Website Copy: On this free-flowing episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down Podcast, Tom and Matt are chatting about competitive marble-pilfering simulator 12 Rivers, as well as a double-bill of absurd racing games in Hot Streak and Magical Athlete!
You may be expecting that this podcast thumbnail would show the promised board of 12 Rivers (which you can find here) and instead shows a picture of Hurley - the not-a-hotdog from Hot Streak. This is intentional, and important.
Ambie and Crystal interview Blaž Urban Gracar, the designer of All is Bomb, LOK, Abdec, LOK Digital, Workworkwork, and Herd! Check out all his games on his website Letibus Design. Herd figurines designed by Vojta Karen.
0:00-Intro
0:36-Interview with Blaž
31:08-Outro
32:03-Bloopers
Somehow Ghost Turkey returned. And you never saw it coming! That might be because we forgot to remind people that it's Thanksgiving, but never mind that, the important thing is you're fools. Not us though, we're back with yet another juicy, cranberry soaked list of bird gaming goodness. Gobble gobble!
Jamie and Don, freshly back from PAX Unplugged 2025 in Philadelphia, have been getting into some board, card, and dice rumbles lately, and they wanted to dig into the many styles of combat systems in board games. Deterministic versus random, complex versus streamlined, dice versus cards - there’s a lot of ground to cover. Also, our yearly fundraiser is currently running on Kickstarter! Support us now at https://www.thesecretcabal.com/kickstarter
Mike is in the host seat this week and he's all befuddled...
This Game is Broken is a comedy board game panel show with Matthew Jude, Dave Luza, Paula Deming, Nick Murphy and Mike Murphy. We play a lot of nonsense games full of role playing and trivia as well as other fun stuff which can be found at the links below.
Your ears don't deceive you...three years has passed since Rob has secured the first player and he's back to talk all about solo gaming, why we do it, why some of us don't and everything in between.
FIRST PLAYER: Rob OTHER PLAYERS: JP & Kerley
In this episode you'll learn: - JP likes to go "off road" in Restoration Games' version of Thunder Road Vendetta - Kerley's latest adventures into Dungeons and Dragons having been away for a long long time - Rob is collecting all the Hall or Nothing Games with the latest purchase of Kreel Manor - about our experiences with solo gaming, whether we enjoy it, why we don't do it and a chin wag about the subject
LINKS REFERENCED IN THE SHOW N/A
EPISODE CHAPTERS
0:00 - TURN 1 - Player Count
2:37 - TURN 2 - Let's Talk About Hex
3:00 - Kerley - Dungeons & Dragons
12:08 - JP - Thunder Road Vendetta
19:05 - Rob - Kreel Manor
23:16 - TURN 3 - Main Event: Playing with yourself
25:38 - Kerley's flirtation with solo gaming
33:59 - JP's deep delve into solo gaming
41:54 - Using solo modes to help learn games for multiplayer sessions
50:54 - How solo play aligns nicely to campaign style games
1:04:37 - The fulfilment factor has to be worth the payoff
Before Dr. Reiner Knizia invented areas, everyone and everything was simultaneously co-located and yet distant all at the same time. It was primordial chaos. Movement was effectively impossible, as Xeno demonstrated; then Knizia did don his Bow-Tie of Delineation of Time and Space and constrained and liberated us all at once with his invention of areas.
Clef and Tim talk about Clef's big disc golf weekend trip and a bit of baseball and music before getting into some awesome board games such as People Power, Food Chain Magnate, and White Castle Duel. We also talk about if we ever lose games on purpose.
Board games start at 35:32
Join the discord at discord.gg/s8hYtWkMS3 and visit punchboardparadise.com for more info on PPCon 2026!
In this first episode of the Game of the Century tournament, Ben and Steve discuss the 64 heavy hitters that will start the competition. Brought to you by CD Hunter.
UPDATE - WE GOT ONE RULE WRONG ON DRAGONARIUM, MAKING THE GAME HARDER THAN IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN!
We SAID that you were supposed to move your assistant and ONLY place a gem on the FINAL spot where the assistant stopped. THE REAL RULE is that you place a gem on a spot in EACH COLUMN OR ROW you get to as you move. That makes the game less difficult and opens up the chances to gain more dragons, which is a VERY good thing!
This week we check out a fun card game, and then preview a very cool puzzle game with dragons!
First up is Meister Makatsu by Reiner Knizia from AMIGO where each player had their own deck and you're tryin gto avoid taking points.
Then we place domino-style tiles and hope to birth dragons in
Dragonarium by Wei Chang and Kuan Chen from Wonderful World Board Games
Hey Now Cabalists! The 2025 Secret Cabal fundraiser is live on Kickstarter now! Jump over and snag volume 2 of the zine, some Secret Cabal swag, the new Steve-Boy, and support the show while you're doing it. Today the gang dives into some of the great games they've been playing, including Atlas Lost Rise of the New Sovereigns, Slay the Spire, Leaders, Magical Athlete, Dice Miners, and feature Phoenix New Horizon from Jorge J. Barroso and Devir. Then after Tony T lays down his award-winning tabletop gaming news segment, the gang discusses the importance of player interaction in board gaming. Atlas Lost: Rise of the New Sovereigns: 00:09:26, Slay the Spire: 00:20:11, Dice Miners: 00:36:58, Leaders: 00:46:10, Magical Athlete: 00:56:03, Phoenix New Horizon Review: 01:03:23, News with Tony T: 01:38:23, Player Interaction: 02:33:07. Check out our sponsors Restoration Games at https://restorationgames.com/ and Game Toppers at https://www.gametoppersllc.com/. Support the Cabal on Kickstarter now! https://www.thesecretcabal.com/kickstarter
This time, we go fishing for Role Players, linking some popular aspects of RPGs to our favorite boardgames. Plus, our latest collection of Roses, Thorns, and Hula Hoops.
While Mark is perhaps disappointed at the typical tragic dearth of questions related to Macross and Terry Bogard, and Walker secretly yearns to be granted naming rights to a listener's offspring (protip: don't let him), SVWAG answers all* of your questions!
We’ve got a fresh lineup of reviews in this episode, plus a few handy home repair tips sprinkled in. While board games are our bread and butter, we love showing off our other skills too—because this podcast is about more than meeples and dice.
First up is Covenant, a new strategic euro game from Devir. The premise is straightforward: rebuild the dwarves’ ancestral mountain of Karrak-sur-Kazar. The mechanics are easy to grasp, but the real joy comes from chaining together clever combos that feel deeply satisfying when they click.
Beasts shifts gears into cooperative card play. Here, players manipulate a shared three-digit number by playing suits, each move pushing the total higher. The tension spikes when Beast cards appear, blocking suits and forcing quick adaptation. With communication restricted, every rising number adds to the suspense and challenge.
Then there’s Enthrone, a two-player abstract deduction game brimming with intrigue. Each player secretly commands one of eight fantasy pawns—King, Priestess, Knight, Assassin, and more—while trying to uncover their opponent’s identity. Victory can come through elimination, political maneuvering, or seizing the throne. At 20–30 minutes, it’s a sharp contest of hidden roles and bold strategies.
Finally, Dungeons & Dragons: Edge of the Realms takes us to Faerûn, where players explore magical terrain and landmarks through tile-laying. Everyone plays simultaneously, keeping the pace lively and accessible, though interaction between players remains light. It’s a breezy way to capture the spirit of D&D exploration in board game form.
Thanks for tuning in! Don’t forget to drop by our Discord server to share your thoughts on these games—or just to hang out with the community.
Anmelden
