Tavern Con was amazing. Got to meet great people, play great games, and bring in some much needed support to help InnRoads Ministries do the work we feel that God is calling us to.

If you were at the event, thank you for helping make it such a huge success, whether you were a guest or one of our volunteers!

This is a short bit of bonus content – so giving highlights will basically give away the whole thing, but here are some appropriate links based on what I talk about:

Get our limited edition T-shirt! (available ’til July 29th)

Donate at our site to support the ministry.

We get an update on Jeff’s trip to the woods, talk about some epic kickstarters, and share a bit of what we have planned for Tavern Con. In our discussion of our first fund raiser, we share about our own struggles trusting in God’s provision for our day to day.

If you were thinking about coming to Tavern Con, we hope to see you this weekend. If you can’t come, we’d love it if you would pray for the event and its success that we can build on for years to come. You can also support the ministry of InnRoads by sending us a donation wherever you are through the innRoads site.

It’s convention season, and that means everyone is talking about the new hotness. Game reviews and previews are flying across every media outlet, Board Game Geek has an expansive listing of upcoming releases, and the rest of us are all chomping at the bit to get our hands on the newest bit of awesome. But really, what about when the hype fades? Do you have the right foundation of history, culture, and craft to enjoy a deep love of the hobby, or will you just be bouncing around from hottest thing to next hottest thing?

We ride the hype train for a couple of titles:

We revisit some of the games we love from the past:

Right up at the front of this episode, I also mention that I might be appearing somewhere as part of the upcoming Shadow Run actual play over at Gamerstable.com. I’ll be sure to post when/if you can hear my voice on that production, but until then – go over there and listen to their spectacular actual plays. They are well worth your time.

In this episode, we get an update on Jeff’s trip to the Green Dragon Inn. We talk about Neuroshima Hex, Gloom, and a thematically odd but spectacular game about turning antibotics fighting diseases into an epic fantasy card game. No. REALLY!

As conversation moved through the tales of family tragedies told through see-through playing cards, we started to discuss the nature of playing and the dangers of comparing ourselves with others.

We also got an update from the folks at Chara Games regarding their newest game, Commissioned, that made its debut at Origins Game Fair last week as well as on Kickstarter. They have successfully funded, but if you want to get your hands on a copy or look into their proposed stretch goals – you can find more info here.

When one of our Regulars at the Tavern told me about a game called Commissioned about the spread of the early church in its historical context, I was intrigued. Then I found out that they will be unveiling their kickstarter THIS WEEK at Origins. I got in touch with Pat Lysaght, one of the game’s designers, and got him on the podcast to tell you guys a little bit more about it. If you find yourself at Origins, be sure to stop by and say you heard about them on Game Store Prophets.

The kickstarter doesn’t go live until Wednesday June 3rd, but you can find more about the game – including videos featuring game demonstrations – at the following:

http://www.charagames.com/games/commissioned/