Things get psychological in the studio as the boys admit the ways in which their brains don't work, and discuss how they work around the problem. Since neither suggests cutting out the gin & tonics, it seems to be a lost cause, but they soldier on to have a chat about an article on playtesting by Jessica Berlin of Galvanized Studios. Plus a Mildly Alarming PSA, and Johannes reveals his new side project.

We talk about the fine line between tabletop RPGs and board games and then, as if that wasn't enough excitement for one show, we discuss how different games track the large amount of data that players are required to remember. Plus a message from Jerry Doodio and a spot of news from the world's only news network. Yes, only: the others are gone. We are you information source now. Obey. Obey. Obey.

Steampunk space travel rules the day as we review Mission: Red Planet. Then we kvetch about winter, or, more accurately, how other people experience winter. Will you feel the icy blast of Jack Frost's breath on your neck as we podcast? Probably not, since that isn't how computers work. But you will learn about a cure for a problem that you might have, and find out how the day ends at the Mildly Alarming Daycare.

Our hosts square off in an arena and argue about the quality of "The Just City," a novel about Platonism and menstruation by Jo Walton. Then they talk about Take That! mechanics in board games, because this is a board game podcast by board game designers about board games, you clowns. Yeesh.

Well, it finally happened--the Mildly Alarming Podcast has sold out, and our new corporate overlords dictate our every word and move. Fortunately, said corporate overlords are the good people at NCBABPS-7, the channel that brings you Crime Mummy. Who's excited? This guy's excited, and that has absolutely nothing to do with generous financial contributions or suspiciously well-armed goons standing right behind me.

Chip Beauvais stops by to tell us about his latest invention, which slices, dices, chops, shreds, gets stains out of carpets, and gives you a warm, sunny feeling inside, the kind that's been absent since that one person left your life. You know who we're talking about. The one who could banish your fears and insecurities just by the way they stood at the counter while they cut up vegetables for the dinners you'll never share, oh God, oh God, how could it all have gone so wrong? Then it's on to a skit about death! Isn't this podcast about board games? Ha! No. It's about the grim fact of your mortality. THAT'S mildly alarming!

Have you played Citadels? We have, and we're going to tell you about it. What about Time & Space? We've played it to, and will inflict our opinions of it upon you. Have YOU made a game called Two-Headed Ogre? We made a game called Two-Headed Ogre, and now we're going to tell you about THAT. We're unstoppable telling-you-about-stuff MACHINES!

... love us...

It's pandemonium as your hosts commit podcast by flowchart and talk about how ogres are kinda' chubby. Will segments about game length drag on entirely too long? Will Tom confess to accidentally shooting one of his college roommates? Will butt-chugging make a triumphant return? Most likely, but tune in anyway!

Circuses! Nickleback! Airplanes crashing into turtles! Chaos ensues as the Mildly Alarming Podcast veers wildly between philosophy, lingusitics, medical-grade human crap, and subterfuge the goal of which is keeping away ladies of the evening, but whose actual result is merely a frightened dog. Why is the dog afraid? Why is the buffalo sad? Tune in to find out!

After a brief vacation, the Mildly Alarming Boys come home to the studio rested, rejuvenated, and ready to say a bunch of dumb stuff. First, they take another swing at Hasbro (or maybe Parker Brothers) as they discuss what they might have done differently if they'd made Monopoly. Then it's on to a review of RARRR!!, a card game about giant monsters destroying cities. What do breakfast cereals have to do with it? Nothing. It was just a dumb joke for the title. Love us.