Claire joins us to interview our amazing special guest this week: none other than Flip Florey, host of Flip Florey’s Super Saturday Board Game Serial! Flip is also a former panelist from the Flip The Table podcast.

Flip The Table (tableflipsyou.blogspot.com) was a long-running podcast all about playing the games that no one wants to play. Many of the games were awful, but they also discovered several gems. “It gave us a way to look at games that were total crap but had one or two cool elements…”

Flip’s new show is all about showcasing the fun we have playing board games, while capturing the essence of classic Saturday morning cartoons.

We share our family’s rule around Saturday morning cartoons (only broadcast, no Netflix), and Flip shares an anecdote from his own childhood involving a TV movie and a bargain with his mother.

Our Top 3 UnFavorite Games

We picked three games that pretty much everyone has, but which are terrible. We’re hoping we can find some redeeming quality in each one.

Munchkin

Good: We love the theme. the humor is fantastic.

Bad: With most groups, the game becomes all about holding each other down and dragging the game out as long as possible.

Candyland

Everyone knows this is Anitra’s worst game of all time. Chutes & Ladders and other basic roll-and-move games also fit this category.

Good: These games teach children turn-taking and the basics of counting and moving.

Bad: They’re horribly random (except Candyland, in which you can stack the deck), with no meaningful decisions whatsoever.

Flip once got a rules question about Candyland from a co-worker?!

Trivial Pursuit

Good: The backstory (a bunch of college kids started this as a class project, and then turned it into a money-making machine). Trivia is rewarding when you’ve got the answer.

Bad: Trivial Pursuit definitively answers how a trivia game can become a slog and not-fun. You need to get questions right in every one of the six categories, which is almost impossible. No one is an expert on everything.

We suggest house rules that could improve Trivial Pursuit… or just play Wits & Wagers! (Claire also suggests Box of Rocks as a better trivia game.)

So what makes games fun?

Telling a story.

Having surprises or upsets. Blood Bowl is one of Flip’s favorites for this reason.

Actual communication between players! “The unspoken contract” that we’re playing together.

Working together, which means games can be more complex and still be fun.

 

Find Flip Florey’s Super Saturday Board Game Serial!:

on Facebook

on Board Game Geek as a Guild

Twitter: @FFSSBGSerial

Instagram: @FFSSBoardGameSerial

and at boardgameserial.com

 

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thefamilygamers.com

Facebook: @familygamersaa

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