Episode 8 - Lets Go Clubbin'

In Episode 8, Marty and I invited to the show the founder and leader of The Queen City Gaming Club, Alex. We had always planned to bring Alex on the show for without his commitment to get this club going, Marty and I may not have discovered some of the games we have grown to love nor discovered this incredible community of gamers that goes beyond those playing trading card games.

But what makes this show even more appropriate this week is that Saturday, March 30 is International Tabletop Day. So with this day getting so much notice, you might be able to actually get a game club going and we hope this show can give you some advice and things to avoid as you get started.

• The first segment is all about the history of the club and what it takes to get going (2:16)
• We then talk about some of the tough decisions you have to make (21:17)
• Finally, we discuss the future of our club and how community service is becoming part of the club (38:00)
• International Tabletop Day (01:01:30)

As I listened to the finally version of the show, which Marty went beyond the call of editing, I did walk away with a few key items that I will go ahead and share:

• Use Meetup as your means to get it started
• Expect drama because we are people, but deal with it when it happens
• You need to be willing to ask for volunteers and be willing to take it when given
• This is a club for social enjoyment, not a club to make money.

Enjoy the show

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Fantasy Baseball Draft Day and APBA Baseball

Every year, Marty hosts a fantasy baseball draft. This group that has been together for 13 years and during that time, I have never won. And while I still enjoy the draft, I have become less than engaged with baseball and fantasy baseball. I remember when I would spend weeks developing my draft sheets, reading about teams and trying to get the latest news. Now, I download projected stats, sort them by position and price and away I go. I know that to win the league, you need to pay attention to baseball and to be honest, I don't. Watching baseball on TV is painful for me, but love sitting in the stands at a game.

Anyway, what does this have to do with board games. Well, before fantasy baseball, I played a game growing up called APBA Baseball with my friends in the neighborhood. It was our first fantasy baseball experience.  The game was very simple, you needed these special cards representing baseball players, situation boards, baseball score sheets, and two D6 (each a different size or color so you know which was the tens and which was the ones).

The cards of the players mimic their stats from the baseball season so the better the player was, the better chance he had to get you on base, hit a homerun, or steal bases. Pitchers had grades and depending on the grades would determine outcomes on the situation boards for certain numbers. One other aspect of the situation boards was that the team on defense would total up their points and depending on that total would determine how good a team's fielding was. A poor fielding team would generate more errors where a better fielding team would get an out.

During your at bat, you would roll the dice and look on the player card to see the resulting number. You would then look that number up on the situation board depending on if players were on base and which bases they were on. Also, as the manager, you could tell your players to bunt or perform a hit and run before you rolled and look up the result in another book. You would continue to roll until you made three outs and then it would be the other player's turn. You would play nine innings of course and the games went very quick.

So, how was this fantasy baseball? Well, every year my friend's dad would order the previous seasons year and when the teams arrived, we would gather around the table and draft which teams we wanted. So, you had to research how players did that year to determine which teams you wanted to pick. You would then take those players and add them to your roster and of course cut those that no longer able to make the team because we had to keep a roster size of 25. We had Minors, AA, and A teams as well, but they were never a lot of fun to play. What was even better was sometimes my friend's dad would order teams from the past and I would learn about that season in baseball and I think it was his way of teaching us of a time when baseball was truly the Great American Pastime.

I know APBA is still around and you can order the base game for $22 (currently out of stock). I have no idea how it has changed and I know it is a lot more to it than when we played it. I bought the base game back in 1991 and taught it to Marty. Someday, we will play again because it is truly my first fantasy baseball game.

5 Minute Initiative: Deck Protectors, they aren't just for Magic Players

At our local game store, we asked the owner who purchases deck protectors. Expecting to hear that it is mixed from card players to board game players, we were caught off guard when he responded that it was mostly the people that play card games, i.e. Magic and the likes. Well, that just floored us, so Marty and I decided to use this 5 Minute Initiative by giving a PSA for deck protectors and how and why they should be used in protecting your board games that use cards.

Now we will admit that sometimes they are not practical for every game (ie Dominon) due to what it does to storage and so forth, but for games where your cards are constantly being pawed at, Cheeto molested, shuffled, tossed, and even snorted to remind us all of what rainbows smell like, why would you not use them.

Hope our enjoy our mini-rant on why you should sleeve'em to protect'em.

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Last day for Dungeon Roll Kickstart

I am not sure if you have seen our posts about this, but both Marty and I have jumped on the bandwagon for the Dungeon Roll Kickstart and must say, we are amazed at how well it is doing. So if you are a fan of dice games like Elder Sign, Zombie Dice and so forth, you really should think about this game.

1. It is going to be $5 off the MSRP 
2. The Kickstart goals are almost complete. 
3. Eventually the zombie craze will "die" off and fantasy stuff never gets old.

Besides, we really want to see the last Kickstart Goal achieved to get the big D10.

TMG...You are killing us, back to back Kickstarts

Love this new case!!!

Not only is your Dungeon Roll Kickstart looking better and better, TMG just sent us an email that says:


Eminent Domain: Escalation
Will be going live on Kickstarter shortly after we finish up the project for Dungeon Roll.  It will only be up and available through Kickstarter for 12 days, so be ready when it comes along.

The game is fantastic and the artwork is an improvement on the original in my opinion.

There are new uses for the different shapes of ships in the base game, some direct player conflict, new technologies, and one of my favorites...  Scenarios where players have asymmetric starting positions and technologies.  Now for a preview of some artwork...

We knew about the changes thanks to what Seth posted to us, but the limited Kickstart is news, glad we are not on vacation somewhere, like on a Carnival Cruise ship.

Anyway, you got our attention and we are ready to drop some more coinage your way just keep us informed when it goes live so we can possibly be an early supporter.

Episode 7 - Rollin' Them Bones

Roll the dice and take a listen to Episode 7. In this episode, we talk about dice games, what we think makes a good dice game, and just how people love dice.

• The first segment is about various dice games, how they have gone beyond Yahtzee, and the way the market is now bleeding over into other categories, but using dice as the main component of the game (01:47)
• In Casual Corner, Marty discusses the game Quarriors! by Wizkids Games. (15:15)

• We also touch on how dice aren't used just in games, the variety of dice, and some other accessories you might need when playing dice games. (34:10)
• We then try a new segment called "What's Your Point" where we debate how dice games need to allow the player to minimize luck. (44:26)

Hopefully the show will give you new ideas on how to take dice to a new level in your gaming activities.

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5 Minute Initiative: Eminent Domain

Eminent Domain brings pictures to mind of the Federal Government taking control of your land or property for the good of others, whether you like it or not. In this game by Tasty Minstrel Games, you are the government, or at least that is how I look at it, and you are claiming planets whether the inhabitants like it or not.

Maybe not that dramatic, but Eminent Domain is a deck building game with a unique spin of having roles like the game Puerto Rico that keeps the game fast paced with minimal downtime between players. You have various actions you can take as the lead and other players can follow. Ultimate goal, get the most victory points before the end conditions of the game are achieved.

Marty and I discuss the game in this 5 Minute Initiative and the anticipated release of the expansion to the game and what we hope is included to make this great game even better.

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Gamers Making a Difference

Today I saw something happen on the interwebs that really helps restore faith in humanity. The Dork Tower and Munchkin artist, John Kovalic, decided to help out a friend of his who runs an orphanage in Haiti. They needed two water tanks at $350 a piece. So John requested help on his site and Twitter account. Money came pouring in and two tanks were paid for in 10 minutes! Over the next hour around $2300 came in and 100% of the funds will go to the orphanage. What's even cooler is that the money will be sent today and the tanks bought this week.

It's great to be a part of a community that will drop their dice, reach into their wallet and readily help those in need.

John took time to respond to the outpouring and it can be seen here.

5 Minute Initiative-Android: Netrunner

Marty had this brilliant idea that we should do 5 minute podcasts to discuss stuff that is going on in the gaming world. Stuff like:

• Game Reviews
• Game Reports
• Interesting News
• Local Tournament Reports
• Rants
• etc.

The rules of the show are simple, we got five minutes to get our ideas out and if the time runs out, we stop. So the first podcast in this format will be on a game that seems to really be getting momentum in our area, Android: NetRunner by Fantasy Flight Games. It is another one of their Living Card Games which is a huge thumbs up from us because of reasons we reveal during the show.

Thanks for giving it a listen

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