After Bunco kind of wore off, the group switched to LCR. Yikes! Here's my Catch-22: I want a game that's more fun for me because it has a little bit of strategy, but everyone else wants a game that is so easy & automatic that it doesn't pressure anyone or limit conversation. Almost by definition, this is a no-man's land since it's looking for a game that has decision-making yet requires no thought. Well, gamers often make suggestions about titles they think are light enough, but really aren't. Or we consider party games. In this podcast I cover that very topic with Dave Gullett, who is the rare gamer who understands my dilemma! In the show we go through a lot of ideas, and I proceed to basically shoot them all down for one reason or another. Am I the problem? Or is it basically un-solvable with the constraints I've given myself? Look at all the types of games we consider, and please give me your own ideas. Particularly if you've had some success in similar situations, tell me about the games you played as well as describing that situation and its other players. Direct download: BGTG_144_2013-09-24.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 11:03pm PDT

Wed, 11 December 2013 BGTG 143 - Post BGG.con 2013, part 2 (with Greg Pettit) Who really believed me when I said I'd get Part 2 of the podcast out this week? I realize my credibility for prompt podcast publication isn't great. :) And yet--here it is!  As I said in the first part, this is my now-traditional interview with my friend & BGG.con regular, Greg Pettit. He goes to the convention every year and plays a ton of new Essen releases. I'm quite jealous, and hope to finally make it back there myself in 2014. We pick up the podcast halfway through our discussion about these games. Towards the end I get to offer my opinions about some new ones Greg didn't get to. The conversation also meanders a bit sometimes about keeping versus selling/trading games that don't make it to the table anymore, etc. Direct download: BGTG_143_2013-12-03.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 7:50pm PDT

Mon, 9 December 2013 BGTG 142 - Post BGG.con 2013, part 1 (with Greg Pettit) Although I've only made it to one BGG.con so far (the first one, I think), my buddy and frequent BGTG guest Greg Pettit is a regular attendee. For the past several years he's joined me on the podcast after the event to tell us all about it, especially the new Essen games he was able to play. I love hearing about them. Something else that fascinates me is the slippery topic of figuring out which new games are the best ones. Not to get too highfalutin, but this is really the timeless matter of judging art. Why are some artistic works better than others, and do those opinions hold over time? In our little way, I like to explore this topic by prompting Greg for a "star rating" for these games (adding my own where I can)...and then revisiting those ratings a year later. It's only one year, but that's enough for the bloom to be off the rose for some new titles. Even some that we honestly love struggle to make it back to the table. Most interesting of all, a select few appear to be new classics--or at least personal keepers. Gosh, I love this topic, as subjective as it is. Want to follow along, and even add your own star ratings? You can do it on the companion geeklist I've posted for this show. You can also go back to the lists we did in 2012 & 2011 to do the same, or measure our prognostication skills. Greg played so many games this year (and I added some of my own), that the podcast got to be quite long. For that reason I've split it into two halves. I'll post the first half now, and the second half at the end of the week. -Mark Direct download: BGTG_142_2013-12-03.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 9:52pm PDT

Mon, 28 October 2013 BGTG 141 - 100 Great Games, part 4 (with Stephen Glenn & Mark Jackson) Stephen Glenn and Mark Jackson rejoin me (Mark JOHNson) to continue this series. In 2012, these two guys polled a number of experienced gamers (a few designers, many reviewers, all enthusiasts) for their top games, consolidated their answers, and asked to come on my podcast to count down the results. I was pleased to be part of the poll, and doubly pleased to have them on Boardgames To Go. I really like how Stephen describes this:  "a fun list to discuss over coffee & pie." The poll was for our favorite games, not necessarily the best games. We even got to submit a top fifteen, which took the usual tough request for a top ten and gave us more breathing room for five more titles. I know in my case, it made it easier to add some very recent games to my longstanding favorites. On each podcast we're counting down 15 titles until we get to a final show with the Top Ten. I'll be interspersing 100 Great Games countdown episodes with my other podcast episodes. Here are #41-55 on the list, counted down in reverse order as we discuss them on the podcast. Now we're really getting into some notable titles with firm reputations of being great games. And yet, one or more of us keep finding games that we take issue with. There's nothing wrong with that, of course--these are the compiled results of many gamers, not just us. You should understand that we can respect a game, and its place on this list, even if we don't like it personally. In fact, I hope that sort of different opinion makes for a good listen, and will spark some feedback in the blog comments, below. Direct download: BGTG_141_2013-10-09.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 1:14pm PDT

Sun, 13 October 2013 BGTG 140 - SR & Feedback (Clubs, Qwixx, Via Appia, more) Session Report and Feedback episode with games I've played recently, as well as my experiences attending out-of-town Meetups. Direct download: BGTG_140_2013-07-26.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 10:09pm PDT

Thu, 26 September 2013 BGTG 139 - Essen Anticipation 2013 (with Dave Gullett) Last year I failed to do my annual "Essen Anticipation" podcast. It was just too much. This year, however, I got an earlier jump on it...and I enlisted the help of a friend. Direct download: BGTG_139_2013-09-24.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 11:30pm PDT

Sun, 14 July 2013 BGTG 138 - Experience Games (with Greg Pettit) Do you know the term, Experience Game? I thought everyone did, but in prepping for this episode I found that it's used a lot less often than I thought. Not only that, but I learned it's a term that was used more often in the early days of hobby boardgames, by which I mean the 1990s. Well, let's bring it up to 2013. (Actually, it IS still used sometimes.) Direct download: BGTG_138_2013-05-27.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 7:27pm PDT

Thu, 30 May 2013 BGTG 137 - SR & Feedback (Vinci II, TransAmerica with Vexation, Eclipse on iOS) I've been doing this podcast now for more than eight years! I can't quite believe it myself. In the beginning, more than a handful of shows were audio session reports, which I then combined with feedback that I read "on-air." These are simple episodes, inevitably solo shows, and I often used them to go between episodes with a guest about a particular subject. Especially as those shows are getting more and more meta about the hobby itself, a simple "session report & feedback" episode is kind of a relief. I hope you like them, also. I particularly like reading feedback on the podcast, as it reminds me of the Letters section in Sumo, Counter, or other boardgame zines. Those were always the best part. Direct download: BGTG_137_2013-05-27.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 11:04pm PDT

Fri, 24 May 2013 BGTG 136 - 100 Great Games, part 3 (with Stephen Glenn and Mark Jackson) Stephen Glenn and Mark Jackson join me for part 3 of our 100 game countdown series. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/19524 Direct download: BGTG_136_2013-04-23.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 12:40am PDT

Tue, 12 March 2013 BGTG 135 - Boardgaming Road Trip (with Dave Arnott) Have you ever gone a boardgaming road trip? I expect quite a few people might drive a few hundred miles to go to a game convention, but I've never done that. Games Days on Saturdays are local for me, about the same hour's drive I do on my daily commute. Recently, though, my buddy Dave Arnott drove the two of us halfway up California to spend a weekend of games, food, and conversation with other gamer friends. That was different, and a complete blast! This is sort of like a session report show--remember when I did those? The podcast goes a little long, but that's because we were having fun talking about games on the drive back. That's right, we recorded the podcast about the road trip while we were still on the road trip. Vroom! We got to play a whole lot of great games: a few new ones and several more old favorites. Jeff Myers is working his way through Spiel des Jahres winners on his blog, [url=http://gameguythinks.com/mississippi-queen/]Gameguythinks[/url], so we made sure to play a couple more of those classic titles, [thing=256][/thing] and [thing=54][/thing]. Other old faves we played were [thing=1315][/thing], [thing=73][/thing], [thing=261][/thing] (1994!), and [thing=5306][/thing] (1962!). The newer ones were [thing=123260][/thing] and [thing=103185][/thing]. I'll cheat a little and include [thing=357][/thing], too, since there was a recent reprint. In between is [thing=40769][/thing], which seems to have slipped past people but is really pretty great. Has EnderWiggin does one of his awesome photo-reviews of Valdora? Seems right up his alley. Besides the boardgames, we get to tell a couple side stories. We stopped at a thrift store where I grabbed a few bargains (or not--you tell me). Another of Dave's hobbies is [url=http://www.letterboxing.org/]Letterboxing[/url], which is described as "an intriguing pastime combining navigational skills and rubber stamp artistry in a charming 'treasure hunt' style outdoor quest." Perfect for a road trip! We did that, and we also got to stop at the warehouse for wargame publisher Decision Games. I picked up a couple items in-person, but also had the fun of seeing what goes on at the publisher of Strategy & Tactics, as well as many good wargames. Direct download: BGTG_135_2013-02-10.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 10:40pm PDT

Sun, 24 February 2013 BGTG 134 - A Look Back at 2012 Every year I like to look back over the previous one in boardgaming, and reflect on what happened. At the most basic level, this means reviewing my statistics, the number of distinct titles played, as well as the overall total of games played. For me that's typically about 100 titles, 300 total plays, but you'll hear how 2012 was a bit higher than normal. I'm not entirely sure why that was, though I have some ideas. I also talk through my "nickels & dimes" list of games played at least five or ten times. However, those sort of stats aren't as meaningful for self-reflection as it is to remember some particularly notable games or individual plays. Some games just stand out, regardless of the number of times they were played. My games of Olympia 2000 (v. Chr.) and Reiner Knizia's Decathlon, played during this summer's real Olympics in London are an example. So is my partnership game of Mr. President, played during the last US Presidential campaign season is another. I often play games online, though Play-By-Web sites like Yucata.de, Michael Schacht's Boardgames Online, or Brass Online. Not everyone agrees that these plays "count," but I do. More important, they let me keep playing games with friends I don't see during the week, or even friends that are in distant places like Houston or Afghanistan. :-) (For what it's worth, I don't log iOS plays, even if they're against a friend. As the games on that platform get better & better, that could change in the future.) Around the discussions about specific games are other observations about the recovery of my local gaming group, my rekindled interest in wargames, the undeniable impact of Kickstarter (not necessarily on me), solo boardgaming, and why I'm sometimes reverting to the term German Games instead of euros. It has to do with my preference for a style of shorter, elegant game that's more at home in 2000 among Carcassonne, Africa, or Bohnanza rather than 2012's overburdened euros with their resource economies and player status boards. The criticism of my favorite style of boardgame is that they're "superfillers" that are just chasing the Spiel des Jahres for wide, family appeal. Even with a group of gamers over on Friday night, those are the sort of games I like. Direct download: BGTG_134_2013-02-13.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 3:18pm PDT

Wed, 6 February 2013 BGTG 133 - 100 Great Games, part 2 (with Stephen Glenn and Mark Jackson) The guys join me for part 2 of our 100 game countdown series. Direct download: BGTG_133_2013-01-15.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 8:22pm PDT

Thu, 3 January 2013 BGTG 132 - GameNight! (with Scott Alden & Lincoln Damerst) Have you seen the latest video project on BGG? It's called GameNight!, literally hosted (i.e. in their home) by Lincoln Damerst & Nikki Pontius, as well digitally hosted by Scott Alden on BoardgameGeek's YouTube channel. On this podcast I got to talk with both Scott and Lincoln about GameNight!. At the time of recording they'd put out one show, but by now there are three episodes up. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/15465/bgtg-132-gamenight-with-scott-alden-and-lincoln Direct download: BGTG_132_2012-12-11.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 8:04am PDT

Wed, 19 December 2012 BGTG 131 - 100 Great Games, part 1 (with Stephen Glenn & Mark Jackson) Several years ago, Stephen Glenn and Mark Jackson polled a number of experienced gamers (a few designers, many reviewers, all enthusiasts) for their top games. I was pleased to be part of it. They consolidated the results, and published them with commentary in a blog called "The One Hundred." It carried the tongue-in-cheek subtitle "The Official & Completely Authoritative 100 Best Games of All Time Ever Without Question...So There!" Not everyone got the irony of that title, but if you knew these guys you'd know they never take themselves too seriously.  Now in 2012 they felt it was time to do the survey again, adding some new people to the mix to get a broader range of input. I was happy to be asked for my input again, and then pleasantly surprised that they asked for my help with Boardgames To Go to get the survey results out via podcast. Hurray! This time around, I really like how Stephen describes it: "a fun list to discuss over coffee & pie." We were asked for our favorite games, not necessarily the best games. We even got to submit a top fifteen, which took the usual tough request for a top ten and gave us more breathing room for five more titles. I know in my case, it made it easier to add some very recent games to my longstanding faves.   Direct download: BGTG_131_2012-11-12.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 11:47pm PDT

Tue, 11 December 2012 BGTG 130 - Post BGG.con 2012 (with Greg Pettit) As he's done for the past few years, Greg Pettit joins me on the podcast to talk about the annual Boardgamegeek convention, BGG.con (do they still call it "dot con"? I always thought that was clever.) I didn't go to the convention. In fact, I've only made it to the first one, and I hear it's only gotten bigger & better since then. Greg, on the other hand, goes every year. I really need to make it back sometime.  Occurring the week/weekend before Thanksgiving here in America, the convention is timed to include a lot of brand new Essen titles in its famous game library. Even I might succumb to the "cult of the new" a little bit when presented with the opportunity to try so many brand new, exciting titles that have barely made it to this country yet. Greg is like that, too, and it's great to talk with him afterward about so many of these brand new games. With that in mind, I can chime in on a few new titles I've managed to play somehow, even though I didn't make it to the convention. For this show, Greg and I prepared a Geeklist to go along with it. This was for our own notes & preparation, but we found in prior years that it's fun to share with everyone. I always like comments here on the blog, but you may want to comment about individual games over on that listt. Towards the very end of the show, we also take a brief look back at our similar list from the previous year, too. Though we don't spend too much time on them, you know that I'm always fascinated with analyzing or merely reflecting upon what makes some games longterm keepers, and which ones we're finished with in less than twelve months. In some cases that's completely ok to have "short-term games" like that, but mostly I'm interested in those permanent keepers.  Direct download: BGTG_130_2012-12-06.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 11:03pm PDT

Wed, 28 November 2012 BGTG 129 - Boardgame Blogging (with Jeff Myers) Do you read boardgame blogs? I mean, besides this one? :) My friend Jeff Myers is a boardgame blogger, and he joins me on this episode to talk about the subject, both as a reader and an author.  In some ways, I think blogging is a lost art...and the literary form has only been around since the late 1990s. Perhaps that's because they've developed along with the Internet during that same time period. Though they started out as humble web-logs by quirky, individual authors who wanted to write about something, they exploded into the commercial and professional media world who displaced those private authors. Except that they didn't. While the New York Times, Huffington Post, Daily Beast, Wall Street Journal, and even consumer products such as Coca-Cola and Volkswagen have things they call blogs (and I guess they are), the blogs boardgamers care about are still around. I'm talking about individual authors with their personal point-of-view, writing style, and a talent for giving us good stuff to read. It's about the boardgames, yes, but it's as much about the author. You find a few you like, you subscribe to the blogs, and (hopefully) give the blogger some feedback. Direct download: BGTG_129-2012-10-24.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 5:22am PDT

Mon, 19 November 2012 BGTG 128 - The Value of a Boardgame (with Greg Pettit) Greg Pettit must enjoy talking about meta topics on my podcast as much as I do. After helping me on my shows about game themes (for grown-ups or otherwise!), he told me he'd been thinking about the value of a boardgame. Not boardgaming, the entire hobby, but an individual title. And not in a strictly dollars & cents way, but more of a holistic, personal value of an individual game. Ever read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? It might be good background for Greg's thoughts in this episode. http://www.BoardgamesToGo.com Direct download: BGTG_128-2012-08-11.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 12:54pm PDT

Tue, 16 October 2012 BGTG 127 - Essen Anticipation 2012 (sort of...) Every year I look forward to Essen, both for the games that are being released, and at the analysis of the hits & misses from current & previous years. This time I tried to do the same thing, but was simply overwhelmed by the volume of information. It doesn't eliminate my interest & excitement for Essen, but it takes on a different character. Which is what's it's done a time or two already due to changes in the hobby (both "press coverage" and games published). http://www.BoardgamesToGo.com Direct download: BGTG_127-2012-10-16.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 2:31pm PDT

Wed, 8 August 2012 BGTG 126 - A Few Geeky Games After the last episode where I complained about geeky games, I felt a little compelled to describe a few of those games I DO happen to enjoy. It's a bonus that I got to work in a reference to Curiosity, the Mars rover that just landed. http://www.BoardgamesToGo.com Direct download: BGTG_126_2012-08-07.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 9:50pm PDT

Thu, 2 August 2012 BGTG 125 - Boardgame Themes for Grown Ups (with Greg Pettit) Greg Pettit returns to the topic of narrative themes in boardgames, except that it's mostly Mark that needs to unload his true feelings about geeky versus historical themes. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/12349/ Direct download: BGTG_125_2012-06-26.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 10:25pm PDT

Wed, 13 June 2012 BGTG 124 - A Sense of History (or European Vacation Part 2) Notice: I'm in the process of moving this blog over to Boardgamegeek. I'm still running the show, and the podcast will still be available through your normal subscription (iTunes, or whatever)--I'm just using a different host on the internet. This move is only happening because I think it will be more convenient for my listeners, and it may also generate more comments. Please follow me over to Direct download: BGTG_124_2012-06-11.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 10:16pm PDT

Mon, 28 May 2012 BGTG 123 - Outdoor Boardgaming (with Dave Gullett) Notice: I'm in the process of moving this blog over to Boardgamegeek. I'm still running the show, and the podcast will still be available through your normal subscription (iTunes, or whatever)--I'm just using a different host on the internet. This move is only happening because I think it will be more convenient for my listeners, and it may also generate more comments. Please follow me over to Direct download: BGTG_123_2012-05-15.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 10:57am PDT

Wed, 16 May 2012 BGTG moving to BGG...but where? Although the podcast will continue to be available through iTunes or wherever else you get it, I'm planning to move this blog over to a new location, on Boardgamegeek. I welcome your feedback about that in this post over on BGG. -Mark Category: -- posted at: 1:49pm PDT

Sat, 28 April 2012 BGTG 122 - SR & Feedback (Würfel Bohnanza & Lords of Waterdeep) Filling in the gaps between episodes with guests, I like to post episodes that let me simply talk about some games I've played lately, offer scattered opinions & thoughts about them, and then share some of the podcast's feedback. My listeners often have great suggestions and comments that expand upon topics discussed in previous episodes. In this "Session Report & Feedback" show, I discuss  Direct download: BGTG_122_2012-04-26.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 10:48am PDT

Thu, 26 April 2012 BGTG 121 - Secondhand Games (with Greg Pettit) I'm still trying to keep podcasts coming out more frequently, and now I've got friends who are actively pushing me along. That can only help! In this case, it's Greg Pettit, who I thought of immediately when I decided to do a podcast about secondhand games. Whether you're acquiring Out-Of-Print classics or being economical about the Cult of the New-To-Me, sometimes buying used games is the way Direct download: BGTG_121_2012-03-28.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 8:33am PDT

Tue, 13 March 2012 BGTG 120 - Favorites of 2011 (A Few Acres of Snow, Pergamon) What?! Two episodes in the same month?! When was the last time I did that? Unfortunately, it's been a while. But as I say during the early part of this podcast, I've got a little more free time now, and I hope I can use it to publish podcasts a bit more frequently than it's been. This could change at any time, but for now I've got my fingers crossed. In this episode I do a few things. Most Direct download: BGTG_120_2012-03-12.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 1:57pm PDT

Wed, 7 March 2012 BGTG 119 - Euro Train Games (with Dave Arnott) Train games mean something special, at least to train gamers. Usually they involve the 18XX system and hours of deep gameplay. Oddly, though, sometimes it means a very light game such as Express. Within hobby gaming, the term predates the German style of boardgames typified by Settlers and the like. Are there games that include some of what "makes" a train game, but also includes the design/ Direct download: BGTG_119_2012-01-11.mp3 Category:general -- posted at: 10:22pm PDT