November 27, 2021
Hi folks! Another chat with a solo content creator. This time, it's with Jon, the host of the Tale of the Manticore podcast. This show is a hybrid solo RPG playthrough/ dark fiction podcast. The podcast is a serial story in which "the dice determine" the fate of the characters. A story is being told and crafted by playing a solo game of Dungeons and Dragons.
Jon does an amazing job of producing a high quality show. This is an excellent example of what can be accomplished by playing an RPG solo. It's done without an emulator and Jon takes the role of both character and DM, though primarily DM. It's an excellent show worth listening to and easy to binge and catch up!
November 20, 2021
This week Julius and I talk to Jason Tagmire of Button Shy games. We talk about small games, design contests and the upcoming game ROVE. It's going to be released on the Button Shy website on Black Friday. Check it out, it's a neat little spatial puzzle of a game.
November 12, 2021
This week Julius and I talk about the game Cascadia, the game of the Pacific Northwest, designed by Randy Flynn and published by Flatout Games. This is a tile laying game in which you are placing tiles with a mix environments and populating them with a variety of animals to try and maximize your score. It's pretty abstract but it's pretty fun and you can try the solo game on-line to see what you think. I can say, we like it.
This episode features my Golden Retriever, Kaylee, barking in the background throughout the episode. I removed a lot of the barks but there is only so much I could do. Later on, she got into the room I was recording in and started eating the catfood out of the bowl. I hope all that noise is not too distracting!
November 6, 2021
It's back to the table for us with Pandemic: The Cure. This is the classic game of world saving, dice chucking fun. The game is a dice version of the now classic Pandemic. Julius and I revisit the game and see how it holds up.
October 30, 2021
This week I talk about Storm Above the Reich, a GMT game designed by Mark Aasted & Jeremy White. This is a WWII game in which you simulate the German air defense against American bombers. You control a group of fighters that try to engage and bring down the American bombers. The game is a stand-alone sequal to Skies Above the Reich and can be integrated with it to get a much longer campaign game. I quite enjoyed the game and hope the podcast does a fair job of giving you a sense of what it's like.
Shame on me for also forgetting to mention that GMT currently has Skies Above Britain on their P500. This is the British equivalent of the game.
Finally, I had my Covid booster yesterday and just feel worn out today. If I did a poor job of editing this week, well, more poor than normal, then blame that.
- Storm Above the Reich (BGG, GMT)
Not really discuss but also check these out.
- Skies Above the Reich (BGG, GMT)
- Skies Above Britain (BGG, GMT)
October 23, 2021
This week, Julius talks about Solenia. In this game, you ply the winds of a tiny planet trading for goods and stuff on a giant yellow airship.
October 16, 2021
This week I return to interviewing other solo podcast hosts. This time around, it's Steve Morrison of Errant Adventures. The podcast features playthroughs of solo games. Each game spans multiple episodes and after over 40 weekly episodes he's still on his third game. We have a long rambling discussion centered around solo roleplaying as well as his podcast. I hope you enjoy!
October 9, 2021
This week Julius and I delve into the realm of point and click video games... sort of. We are talking about a point and click board game, or more precisely, book game. Cantaloop: Breaking Into Prison is an analog game that plays, looks and feels like a classic point and click adventure, think The Secret of Monkey Island or Grim Fandango from Lucas Arts. Just, there is no clicking in this game as it's all based on a book.
October 2, 2021
This week I teach Julius about the game Coldwater Crown. This is a game in which you are competing in a fishing tournament to get the most trophy points. Like a modern dance competition, there are trophies available for just about anything you do. Come hear what someone that doesn't like fishing think about this game.
September 25, 2021
This week, Julius and family talk about the game Twinkle. This is a dice game were you are trying to make constellations. Keep in mind, stuff doing with space and stars is often very mathy. This game seems to be no exception... huzzah!
September 18, 2021
This week Julius tells us about the game Red Rising, published by Stonemaier Games. This game is based on the novel series by the same name by Pierce Brown and let's you play the role of house attempting to rise in power. This is a pretty abstract card game that is really a rummy game at heart. Enjoy!
September 4, 2021
This week Julius and I talk more about games that aren't games. I bought two new Mazescape mazes, published by Devir games. These are fun little mazes that required folding and unfolding the page in different ways to be able to solve the maze. Julius and I also briefly talk about two other games that are both very similar, Friedemann Friese's Folders mazes and Monument Valley.
Folders is basically the same idea as Mazescape but a bit simpler in that you are just trying to find the exist. Monument Valley is a very successful video game with a similar idea of travelling through a shifting maze.
August 28, 2021
This week Julius talks with Joe Slack, designer of Relics of Rajavihadra. This is a puzzle game, think Think Fun's Rush Hour or River Crossing. These are fun spatial puzzles include large pieces to play with, grab in your hand and move about. I really enjoy these kinds of games, or puzzles, as you prefer. This one sounds pretty cool!
August 21, 2021
This week I tell Julius about the bag building, worker placement game Groves. It's an interesting little game with just fantastic art by an independent publisher, Letiman Games. Check it out. There's stuff to like and stuff not to like about this game. Oh drat, I just realized this is out of print.
August 14, 2021
This week Julius and I talk about the dice game OctoDice. This is a small roll-n-write set in the AquaSphere universe. AquaSphere is a game by designer Stephan Feld, who is known for making point salad games. Just about everything you do, you get points. This game, by Christoph Toussaint is also a point salad game. It's light and fun for me, but Julius finds it much less satisfying. Find out why!
- OctoDice (BGG)
- AquaSphere (BGG)
