Every Night Is Game Night

Our Best in Class companion series to the Top 100 Solo Games People's Choice rolls on! Today, Jason is ecstatic to welcome back a friend of the show, Adam Smith from Rolling Solo. This man knows more about recent dungeon crawl games than any other content creator out there. We get into what we like about dungeon crawl games, as well as what distinguishes them from other thematic adventure games (which we covered last week). After that, we get into Adam's Top Ten, which he has also presented as a video over on his Rolling Solo channel. The Best in Class for dungeon-crawling games, according to solo gamers, is Gloomhaven. Did it make the top of Adam's list, as well? In Liz We Trust - Black Sonata: The Fair Youth - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sideroomgames/black-sonata-the-fair-youth?ref=discovery&term=fair%20youth One Stop Coop Shop Slack - bit.ly/onestopslack BGA Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/bga

Jason is happy to welcome a long-time listener, first-time caller Corey Mayo to the pod! He is very, very well known among solo gamers who frequent BGG or Facebook, as he always has something to say about the games of the day. In this episode, we talk about Corey's favorite genre - thematic adventure games. We get into our working definition of thematic adventure and debate whether many people's number one solo game of all time, Mage Knight, falls into that definition. Corey then shows some love to some underrated games, with Jason in the peanut gallery sharing about a few more.

Jason was lucky enough to visit PAX Unplugged earlier this month, and is eager to share about his experiences! Like the last few PAX recaps, not only does Jason give his own perspective (this time as a demoer for Starling Games teaching Everdell to 36 different groups), but we also hear from a few friends. All of these voices should be very familiar to regular ENGN listeners - Liz Davidon, Michael Kelley, Jeremy Howard, Brenna Noonan, Mike Dilisio, and more! In additon, we also have previews from some big upcoming projects in 2020 - Frosthaven from Cephalophair Games, Return to Dark Tower from Restoration Games, and Final Girl from Van Ryder Games. Jason also shows Van Ryder double love with a quick review of Bees: The Secret Kingdom. We at ENGN hope that everyone is having a very happy and healthy holiday season! One Stop Coop Shop Slack - bit.ly/onestopslack BGA Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/bga

For our last episode before the holiday season, we are happy to bring to you Jason's patented "headspace" reviews for some fun games, as well as a great idea for a last-minute stocking stuffer. First up, Jason reviews Coraline: Beware the Other Mother, a quick and quirky solo/ coop card game with some neat integration of the Coraline movie IP (2:42). Second, Jason covers Nemo Rising (11:45), the cooperative adventure game in a steampunk universe (that happens to have nothing, nothing at all to do with Nemo's War!). Finally, Jason is very happy to welcome Paul Grogan from Gaming Rules back onto the show to discuss the new Adventure Games from Kosmos (19:50). Two modules are released already - Monochrome Inc. and The Dungeon. We get into the story elements, rewarding cleverness, the app companion, and other angles. We also compare the Adventure Games to other escape room games like Exit and Unlock, as well as games like TIME Stories and a few others. One Stop Coop Shop Slack - bit.ly/onestopslack BGA Patreon -

Welcome to part two of our mini-series of episodes. Following up on the Top 200 Solo Games People's Choice list that is now live on BGG, we are taking a closer look at different genres represented within that list, and also enjoyed by gamers everywhere. Anthony and Jason shift over to talk about one of their personal favorites - strategic card games. First, we get into some of the reason why folks love the genre so much. After that, Anthony gets into his Top Ten Strategic Card Games. If you are a regular listener, you know what landed at number one! Finally, we get into an extended discussion about the Best in Class worker placement game for the Top 200, a new debut this year - Wingspan. We get into why people love it, why others have some difficulty with it, and how it compares to some of our other favorites. One Stop Coop Shop Slack - bit.ly/onestopslack BGA Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/bgaIn Liz We Trust - Divinity: Original Sin - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-s

Welcome to a new mini-series of episodes that we are starting here on ENGN. Following up on the Top 200 Solo Games People's Choice list that is now live on BGG, we are taking a closer look at different genres represented within that list, and also enjoyed by gamers everywhere. To kick things off, Anthony and Jason chat about the worker placement genre of games. First, we get into some of the reason why folks love the genre so much. After that, Anthony gets into his Top Ten Worker Placement games that really bring the strategic thunder, followed up by Jason who provides some lighter fare to round out this group. Finally, we get into an extended discussion about the Best in Class worker placement game for the Top 200 for every year it's been on the list -Viticulture. We get into why people love it, what makes it stand out, and whether you should seek it out for your collection One Stop Coop Shop Slack - bit.ly/onestopslack BGA Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/bga In Liz We Trust - 5 Minute Mystery - https://w

The second part of ENGN's biggest episode is here, the fourth annual! Kevin Erskine once again joins Jason and Liz for commentary on the Top 200 Solo Games list, currently unfolding on BGG. For this episode, we chat about the cluster of games that has truly emerged as the canon of solo gaming. Many of the games are the same, but there were also a few surprise debuts as well. This list is the very best resource for solo gamers to find out which games are actually getting played and which games are great for our community. We are happy to cover it every year. This list is also ENGN’s gift guide for the holidays. Between these last two ENGN episodes and Episode 248 of Board Gamers Anonymous, we have your holiday gaming needs covered! One Stop Coop Shop Slack - bit.ly/onestopslack BGA Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/bgaTop 200 Solo Games People's Choice - https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/264253/2019-peoples-choice-top-200-solo-games-200-41/page/1

ENGN's biggest episode is here, the fourth annual! Kevin Erskine joins Jason and Liz for commentary to break for the Top 200 Solo Games list, currently unfolding on BGG. Which games rose and fell, what were big surprises and debuts, we get into all of that and more for the first 150 games on the big list. This list is the very best resource for solo gamers to find out which games are actually getting played and which games are great for our community, so we are happy to do cover it every year. This list is also ENGN’s gift guide for the holidays. Between this one and the latest episode of Board Gamers Anonymous, we have your holiday gaming needs covered! We don't spoil the very top of the list, which will be revealed next week. So, please feel free and enjoy! One Stop Coop Shop Slack - bit.ly/onestopslack BGA Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/bga Top 200 Solo Games People's Choice - https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/264253/2019-peoples-choice-top-200-solo-games-200-41/page/1

We have a full episode dedicated to the biggest hotness of Fall 2019, Marvel Champions LCG. Jason is joined by theBrandt from the Portal Gaming Podcast as well as Steve from the One Stop Coop Shop to break down Marvel Champions LCG from all angles. We cover Jason's category of the "thematic headspace" that the game wants to put you in (i.e., does it make you feel like a hero?), as well as the hand management, the deckbuilding, the missions... well, everything you could ask for, short of strategy! We also compare Marvel LCG to it's closest gaming competitors, Sentinels of the Multiverse and Marvel Legendary. Hopefully, you get enough from this podcast to get you started... if you haven't started already! One Stop Coop Shop Slack - bit.ly/onestopslack BGA Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/bga In Liz We Trust - Hour of Need - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blacklistgames/hour-of-need?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=hour%20of%20need

This one is a VERY different episode than we've done in a while. No game reviews this time, just a very interesting discussion topic. Many thanks to ENGN listener Liz Blake Benson for reaching out and suggesting this episode! Following up on that, Jason put the call out on Twitter (@engn_podcast) and was happy to get a response from Jason Peacock of the Dice Tower to chat! So much friendliness and interaction in our little gaming community. Jason and Jason chat about two general topics - building a game room and maintaining a collection. Jason is a professional carpenter and has put a lot of love and care into his gaming space, so he has lots of tips in terms of tables, shelving, painting miniatures, and all sorts of other little bits that can help flesh out a great game room. In the second part, we get into growing a collection, including some personal stories about how we grew our own collections and how we approach keeping and culling. One Stop Coop Shop Slack - bit.ly/onestopslack BGA Patreon - https://w

For the first part of this episode, Jason rides solo and brings you some fun for the Halloween holiday. First up is Skulk Hollow (4:10), or Shadow of the Colossus: the board game. Lifeform follows after that (14:59), which is yet another crack at Alien: the board game. Finally, we have the next big, horror-themed expansion for Robinson Crusoe: Mystery Tales (29:09). After all the gaming fun, Jason is proud to welcome the Mega Meeple, Thomas Grogan, to the pod for the first time. We get into a personal chat about some of the stuff he has struggled with in his life, and how gaming helped him turn things around and find happiness. Like the personal chat before this, if you want to keep things light and fun, please enjoy the gaming-centered content in the first half of the episode. For those who listen on, we hope you find something inspiring in Tom's story.

ENGN 161 - Post-GenCon 2019 Wrap-Up, Part 7 - More Hot and Heavy EurosJason was very happy to contribute to the last episode on Hot and Heavy Euros. This week, we have more for you, but Jason has played none of these and has to keep his trap shut! Instead, we invite back Jeremy from Jambalaya Plays Games to help out Anthony and finish off our grand tour of games from GenCon 2019 (finally)! First up is Escape Plan (3:08), a surprisingly easy to play offering from noted heavy game designer Vital Lacerda about getting loot and escaping the town ahead of the authorities - not your usual Euro theming, for sure. The next one up is Ragusa (12:56), a new economic and worker placement design from the maker of Calimala, Fabio Lopiano. Getting even crunchier, the guys chat about the latest in the Imperial Settlers line of games, Empires of the North (20:27). We get into how it tries to offer something different from the original Imperial Settlers and whether it's worth a look if you already own or like that one. Finally

Our wrap-up of games from GenCon rolls on! Anthony has returned with a heavy helping of Euro fun. We begin with an expansion to one of Anthony favorite games from the last few years, Teotihuacan: Late Preclassic Period (4:17). That subtitle is not a typo, that's really the name. Are the contents inside as... well, bad as this name? Jason then hops back into chat about Lockup: A Roll Player Tale (12:06). While this one is not quite a "hot and heavy" Euro, it sneaks in there because it of it's worker placement mechanisms, combined with a healthy dose of Poker-esque tension and reading others at the table. Anthony hops back in to chat about Sierra West (21:47) which, like Teotihuacan, is another offering from Board&DIce, so you know it pays some attention to its solo offering. We end the episode on two games with civ-building themes. First, Jason talks about Gentes (29:13), a game that manipulates action economy in fun ways. Finally, Anthony hits us with the big hype of the day, Tapestry from Stonemaier Game

Jason is happy to be joined by the host of Solo BG, Dereck Rodriguez, for a MEGA-length preview pod - our longest one! However, this episode is so much more than a preview. Yes, we chat with Adam and Brady Sadler about the new KS project launching in November, Hour of Need - how it works, some design choices, and the fact that it is indeed different from the previous Modular Deck System games (think of the MDS like, say, the COIN system - very different games, even within the same system). However, we talk about so much more. Adam and Brady reveal some of the inner workings at Blacklist Games, getting a small publisher started, and feeding the demands of the Kickstarter content beast. They also answer Jason's critical questions about their previous two MDS games - Street Masters and Brook City. Finally, all four of us share our Top Three Things in Comic Books - characters, storylines, team-ups, anything. We get into Marvel vs. DC, lots of different Robins, a commentary on the new Joker movie... the dork facto

Liz and Jeremy are back once again to talk about some bigger, meatier projects. Many of these were featured at the big show in Indy this past year, so into the wrap-up they go! Liz starts us off with Detective: City of Angels (10:16), the highly thematic case-solving game from Van Ryder Games that will unfortunately not hit retail due to scale and cost. Go ahead and check Kickstarter, as well as some conventions, if you want to get hold of this one. Next, Jeremy gives us some knowledge about Gugong (16:38), a mid-weight economic game set in the Forbidden City in China. Liz then jumps back in to share about a “dudes on a map”-type game with a slick auction system, Rurik: Dawn of Kiev (22;37). We wrap up with one of the most buzzed-about games at the whole con, the MOBA-style combat game with competitive, cooperative, and solo modes, Cloudspire from Chip Theory Games (31:36). One Stop Coop Shop Slack - bit.ly/onestopslack BGA Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/bga In Liz We Trust - Time of Legends: Destinies - 

We interrupt our romp through all the hotness from GenCon to bring you a MEGA-sized podcast. You guys know that Jason likes to keep episodes to under an hour in length. However, Tristan Hall from Hall or Nothing Productions is too much fun to talk to, so we decided to keep it all! Tristan stops by for three reasons. First, he is here to preview a project called 1565: St. Elmo's Pay. This is the follow up to 1066: Tears to Many Mothers, a historical war-themed card game for 1-2 players. This project launches today, October 4th. Second, at around 15:56 we have a big, fat Top Ten list for you - Top Ten Games for a Low Player Count (1-2 players). This list was originally meant to be Top Ten Card Games for 1-2 players, but Tristan breaks all the rules! So, our individual lists might be a bit lopsided, but that's ok - it's geeks chatting about a top ten. What's not to like? Finally, at a whooping 1:09:38 or so, Tristan and Jason put on the old amateur historian hats and break down the historical background of 1565:

The Kickstarter Squad is back! Liz from Beyond Solitaire and Jeremy from Jambalaya Plays Games have returned to being you the latest and greatest of delivered Kickstarter projects. As serendipity would have it, these games were all featured at GenCon 2019 as well (yeah, I know the big show was over a month ago, but... branding!) First up, Jason shares about Everdell: Pearlbrook (8:30), the first expansion to one of the real surprise hits from last year. Two more expansions for Everdell happen to be live on Kickstarter as we speak, so check out of Jason and Liz think they are worth your time. Jeremy then jumps in to chat about another worker placement game, Reavers of Midgard (12:54). This one is the follow up (spiritual successor, maybe?) to the very popular Champions of Midgard from Grey Fox Games. Liz gets the middle spot with the biggest game we review this episode, Pax Pamir (22:31). Jason and Jeremy then follow up with two lighter games that are nevertheless really fun, the real-time cooperative zombie s

Jason is happy to welcome Michael Melkonian to the show to talk about Dance Card, a highly thematic card game with a theme of high school students having fun at a dance recital. There's set collection, dice rolling, and maybe most importantly for ENGN fans, solo and coop mode. Check it out as Michael talks about the development of Dance Card, not only it's mechanisms and thematic integration, but also larger issues of representation as well. Michael is a super, super excited guy, and it was a joy to talk to him. (The aftershow is completely random basketball talk that I felt like keeping in there for... reasons. For those in the Venn diagram of board gaming and basketball fans, enjoy! If not, the aftershow is very skippable!).

Our (belated yet still hopefully valuable) GenCon coverage rolls on, this time with some short games that use dice to make them go. First up, Jason shares about Unbroken (4:46), a resource management game of survival that is optimized for the one player experience. Jason wanted to review the game independently of some of the controversy surrounding it's Kickstarter fulfillment, so we get into that right at the beginning. If you want to hear further thoughts about the situation, please stay tuned until the end of the episode. Then, Anthony chats about the newest Matt Leacock dice game, Era: Medieval Age (13:47). This one is a follow up to Roll Through the Ages, one of the grandaddies of the roll n write genre, only this new version has player boards, toy buildings, and a lot more! Jason then jumps back in with (spoiler alert) one of his favorite dice games that he has played in a very long time, Mageling (24:31). Finally, we wrap up with Anthony in all of his roll n write glory, providing quick reviews of a pi

Today, Anthony is back from his summer hiatus! And we have even more family weight games for your enjoyment, either with your family or as a solo gamer. We start with two games that take familiar pieces of culture and make fun games out of them - The Fifty Nine Parks Print Series in the game Parks (6:38), and the Periodic Table of Elements in Periodic: A Game of Elements (12:30). We then turn to two more games that happened to do really well on Kickstarter - a nifty card drafting game called Villagers (19:36), and the next in the very popular Tiny Epic product line, Tiny Epic Mechs (29:31). We end with a dexterity game that has a lot of charm and excitement, Megacity Oceanea (39:19). Well, we really don't end there - there's more after the outro music, but we well let everyone discover that for themselves! One Stop Coop Shop Slack - bit.ly/onestopslack BGA Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/bga In Liz We Trust - Squire for Hire - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonmerchant/squire-for-hire-micro-tile-base