Join us as we take a trip to Hadestown as we lament the things we missed at GenCon and celebrate the things we enjoyed at GenCan’t. Then grab your dice and uncap your dry erase markers for our first true Top Five list as Joel and Chris discuss our top five roll and write games. We wrap up the episode with a brief discussion of when to believe a game box’s listed player count. Gather all your friends and listen in, because one thing without a maximum player count is the Oak and Onion podcast!

Choo-choo! The Hype Train is leaving GenCon station! Joel and Chris hype up the Vans Warped Tour, the Tabletop Inn, and the Garphill trilogies–and that’s all before we even get to our topic of conversation: is hype an external problem or an internal one, and what games would we describe as overhyped, underhyped, or appropriately hyped? We wrap up our hype episode with a game of Slice and Dice, where we read terrible reviews of great games. So prepare for the ballyhoo, listen to the hoopla, and boost your anticipation for an episode designed to make your excitement levels skyrocket. Can you smell what the hype is cooking?

Chris and Joel are back from their hiatus with tales of food, books/movies, and a whole lot of games. In this episode we try to figure out what everyone means by a “heavy” game (hint: it depends), and check in with the highlight reel again as we try to contain our jealousy that we’re not going to GenCon. Will this be our unluckiest episode or our most popular episode yet? Tune in now to find out!

In this episode Joel and Chris are joined by Andrew Stiles, designer of Wine Cellar, Digging for Dinos, and a host of upcoming games. Andrew shares three games that define him, then Joel asks all about Andrew’s design process, from idea to pitch to execution. Finally in honor of Digging for Dinos and the upcoming Avatar: Fight for Pandora, Chris quizzes Andrew on whether he can differentiate Jurassic Park quotes from Avatar quotes. We see you, Andrew Stiles. We see you.

In this episode Joel and Chris check in on the gaming year so far, exploring trends, highs, lows, and what’s coming in the second half of the year that we have our eyes on. Then we follow up last week’s chat about DVC’s games with a discussion of unique games that have stuck with us. Plus we’ll find out what Chris thinks about the sister franchises of Toy Story movies and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Episode 11 starts now!

Joel answers Chris’s Origins questions and Chris responds to Joel’s game cafe queries in this, the tenth episode of the Oak and Onion podcast. Ten episodes makes this our tin anniversary, and that doesn’t mean anything, but that’s weird, right? Listen in for convention highlights, Disclosure Day chatter, and bad movie celebrations as we try and fail to keep the episode under two hours. What can we say, we like to talk!

Join us for our most 9th episode ever as we shed our inhibitions, climb the ladder of podcasting success, and trick our listeners into spending another two hours with us. In this episode we talk superheroes old and new as we explore where He-Man gets resurrected, Marvel gets underappreciated, and The Boys gets overly graphic. Then Joel shares some of the highlights of a small local gaming convention he attended for the first time. We continue our Board Games 101 series with a group of card game terms. And we end the episode by Blind Ranking 5 games each from designers selected by the other. It’s our last show before a week off, so download it many times to listen to repeatedly and keep those listener stats up for us!

Segments:

• 00:00:00—Intro
• 00:00:43—What We’ve Been Up To
• 00:06:02—What We’ve Been Watching
• 00:25:17—What We’ve Been Playing
• 01:10:14—Board Games 101
• 01:40:13—Blind Rank
• 01:46:17—Closing and Sign Off

Join Chris and Joel for a short-ish episode where we give you tips and tricks for hosting a game night–spoiler alert, it all comes down to clear communication–throw down another 3-2-1 list for summertime games, and talk about some more games we’ve played in the last couple weeks. We also turn into a film podcast for a few minutes with a deep discussion of Curry Barker’s new film Obsession (don’t worry, we save all the spoilers for a bonus segment after our signoff). Yeah, okay, in the end, the episode is not that short-ish after all. What can we say–we love to talk!

Segments:

• 00:00:00—Intro
• 00:00:44—What We’ve Been Up To
• 00:04:03—What We’ve Been Watching
• 00:27:41—What We’ve Been Playing
• 01:07:05—How to Host a Game Night
• 01:19:41—3-2-1 Summer!
• 01:36:23—Closing and Sign Off
• 01:38:27—Obsession Spoiler Chat

After separate gaming weekends, Joel and Chris try to switch things up with a shortened episode as we aim for weekly releases through the month of June. We talk about Chris’s birthday, Joel’s illness, highlights of our gaming weekends, and give our tips for successful board game convention experiences. At right around 97 minutes, it’s our usual board game banter refined into a perfect blend of wit and wisdom, all in the same time it would take to watch 2004’s Mean Girls. So put in your headphones and spend time with some Nice Boys instead!

Segments

• 00:00:00—Intro
• 00:00:38—What We’ve Been Enjoying
• 00:22:00—BIG Gaming Weekends Recap
• 01:07:05—Convention Tips
• 01:36:31—Closing and Sign Off

It’s another episode where we can’t shut up! Joel and Chris talk theme parks and tv before we jump into a new segment with Board Games 101, where Joel convinces Chris it’s okay to talk about hard things. Then Chris gets his revenge with a game of Pass the Test (spoiler alert: Joel can not) before we hit some exciting and disappointing things on the board game horizon as we take another look at the Highlight Reel. Stick with us to the end for a moment of zen when one of us writes two haiku to pay homage to the winner of our Golden Geek competition. We’re high brow now!

Segments:

• 00:00:00—Intro
• 00:00:49—What We’ve Been Up To
• 00:10:56—What We’ve Been Reading & Watching
• 00:28:51—What We’ve Been Playing
• 01:00:14—Board Games 101: Euro vs. Ameritrash
• 01:39:27—Can Joel Pass the Test?
• 01:59:08—Highlight Reel
• 02:14:43—Golden Geek Winners
• 02:23:06—Closing and Sign Off