Our guest today is someone we’ve known for a long time, and a member of the Dice Tower Network. Brandt Sanderson is the host of “The Portal Gaming Podcast”… but Andrew and Anitra have known him since they all went to college together. In fact, Andrew and Brandt were roommates one year.

Brandt didn’t play many board games in college, though, and we just lost track of each other. Andrew and Brandt randomly ran into each other at the New York Toy Fair in 2017.

The reason Brandt was at Toy Fair: He works part-time for The Portal, a game store in Manchester CT, finding ways to reach out to the community. One of the first ideas he came up with was The Portal Gaming Podcast – no other store was doing a podcast or reviewing games.

The podcast used to be twice a month, but now they try to release an episode every week, with a rotation of hosts through the month: 1 solo, 1 with wife Cathy, 1 with Bryan the manager, and 1 grab-bag.

Not just the gaming podcast

That’s not all Brandt does: by day, he teaches math – at an art school! “The school I’m in is never chill.”

He no longer gets a week off in February, and that’s awkward because President’s Day weekend is when NY Toy Fair is held.

This leads us to discuss different conventions. Brandt even runs a small convention out of his house in the fall: VannerCon. Listen to his podcast for more information.

Do you incorporate board gaming into your math teaching?

Sometimes. In fact, leading into this long weekend he taught: Ganz Schön Clever! The kids had fun, but even this light game was not a great fit for all of the class. “It’s basically a color-coded spreadsheet!” In fact, light games are not always great introduction games. e.g. Ancestree, Spaceteam.

When Brandt taught a statistics course (at a different school), he incorporated lots of hands-on activities, including games like King of Tokyo.

First, they simply learned how to play. Then they tracked data on a later play. Then did single-variable analysis, multi-variable analysis, and probability throughout the year.

Let’s talk about some games!

Echidna Shuffle – can be family or cutthroat, and we love the equalizing of the die rolls.

Horrified – classic monsters have escaped from their movie sets. Track 2-4 of them down & eliminate them! Each monster has a different way to deal with it. Werewolf: mix a potion, give it to him. Creature from the Black Lagoon: play certain color cards, gradually climbing a ladder to reach the creature. Card draws to tell you to lay out items, specials for a monster, actions for all other monsters. Same deck for everything!

Villainous – best at 2-3, because with more players, you have to keep track of too many different goals/abilities.

Point Salad – draft cards for points, or to build your salad. “It works!” (from AEG)

CABO – (from Bezier) Keep your 3 cards face-down. Try to get the lowest score, but you can only peek or change up cards when you draw specials. How does it compare with Silver, also from Bezier? Fewer special powers.

Sushi Roll – Brandt is not a fan. Draft your dice, one at a time. More player interaction, but slower. Easier to teach? He prefers Sushi Go. Personally, we think