Author: Anthony

Jason welcomes Rob Daviau to the pod for the first time to chat storytelling in gaming, joined also by ENGN veterans Peter and Mike from the One-Stop Coop Shop podcast. We get into some of the essential differences between old school and new school game design, and whether the different approaches and philosophies generate different stories (better? worse? basically the same?) at the table. As far as game commentary, we get into the original Dark Tower and some of the modernization challenges that Restoration Games has faced. We also chat about some of the differences between Pandemic Legacy Season One…

Congratulations to Ryan, our Patreon contest winner from last week for his incredible photo. Make sure to check out this week’s contest where Ryan’s and five other submissions are available for captioning. If you want to join the fun, become a Patreon backer for your chance to enter. Every backer is eligible to enter the contests, which run each week from Thursday until Monday at 8pm EDT when we record. https://www.patreon.com/bga for more information. *** On this week’s episode, Anthony is out of town with the family, so Jenn joins Chris for a special conversation. To kick things off, they read answers…

We’re back! ENGN listeners know that Jason loves his big, honking adventure games. A really clever and unique one from Letzring Games will launch on Kickstarter this Monday, July 29th. We’re chatting Adventure Tactics: Domianne’s Tower from three different perspectives – the deck construction and tactical planning on the hero side, the set-piece, cinematic nature of combat in the system, and a whimsical fantasy story. If you’ve ever wanted to play Final Fantasy Tactics on a big board, this one might be for you.

A few episodes ago, Jason shared about his personal journey with depression in a personal chat segment. The response was very heartening – folks seemed to resonate with it and expressed their appreciation in a few private messages. Thank you! We all have a journey, or a personal story with some pain in it. Jeremy from Jambalaya Plays Games stops by and shares some of his own experiences, struggles, and successes. That will happen in the back half of the episode (38:52). For the first part of the episode, please enjoy some game reviews! We have two very opposite games…

Congratulations to Chris, our Patreon contest winner from last week for guessing all 8 games from Anthony’s Top 100 in our contest this last week. If you want to join the fun, become a Patreon backer for your chance to enter. Every backer is eligible to enter the contests, which run each week from Thursday until Monday at 8pm EDT when we record. https://www.patreon.com/bga for more information. *** To kick things off this week, we look at answers to our question of the week: If you were to recommend one game at $20 or less, what would it be? For our acquisition disorders…

We have more game reviews this week, as well as something of a follow-up on last week’s conversation about the psychology of cheating in board games. We welcome Anthony back to the show to discuss Aerion, the latest in the Oniverse series (3:55), then Jason talks about a unique, push-your-luck take on deckbuilding, Heroes of Tenefyr (14:01). Finally, Jason revisits the topic of the psychology of cheating, but in a different way. The board gaming community became wrapped up in some controversy this past week – a creator was noted for committing plagiarism on their blog. A lot of “naming…

No contest winner this week because of the holiday, but be sure to check for next week when we’ll have a new one announced and new contests on tap. If you want to join the fun, become a Patreon backer for your chance to enter. Every backer is eligible to enter the contests, which run each week from Thursday until Monday at 8pm EDT when we record. https://www.patreon.com/bga for more information. *** To kick things off this week, we read answers to the question of the week: “What’s your favorite gaming experience (not necessarily favorite game, but best mechanic, event, or group…

Shout out to Marcus Brissman over in the Sporadically Board Facebook Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/510403706050913/ – who put up an excellent, interesting thread on cheating in board games a few weeks ago. In response, Jason reached out to a blogger on BGG who wrote about cheating in board games a few years ago, Dr. Corey Butler, professor of social psychology at Southwest Minnesota State University. What drives people to cheat? Who cheats? How often does it occur? For those who have cheated, how do they justify their behavior? If you cheat at a solo game and no one sees, does it…

Congratulations to Amy, our Patreon contest winner from last week for guessing all 8 currencies shown in our mystery photo before anyone else (we had five people get them all!). If you want to join the fun, become a Patreon backer for your chance to enter. Every backer is eligible to enter the contests, which run each week from Thursday until Monday at 8pm EDT when we record. https://www.patreon.com/bga for more information. *** This week’s episode kicks off with our question of the week: Is there a game or series of games you’ve always avoided because it seemed too difficult to dive in…

Whenever the Kickstarter Roundup crew gets together, we always have more games to talk about than we can manage in one episode. So, Liz from Beyond Solitaire, Jeremy from Jambalaya Plays Games, and Jason have four more games for your listening pleasure. We begin by leaning in to the roll and write craze that’s hitting our hobby. Jeremy shares about Cartographers (2:20), the new one from Thunderworks Games which adds spacial and mapping elements to the formula. Then, the entire crew gushes about Fleet: The Dice Game (10:47), one of the most complex and combo-licious roll and write games on…