TURN 1 - Player Count
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[Music]
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Welcome to Whose Turn It Anyway, where we have Rosie Pocket from Cozy Board Games joining us with a tote bag full of
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cozy board game dreams. Welcome to the show, Rosie. Hello. I have a tote bag,
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apparently. Where is it? I just made it up in in the podcast dreams. I have many. So I have many tote bags.
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I thought you might right here. After my own heart, Rosie, I've got a collection, too. And here we go.
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They're more forced upon you, but like you're like, "Oh, thanks. Have it. Have my tote bag." Um, and also
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say no. No, you can never say no. But also, we have Becky, uh, the coziest of I say of them all, but of us. Definitely the
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coziest of the Who's Term podcast team. Um, so welcome again, Becky. It's good
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to have you here. Thanks. So, Rosie, welcome to the show. Really, really pleased um you come on and joined
TURN 2 - Introducing Rozie
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us this evening. And uh yeah, we we kind of met Well, we met at UK Games Expo
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very briefly and uh we're doing a bit of Andromeda's edging, if we call that. Yeah. Was that last year?
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No, that was Well, it was last year. It was last year, wasn't it? Yeah. 2024. I get confused with them all. They all
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blend into one after a while. But yeah, we we briefly met then and then um I think we had a a game together very
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recently on on Andromeda's Edge Genesis. Um yeah, we seem to have a pattern where it's just that game.
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It seems to be that game which is the probably the most nonziest game that is,
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but it is what it is. But um but we'll get we'll get more into that in a bit. But what I'd like to know and I'm sure
How did Rozie get into the hobby?
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our listeners would like to know is how you got in the hobby. What started it all? Was it something you've always been
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involved in or did something just a catalyst happen and then hurrah you're here? No, I didn't I didn't like board games
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as a kid. My brother's a bit of a jerk. Um and he doesn't play nice.
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Nice. He's he's better now. Now he lives in another country. Um but um we we are we
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are better now. But he used to make up rules and Yeah. create things. And I never liked some of the games. The only one I like was like
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Labyrinth or Great Game of Britain. Yeah. Um and then uh age 20 23 I met
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Doug who's my husband now. We've been together for 12 years. Yeah. And um when we got together he liked
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board games but he didn't have many. He had Betrayal, House on the Hill, Cards Against Humanity.
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Yeah. Katan. And our friends were were in they worked in the video game industry so we were
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aware of stuff. But I just remember like falling asleep playing katana with eight people. Just like literally I would fall
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down the back of the sofa like this and get up and go, "Is it my turn?" Because I've been cordoned off. So I couldn't do
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anything. I was completely trapped. There was no numbers for me. No sheep for Rosie. No sheep.
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No sheep. No nothing. Nothing. So I was just like, "Uh-huh. Okay, I'll just do
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nothing. That's it." Um, and I did enjoy Trail House and House. Some great games of Trail House and Hill. Yeah. But it
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wasn't until he asked for Christmas and his birthday. They're very close for uh Dead of Winter and Small World.
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Mhm. And so I bought them for him. And then for Christmas, he bought me Takoka. Oh, okay.
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And I love that game. I didn't ask for a game. I didn't It could have backfired heavily on him. I
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could have been like, "Dude, don't buy me a bowling ball like Mark Simpson." Yeah. Um but like uh I did I didn't like I was
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totally up for it and I played it boxing day with him and I did this thing where I just went into hyperfixation mode and
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found five meetups in London where we could go and play. Wow. And I was like Doug there's all these
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games. Did you know there's all these games? And he's like yes I I was buy all these games. Um and so we joined um couples and board
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gaming in London which no longer exists and that's our fault and I won't explain why but it no longer exists. Ooh,
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intriguing. No, honestly, it's so boring. They just they just slowly they just slowly disbanded and we went, "Well, we're not
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going to take over. It cost money and it just just fell apart." But we did make a bunch of friends at it. Um, uh, some
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really close friends that became like our gaming group. Um, and so yeah, we we
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played a bunch of Secret Hitler. We played a lot of because it was like eight people and back then we didn't
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have that many eight player games that you could really like. We played a lot of Jackbox, played a lot of stuff like
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that. But it was a lot of fun and and very quickly we had a 2 by two calax with 50
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games and all that stuff. And this was 10 10 years ago. So it's it's been a
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hobby that's kind of ebbed and flowed. Sometimes we had times when we didn't play at all. We couldn't meet up with friends. They
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had kids. Loads of stuff happened. Um so yeah, but it's been uh you know, I've been going to the Yuki Games Expo
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for 11 years apart from when COVID happened. Wow. So I've been I'm I'm a serious serious
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board gamer. you are 11 years. I mean I my first one was what 2017 2018
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something like that and then we had the COVID hiatus in the middle um for only one year off wasn't it? So
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it was only one year off but I had two for reasons. I can't even remember why I didn't go to I can't I can't It was all a blur. The
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same hall every year. It's all a blur. Yeah. Yeah. They are very similar. Apart from last year or not actually last one
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was the one that's like refreshed it for me. It's gone like this is all new. I like it.
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Yeah. Really, really, really loved it. It was good fun. Yeah. What's been some of the biggest changes do you think then, Rosie? If you've been
What has been the biggest changes to UKGE over the years?
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going that long, how have you sort of seen how have you seen it change? Board gaming in general or the Yuki
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games? Well, the UK GE specifically, but yeah, board game. Big big subject like, okay. Um, yeah.
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So, Yuki Games Expo, obviously scale, that's not really um surprising,
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although it's been really incremental. I would say that a lot more variety of game types. The first times I went, I
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would have seen that there was, you know, a lot of war games, a lot of um
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but still like loads of I mean 10 years ago was around the time that big boom happened. I was part of it. We all just
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I've had friends go like, "Oh, games are only been good in the last couple of years." And I go, "Name some games." And the games they name are about 10 years
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old. 2016. Yeah. Yeah. Like, "Oh, wait, that's that old." I go, "Yeah." Um there was like giant
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there was still first time I went there was like giant seven wonders and giant carcass on so I
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do remember that and they kept a lot of the integrity of the show I think by keeping a lot of that sort of
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giant games and things going on but it's just I feel like I love seeing all the tiny creators and I'm glad that that's
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stayed but there's more of them now more variety of sellers there's a lot of like if you do like Dn Desque stuff they
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get in um but I don't It's just I mean there's like over 5,000 games made every single year. So it just I think it's
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just like you're going to see more variety like the the the scale from party to
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like solo is going to completely keep spreading. Um and uh yeah I mean also
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like I think we're going to get like genon where we get really experimental with our boots. Yeah. We got have a lot more fun with them. We
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go two tier, you know, maybe one day we'll go two tier. We need a lift to get up. It just actually
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Oh, but yeah. So, like I feel like we're going towards becoming like even even
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bigger. It just depends on what that costs in terms of uh the sort of the community that we
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have is so lovely. It's like how do we sustain that? So, yeah, it's not my job. So, take that out. No,
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but I I still love it. It's like a holiday to us. So, um it's a lot of fun. Obviously, it's been a bit different since becoming some
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kind of creator in the space, but a recognizable creator in the space.
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Yeah, it's it's it's definitely a strange feeling. It's lovely. It's just very different now. And what you what I
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do at the event has changed. Sure. But yeah, like not not drastically. I've
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always been very chatty, so that it's all good. No, I love it. I love it. Um, you know, I love Aircon as well. Only that for a
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few years, but that's not fun. Mhm. Uh, and I'm going to pack some plugs uh this year.
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Nice. For work. We got a our first ever booth for carbon alchemy. And I'm also going to Essen uh next week.
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It's coming up, isn't it? It's getting closer. Me, too. I've been I've been working on Muckl. You going as well? I'm going. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Third.
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Third year. This will be for me. Third year. Yeah. This is my third year. Yeah. Yeah. I said I wouldn't go every year.
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You did, didn't you? I remember that. Yeah. And and we went the first year. This is amazing. and I love it. And then
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I thought, no, let's let's have a year off. And then I started instantly get FOMO the day I left for the first one. I
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thought, no, I've got to book my hotel. So, I ended up booking. This is the first year I'm going to be organized. Uh the first year I went on
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my own. Yeah. Doug came for like a couple of days and I was demoing Critter Kitchen and I was on Lucky Duck Games' booth as cardboard
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alchemy. It was just me because we were about to launch so I was like, I'll go do some demos, all that
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stuff. Um, and then I got half days, but I was so overwhelmed by the event, I
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just went back and de did more demoing. I was like, actually, don't know what to do. I'm I'm safe here. Uh, the next year I
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felt more prepared. And, uh, we again did half days because we were showing Andromeda's Edge,
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Luke, Lori, and like his big demo team, and it was a big thing. Whereas this year, we're just going,
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we're going we're not we're not boothing, so we're just gonna go. This is my first time to like properly do it.
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and we've got meetings, we've got some stuff we've got to talk talk about to different different
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parts of the industry. But for the most part, as commerce manager, I get to I get to comms I get to com this stuff,
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which is which I get to get to chat to people and make connections. That's the fun.
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Yeah, it's the fun. I'm excited. I'm excited. I got a lot of games on my Essence like uh BGG preview
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list. I've been whittling it down and it's at 55. Wow. Um, but not not to buy, just to
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look at, I feel like that's an achievable number. Yeah. Just to like feel like if I see 55 games
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and have like a look. Yeah. I'll end up with about maybe 10 to 15
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demos, I hope. So, yeah. Yeah. Fingers crossed. Oh, you'll be fine. You'll be good. You'll have fun.
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I'll be fine. And then there's Doug's List as well. Yeah. Is there much crossover?
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Yeah. Yeah. We have very similar interests. We're like a ven diagram. Like there's games where it's more me,
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but he has his Unmatched, which I still enjoy. I don't dislike Unmatched, but he's very much into Unmatched and um
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Tales of the Artheran Knights and uh I just played Fate of the Fellowship and I
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completely changed my opinion on it. So, we do have some um things that flip. Uh but we we you know, end of the day, we
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play together and he plays solo a lot of the time, but if they don't work for both of us, it just doesn't work. Yeah. Because
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what's the point? Because otherwise they don't get played, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly nice. Um, but uh but yeah, there there's a
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fair amount of crossover. Yeah. So, I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you a question that's probably impossible to
What is Rozie's favourite board game?
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Well, for most people it's impossible to answer, but I like to ask it anyway, which is 42. Yeah, I thought so. I thought that was
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the answer. Damn. It's the secret to the universe. Um, it's it's basically if we
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ask people what their favorite game is, and I know usually the answer is Oh, you do have one cuz some people goes, "Well, it depends on my mood or it
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depends." But some people like bang, it's this. So, I'd like to know. in here. It's in the It's It's Rail Railroad Ink.
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Railroad Inc. favorite game. Classic. Is it the classic Railroad Inc. or is it
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the one with the challenges? Cuz there's like is there two versions of it? I mean, the one that we got the first
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there's there's there's this four. Oh god. Yeah. They did var challenge and
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then there's loads of expansions and then they did rubber tiles recently. I kind of all encompass the challenge in the ones because I rarely include the
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expansions. Yeah. Um we mostly play it base game and challenge you can play base game. And
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they did release made it the most. And yeah, they had loads of dice, didn't they? I remember when they did the
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campaign ages ago and it's like, yeah, there's so many expansion dice you can find. The mini ones. Yeah, they're only little.
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I've got them all. I recently had a horrible guild reach out to me because I've been for a few
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years. I've been running cozy ball games for three years. And I don't do any of it for a job. I just do it for
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fun. But every now and again I think like what companies would I love to know that I like their games to be like I like their games and Horrible Guild have
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just not even noticed that I'm like this is great. And then they uh they um they
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finally emailed and I went I've done it Doug. Horrible guild know I've landed it.
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And then and then they said what can we send you? And I went I've got it all mate. They've got to
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I'm just happy that you know. Yeah. But yeah, so uh and I love Railroad Tiles. Um I really really like
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it. Uh it's a really fun spin on it and we love train games and stuff like that.
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So it's just for me I think people's favorite games they've got their like fake favorite
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games where they wish they could play them more and then they've got the games that they actually play. And for me, like,
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yeah, obvious obviously I could be saying Flamecraft, and I love
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Flamecraft, obviously. That's why they hired me to talk about it. Um, but I rarely get a chance to play it
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unless it's work now. Yeah. So, it's kind of I can't really say it's my favorite game. Feel really biased now.
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Uh, but my top, they're my top games. And then I've got, you know, Everell, but again, I rarely get to play Everell.
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Like, it's so big now. It's so big. Sounds familiar, right Becky? Sounds familiar. Absolutely. Yeah, the uh the
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big box is sat up there. Can't see it. And they're up there in my favorite like my top 10. Absolutely. But if I was to
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be like right now, drop everything, play a game, it would be Railroad Ink because we
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could. Yeah. It's really satisfying, isn't it? Railroad Ink. I like that. Yeah. You feel like you've achieved
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something at the end of it. I really Or not and gone, nah. Cuz it's just not
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one of Adrian's favorites, isn't it? It's one of Adrian's favorites. It's like because it's the Roll and Wright style game. It's that cross word
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vibe like you know I'm sitting down for 15 20 minutes and I'm saming a game and it's just completely relaxing and you
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know if it goes well it goes well. If it doesn't it doesn't you just play again cuz it's literally 15 minutes. Exactly. And we've played it on trains,
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we've played it on planes, we played on everything. Uh we take it with us
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everywhere, you know. I feel like um the only thing I've wished Rar Tiles was was smaller. I just feel like
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the size of Railroad Ink is so perfect. But um it's kind of a running joke that it's my favorite. Pety Haywood, designer
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of Things He Rings and co-designer of Pretty Kitchen. Yeah. Always tells everyone it's my least favorite game that Rosie hates
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railroading because it's just this running gag that I like it so much. But like, you know, I've got I think
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also I think everyone has like a favorite movie that they just say. Yes. And it's just in my head I go that's my
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number one. Yeah. There are games that could it could pivot one day because I've had some great games this year, but
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it's hard to like the memories attached to it and the like uh the the way the way that it
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is, it would it would be hard. Yeah. Hard to fix it. Means means a lot. Means a lot. No, it's great. Means a lot. Yeah. Now I have 15
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versions of it. Yeah. So just bring out more versions. It's fine. Um
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yeah, I have no issue with that. Fair enough. Fair enough. Um so what games have kind of been hitting your
What games have hit Rozie's table?
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table lately? And obviously railroad ink constantly hits it. But what what else is that you've been really enjoying lately?
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Um I've been playing So I got it very recently. I play a game called Cozy Stickerville.
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Cozy Stickerville. It is uh it was sent to me from Office Dog, but I think it might be through
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another company. I'm not sure. Um they all connected. It's like Asmo Day. Okay.
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Um and it is like Stardew Valley um with stickers. Oh,
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so you've got like a board and it's got little markings on it. Yeah. And you start off year one, you flip
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over these cards and it's co-op, so together you're working together to build out this this farm and this story. You flip over a card and it gives you
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like pick option A or B and then you read the result and it will tell you to stick something on the board or to read
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a part of the story. And so as you're doing it, the stickers will be applied
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to the board like um charter stone, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Best example. Um, but what I like is
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that it'll be like, "Would you like this mad scientist to move in all these lumber people and I'm just like, "Oh,
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100% the mad scientist." Sad science every time. Yeah. So, and then sometimes I've had to
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like cut down trees and stick things over them and like the decisions you're making, you're altering the board. So,
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that's cool. Uh it's it's really it's really I was not I was not sure what to expect but um I think it's what people I
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love one I will say I love Sard Valley the board game but I think people expected from it a lighter game
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and it's a big heavy game like it's well it's it's just a big game a lot
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going on it's not hard to learn it's just what I feel like the people that wanted that lighter version this will this will
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help so um but it's really it's really cool and it's funny it's got a bit of aense sense
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of humor. Yeah. Um and yeah, it'll be like, "Do you want to just stay in bed all day or do you
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want to do do a job?" I'll stay in bed. Cool. You get nothing. Stay in bed all day.
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Um yeah, I love that. Um I've been playing there and back again, which
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is basically Railroad, Inc. Lord of the Hobbit.
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That sounds like a crossover and a half. It was made for me. like they were just like clearly this is what Rosie
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want your game this is my game you've manifested it by imagining this amazing game and then when I got it I was like I
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can't even we're so we're about to do golems bits it's a book there's like a drawing you draw into the book just like with
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Railroad ink yeah each page is like a chapter of the book broken down into I think 10 chapters so
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you've got like the beginning when all the dwarves are arriving and you got to feed them to making pathways for them to get to the front door but you also want
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to get enough bread to feed them before they arrive, otherwise you get less points. Then it goes into like you're
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walking and you got to like avoid uh thunderstorms and stuff and then getting
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perfect root sections. Then there's things to fight and there's swords and stuff. And then the golem puzzle one,
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you roll a dice and it creates polyomino shaped pieces that you have to fit in to solve riddles. Yeah.
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But it's really it's really clever. Like it's really cool. It's really cool. The art is really really nice. It's
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really good. Yeah, that'll that'll be a Essen, I think. Okay, that's that's definitely Office Dog. We were the same people that did
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the trick taking games for Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring. The longest name game we've ever had.
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Lord of the Ring. Wait. Yeah. Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring. The trick taking game. Yeah. Yeah,
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that one. Yeah, it is the longest. We still haven't played it yet, but I'm excited.
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Yeah, I really like it. It's really good. I I sat down to play that game. Not excited to play it. Right. I I like
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Lord I like Lord of the Rings. I'm not like a massive like super fan of the IP, but I have watched it and I love the
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films and stuff like that. Curly Becky's husband is a massive Lord of the Rings fan. Like he he is Mr. Lord of the Rings
19:25
in our podcast group. Um but for whatever reason I don't cuz has he played it yet?
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Neither of us played it. We wanted to play it the first time with someone who already knew how to play it. So just kind of get them to teach us instead of
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having to put any effort in whatsoever. We sat there easy. Yeah. It's so simple. We sat down, we
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played it, and it was like, "Oh, okay. This this doesn't sound like there's much in this game." And then literally by the end of the first game, we were
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all shouting like, "Yeah, we did it." It's beautiful. The artwork looks
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absolutely beautiful. It takes what the crew does and just makes it better. It's just I
20:00
I'm more invested in in that trick taking game and winning and losing than I was in The Crew. It just The crew kind
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of annoyed me. See, I I I didn't like trick taking games for a long time
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because of the crew. I was like, I don't like this game. I don't care. Yeah. He's trying to be clever.
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See, I uh And I think the thing was that a lot of the trick taking games I played just
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didn't interest me. And then I played um Oh my goodness. What was it? There's
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like a cat game I've got. It's a like a festival of a thousand cats. Oh no, that one. That was that was fun.
20:36
you get too much milk and it goes off and you earn your points. Um, and yeah,
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a bunch of trick taking games came out and I went, "Okay, I think it depends on the game and I've got more of an
20:48
appreciation for it now." Yeah. No, but I won't ever play The Crew. That's fair. I'm done with it as well. A
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long time ago. Yeah. Apparently the space one's better than the deep sea one.
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Yes. Yeah. I think that's the one I've got is the space one. the first one was that my hopes have been dashed that it could
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be better. Just stick with the Lord of the Rings. It's it's just it's just it's just not themes is so important to me. I know a
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lot of people can just see past the theme and enjoy the mechanics, but for me, I've got to immerse myself in this
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world for the next 30 minutes to 15 hours. I've really got to enjoy what's
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what's there. What is this world that I'm in? Yeah. Um obviously agree more. Yeah. like certain like you know like
21:31
certain games when they're really quick and geometric or you know like Hive and stuff I not so
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fussed about the theme but for the most part if if it's sort of there's a world
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they've built I'd like to enjoy that world so um so yeah so with that one I'm like
21:47
whereas Deep Sea Adventure again theme doesn't matter on that one that's just a great game. Yeah. So fair enough. Cool.
TURN 3 - Cozyboardgames - How did you get started?
21:54
Yeah. All right let's let's talk about cozy board games then. So, this is your channel. Um, which
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Yeah, whatever. Whatever. It's just a channel, right? Channel. Pretty big channel, Rosie. It's a pretty big
22:06
channel. Um, nothing. No. Well, you know, you know, in comparison, it's good. It's good. Um, I
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I kind of want to know how how you got started with it. And you said earlier it was a like it's your hobby. It's something you
22:18
you kind of poured your energy into. And I'm just I'm interested about the genesis of it all. Like because it's always interesting with content creators
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where they start, how they start, and why they start. So yeah, I'm always I'm always curious when content creators speak to me and like
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what Yeah. started why would you do this? Why?
22:37
Um why? Uh so uh I've had a really really
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strange like career path. Very strange. Um I studied special effects for film
22:48
and TV. So I made props and bits and pieces. still worked on Doctor Who. Nice.
22:54
Um, and that's what I studied at uni, got my first class honors, and then decided
23:00
this is not the job for me because this job will kill you. Uh, this job has literal
23:07
carinogenic materials in everything you touch. And also, I didn't drive. I still don't
23:14
drive. I don't want to drive. So, that's very difficult to work in the film industry freelance kind of thing. So as
23:19
soon as I graduated, I went and became a cake decorator and I, uh, in the space of four years,
23:28
uh, became an award-winning cake decorator. Won things and stuff. Got I
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can hyperfixate my way to the top of anything, apparently, but just not things that make money.
23:40
Found it. Yeah, I like that. Um, I I my brain just can't like see
23:45
that as fun. Um, yeah. So I made cakes for like full scale RTD2, C3PO, the
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Delorean. Well, it was two. It was two/3s the scale. We couldn't get it in the lift otherwise. Um, but like that was really fun, but
23:59
that industry was very difficult. Break it happened. It was a whole thing. So after that I moved and worked in social
24:05
media and there was a job going for like a professional crafter because I've got this extensive skill set in doing
24:12
crafting and making chain mail and I could just learn anything quickly because my brain was like obsess obsess
24:18
obsess and then move on. So I could just that that job was perfect for me. So, I worked for a social media agency where
24:24
they had a brand uh called Kidspiration, which now doesn't exist anymore. Uh
24:29
where we made videos, like craft videos for parents and hacks. Do you remember when like five minute crafts was like
24:35
the thing? It was everywhere. We were basically that. Um we were making craft videos and stuff and top
24:41
down hands and those were my hands and everyone seen this mole on the internet. Hundreds of millions.
24:46
Famous mole. Famous mole. Um, and we had videos reach like 100 million views, 20 million
24:55
followers. Uh, and you know, it was it was huge. And I worked there for seven years and I
25:00
slowly went mad because it was no longer what it was at the beginning. It was
25:06
it was no longer the creative I was a manager by the end. I don't I don't mind managing. I actually really enjoy
25:12
problem solving and managing and dealing with stuff. It was more the fact that it was no longer the creative sort of thing
25:18
that it was originally. It was very like corporate and yeah, click baity and let's just make money
25:23
out of whatever we can and drill a hole in a Barbie. And I was like, I don't want to drill holes in Barbies anymore. Like, I'm sorry. And we did it a lot.
25:31
I'm not even joking. And I had the most wonderful team. They were all so brilliant. And I didn't want to leave
25:36
them, but had I had to move on. I had to find something creative that could fuel me wanting to get up every
25:43
day and do stuff. Yeah. So, I kept job hunting for a while and
25:48
nothing was coming up and I went, I'm just going to start doing something creative and I'm going to pour all my
25:54
energy into that and maybe I won't mind as much that my job doesn't fill that
25:59
hole anymore. Um, and so I started Crazy Board Games. It was like December
26:06
2022 or something. And we went to the Ludicest in Cuddon and we filmed
26:12
Dog Park. They had the deluxe version. It had just come out. And they also had they had the guy who owns the place has
26:18
the super fancy small world, the wooden tooth grand one, like this super fancy.
26:23
And I was like, can I can I get that? Let's have a look. Um, and so I got it
26:29
down. I filmed two videos. I filmed dog park and that. And I I put them up and I and I at that point I didn't have a
26:35
logo. I just had my face and was like, "Look at how that goes." And it and it and it it was doing well. and I and I
26:41
made a bunch of videos. Um, and I knew obviously I just worked in social media for seven years, so I knew what people
26:48
like to see. I knew what what Tik Tok could do. Yeah. And I knew what I needed to do at the
26:54
beginning of that channel to get get and I know all it's I'm not going to tell everyone here. It's really boring. If you like social media, I find it
27:00
fascinating. But there's lots of things you can do at the beginning of your channel and while you're creating your channel to make
27:06
sure it reaches the right people. So, I kind of had the groundwork there to make it successful and make sure it
27:12
reached the right people whilst also not making anything negative. I wanted to make something positive and fun. And I called it Cozy
27:19
Board Games because there was a huge boom in Cozy Gaming. And there's this
27:24
amazing creator called Cozy Games. She's called Kennedy. She's actually a lawyer. Like
27:30
she's a lawyer. Wow. And she's like created this whole thing called Cozy Games. and loads of people I mean there
27:37
were people before that but she was huge and then people just started picking up and I went no one's made cozy board
27:42
games there are cozy board games that's most of the games I play no one's done that there's a gap there
27:47
I'll just call it that I'll just call it that that's the most searchable thing I'll just do that
27:53
and uh that's why I called it that and um I had a video go out on New Year's
27:58
and as I said I started December like 12th so it wasn't long and I posted a
28:03
video about Volden's Asen Spiel, a gentleman game with tea lightss where
28:09
you play in the dark and one person plays the candle and it's trying to find all the gnomes and everyone else plays
28:15
the gnomes trying to group them all up behind one tree, but they can only move through the shadows.
28:20
Yes. And Doug had this version because Doug's a quarter German and he really wanted this. So, we found it on like Board Game
28:27
Geek chat on UK, whatever it's called. The name's very long. Oh, yeah. the uh the Facebook group
28:33
board game trading in chat. UK bought it for like I don't know something too much.
28:38
Um and I made a video about it and I posted it on New Year's Day thinking this time. It's New Year's Day.
28:44
Uh million views. Million views. Wow. Uh posted it on Instagram on my own
28:50
personal Instagram because I was not making a new one. Million views like
28:55
huge. Uh on Instagram I suddenly went from uh 400 followers to uh 20,000 10
29:02
20,000. That's mad. I love it. Oh yeah. And on in and on Tik Tok I had
29:08
10,000 followers just from that video. Yeah. Um and then I remember joking with Doug
29:15
and said, "Oh my goodness, one day someone might send us a game." Yeah. Oh, how exciting would that be?
29:21
I know. Thinking back on it, I never even thought to ask for that like ever.
29:26
I just went, I know, it's weird, isn't it? There's not so many gigs where, you know, we'll just buy them.
29:32
Um, and so I learned suddenly very I was suddenly very quickly in the space, but at the same time, Tik
29:38
Tok is so different because back then, and this wasn't that long ago, publishers didn't really see Tik Tok as
29:43
an important thing. They just didn't care. My Instagram was every now and again I posted a popular video, but I was very much dedicated to
29:51
for two years I posted a video every single day on Tik Tok. Wow. So every single day I posted a finished
29:57
fully edited Yeah. Um a lot of work. It was a lot of work. I actually don't
30:03
know how I did it. You look back and go, who did that? I could do that now. Um,
30:08
so, so yeah, and you know, I once id reached I think it was about 50,000
30:14
followers, I was at Yuki Gangs Expo and I went around and I said, "I'm looking for a job. Yeah, I'm I'm looking to change career. This
30:20
is this is something I'm good at." And uh, sort of through reaching out, Peter
30:27
Vaughn from Carb Alchemy found me and he hired me. So that's, you know, I had I had some Flamecraft videos that did very
30:33
well, but a million views on a on a on a insert for it by Tower. So they were aware of me and I was like,
30:40
I'm looking to do stuff for I would like to to do this for someone else because I don't want to do it for me personally. I
30:46
don't want to make this into a job. I just want to enjoy it and feel creative and Yeah. do it for myself. Your outlet. Yeah.
30:51
But but I'd like to do it for someone as a job and not get some money, you know? Yeah. and and also like enjoy my job
30:58
because at the time I didn't enjoy it. So So uh yeah, it went went very well. It's well a successful
31:05
uh hobby. Yeah. I mean well done Peter. Good catch.
31:10
Oh yeah. Um yeah, it's a dream come true really. Like they're an amazing team. They're all so nice and the creative
31:18
energy and yeah, like the there's like 10 of us now and there's just like so much passion
31:25
for what they do. Um, and they and and just like I don't do it for the money. I really don't. I hate money.
31:32
I'm not good at saving. I'm really bad at dealing with money. Like I still have
31:37
the same savings account that I had when I was like 18. Yeah. Um, I would still have the book if
31:43
I could when I was younger. Um, but like yeah, I just uh I knowing
31:49
that I could just pour my my love and passion into a job and not focus on that was what I wanted. I didn't want to feel
31:56
like well at least I burnt a bunch and I could do it because you you're spending all your time at a job like all your
32:01
time. Yeah. It's a lot of hours. You really got to like enjoy it, you know? Big part of your life. So, it's a big part of your life. It is.
32:08
I I worked out I spent more time with my colleagues in my last job than I did with Doug and I was like, "Oh, that's
32:13
me." That's kind of sad, isn't it? Yeah. I like them though. It's not the right way round though, is it?
32:19
No. Yeah. So, so yeah. Um, but no, it's a very long story is the way Cozy is great
32:25
because I have gone on the weirdest journey. And whenever anyone finds out I've had all
32:30
those jobs, you go, "And you're 45?" Yes. And I go, "No, 34." But I did a lot
32:35
did a lot of stuff. Did a lot of stuff. But I hyperfixation is a is a is a curse
32:42
and a gift. Yeah. And uh yeah, it's it's an interesting
32:47
one. But um definitely explains why I pick the games I pick and play the games I play.
32:53
No, that makes sense. That makes sense. Well, I'm interested to kind of find your definition of cozy. So when you say
What is Rozie's definition of cozy?
32:59
the question, Hang on. How long's it been? 40 minutes, right? I was waiting just see how long
33:05
it took. What is your your definition of cozy? Like what does it mean to you? Okay, so I always think about the actual
33:11
definition of what cozy means. It means feeling comfortable, safe. Um it's like, you know, the term hig in Scandinavia.
33:18
It's like it's like a sort of comfortable thing. And I think that I genuinely think that if someone said to
33:24
me, "My cozy game is Warhammer." I would go 100% believe you% believe you. Because you think if you sit down and
33:31
you feel safe and comfortable and it's like pure joy and you don't feel
33:36
like a sense of stress or anxiety when you're playing that game, then that could 100% be your cozy game. Just like
33:42
cozy hobbies can be painting miniatures or you know and and the thing that's often the thing that often bothers me is
33:48
that people say that a cozy game is easy. It's not easy. People who do knitting,
33:54
it's not easy. you do sudoki like these are the it just it's
33:59
something where you you enjoy a challenge but it doesn't make you feel
34:04
anxious or stressed there are games that I've said are cozy that maybe don't fit that rule fit to print stress um calico
34:13
stressed uh so you know but at the same time I think it's a comfort level thing and um for me
34:21
when I do a video about a cozy game I sometimes don't say it's cozy. I say like um this game is this because maybe
34:29
I'm not giving it the title of cozy because I don't believe that it's like 100% for me in that space.
34:35
Yeah. But for the most part like I have I'm very easy. There's a lot of
34:40
games for me out there. But I do also get sent a lot of games where I go, I was bored. I was bored and I need to
34:48
be entertained. Yeah. Cuz I will just go nah. So, you know, not for me. And and I
34:54
think like for me, I like a bit of a challenge. But I don't mind if there's no interaction. I don't mind solo
35:00
focusing and going, "How are you doing? Oh, wow. You're doing better than me. That's wonderful." Yeah. I got to try harder.
35:06
Yeah. Hang on. We've had the same choices and you're doing what? Um like like number nine, you're just
35:12
genuinely angry that they're doing better than me. Um but yeah, it's this is what I mean. Like end of the day, you
35:19
could say it's cute animals, it's animals in clothes, it's uh it's
35:24
dragons, it's um knitting 100%. For me, yes.
35:31
But for other people, maybe not. I think it's got to be absorbing. I think that's the thing for me. If I find
35:36
something cozy, it's got to totally draw me in. That doesn't mean it's hard or difficult because it could be either. If
35:42
I'm totally drawn into the either the puzzle or the world or the challenge, that's
35:47
that kind of I don't know fills you with warmth. I don't know if that's a really silly thing to say, but it kind of sucked in
35:53
and and time could disappear and it's not you're just involved. I I said on a video that um I played all
36:02
of Evidil because someone asked me, could you play all of it? All right. But it's not recommended. So, I played all of it and I said, look, this is like a
36:09
5hour game all of it. And I had these comments. I had comments from from
36:14
people saying, "Oh, what are you talking about? This is a 5hour game. This is a
36:19
5-hour game." And I go, "Okay, sure." Um, there are so much there's so much
36:25
decision- making in Everddale when you add everything. Uh, and and it's just there's a lot.
36:31
So, you could spend a long time playing it. And I have, and I've had to stop to have dinner. That's just me. That's just me. Um, I've
36:38
also played Seventh Continent for like eight hours. Yeah, this is just like sometimes it takes you
36:45
longer to play these games and it's I don't dislike playing the game for that long. I just don't have the time.
36:50
Yeah, I don't have six hours free to play ever. Um, so I would just put certain
36:57
expansions in to make sure it fits in my evening before I fall asleep. But, you know, I I think it's I think
37:04
it's interesting that a lot of factors get put into games, whether they're for
37:09
beginners or not. Oh, you know, this is this is a heavy game, so it's for these
37:14
people. And I'm like, I think Kodi is a better term than lights sometimes, or I'm a casual gamer.
37:20
I'm a light gamer. These are not terms people want to call themselves. No. If you own like a bunch of games, there's nothing casual about your your
37:27
feelings towards the hobby. You are you are spending a lot of money on this. You're not dipping your toes.
37:32
No, you're in, are you? You're in this thing. You're a serious board gamer. You happen to not play
37:38
huge table covering games. Um, that's fine. That's what I like about the hobby is
37:45
everyone can have that. You could be a someone who only plays party games and then like a 100 party games and that's
37:51
fine and you're still part of the hobby. That's hell on earth, you know, but for other people that's
37:57
that's what they enjoy and that's great, you know. So, I think that's it's nice to have different perspectives.
38:02
Definitely. Definitely. There's a corner for everyone in this hobby and that's that's what makes it really inclusive. And
38:07
yeah, whether you like the heavy stuff or the lighter stuff or the cozy stuff or the stuff that makes you want to pull
38:13
your eyelids out. Um, we was talking about uh my my game of Frost Punk recently,
38:19
which is not I would call it cozy. Uh, there's nothing cozy about that. It's misery and despair, but maybe that's my
38:27
cozy. I don't know. I really like being miserable of the board game world.
38:33
Yeah, may maybe I just I just like drawing all on that negativity of of death and freezing and it's sickness.
38:40
I played Andromeda's Edge with you. Um it's, you know, um and I actually think
38:47
Andromeda's Edge is way lighter than it appears. I actually think that Andromeda's Edge is is not it's yes, it's a long learn. It's
38:54
like a 40 minute teach or like an hour. It could be. And I would never recommend someone who's just got into board games
38:59
just to go, "Go on then, pick it up." But I actually think that it's logical if it makes sense to me. And I can
39:07
really immerse myself in this strange sort of psychedelic Marvel universe vibe.
39:12
Yeah. Kind of space world where there's mushrooms and things. Yeah. It's all different. I'm less interested in sci-fi where it's
39:18
quite regimental. Like feels very technical. Um, I'm less interested in
39:24
like humanity going out and pressing four buttons and there's a box. Like I I I much prefer the sort of kooky, strange
39:32
sci-fi. So, um, yeah, I I also Peter Carb was an amazing teacher and I do
Discussion around bad teaches impacting likeability
39:38
think people's first impressions of games do affect how they feel about Oh, big big time. Big time. We've all
39:44
been there with a bad teach, right? We've all been there and gone, great. What's your worst What's your
39:49
worst game because of the teach? Not calling out anyone that taught it. Oh god, you put me on the spot. I'm gonna have to think.
39:55
I've got I've got one. I I couldn't get it. You You go and then I'll think of mine as you talk.
40:00
Mine was um Power Grid, right? Um the person who taught it, you might
40:05
be watching. That would be hilarious. Hi. I hated your teacher's Power Grid. Um
40:11
because he taught it to win. He uh only taught it incrementally over the course
40:17
of the game so he could win. Yeah. Oh, by the way, now we do this, so I'm
40:22
going to pull back. And I was just like, and it was 4 hours. We were trapped, physically trapped in the table. No one
40:28
could leave because the way the seating was. And we didn't agree to this. We turned up and he went, "Cool. We're
40:34
going to play my favorite game, Power Grid." And I was like, "Oh, good. And what's it about?" Oh, Power Grid.
40:41
Power. Great. Yay. So, um, yeah, it was and for and I've had many people go they
40:46
love Power. It's a great game. So, I have no issues with the game. My experience though of my first game.
40:53
Yeah. So, yeah. And we've never we never saw him again.
40:59
Went around his house. He taught and won Power Gro and then we never saw him again. But I bet he had a great evening, didn't
41:05
he? Yeah. Maybe he does that repeatedly. Like some sort of psychological horror every week. New people.
41:10
Yeah. But yeah, again watching. Hi. Please
41:16
hope I hope that you've changed. See, as you talking and I and I'm going
41:22
to have to apologize to Curly here. Um, it was back in the day and it was Everddale and it was I'm trying to think
41:29
like why don't I like Everdell and talking many many years. I actually
41:35
don't mind Everddale but I don't love Everddale. Um, and it's because when we first played it, we got quite a
41:41
fundamental rule wrong. Bless him. We did. And we did. It's the rule where you've got the meadow and you can play the meadow as if
41:48
it's an extension of your hand, right? You can Yeah. We didn't know that. Do that. So, we were we were playing this really
41:54
ultra hard Everell variant. You couldn't get anywhere. I said, "This is stupid." So, I've got a
42:00
hammer. The only You can only pick up Cart from the Meadow at the end of like the second
42:06
season. That's it. You're like, "Great. Love that." Really not. It was not. Are you sure this is right, K? Yeah, I
42:12
think so. That's how we played it for the first few games and it was just really, really
42:18
hard. Yeah, it's been corrected many years ago, but it it has tainted it and it's like I've just got this oh it's
42:24
this game where it was really hard and and like oh it's not it's not supposed to be like that. But yeah, I think
42:31
that's the one that sticks out. And the thing is Rosie is I teach most of them. So many people might have stories about
42:37
me. So um and that's fair. That's the thing like you know it
42:42
happens. You move on. There's 5,000 new games a year. They'll move on. But it's it's when you're dealing with people's
42:50
first games as board gamers where it's like so important have a good
42:55
experience. Yeah. Um and luckily Doug is an amazing teacher. I don't learn all the games
43:01
that I teach. In fact, probably about 10% of the games. That's probably generous. I've read the rules and
43:06
learned them. Doug is the one, the secret behind the scenes person who learns all the rules, watches the videos
43:13
on how to play them, and then he sits down and goes, "Right, Rosie, put your phone down. Come on."
43:19
Yeah. Time to learn the game. We're in now. Mhm. Yeah.
43:26
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Sit down. I love that. So, I definitely uh all
43:33
credit to Doug for teaching and learning so many games and doing it for so many
43:38
people who are new to the hobby as well. Good on you, Doug. Good on you. I don't think JP you could give a you
43:44
would enjoy doing a bad teach or or it would happen because JP is so affected by everyone else's emotions at the
43:51
table. if he felt that someone wasn't having a good game, he it would really
43:58
sort of knock him down and he just Yeah. He He's really hyper aware of everyone's
44:03
emotional state at the game, which is fantastic when you're learning a game because he can instantly tell if or they need a
44:09
bit more either advice or pulling back or whatever. So, I think that is one of JP's kind of superpowers with with
44:15
games. I guess it's negative for him sometimes if people are just not enjoying it or there's some kind of
44:20
conflict at the table because if there is it's just like it is bad.
44:25
Yeah. My empathy radar. I get it. Yeah. Makes you a really great host of
44:32
games I think. Yeah. Well, they call me the emotional vampire. Um Rosie. So I Yeah. I I will
44:37
lally just I say feed, but I I feed off good energy. So if I got good energy at the table,
44:43
then I I will No, it's an energy vampire. That's in um in what we do in the shadows. You're not an energy.
44:48
No, I'm not Colin Robinson. Um Oh my goodness. That's not who you want to teach the board game. Not what
44:54
can you imagine? Can you imagine? It'd be it'd be something like Gia Project with the rules and he would just literally be reading it out word for
45:00
word and he would be loving it that everyone was just Yeah, 100%. I would I mean I would kind
45:07
of want to experience it just to see it happen. Um but yeah, no, I'm an emotional
45:12
tortoise. It's funny that you've got the emotional vampire there. Takes me It takes me a while to to open
45:18
up. Open it up. No, I just Yeah, I I kind of live and die by other people's experiences and emotions at at the
45:24
gaming table. For sure. During a drama's Edge, you very much wanted to destroy us. You
45:29
Oh, I got into it. He's nice to people. He cares if they're having a nice time. Yes, I can be a bit of a knob sometimes.
45:36
Um Yeah. Are you still lost? So, I did. I did. Yeah. He pit me, didn't he? old Mr. Monk
45:43
Ninja Geek Games. He picked me very close game. That was It was fun. That was a fun game. It was close. It was very close.
45:50
Um but yeah, and you managed to get your quote on the page. I did. I was I I was chuffed about that.
45:56
I love that. Yeah, my proper filth quote. Explain what it meant to Americans. I know. It was like such a such a weird
46:03
UK slang thing. It's like Yeah. It's just like these cars are proper filth and it's like what what are you talking
46:09
about? But they're but they're clean. What? There's no dirt on here. Yeah. Yeah. Leaves. What are you talking about?
46:15
They're not bad. They're not bad. They're not bad. Like it's the same way as dirty fries aren't bad, right? Dirty
46:20
fries are good. So it's dirty. What makes a Nando cheeky? Who knows?
46:26
It's a cheeky Nando. No one knows why. Cheeky Nando. Cheeky. The English language must be so hard for
46:31
anyone to learn. Like what are you talking about? I do not know. We don't even know. It you realize how
46:39
many non-English words you use for describe. I um had to teach a few of our
46:44
colleagues that were from I think one was Italian and I was sort of trying to say just twiddle that little doofer
46:51
there words that coming out not and not English. How on earth does this guy got
46:56
a chance of what I'm trying to say to him? Yeah, just my minute. Just my minute. Yes.
If you could give your cozy treatment to any intense games, which ones would they be?
47:03
Well, I've got another question for you. I'm enjoying this chat cuz it's we're going completely off script and I love it because this is the best. Look, I do
47:10
because like when we get guests on, I I have to prepare cuz you know some some guests we have to to draw things out and
47:17
Rosie, you're great. I run a live stream every Friday. You're used to this. And we we go into it with a plan about 5
47:23
minutes before we know what we need. We know what we need to say if there's any news, but after that we're like, who
47:28
knows where this is going to go. Open season. Let's go. Open season.
47:33
I want to know, right? Um, if you could give your cozy treatment to any
47:39
traditionally intense games like your Twilight Imperiums or your Roots or your
47:44
other things, do you have games in mind that you go, you know what, if I could cozy those, I would be more interested.
47:51
And that could be like retheing them or anything else. Is there anything that springs to mind? Um,
47:58
I just so much don't want to play games that don't interest me that I don't think about them ever.
48:04
Um, like I just don't I just like there's too many games. Uh, I just don't
48:09
think about other games. Um, I don't know what Twilight Emperor is about. Uh, I'm trying to think. I
48:17
guess what bothers me is Root looks cozy. You're right. It lurs you in. Absolutely. Yeah.
48:24
And I want little little root. Like my little root. Yeah.
48:30
I love the little me. They're so cute. One of the most looking meeples. The whole the art style, everything makes me
48:36
go, "Yes." And we nearly played it for my birthday. Doug was like, "Okay, we could learn it. We can play it." And then I went, "Apparently you need to
48:42
play it like five times to enjoy it." I don't know. Like life's too short for that. There's too
48:47
many games. You need to do it the first time. So it I feel like they they tricked us and they used to now give us
48:53
what we want which is cozy root. Yeah. I don't know what you call that. What's the the nice leaf? Like what was already
49:00
a leaf? What do you What's a what's a soft root? Sprout.
49:06
Sprout. Yeah, I like that. Sprout. The root. I don't know. I look I look at the This
49:12
is the overflow room and um I don't know. It's all It's all gold.
49:18
Yeah. Yeah. It's all good stuff. It's all good stuff. Um, it's all it's all great.
49:23
That's a good answer because there's so many games. I did get given I did get given Beast. Um Oh, yeah. And I still haven't had the energy. But
49:30
there's a frog in it. I'm very partial to a frog. So feel like frog and beast. I didn't know that. I've
49:35
not played frog. Yeah. One of the beast. Big bad frog. Big big beast. But it it just never fell
49:41
into the rhythm of when I could get it played. But I've been wrong about games. I didn't think I would like Fate of the
49:48
Fellowship because I don't like pandemic. Um I just don't enjoy This is
49:53
This is my thing. It's really weird. I don't like maps. Okay. I don't like a map that's far away.
50:03
So if it's like people would not be seen it's that far away. Yeah. Then I'm like I can't
50:09
in this world just It's like the idea of I was really bad at geography. I got an
50:15
um and donut, my brother's party trick was asking me the capitals, cities of countries, and I would not know. Um I'm
50:22
just really bad at geography. Um and so the idea of staring at a map for longer than like 20 minutes, just don't care.
50:31
It's difficult for me. Boring. Yeah, exactly. It's just really hard for me to like care. Um and so
50:36
Pandemic for me, like I've enjoyed the odd game of it and I played Pandemic Legacy 1 and we've had fun, but I still
50:41
never really like got into it. I was like, "Sure, sticking, ripping, fun, fun." Um, and I just thought, well, surely
50:48
Lord of the Rings pandemic is going to be a similar feeling. But here's the kicker. The map is
50:54
slightly closer. You could It's a bit more zoomed in. Yeah. And And the people, they're tiny
51:01
meeples with swords and shields, and they're actually not cubes. They are so small. And your characters can kind of recreate
51:10
the movie. Like my Gandalf was Gandalf the White protecting Minister Tyrus. Um
51:17
whilst Frodo and Sam went in with no protection to go throw the ring in the fire. Actually um Mary and Pippen were
51:25
like distracting. Yeah. That this is where the Lord of the Rings knowledge goes. Big birds. They're not
51:31
big birds. The the the big winged things. Come on, Rosie. Naz school.
51:38
The nasal. Yeah. Um, and that's where that's the movie, right? But no, in our
51:44
story, Aragorn went screw this and went off and hung hung around with his girl. Just they just hung out.
51:52
Fair enough to Okay, as a Lord of the Rings fan, I get it. And this is now like the how many
52:00
Lord of the Rings games I've gone, damn it, they've got it. They've got me. I'm a big Lord of the Rings fan as someone that knows what Nars are. Um, but I I
52:10
you know, my my dad and my brother are obsessed with Lord of the Rings. I grew up on it and uh yeah um so I was like
52:17
I'm wrong. It's flipping amazing. We played it twice in a row till about 1:00 in the morning and it it was awesome and play again and
52:25
again. Yeah. So it surprised me as well. I'm not a master. Yeah, we enjoyed our play through. Yeah, I've got a similar thing. My first
52:32
teach of pandemic was a bit alphagamed. And it does just kind of put you off,
52:38
doesn't it? That's that's a that's co-op games in a nutshell. If you've got a bad group, and
52:44
they're not bad people. They're not bad people, captains. You're not bad. You just shouldn't do it.
52:49
Yeah. Just learn because it's about the group. And if maybe if you put like four captains
52:54
together, they would just fine. I don't know. Watch the explosions. No, I'm right. No, I'm right.
52:59
No, I'm right. That's a YouTube channel going to happen. But for me, like I love I love Stardew Valley. I have a
53:06
great group for playing it. I love Burgle Bros. One of my absolute favorite co-op games of all time. I like hours
53:12
games. Yeah, it's just about having the right group. And a co-op game can be amazing, but if
53:17
the group's wrong, doesn't matter. So, uh, luckily, uh, you you just get you
53:22
get used to figuring out who's right for your group and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, my brother's totally declined.
53:28
Sorry, Martin, if you're watching this. He might be. We occasionally talk. Uh um
53:33
but like I got him into Lana though. So he has no money now because of me. Um
53:39
I was like, "Do you want to play Lana with me?" And he was like, "Don't know." Sure. And then he played it. He went, "This is
53:45
really good." I was like, "Yeah." And then now he's now like, "How many cars do you have?" And I went, "Don't ask."
53:50
Yeah. Too many. But he only he only he only plays at co-op with his wife because they're too competitive. So he knows what he's like.
53:56
He knows what he's like. That's fair. Um but yeah, so um but no, we get on now. Yeah, we're fine now. Yeah, in different
54:03
countries. Good stuff. Good. Good. So, I got another weird question. So
If Rozie was a board game character what would her special ability be?
54:10
Oh, good. I like my weird questions cuz just they're fun. Um if you were a board game character, Rosie, what would your
54:16
special ability be? Oh, my special ability. Throw a blanket over it. Sorry. No. Um,
54:25
that's a really niche reference to uh to a TV show. Um, I don't know. I feel like
54:33
Oh, my brain goes to like Twilight and we're like, what was Bella's power going to be? And it was so blubbish. Um, I just
54:39
I can't remember what her power was. What was her power? It was like It was protection. Oh, was that Yeah, like a force, was it?
54:46
Come on, though. That's lame power, isn't it? Yeah. Come on. She was never that She was never that protective. which is really clumsy
54:52
actually. So, you know, um I don't know. I guess my secret power
55:00
I like I like when I get to be crafty like I can make things. So, probably the one that you know
55:06
makes things. Yeah. Like uh they can make loads of resources, I guess. Not very exciting.
55:12
No, but it's useful. It's powerful. Yeah. Like Yeah. I don't know that. It depends on
55:18
the game. Yeah, like because if when I do D and D or not D and D but RPGs at the moment I'm
55:23
playing Brendlewood Bay where we're all old ladies solving crime. I'd love
55:29
it's like Murder She Wrote and in the in the anti Wayne that's the gates
55:35
in in the each episode starts with us creating a beginning, you know, the
55:41
intro. Yeah. And Doug in the Doug's the DM in the background is going
55:46
and we're doing our thing. And then um it's got a bit of a Cthulhuesque thing
55:51
going on though. It's a bit happening. It's an undertone of darkness. And so my my old lady's Babs bobbins and
55:57
she's kind of useless. So she doesn't really have she she's like the other
56:02
two. Bertie is like hench and can fix anything and always has a power tool on
56:08
her. And then Doris, my friend Emily Doris is like really
56:15
good with antiques and can spot things and she's really gets herself in there. Whereas I keep knitting useless things.
56:21
So you're always keeping I'm like, "Hey, we have to wear a mask. We had we had to wear a mask." And I was
56:27
like, "Here's a knitted mask. It's just useless." Like um do you need an investigation bag?
56:35
Evidence bag. Here's a knitted one. I've got one. knitted a ziplo.
56:41
Yeah, she's she's yet to figure out her true her true skills. Yeah. Yeah. Um but I think if you're ever creating a
56:48
character, just go simple. I had Brandon Fiber when I did a Buffy RPG and he was just hella strong. Like really dumb but
56:56
strong. So Doug would be like, "Right, there's these droid droids up ahead. They're all circling." And I was like,
57:02
"I would like to take one of them and hold it against another one so they both blow up." And he was like, "You have to
57:08
roll really well." And I went, "Yeah, I'm playing stronger." Like
57:13
it happens. So just go just go simple if you're ever not sure how to build the character. But he was great.
57:19
Brandon Fiber had it all. So yeah, fair enough. Fair play. Um we're probably getting towards the
TURN 4 - What's coming up for Rozie
57:26
end, which is it's sad cuz I'm enjoying this chat. Um you can cut out all the rubbish, but
57:31
No, no. I'm I'm leaving it all in. Don't you worry about it. It's all good. Um, so anything kind of coming up? Um,
57:38
obviously you mentioned Essen, but is there anything kind of on the horizon that you're excited about or looking forward to that you want to share with
57:44
the listeners? And yeah. Oh, not just specifically games. Oh, it could be games. It could be
57:50
events. It could be anything you like. It's hard with games. There's too many. It's really too many. I'm always trying
57:56
to to to get better at just featuring games that are I've already got. It's really
58:01
difficult. The new is always existing. It's there. I don't really look too hard at what's
58:08
coming up unless you know I am I I will accept any future
58:13
Evell game and there is Emma Land coming and the artist is Mr. Cington and Mr.
58:19
So I'm excited about seeing that. There's a frog in it as well. Um
58:25
even better. Um I don't know like I'm really excit I
58:30
like this season. I get to play more games. This is the season when Doug and I are
58:36
very busy because we got together around this time. We It's his birthday. My
58:42
birthday's in January. There's our anniversary. We get to like do lots of wintry things, Christmas markets.
58:48
Like I just This is the cozy season. It is. And that's what I like to do. But I do have like Essen and Pax Unplugged and
58:56
some flying to do. So that's also exciting. But yeah, I just um I don't know. It's like
59:04
in Hot Ones. You watch Hot Ones, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's like in Hot Ones where they go, you look at this camera and like I
59:09
don't know what am I here for a movie? Can't remember. So I I don't know. And just uh I like um trying to get through
59:17
get getting my Excel sheet of games down to something that's less disgusting. That's my looking forward to
59:23
Love that you have an Excel sheet of games. We had to we had to when we when we were getting
59:28
when we were getting married we um didn't really think about the fact that planning a wedding working and cozy
59:35
board games just couldn't exist in the same period of time. So triangle working had to work
59:41
um and had to plan a wedding. So crazy board games took a bit of a a slow patch and a lot of the games that I'd said yes
59:48
to just started appearing and I was like piling up and I I feel terrible. Like I
59:54
feel truly awful seeing them just pile up and I'm just like they're looking at you, aren't they? I don't know when I'm going to play.
1:00:00
They're looking at me. They're always looking like when Ros get to the floor and they start to build up on the floor. I'm like
1:00:05
I can't do this. So we we only planned the wedding for 6 months. So it wasn't
1:00:11
like two years like some people. Yeah. But then after we got back from the UN from the honeymoon, we were just
1:00:16
like, we need to we need to get through this. We need to double it. So we built an Excel sheet
1:00:21
and we were like, we need to get through it all before the Yuki Games Expo. We didn't. It's gotten better, but I I really would
1:00:28
like a Christmas present to myself to no longer have to use an Excel sheet. Um
1:00:33
I would like to just be able to go, "This game's all right. Let's play it. That was awesome. Here's a video."
1:00:38
Rather than the constant like Yeah. Batlog. Batlog. Yeah.
1:00:45
Oh, that sounds I don't feature them all. That's not how I work. Um, I will feature games I like,
1:00:50
but I do need to play them. Yeah. Need to find out if you like them. You got to look at it and go, "Nah, you
1:00:56
got to have to have to give it d and I have you have to play them like a few times. It's like, you know,
1:01:02
yeah, it's a lot of time. It's a it's a it's a lot of process." Unless they're like first play, you're like, "Did we play it wrong?"
1:01:09
No. Um, but yeah, like end of the day, uh, you start to build up this weird
1:01:14
knowledge and understanding of games where you just, I don't know what it is, play so many games, you start to go
1:01:19
like, "Oh, well, why didn't they dev this?" Start to get like really in it. Um,
1:01:25
yeah, it's uh, I'm excited about having a little bit more creative uh, freedom
1:01:30
to just get a video out like there back again. I played it, filmed it like, "Oh my goodness, amazing." Got it out that
1:01:37
day. I was like, "Yes, that's what it should be like." Um, so that's where I want to get to is
1:01:42
feeling excited and getting that excitement out into the world. Yeah. Yeah.
1:01:47
Because you guys do a podcast and then like a month later people get to hear It's weird.
1:01:52
Yeah. It's so weird because we have this timey wimy aspect with what we do. So we
1:01:57
like we we play games. We go that's great. We got to talk about it on the pod and then we go right when's the next
1:02:02
recording. That's in two weeks. Okay. Right in two weeks. And then we talk about in two weeks and they go, "All right, when's that one releasing?" Uh,
1:02:09
four weeks. So, like six weeks has elapsed since we played this thing. We talk about it and trying to plan that is
1:02:16
quite it's quite an interesting um Do you make notes? Like, so because of our like uh I've got like 15 unedited
1:02:23
videos. That's where I'm at. It's pretty bad. 15. Um yeah, 15. Um some of them are unboxings
1:02:30
because I do unboxings. That's the thing that people like. So sometimes I've not actually played them. I just film the unboxing. Um, and so I have a little
1:02:37
like notepad that I write my thoughts for after we've played it. If I've got a hook in my mind, like the thing I want
1:02:44
to say right at the beginning, I'll like voice note it or do the talking to my phone, it tell
1:02:49
it it types it out for me. And it's still mostly gibberish, but at least it's a start so that when I write
1:02:54
the script to do the voice over, it's feels like the Rosie that played
1:02:59
the game, not four weeks later. Yeah. Um because I it's retaining that
1:03:04
excitement about the game and you're like right what did I think about this I played it and it was fun.
1:03:12
Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if people can probably tell from my voiceovers whether it's fresh in my
1:03:18
brain or not. Um but sometimes I can't help it. The game gets sent to me. It's a prototype. I
1:03:23
play it. It needs to be sent to someone else and then the Kickstarter gets pushed back and I'm like right. So I've had this
1:03:28
game. I played it months ago. Yeah. And the game's not even here. Like it's
1:03:34
it's all gone. So I have to try and like keep it in my brain a bit, which is tough. Um it's very tough.
1:03:40
The beauty that we've got from podcasting is that we don't script. So that's that's helpful and a hindrance in
1:03:47
its own right. Oh, I much prefer scripting. This whole video is scripted. Yeah. Yeah. This whole thing, this whole
1:03:52
interview, we have to write out word for word and just everything. Oh, I love scripting. freaking love
1:03:58
script. I've always loved it. Yeah, it's where it's where I learned I love to write. It took me a long time to realize that I would sit there and like kick my
1:04:05
feet and giggle at like stupid things I'd written like, "Oh, that's a fun pun." Yeah, I like this.
1:04:10
I realize and my English teacher when I was younger would go, "Duh, I know you liked writing, but I didn't
1:04:16
clock what I did until and like 90% of my job is writing. So, I get to write lore about dragons and characters and
1:04:23
That's cool. come up with stuff, which is cool. Yeah, it's really cool. Thank you, Rosie, for for joining us this evening and uh No,
1:04:30
great to have you. Love chatting with you and uh exploring all things with you and uh yeah, thank you so much.
1:04:37
All things all things I'm wearing a lot of wool. It's quite warm though. You are. You are. I wish I was wearing wool. The heating
1:04:44
turned on, but I don't think it came on. Because we're in a really small flat, we don't really And we're up one, we don't
1:04:50
really have as too much issue with the cold. Yeah. You're kind of in that epicenter of the heat which is which
1:04:56
but in the summer hate it. It's a sauna. Horrible. It's it's not even a not even
1:05:02
a good sauna. It's fair enough. It's fair enough. But thank you very much and uh and I
1:05:09
hopefully I'll see you next week at Essen. I'll come and seek you out somewhere. Um yeah, I'll be I'll be wearing the hat if
1:05:14
I want to be seen. I won't be wearing the hat if I'm a too hot or don't want to be seen. Incognito mode. It's like hat is coming
1:05:22
up. You're usually too warm. All right, thank you.
TURN 5 - The Final Turn
1:05:28
And there we go. So, thank you very much, Rosie, for for coming on to the show and hope you all enjoyed listening
1:05:33
to her cozy board game chat. And if you enjoyed the show, please share this with someone you know. Hopefully someone will
1:05:39
enjoy uh this conversation and uh yeah, get get the name of the podcast out there. We really appreciate it. And if
1:05:45
you're really enjoying the show, then please like and subscribe and uh get involved in all of our social media and
1:05:50
uh channels and all that kind of good stuff. But we also have a uh coffee account which um helps if you want to
1:05:58
throw us a few quid our way, which always helps uh keep the podcast alive
1:06:03
and keeps um keeps us investing in it and keeps it going if I'm being completely honest. So So yeah. So really
1:06:10
all that's left to say is whose turn is it? Heat. [Music]