Adrian: 0:33

Welcome to Whose turn is it anyway, podcast all about our gaming group. And of course, the board games we play. I'm Adrian, your current first player. And as always, I'm surrounded by other wonderful players. I have to my left, Davey

Davey: 0:44

Can't believe you called me wonderful. Yeah, that's me.

Adrian: 0:49

Becky, hi, and JP.

JP: 0:51

Wonderful,

Adrian: 0:52

Wonderful. Last time I give you guys any compliments. And in today's episode, we will be talking all about the real life skills you can gain from playing board games, and how they translate into the real world. Awesome. Before we get started, though, how is everyone doing?

Becky: 1:09

I'm really excited because I beat my husband at Ark Nova the other day.

JP: 1:13

That is an amazing achievement.

Becky: 1:15

I feel I feel very excited about

Davey: 1:17

Yeah. Did you rub it in his face?

Becky: 1:18

I didn't need to the need to know he's a very good loser. He just didn't get a lot of practice at it, unfortunately. No, he was he said I you played really well.

JP: 1:27

He is a gracious loser.

Adrian: 1:29

I mean, cried in the bathtub.

Becky: 1:32

But I didn't. I didn't see any of that. Unlike me. I don't think I've won any other games recently. But that one is good enough to carry me through.

Davey: 1:44

Becky? Yeah, but it's about the journey. It's nice. If you get a choice. It's one of the things that I've learned. Is it Yeah, leading on and

Becky: 1:51

That brings us nicely into the actual main segment.

Adrian: 1:54

It's a shame we've got a whole segment in between It's now time to talk about you and me and all the good things and the bad things that have been as we talk about hex. So what's everyone played recently? What's everyone been up to? I think exciting. Lots of

Becky: 2:19

Clank catacombs at our house. Lots and lots. Yeah, Kerley's brother, stay with us for a little while. And he is a real big fan of that. So we've been playing huge amounts of Clank Catacombs.

Adrian: 2:29

How's it gone as it as it progressed? Well, for multiple plays?

Becky: 2:32

Yeah. Yeah, it's still just as good every time I think because you've got that kind of moving tile selection. So it's always different kind of map. And yeah, we play it with new people most times, so they do the whole thing that everyone does when they very first play Clank. Would you like oh, well, this is fine. I've got loads of health. Oh, oh,

JP: 2:52

Dead. Okay, greedy. Yeah. Oh, no.

Becky: 2:55

100 And even though you tell people it really ramps up in a minute, as soon as one person's out, it is game over really? And they just aren't just gonna get

Adrian: 3:04

off too far.

Becky: 3:05

Yeah, Tambo. I really enjoyed it. He really enjoyed it. That was really cool.

Davey: 3:08

Yeah, it definitely tackles what, the only criticism of the Clank before in that if you played a lot of it, which he probably works as good game. You kind of get used to the map and there's like, certain there's certain cards will come out you think well I need this for this because this map and I need to go this way and have a crystal to have an alternate alternative board the other side, but I do really like the tile design.

JP: 3:29

And that's why they sold a lot of the map packs for original Clank reasons. There's one in a jungle there's one. So Dwarven mine or spider cavern or whatever. So you kind of then bought more and more maps but catacombs you don't need to

Becky: 3:45

It's great because Oh, yeah, right, one, two, yeah, three turns I'm out. And then you get that card that comes out that sudden movement and as soon as it comes out, everybody on a lone tile has to turn their tile around. Dammit. Every year that goes my pathway out I'm gonna die now. But it's really good. I

Davey: 4:02

I'll lead off with that, I've been playing Clank Legacy. really enjoyed that. It's all about the Clank, clanking about um, Dune which is also another D thing, but we've talked about enough about Dune that a lot in our house. Yeah, all I've played lately is all Direwolf game so might be worth mentioning

JP: 4:18

Dune just very briefly with your experience of opening a certain copy of Dune

Davey: 4:23

Yes, I will put this up on the socials as well. So I opened up the the rum-ageddon or AKA AKA The Rum Rush scandal, but yeah, and it seemed ooze actually okay. Some of the cards were a little bit inflated, but they weren't too bad. They were still fit into a sleeve. Okay, and so I just got a sleeve at all. And one of the character mats are a bit scuffed up but they're quite thin. They were quite flimsy anyway, so essentially, you're good smell, but every time my friends were like, ah, let's play Dune, haven't played that in ages? Yeah. I'll bring it but I haven't opened it since since the episode.

JP: 5:10

Obviously you change one of the fraction mats, the one that got damaged to Captain Morgan. Display the Captain Morgan.

Davey: 5:20

Rather than waters it gets Rum during

JP: 5:24

Spice rum must flow. Terrible. I like to abstain and it was cracking Anyway, thought I mentioned that David probably got that in

Adrian: 5:42

Decause he was supposed to be talking about Legacy playing Legacy. Yeah.

Davey: 5:44

So yeah, we've been playing, we're up to episode one or episode one of seven or something rather, probably 10. So it's quite a quite short campaign. But afterwards, you get to play the game. But obviously, where you've kind of populate the board of all your stickers, everyone's board will be different when you play it. And I know there's an expansion piece as well, which kind of, I think adds to the campaign once you've completed it. Yeah, so that kind of tackles that. All boards being the same as well, because your legacy boards gonna be different to everyone else's. And then you can obviously play through it still, with the vault cards, which you kind of draft as well. So yeah, it's got enough variation from the other clanks to make it actually really, really good. So we thoroughly enjoyed that.

Adrian: 6:29

I've heard good things. Yeah.

Davey: 6:31

Yeah. I know what they're doing with a with a deck building game, then they do. Yeah.

JP: 6:39

They got that down to a tee and solid design. Fun. Yeah. And I suppose. Definitely, you can lose that game countless times and not care, especially crying. Yeah.

Davey: 6:51

Every time I play if you go first, I think it's a curse. You know, your, your cubes being pulled out of that bag. So

JP: 6:59

Yeah, and you score a big fat zero. Yeah.

Davey: 7:03

My score doesn't get

JP: 7:04

So I've been playing Clank in Space. Oh, my God. So know, I've been playing on surprisingly, Too Many Bones. Oh, no. I haven't played it for a while. I'll talk about it. 1t Yeah. And I've decided that the reason why I played it is many, many episodes ago, I mentioned that a new Gearloc was on the way before? Riffle? You remembered in Episode Whatever it was. And so I thought, you know, I gotta get Riffle, spin. And Rob. And me, have started a little mini Age of Tyranny campaign with it. Which is essentially like a seven game where you string them together and you can kind of take on tyrants, and you can take their time and dices loot, when you beat them. And kind of progresses a little bit like that. So I thought we'd give that a go. And yeah, I am absolutely loving and digging riffle. Riffle is, is amazing. So for those that don't know what the hell I'm talking about. I'm not gonna go into Too Many Bones. No, no, I'm not gonna cover that. So just listen to that, and you're golden. But Riffle specifically is a Gearloc. That comes with a 52 card deck. And instead of Hearts, Spades, and clubs and diamonds, you have bones, vitality, gears and eyeballs called Vision. So you have those four suits, and you kind of build the Gearloc skills up in a certain skill tree where you can play a card combo at the start of your turn. And it's your typical poker kind of start hands. So you can build or play, you know, to the same number of straight flushes, royal flushes, and all that kind of stuff. And they'll have different effects on the game. And he's just a really good versatile character. And because you can use vitality to heal yourself or others, you can use like gears to damage adjacent opponents. And you can use bones to collect bones for your backup plans. And then you can use the vision cards to kind of help seed more cards into your draw deck. So your 52 card deck is kind of split into two, you've got an active deck that sits on your mountain, you've got the rest of them kind of off on the way and you can only draw from the one on your map. But you've got mechanics that you can kind of swap cards from this deck and that deck and master around with the discard pile and get the right cards that you're after back into your hands. You can really manipulate the card combos that you play, but it's just so much fun. I thought it might be too much. But it's not. It really plays well. Kind of into the game. And yeah, it's just a load of fun.

Davey: 9:50

Lot of randomness because it sounds like a bit of a gambit. Hey.

Adrian: 10:00

I'mafrain that he's an X man. X Men person who throws cards

Davey: 10:10

Your sigh afterwards made that

JP: 10:14

Such a dad joke. Yeah, anyway. So that's that last kind of Riffle. What is cool?

Adrian: 10:21

And how's the campaign progressing?

JP: 10:22

We've done one, you've gone up against a tyrant or not fought before called Lock Gear. Right? He's been experimented on. And weirdly, he kind of travels with you on your journey. Very strange and you have to appease him. You have to do certain things all throughout the campaign to appease him and if you appease him it makes the boss fight easier. And the end up firing him in the end is a bit of a get like all tyrants on Too Many Bones. Yeah, it was quite fun, very different. Played a lot differently. So yeah, because I've got pretty much all the tyrants apart from Unbreakable ever made

Becky: 11:02

Ever. Wow,

JP: 11:03

They're coming. Then I've just done like a random seventh. And last game was the first one I'm saying. It's quite nice to play some new stuff. So yeah.

Davey: 11:12

Is question do you think you've bought individual expansions more times by individual purchases than you've played? No, no.

JP: 11:24

Because that's 73rd play.

Davey: 11:26

If I was that your 73rd Play of bones you mean? Yeah. Now you play it solo a lot. They've only done yeah, have

Becky: 11:34

73rd? Impressive. That's impressive.

JP: 11:36

I want to get the value down. 10 pounds? No, it's Yeah, somebody's trying to get to 100 game that's for next week.

Davey: 11:53

It's gonna be like Friday and Futurama when he has his 100 100 Yeah, Sunday JP is gonna send down the building and fly up into the sky.

JP: 12:01

He's played this game look at it

Davey: 12:04

Turns into a good luck and runs down.

JP: 12:04

Right, yeah. So that's, I spent a lot of fun. And very quickly sort of mentioned, you want to see how Riffle plays I've played on Gaming Rules. And we've gone through the Automaton of shale, kind of run through which is the pop up book thing. So check it out. It's good fun. You know, what I just mentioned it just to get the drinking game going? If nothing else,

Adrian: 12:29

Like what drinking game, but the drinking game where you mentioned Too Many Bones,

Becky: 12:32

What about you, Adrian, what have you been up to?

Adrian: 12:34

I think it would, I would be a lot if I didn't mention the fact that I've played War Room recently, having mentioned it on several episodes before. So for those who don't know, have mentioned it before, not as many times as JP has mentioned Too Many Bones, but I have mentioned it a few times. And that is it's essentially the spiritual successor for Axis and Allies. So World War Two big map pushing units around the board with your unit pusher, if you've got one definite unit pushers and and yeah, just fighting through the World War Two sort of scenario. So we played a North Africa campaign and also them played on Gaming Rules. The life as a live stream played the war in Europe. And it's a really good game. And you can see lots of Axis and Allies DNA, but it twists it enough that I was completely thrown and all the tactics I used on Axis and Allies didn't really work in War Room. So because normally in Axis and Allies you just throw units into a wall, like your Russia sort of thing, just constantly throwing people into it until one side's gone. You just can't do that in the War Room because you build up too much stress, which makes producing units and things like that much harder. So great game, but yeah, I couldn't quite get my head around it in the first couple of playthrough. So intrigued to play more of it. But yeah, it's really good. If you wanted to play through it's on the gaming rules. YouTube channel.

JP: 13:55

Definitely. Definitely.

Becky: 13:57

I've never kind of been drawn to games with a big map. I've played Risk. That's the only kind of near with that's got a big map. Right. But yeah, I don't

Davey: 14:12

I mean, most basic one, it's like the starter the gateway. Yeah,

Becky: 14:17

The thing that puts me off is it's already been done like a war has happened. So how do you not? How do you play it and not do the thing that already happened? Or do you have to do the thing that already happened? Like this particular battle, whoever won or whatever? Or is it is it

Adrian: 14:34

Is that on this particular instance, so Axis and Allies and War Room, gives you quite a blank slate to kind of do what you want. You have a preset position for sort of units and who owns what countries and stuff like that. But certainly from Axis, I haven't played enough War Room sort of say definitively but Axis and Allies Each nation has about two or three opening moves. And what your opening move will be will depend upon quite often the previous countries and what they've done. So it can it can differ quite substantially, especially from what happened in real life. Obviously, there's a lot of politics and sort of economic stuff that you don't bring into the War Room was it's just essentially fighting armies rather than all of that other stuff, which affected World War Two, especially in much more than sort of the actual battles did sometimes.

Becky: 15:23

So the Nazis could win for example. Okay, definitely

Davey: 15:27

It's not historically. Yeah, that's historically kind of inspired.

Becky: 15:31

Yeah. And that's kind of the thing that's put me off, it almost feels like it's kind of already written like the the ending is already determined maybe

Davey: 15:38

No, I think it's just a theme that they kind of like pick from.

Adrian: 15:42

Yeah, and it gives you as I say, there is some because you've got a setup to where everyone's at and who's allied with who and stuff like that, it does give you a basis for it. And quite often, some of your opening moves can be quite similar to the opening moves. That actually happened in World War Two. But doesn't have to be in quite often within a couple of rounds. It's, the board looks nothing like any point of World War Two. So. Now we are on to our main turn, where we are going to talk about real life skills that we've gained from board gaming, or that we think people can gain from board gaming, it's fair to say that we've all been in the hobby a little while. And we've probably all picked up skills from board games. So we thought we'd talk about that maybe you've got sort of similar experiences. Or maybe on the episode, you can comment and let us know about skills that you've learned. Definitely. Let's start with Becky.

Becky: 16:38

So my biggest one, I think, is dealing with failure, not just because I am a big old failure. Okay, you know, I don't know. But yeah, but that's only so prescient in my mind, because it's so rare. And normally, I think, I don't fail at much in life, because I don't tend to do stuff if I don't think I'm going to be any good at it. So it's really good practice. For me, I think, dealing with putting a lot of effort into something and spending a lot of time doing something, but actually not getting the most desired outcome. Because it isn't all about winning. You're absolutely right. But it'd be nice. Yeah, but I think actually, you can still have it teaches you that you can still have a really, really great evening with friends. But you don't have to win. Which is something I think if you'd have asked me five years ago, would you bother playing a game? If you didn't think you could win? I think I'd have said a big fat no, because what would be the point I'm not saying you have to win, but you have to think that you can. And I think that's important, I have to think that it is in the absolute vaguest realms of possibility that I could win. Like, if I No, I 100% will not win under any circumstances. And I think nobody would play with it. But I mean, it's pretty much high up there, especially if Kerley is playing, I'm not going to win. And I think that's a good lesson to learn that you can have a really good time and you can actually not make any mistakes, and still have a non win situation, you know, it does teach you that sometimes things just don't go your way. And that you just have to get over it. It's life. Yeah, absolutely. And I think maybe small children would have difficulty with that. Because they're like, Well, I did everything right. And it's still

Davey: 18:16

Because you rub it in their faces?

JP: 18:22

That's why my son doesn't play games with me. That's true, though. Like, you know, anything in life. And you compare that to board games a bit hard to compare life and board games, but the principles kind of similar, right? The same sort of thing is, you know, that's not always gonna go your way, how you kind of deal with it.

Becky: 18:41

I think it's made me more likely to attempt something, even if I don't think the outcome is going to be 100% favourable, which I think is a good thing to be able to do as an adult. Yeah,

Adrian: 18:53

I'm sure I'll learn that at some point. I must be perfect at this very quickly, or I'm going to not do it.

Becky: 18:58

Yeah. And I think I definitely feel like that that is my kind of base opinion on something. But I think playing board games and failing so often, not failing, though, but not winning , which is failing I guess, lets be honest. Failing so often is kind of made me realise you can still have a nice time and it's still fun. And maybe you might get better eventually one day or not, but you're still gonna have a nice time and it's okay you don't have to be

Davey: 19:22

A failure because you still enjoy failure.

Becky: 19:25

It's trying to remember that in a life situation where you think oh, actually, I might not win at this or whatever but as long as it's it's a fun either fun experience or someone's benefiting somewhere or whatever.

Davey: 19:37

I or anyone else dead No. So it's all good

Becky: 19:39

Not very good in my job, Did he die? No? It's fine then. It's a good threshold, it's a good aspiration

Adrian: 19:58

If someone was like, well, I need to learn this skill now from board games. What board games would you suggest they go and play that mentality

Becky: 20:08

Ark Nova? Boy, well, you can think what you know what? I've got a really good zoo going the cards or oh, what minus 50 Rubbish. And you can feel really deflated with that but Actually, you also you might be really good. You know, it might have flowed nicely, but someone just got loads of amazing. I don't know, sponsor cards or whatever someone's luck slash choices may have been better than yours, but yours were still good. Yeah. And then you get this punishing minus whatever. So I think that's a really good game to if you can manage to get your head around that hideous scoring that can teach you you know what, it was still good. But yeah, this is how this game works better. And sometimes you got to just pick the other things.

JP: 20:51

I think it's like games engine building when you've done a thing. Yeah, you produce something. You're very proud of it. And yeah, you can get to the end doing it. Yeah, I'll did it went No. Okay. But I don't care because I've built something really cool.

Adrian: 21:04

Or something different to the last time I played it or whatever, tried a different route and semi works.

Davey: 21:09

I guess carrot combo.

Becky: 21:11

Terraforming Mars is a bit like that, isn't it? You can spend ages making your your engine and then someone still comes along and just absolutely whips you with the score within it. But this worked really nicely. And it's okay.

Adrian: 21:21

I pop the most forests on Mars, why does it matter if

Becky: 21:23

I didn't win when I'm so ecologically minded?

Adrian: 21:25

The one I that sprung to mind for me when I was when you were talking, there was Spirit Island. Yeah, yes, definitely Spirit Island is punishing, but you're in it together. I think that is similar for a lot of co ops. But you're in it together, right. So you know, you're getting punished, the board swells with the colonists on the board. And you've got to keep that positive mindset in order to work effectively. And if you don't, and you start sort of getting in that in your head a little bit, quite often it's easy to miss moves. At the end of it, whether I've won or not. I always feel like I've had a good time at Spirit Island and I want to try a different spirit or try some extra different like the some of the nations or something like that and go on in JP,

JP: 22:08

I'm gonna go with dealing with confrontation. I am right now. I'm gonna do

Adrian: 22:15

Right now is absolutely what do you say about me?

JP: 22:18

So this isn't true for every board game, just you know, if I was listening to this thinking go on confrontation, I don't want to be confronted, but also in board games that will encourage confrontation and encourage to put you in those situations. And for me, I'm, I'm not someone that relishes confrontation, I don't generally enjoy it, or like it makes me feel quite uncomfortable in general life, like, you know, some people thrive off it, they love it. I don't know, looking at someone around the table, I don't enjoy it.

Davey: 22:51

I just see it as essential sometimes.

JP: 22:53

Yeah, it's like, it kind of puts me into a mode where I can feel the adrenaline pumping around right there and the heart's going faster. And and then, you know, don't don't like it. I just don't feel like I'm in control.

Becky: 23:06

You're one of natures harmonisers mate

JP: 23:09

Yes there are times that I've played games, mainly semi cooperative games, where you are put into these like sandbox environment, and confrontation is rife. And that's all you care about for the next three or four hours is you're having to deal with it. And in a way, I found it very helpful to be in those situations to take it outside of the game. So that if confrontation happens, I can kind of handle it a bit better rather than going oh my god, I don't like this thing. Well, I played I played against Davey play in Battlestar Galactica, I can do anything I can take take on the world and kind of stand up for myself a bit more. And in certain situations where people might just, you know, piss you off, or whatever it is, it's practice, isn't it?

Becky: 23:56

It's a practice of that kind of feeling that kind of adrenaline. Oh, this is yeah. And then being able to sort of put it down a bit and still go,

JP: 24:05

Because there's nothing quite like being called a Cylon every five minutes in a game. And then I've got three hours to deal with it. And

Davey: 24:15

I've rolled the dice of that honour.

JP: 24:17

You're either gonna throw the game by, you know, being baited, or you're gonna play cool. And yeah, it allows you to try certain strategies that are safe. I think that's where I'm going with it safe is controlled, and the end of the game. You've got no enemies, and it's all left in the game. Do you know what I mean? So it's kind of like a safe way to practice those. But

Davey: 24:35

I think there's always a time and place for isn't them if we've confrontation. It's not something anyone enjoys. I don't think but like say, say business sense. If someone's taking the mick and something sometimes it's required. Yes. And yeah, it is. And I know I can be confrontational, but I'm not. I don't enjoy it. I don't. It's but it's in the spirit of the game. It's why I enjoy it. If the games has it. I would, but I'm you know, I'm not it for no purpose. Yes, it's definitely. And that's why I think you're kind of saying there is a purpose for it. And it's kind of taught

JP: 25:13

Exactly, exactly. I'm not saying Oh, please don't be confrontational in a semi cooperative game because you just wouldn't be playing it not in this saw that you would want to play it and, and I think it's good that you do play it like that for the reasons that I've said, because it's helped me

Becky: 25:27

When really I think we're really good as a group to not take things. Like out of the game. Yeah. Mostly like, you know, if someone's had a confrontation with someone in a game because the game, you know, necessitates it or whatever, they don't then hold the grudge. And maybe they will the next time they play that game with that same you know, but but in a real life setting like that, if I agree with that. That's just me and my rose tinted glasses. We create a meta within our group. What were like, You know what,

JP: 25:59

Why did we always say that Tambo was backstabbed? Because he always was he always does.

Becky: 26:04

You'd be really surprised if we did it to you in real life, wouldn't you? Oh, yeah. It's not like so it's not like we're

JP: 26:10

Like he's gonna pick you up. And then he doesn't leave me stranded on the motorway.

Davey: 26:17

No, literally stabbed you in the back.

Becky: 26:19

He's a chef. He's got knives. Yeah, so I think although we probably are quite a quite a confrontational bantery group. I don't think like we all we're all friends really, you know, we're really looking forward to go into places during this event during the future, because we actually like each other. Yeah. Kind of allows you to be that kind of Heartless git in the game. Because you know, it's not going to be taken for reals,

JP: 26:46

It's like a virtual environment, you can be a bit of a knob and a dick, and it's fine. Yeah. And then you can kind of leave and go, that's fine. You know, and deal with it. I think it's helped me playing board games. In that sense, definitely. Because there have been times at work where I've had to be a bit more assertive, and be a bit more stand my ground on things and, you know, at the practice now, on the side?

Adrian: 27:11

What's your what's your real world skill you've learned from board games?

Davey: 27:15

So believe it or not, I'm gonna get for the other end, and go for to start with winning gracefully. So I was a very bad winner. And I'm not known for that in this. And I think it's one of those where winning and then being bad at winning can make people not want to play the game sometimes. Not that you're not that bad. We do tend to make you remember that bad. So it's taught me how to not try and not rub it in people's faces or be like, you just be like, well, that's, that's happened. We're moving on. And then you can try that kind of transpires to real life in the sense of, if you've done well, or something, you don't need to gloat or brag about it. And because it can put other people down. Yeah. So it's one of those that you can transpire. And it helps helps with kind of, say arrogance, but it's a check, isn't it this,

JP: 28:15

You're bordering into arrogance?

Davey: 28:18

That's not who I am or want to be like, and sometimes I think maybe because of that competitiveness, nature of mine that was spilling over, and it would seem that way. But I was just happy of the thing that I've done. But sometimes there's a time and a place for that. Like if it was with you guys, and it was after a certain thing, it would probably be fine. But from playing with a new group, then there's certain limits to it. Isn't that I think I've learnt how to kind of control that feeling. I think I go home like She goes, Well done.

JP: 28:59

I don't care. Like

Becky: 29:01

This is a thing because I don't think, if I ever win I mean like I say, it's so rare. Like one of Kerley's brothers says, oh, yeah, you always gloat about it. It's like, no, I really want to get that across. I'm not gloating. I'm really surprised. And I have to enjoy the fact that I've won. It's never at someone else's expense. I'm never running around going, Oh, you suck. You're rubbish. You're crap. I'm just really pleased that I won

Davey: 29:23

That's not what we were told the other day. Yeah,

Becky: 29:28

That's absolutely not true. I'm just like, yes. And it's never it's never with a tinge of I did it because you were crap. Yeah, it was. I just I managed to do the thing. The thing worked. Yeah. But it's not a you are sucking you were rubbish. You are crap at this. It's it's just surprise. And I feel like I want to do a little victory lap because it's so rare. But that would come across really bad winning, so I understand that that would not be good. But it wouldn't be because I was telling anyone else they were crap

Davey: 29:56

Exactly.

Becky: 29:57

So pleasntly surprised for once ever that I've won something

Davey: 30:01

And we never we wouldn't take that same time but there's there is banter about it. But it's it's just it did help me because I think I was a very bad winner. And then when I feel I do something it would transpire in that sense as well over to my personal life.

JP: 30:16

Yeah, it's a good it's a good one to bring up because it's kind of like In a real world settings when someone's done something really amazing or good. They just want to post it on social media. Oh, I'm amazing. Whatever it doesn't it I enjoy it. Have fun right? Don't have to rub it in everywhere like Yeah, yeah prepare yourself is all good.

Adrian: 30:42

I think it's a bit of a tough one to ask what game do you play to improve that skill? But I'll ask the question

Davey: 30:48

What game do I play to improve that skill? A game I'm anyway. pretty really good. Yeah.

Becky: 30:56

Maybe one's you win at the downfall of everyone else like really bad downfall, so it would be easy to kind of ... Food Chain Magnate

JP: 31:08

Food Chain Magnate never heard of it.

Davey: 31:13

I don't think I gracefully won that one, not one.

JP: 31:16

Now that.

Davey: 31:18

Isn't that bad. It's just when JP really hated it. I think that's when I picked up on it. But yeah, probably Food Chain Magnate. Because that one, you can be vicious to people. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it can be not. And if you rub it in their face, they would probably might go down crying. Yeah. No, I tried to pick you up on it. You could do learn to play the game. You could work. Yeah, it didn't work. You wouldn't get rid of I didn't want to play it. It was anxious.

JP: 31:46

It was percolating in my mind. Yes, actually. Yeah, I didn't know how to feel about it was like it just kind of sits in this weird space of I don't know, if I enjoyed it or hated it. I couldn't work it out. It's like an enigma. Yeah. And I settled on, I still want to play this again. Yeah. There we go.

Becky: 32:02

It's like reading a book, isn't it? If it if it hasn't gripped you don't make yourself spend more time reading it. You just got to cut your losses sometimes.

JP: 32:09

Yeah. What about you, Adrian?

Adrian: 32:11

So my, my one was, or is risk management and risk mitigation. This is a skill I already felt like had a bit of because of previous work roles and stuff like that. But it's something that you can learn more through board games. And it's something I've watched people learn through board games, especially sort of younger people who perhaps haven't had those life skills. And yet, I can see them actually working out what the risk of something happening is, or if I make this next move, what happens? You know, what is the risk reward? Is it a little risk with a lot of reward? Is it a lot of risk with a little reward? Which of those do I pick? All those kind of things I think board game is a lot of board games, especially like push your luck ones are quite often filled with those choices. And a lot of modern board games are specially designed to give you information like that to tell you what's coming up next, or what the odds are the one that immediately came to mind when I was thinking about this was Quacks of Quedlinburg. Yeah. So for example, for those who don't know, or haven't played it before, you're pulling tokens out of a bag, and they've got numbers on them. And they kind of fill up your pot, and you try and try to get as many numbers round as you can. But there are cherry bombs in there. And if you get seven value worth of cherry, but more than seven value worth of cherry bombs, your potion explodes. And you know how many oranges in there at any one time you are allowed to count how many chips are in the bag. So you're allowed, you're not allowed to see what's in the bag, but you're allowed to count how many there is. And you can see in your pot, how many white chips and what they total. So you can kind of go I've got five chips, left ones are three white ones are two white. And then there's three others, right? Okay, this is the risk, this is my reward for getting it, you can see how much victory points you're gonna get for getting the right one or the wrong one. And I've watched people of all ages and people who are new to board games and not so new to board games sort of get that quite quickly. And I think it's just uh, I think board games especially, are really good at teaching someone those skills and the probability and percentage. And, you know, if I pull up the cherry bomb out now and only go round one, it's giving me no extra victory points, because the next spot doesn't have any victory points on it, it's not worth it. Those kind of thought processes go on quite a lot, especially in like co ops where you're flipping cards off a deck that you've already seen, like pandemic or something that or you know, what the next five cards in the deck car, all those kinds of things really teach you basic basic risk management and you can learn a lot more from there. And obviously, in real world, you don't always know what the risks are or you you're kind of guessing a little bit more but it certainly gives you that basis of that skill

JP: 34:57

It atunes you I think

Becky: 35:00

On the flip side, if you're like a risk taker, maybe you can channel your risk taking to your gaming life rather than you know, in your real life.

Davey: 35:10

Yeah, they made me from gambling

Adrian: 35:13

I mean, ultimately in poker, or 21, or any of the sort of the big card games. Okay, you might have a five shoes you might have five decks In the game a 21. But there was a reason why card counting exists is because it helps you manage that risk, may not be liked by casinos. But it is a, it's a process that helps you understand the risk and the reward and what's potentially coming up for you. And yes, casinos don't like that, don't do it in a casino. But in a board game, it's kind of part par for the course, especially in a co op board game where certain people's roles are about, you know, understanding that risk, and some people are just going to sort of understand what actions people need to do and get people's buy in maybe for it, it gives you those different roles inside a co op game for sure. So rounds a second, everyone's second skill.

Becky: 36:01

My second one is basically you can always customise and adapt things better to suit you. There's always some little mini modification. And that might be changing your seat, it might be adding a bit of glitter on that little, you know, piece deciding, you know what I don't like how that's designed, I can do a better job than that. And making yourself you don't have to settle. You never have to settle. There is always some kind of improvement. And if you work hard enough, you can maybe find it, yeah, or you know, if your wallet is, you know, very full, you can go on Etsy and sort it out for yourself. But there's always some, you can always improve things and customization is always there. Essential? Absolutley. So you know that like so that could be designing better pieces. It could be if someone in your party is colorblind, and the designers haven't thought about that you can manage that and make it more inclusive, you can you can always improve something,

JP: 37:02

How do you take that into the real world?

Becky: 37:03

Well, don't settle, and don't just assume that because something's always been done this way? No, I'm going to change that form. I'm going to I'm going to just, you know, manipulate that slightly or different direction

Davey: 37:17

You're quite good with that design aspect of it. You like using the 3d printer and stuff like that. Yeah,

Becky: 37:21

Yeah. But I think it's because even as a child, kind of, although I've got siblings, I kind of grew up as an only child, because they're much older than I am. I was always making something I was never prepared to just accept the thing. I had to customise it in some way. That might have been when I was a very small child just writing my name on it, but you know, I have to improve, I can't just let it be. And if something's a bit broken, no, I can't have it. I've got to, I've got to, you know, fix it, or improve it or whatever. And I think that's a good kind of, you know, maybe some inspiration, maybe you can sometimes get in the way, like, you know, you just think just leave it as fine, isn't it? Yeah, I can't leave it. It's not just fine. So, make it your own though.

Adrian: 38:05

It's about looking for those opportunities, as you say, because if you don't look for them, you won't find them. So it's about keeping your mind open right to see those opportunities out there. Where there is improvement, there's just like, for some people, they'll see an opportunity and think that's not a big enough opportunity for me to put the effort in to change it. Where they might see another opportunity and and think there's enough reward for me changing it. And therefore I'll go and put glitter on it, as

Becky: 38:29

Yeah, I think from a real life perspective that I think you've said. like, if say, in the workplace, so my job now is about finding improvements that can be made for groups of staff, even tiny, little improvements, five tiny little improvements might still be a 5% improvement overall. So those very small little things that people have just gotten used to just dealing with and just is a bit annoying, it's a bit clunky, it's a bit whatever, you can kind of decide no, I'm gonna find a workaround for that. And I think that's, that's a useful thing to be able to do.

JP: 39:06

Yeah, I like that. So it's not all about making things prettier. But it's about efficiency as well.

Becky: 39:11

Yeah. Like, for example, the Terraforming Mars Ares expedition. It's got like a little mat that you put your pieces on. And it's really, really easy to move those pieces and knock them and I was like, Oh, that they could have done that so much better. All right, the 3d thing I printed and made doesn't fit quite right. So I should have really carried on designing it. But it works better than the mat, originally. So you know, put the pieces in little squares. Yeah. All right. It doesn't look nicer. But the whole point was, this is a really annoying thing. And instead of getting continually annoyed by it, every time I play, I'm just gonna do a thing that fixes it. Yeah. That's cool.

Adrian: 39:45

I think but I think so. A lot of board game companies Yeah, cuz I guess in a design process, they know some things are good at doing that as well, quite often. Sometimes they'll just reframe, and it's the same reprint every single time the rulebook hasn't changed, none of the cards have changed. But some aren't perfect. It's constantly evolving world. And yeah, you've certain publishers that are actually pretty good at making sure that they review the wording in their rulebook each time or the cards or does this actually needed dual-layer player board or something like that? And so you can actually see not just us as gamers doing it, because we just say 3d printing and, and sort of all that kind of stuff and even just buying stuff off Etsy that you think I need that different. It's not just asking the publishers quite often are looking at where they can make improvements without cutting too much into their margin. And what really improves the game. So I think it's like you can actually see through a lot of the industry. got to evolve with it.

JP: 40:40

That's why you got like, say kudos to people like, Ian O'Toole who many people just think he sort of puts a splash of colour on certain board games, but he actually looks at UI design, not just the artwork, he looks at the experience. So he looks at your player boards, he looks at the iconography and how everything's laid out, and thinks about it from a user experience perspective. So when publishers engage people like that, you always think, because it's always gonna be good. It's not just Oh slap it on.

Adrian: 41:12

Yeah, I agree. I still think a lot of people will look to improve a board game, whether it's a publisher or gamer, when they love it. Yeah.

Becky: 41:21

And it's just nice to do, isn't it? It's nice to make your copy yours. Yeah, for sure. Cool.

Davey: 41:27

Spill Rum on it. And then it's definitely yours

JP: 41:31

Davies tips on how to get games.

Adrian: 41:33

Just just enough so it smells? Not so much that it ruins the board game.

JP: 41:38

There's an awful Yeah. Yeah. I think I'm gonna pick negotiation. So why are you picking negotiation? Why? Because shut it down. Sounds good. I know, for me, again, like real world skills, you know, the job I do, I do project management or like, putting in IT systems and everyone's fallen asleep. But you know, I'm having to kind of be in situations where I have to negotiate with people all the time, whether it's negotiating their time to work on something or negotiating prices, with suppliers, whatever it might be, you know, negotiation is a great skill, I think, to have to understand kind of both sides of the pie, what everyone needs to go on to facilitate a means to an end. And boardgaming helps facilitate that no end, there's so many examples, the one that springs to my mind. And I call it the argument simulator, which is a game called New Angeles. And New Angeles is a game set in the Android universe. So the Netrunner universe, and it's essentially you all play as the corporation's having to sort of work together, but you're negotiating between you to get what you need. And it really teaches you those skills that if you can't negotiate, you're going to not do well at that game. And and I think, yeah, it's just a great example. We don't play it enough to be fair, but it's a great example to really kind of test you in that sandbox, like I said earlier about confrontation. But you know, what, what does know what does Davey want? What is he after? And what can I give him that means I can get that thing that I really need to help me or help? You know, this this thing I'm working on? And yeah,

Becky: 43:26

Negotiation's a politer way of saying manipulation, isn't it?

JP: 43:31

Manipulation is kind of getting someone to do something for you without any return. I would say, yeah. Negotiate. On one side button. Again, negotiation should be a thing that both parties feel they're winning. Yeah, I'm winning because I'm getting out. You're in winning, because you're getting why. But yeah, there's a line for manipulating but

Davey: 43:52

Boardgames have taught me how to manipulate.

Adrian: 43:57

Alright Smithers

Becky: 44:02

The game that springs to mind when you're talking about that is The Kings Dilemma.

JP: 44:05

Yeah, that's another great example.

Becky: 44:07

I loved playing that. It's so good. We haven't played it for ages. And I don't know if it'll ever come to the table again.

JP: 44:11

It's been over a year. Really? Yeah, I looked for the last day. Such a good idea, not just, you just need to put it back in.

Becky: 44:18

Yeah. So you're playing as a a house, a faction, a whatever with your own sort of vague aim. And cards come out. And basically whoever is the king at the time, you have to convince them to do one thing or the other thing, whichever it is that benefits you. And there is a constant. Yeah, there's a constant kind of like well, if you back me up with this one, I'll back you up when you need it. And yeah, there was quite a lot of negotiation and kind of making very tenuous alliances sort of just enough so that everyone's sort of a bit appeased Yeah, I wasn't very good at that.

JP: 44:54

Yeah, it is. I know I'm known for doing this in games though like Game of Thrones or Twilight Imperium is like you know, people are getting confrontational,it's like how do I throw them off the scent? How do I misdirect them into someone else. So you know, I'll kind of put up these suggestions and things into the game because I know it stirs the pot, but it also means

Davey: 45:16

That I was calling them out on it as well. Yeah. Yeah. If I can just like misdirect someone over there, then

Becky: 45:27

Manipulation negotiating over

Davey: 45:28

The last last T.I. game where you weren't? No, I'm gonna attack everyone I was at JP, we need to buckle down get get J because he is too big for his boots and you're like, No, no. And then JP gets wiped off the board That's where the power went to your head I think wasn't it? Yeah. Let's talk about your skill. Yeah. So I've got slight Well, I've got ADHD. So my time management is awful. And I found actually board games and this is really ironic, though, so you're not the worst, I'm not the worst. But this is ironic, because I was late today. But it was down to work. And there was nothing I could do about it. So it was one of those. But my time management has been a lot better since board games. And I think that is because it comes down to the planning aspect of board games. And it's a lot like chess, and you do have to plan your turns. But it's, you can't ever plan too much with board games, I find you can do a sequence or you've got kind of a lot more interaction with how your plans are going to work out. And you've got more agency over that. And I think that's definitely helped me with bit of time management have been Oh, so I need to do this. And then this and that was before he was just like random chaos, I'll be like, I'll be doing that.

JP: 46:54

And then that's my style.

Davey: 46:58

And then I need to go and then it's just panic, whereas now I've started actually planning stuff a lot more, and I'm a lot more organised. And I think the only thing that's changed might be age as well. Who knows but boardgames have been more integral in my life. So I think that has definitely helped because there's there are a lot of aspects in there about planning, management, what efficiency is it all that kind of all comes down to the same thing is, does help you with the management, that management side? I've just been rambling now.

Adrian: 47:31

I genuinely think it's a really good point in there is certain skills that you learn from a board game that teaches you to order your thoughts. Yeah. So you have to because you have to, you know, and I know I can be a bit prone to it, asking some others in our group, but AP, so analysis paralysis, is quite often when something changes at the last minute and it throws off that thought process you had either you just weren't paying attention. You were looking at your phone, and suddenly you've gone What, oh, it's my turn. But for the most part, it's that it's that ordering of your your mind and your thought process. But knowing that if something comes up, you have to change tact. And that's the same in life, right? You can, you can plan your day to the nth degree, but if, if the bus runs late, or whatever you kind of have, it throws you off your time management off slightly, but it's about how you recoup that.

Davey: 48:25

There's always gonna be a spanner. Yeah, there's always gonna be a spanner. So it's just how you then deal with that. Yeah, so maybe

Becky: 48:30

So Maybe it's how to deal with a bunch of spanners. I don't mean that you're a bunch of spanners. No, no, I mean, like, you thought you had the day organised. Something came along, at instead, you thought you had to do organise something came along, but now you're far more accustomed to having to go Alright, wait, no. Got to change this now. Yeah, rather than just like you said, being prepared

Adrian: 48:54

Any games that come to mind that have helped you particularly or?

Davey: 48:57

Probably and Mindclash game, anybody?

JP: 49:00

Anyone's like, you have to plan about 17 turns Yeah.

Davey: 49:04

And then yeah, then led me into the Lacerdaverse, and all the rest really any scene, it seems to quiet my mind of this heavy real planning? My mind I just go into focus to get anyone else's there? Well, they're saying,

Adrian: 49:21

So my second skill, I'm trying to find a way to name it. Essentially, it's rule books, and process manuals, and all that kind of stuff. So again, previous job, I used to write what's called operating procedures. So you're lucky. Yeah, I know. So standard operating procedures or something like that. And rule books sometimes follow this language. And sometimes they tell a story. And I think rule books have a tread a very careful line between telling you, right, this is the first thing you do this. The second thing you know, when you look at the setup guide, it's a process manual, essentially, it's telling you in order exactly what to do and how to do it. What it then does is lays out normally a rulebook will lay out a framework. And some people understand those frameworks. They read them really simply I think JP is nodding I think because he understands that some people read process manuals and process guides and these frameworks and pick up How to do that much clearer and quicker than other people do. And I think if you're going into a role or a job that requires that understanding of process and that understanding of how to read a process guide, and maybe not take it what know when to take your word for word, and when to understand it's just a guide, it's just like a rules sort of set, and how to lay that out is a really odd, but important part of board games. Because whether you're reading a rule book or writing a rule book, you have to understand who your audience is, who you are, you know, who you're aiming at how much information you need to give them at the front in the middle at the back of the like the rulebook, and all of those things are a really niche skill. I think a lot of people whether it's reading or writing the rule books, I think a lot of people don't have them naturally. And when I hear people say, like, you know, Becky, I don't like reading rule books. I think it's because there's that skill set that you've just never, you might find it boring, but I think it's that skill set of being able to read something and understand what's probably coming next, because of the way that rule book is written. And from a writing perspective, there's nothing worse than a badly done pop out box where it's put core rules into a pop out box or something like that. And I think that's because someone doesn't fundamentally understand the language of how to write process guides and how to effectively write a manual. And so yeah, I don't know really how to sort of put any clearer than, like, differently disseminate information

Davey: 51:57

Yeah. And I think I'm in the middle, because I find it when it's easy. I really enjoy it. Yeah, when it's well written. And that makes it easy. And then when it's really poorly written, I feel like if it's just information overload, or the rules are scattered all over the place, and I just can't seem to comprehend it Gaia project rule books is an example of that, then it makes it really difficult. So I do I guess, then, that can transpire over to the real world in the sense that is how easy you can pick up that information or how you put forward that information?

JP: 52:36

Absolutely. So is your skill more about the consumption of the information or the the way you educate others? So is it the way you kind of take? Yeah, it

Davey: 52:46

I guess you've got something really difficult. But

Adrian: 52:46

Was it was more around the consumption? Yeah, I think, again, there was, for me, I think writing is part of that is understanding how someone will consume someone in the know. So you look at a game like King of Tokyo or something like that, you're probably preaching to all the teaching people who are not very understanding of board games, the hands, that language and all that kind of stuff. Whereas you if you look at Twilight Struggle, or a even like a Too Many Bones or any Lacerda, they've probably already got a little bit of understanding of language. But that doesn't mean that you don't have to be smart about the way you give them information. And the same as when someone's reading it, they'll know that you front loaded if they're used to board games, they'll know that you've front loaded certain information, because of how important it is to the understanding the next steps. Whereas I think some people would skip over a large front load of information, not understand the importance of it you make that guide, easily digestible, then you can put through put forward that difficult thing. In a sense, that's a lot easier for people to grasp. Yep. And so there's kind of a lot of power there in that sense. And definitely rule books help kind of make or break some ballgames.

JP: 54:00

It's a skill. It's a massive skill to take a complex game and be able to put it in a way that you can read and go. Yeah, got it like that, like really quick. Live, you can do that. Kudos. Yeah.

Adrian: 54:26

Moving on to our fourth turn, which is Would You Rather so we've talked about skills, and I think it's fair to say now we've all proved that we've got the skills to pay the bills. So

Becky: 54:35

I definitely haven't even definitely not paying my gas bill with these skills.

Davey: 54:40

So bling it up.

Becky: 54:42

Yeah. Put glitter on it

JP: 54:44

Deal with the confrontation, or negotiation

Adrian: 54:49

Through a very tenuous link. I am now going to leave that to Would You Rather, which is board games can no longer be purchased with normal currency? Well, yeah, you have a choice of how you pay for board games like this already, which is you either have to have a one in one out so you always must get rid of a game so you'll someone will say oh, we want 40 quids worth of similar games or whatever and you have to hand those games. Game Over to buy it. So your board game collection is never really gonna get bigger or smaller in value, at least it's an equilibrium.

JP: 55:27

Okay, yeah.

Adrian: 55:29

Everyone is given a defined amount of board game time. And they have to spend a certain amount of their board game time in order to buy another game. So if you've seen the terrible Justin Timberlake film 'In Time' yeah, we're thinking of

Davey: 55:42

A great concept bad film.

Adrian: 55:44

Yeah, I haven't seen it. So I don't essentially will say that for every year. You have 1000 hours worth of board game time. It's probably too much for you haven't done the maths and, and someone will say to you, okay, the Ark Nova expansion is 30 hours worth of board gaming and you have to give up that amount of time in your year in order to buy that game. Oh, which one of these new ways of buying how much

Davey: 56:08

How much time would you get? That's going to be a big factor. How much time do you get 50 hours a year?

Becky: 56:16

I guess it depends, say the same amount of hours you play board games with now, you have to borrow some of that to get a new game. Yeah.

Davey: 56:23

So in order to one in one out. I'll do one in one out it's easy. Easy because then basically I can because I can choose when this one comes in one goes out Yeah, exactly. So I can play it and then new boardgame and shiny go on my shelf. Certainly. You gotta love it. Love it easy.

Becky: 56:42

You've already had Yeah, of course

Davey: 56:43

just wanting one out

Becky: 56:44

Okay. makes me upset to say one in one out but if you can go back to games that you've had before and like swapshop so like, you know, because if you find that didn't even our group generally there's like flavours of the month isn't there? Yeah, so maybe if you could always like cycle back to them

JP: 57:02

Find a loophole as well

Davey: 57:08

and also edit this so I'm now going to do one in one out. We're gonna edit this to say so then Kerley's gonna be like, oh really?

Becky: 57:19

Well if you can't cycle back this just makes me sad.

Adrian: 57:26

So you're gonna give up boardgaming time to buy another board game you get to play your board games less

Becky: 57:31

So it's got to be one in one out wasn't it? Oh boy if I just finally get good at something and then off it goes

Adrian: 57:38

You don't have to get rid of that one you've just got

Davey: 57:42

Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved

Becky: 57:44

I've got loads of games that I don't play so check them off straight off and just get some Yeah, there you go one in one out

Adrian: 57:51

Kerley knows now that you're happy with a one in one out policy early

Becky: 57:57

Did he send you this question? The setup listeners I've been set up and

JP: 58:03

Stitched up like a kipper, one in one out for me. Notice what I do now pretty well. Yeah,

Adrian: 58:08

That's what I do now pretty much as well. But these two I don't think do so much. So I was like

Becky: 58:13

One in, one in

Davey: 58:16

I don't play my boardgames enough to like change them over.

Becky: 58:18

You can't jeopardise your time with them because you're not getting enough time with them

Davey: 58:22

No, I just play other people's board games more than Oh, that's a good point. As long as we all play my board game because I like to put Gaia projects and go Well Gaia project could be play Brian, no really light menu like no one else does. As long as

Becky: 58:36

As long as we're careful with our one in one out, we always make sure that somebody's got the one and we've always got to

Davey: 58:40

Check out which ones

Adrian: 58:42

So that everyone's got rid of Dune Imperium

Becky: 58:43

I'm alright with that, it's fine but meh.

Adrian: 58:49

There's our would you rather

Becky: 58:50

I still feel sad that I've said one in one out

JP: 58:54

Tough, you've done it.

Adrian: 59:03

And on to our penultimate term, where we talk about what we're looking forward to what's coming up, what are we excited about?

Becky: 59:09

Oh, I'm excited to play Earth. Really excited to play tomorrow.

Davey: 59:14

Nice. I'm excited. Nice. Yeah, I would have liked to do that. But I'm in I'm in Little Italy. So not big Italy, not bigger to be nice, but it's always I'm excited about we're building the office and our garden and doing our garden up. And so I have a little place to, to work. And also hopefully, I'm gonna have a look for gaming table, a little hex gaming table in there as well. So that's why I'm excited about balls rolling and Yeah, exactly. And having a space out in the garden because that space doesn't get used. And there's like a soakaway in the corner where nothing will grow there because it's a soakaway and it's in the corner and gets the most sun but it's like this dank corner where nothing grows and it's kind of like yeah, we need to put some composite nice decking on that and put some nice furniture then it will look nice rather than looking like the where the wild things go.

JP: 1:00:09

Okay, insects habitats.

Becky: 1:00:10

The plants say 'no Davey don't put us in there'

Davey: 1:00:13

See me start sinking Gemma!! Really slowly, my hand reaching out.

JP: 1:00:17

Bog of eternal stench Oh, there we go. Now you talked Earth No, no, no, it's all good. When Adrian explained it many moons ago, I Yeah. intrigued me that game was like sounded very, very interesting. So I'm interested to get your feedback. Not soil, but stuff that looks like soil I can't play it

Becky: 1:00:35

I'm already intending to make some cool little components. I've come up with the idea already. Yeah, I've already come up with the idea of making my little soil components out of actual like stuff that looks like soil but encased in The kind of stuff that you would buy for a model railway. They're really good for like looking natural

Davey: 1:00:56

You could put them in little dog bag, little poo bags

Becky: 1:00:58

No! little resin tokens. Yeah, looks like a good chunk of soil,

Davey: 1:01:07

Which is gonna look like

Adrian: 1:01:08

It's tough, right? Yeah, differentiate between poops? Well,

Davey: 1:01:13

I'm gonna bring around my coop bag and start ripping little bit.

Becky: 1:01:18

I mean, my visions of how these tokens work might not actually work with the way they actually work. But after you've got this little idea, or they can open a little,

Adrian: 1:01:29

I'm hoping just so whatever you want to do with it. You can

Becky: 1:01:32

But you need to stack them, don't you? soil? Yeah. No, So okay, well, maybe

Adrian: 1:01:35

it's the there are growth. Yeah, the characters, but they already they're already little wooden blocks stacked on top of each other. That's what I've seen. Yeah. And the other thing I don't know if it comes from the retailer of additional size, like the Kickstarter edition of it was instead of little green cubes, they gave you little green chits. Sorry, chits cardboard to put on there, and I thought the first thing I would do is buy green cubes to replace it if it doesn't come with it. Yeah. That's yeah, there are certain How did you find Earth? You enjoy it? I really enjoyed it. Yeah, lightning really, really good. It's halfway between Terraforming Mars, sort of maybe Ares expedition, or something like that. And Wingspan.

Becky: 1:02:19

See? It's got my name all over it.

Adrian: 1:02:23

Yeah, so I really enjoyed it. I'm still unsure if I want to buy it. But every now and again, I'm like, Cool. That's gonna go to soon again,

Becky: 1:02:32

There's definitely one in the game group. And we are hopefully getting our copy soon

JP: 1:02:36

Yeah, plenty of copies around to play

Davey: 1:02:39

Unfortunately, I can't play it. So I'm looking forward to when I can. Yep. So

Becky: 1:02:42

JP,

JP: 1:02:43

I two things I'm excited about. First thing is there's announcement, or, and I can't remember where I saw it. But Martin Wallace has got involved with the fighting fantasy books or fighting fantasy adventures. And I've instantly just been transported back in time when I read the Death trap dungeon and House of hell. And I thought, Oh, I might just go and buy those. So I've bought them. And they're on the way and I'm going to relive my youth and play through you're going to need more detail about what these are. These are Choose Your Own Adventure book. So basically, you're, you're like, you know, you're the hero. And you're like, why do you want to go through this door that door get to page 67? Or page eight if you're dead? That kind of thing? Yeah, but how some how specifically, I can even picture it. Now the dude on the that kind of greets him to the house. And he's really creepy look in his own. He's like wearing this big smoking jacket. And he terrified the shit out of me as a kid. And so he bought it for me and Josh to play

Becky: 1:03:53

Terrify your child.

JP: 1:03:55

It's like an impulse thing. I did not even expect to to get it. And I thought you know what, I had such a blast with these. And I think my son would also love them

Adrian: 1:04:03

I would say about the age your son is now Yeah, and I remember being in school library and it shows you how I think also tells you how important librarians are. We're I don't know, but I remember us hanging out. And like the librarian. They're going, I think you'll like this showed you like literally at the deathtrap dungeon book. So I must have been through every single possibility and permutation of that dungeon.

JP: 1:04:30

Did you map it out as well? No,

Adrian: 1:04:31

No of course I didn't. He did in his mind. But I certainly was sort of Yeah, okay, if you go down this way again, and I remember this one, I'll take the left turn this time because the right turn didn't work out and all that kind of stuff. And yeah, a great books.

Davey: 1:04:44

Then moving on to some of the goosebump one. That was my age, Goosebumps did their own Choose your own adventure books as well

Adrian: 1:04:55

I was thinking that's a weird connection to make. But if they made their own choose your own adventure.

JP: 1:04:59

Yeah. So inspired by it. Yeah. The second thing I want to talk about why I'm excited for is the 24 hour boardgame marathon. Awesome.

Becky: 1:05:08

Super excited for this, it's gonna be amazing.

JP: 1:05:12

Like for me. It's my first one and I'm doing a live stream.

Becky: 1:05:15

You're hosting it aren't you?

JP: 1:05:17

Well, the live stream. Not saying I'm hosting the event, I'm doing a live stream But and that's yeah. You alright mate?

Davey: 1:05:25

Just Becky saying you're hosting, you're like, no

JP: 1:05:32

Yeah, that's gonna be really, really exciting. I can't wait. And that's my first time and you guys went last year.

Becky: 1:05:38

Yeah, it was amazing. Yeah, we did. We were there the whole time you were there.

Adrian: 1:05:42

Yeah, I was unfortunately very unwell. And taking some crazy medication at the time. So yes, yeah, I was there for a handful of hours of which I remember very little of it in hindsight. But yes, I remember, what I do remember is having a great time, and you actually still there. I still remember like, this is just Ian winning the raffle prize. So obviously, we all bought raffle tickets. And Ian, one of the some of them were educational games. Yes. Yes. And I remember Dan going, Oh, it's math. Math or something? Ian jokingly, oh, yes, that very well known board game of math and then got his name called.

Becky: 1:06:25

I gave that to my friend for her children. She was very thankful on it. So somebody, even though Ian didn't want it,

Adrian: 1:06:31

There was so many good prizes on your mind. Obviously the cause that it's for having some educational games and some kids games in there. It was absolutely on point. But yeah, Ian mocking it, and then immediately winning it, just highlights the

JP: 1:06:43

Chef's kiss moment. Yeah, for anyone who doesn't know, it's basically a charity event. And it's for Cots for Tots in Bristol. So it's just for an amazing, amazing cause. And like I say, it's a 24 hour boardgaming challenge. Who doesn't want to play board games? 24 hours, right? 100%? So yeah, it's literally gonna be running, you know, from 9am to 9am. Go Go, go. Keep awake, do what you can, and hopefully get some sleep at the end of it. Also, I'm raising money. So but we'll put all the details in the show notes. So you can check it out. But if you fancy the challenge.

Davey: 1:07:17

I mean, we'll be interested in copious amounts.

Adrian: 1:07:22

Even if you just want to pop alonfg for a couple of hours. Yeah. play a few games support a good charity, whether you want that or whether you want to go for the full 24 hour challenge. It's all worthwhile. No pressure is there. Have fun.

Becky: 1:07:34

And even if you can't actually be there in person, you can watch the live stream, which will be hosted by the lovely JP,

JP: 1:07:41

And we're going to be on our way. Yeah, we're gonna have our own little slot on the live stream. I might do a live episode oh God is gonna send me into to shivers doing a live episode.

Davey: 1:07:50

It'd be fun. Hopefully, we'll get you guys interacting as well. Yeah,

Becky: 1:07:53

Yeah, there's a continual chat thing isn't Yeah.

JP: 1:07:57

Yeah, the moderated chat. I'll be on that as well. Just keeping an eye on things. So yeah, can't wait.

Adrian: 1:08:05

If I go into the chat and swear,

JP: 1:08:07

Then I'll just say thank you. What are you looking forward to it?

Adrian: 1:08:17

So I am hoping to get dominion to the table. So one of the original card builders, deck builders, and I've played it way too many times. But I've pretty much only played the base, and the first three expansions, which are Intrigue, Prosperity, and Seaside not in that order I actually bought I decided I was going to try something different. Buy one of the additional expansion. So I've just bought Renaissance actually, a couple of months ago now but hoping to get that to the table again soon. So this one adds, it adds some of the seaside stuff, but it also adds like locations that you can purchase that give you little bonuses as part of your... you can only buy cards as part of your buy. This gives you a location that you can buy. And then you get a little bonus and it also gives you some artefacts that sort of, if I buy a card, that gives me the flag artefact that does something, then it comes to me and then you can do you can play a card as well. And so these artefacts move around the boards, it's not just about when you're what you're playing, it's also about making sure you're buying and trashing cards that give you that artefact as and when you need to. So it's a really interesting wrinkle that I'm sure plenty of people who have played Dominion have come across before, but I'm really excited to try it. I'm hoping it's going to put a bit of a new lease into a game that I've really enjoyed and I still enjoy but perhaps I've got a bit you too used to and I've kind of understood what's in the game and because I've only played the expansions for know this I've had the base game my old gaming group used to play Prosperity a lot and I've got Intrigue and Seaside

Davey: 1:09:50

I've haven't played any of the expansions but I always really enjoyed the base game. So it's one of these I would like to play it the others but none of our group kind of has it. The base is really good

Adrian: 1:10:01

If someone is looking for a recommendation, seaside for me is an absolute brilliant first buy. So adds a duration power. So you play a card this term, you stick it on this bit of cardboard which essentially says it's a duration card and then normally either gives people or other people like a downside for that. gives you a bonus when it gets back round to you. But then it goes in your discard pile so you're not getting it through your deck as often because it's staying out. And so I would always recommend that and renascence came with more of that, which was one of the reasons why I picked it was because I was I like that and I wanted to try some more stuff. So yeah, that's what I'm excited for. I'm hoping it's gonna give me something new for game I've played a lot of

JP: 1:10:40

Yeah, definitely. Sounds awesome. I'm looking forward to playing a bit more I've only played it once as well. So yeah, we'll play that.

Adrian: 1:10:48

Play like four or five rounds in an evening. It's a real quick game to get through once you've understood the basics of it.

JP: 1:10:54

Is the is The deck builder.

Becky: 1:10:57

Maybe I should read the rulebook. And maybe I'll learn it. I will try it. When

Adrian: 1:11:01

I'm sure we can get the game in at some point, I've taught it plenty of times.

Becky: 1:11:05

I'll sack the rulebook off. Yeah, just don't just yeah. Cool.

Adrian: 1:11:12

So we're now on to our final turn. So with that, we're done. We're about to wrap up. Count final points. Congratulate Becky on her win. Win.

Becky: 1:11:23

And I'm not gonna I'm not gonna crow about it because that was something that we brought up. So everyone, we all had really good turns. Yeah,

Adrian: 1:11:31

Thank you everyone for listening. If you've enjoyed the show, please like subscribe and review on your podcast player of choice. If you think someone else would enjoy this podcast, please feel free to mention it to them give them a recommendation. Yeah, see if they like it too. Maybe they might fall in love with our our little podcast

Davey: 1:11:49

Me

JP: 1:11:49

Definitely not you!

Adrian: 1:11:57

If you want to get in contact with the show, we are on Facebook Instagram, Tik Tok BoardGameGeek or via email all of the details will be in the show notes. So please look there if you'd like to get in contact with us, we love when you interact with us on any of those things. And we're having a conversation with you guys about that what we've been doing what we've mentioned on our podcast

Davey: 1:12:15

And any of their life lessons maybe that they've learned from boardgames.

Adrian: 1:12:18

Yeah, we'll be back again in two weeks time So until then, whose turn is it anyway?