I'll be attending Origins Game Fair this year (June 2019) in Columbus. I've been there before, but only in the 80s & 90s, so I'm sure it's substantially different now. I'll be there Thursday-Sunday, including participating on a panel of wargame podcasters/YouTubers/bloggers Sunday morning. That's listed in the program as shown below. I think it's free, and although it's about wargaming you may want to stop by anyway. The topic is the current "golden age" of the hobby, and part of what I have to say is how there are more euro-wargame crossover titles now. Some good aspects of euro design & production have made their way into wargames. I'm thinking of titles like Memoir '44, Twilight Struggle, Academy Games' 1754/1775/1812 series, A Few Acres of Snow, and so on. Whether you attend the panel or not, I'm happy to hand out my little BoardgamesToGo and WargamesToGo buttons to listeners. Just track me down and I should have some onhand to give away. I'll mostly be doing open gaming, I think. Drop me a note on Twitter or geekmail if you like.
Armchair Dragoons Presents Wargaming Media: State of Play This panel featuring wargaming media personalities will discuss the current "Golden Age" of board wargaming and what can be done to ensure its survival. Location: GCCC - Apods - A210 Date: Sunday 6/16/2019 10am (2 hours)Opener: Silver & Gold Closer: SdJ jury comments • Dale Yu's 2009 interview with Tom Werneck at Opinionated Gamers • Harald Schrapers and other jury members It's Spiel des Jahres season. That means the speculation has happened, the actual nominees & recommended titles have been announced, and now we're just waiting on the final prizewinning selection. This doesn't matter to many people--in fact many gamers don't think it's a big deal. But it's a big deal to me and here's why: I'm a hobby gamer from way, way back. Like four decades. If you think hobby gaming is niche now, you have no recollection of what an odd corner it was in back then. Stereotyped as being full of nerdy boys and grumpy old men, that was kind of true. Game shops did not smell good. Mature romances and stable careers were hard to find. Now, those people are still around--and they deserve their hobby, too--but I find it FAR better today that we have more diverse game groups filled with everyday people doing everyday jobs. Interesting games are on sale in bookstores, at Target, and of course online. Not everything has to have an orc in it. I don't know if the hobby IS bigger & broader, but it sure feels that way. True, these improvements may have come around on their own. After all, formerly geeky entertainments like Game of Thrones and Marvel comics now dominate our cultural landscape. Perhaps hobby games would've developed on their own. I don't think so, however. Or, at least, it all happened much faster (and--importantly--across a broader audience) because a group of game reviewers in Germany took artistic criticism of gaming as an artform seriously. They drove their publishers to do better, and in turn the publishers were rewarded with increased business. It was a positive cycle, and we are some of its lucky recipients. There are a lot of awards thought up & given out by all sorts of organizations. There have been some in America for decades. Yet they didn't have this impact. In fact, there were other awards in Germany, too. The Spiel des Jahres has worked like no others because it has been cultivated & maintained by a dedicated, revolving collection of game critics. Even if the lighter, more family-focused games aren't your favorites, you still benefit from their polishing of the games business. For someone like me, it's even better because I honestly love many of the titles that have won the Spiel des Jahres. I don't love ALL of them, though. Not even close. As you'll hear, I'd say I love about a third, like another third, and don't like the final third. Close to that. This episode is a ranking of all 40 of the SdJ winners, and (briefly) what I think of them. -Mark
============================================================ ============================================================ ============================================================There's nothing sweeter than the softening of a heart, that precious feeling when all of the things you thought you'd dislike, suddenly become endearing. We're counting down our favourite games that we thought we were going to hate, but ended up loving. Before we go full tsundere, we talk about Indian Summer, Richard the Lionheart, and X nimmt! 01:55 - Indian Summer 09:26 - Richard the Lionheart 15:53 - X nimmt! 23:37 - Games we thought we'd hate 24:55 - Shadow Hunters 27:12 - Walnut Grove 28:52 - Survive: Escape from Atlantis! 31:34 - Great Western Trail 32:35 - Blood Rage 33:47 - Formula D 35:32 - Zendo 36:48 - Hansa Teutonica 38:18 - In the Year of the Dragon 39:47 - Majesty: For the Realm 41:21 - Mansions of Madness: Second Edition 42:25 - Chicken Caesar 44:27 - Yokohama 46:18 - Caylus 49:54 - Blue Lagoon
Nikki Valens, designer of Mansions of Madness, discusses how to design a narrative driven game.
Nikki has designed some of my absolute favorite games and is a master of creating games that tell good stories.
The post Designing a Narrative Driven Game with Nikki Valens appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.
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Tom is in the UK, so Mandi and Suzanne come on board to talk about our top 10 Roll and Write games! We also review Wendake, Tiny, Hadara, and Eye my favorite things. Questions get answered, Geoff goes blue, and more!
While I enjoy Imperial Settlers from Portal, I will admit that 51st State is my favorite of the two. Don’t get me wrong, not saying that one is better than […]
The post RDTN Episode 172: Hadara, Pandemic Rapid Response, 51st State Allies, Shadowrun 6th Edition first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
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Shelley and I have a great time with the new dice-filled version of
Sushi Roll by Phil Walker-Harding from Gamewright
and then work hard to get the proper raw materials to build our
Tiny Towns by Peter McPherson from AEG
Welcome from Chad, Jon, Chris Thank you to Kim K and Joseph G
Twitter update
News! GenCon quest revealed More reprints and sneaky errata The Passing of the Grey Company Content Deckbuilding: Why a deck fails?
Farewells
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