Chris Porter isn't just a board game designer. He's also a publisher, a graphic artist, a branding expert, a YouTuber, and a soccer player — and somehow he's doing all of it at the same time.

In this episode, Chris walks us through the origin of Chris Couch Games — from a hand-illustrated Marvel game made for a bachelor party to a growing catalog of beautifully designed, sneakily strategic titles. We talk about what it actually takes to launch on Kickstarter as a small publisher, the design philosophy that shapes every game he makes, and why he believes friction is the secret ingredient to bringing people together.

We also get into Holiday Hills, Garden Club, Petal, and a first look at what's coming next — including Haunted Hills and Headliner.

If you love board games and want a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to build something real in this industry, this one's for you.

Join the Secret Club Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/clubs?club=the-board-game-secret-show

Want to work together?: https://crdbrd.app/hub/creator/neon_gorilla

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Chris Couch Games

🔗 https://chriscouch.games/

Nerdy Soul (Chris's YouTube)

🔗 https://www.youtube.com/@the_nerdy_sole

Garden Club Kickstarter

🔗 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chriscouch/garden-club

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Check out Cardboard: 🔗 https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/scroll

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Timestamps

0:00 - Intro

1:21 - Who is Chris Porter?

2:46 - The bachelor party game that started it all

4:27 - How "Chris Couch" got its name

9:37 - Walking into GenCon with no connections

12:33 - The advice from Jamey Stegmaier that changed everything

17:11 - Trying to do something different with board game art

19:14 - Baby Grand Creative & the design background

22:51 - "Sneakily Strategic" — the Chris Couch brand mantra

28:37 - From idea to Kickstarter: becoming a real publisher

33:19 - Kickstarter vs. retail: what most people get wrong

37:09 - The state of crowdfunding for small publishers

40:10 - What it actually takes to get noticed

44:18 - Holiday Hills — why make a Christmas game?

49:59 - The 3D trees: going all-in on the deluxe experience

54:00 - Philosophy on expansions and promos

57:57 - Naughty vs. Nice mode

1:04:54 - Haunted Hills: a first look at what's coming for Halloween

1:10:45 - Garden Club: the full breakdown

1:24:07 - Petal: the bite-sized version

1:32:11 - Headliner: the announcement

1:36:20 - Wrap up & shoutouts

Cole Wehrle — designer of Root, Oath, Pax Pamir, and Arcs — joins the Board Game Secret Show for a wide-ranging conversation on storytelling, frustration as a design tool, and why he walked away from Leder Games to found Buried Giant. Plus: the new Arcs expansion, Lost Vaults & Faded Leaders, is live on crowdfunding now:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/colewehrle/arcs-beyond-the-reach

Join the Secret Club Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/clubs?club=the-board-game-secret-show

Want to work together?: https://crdbrd.app/hub/creator/neon_gorilla

00:00:00 - Intro & Cole's origin story

00:03:00 - Root, above the table play & why it matters

00:04:15 - Lords of Vegas & games that create stories

00:08:00 - 18xx games & the case for long games

00:09:28 - "Long, not slow" — what big games do differently

00:11:11 - Why short sci-fi games fail & the origin of Arcs

00:18:17 - Oath's design philosophy — no lore, no rules

00:21:23 - Why Cole doesn't trust paragraph-driven storytelling

00:25:32 - How Cole actually starts designing a game

00:28:49 - "Most people don't play games for fun"

00:34:12 - Depth, backgammon & what it means to understand a game

00:41:23 - "Arcs is about frustrating players"

00:45:47 - The problem with baroque Euro design

00:50:14 - Legacy games & why they'd be better as a TV show

00:57:01 - The trick-taking question & where it came from

01:01:45 - The ambition system — two years to figure it out

01:07:41 - Leaving Leder Games & founding Buried Giant

01:12:04 - "I didn't create the studio to publish my games"

01:14:55 - "Produce fewer games, more slowly"

01:17:27 - Lost Vaults & Faded Leaders expansion breakdown

01:19:09 - The fifth player problem

01:28:08 - Beyond the Reach & Halls of Power campaign expansions

01:32:00 - Arcs campaign — the Build-A-Bear analogy

01:35:00 - Why Arcs is easier to balance than Root

01:36:00 - Cole's advice for playing the campaign

01:37:19 - "Arcs is the best piece of design I've ever done"

01:38:05 - How Cole teaches Arcs in 20 minutes

01:43:34 - Closing thoughts & Buried Giant's gratitude

Welcome to the Board Game Secret Show!

Ryan Guerra from How I Roll had never made a single video — then he cold emailed Dice Tower and Game Boy Geek, and everything changed. In this episode, we talk about his unlikely start in board game content creation, his top 10 games (which I roast), building publisher relationships, the magic of board game community, and my dream to bring games to children's hospitals across America.

Find @howiroll here: https://www.youtube.com/@howiroll

Join the Secret Club Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/clubs?club=the-board-game-secret-show

Want to work together?: https://crdbrd.app/hub/creator/neon_gorilla

Time stamps

0:00 Intro & Meeting Ryan Gara

6:18 Wear or Tear Rapid Fire

13:27 Metal Coins, Deluxe Components & Food Chain Magnate

20:57 Custom Inserts, Food at the Table & Card Bending

35:09 Miniatures, Culling Collections & The T-Series

51:36 Board Game Ratings & Why Context Matters

59:13 Ryan's Origin Story: No Camera, No Experience

1:06:24 Finding His Style & The Pivot to How-To-Plays

1:17:56 Building Publisher Relationships & Making Friends

1:25:15 The Power of Board Game Community

1:35:00 Children's Hospital Dream & Board Game Club

1:48:42 Roasting Ryan's Top 10: Dominion to Gaia Project

2:05:16 Great Western Trail, Descent & The T-Series Debate

2:35:38 Trickerion, Lisboa & Lacerda Games

2:46:21 Scythe & Clank Legacy: His #1 Gaming Experience

2:59:46 Wrap Up

Board Game Apprentice joins the Board Game Secret Show! We get into his origin story, the state of crowdfunding, solo gaming, horror movies, I roast his top 10, and we share our favorite mechanic combinations.

@boardgameapprentice https://www.youtube.com/@boardgameapprentice

Join the Secret Club Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/clubs?club=the-board-game-secret-show

Want to work together?: https://crdbrd.app/hub/creator/neon_gorilla

🎧 TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Intro

1:16 Origin Story of Board Game Apprentice

4:27 The Game That Started It All

6:27 Kickstarter: Has It Gone Too Far?

9:04 Games That Got Away

15:00 The Future of Crowdfunding

21:58 Solo Gaming: Why Play Alone?

29:20 Conventions & Wargaming

31:52 Life Changes & Channel Future

35:25 Long-Form vs Short-Form Content

39:28 The Algorithm & Board Game YouTube

44:32 Deep Dive Into Horror

49:33 Horror Movie Recommendations

1:04:35 Defend Your Top 10

1:46:04 Top 3 Mechanic Combinations

2:04:32 Closing & Plugs

Mike from One Mike One Game joins the Board Game Secret Show to defend his top 10 games against roasts from the Cardboard community. We dig into some unconventional picks, talk about the realities of being a small board game content creator, and then dive deep into Endeavor Deep Sea — a game we've both been obsessed with. Mike gives his first-ever rating live on the show.

Join the Secret Club Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/clubs?club=the-board-game-secret-show

Want to work together?: https://crdbrd.app/hub/creator/neon_gorilla

🎬 One Mike One Game: https://www.youtube.com/@onemikeonegame/featured

0:00 Intro

0:19 YouTube algorithm struggles & what's changed

2:51 The video he almost didn't publish (now at 200K views)

4:00 Mike's content creator origin story & the Callin Show

5:53 The learning curve of editing — DaVinci Resolve vs Adobe

8:42 Advice for new board game content creators

12:27 Where is Mike's channel headed?

13:49 The Dice Tower West epiphany — gaming vs. content

18:02 YouTube Shorts strategy for small creators

25:46 Introducing the Top 10 Roast segment

27:11 #10 Shogun — "What is this doing on your top ten?"

31:16 #9 Draft and Write Records — "Defend."

34:42 Rolling & writing games we love

36:55 #7 Mansions of Madness — "One roll can end your whole evening"

41:13 Luck in board games — when bad beats feel good

44:01 The Calico rant

45:55 Vindication — "You're a wretched scumbag"

50:52 #5 Undaunted Normandy — Best deck builder?

54:26 #3 This War of Mine / #2 Federation — "Explain yourself"

58:19 Diversity in top 10 lists & why it matters

59:24 #1 Tyrants of the Underdark — nobody's heard of it

1:07:08 Endeavor Deep Sea — overview & elevator pitch

1:09:46 Specialist recruitment & the ramping engine

1:15:52 The mid-game despair to late-game combo explosion

1:16:40 The conservation board

1:19:45 Exploration & discovering ocean tiles

1:24:03 Does it scale well at 2 players?

1:27:45 Mike's rating reveal

1:32:06 David's rating & what would push it higher

1:35:17 Cardboard app feedback & BG Stats integration

1:40:56 Wrap-up & Seattle game group plans

🔗 Find every game on Cardboard:

Shogun — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/06efe794-2508-420b-8009-32ad2d0e72b3

Draft & Write Records — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/0fac3aa9-882d-4064-8609-fd4b6ebd2a79

Mansions of Madness — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/b79ed0bd-c5bb-41dd-ab6d-263abc245776

Vindication — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/38127025-a948-4269-9a72-6ff116732255

Undaunted: Normandy — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/5ed26062-ceb9-49e6-9e66-e6360e7efd99

Endeavor: Deep Sea — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/bcb00fe5-9279-4b91-b933-6cb0d34796e3

This War of Mine — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/3c998c7b-7942-4591-854b-e560598bf46a

Federation — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/4eda18b1-4466-4ece-982e-38def3895051

Tyrants of the Underdark — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/7bca9046-e03a-4d94-958b-1055bede41b4

Endeavor: Age of Sail — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/2371dd27-14ca-4687-96a7-e1c90d28f87b

Too Many Bones — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/5cc80ba6-47bb-4310-a27e-8bf877b688d4

Lords of Vegas — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/c504f244-cd79-48e3-aba4-35c13e054482

Calico — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/d84983d0-c82c-4b22-a5fd-26c3b654f66e

Three Sisters — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/c012000c-4ba3-4d69-bec1-c8f5a56bf5d0

Fleet: The Dice Game — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/6c442fc5-eada-4e7d-ae00-926b5dff33dd

Lost Ruins of Arnak — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/098b4c16-65a8-4bdf-adfd-8a40580353fb

Dead Reckoning — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/bdf54f8d-b5d2-4e23-8f75-327abbe31e52

Foundations of Rome — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/88664473-10e0-4f39-90b0-ccc651056a8e

Brass: Birmingham — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/52101105-bbe3-4b4e-8331-0c86693392e4

Slay the Spire — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/341b1e2a-fbc9-4e3d-a477-2fc171535c32

Castles of Burgundy — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/e3b9a7d9-308b-4da2-b925-06524c0de67c

Dominion — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/0b300d7c-f019-4594-8d4b-ef94c0e26585

Cosmic Encounter — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/0b642fac-ee89-4a0a-99f5-8c98924fe801

PRIMAL — https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/game/716b5f58-922a-4ac7-b295-d101cbc7122f

Eric and Leo are back fresh off Dice Tower West — and they brought Vlad along to keep things honest. Eric's entire top 10 gets put through the Wear or Tear machine, Vlad pulls no punches. Then all three share their top plays from the convention, Leo drops his top 5 picks for kids, and the crew makes plans to get Lost Ruins of Arnak to the table online.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

TIMESTAMPS

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

0:00 Cold Open

0:07 Meet Eric & Leo

1:24 Dice Tower West — How They Met

3:33 The Ready Set Bet Find

5:44 Meeting Vlad

8:06 The Game Library

9:30 Captain Sonar & Con Goals

13:07 Leo's Board Game Origin Story

16:31 RPG Tangent

19:25 Eric's Flea Market Table

23:20 Con Pickups

27:21 Wear or Tear — Eric's Top 10

28:21 Clank! vs. Survive (the 9.5 bubble)

30:27 #9 Lords of Vegas

31:35 #8 Captain Sonar

32:34 #7 Telestrations

35:46 #6 Blood Rage

37:37 #5 Colt Express

40:39 #4 Viticulture

43:22 #3 Secret Hitler

45:41 #2 Stone Age

48:32 #1 Santorini

51:49 Top Plays of the Con

52:14 Secret Hitler (Leo #5 / Eric #4)

57:18 Captain Sonar (Eric #5)

1:01:07 Project: ELITE — #1 Play of the Con

1:09:12 Thunder Road: Vendetta

1:12:18 Coup: Rebellion (Leo #3)

1:13:50 Lords of Vegas (Eric #2)

1:22:52 Coup (Leo #1)

1:27:05 Vlad's Favorite: Mindbug

1:28:43 Leo's Top 5 Games for Kids

1:29:19 #5 Catapult Kingdoms

1:31:24 #4 King of Tokyo

1:32:27 #3 Kitchen Rush

1:33:41 #2 Fireball Island

1:36:33 #1 Exploding Kittens

1:38:48 What's Next — Lost Ruins of Arnak

1:40:33 Wrap Up

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

GAMES REFERENCED

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

ERIC'S TOP 10

Survive: Escape from Atlantis! — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-363a32dc-9309-47c2-a56d-1d1de640a2d5

Clank! — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-704ddf39-3c4c-4381-9d9b-841d790fe61f

Lords of Vegas — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-c504f244-cd79-48e3-aba4-35c13e054482

Captain Sonar — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-aeb1cc8f-b7ed-4a44-af3b-3be80b2e57db

Telestrations — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-e35dcc67-e926-4e7c-a186-82176ca375e9

Blood Rage — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-6f5f7600-ade4-4f2a-b2d9-87ddb08ada46

Colt Express — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-ecb98991-88bf-4afc-92de-05424a63562e

Viticulture — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-1ab341e9-2c42-4935-99f3-88eb0618ee4a

Secret Hitler — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-52da0500-f4d8-4360-8391-be6506c39300

Stone Age — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-f00d8eb9-1020-4518-9909-c884aa5830e9

Santorini — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-ec3ff3bc-43de-40a0-b196-adf1286f2c14

TOP PLAYS OF THE CON

Project: ELITE — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-2b368ce8-023d-47ae-8005-a55f0313099c

Lords of Vegas — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-c504f244-cd79-48e3-aba4-35c13e054482

Thunder Road: Vendetta — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-c7cb62f8-3842-4eb4-8022-22c0a073bce4

Captain Sonar — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-aeb1cc8f-b7ed-4a44-af3b-3be80b2e57db

Secret Hitler — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-52da0500-f4d8-4360-8391-be6506c39300

Coup: Rebellion G54 — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-58eef8bd-90b3-4ade-8682-a0da71acb735

Coup — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-abb29ee9-be1c-4b19-8531-a4887ea29b76

LEO'S TOP 5 FOR KIDS

Catapult Kingdoms — (not yet in Cardboard)

King of Tokyo — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-fafd0872-98a9-4dc4-889f-2e0f916e468f

Kitchen Rush — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-6e942f08-f88f-482b-babd-1fd2d285fc0f

Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-ec35dbd5-aa40-4f3e-92b2-b687133631bd

Exploding Kittens — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-e87ef4de-f54d-4883-8829-5a7c8e882316

ALSO MENTIONED

The Chameleon — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-34f3c3b3-9cb6-4beb-a7dd-06bf066da585

Ticket to Ride — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-845dd5f5-8f31-47ca-951d-671775b0ac88

Ready Set Bet — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-c44c7132-825f-4bd8-924a-c3087e9dea5b

One Night Ultimate Werewolf — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-105e9a53-a7ab-4119-9fd8-8fe1b502cbc4

The 7th Continent — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-dd234178-0e2e-43da-9d4b-77bd8df2e51b

Puerto Rico — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-56da2c71-3253-4b8d-92ee-a0d83596a1ae

Food Chain Magnate — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-48ff082e-8d1a-48cb-83d6-fc9e83218f98

Mindbug: First Contact — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-4efd73de-43a8-4982-9627-ed7a15976310

Lost Ruins of Arnak — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-098b4c16-65a8-4bdf-adfd-8a40580353fb

Arkham Horror: The Card Game — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-5039850d-42dd-4a02-b7c0-e83caaddae8c

Marvel Champions: The Card Game — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-77acff14-8e25-4bad-9200-2aca9cc13b05

Welcome to the Board Game Secret Show

Reggie from the Board States podcast and Rolling Reggie sits down for an episode unlike anything else. First he has to DEFEND his entire top 10 against real criticism from users on the Cardboard platform. Then we run a board game draft, picking only games from 2015 and older, and the stakes are real: YOU vote on whose list wins:

David's List: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/scroll/eed372a2-373a-4224-89de-4ad36285a0e2

Reggie's List: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/scroll/6322198e-02d9-450a-85d7-bf86260c165c

Vote Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/clubs/threads/04d7a580-db8f-4d56-88f1-ab0d2bd7667d

Board States Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2NfMCQAv4DagXgVyostysX?si=x80KPuYUT_-Ax6tY_rSAcA&nd=1&dlsi=b7ee52425c7e4400

@rolling.reggie https://www.youtube.com/@rolling.reggie

Join the Secret Club Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/clubs?club=the-board-game-secret-show

Want to work together?: https://crdbrd.app/hub/creator/neon_gorilla

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

TIMESTAMPS

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

00:00 Cold Open

00:32 Meet Reggie

08:52 Show Format Explained

13:40 Defend Your Top 10

14:30 #10 Imhotep

17:15 #9 Viticulture

20:31 #8 White Castle

24:16 #7 Rez Arcana

28:34 #6 Challengers!

34:06 #5 Castles of Burgundy

37:45 #4 Dune Imperium: Uprising

42:32 #3 Ark Nova

48:09 #2 Marvel Champions

52:45 #1 Wingspan

1:01:15 The Draft (2015 & Older)

1:43:29 Final Lists + Vote

1:44:45 En La Mesa

1:54:10 Wrap Up

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

GAMES REFERENCED

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

REGGIE'S TOP 10

Imhotep — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-3c38d6c3-3cea-48ce-82c3-decab9e5536d

Viticulture — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-1ab341e9-2c42-4935-99f3-88eb0618ee4a

The White Castle — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-b898df73-526f-4271-8ef1-6cf4f012297b

Rez Arcana — (not yet in Cardboard)

Challengers! — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-9dee450a-dc09-4eaf-b9d9-746f094bf18a

The Castles of Burgundy — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-5df9eaf2-bdb1-4d91-bb2e-a0275d5f6322

Dune: Imperium – Uprising — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-4015dea3-f201-46c2-9043-01cebee16fa6

Ark Nova — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-17bbbe0a-cc8f-4755-ba6c-3faa958de078

Marvel Champions — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-77acff14-8e25-4bad-9200-2aca9cc13b05

Wingspan — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-087cbe1f-756f-440a-9388-ae3cdcc86b86

dbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-4dd82420-e5a0-4cc4-afaa-3b7d2b60ce97

Splendor — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-a6022a6b-fd2b-4c20-83c6-7e14dc7d0475

ALSO MENTIONED

Barrage — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-b89c8d5b-b813-42b3-a8bc-50669a98767a

Race for the Galaxy — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-36fdeb46-b7e7-4866-a615-a12b97d32c1b

Fliptoons— https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-4caa7678-7c2a-4b66-8ca0-e8d70834ea35

Dune: Imperium — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-2622c617-cf7e-443c-951a-18ee401959ca

7 Wonders — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-2a6c1e18-b28a-42bb-b8e2-d4b79aa82989

Ascension — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-077eee6c-9a23-4f10-b72b-776c45514d2a

Space Base — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-484d4441-c8f4-4c70-b67f-34e416ccb14d

Fantastic Factories — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-d37008ec-f37a-4901-84f0-15f1ae5793a7

Tearable Quest — https://crdbrd.app/hub/games?panel=game-01dbfe84-742f-4b6b-bfe0-94caf679d00b

Welcome to the Board Game Secret Show [reboot]

Dice Tower West 2026 Recap | Top 5 Plays, Convention Tips & Would You Rather

Vlad and I sat down (for the second time — RIP first recording) to break down our Dice Tower West 2026 experience at the Westgate in Las Vegas. We talk about how we met, what it's like overcoming social anxiety at your first board game convention, the games that blew us away, and why some of the best board games you'll ever play are already 10+ years old.

We each share our Top 5 Plays from the convention, and spoiler alert — we share a #1. We also run through some Would You Rather rapid fire questions and roast the Westgate food options.

Games Mentioned:

Lords of Vegas | Captain Sonar | Secret Hitler | Colt Express | Telestrations | I'm the Boss | Thunder Road Vendetta | Foundations of Rome | Survive: Escape from Atlantis | Everdell Silver Frost | Cretaceous Rails | Terrorscape | Eternal Decks | Ready Set Bet | Blood on the Clocktower | Coup | Root | Barrage | Brass | Chameleon | Hot Streak | Flip Seven | Zoo Vadis

🎲 Go Check out Cardboard: crdbrd.app

📋 My full Buy / Try / Sell list from DTW 2026: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/neon_gorilla?panel=list-381808b8-27e2-4b4e-b555-b430f20cc309

Shoutout to Eric, Leo, Vlad, Nixie, David and Courtney for making this the best convention experience of my life.

Timestamps

0:00 Intro & Re-Recording Backstory

1:25 Episode Overview

1:53 How David & Vlad Met (Shoutout Eric & Leo)

2:20 First Impressions & Shady Strategies

3:38 Vlad's Second Dice Tower West Experience

3:50 Conquering Social Anxiety & Throwing Plans Aside

5:07 Using Cardboard to Remember Game Rules

6:17 Games We Wanted to Play But Couldn't

7:23 Best Table Presence: Eternal Dex, Cretaceous Rails, Terror Escape

9:29 Terror Escape Deep Dive

10:43 Learning Cretaceous Rails at the Con

11:08 Everdell Silver Frost & Accidentally Selling for Starling

11:47 Our Group Bonded Over Take-That Games

12:38 Live Gameplay Clip: Stealing Casinos

13:28 Group Dynamic: Monsters, Blocking & Chaos

14:14 Cerebral Euros vs Interactive Games

15:38 Westgate Food Review (It's Bad)

16:48 The Nachos Guy Who Ate the Whole Plate

17:45 Benihana & the $20 Cake Boss Machine

18:48 Vegas Pricing Rant

20:10 Venue Layout & World Series of Board Gaming

21:33 Friday Night Magic: The Best Convention Moment

23:15 Dice Tower at Sea & The Poop Cruise Tangent

24:21 Publisher Area Year Over Year

26:09 Buy Stuff Convention vs Play Games Convention

27:06 Play Stats: 21 Games, 25 Plays, 3.5 Days

28:29 Social Anxiety & the Welcoming Vibe

30:39 Prototype Area Recap

31:58 Demo Area Thoughts

32:28 Blood on the Clocktower: Three Tries, Not For Us

35:09 Flea Market Finds & Eric's Insane Table

38:39 Honorable Mention: Survive Escape from Atlantis

41:15 Vlad's #5: Foundations of Rome

42:43 David's #5: Telestrations

45:43 Vlad's #4: Thunder Road Vendetta

48:08 David's #4: Colt Express

51:34 Stop Chasing New Hotness, Play Older Games

52:02 David's #3: Secret Hitler

54:58 Vlad's #3: I'm the Boss

58:31 David's #2: Captain Sonar

1:02:28 #1 Shared: Lords of Vegas

1:07:43 Big Takeaway: The Best Games Already Exist

1:09:28 Would You Rather: 10 Games Once or Favorite Game 10 Times

1:10:40 Would You Rather: Amazing Strangers or Terrible Friends

1:11:13 Would You Rather: Win With No Memories or Lose With Great Stories

1:12:14 Would You Rather: Lifetime DTW Pass or One Con With $5K

1:13:56 Would You Rather: No Schedule or Every Session Pre-Booked

1:14:46 Would You Rather: Lifetime DTW Pass or Essen Spiel Once

1:16:06 Outro & Call to Action

1:16:50 Post-Show Banter: Tiramisu Confessions