Episode 397 - Boomerang

Release Date: May 9, 2022

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Running Time:  32 min

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The best way to travel is boomerang style. Pick a place to start and go! The farther you wander, the better the trip. Grab a bus, or train, a plane, a bike, or a boat to see and do as much as you can before your vacation ends. Spot native animals, collect souvenirs, hike the great outdoors, and experience fine dining. And don’t forget to take some great pictures along the way!

Boomerang is a draft-and-write card game. Pick a location card, mark sites you visit on your map, and pass your hand to the next player. Try to build the best trip over a series of seven cards balancing multiple ways to score with each new destination

The Boomerang family of games covers Australia, Europe, and the United States.Each game provides a common core of rules with surprising and fun continental differences.

Tune in to explore the game and learn how the entire series earns BOTH awards!

Episode 396 - Glow

Release Date: Apr. 29, 2022

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Running Time:  129 min

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There is a world beyond where color is a gift, not a given. Once a generation, darkness comes and drains the spectrum, washing the world in shadows. Once a generation, a chosen few are sent into the black to reclaim the light and return color to the land.

You have eight days to gather companions and collect shards of light. The journey will be arduous, BUT with careful plans... and a little luck, you could become a legend!

Glow is a dice driven card and board game. The success of your adventure will be measured by creating combinations of dice to trigger your companions' abilities and travel across the land.

Listen in to explore this playable storybook and learn why it has earned our Spiel of Approval.

ALSO FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE...  The amazing Bruce Voge joins us for a Game Night Grab Bag. The topic? Games about odd sports.

Episode 395 - Block Ness

Release Date:  Apr. 20, 2022

Download: PDF

Designers: Laurent Escoffier

Publisher: Blue Orange Games

2-4 players  | 15 min  |  ages 8+  | 3 min to learn | MSRP $28

 

Once home to a single very shy sea monster, Block Ness is now teeming with long bodied serpents! Each one is looking to stretch out and claim as much of the lake as it can. By twisting your monster’s undulating body over and around the others, can you create the longest serpent from head to tail?

Read on to explore the Block Ness and witness the monstrous mountain of Major Fun rising from the waves of its cardboard lake.

Written review continues after the break.

Episode 394 - Brian Boru

Release Date: Apr. 11, 2022

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Running Time:  109 min

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Brian Boru united Ireland and ended centuries of  Viking dominance.  Celebrated in story and song for a thousand years, Brian's legend is yours to explore in this trick-taking board game.

Round by round and town by town, you will play cards to secure the crown through might, cunning, and matrimony. Marriage is the right metaphor for this game. Brian Boru pairs a time-tested game element with modern design to offer many suprising and fun strategies. Can you grab history by the reins and take on the mantle of High King?

 Listen in for a deep dive into the game and learn why it has earned our Spiel of Approval!

 

Episode 393 - Hide N' Cheek

Release Date:  Mar. 29, 2022

Download: PDF

Designers: uncredited

Publisher: Big G Creative

2-4 players  | 15 min  |  ages 6+  | 2 min to learn | MSRP $20

 

You are a chipmunk. And you are one crafty little bugger. In your spare time you play a bluffing game with your friends. Deep in the forest, you take turns hiding acorns under some logs and one by one you and your pals get a chance to search. You might scare up a single nut or you could hit the motherlode. Any nuts you find get crammed into your chubby little cheeks! Do your best to avoid coming up empty or even worse, finding a bad nut! With a little luck, your cheeks will be the chunkiest. You might look silly, but you won't mind at all.. because you'll be crowned the Hide n' Cheek Champion!

Written review continues after the break.

Episode 392 - Three Sisters

Release Date: Mar. 16, 2022

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Running Time:  95 min

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The days reach out. Birds chatter and sing. Gentle rains linger.

The Spring thaw has come.

And from the ground, tiny hopes awaken, three seeds, Three Sisters, wearing green.

Three Sisters is a roll and write dice game where you plan, plant, nurture, and harvest a small farm over a single growing season.

Using techniques practiced by indigenous peoples for centuries, you grow corn, beans, and pumpkins, each one supporting the other. Will you start an orchard? Or tend a hive of bees? Perhaps a glorious stand of wildflowers? Each die you choose will shape your garden and the goods you can bring to market.

Listen in to explore the game and learn why we think Three Sisters is a game with soul.

Episode 391 - Pocket Paragons

Release Date: Mar. 7, 2022

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Running Time:  38 min

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Pocket Paragons is a what-beats-what card dueling game. Select a card; play it’s ability and try to anticipate your opponent’s next move. Duel one on one or in teams of three characters.

From Mata the Paladin to Sadoh the Ocean Queen, this is a world of high fantasy and high stakes. Seven cards separate you from glory or defeat.

Pocket Paragons is a duel distilled down to its very essence. A long game might take ten minutes! But don't be fooled into thinking speed means lack of strategy. There are fun and challenging decisions at the heart of every turn.

Listen in to explore the game and learn how the game earns BOTH our awards.

 

Episode 390 - Lux Aeterna

Release Date: Feb. 25, 2022

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Running Time:  27 min

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Alarms blare!  All systems are failing. Your ship is critically wounded. And it is steadily drifting toward that Black Hole. You have ten minutes to stabilize the ship and hope for rescue.

Lux Aeterna is a real-time solo card game.  Every choice in each round is a balancing act. For each card you select to repair your ship, you must choose another that brings it closer to destruction.

Tune in to explore the game and learn why it earns our Spiel of Approval.

 

Episode 389: So Clover

Release Date: Feb. 18, 2022

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Running Time:  86 min

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Four clue words on four leaves. Can your teammates use these clues to select and arrange four square donut-shaped cards so their keywords line up?

So Clover is a cooperative word association game. Talk it through and look for a common thread. It will take more than luck to make the right connections.

Tune in to explore the game and learn why we think it is chock full of Major Fun!

 

Episode 388: Holiday Party

Release Date: Dec. 20, 2020

Download:  Enhanced  | MP3

Running Time:   221 min.

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Join our party of misfit nerds for fun, games, and freewheeling conversations spanning the wide world of geekdom.

We hope you'll be in a festive mood for the season after being part of some Grade A goofing around.

Guests: Francie Broadie (Indianapolis, IN) Erik Bussé (Hasselt, Belgium) Ezra Denney (Alameda, CA) Alex Despres (Arlington, TX) Suzie Despres (Arlington, TX), Dave Eckard (Lebanon, IN) James Engelhardt (Greenville, SC) Gubbins (Indianapolis, IN) Max Michael (Indianapolis, IN) Darrell Ottery (Reading, UK) Mark Reed (Atlanta, GA) Mark Rickards (Hobart, Tasmania) Katherine Rosland (Stavanger, Norway) Mark Smalley (Indianapolis, IN) Erwin Susara (Indianapolis, IN) Bruce Voge (Baltimore, MD)

Complete Show Notes continue after the break.

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