Marc sits down with Erik Twice, Ryan LaFlamme, and Andrew Holmes to ask each of them about their approaching to selecting their 10 greatest board games of all time.  3:21 - Erik Twice's approach to selecting his top 10 7:41 - Why Netrunner? 12:27 - Why Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective? 17:57 - Erik's predictions 25:08 - Cosmic Encounter as board game comedy 34:48 - Erik's thoughts on the top 10 45:01 - Ryan LaFlamme's approach to selecting his top 10 49:28 - Why Triomphe? 53:42 - Why Agricola? 56:29 - Why Monopoly? 1:00:35 - Ryan's predictions 1:01:59 - Ryan's thoughts on the top 10 1:10:47 - Andrew Holmes' approach to selecting his top 10 1:16:41 - Why Whist? 1:22:37 - Why Gloomhaven? 1:29:32 - Andrew's thoughts on the top 10 Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

The Thoughtful Gamer Podcast

Ep 90: Card and Dice Poll Discussion

Marc and Ben talk about a few of the new games they've been playing. They're...all good? It feels weird to have an episode this positive, but there you go. 0:58 - Dice Command 11:55 - Battle for Biternia 31:37 - Boardgames: The Board Game (The Card Game) 43:03 - Union Station 54:19 - The part where I call out Gil Hova about an extremely unimportant opinion 1:01:57 - Robotech: Reconstruction 1:08:22 - Card and Dice Poll information Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 89: Dice, Fights, and Dividends: Some First Impressions

Amber and Marc discuss tile-laying games since they've been playing a number of them lately. What makes tile-laying so compelling? Why is it a feature in so many of our favorite games? 1:29 -- Carpe Diem 3:46 -- Is Carpe Diem simpler than Castles of Burgundy? 9:35 -- Tile laying: what is it? 12:12 -- Variables 15:15 -- Growth 21:00 -- Information density 29:14 -- Tangent: What does "abstract" mean anyways? 37:35 -- The importance of graphic design 40:27 -- Puzzling Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 88: Tile-Laying Games

I sit down with James to talk about his excellent debut game, Magnate: The First City, as well as his next project, cleverly titled Boardgames: The Board Game (The Card Game), and his podcast called Producing Fun. Magnate is such a bold and interesting first design and I'm completely on board for whatever he makes down the road.  1:07 -- James' start in board games 4:57 -- Starting to design 8:19 -- Creating Magnate: The First City 13:20 -- Developing the "crash" mechanism in Magnate 19:21 -- Different styles of eurogame 24:01 -- Advanced vs basic rules in Magnate 31:38 -- First time game publishing experience 35:03 -- Boardgames: The Board Game (The Card Game) 53:32 -- Adapting a theme to a set of mechanisms 56:35 -- Art strategy 1:00:33 -- Future Naylor Games projects 1:07:32 -- The Producing Fun podcast 1:11:38 -- Comparing the state of games to film history 1:22:25 -- Marc once again floats his pet mechanism by a podcast guest Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 87: A Conversation with James Naylor

Marc and Ben have been playing a lot of new games, and you're going to hear about it! Come chill with us. 0:59 -- My City 5:13 -- Coldwater Crown 11:06 -- For Science! 19:51 -- Legends of Andor 27:11 -- Downfall 33:31 -- Exodus Fleet 38:29 -- San Juan 40:57 -- Antike Duellum 45:07 -- The Alpha 49:15 -- Tasty Humans 54:11 -- Glass Road 58:08 -- Anachrony 1:03:44 -- Ranking the games Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 86: Chillcast 3: Revenge of Chill

Dan Thurot has been reviewing board games for a number of years now, and for my money he's the best in the business. I had the pleasure of sitting down with him to talk about games criticism, and in the course of the discussion we touched on history, economics, literature, and more. Also, lots of Cole Wehrle games. Find Dan's writing at spacebiff.com  1:24 -- Dan's start in board game criticism 6:35 -- "Fun" 14:10 -- Changes in board game criticism over the last few years 18:43 -- Misunderstandings about criticism 26:24 -- Board game criticism is still young 29:16 -- Overspecialization of critique 36:18 -- Shared language 48:28 -- The value of historical games 1:00:27 -- Challenges posed by abstraction 1:13:49 -- Civilization games and accidents 1:18:50 -- Playing as the villains Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 85: A Conversation with Dan Thurot on Board Game Criticism

Marc and Bubba sit down to discuss two different forms of golf. They're still games, just on a larger scale. What makes them compelling as games, and what kinds of lessons can we learn about board games by looking at the history and development of course design? 1:18 -- Difference between a sport and a game 2:59 -- What is disc golf? 4:27 -- Our histories with the sports 12:19 -- Classifying golf and disc golf as games 15:57 -- The appeal of mastery over a difficult game 20:30 -- How will disc golf change in the near future? 24:02 -- Course design 25:26 -- The penal school of design 29:19 -- The strategic school of design 33:20 -- The strategic nature of par 4's 45:07 -- Designing around unorthodox throws in disc golf 49:15 -- Risk/reward, or push-your-luck 51:53 -- The heroic school of design 56:15 -- How should disc golf course design evolve and improve? 1:08:36 -- Applying these lessons to board game design 1:26:24 -- Which sport is best? Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 84: Golf, Disc Golf, and Course Design

Straight from the mind of Amber, this is an episode where she and Marc discuss games that are "painful". Marc prefers the word "tense". Regardless of what you call it, there's a reason Agricola is both known as "Misery Farm" and beloved by thousands. What makes a game painful rather than pleasant? What tricks can designers use to adjust the perception of their game? Are all board games simply metaphors about the inevitability of death? 2:15 -- The background 6:23 -- Game actions and the perception of time 15:00 -- Kingmaking tangent 18:53 -- Existentialism 27:02 -- Other games that cause Amber "pain" 29:53 -- Generous and non-generous games 37:17 -- Point floors 42:23 -- Non-gamers and not wanting to feel incompetent 46:22 -- Intermediary goals 49:37 -- Games where you can lose on the first turn 59:52 -- Is pain good? Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 83: Pain

Amber and Marc are here to talk about perhaps the most prolific board game designer of all time: Reiner Knizia. Going strong since the early 90's, Knizia is a master of making a game no more complex than needed. His games are straightforward and clear--something we see less and less of. Weirdly, this episode is not straightforward, with some truly odd tangents and rants. 1:50 -- Knizia's reputation (and many tangents and rants) 20:24 -- Lost Cities 25:46 -- Battle Line 27:42 -- The Quest for El Dorado 28:49 -- Through the Desert 29:13 -- Medici: The Card Game 30:23 -- Stephenson's Rocket 32:20 -- Babylonia 36:39 -- Abstract isn't the opposite of thematic 39:30 -- My City 43:20 -- Things get...weird 48:02 -- Modern Art Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 82: Reiner Knizia

Dan and I chat about game design, his experience as a top-tier chess player, and, of course, tea! Check out Steeped Games and the Chai Tea For 2 Kickstarter, live now. 0:00 -- Creation of both Chai games 10:16 -- Dan's history with board games 12:25 -- Dan's experience as a Chess Master 35:39 -- Chess influencing modern game design 41:27 -- Tea Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 81: A Conversation with Dan Kazmaier about Chai: Tea For 2

I'm by myself talking about solo games. I got a bit experimental with this one. I hope you enjoy. 0:32 -- A note on silence 3:43 -- Solo games 6:10 -- Arraial 7:35 -- My thoughts on the Fantasy Flight Arkham games 15:37 -- Arkham LCG 24:30 -- Unbroken 32:40 -- Nemo's War 44:26 -- Spring emerges, literally and figuratively Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 80: Solo

I was delighted to sit down with one of our most interesting historical and conflict game designers, Cole Wehrle. The discussion starts with talking about the second edition of John Company (on Kickstarter right now) before wandering to the the rest of his designs as we talk about the ways games can portray history or make interesting arguments. One of my favorite conversations yet. 1:00 -- John Company 2nd Edition 10:00 -- Inspiration for John Company 14:06 -- Connections Between John Company, Pax Pamir, and An Infamous Traffic 17:42 -- Handling Tough Themes 28:40 -- John Company's Success 32:29 -- Game Aesthetics and Kickstarter Expectations 44:58 -- Resolving Conflicts Between Simulation and Fun 1:04:56 -- Cole's Future Game Plans Find more from Cole at https://wehrlegig.com/ and https://ledergames.com Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 79: A Conversation With Cole Wehrle

Marc, Orion, and Ben have been playing all sorts of 18xx games over the past year, and they're here to compare and contrast the five they've played the most. How much variation is there within this sub-sub-genre of game? What kind of dynamics do different rule variations create? Which is the best starter game? What makes 1817 "bananas-insane"? Find out this and more. If you do not have any experience with 18xx games, we recommend checking out Episode 52 for more of an introduction to the genre. 1:44 -- Plug for 18xx.games 4:41 -- 1846 13:53 -- 18MEX 29:10 -- 1889 and 18Chesapeake 48:35 -- 1817 Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 78: 18xx Revisited

I sat with Sean Chappell from Ramstar Games to talk about their first release: Hivernation. We discuss the design process for this abstract game as well as the challenges of being a first-time designer and publisher. Hivernation will be on Kickstarter April 13th. 1:01 -- A little about Hivernation3:23 -- Origins of the design7:20 -- Experience with co-designing and publishing13:55 -- Constructing a Kickstarter campaign21:46 -- Development and polishing process30:31 -- Sean's history with modern board games33:32 -- The unique joy of playing games in-person41:47 -- Release info about Hivernation46:25 -- Future games in the works for Ramstar Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

Ep 77: A Conversation With Sean Chappell About Hivernation

I sit down with Kimberly, one of the co-organizers of the excellent Granite Game Summit, to talk about how to run a great board game convention. And, now that everything is necessarily virtual, how do you continue to keep that community alive? 1:01 - Origins of the Granite Game Summit9:10 - Keeping a convention safe and welcoming14:36 - Going virtual30:40 - That unique "feeling" of a good convention34:26 - Scaling up without losing the spirit of the thing40:04 - Creating convention comfort46:51 - Improvement hopes for the future Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction Like the podcast? Want to watch it being recorded, live? Consider supporting it on Patreon.

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The Thoughtful Gamer Podcast

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