Of Dice And Men

The gang talks about two player games and some games we've played recently

After our short hiatus, Chad, Adam and Ryan return to the airways to discuss Board game burnout, that feeling that can overtake some people in the hobby when you just don't feel like playing, discussing or even thinking about board games. It can happen to anyone.

Then we go deep on some games we've played recently including Forbidden Stars, the 40K Epic space combat game that Adam has owned for a while and finally got to play with Chad.

Ryan is your host, Chad your Vanna White, and Adam your lucky contestant as we strap in for another round of Create! That! Game! Chad brings up a random mechanic, theme, and victory condition (thanks to boardgamizer.com) and while Ryan explains the mechanic and a few of its best games, Adam comes up with a sales pitch for the next big board game success!

After we've successfully drained Adam of his last ounce of creativity we discuss a few recent plays, including Ultimate Werewolf Legacy, Factory Funner, Sarah's Vision, and more!

Adam, Ryan, and Chad discuss all the various ways players can influence the outcome of a board game _without actually playing the game!_ That's right, it's metagaming time! Inspired by a recent episode of Space Cats Peace Turtles (an excellent TI4-focused show, check 'em out at https://spacecatspeaceturtles.podbean.com/), we go through the list, starting at "kingmaking" and ending at "stealthing". Are any of these legitimate tactics? Or is it all just in good fun? Find out!

Chad and Ryan discuss one versus many games, games where one player leads an overpowered faction or character against the rest of the table. We dissect both Overlord and Cat & Mouse games, reviewing the best and worst of each sub-genre, and discuss why these unique asymmetric games deserve a category of their own.

As usual, we close out the show with some recent plays, including Fury of Dracula, Love Letter, A Handful of Stars, Spire's End, and more!

Adam, Ryan and Chad take a few moments to discuss the role of narrative and story in modern board games. Whether it's a static story or a collection of random events, storywriting has taken more of a prominent role in board game design. We discuss if we think the tales written in-between the mechanics actually add anything to a game's value, and highlight a few good and not-so-good examples in the hobby.

We close the show with a few games we've been playing lately, including Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Gloomhaven, Treasure Island, Just One, Ultimate Werewolf Legacy, Comanauts, and more!

Ryan, Adam and Chad discuss replayability in the world of board games. What does it mean for a board game to be considered replayable? Are there certain mechanics or genres that produce games that are more replayable than others? Do expansions help or hinder the issue?

We also discuss a few of our recent plays, including Samurai, Gizmos, Tyrants of the Underdark, Railroad Ink, Gloomhaven, Ultimate Werewolf Legacy, and more!

Happy 2nd birthday to us! Join Chad, Ryan and Adam as we celebrate our second year of blabbing on about board games, the people who play them, and the culture surrounding the hobby! Most of the episode is spent entertaining questions from you, the audience, and a few of our favourite podcasts chime in! We also draw for our Chronicles of Crime giveaway courtesy of MrDiceGuy.com, and talk about some recent plays including Western Legends, Kremlin, The Mind, and Telestrations.

A special thanks to all our podcasting friends who contributed to the episode:

Punchboard Paradice - https://soundcloud.com/punchboard-paradise

Men On Board - https://www.menonboardpodcast.com/

Playing Rough - https://soundcloud.com/user-2432511

Dice Men Cometh - http://dicemencometh.com/

Pod of Love - http://www.allportsopen.com/Podcast.aspx?ID=3

The Drinking Meeples - http://thedrinkingmeeples.com/

Cardboard Reality - https://www.cardboardrealitypodcast.com/

Forgot My Dice - https://forgotmydice.com/

Bridge City Boardgamers - https://twitter.com/bcboardgamers

Mega Meeple - https://themegameeple.com/

CONTEST ALERT: Enter our Chronicles of Crime giveaway care of MrDiceGuy.com - details inside!

Ryan, Adam and Chad discuss the highs and lows in our annual Year in Review episode! We give our two cents on the BGG hotness in 2018, discuss this year's Kickstarter success stories, and finally hand pick our best and worst games from the last 365 days.

We wrap up the episode as usual with the games we've been playing lately, including Adam and Chad's play of Twilight Imperium 4, the mad rush of 2018 releases Chad breezed through, and Ryan's dive back into Settlers. No, we won't call it Catan.

Don't forget about our giveaway of Chronicles of Crime with mrdiceguy.com - details on how to enter inside!

**NEW CONTEST ALERT! Listen to hear how to win Chronicles of Crime from mrdiceguy.com**

Chad, Ryan and Adam discuss the various ways a game night can go wrong for the average group, outside of a poorly designed game. Playing with other humans certainly comes with its own array of considerations, but have you ever had a night wrecked by the theme of a game or the gaming environment? We discuss a few things to look for and your best bet to avoid a negative gaming experience.

After the contest break we discuss Arkham Horror, both the second and newly released third editions. Both games feature investigators looking to defend the city of Arkham from one or more existential threats, but how each game goes about it is quite different. We list the differences and similarities as well as our likes and dislikes with Fantasy Flight's flagship Arkham Files product.

Finally we wrap up the show with some of our recent plays, including Holding On; The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr, El Grande, Chronicles of Crime (our newest giveaway game), and discuss a few new releases!