Anyone for Vinci?

This blog recently received a great comment from Tristan who re-listened to the 2.5-year old All About Vinci episode after finally getting to try the game in-person. Vinci is still a great favorite of mine, and now I'd like to see if any other listeners would like to join me in a play-by-web version. Now, I'll warn you that the website is all in German, so if you've never played pbw (or Vinci), then this is a tough way to learn. But for any that aren't put off by that obstacle, please join me at

http://zocktempel.dyndns.org/vinci

I'm in game number 5525, and the password (as always) is BGTG.

-Mark

BGTG 86 - All About Harry's Grand Slam Baseball (with David Gullett)

As promised, here's another All About show, my first in a long time. The way these shows work, I usually employ a guest, and the two of us talk about one game in great detail. This time, that guest is David Gullett, who you've heard on BGTG before, and the game we're talking about is Harry's Grand Slam Baseball.

Now, HGSB is a rather small, light game to spend more than an hour talking about. That is, until you consider that it's a game we both consider favorites, both rate a 10. How can a game that's so simple & small--its detractors say it's all luck, with no real decisions--interest us so much? That's the sort of stuff we talk about. In the process, many more games are brought up for discussion, such as other light card games (e.g. Mille Bornes) and sports board/card games (e.g. Pizza Box Football).

Actually, I did my best to cover light board & cardgame treatments of all kinds of sports, since those are a particular interest of mine. We cover Pizza Box Football, Pizza Box Baseball, Dirk Nowitzki's Crunchtime Basketball, Gridiron Fantasy Football, Pocket Football, Card Football, En Garde, Scoozie, and Streetsoccer. I should've included Strand-Cup and You Can't Check Me.

Towards the end Dave asks me some questions about why I sound so unethusiastic about games most times on BGTG. That's not my intent, and the conversation may lead me to making some changes in how I talk about games in future episodes, especially how I wrap up a segment.

This is a longer episode, just past 90 minutes. I think you'll like it.

-Mark

Another "All About..." show is coming

Hurray! I've wanted to do another "All About" show for some time, and last night I recorded one. It wasn't about Big City, though, as I'd hinted in my last podcast (that's another I still want to do). No, for this one I got my buddy Dave Gullett (BGG's davebo, aka the Big Red Rock Eater) to share the mic with me and talk all about Harry's Grand Slam Baseball. That might seem a little game for a whole show, but we found plenty to talk about, between the game itself, sports, sports board/card games, and light games in general. I think you'll like it.

-Mark

BGTG 85 - SR & Feedback (with Rattlesnake, XiangQi, Citadels, Manila, and Tribune)

You're in luck. The carcast I recorded earlier about some games played at a recent Games Day was also destroyed accidentally, so I just had to re-record it at home. This way it ends up with better audio quality, and I got to tack on some recent email feedback, too.

These are all games I played at a recent Games Day put on by LA's famous Stephanie. You've heard about her on other podcasts, and heard her directly on Boardgame Babylon. I ought to feature her on one of my own podcasts sometime!

-Mark

A truly lost episode

Oops. I thought I'd finally get around to posting a carcast recorded more than a year ago after I'd played some business-themed games, comparing & contrasting all three of them. They were Shark, Buy Low Sell High (aka Palmyra), and one more I've forgotten. Well, it doesn't matter now because this apparently I deleted this recording I discarded when I was at a low ebb in my satisfaction with carcasts. It's gone! And while I can just spout off about BLSH any time I want, I'm a lot less familiar with Shark and couldn't recreate my comments about that game without playing it again. Not to mention the forgotten third game (Acquire? Big Boss?). Now I wish I hadn't hit that delete button.

Oh well, I'll just have to record something new. I've played a lot of old favorites and some new games (Agricola, TTR:Card Game) recently, so there should be plenty to talk about. And I know I do have one remaining carcast lying around, talking about playing games with my kid & others at a local games day. So I'll get that posted next.

-Mark