The Family Gamers Podcast

We missed recording last week because we were too busy… going to our favorite small convention. So this week, we’ll talk about small conventions! 0:00:00 Fact for 431 It’s a big year for Greek myth. 431 BC marked the beginning of the (second) Peloponnesian War, the end of the Golden Age of Greece, when Athens lost its dominance to Sparta (and less than a century later was conquered by Macedon). Sponsor Message Did you know that according to a recent poll sponsored by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling only 18% of Americans feel very confident about their retirement? So if you aren’t sure about retirement, you’re not alone. If you want to talk to a professional to see if you are on track to achieve your goals, go to firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers to schedule a quick free phone call and see if First Move is the right fit for you. 0:03:45 What We’ve Been Playing Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons * Jekyll & Hyde vs. Scotland Yard Gygès * Seikatsu (our review – out of print but should be coming back soon) Skulls of Sedlec Stroop Peak to Peak * Llama Llama * Whoa There Cowboy * Bus & Stop * Taverns of Tiefenthal * (after first seeing it at PAX 2019!) Looot * Unmatched Adventures: TMNT (review coming soon) Phase * (Kickstarter opens early October) Champions of Midgard * Machi Koro The Phantom of the Opera * (*) First mention on The Family Gamers Podcast 0:29:00 The Family Gamers Community Welcome new members! We’re so happy to see so many new names. 0:30:25 #Backtalk We asked you about your “Icarus” game. (A game you were convinced your family was going to play all the time – and time has shown that it’s a game you’re actually never going to play.) Read the responses on Facebook or #backtalk channel of the Discord. You can enter the VNTYPL8S giveaway. Read the review and check it out! 0:36:15 Small Cons We’ve talked about conventions plenty of times on the podcast – we go to PAX Unplugged every year, and try to make it to a few other big conventions when we can (Origins, GenCon, Essen, PAX East). But this past week, we went to a very small convention: CuseCon, which has only a few hundred attendees. Small conventions are perfect for simply playing games, and won’t overwhelm you with choices. It’s also a much easier environment to meet up with friends, or to make new boardgaming friends! Andrew compares a small convention to a “staycation” – you’ve committed to being somewhere and playing games, rather than hoping you get around to it when you have free time. A small convention is less expensive than a big one. It’s easier to do less, or do things in the same area that aren’t the convention. It’s less intimidating, and may be calmer. It’s easier to play prototype games with designers. The people who run the convention are THERE and accessible. It’s easy to volunteer or have input! It may be easier to bring a child (or to get a babysitter and go for just a few hours). You can keep an eye on a gamer child without needing to keep them “on a leash”. You may be able to stay in the same hotel where the convention is – much easier for family logistics! Both large and small conventions have their place, but a small convention is much easier to dip your toe in the water. 0:54:00 New Backtalk Question If you know you’ve got a whole day where you can’t go outside, which game do you grab first and why? Do you get a small appetizer game to set you all up for something big, or do you get the big chonkin’ game to the table first? Do you play 1-2 big games or a bunch of small ones? Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community. Find Us Online: Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/community Twitter (X): @familygamersaa Instagram: @familygamersaa TikTok: @familygamersaa Bluesky: @familygamersaa Threads: @familygamersaa Youtube: TheFamilyGamers or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord Or, for the most direct method, email us! [email protected] and [email protected]. PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify. You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :) If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon. Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link. Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors? The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points. The post Episode 431 – Small Conventions appeared first on The Family Gamers.

0:00:00 Fact for 430 Chlorophyll A absorbs light strongly in the blue-violet region (around 430 nm) and the red region (around 680 nm). Sponsor Message If you want to talk about more ways to teach your children to manage their personal finances set up a time to talk by going to firstmovefinancial.com / familygamers. 0:04:30 What We’ve Been Playing Fight 5 Ham Helsing Three Sisters Carnuta Sails Up! August Monthly Report Anitra: 31 plays of 23 unique games. H-index: 2 (Obelus, Hummingbirds, Got Five!) Andrew: 28 plays of 18 unique games. H-index: 2 (Obelus, Sails Up!, Hummingbirds, Got Five!, Spaceteam) 0:23:00 The Family Gamers Community Welcome new members! We’re so happy to see so many new names. 0:24:20 #Backtalk We asked you about your thoughts around preserving “disposable” games. Read the responses on Facebook or #backtalk channel of the Discord. 0:34:45 Top Games of 2017 We review our top-rated reviews of 2017 and our most-played games of that year. Which ones hold up? Would we still make the same recommendations today? Our top-rated game reviews in 2017: Seikatsu (8.5) – about the same. Great game, but it doesn’t get played much. Downforce (8.5) – Even better than Corey rated it, we think. Fight for Olympus (8.5) – about the same. Getting played a lot recently! Purrrlock Holmes (8.5) – a good game, but there are other deduction games that are better. Knot Dice (9) – Beautiful, and a good system. Would still rate highly, but slightly less. Tournament of Towers (9) – We would still rate it highly but slightly less. It’s a really hard game! Barenpark (9) – about the same. Still love it. Potion Explosion (9) – about the same, especially if you can get the newer version. Our family grew to prefer the iOS version of the game. Box of Rocks (9) – It’s very good at what it does. Kingdomino (9.5) – It should have been a perfect score. (Editor’s note: Anitra was wrong – Kingdomino had already won the Spiel des Jahres before we reviewed it.) 0:57:30 Our (Anitra’s) top most played games in 2017: Do we still have them and play them? In Vino Morte Spyfall – we don’t own this game (anymore). Happy to play it though. Kingdomino Dairyman Barenpark Stroop Blank – a favorite(?) of our kids NMBR 9 Seikatsu Magic Maze – a fun novelty, but not a game we need to have. 1:05:10 New Backtalk Question There are games in this week’s list that we used to love and thought we’d play forever. So the question is – Have you ever had a board game Icarus? A game that you were absolutely convinced was going to be an evergreen that you would play as a family all the time, and now, years later, that game hasn’t hit the table in forever! If you had that kind of game, what is it? What did you love that you don’t anymore? Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community. Find Us Online: Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/community Twitter (X): @familygamersaa Instagram: @familygamersaa TikTok: @familygamersaa Bluesky: @familygamersaa Threads: @familygamersaa Youtube: TheFamilyGamers or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord Or, for the most direct method, email us! [email protected] and [email protected]. PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify. You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :) If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon. Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link. Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors? The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points. The post Episode 430 – Our Top Games of 2017?!? appeared first on The Family Gamers.

Why would you ever want a disposable game? And what are some types of disposable games?

Lots of board games have a stripped down or re-themed version for kids. Are they worth it? Well… sometimes. 0:00:00 Fact for 428 4/28, April 28, is the birthday of Carl Laemmle Jr. who was the head of production at Universal Studios from 1928 to 1936 and personally greenlit the original Classic Monster films (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy), effectively creating the monster universe. (And there’s a rock with this number carved into it at “Darkmoor”, Universal Epic Universe.) Sponsor Message If this perspective sounds helpful (and you’d like something less generic), you too can book a free 15 minute call with First Move Financial at firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers to learn how they can help you invest wisely. Even if you don’t have a huge net worth. 0:04:25 What We’ve Been Playing Ham Helsing * Splendor Kids * The Four Doors (review coming soon!) Boop Shuffle * Carnuta Journey to Tir na nOg * Super Duo * (truly off the shelf of shame) (*) first time mentioned on The Family Gamers Podcast 0:21:20 July Monthly Report Andrew: 21 plays of 13 unique games. H-index: 3 (Little Alchemists, Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game, Palette) Anitra: 35 plays of 22 unique games. H-index: 3 (Little Alchemists, Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game, Unmatched, Palette) Most of our games were played at home, on the weekend, and/or with just 2 players. 0:23:30 The Family Gamers Community Welcome new members! 0:25:00 #Backtalk Just a few stories about your “tricky” moments. Read the responses on Facebook or #backtalk channel of the Discord. 0:27:40 Junior or “My First” Games These are games that start from an “adult” game that already exists and strip them down to something simpler so that younger kids can play it. It’s obvious why they exist: to bring in kids and introduce them to not just gaming *concepts* but to worlds/themes already well-branded. When they do it well, “My First” games follow our guidelines for very young children (see our Candy Land article), while keeping games tolerable for older kids & adults. Keep physical tasks simple, like rolling a single die. Other simple skills that could be used are matching, stacking, or pulling. Use durable equipment (dice, tokens, cardboard tiles rather than cards) Keep it short! Turns should take less than 30 seconds, unless all players are engaged on every turn. The whole game should take less than 20 minutes. Don’t combine challenging mental tasks into a single “action” (like color matching with counting). Keep all players on equal footing. (Lots of luck will help even the playing field.) This is the same thing that happens in the B-mods we’ve tried! Simplifying decisions and keeping players on equal footing. But some “Junior” or “My First” games try to stay too close to the original, and the game suffers for it. Keeping more complicated mechanics bumps the minimum age back up (Ticket to Ride: First Journey is 6+, Catan Junior is 6-9), while removing elements that keep the “grown up” game interesting. Not exactly “My First” at that point, although these games can work well for slightly older kids who have never played a strategic game before. So which “My First” games do it well? The best “My First” games take board games that are already accessible to older kids and bring them down to a preschool level: Splendor Kids (which we just tried) keeps the set collection and engine building but changes the GOAL and progression to something more concrete – now it’s a race up a track! Animal Upon Animal Junior (stacking but with much larger sturdier pieces and a simpler game loop. Can combine with the “big kids” version.) More “junior” stacking games: Rhino Hero Junior (short shelf life but approachable for a 2 year old) and Suspend Junior (just as much fun for adults as kids!) My First Castle Panic – our NUMBER ONE recommendation Similar matching and planning as the big brother, but simplified. Same cooperation! Encourage children to “ask a friend for help” – better language but the same concept as “trading” cards. And what parent doesn’t love a game that cleans itself up as they play? Dragomino (My First Kingdomino) A more fun theme – hatching dragons! Adds luck (will your dragon egg hatch?) that gives some balance to scoring Points to probability instead of multiplication 0:53:00 A few more that take a much more complex and “adult” game down to a elementary school level: Little Alchemists focuses on only the deduction aspect of Alchemists, and uses a built in advancement/progression to slowly add complexity Kids Chronicles based on Chronicles of Crime takes same the basic idea “use the phone/tablet to look around, pick up items” and sets it in a friendly fantasy universe with very basic items and tasks – and a compelling story! 0:55:30 New Backtalk Question Lots of people ask us how to get our kids into board games. Do you think “My First” games are a good way to do it? Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community. Find Us Online: Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/community Twitter (X): @familygamersaa Instagram: @familygamersaa TikTok: @familygamersaa Bluesky: @familygamersaa Threads: @familygamersaa Youtube: TheFamilyGamers or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord Or, for the most direct method, email us! [email protected] and [email protected]. PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify. You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :) If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon. Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link. Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors? The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points. The post Episode 428 – Junior Games: Are They Worth It? appeared first on The Family Gamers.

Trick taking is an especially hard genre of games to teach. But it doesn’t have to be! 0:00:00 Fact for 427 The world record for a Rube Goldberg machine with the most steps is 427 steps. The record was set in China in 2021, and here’s the video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpLDfkLBJ0Q Sponsor Message If you’re interested in getting help planning through the financial ramifications of a change in your life, head over to firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers to schedule a free 15 minute call and see how First Move can help you. 0:05:30 What We’ve Been Playing Dream Runners (our review) Enthrone Little Alchemists (our review) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game Endangered Rescue: Galapagos Penguins * A Place for All My Books (our review) Dice Words * Suspend Quacks of Quedlinburg Unmatched: Stars and Stripes (with T-Rex!) (*) first time mentioned on The Family Gamers Podcast 0:32:55 The Family Gamers Community Shout out to our newest community members! Thanks for joining us. #Backtalk We asked about your hidden gem games. Read the answers on Facebook (two responses) or #backtalk channel of the Discord. 0:40:30 Grow into Trick Taking Games What is trick taking? A game mechanism used in many card games. A “trick” is formed by every player in turn playing one card from their hand to the center. Then the “trick” is won by one of the players and set aside. (Usually won by the highest value played in the led suit.) Most trick taking games require players to “follow suit” and match the suit of the first played card, if they can. Many trick taking games have a “trump” suit that is considered higher than all others. There are all kinds of variations with partnering, bidding, and how tricks are won. Room to Grow Our goal with Room to Grow is to bring your kids – or your family – through a series of games that grow in complexity. Normally, we take a beginner game, an intermediate game, and an advanced game (and some honorable mentions). They offer a plan for growth for players to get comfortable with that mechanic, and all are family-friendly. Beginner: Hearts Played with a standard 52-card deck. A “must-follow” game. No trump suit. No bidding (you don’t have to guess how many tricks you’ll win). Heart cards and the Queen of Spades are bad, you don’t want to win them. But you can attempt to shoot the moon; if you can get all 13 cards AND the Queen of Spades, you take 0 (bad) points and all your opponents take 26 points. We like Hearts because the rules are simple, the math is pretty easy, and it’s still enough to learn why you want to lose tricks sometimes and win tricks other times. Bicycle cards has full instructions on how to play Hearts. Intermediate: Add a little more with Wizard or Rebel Princess Rebel Princess is very much like Hearts, but with a fun theme (princesses avoiding princes and frogs) and with some special powers. Read Nick’s review of Rebel Princess, and the expansion Happily Never After. In the other direction, Wizard is a basic trick taking game with bidding. The first round is only one trick, the second round is two tricks, etc. After being dealt your card(s), you decide how many tricks you think you can win in the round. The closer you can get to your bid, the more points you get, and the round acts like a multiplier when you get your bid correct. Learn more about Wizard on Wikipedia. Advanced Twists with Two Players or Cooperative Trick-Taking Jekyll vs Hyde is one of our favorite games, a trick taking game for just two players, with a much smaller deck and potion cards that can activate chaotic powers. One player wants to balance tricks won vs lost, the other player wants to maximize the difference. Read or watch our review of Jekyll vs. Hyde. An entirely different twist on the genre is cooperative trick taking games. And the best one to start with is The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine. It provides a series of missions, each with different goals and restrictions. Your communication is limited to a one-time-use token/card each round. Can you work together to get the right trick(s) to the right person? Read our review of The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine. Even More Trick Taking There are lots of variations on trick taking. Some games, like Off With Their Heads! even do away with the “taking” part of trick-taking. Check out our list of trick taking games for more. 0:58:50 New Backtalk Question What’s your best board game story? Were you playing against someone and able to “trick” them into believing one thing while you did something else? Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community. Find Us Online: Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/community Twitter (X): @familygamersaa Instagram: @familygamersaa TikTok: @familygamersaa Bluesky: @familygamersaa Threads: @familygamersaa Youtube: TheFamilyGamers or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord Or, for the most direct method, email us! [email protected] and [email protected]. PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify. You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :) If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon. Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link. Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors? The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points. The post Episode 427 – Room to Grow: Trick-Taking Games appeared first on The Family Gamers.