Breakup Gaming Society

Was happy to learn that Fake Minotaur Buttholes, a game for the whole family, is now available at Target.

Games of the Week (2:29)
• SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is set up and previewed. It’s going to be a very Euro winter.

• A deep-dive with Walt into the rancid alleys and bleak implications of Lichoma, an impressive indie meatpunk TTRPG.

Drink of the Week (44:06)
Some light work with my favorite winter combo: a stout and a nip of bourbon back. Plus ongoing efforts to get good at Resist!, a solo WW2-era insurgency card game set in Spain.

Track of the Week (49:46)
Checking out DJ Premier’s spare and pristine production on “Tha Realness” by Group Home.

I Just Gave My Secret Wars #11 to a Pal
A possible minor jackpot for Bryan, who did the show a solid and picked Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #11 from a randomized set of three titles from my vintage ‘80s comic book box. Check out what other supporters chose.

Ah, Halloween, when I turn out every light in my house except for a floodlight trained on a pile of cursed items in my driveway.

Game of the Week (4:04)
I chat up fellow Coloradan (and fellow Nate) Nate Hayden, one of the three cats who designed the wild demonic underground wargame, Cave Evil, which became a nigh-unobtainable cult hit in the years following its 2011 release. But the crew who made it never stopped playing and building onto their Stygian world of maps, weapons, creatures and strategies. It’s been re-released.

Drink of the Week (40:50)
We’re still looking for a name for Skrrt_Vonnegut’s homemade plum liqueur and whiskey thing. Learn how to enter. Modest prizes involved.

Track of the Week (42:41)
We’re still looking for a name for Skrrt_Vonnegut’s homemade plum liqueur and whiskey thing. Learn how to enter. Modest prizes involved

New on the Blog: My Latest Dwelling Session, “Eyes of a Boring God”
We start to learn how the narrator became the sole resident of his troubled uncle’s house. We also begin to learn that he’s not just a wistful guy with a broken heart.

Drink of the Week (2:28)
Get in on the naming contest for our Chief Mixologist’s plum liqueur-and-whiskey drink. I’m sending goodies out to the clever bastard who submits the winning name.

Game of the Week (5:21)
Something’s wrong in the lush paradise of Ululu. Dickheads are showing up there just to score points; they don’t care about the ceremonies anymore and all the locals have started podcasts. Faraway is still my light multiplayer game of the 2025, though.

Track of the Week (20:38)
In honor of Open Mike Eagle’s killer new hip hop album list-building on YouTube, we’re playing a couple slices of “(How Could Anybody) Feel at Home” from his 2017 album.

New on the Blog: The Best Similes from Ballard’s The Drowned World
This spring I heard a beautiful reading of J.G. Ballard’s The Drowned World, his first novel from 1962, and was so struck by his language and ideas that I tracked down a paperback copy just to harvest my favorite sentences that had similes. The harvest is over and I have recorded them all for you.

Games of the Week (2:46)
Put out the welcome mat for the underdogs: This house became a David Thompson house in 2025. First impressions of Resist! and follow-ups on Pavlov’s House and Battle Card.

Track of the Week (20:38)
My favorite RZA beat: “Careful (Click, Click)” by Wu-Tang Clan

Thank You, Jason and Joseph
Thanks to Jason and Joseph for contributing to the show. I mailed each of them a Breakup Gaming Society cocktail booklet and a Defiant Frog sticker. They’re also in the running for my copy of Marvel Secret Wars #8.

New Dwelling Solo RPG Encounter is on the Blog
Our narrator drifts into the kitchen, where pancakes, sex and love haunt the hollow of the stomach in the wee hours.

Drink of the Week (3:01)
I head back to Kansas City, this time with an oversized ice cube and an orange twist.

Games of the Week (11:24)
• Review of Pyrotechnics from The Seahorse and the Hummingbird, a buoyant and sparkly two-player card contest about fireworks that packs a lot of smarts into an incredibly short playtime.

• Walt returns to show us Burnout Reaper and Digital Angel, two near-future dystopian TTRPGs. The bills are due and we can’t pay ‘em. Time to harvest organs. All kinds of organs. Both of these games are free now because the creator pulled them off Itch.io. TRIGGER WARNING: PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING.

Track of the Week (34:42)
A spiritual reflection from across the Atlantic of the US’ early-2000s True School: “3 Ft. Deep” by DJ Format & Abdominal.

One of You is Going to Finish the Year With the Most Valuable Comic Book from My Vintage ‘80s Box
I’m seeing if I can improve on my total of $30 in donations for the year. Somebody who helps me do that is going to get a very cool bonus in a random drawing. Check the intro and outro of this episode for details.

Drink of the Week (1:53)
A buddy stopped by on a road trip and left me a bottle of Kansas City Whiskey from West Bottoms Whiskey Co. I hit it a few nights ago and it hit back and now we’re friends.

Games of the Week (5:39)
• I’m through the first two of the six maps in Postmark Games’ Battle Card, which turns WWII strategy dilemmas into accessible puzzles for a casual player and a fun diversion for hex-and-counter fans.

• An excerpt from my chat with James and Andy of War With a Mate, a podcast that documents their cold start up wargaming’s most fabled peak: SPI’s monster, The Campaign for North Africa: The Desert War 1940-43.

Track of the Week (35:50)
Bring back the megamix: Namely “Megamix ‘88,” from Mantronix’s 1988 LP, In Full Effect. (I kept citing ‘87 on the segment, but that was wrong.)

May I Send You a Custom Cocktail Booklet Full of Bad Ideas + A Frog That Warns Against Such Things?
Support the show with a one-time $10 pitch-in and I’ll send you cool stuff in the mail. (There’s also an option to pick something from my vintage ‘80s comic book box, peep the details.)

Always keep spare indie games in your duffel to pacify the constabulary while traveling.

Drink of the Week (3:06)
Made my first-ever homemade Paloma. Worth the squeeze, as a tequila I normally like to sip straight became suddenly disappointing.

Games of the Week (6:43)
• My attempt at rousing the locals with a gambling version of King of Tokyo failed

• Check out previews for a gang of indie TTRPGs, solo wargames, and a two-player firework-designing contest I just got: Carolina Death Crawl (Bully Pulpit Games), Pyrotechnics (The Seahorse and the Hummingbird), Battle Card (Postmark Games), Dive Dive Dive (partymeeple), Lichoma (Bogfolk).

• More — and more informed — praise from further plays of Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290-1398.

Track of the Week (35:26)
”Murder by Contract,” Depth Charge. Featuring Walt from Līber Lūdōrum and The Bogfolk.

I Accept Help and Mail You Unique Swag for Doing It
No Patreon needed: Kick me a tenner and I’ll send you Breakup Gaming Society’s cocktail booklet and your own Defiant Frog sticker. Drop a second tenner on top of that, you also get a pull from my vintage ‘80s comics box.

Cribbed my cold intro from a few lines of this Bukowski poem if you feel like reading the whole thing.

Drink of the Week (2:19)
It’s hot, so I keep it simple with a cooler of Michelob Ultra in the living room and try to reason out why I went all in on this podcast.

Game of the Week (10:36)
Finally got my hands on the trickery of Sykes-Picot: The Secret Treaty to Partition the Ottoman Empire from Hollandspiele Games, designed by Brooks Barber. Also: Second looks at Squad Leader, Star Wars: Outer Rim and a new installment of my work with the Dwelling solo journaling RPG.

Track of the Week (35:26)
”Iron God Chamber,” Masta Killa feat. U-God, RZA, Method Man

Help Me Out, Get Fun Stuff to Read (25:59)
I’ve still got cocktail booklets and Defiant Frog stickers as thank-you gifts for people who support the show with a one-time pitch-in. Tack on some postage and that swag bag can also include a pick from my 1980s comic book box.

Walt of the Līber Lūdōrum blog and the TTRPG-making Bogfolk crew joins us for all three segments. You’re gonna dig Walt.

Drink of the Week (3:01)
Walt and I each made our own variant of a lemonade-vodka-beer punch. I went limeade-Stoli-fruity IPA. He went pink lemonade-Haku-fruity ale.

Game of the Week (15:46)
Carolina Death Crawl from Bully Pulpit Games. A Southern Gothic card-driven and GM-less roleplaying game set during the American Civil War. Only one of you is going to live.

Track of the Week (35:26)
The summer chillout beat thing extends with Walt’s choice: “Feather” by Nujabes feat. CYNE.

New on the Blog | Axis & Allies & Everything Else: A Far-Ranging Talk with Justin Kramm
I chat up Justin Kramm of Shitshow Creative about everything from his childhood as a hotel brat to whether or not we can rage quit 21st Century Capitalism’s End Game. Listen here.

I’m Still Sending Out Fun Stuff to BGS Supporters
I’ve still got cocktail booklets and Defiant Frog stickers as thank-you gifts for people who support the show with a one-time pitch-in. Tack on some postage and that swag bag can also include a pick from my 1980s comic book box.

Three boring drinks, a war for 13th Century India, and a luxurious summer cooldown track at the end.

Drink of the Week (4:02)
Sam Adams Summer Ale briefly rouses the poet in me. Stella Artois and Hurradurra Reposado put him back to sleep.

Game of the Week (8:03)
In southern India, the emergent Bahmani and Vijayanagara empires assert themselves against the iron grip of the Delhi Sultanate. And I took that personally.

Track of the Week (18:26)
The Herbaliser and Roots Manuva team up to smooth out your July. It’s “Starlight.”

Support the Show, Get Thank-You Gifties
For a one-time chip-in of $10, I will send Breakup Gaming Society’s cocktail booklet — “Chaotic Shots and Cocktails That Will Hurt Your Friends” — and your own sassy Defiant Frog sticker anywhere in the world.