First!!!!

With a new board gaming video, I finally did a top 10, rather than a top 5.  While the category, broadly, is games that are unique, strange, unusual, and/or quirky, I looked primarily at 2 things - theme and mechanics.

In my last video I talked about theme briefly (in discussing Science Fiction in general), but some games have themes that are so unusual that said theme ALONE made me want to play the game.  Mechanics-wise, there are definitely some good ones: Tzolk'in (The Myan Calendar Game) is one that didn't quite make the list, and where turns and worker movement are both tracked by a large gear system.  It's really cool and would've been on the list if I had 1 or 2 more spots.

Regardless, enjoy my FIRST TOP 10!!!  Hooray!!!

Thank you and see you next time!

A Year and a Half....

I found a decent chunk of time to do a really special board gaming video to celebrate making videos!  Yes, that does seem odd.  I've made a decent number of top 5 board game lists but since then I've gotten a decent number of new games, some of which fit into my previous categories, so I wanted to do an update video.

Going from a small, basic collection of games (good games, mind you, but still) to a rather substantial collection gives a lot of opportunity for new stuff.  Please enjoy and thank you for watching all this time!!!

Links to the original videos are in both the description and the 'curtain' splash page before I discuss them.  Thank you again and see you next time!

Let's talk THEME!

After so long I finally made a board gaming video I should've made closer to the beginning; my favorite science fiction games.  Themes can be a very difficult thing for many board games.  Some take themes and utilize them to great effect, genuinely immersing you in whatever world you're playing in.  Others tend to take a game and build a theme around it.  I have found that I have much more fun when a theme is integrated to the mechanics.  Far too often I see themed games where I can't help but think that it (the base mechanics) could (and likely will) simply be repurposed under new guises of themes.  It's a shame to see, but works well for designers and publishers.  For example, I cannot think of any other theme that would fit the mechanics of Shadows Over Camelot or Battlestar Galactica.  They are both great theme games (the former ALWAYS involving Monty Python jokes at the table) that really wouldn't work well with anything else.  Other games, namely wargames off the top of my head, frequently have mechanics utilized in other 'settings' (i.e. Civil War vs. WWII).  It's not necessarily a bad thing, but if I want to play a game that takes place somewhere at some specific time period, the last thing I want to think it that I'm essentially playing in the wrong era.

Onto today's video!  I've loved science fiction since I was a kid and found this new, wonderful way to enjoy the genre in board gaming.  I think that these games all do a good job of feeling science fiction-y without a) being overbearing with it, and b) just generally being fun to play.  I'm very excited and hope that you enjoy it!

I'm very excited; my next couple of videos are going to be a pretty substantial departure (at least the board gaming ones will be).  Hope that you liked it and I'll see you next time!