It’s been board games Christmas of late with this year’s Essen Spiel having just concluded, PLUS we’re joined by friend of the show and board games industry bigwig Rob Trounce, so we use this as a wonderful excuse to talk about lots and lots of board games.

In particular? Well, there’s Tax the Rich by Alion, which is a trick-taking game with politics at its core, as well as Night Soil by Grail Games which has… well… quite a different theme. And then there’s Joyride: Survival of the Fastest from Rebellion Unplugged, a racing game of driving fast and dirty.

Away from the cardboard and plastic, we also get time to talk Japanese mystery Strange Pictures by Uketsu, plus more chilling tingles with The Séance of Blake Manor from Spooky Doorway and Raw Fury.

All that, and being asked if we’re really sure, on Ep235.

00:00 - Going to the Barbers

04:55 - Essen Spiel 2025

12:57 - Tax the Rich

15:41 - Night Soil

22:56 - Strange Pictures

30:19 - Joyride: Survival of the Fastest

47:00 - The Séance of Blake Manor

On this episode were Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), Sam (@MrSamTurner), and our super special guest Rob Trounce of Zatu Games.

Our Spotify Playlist brings together lots of great thematic music inspired by the stuff we talk about, our Steam Curator page collects every video game we’ve ever reviewed available on the platform, and our BoardGameGeek page does the same for every boardgame. And if you’d like to see what we’re up to between podcasts, your best bet is our Instagram page.

Links to where you can find us - StayingInPodcast.com

Note: sometimes we'll have been sent a review copy of the thing we're talking about on the podcast. It doesn't skew how we think about that thing, and we don't receive compensation for anything we discuss, but we thought you might like to know this is the case.