The State Of Games

Chris, Darrell, and TC are finally back in the podcasting saddle and ready to talk about their adventures at Camp Launius and the Gamers for Cures 24-hour Board Game Marathon! All this, plus Final Hour, Horrified, barbecue medals, Journeys in Middle-earth, the madness of video games, Tapestry, Era: Medieval Age, getting engaged, Scott Pilgrim, Disney+, Deep Blue, Nemo Rising, and more! 

After a two-month hiatus Chris, Darrell, and TC talk about all the big events over one crazy summer, including highlights from Origins Game Fair, Dice Tower Con, RuthCon, and Gen Con. All this, plus talk of the Nixon administration, camels, the controversial BoardGameGeek rebrand, the Sinister Six, Parks, The Artemis Project, racing with Richard Launius, fun in the Funkoverse, Medium, Homebrewers, Corinth & more!

 In this episode Chris, Darrell, and TC talk about spoiler culture, whether it translates to the board game hobby, how consumers & reviewers might avoid it all, and whether we should even really care. All this, plus Darrell dips into the dangerously addictive world of Warhammer, TC goes kayaking, Chris buys a scooter; a return to Fireball Island, Roll for the Galaxy, Crokinole, & The River; the Cardboard Edison Awards & more!

In this very special episode Chris, Darrell, and TC get some things off their chest that have been bugging them around the board game hobby and in life, such as geek shaming, lazy journalism, mental health nuances, and cultural perspective awareness deficiencies. All this, plus The River, some unexpected Kickstarter news, Detective: A Modern Crime Boardgame, the legend of Baahubali, Mensa Award winners & more!  

In this episode Chris, Darrell, and TC are joined by special guest Lesley Louder as they recount personal highlights, behind-the-scenes exploits, and lessons learned from the Ninth Annual Unpublished Games Expo in Hunts Valley, Maryland. All this, plus bad brie, Men at Work, the joys of trailer wrangling, TransAtlantic, fried chicken wind, Cartographers, ghost horses, Those Meddling Kids, My Father’s Work & more!        

In this episode Chris, Darrell, and TC talk about games that tell stories, either through dedicated mechanics and thematics, or by emergent gameplay. All this, plus Darrell’s 40th birthday shindig at Dice Hate Me HQ, Arkham Horror 3.0 versus Arkham Horror 2.0, Beta Colony, news of TC’s big move, more Modern Art, Gugong, volcanoes, fishing, My Father’s Work, Jeeps, sand worms, coal mining, & so much more!       

In this episode Chris, Darrell, and TC talk about the subtle art of selling games, what makes a good game versus what makes a good product, and the state of the board game market. All this, plus more Wingspan, Quacks of Quedlinburg, the vaguaries of game design credentials, The Boldest, Architects of the West Kingdom, dead men’s parties, the glory of Glory to Rome, a bit of whining, Heroes of Terrinoth, and more! 

In this special episode, Chris, Darrell, and TC look back on a year of gaming and share their awards for favorites published last year - and even some discoveries that came out before 2018! All this, plus festivities from the annual DHM Holiday get-together, Escape from Colditz, a special sneak peek at Wingspan, expansions for 7 Wonders and Great Western Trail, fishing, dice, fireballs, Paper Tales, dogs, alpacas, Cryptid, castles, & more!  

In this episode Chris, Darrell, and TC recount all the fun, food, and fanfare at the 2nd annual PAX Unplugged gaming convention in Philadelphia, PA. All this, plus first plays of Keyforge, how TC broke Keyforge, Medium news, the final arrival of Fireball Island, the great cheesesteak debate, VivaJava: The Coffee Game: The Dice Game goes digital, security theater, dim sum, Defenders of Champion City, Up N Over, & more!

In this jam-packed episode Chris, Darrell, and TC make up for lost time (almost a month since the last episode!) by talking about those modern classics that are influential but are just plain played out and don’t hit the table anymore. All this, plus the bleeding edge of Essen Hotness like Blackout: Hong Kong, Underwater Cities, and Carpe Diem, unfortunate Keyforge deck names, listener shoutouts, Newton, more game theory, & more!  

In this episode Chris, Darrell, and TC decide to break down a couple of nuggets of wisdom from the good Dr. Reiner Knizia about American vs. German game consumerism and the genesis of game design in regards to what first sparks the flame: theme or mechanics. All this, plus CMON’s business practices, Camp Launius, whether Arkham Horror 3.0 should replace AH 2.0, gunslinging, sleuthing, coin-bagging, ass-kicking, and so much more!

In this episode Chris, Darrell, and TC take a break from the more brainy discussions to talk all about the tapas of boardgames – fillers – and what defines them, if they carry a stigma, the difference of designing them versus longer games, and, of course, our favorites! All this, plus GrandCon, Boo-B-Q, hot wings, submarines, zombies, beer, Jane Austen, Sherlock Holmes, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, mystics, Magic, & more!

In this episode Chris and TC are joined by special guest Matt Riddle to delve deep into global thermonuclear war, the Prisoner’s Dilemma, evolutionary metagaming and other cerebral subjects related to the mathematical analysis of Game Theory. All this, plus strange business practices, Space Base, Welcome To..., cannibalism, End of the Trail, Nyet, Through the Desert, deconstructing two-player game mechanics, Between Two Cities of Mad King Ludwig, Jaipur, Infamous, & more!

In this episode, Chris, Darrell, and TC recount the action, excitement, games, and spectacle from North America’s biggest gaming convention, Gen Con! All this, plus the joys of flax scutching, secret lunch spots, previews of The Artemis Project and The Stygian Society, cupcakes in a cup, Gizmos, Tower of Madness, benefits of Lucas Oil Stadium, Scarabya, the Iron Design Challenge, Lucky’s Misadventures, Jekyll & Hyde, and so much more!

In this episode Chris, Darrell, and TC share a list of the top 5 board games as submitted by listeners of the podcast and then share their own personal top 5s of all time. All this, plus tales from Dice Tower Con, Root, Carthago, Kickstarter scams, Monopoly in the 41st millennium, diet soda supertasters, Dungeons & Doggies, Caper, My Little Scythe, why Darrell compares himself to Stephen King, The Flow of History, a dip into the listener mailbag, & more!

In this episode, Chris & TC are joined by special guest Brad Smoley as they recap all the adventure, excitement, and bunches of board games played at Origins Game Fair! All this, plus the beautiful Coimbra, a sneak peek at the Target-exclusive Mega Land, some really bad party shuttle karaoke, discovering the Medium between the words butt and crater, Decrypto, Carthago, mining marl in Maastricht, John Corbett, & much more!

In this very special episode of The State of Games, five intrepid gamers set out to eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate their way across the galaxy in Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition! Join Chris as he attempts to guide his gentle peace turtles - the Xxcha Kingdom - in an attempt to defend his crown from five years ago (Episode 46) against Dan Patriss (Yin Brotherhood), Daniel Solis (Universities of Jol-Nar), Matt Wolfe (Naalu Collective), and Linus (Yssaril Tribes)!

In this episode Chris, Darrell, and TC discuss what makes the perfect package with aesthetics that accurately reflect the experience you can expect inside the box. All this, plus first impressions of Rising Sun, game development at Camp Sleepy Hollow, Barker’s Row, the Carnies expansion, a new contest to win Harvest & Pioneer Days from TMG, Protospiel Atlanta, Otys, & more!

In this episode Chris, Darrell, and TC are joined by special guest Seth Jaffee of Tasty Minstrel Games to talk reprints, rebrands, & special editions, and what sort of effect they have on the hobby market. All this, plus International Tabletop Day, the Cardboard Edison Awards, Avengers: Infinity War, things that grind our gears about perception vs. reality on Kickstarter, Arboretum, plagiarism, Magic, Orléans, Puerto Rico, Eminent Domain Origins, and more!

In this more streamlined episode Chris, Darrell, and TC decide to just talk about some games they’ve been playing, their gaming habits, and whether they get to game enough or too much. All this, plus first-hand accounts of Fireball Island gameplay, the madness of seeing A Quiet Place in the theater, plays of Captive from Graphic Novel Adventures, Star Wars: Destiny, joys of dice drafting, Feudum, Majesty: For the Realm, and, of course, camels.