Boardgames To Go

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.   Play along and predict the winners at https://challonge.com/3abpsej6 Predictions must be submitted by March 12 to be in the contest Mark Johnson @MarkEJohnson Patrick Pence @Farsol Last year I ran my first "March Madness" style, 64-game, single-elimination vote, with a contest to submit predictions for the entire bracket. If you've got a pool for the famous college basketball tournament in your office, or with your friends, then you know what this is. Actually, these days many other copycat tournament prediction contests exists--there's a big one on BoardGameGeek, my favorite movie podcast (Filmspotting) does one for films, and so on. My version is similar, but it lists a bunch of games to be voted on against each other. Listeners suggested I call it Mark Madness, and that's what we did. Last year I picked all 64 games that we voted on, pulling from recent award winners in different categories. Listener Patrick Pence ended up the winner of the contest, and for that reason he's my co-host this month for the 2024 Mark Madness. Not only that, more listeners on our Discord channel suggested that the contest be more specific to me, asking me to populate the bracket with games that mean something to me. I did about half of those, and asked Patrick to do the same. Then I combined our lists, added a few "people's choice" titles to round it out, and then set up the bracket. Play along! I hope we get a good number of folks who submit their own official predictions at challonge.com, which is free. Some have already done it. You've until March 12 to submit your brackets, so you need to move quickly. Then the voting rounds will start via Geeklist polling. As you can see from the chart above, the successive rounds of this voting will start happening every three days: On March 15 we'll have the results of the first round, when 64 teams are winnowed down to 32 survivors. Then it proceeds to the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4, and Championship. Who will be the winner? We expect to do "micro-episode" podcasts throughout the month to talk about each round. They'll show up in your regular feed, and I can link them here, too. -Mark

Get your Sweet Sixteen votes in now! https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/328714/boardgames-go-season-20-2024?itemid=10561730&commentid=12074798#comment12074798  

Micro-episode for the next round of voting.    Vote here! https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/328714/boardgames-go-season-20-2024?itemid=10561730&commentid=12070025#comment12070025

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. Opener: Daybreak     Last year was a great year of boardgaming for me. Apparently I played more games than ever, whether you include online plays or not. In this episode I go over the ones I played the most, the ones I liked the most, and some topics other than titles themselves. Like...gaming events I attended, others I'm aiming for in 2024, my excitement for the growing library of "history games," and how I'm still unsatisfied that boardgames haven't built as much connection to travel or place as they could. Closer: Mark Madness is coming back for 2024, and last year's champion Patrick Pence is helping me! We want your suggestions for divisions & games to go up against each other. -Mark

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. Opener: Welcome to Season 20(!!!) of this little podcast I didn't make it to BGGcon last November, but several of my buddies did. Two of them, Greg Pettit and Dave O'Connor, join me on the podcast to talk about their experience there. For almost half the time we talk about about everything BUT the games (the venue, the crowd, the bazaar, the puzzle hunt, etc)...and then we get into a lot of games. We talk about Heat, Anunnaki, Wandering Towers, Bristol 1350, 1902 Melies, Blood on the Clocktower, Oak, Tricky Badger, Match of the Century, That’s Not A Hat, Rebel Princess, Rollet, Armadillo, At The Office, Voodoo Prince, Gang of Dice, Babylonia, Havalandi, Pax Pamir, Turncoats, Cosmoctopus, Nemesis, Cosmic Frog, and The Thing! Whew! Closer: Playing games with family (especially party games) using whatever "rules" and "scoring" are most fun -Mark

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. Opener: Sea Salt & Paper eryn roston @baditude Darryl Boone @booned I'm a pretty positive guy, and I hope that normally comes through on my podcast. While I have distinct preferences for the kinds of games I play, I try to be willing to play most things. Or at least, when I turn something down I try to be kind about it. It helps to have been around long enough, wearing those preferences on my sleeve. My friends know the kind of big, plastic-filled, multi-hour fantasy fighting games that aren't for me. However, it IS true that I have an inner monologue, and it can be frustrated with the aspects of our hobby that I don't like. Even worse, I think those aspects are detrimental to its wide enjoyment and acceptance with many people. You know how I open every episode by saying my podcast is about "family strategy boardgames"? Because that's what I like best, and it's what's most important. They're most important to me, and I'd say the wider success through mass market channels (Target, Amazon), plus increased role of our hobby on the culture...well, those things emphasize that family strategy games are generating the most joy for players and the most success for the industry. Especially on the Discord server, sometimes I'd be more open with those frustrations. Sometimes I just needed to vent a bit. At one point we made a separate discussion channel within that server just for #curmudgeon grumblings. Guess what? It has ended up being some of those most active discussions! Along the way it was suggested that one podcast episode be devoted to the same venting, and here we have it: The Curmudgeon Show. Two volunteers from Discord agreed to help me on this project, and the result is the final episode for this year, season 19. Take it in the spirit it was intended, and I always look forward to comments. Closer: I worked at making 2023 a better year for my hobby, and am so pleased that it worked!  [That's not very curmudgeonly! -ed] -Mark

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.     Openers: • Mark: Basketboss • Dave: Istanbul David Arnott @Arnott After hearing Ken Tidwell in last month’s podcast, both Dave Arnott and I were impressed with his enthusiastic, optimistic, and forward-looking perspective on the boardgame hobby…despite being an old timer like us. Even older, I think! While neither of us can fully match that, it was inspiring and I asked Dave to consider the topic with me in an open discussion for THIS episode. We recorded it on an iPhone in a church choir room at our SoCal Games Day venue. The audio is ok, but you can tell it’s not my normal setup. Also unusual was the lack of a show outline. It means that I struggle a bit to stay focused on the goal. Too often I flip it around and revert to talking about how new hobbyists can/should appreciate the old classics. While that’s true, I tried to remember that I want to focus on how the OLD hobbyists can appreciate the new aspects of boardgaming. What are those new aspects? They can be the newest titles, designers, and publishers themselves. They could be Kickstarter and other new ways of marketing & funding. Perhaps it’s the prevalence of online play, or solo options. The rise of YouTube videos for rules explanations. Lots of things. What am I missing? The games I brought to my work event, full of hope. Partially fulfilled! Closers: • Dave: Is there a best way to lose a game? • Mark: Gaming success with nongamer coworkers -Mark

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. Opener: Hammer of the Scots Ken Tidwell @Ken Tidwell If you entered the hobby as I did pre-2000, you didn't have BGG, podcasts, YouTube, or even a good way to buy games online. You often didn't have English rules in the box for what games you had in your small collection. But what you did have is The Game Cabinet. This was probably the very first boardgame website that ever existed. It was created by Silicon Valley boardgamer Ken Tidwell, who was at the leading edge of the hobby and the Internet. Thanks to Ken's website we had our first access to game reviews, letters columns, information about where to buy games, and online versions of Mike Siggins' famous boardgame zine, Sumo (fullname Sumo's Karaoke Club). I cannot properly convey how important and influential this website was to those of us getting started. Although it was a website, it was presented as an online magazine with numerous "issues" as it was periodically updated with a batch of fresh content. Its last issue was published in 2000. But it's still online! Go visit it at gamecabinet.com. As an oldtimer myself, I've wanted to get Ken on my podcast for many years. Finally I managed to do it. I was delighted and surprised to have Ken tell the story of The Game Cabinet...but it turned out not to be a story stuck in the past. We definitely spend a good chunk of time talking about those early days, but when Ken disappeared online over two decades ago he didn't stop playing games. Not only that, he maintained his fascination with the leading edge of creativity in game design. In a nutshell, he's no curmudgeon like me! He's still got an enormous collection, goes to conventions, plays lots of games, is fascinated with the innovations of the Tokyo Game Market...and even Kickstarter. He's on a number of Discord servers and stays plugged in. He's even up on the indie RPG world that I keep hearing about, too. Closer: Considering what's most important to me in this hobby for 2024...and practicing it in the last quarter of 2023 -Mark

Patrick Pence @Farsol Eric Brosius @Eric Brosius Joe Huber @huber   Opener: Britannia Once again, I've been fortunate to gather a panel of smart gamers from my Discord server to chat on this episode. Patrick, Eric, and Joe joined me to discuss game conventions. We talk about large ones, small ones, and how I think "invitationals" and games days are something slightly different. Certainly related, but I wanted to talk more about the kind of events anyone listening might decide to attend next year. There are local conventions, as well as national (even international) ones that require getting on an airplane. Why would you go to all of that trouble & expense, when you can just play games at home with friends. Well, we have our reasons. Do they match yours? Towards the end we share some of our better game convention experiences, as well as plans to attend this or that in the year to-come. For example, if you're planning to attend SDHistCon this November, or else Dice Tower West in Las Vegas next March, let me know! Closer: History-grounded eurogames that inspire me when traveling -Mark

Joe Berger @arnodestang Adam Brocker @abrocker @Gregarius   Opener: Stockpile Closer: Ennui about the SdJ, which is surprising/disappointing Solo boardgaming is big, and getting bigger. At least, that’s my impression. It’s not something I know a bunch about myself. I’ve dabbled in solo boardgames for many years, and I’ve done solo wargames extensively, but there are euro boardgamers who play a lot of solo boardgames. There’s a whole community for this slice of the hobby, and publishers are serving them. There are games exclusively designed for solo play, and lots of “regular” multiplayer games that have a solo option.     On our Discord server I posted some of my explorations and questions with solo boardgames, it got some response, and soon we had a separate discussion channel to continue to conversation. From there I found a few gamers happy to join me on this episode of the podcast to talk about solo boardgaming. In true BGTG style, we name-drop a number of titles, but most of the episode is a higher level meta-discussion about solo boardgaming as a hobby-within-a-hobby. What types of solo boardgames are there, why do you play solo boardgames, and what is the community of solo boardgamers. 1 Player Guild Solitaire Games On Your Table (most recent monthly compilation) 2022 People's Choice Top 200 Solo Games -Mark

David G. @davebo Openers: • Mark: Maquis and Canopy • Dave: Earth    My friend Davebo has been on the podcast many times, but not for a while. During the time he's been away he decided to sell his California home and relocate to North Carolina, both to be by his oldest kid, now married, as well as to start a new chapter in life. In the podcast he talks a little about those reasons, and what it's like to be a boardgamer who uprooted himself from local groups and friend networks to be in a new place, finding & meeting new people. Of course, gamers do this all the time, but I'm more familiar with it happening earlier in life, when you go off to college, get your first professional job somewhere else, maybe move again to buy a home & start a family. Or like me, maybe you had a career move at some point, like when I moved 300 miles from Norcal to SoCal, leaving behind MY local game group. At that time, I wasn't much more than thirty years old, and finding new gamer friends was something I needed to do...but I don't recall feeling especially challenged by it. Now, though, I can anticipate another move when I eventually retire, and finding new friends when I'm in my sixties feels different. Perhaps it shouldn't, but I'm a little daunted just thinking about it. Dave's not in his sixties, but he's not in his thirties, either. He's now done what I will need to do eventually. Of course, it matters what sort of community you find yourself in, how expansive your hobby is, and other factors. Online gaming was always around, but really took off during the pandemic. That's an interesting way to meet new people AND stay in touch with the gamers "back home." Closers: • Dave: "High five" games • Mark: Can we get more boardgames that tie in to landmarks, places to visit, and a sense of history? -Mark

Opener: Ark Nova...on BoardgameArena I feel like most of this year--really everything since BGGcon last November--has been about me embracing the fullness of this hobby in a post-pandemic way. Along with the realization that no one can really embrace ALL of it. There's just too much. I've simultaneously been maximizing my hobby and realizing the unavoidable limitations involved. This episode certainly fits that overall "story arc." In May I managed to play a lot of games with various friends in all sorts of settings: my local game group, on a business trip, at a Games Day, during a lunch hour at work, online in several ways, and more. Plus there's the extra parts of our hobby, like podcasts and magazines. Looking back, I feel like I did a LOT. Even so, I'm aware of the things I didn't do, because there's just so much time in a month. At least several of those opportunities were with a wider range of gaming friends, something that wasn't possible a year or two ago. Closer: Spiel des Jahres nominations and recommendations

Opener: Votes for Women What is "normal" in our hobby? For a while I've realized that what I felt most comfortable & familiar with in boardgaming is a little but stuck in the past, not coincidentally the times when I was first diving in deep with it. This is about the 10-year period from 1996-2006, give or take. The hobby today feels different. It IS different. Not better or worse (I try to convince myself), just different. But different in what ways? In this solo episode I consider this. Before I tackle the present day I think aloud about how the hobby started, how it progressed, and how it got to when I first played Settlers, Medici, or Bohnanza. I think a lot about the perspective of someone working at Origins or Gencon, perhaps at a game distributor's booth, going to those events from the 1970s to the present day. I actually think there are some that span those fifty years(!) in our hobby, if not always behind a booth then at least participating in it. From that vantage point, you'd definitely see things change over time, and I think with some hindsight you could identify some "waves" or "generations" within the hobby. Characteristics more of one time than another. Trends that come & go. Even within euro-style hobby boardgaming, I think you could subdivide my earlier era to today and note some important differences. That's what I'm thinking about, and I welcome input from listeners, too. Am I all wet here? Or am I onto something? Does it even matter in any way? I think it may matter in the sense that I'm trying to stay true to the types of boardgaming I most enjoy, while simultaneously NOT becoming a fossilized dinosaur. Can it be done? Of course. Thinking about these kinds of things is how I go about it. Closer: Mark Madness 2023 tournament! Congrats to winner Patrick Pence! -Mark

Nonsense Junkie @elschmear Opener: • Mark: Caesar's Empire • Steve: Trendy My friend Steve Paap joins me again, but this time he turns the tables, interviewing ME on my own podcast. We talk about the history of the podcast, what I think about wargaming, and some of my curmudgeonly tendencies in boardgaming. It was fun to talk about with him, and he claims we only got through half of his questions! Perhaps in another year or so we can try again. Closers: • Steve: Competitive tournaments at a game convention • Mark: Finding other boardgamers at my work -Mark

We're just about finished now. Azul emerged victorious from the SdJ division voting, Terraforming Mars from the Kenners, The Crew Mission Deep Sea from the A La Cartes, and Brass Birmingham from the Golden Geeks. Now that I step back and look at those, they seem like wonderful, fantastic, even inevitable champions from each of their respective divisions...not that I was smart enough to predict them all for my bracket. These four champions now face each other, though you'll hear not quite the way I'd originally intended. It all works, though, and before long we'll have the top two vote-getters in the Mark Madness Championship for 2023.