Our special guests are Ellen and Randy Kirby, of We Game Together. They do 2-3 minute mini-reviews for the Dice Tower as part of Board Game Breakfast, as well as streaming live playthroughs. The live streams are a little challenging with kids running around, and they tell us a story of one of their first streams.

How do they afford so many board games? “We don’t spend money on much of anything else.” Board games is how they spend time together – sounds good to us!

Randy and Andrew relate about how hard it is to cull games that they don’t play any more. We think it’s mentally easier to trade games than to sell them.

Ellen Kirby shares some wisdom for “content creators” – don’t let your hobby turn into a chore.

We all share how we love seeing our kids play games. So awesome when they choose to do it instead of screen time! Awesome themes and short play times are key to getting kids (or adults!) interested in games.

Ellen shares her love for Castles of Burgundy – and the deluxe edition will be available at Origins!

What We’ve Been Playing

The Kirbys recently picked up Cat Lady, Res Arcana, Gates of Lojang, and Tiny Towns.

Ellen has been pushing to revisit games they already have, like Istanbul, Castles of Burgundy, and Downforce.

Res Arcana leads us into a conversation about digital game play vs physical game play, especially with heavier games.

Andrew’s hoping to play Teotihuacan when he goes to Dice Tower Con next month.

The Smiths recently played A Fake Artist Goes to New York – think Spyfall combined with Pictionary. Everyone is trying to figure out who’s faking while you’re collectively drawing a picture that everyone else knows. We had a great time playing this at a restaurant with extended family. Only downside? You need a minimum of 5 people to play.

Ellen recommends Just One as a similar restaurant-friendly party game. One person covers their eyes, everyone else writes down a clue to the common word. But if two (or more) people write the same clue, those have to be erased before the guesser opens their eyes.

Andrew tells us about Gunkimono (which we mentioned last week).

Randy tells us more about Cat Lady – 3×3 grid, pick a row or column. Put out cats as you acquire them, but you have to feed them (with other cards). Collect sets of costumes and toys for your cats too!

Andrew tells us about War Chest (played for the first time this week) – bag building with tiles that can also be played out onto the board to control various areas of the board.

Origins

Who’s going to Origins? Anitra and Randy. The Kirbys both wanted to go, but prioritized some other conventions instead… and then Randy got invited by a friend. Andrew shares his sob story – maybe we should have planned this trip better.

What We’re Excited For

Anitra: new roll-and-writes from Renegade Games: Hex Roller & Lanterns Dice

Family game with a super long name: The Little Monster that Came for Lunch and Stayed for Tea – from Strawberry Studio (they also published Strawberry Ninja and What’s Up)

Randy has a crisis over how to best use his tim...