The Spiel

Ted Alspach chats about Favor of the Pharaoh, an Egyptian themed reboot of Tom Lehmann's engine building dice game To Court The King. We also discuss One Night Ultimate Vampire, the latest title in the family of fast playing social deduction games.

Matt Hyra leads the in-house design team at Cryptozoic. He chats about the different challenges designers face when developing a games tied to movies like Ghostbusters, video games like Portal and hundreds of comic book characters from the DC universe.

Designer and art director Isaac Vega chats about business and games. We discuss F2Z's recent acquisition of Plaid Hat Games and what this means to the company. We also discuss Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn, an expandable fantasy battle card and dice game

Travis Chance and Nick Little chat about Ninja Camp, a family game about misfit animals training to become masked fighters. We also discuss an expansion for Heroes Wanted and Scoundrel Society, a card game about con men going after the same mark.

Sen-Foong Lim and Jay Cormier chat about the Game Artisans of Canada, a guild of designers across the country that workshop each others' games. They also discuss how they collaborate on games despite living thousands of miles apart.

Expert. Connoiseur. Strategy. The Kennerspiel des Jahres has something of a split personality The central idea is an award for the best "gamer's game" of the year. We review Orleans, Elysium and Broom Service, then predict this year's winner.

There can be only one... Game of the Year, that is. We review the final nominee, The Game, a cooperative card game where table talk (of a sort) is allowed. Then we weigh all three nominees against the jury's criteria and try to predict the winner.

For kids. And kids at heart. We review Spinderella, Treasure Trouble and Push-a-Monster, the three nominees for the Kinderspiel des Jahres, the best Children's Game of the Year, and try to predict the winner.

The Spiel des Jahres is Germany's Game of the Year. It's an award for the best family game. And it is the most prestigious award in the board game world. In Pt. 1 we review Machi Koro and Colt Express to see how they stack up against the jury's criteria.

That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde. We delve into the history and literary legacy of one of England's most famous cities by exploring 2 games: Canterbury and The Road to Canterbury. In one we are Saxon lords building the city district by district. In the other we are pardoners accompanying Chaucer's pilgrims, tempting them into sins which only we can absolve... for a price.