5 Minute Initiative: The Agents Card Game

In this segment, Marty and I review a prototype copy of the card game The Agents, which is currently on Kickstarter. The game is a card game, plus on my side because I love card games, that involves a lot of interaction between players. In the game, you are trying to score 40 victory points before you opponents by playing Agents in a shared area known as the Faction. Factions are shared between the opponent to your left and the opponent to your right. So, you are sharing two sets of cards (factions). This concept is very important to the game for it provides one of the means to score points and causes interaction in the game between players. You also have missions that score points and these missions are only for you. So you must balance between your factions and missions to secure victory.

Marty spends the first part of the episode discussing the rules and you can get them here. One thing we forgot to mention in our discussion is that drawing cards from the draw piles is not automatic, you have to spend victory points in order to draw cards so you are having to judge when to give up points to get cards. Another nice mechanism in this game to make you have to think.

If you aren't sure this game is for you, they have the print and play ready to go along with the rules, so give it a try. This game has been backed by RDTN and we look forward to receiving our copy.


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Want a $50 Gift Card from CoolStuffInc? Entry Method #1

As we mentioned in Episode 18, we have the privilege to offer our listeners, followers, guildies, and groupies the opportunity to win a $50 gift card to Cool Stuff Inc. via the Dice Tower Network. So for the month of August, we will provide ways for you to enter into the drawing for the gift card. And this drawing isn't just us, it is also across the Dice Tower Network. You can go visit the following DTN shows and find out how to enter into their drawings/contests for their $50 gift cards:

The Dice Tower

The Secret Cabal

Ludology

Not Just Another Game Podcast

OnBoard Games

The Cardboard Jungle

The Party Gamecast

Geek All-Stars

So, how do you get your name in a hat for a shot at the GC? The first way is by heading over to BoardGameGeek and join our guild. Current members will automatically be entered.

That is it for now, but continue to follow our blog and Twitter for more ways to be entered into the drawing.

Chances of winning are based on the number of entries received during the month of August. The winner of the prize agrees to the use of their name on the Dice Tower Network and will provide information that allows the awarding of the prize.

5 Minute Initiative: NanoBot Battle Arena

At Origins, my family had the privilege of previewing a new game from Derpy Games called NanoBot Battle Arena. This is a tile laying game where the goal is to take your set of NanoBots and make the longest chain possible. Meanwhile, your opponents are trying to thwart your plans as they seek to create the longest chain.

Currently the game is in the funding process on Kickstarter with game entry point of $25, but the fine folks at Derpy Games sent us a prototype copy to play and give our thoughts on. Since my family had played it at Origins, I thought it might be good to get their thoughts on the game especially since this can also be viewed as a very family-friendly game. Well, one way to measure how good something is comes down to if you are willing to take the time to tell or teach others about it. That is exactly what my sons did, they taught others how to play.

So what were everyone's thoughts on the game? Listen to this installment of the 5 Minute Initiative and find out!

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Episode 18 - No Parking on the Dance Floor

We promise that this will be the last song reference we use for the naming our podcast. Ok, let me restate that to say, we will do our best to refrain from using song references in our episode titles. Who am I kidding, I am sure Marty and I will do it again.

In Episode 18, Marty and I talk on a genre know as Party Games. These games are the ones you bring out to get the party going, keep the party going, end the party, or kill the party, depending on the crowd and the game. These games serve a great purpose of getting people involved and socializing with one another. Party games can't be all bad either or TV networks wouldn't do shows involving games.

We also bring back one of our original segments Casual Corner. Marty talks about Dixit and I give my two cents on my favorite party game Wits and Wagers.

For your listening pleasure:

• GenCon Discussion - 02:00 
• Big Announcement - 05:00
• Video Games...what? - 09:15
• What are you playing - 13:15
• Casual Corner - 18:25
• Party Game Genre - 29:00
• The Party Game Cast - 45:54 (Dice Tower Network Fellow Podcast)
• Hooyah Game Review - 47:10
• Garden Dice Game Review - 50:45
• At the Table - 59:00
• Closeout - 1:02:00

For those that don't know, Minus Garfield (01:00)

Here is a picture of the play mat we walked away with at our Netrunner Tourny

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iTunes Issues Resolved (*fingers crossed)

For the past several months we have been dealing with issues with our page on the iTunes store. It started when we had to switch from Feedburner to another service. First, the new service would not display all our episodes. They would truncate the oldest ones. I worked with their customer support for weeks to resolve the issue. In the meantime, odd things were happening with the iTunes page where listeners said they had issues getting episodes, only a handful would show up, etc. Then the worst thing possible happened, the link between our iTunes page and the feed was broken.

The iTunes store was now looking at our raw feed which does not incorporate all the necessary tags for showing information like our logo and episodes descriptions. The iTunes subscription still works in that subscribers will get the latest episodes, but only see the titles. The worst result was that our podcast no longer showed up in the iTunes search. For us, this was unacceptable.

I constantly bombarded both Apple and our provider with support tickets in order to fix the link. For them it would be a simple fix, replace the URL iTunes is looking at with another URL. Apple never responded to my requests. For the web savvy people, there is a method to include tags in a feed to force iTunes to use a new URL, but I had no means to interject those tags on the raw feed. Again, no help from support on that side of the equation.

Therefore, we had to register for a new iTunes store. We know this may be a pain for our current subscribers and we don't want to make it hassle to listen to our show. But we were left with no other option. We are thankful for the few listeners we have and an action like this may cause people to move on because "it shouldn't be this hard to listen to a podcast". Be we feel and we hope that issues are now addressed. So here's where we stand.

As a result we have several options for staying up to date with our content.
Here is the new link to iTunes:
New iTunes link
This link now shows all our episodes, logos, descriptions, etc. I have verified this works in iTunes on Windows and on iOS devices.

We also have our typical RSS feed which can be used in podcast applications. Again I have tried and tested this on applications like gPodder:
RSS Feed

If you want just the audio files and no other articles. Here is a feed that provides only audio postings along with short episode descriptions:
RSS Feed - Audio Only

And finally, if you are subscribed to our old link for iTunes, it should still work. The only thing you'll be missing is our logo and episode descriptions.

Again, we apologize for the inconvenience. We are still a very young show trying to get up the learning curve.

 If you have any issues at all, please don't hesitate to contact us. You can respond to this post, contact us via Twitter or email us directly at admin@admin.rolldicetakenames.com

Episode 17: Emily Post - The Lost Chapters

Have you ever been playing a game and wished that they people you were playing with would just get a clue and have better manners? Of course you have, Marty and I discuss some of the things that we believe should be just common knowledge among us gamers when it comes to courtesy. Now we know that we are generally preaching to the choir here, but I know we have all been guilty of this from time to time. I know that I did a major faux pas by leaving a game near the end, but time just ran out and I should have realized that this game would not end by the time I needed to leave. To quote Gomer Pyle "Shame! Shame! Shame!", I should have known better.

We also spend time talking about Marty's adventures at Origins, the games we are playing (Tzolk'in, Pillars Expansion, The Duke), and a brand new segment called At The Table.

Origins Report	3:05
Games we are playing	13:00
Gamer Etiquette	20:48
Ask before touching	25:08
Put things where they belong	28:01
Take time to learn the rules	30:30
Rules Lawyer - I object!!	34:10
Lose the Cell	36:30
Finish what you started	38:10
Analysis Paralysis	39:15
Credit the Player, don't blame dumb luck	42:45
RSVP	45:25
At the Table (New Segment)	47:50
Closeout	52:10

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Episode 16: Love is a Battlefield

That is right, channeling some Pat Benatar for Episode 16. Over two years ago, Marty and I got involved in Warmachines. We are still only dabbling in the hobby, but it is going good so far. I will admit, there are some things that I am not a fan of in the game, but I was surprised at how much I enjoying painting the models, which I thought would not be the thing I liked about this hobby. 

We invited Steve, you know the guy that did our logo, to help us discuss miniature gaming since he has had a very long career in the hobby. We explorer the history, talk about what is going on now in miniatures, and we even have our first inadvertent embarrassing sound on our podcast.



For your listening pleasure:

History of Wargaming (in our minds)	8:24
Social Interaction in Minis	26:00
Painting - It is not a Barrier	32:00
Miniature Games - All we have tried	35:00
Terrain in Miniature Games	38:30
Historical Gamers	41:00
Rules, Rules, Rules	44:30
The New Trend - RPGing in Miniatures	49:00
Sum it up	57:30
The Funny Sound	59:46

HG Wells book on Miniature Gaming

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